Our Kind of Love by Kait Nolan
Epilogue
“Hold still,” Pru ordered.
Kyle resisted the urge to tell her he could tie his own bowtie. This was part of having family involved in his big day, and he was grateful they were all here.
“There.” She smoothed her hands across his shoulders and down the sleeves of his jacket, brushing away imaginary lint. “You clean up pretty well.”
“Thanks.”
“You nervous?”
“To marry my best friend? No. Easiest thing I’ve ever done. Worried she’ll wake up one day and realize she made a mistake? I’ll probably always have a little of that.”
“She loves you. Always has, even during those years you were both being stupid.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever truly feel worthy of that. But I intend to spend the rest of my life making sure she doesn’t regret it.”
“There are worse approaches to marriage.” She fastened on his apple blossom boutonniere. “Will y’all stick around here?”
Kyle curled his hands around her shoulders. “To answer the question you really want to know and are too polite to ask, I’m not taking Abbey away from the spa or the Ridge. She loves it here, and I’m able to write here in a way I haven’t been able to in years. I’m sure she’ll travel with me some when I do tour, but Harry wants his artists to have lives and families, so they won’t be what I had to do before.” He’d basically offered Kyle his dream career on a platter. “All that to say, I’m home, sis.”
Pru sniffed, her dark eyes shining. “Good. That’s good. Where will you live?”
Kyle glanced around the room that no longer bore any resemblance to the childhood bedroom he’d spent as little time in as possible. “Here. For now, anyway. Abbey and I want to be close to Granddaddy. Beyond that, if we want, Mark and Faye have no problem with us adding on for more space.” He’d initially rejected the idea of that, but he loved the orchards, and a part of him relished the thought of taking the last shadow of his childhood and reclaiming it in the name of their future. He’d talk to Porter after the wedding and the honeymoon and see what he could draw up.
“Taking control of the last piece. Mom would be proud.”
Kyle thought of the woman who, other than Abbey, had given him back the biggest pieces of himself. “I wish Joan could have been here today.”
Pru smiled. “She is, if only in all of us.”
The idea was a comfort.
“We should get out there. Guests are arriving, and the ceremony starts soon.”
Someone knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and Abbey slipped inside.
Pru leapt in front of him, arms stretched wide, as if her five-foot-something frame would hide him. “What are you doing here! You can’t see the groom before the wedding!”
“I’m not in my dress yet, and we’re not the superstitious type. I need to talk to Kyle.”
Did Pru hear that note of nerves beneath the easy bravado? If she did, she didn’t comment as she vacated the room.
“Fine, but the ceremony is in T-minus less than half an hour. Don’t be late.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Kyle promised.
Then they were alone, and his bride to be bit her berry-glossed lip. Because he knew she had a little trauma where trying to marry him was concerned, Kyle crossed over and took her hands. “Needed to make sure I was here?”
“Maybe partly. Although if you did want to bolt, I think you’d have to get past a hundred or so people to pull it off.”
“Not going anywhere without my bride.” He stroked his thumbs over the pulse points in her wrists. “What’s wrong, Abs?”
Her hair was swept up, her makeup perfect. She was ready but for the fact that she wore a silky white robe declaring her “The Bride.” But something was very clearly off. “I needed to ask you something.”
“Okay.” He’d say or do whatever she needed to be reassured.
“What are you doing in seven months?”
Kyle frowned as he did mental math. “At Christmas? I expect I’ll be right here with you enjoying my first family Christmas in a decade.”
“We haven’t talked about that. The whole family thing. Like whether we want one.”
“Is that what you’re worried about? That I don’t want kids?”
“I mean, it’s kind of a big thing couples should be on the same page about.”
“I love the idea of having children with you. Of Christmas mornings when we get up way too early after going to bed way too late because we were up putting together whatever ridiculous toys we bought. Of all those everyday things people take for granted. I want to make the family I didn’t have growing up.”
“Then you won’t mind if we get started on that early?”
Kyle tightened his hands on hers. “You want to start trying for a baby at Christmas?”
“Yeah, about that.” Abbey swallowed. “We kinda jumped right over the trying part.”
His brain simply ceased firing, and he could only stare. “You’re... We’re... How?”
“Remember that night we got engaged out in the orchard? We sort of skipped a step.”
His mind helpfully replayed the sight of her, naked and gorgeous, sinking down onto him without a single thought to a condom. He went hard in an instant as his body made a bid for a repeat. But that wasn’t why she was here, looking at him with big, worried eyes.
“We’re having a baby? For Christmas?”
“It seems we are.”
Kyle thought he might burst with joy. “Best Christmas present ever!”
One golden brow winged up. “Not a wedding present?”
“You’re my wedding present. There’s nothing better than that.” He pulled her close, intending to kiss her, but stopped. “I have a feeling if I muss you up, someone’s going to have my head.”
Her mouth curved in a saucy grin. “Then I guess we need to finish this wedding business so we can get to the mussing portion of the program.”
At the heated look in her eyes, he stepped back. “Get on out of here before I give in to temptation.”
“I do hope you will give in to all the temptations. Later.” She backed toward the door and blew him a kiss. “See you at the end of the aisle.”
As soon as she slipped out, he sank down onto the bed and exhaled a slow breath.
A baby. He was gonna be a father. Holy shit.
Running both hands through his hair, he waited for the news to really sink in. But it was too big, too good to fully absorb.
The door opened again, and Caleb stepped in. “It’s time.”
Kyle stood, firming up knees that felt a little like Jell-O. “Let’s do this.”
Caleb eyed him. “You okay, man?”
Kyle clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Brother, I am fucking perfect. Absolutely nothing could make this day any better.”
But as he stood at the head of the long aisle that ran through the east orchard, beneath the fragrant blooming apple trees, and watched the woman he loved walk toward him in the dress he’d bought her, to a song he’d written her, on her grandfather’s arm, he spotted the plastic ring on a chain around her throat and knew he’d been wrong. That was the absolute cherry on top. And as they finally executed that long-ago marriage pact and faced their guests as man and wife, he knew their adventure was just beginning.
Choose Your Next Romance
Next up inthe Men of the Misfit Inn series is Wyatt Sullivan. If you’re a fan of Fixer Upper or HGTV in general, you’re gonna love this book.
After a lifetime spent trying to prove he's not a screw up, contractor Wyatt Sullivan is ready to take his YouTube channel, DIWyatt, to the big time. But he needs more than the one-man flips that built his reputation. He needs something truly big to impress network execs enough to give him his own home improvement show.
After a messy, ugly divorce, publicist Deanna James can't afford another mistake. So when she wakes up from a night of too much wine to find out she's bought a historic monstrosity of a house in an online auction, she panics. If she’s going to sell it and not lose her shirt to her ex-husband, she’s going to need some serious help. But how will she afford it?
Wyatt's just the guy to ride to her rescue. He'll take on the job if she'll let him film the process. Deanna sweetens the deal with the added bonus of using her PR skills to raise the profile of DIWyatt enough to impress the suits. There's just one problem: They both have to move in.
As they battle home improvement hell and rising attraction, can they keep from giving the viewers more of a show than they ever intended?
You can preorder your copy of Don’t You Wanna Stay today! It releases August 27th.
While you’re waiting, have you explored the Rescue My Heart series? This trilogy follows three former Army Rangers navigating their post-military lives and finding love long the way. It’s set in Eden’s Ridge, so there are plenty of cameos from our Misfit Inn favorites, as well as Kyle’s publicist Deanna, who’s a friend of Ivy Blake in Baby It’s Cold Outside. Keep turning the pages for a sneak peek.