She and Harper hugged, squealed, and did the girl thing. Then she turned to her dad. “You knew?”
“I wasn’t going to ask you to marry me without your father’s permission,” Parker said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
“I can’t say it was easy to keep a secret, either, not with you moping around here,” James said with a huge grin.
Emily turned to Harper. “You knew?” she asked in shock.
“Oh hell no,” Parker muttered. “I called her on my way here. I didn’t trust her not to give away the surprise.”
Harper pouted but she was laughing.
And Emily had everyone who mattered with her at the most important moment in her life. Best of all, she had the man of her dreams.
“What are you going to do here?” she asked.
He swiped at her nose. “Flour,” he said with a grin. “I have plans, baby. Big plans.”
“As long as they include me, I’m happy.”
And she was. Unbelievably, incredibly happy and she never intended to take one day with Parker for granted.
Epilogue
Parker packed away his skis in the garage of the house he’d built on land he and Emily had purchased not long after he’d moved to Colorado. They weren’t comfortable living with her father and Parker wanted a place of their own. The house wasn’t far from the inn where James lived and ran his bed-and-breakfast, making Emily happy.
After settling in, he’d wanted to make things legal with Emily quickly and had flown his entire family out to join them for the wedding. Emily loved his siblings and their spouses … well, everyone but Ethan, who she still watched warily but tried to win over with her delicious baked goods.
Parker knew that once Ethan moved on from what had happened with Mandy and returned to being the man he once was, he and Emily would get along fine. She said she wasn’t giving up on him despite his surly disposition. Her words, and they fit.
At the urging of both Emily and Caleb, his new partner, he’d begun to ski again, for fun. To his surprise, he found he missed it more than he’d realized or let himself acknowledge. It was a big part of him at one time and he’d cut himself off from it completely. He was grateful to have it back, and he couldn’t help but feel he had Emily to thank for opening his heart again. To so many things.
He walked into the rustic home and immediately inhaled the familiar scent of Snickerdoodles, the cookie she’d begun to bake for him every time he went out to ski. He’d come home and she’d greet him with cookies, sipping her hot chocolate as he devoured half the plate at one sitting.
She and Harper had opened their business and it was a huge success. They’d hired a cake baker, which enabled them to cater parties as well. They had a good, reliable staff and things were going well for them. He was extremely proud of her.
She stood in the kitchen, rinsing off the mixer beaters. He loved watching her do the basic things she loved, knowing she got pleasure out of baking and making their house a home while running a business she loved.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he said, immediately reaching for the cookies waiting for him on a plate.
Catching sight of him, she wiped her hands on a towel and walked over, giving him a kiss.
“Hey, yourself.” She smiled. “I’m glad you’re home. There’s something I’ve been dying to tell you.”
He raised his eyebrows. “What’s that?”
Grasping his hand, she pulled him out of the kitchen, a state-of-the-art room he’d given her as a gift, and led him to the bedroom.
“Sit,” she said, bracing her hands on his shoulders and lowering him to the mattress on the bed.
“Now close your eyes.”
Last time he’d told her to close her eyes, he’d left. But trusting her, he warily shut his lids.
He heard footsteps, then she said, “Open.” In her hand, she held out a pregnancy test with two distinct pink lines. “Congratulations, Daddy.”
“Holy shit.” Seriously holy shit. They knew they wanted kids but they hadn’t discussed how soon.
“Remember that bout of strep throat? Apparently antibiotics lessen the pill’s effectiveness. We weren’t thinking about that when we…”
Laughing, he rose and tossed her gently onto the bed, coming down on top of her. “I didn’t think you could make me any happier but you just did.”
Her wide smile told him she was relieved at his reaction. “I wasn’t that worried but … you never know.”
He kissed her forehead, her nose, her lips. “Now you know for sure.” And then he went on to make love to his wife.
The soon-to-be mother of his child.
Life truly couldn’t get any better.