Pretty Prize (Rags to Riches 2)

“But because you are a good man too.” I tap his chest where his heart is. “You make love to me every night. Make sure my orange juice is freshly squeezed because I like it that way. You listen to me ramble on about what I’m reading. You bring me a blanket because you think I might be cold.” I reach for the blanket he put over my legs when he came over to me. The man is always coming over to me. He is always checking on me. I am soaking up all of the affection. I will never get enough of him.

“You treat my Aunt-” I stop for a second, my eyes filling with tears as I try and pull it together. “You treat her with the best of care. Even with how my brother—” A tear escapes me, thinking about a small Hunter losing his mother. How good he’s been to my aunt and me. He leans forward, kissing my cheek to stop the tear in its tracks. My heart aches for the loss that he had to endure due to my brother.

He does all this and asks for nothing. That’s not true. He’s asking for my love. For me. I’ll give it to him.

“Don’t cry, my sweet girl.” His warm breath feathers across my skin. I start to tell him that I love him because I should have said it already, but he beats me to it. “I love you.”

I close my eyes, savoring his words. I feel them in my soul. The heaviness I felt a few moments ago is lifted as if his words have erased it. I hope mine do the same for him.

“I love you too.” A small hiccup leaves me as I try and keep it together. I know he loves me but hearing it was something else altogether. I open my eyes to stare into his as he soaks my words in.

“Say it again,” Hunter insists.

“I love yo—” My words are cut off when his lips crash down on mine. His mouth possesses mine as it always does. My hands reach for his hair to hold him to me. Neither one of us able to get close enough to the other. Each of us relish the love we’ve found in one another. We break apart, both of us breathless. The mood has shifted in the room. Hunter seems light, happier. The weight has left him too.

“Your turn.” I smile at him, wanting to hear him say those special words one more time. His mouth lifts in a smirk. I narrow my eyes at him.

“My turn for what?” His smile gets bigger. He’s teasing. I love when I get a glimpse of playful Hunter. Each day they are coming more and more.

“You know exactly what I’m asking for. Don’t make me beg.” The happiness immediately falls from his face at my words.

“My sweet Rose, you will never have to beg for my love. I will shower you with it for the rest of our lives.”

“Then tell your wife you love her.” I smile at him. I don’t hide anything from him. I let everything I feel for him pour from me. No more mask. No more games.

“I love you, wife.”

“I love you too, husband.” He stands with me in his arms. “Now make love to me.”

“I’m going to do that and so much more,” he says as he carries me to our room. We’ve made love before but this time it’s filled with the words and I know Hunter is my forever.

Epilogue

“April Rose, get down from there,” I yell. My oldest daughter ignores me and continues to climb up the ladder of the treehouse that is being built in the fairy forest we’re installing. I’m not so worried about her getting to the top since the place is being built for her as I am about the fact that the treehouse isn’t done and there are tools around that could hurt her.

“You better go get the little monkey,” says her mother, who is settled into the corner of a bed swing with our youngest son napping on her lap. Rose’s left hand is curled around Harry’s two-year-old back while her right hand rests on the rise of her belly. Baby number four will be here in a couple of months.

I take a brief moment to appreciate Rose’s beauty. During pregnancy, she glows as if she’s lit from within. Maybe she is. Pregnancy astounds me, as does the miracle of birth.

“Daddy!” bellows my eldest son. “April won’t let me in the tweehouse!”

“He’s not old enough,” his sister screams. “It’s five and up!”

“I’m the same age as you!” he yells back.

“You’re younger than me so you have to listen!” August Foster Keal is three inches taller than his older sister but she won’t ever let him forget that she was born five minutes before him.