Her Motherhood Wish (Parent Portal 3)

At least he’d had her mom for a while. Had known bliss.

At least he had his memories.

Cassie didn’t even have those memories of being with the one she loved. In some ways, she was more alone than her dad ever had been. But still...

“Can we at least wait a couple of months?” she asked.

She’d die a slow death if Wood married her just because she needed him.

“I’m scared,” she told him.

“Because you’re in love with me,” he told her.

She knew she was. It all made sense now.

“You know how I know how much you love me? Because today, in your worst moments, I was the one you needed. I was the only one who could calm your heart. Because, all these months, you’ve put my happiness before your own,” he told her. Her eyes filled with tears, she looked at him. Needing him. Loving him.

“Love’s a scary thing,” she told him. “You hear everyone talk about falling in love and you see these couples all sappy and in love and getting married, and...it scares the heck out of me. My dad, he was such a great guy...and his heart was just broken...”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe he’d had what he wanted and was happiest just spending his time off with you.”

She’d never thought of her father’s single state being his own choice. She’d always seen it as something out of his control. Something that had happened to him that he couldn’t fix.

“Love is scary,” Wood said softly, his voice tender in the darkness. “Even with this little guy here. We both would have been devastated if he hadn’t made it through today. But look at you now...beaming, holding him. Knowing a happiness beyond anything you can imagine...”

She looked up at him, saw the glow in his eyes as he gazed at the sleeping baby she held. “It is beyond anything we could have imagined, huh?” she asked him.

He looked back at her and nodded. “Would you choose not to have this experience, not to know him, to protect your heart from ever feeling pain because of him?”

“Of course not.”

His gaze intent, he watched her. Waiting.

She knew what he was pulling out of her. Just as he knew it was there.

“I do love you, Wood. I want to make you happy. For the rest of your life, I want to make both you and Alan happy.”

“Then take my ring, put it on your finger and say that you’ll become my forever family.”

Cassie dropped the box, ring and all. Wrapping her hand around Wood’s head, she brought his face to hers and stopped his words. Her lips took them, her tongue took them, her breath took him. There was no first kiss, no tentativeness. She slid her tongue into his mouth, accepted his in hers and made love in the only way she could having just had a baby and having said baby cradled against her.

Wood didn’t fight her advances. He actually made the way easier for her, gathering her, including Alan, against him as he climbed fully onto the bed with them, holding them against him as he kissed her back.

She would never in a million years have believed that she could feel any kind of good sensation down below after the day she’d had, but tiny spurts of desire spiraled, and she had to stop the kiss.

“I take that as a yes?” Wood asked, finding the ring box in the covers, removing the ring and slipping it on her finger. She teared up, of course, but didn’t care. She’d never known love could feel like this. Never known emotion could be so intense.

Or so intensely right.

And kissed him some more.

They talked some, too. About him moving into her house, starting immediately. She asked about his dog. He said that if Elaina wanted Retro, he’d let her have her, but if that happened, he wanted to get another dog for the two of them, a friendly cousin to Retro when she came to visit. They talked about the nursery furniture that was pretty much done but still sitting in Wood’s shed, waiting for her to have it picked up. He’d be delivering it himself now. Along with the rest of his stuff. He was going to sign his house over to Elaina, if she wanted it.

There was so much to think about. To be thankful for. Overwhelmed in the best possible way, she almost started to cry again.

“When did you find the time to buy this?” she asked, distracting herself by watching the ring sparkle in the dimmed light.

“I didn’t. I asked your mother to do it for me on her way in from the airport.”