The One and Only (Heart of Hope 7)

Being hopped up on birthday cake and ice cream had hopped up their energy levels. I was glad that they were all outside instead of tearing through the house.

Caitlyn was everywhere, taking photographs, which I knew was a huge favor, since she was doing it for free and taking time out of her busy schedule. Her career had blown up since Gray had been to her exhibition and asked her to be the photographer for his first campaign—and every subsequent campaign since.

Gray himself was somewhere around—probably eating cake and doing magic tricks for the kids. Cade joked privately to me one day that he was glad Gray had finally learned a PG version of the magic tricks he’d been using to impress women at parties for years.

Melinda and Neil were also around here somewhere. I was in the middle of cleaning up some dishes the kids had left behind to, but I could be sure that Melinda was entertaining our adult guests. I had grown closer to her over the past year, the things I’d said to her in our phone call had been taken to heart.

That might have been the most satisfying part of this last year: watching Cade’s parents apologize to him and work to be the parents that he deserved. Cade was surprised by their behavior, I could tell, but he was growing to trust it, just as he was growing to trust that Drew didn’t resent him for not being there when he was smaller and loved that Cade was here now.

I ran into Della as I carried some dishes inside. “Hey! Be sure to have some cake!”

“Trust me, I could use the sugar,” Della admitted. “We’ve been on the trail for days! I feel like all I’ve eaten is airplane peanuts.”

Della had taken Cade’s advice and was running for office. Cade and I were actually working on the campaign for her—I was planning all the events and Cade was her campaign manager. He wasn’t sure if it was what he wanted to do full time, but he knew the business inside and out and he supported Della, both as a friend and as a member of the government. We both truly believed in her and wanted to support her.

It had done wonders

for my business, too. I had more orders and clients than I knew what to do with—I’d had to turn people down. I could never have imagined such success for myself just a year ago, and I was insanely happy about it. I’d had to hire a couple of people to assist me, so that I could continue to be personal and meet one-on-one with my clients.

As I passed down the hallway into the kitchen to set down the dishes, I paused in front of two framed documents on the wall. I smiled, my heart melting all over the place. Sure, it was a little ridiculous to some people, but I thought that they were adorable and made me smile every time I saw them.

The first was Cade’s promise, in writing, to never abandon us. The second was my promise to him, also in writing, that we would always be here with him. Both documents had been notarized.

“Babe, you’re not supposed to be carrying anything!”

Cade appeared at my side and took the dishes from me, carrying them the rest of the way into the kitchen. I laughed and followed him. “Juice is hardly a heavy object.”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m doing all the carrying from now on.”

“I’m not even starting to show yet!” I pointed at my stomach.

Ever since he’d found out that I was pregnant, Cade had been treating me like I was made of glass. It was adorable, but also frustrating. I knew it was only because he hadn’t been there the first time and wanted to make up for it. But I’d had one kid already and I was perfectly okay handling things by myself.

“You realize I have done this before, right?”

Cade set the dishes in the sink, pulled me to him, and kissed me. “I know. But I want to take care of you.”

I melted, just a little.

Cade took my hand, and we went back outside. Drew was playing with his friends, and I smiled thinking that soon, he’d have a younger sibling to play with. There would be a bit of an age gap, but I was sure Drew that would love being an older sibling. Maybe the age gap would help them have a better relationship instead of constantly being at each other’s throats, as I’d seen in many siblings who were similar in age.

Either way, I was excited for our new child and for our future together.

“You know, I never really thought about kids,” Cade admitted. “I mean, I had vague notions of a family, but I didn’t even want to marry Della, or anyone else. Why would I think about kids when I couldn’t even think about marriage?”

He turned to look at me. “But I wouldn’t trade this for anything. The only person I would ever want to have a family with is you.”

I smiled at him. There had only ever been one person for me, too, and that was Cade. And now that we finally had each other, I had never been happier.

If you liked ‘The One and Only’, you’re going to love Best Friend’s Brother, the next book in the series.

It’s been five years since I made that big bad mistake.

Five years since I hooked up with my best friend’s brother.

I thought that would be the only secret I’d have to carry.

But boy, was I wrong.