Long Time Gone (Rough Riders #16.5)(42)
Author: Lorelei James

Carolyn smiled and breezed out the door.

Kimi looked up at Cal and he kissed her before she got a word out.

When they broke free, she put her hand over his mouth so she could speak her piece. “I love my sister, but she doesn’t get to set down ultimatums for us.”

He nipped her fingers and she moved her hand. “Lord, woman, you think I don’t know that? Do you really think a guy who built you two chicken coops doesn’t have a plan?”

“Oh. Forget I said anything.” She cocked her head. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

“I want to take you out on five dates.” He kissed her. “One for every year you were gone.”

“Cal. As of last night, we live together. Why do we need to date?”

“It’ll make me happy. And I waited to be with you for five years; you can give me five dates before we make it official.”

How did she ever get so lucky to be loved by this man? He’d loved her enough to let her go. And she’d loved him enough to come back. “Fine. But no fish places. If I never see a piece of Alaskan salmon or king crab again it’ll be too soon.”

Epilogue

Five months later…

Cal walked into the Dairy Queen and stopped in his tracks when he saw the hot-bodied blonde staring at him as she provocatively licked an ice cream cone.

Goddamn he loved her. Loved her like a crazy man. Things were better between them than he ever imagined they could be.

She sauntered closer. “Hey, handsome husband-to-be.”

“Hey, beautiful bride-to-be. I thought I might find you here.”

“I should hate that I’m so predictable.” She licked her cone. “I delivered some eggs and I had a craving for ice cream.” She looked at him. “Would you like some? I’m buying.”

“Nope. I’m good.” He put his hand on the small of her back and steered her to a booth along the wall.

After they sat, she eyed him warily. “What?”

“Darlin’, we’ve gotta talk.”

“About what? When I’m gonna make an honest man outta you?”

Cal had popped the question two weeks after she’d moved back to Wyoming, so they’d been engaged for four and a half months. But Kimi was dragging her feet on setting an actual wedding date. Part of that was because she’d been so busy getting her chickens all in a row with her egg business. The other part was she liked the notoriety of living in sin with a McKay. He wasn’t pushing her; he had her in his bed every night and that’s all that mattered to him.

Until now.

“No, darlin’, we have to talk about your cravings.”

“Are you worried I’m gonna let myself go and get fat now that I’m wearing your engagement ring?”

Jesus. “No. But sweetheart, you have been putting on some pounds—”

Splat. Kimi dropped her ice cream cone on the table and covered her hands with her face. Then she started crying.

Great. But he had no choice but to push her. “Kimi. Look at me.”

“No! Why should I? Why would you even want to look at me? You think I’m fat!”

“No,” he said calmly, “I think you’re pregnant.”

Her hands fell away. “What?”

“You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

Surprisingly, she didn’t hedge. “How’d you know?”

“Intuition.”

“Because you work with pregnant cows all damn day?” she retorted.

Not touching that one. Avoiding the cone in the middle of the table, he picked up her hand and kissed her knuckles. “Have you talked to Caro about this?”

She shook her head.

“Why not?”

She bit her lip and stared at him.

“Are you upset that now it’ll seem like we had a shotgun wedding?”

Again, Kimi shook her head.

“Darlin’, you’re scarin’ me. What’s goin’ on?”

“Promise you won’t get mad.”

Fucking loaded question. “I promise.”

“It’s weird.”

“I’m used to that with you.”

“I’ve been planning to take you someplace fun for our honeymoon. I thought we could go to Florida or even California. I saved up a lot of money when I lived in Alaska, and I always wanted that to be travel money. But now, because I’m pregnant, we won’t get to go. Probably we won’t get to go anywhere besides Devil’s Tower ever again.”

Cal didn’t understand the need to travel all over the damn place. But he knew people who loved it—his wife being one of those people. “I promise that we’ll go other places besides Devil’s Tower. We might not get to Paris or New York City while we’re raising kids, but we can take a vacation someplace every year.”