Secret Millionaire for the Surrogate

He knew when she noticed because she stopped moving and gasped.

“It was you!” she exclaimed, and he turned around. Her eyes shone at him. “The mama bear and cubs. But Juny said it was a guy from Calgary. And beside it...oh, Drew. I love this shot.”

The one she’d taken of the grizzly at Lake Minnewanka hung beside the mama and cubs. Beneath was a gold plaque with her name and studio on it.

“You are so talented, Harper.” He tugged her close and put his arm around her. “I got one of the management team to buy the print so you wouldn’t know it was me. I thought you hated my guts. And last nig

ht Juny opened up and sold my assistant the other. I had someone here to hang it at seven this morning. Happy?”

“Thrilled!”

“I know we haven’t made any firm plans, but I don’t want you to stop doing this. We can make it happen together. Maybe use Banff and your house here as a home base. We can travel and you can take all the pictures you want, on every continent. Juny can manage things here when you’re away.”

Adele piped up. “You already said she took over in the last few months you were pregnant, Harper. Gosh, it sounds so exciting.”

“Here’s the thing,” he said, and he captured her gaze. “I understand your need for home and stability, and I’ll do what I can to give that to you. You tell me what you need.” He took a breath. “Because none of this works without you.” Now he understood what his father had meant. It was a matter of priorities. And Harper came first. Nothing worked anymore without her.

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him. “What I wanted most was a home and a place to belong. I thought that was a house and a town and the same people all the time. But that’s not what home is, is it?”

“It’s not?”

She shook her head. “That stupid old saying is true. Home really is where the heart is. And my heart’s with you, Drew. That’s what’s been missing. No matter where we are.”

Thank God, he thought.

Adele was sniffing behind them and Dan was grinning from ear to ear. “About time,” he said gruffly.

And then Harper reached out and took Isabelle from Adele’s arms.

“Oh, my,” she said softly, and cuddled the baby close to her neck. She closed her eyes. “What am I going to do if I can’t see you every day, huh?”

Drew was damned near crying himself at this point. The scene was so utterly perfect. Why had it taken him so long to figure it out? Now wasn’t the time, but when it was right, he’d make sure she had babies of her own to love. Their babies. His sons and daughters.

She opened her eyes and looked up at Drew. “I love you. I never stopped. You’re really here to stay?”

“As long as you’ll have me.”

“Us, too,” Dan said. “We’re your family. That’s what we do.”

“Always,” Drew assured her, putting his arm around her and holding her and Isabelle close. “A family and a man who loves you desperately. And always will.”

If he had anything to say about it.

EPILOGUE

HARPER HAD NEVER seen anything quite like the Thorsmork Valley.

It was cool, and she wore a hat and mittens as well as her jacket and hiking boots as they’d climbed all the way up to Magni and Modi, volcanic craters left behind after 2010’s massive eruption.

There were times she’d felt on top of the world in her lifetime, but nothing compared to this.

Drew came up beside her. “Doing okay?”

“Perfect,” she replied, catching her breath. “I still can’t believe we’re here.”

The first thing Drew had done when they’d arrived was take her to the famed Blue Lagoon, and they’d spent two days in Reykjavik in luxury, being pampered in a spa and adjusting to the jet lag. This morning, though, they’d stopped at Seljalandsfoss Falls and then on to the volcanic hike. The landscape was different from anything she’d ever seen, majestic and sweeping and so very, very old, like something out of Tolkien or George R. R. Martin’s books. She’d stopped often and lifted her camera, in such awe and wonder that she didn’t know how she was ever going to process it all.

“I told you I wanted to bring you to Iceland someday. Because neither of us had ever been here. A first for us together, you know?”