"What?" I whisper.
"Being here with Sofia and seeing her flourish with all the love she has around her." I reach out to wipe a tear rolling down her cheek. “It would be crazy. Her not knowing what it’s like to grow up surrounded by her cousins. Her not knowing what Sunday really stands for. Everything I thought I wanted to run away from is exactly what I want to teach Sofia." She lowers her eyes. “I’m going to open a business," she says, her eyes lighting up, “with Savannah in town. A little coffee and bakery shop."
"How?" I ask, shocked now.
"She came to see me a couple of weeks ago, and I turned her down,” she says. “But then everything just fell into place, and I knew I couldn’t leave here. I know you always hated it here, and I was hoping you would maybe think of staying. But if you absolutely say you can’t, we can leave."
"Where would we live?" I ask, wondering if she had all these plans. I also want to tell her that I’ll fucking live in a barn as long as she’s there.
"We can live at Pops' house." She cuts in now. “I know it's smaller than this house."
"If you want to live at Pops' house, we are going to have to renovate,” I say. “That’s nonnegotiable."
"We can do that,” she says. “But it does have two bedrooms."
"Exactly,” I say. “I don’t just want to live here with you. I want to grow a family with you. I want to have more babies with you."
"Is that so?" She laughs, and I lean in and kiss her lips.
"We made a pretty amazing one without even trying. Can you imagine if we put some effort into it?" I smirk at her, and she throws her head back and laughs. "So yeah, I want to have more babies." And I wait to break the next news to her. "The house needs to be knocked down and rebuilt."
"It’s not that bad,” she says, rolling her eyes.
"I can’t even stand in that shower. I would have to put my head to the side," I joke with her.
"Fine," she huffs out. “We can add another bathroom."
“And family room," I add. “And playroom."
"Okay, okay." She puts her hands up. “It’s not ideal."
"That’s my girl,” I say. Putting my arm around her, I pull her to me and hug her.
"Reed.” She says my name as she buries her face in my neck.
"Yeah, baby." My cheek rubs her head.
"I love you, too.” She pulls her head out of my neck, and my gaze meets hers. “I was going to tell you this morning, but you ran out of the house like your tail was on fire."
"I didn’t run out of the house." It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “I left." She laughs as she kisses my lips. “In a hurry."
"Okay," she says. “Whatever you say."
I stand and hold my hand out to her. “Let’s go to bed,” I say, and she looks at her watch.
"It’s six thirty," she says, laughing.
"Well, I haven’t had dessert,” I say. “And then I want to make love to you and hope I put a baby in you."
She puts her hand into mine. “Well, when you say it like that." She laughs, and I pick her up as she squeals with laughter.
I carry her to bed, where I make love to her over and over again while I thank her over and over again for giving me everything I didn’t know I needed.
Epilogue One
Hazel
One Month Later
"That is the last box," Reed says, carrying in the last box from the truck and bringing it over to the side where all the other boxes are. “Told you it wasn’t going to be as bad as you thought."
I put my hands on my hips. “That’s because I thought we would have to move everything." I look around the house, seeing the boxes everywhere. “How was I supposed to know it would be furnished?" When I put the condo on the market, I had no idea that there would be not only an offer but a bidding war within forty-eight hours.
"We could have always kept the condo and used it as our vacation home,” he says, walking to the fridge now and grabbing a bottle of water. I watch him lean back against the white counter, his jeans and shirt dusty from unloading the truck that got here a couple of hours ago.
I put my hands on my hips. “A vacation home." I shake my head. “Sofia didn’t even want to come with us to pack the condo. She said bring home my stuff." The minute I mentioned I was going back to our place, she got really quiet and thought we were leaving the farm. It cemented that my decision to move back home was the right one. I never thought she would like country life, but she has flourished. It was like she was born there. "If it’s up to her, she’ll never leave the farm."