I’d assumed he’d noticed my breasts were fuller because he couldn’t stop touching them. The rest of me didn’t look any different yet, and I checked every day to see if my belly was showing at all. There was the slightest bump that no one else would probably notice, but I was looking for it.
And as we saddled up and started riding toward the water, I couldn’t wait to tell Finn the news. I wasn’t afraid anymore. There were no doubts or insecurities between us now.
That time apart had taught me a lot.
Time.
Distance.
Space.
All the obstacles life might throw at us.
None of it mattered because what we had was unbreakable.
Finn Reynolds was a part of me. He was probably the part of me that told me to leave for London. To change course and make a change.
He was slightly ahead of me, and he looked over his shoulder and winked, and my stomach fluttered as my head fell back in laughter when I chased after him.
We tied the horses to the tree, and Finn pulled the blanket that he’d brought for us out of the saddle bag and set the backpack down.
“We’re just in time.” He offered me a hand, and I slid down Millie’s side until my boots hit the ground.
He gathered a few branches and piled them on our makeshift bonfire and tossed a lit match into the mix, and the flames grew as we settled together on the blanket, looking out over the water. Amber and citrine and gold were layered in front of us like a watercolor painting. I leaned my head against his shoulder and breathed in the crisp air mixed with his minty, manly, sexy-as-hell scent.
“That right there,” I said, pointing at the colors in the sky. “The color in the middle is citrine at its finest. Only second to the perfection that is the ring around your steely, pewter eyes.”
“Fine. I believe you. Citrine is a real color.”
I chuckled and sat up. “I want to show you something I’ve been working on since you’ve been gone.”
“Show me.” He turned his baseball cap around, and the move was so sexy I had to squeeze my thighs together to stop the ache that was building there.
Pregnancy hormones were clearly a real thing. We’d just had sex, and here I was, fantasizing about him again.
I unzipped the backpack and pulled out the black leather book with a silver engraved plate on the front.
“Chewy and Miney. The story of us,” he said as his fingers traced over the words.
He flipped to the first page and barked out a laugh at the photos of him and me as newborns and the chat bubbles that I’d filled in for each of us.
Mine read: Hottie alert. Look at the thighs on that dude.
His read: She may look like a fragile bird, but someday, that girl will kick my ass on a horse.
We huddled together as he turned every page, and we literally watched as we grew up right before our eyes. There were birthday parties, Halloweens, Disney trips, the first day of school pics, and dances. Pictures from college and Finn’s acting gigs and my time in London. The photos he’d been sending me every single day over the last thirty days were all included in the book.
“This is fucking amazing.” He studied every single photo and read all the notes that I’d written around them.
“Yeah?” I pushed up on my knees and placed my hand on the page he was currently looking at so he wouldn’t turn it too quickly. “So, this last one is something that I wanted to show you in person.”
“Is it a nude?” He waggled his brows.
“Better than a nude.”
“I don’t know, Miney. You naked is impossible to beat.”
“Turn the page and see for yourself.”
My heart raced, and I let out a long breath that I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding as I pulled my hand away. He reached for the corner, turning it slowly and then staring down at the page in front of him.
A photo of our son or daughter was on that page with a note that read: This is our future. Our baby. A perfect mix of you and me.
“Reese,” he whispered, and I heard the break in his voice. I startled when I saw the tears streaming down his cheeks. Finn had only cried twice in all the years that I’d known him. He’d cried when I’d been diagnosed with cancer and when his father had been diagnosed years later.
But I was fairly certain these were happy tears.
“This is what I was meeting with Carl about. I was feeling really tired before you left, so he’d offered to run my blood work so I wouldn’t have to go to Dr. Roberts and get everyone all worked up. I found out I was pregnant the night before you left.”