Love at Last (Last Frontier Lodge #2) (23 page)

Marley burst out laughing. “Oh my God. Maybe you could give her a chance to breathe and enjoy herself for a little while.”

Ginger shook her head firmly. “Oh no. I need to see everything get settled. You know me and my trust issues. I apply them to all my friends.”

Delia rolled her eyes. “I’m with you on wanting everything settled. All I can tell you is Garrett is officially moving here. He plans to go back to Seattle next week for a few weeks. I’ll probably go down on the weekends until he can get back up here. The rest…I don’t know. I’m going to talk to Nick soon because he’s been asking questions about how come I’m spending the night out so much. All this time I thought it was smart not to date because it might confuse Nick, but now he’s loaded with questions because I’ve never dated anyone since I had him.”

As she spoke, the sound of feet running across the room drew her attention. She glanced up to see Nick racing across the room to their booth. His cheeks were ruddy from the cold and his dark hair windblown. Garrett and Gage entered the room behind him, moving at a more leisurely pace.

“Mom! I made it all the way down without falling!” Nick skidded across the carpeted floor, bumping against the edge of the table as he came to a stop.

“That’s great!” Delia tugged him to her side for a quick hug.
 

Garrett reached them and ruffled Nick hair. “He did great. Even I fell once on the way down,” he said with a wry grin.

Gage approached and cuffed Garrett on the shoulder. “You almost had it until you looked back at me.” Gage dropped a kiss on Marley’s cheek and slid into the booth beside her.

Garrett followed suit while Nick bounced between the kitchen and their booth while he wheedled extras out of the cooks. A while later, Delia waved goodbye to Ginger and watched Marley and Gage make their way to the stairs up to their apartment. She glanced to Garrett. He was in the middle of patiently listening to Nick show him his mastery of a word game on his phone. Nick looked up and caught her eyes. He paused, his eyes bouncing between her and Garrett. He suddenly looked serious. His gaze pinned to Garrett, he asked, “Do you love my mom?”

Garrett’s didn’t hesitate. “I do.”

Delia’s heart sped, a thrill of joy racing through her. Her joy was tempered with a thread of anxiety. She didn’t really know how Nick would feel about Garrett becoming a more permanent part of their lives, and it worried her. She wanted him to be able to accept it and hopefully feel good about it. No matter how good it was, it was a sea change for their lives.

Nick traced the edge of the smartphone sitting on the table. He was quiet for a long moment. “Are you going away again?”

Garrett started to shake his head and stopped. “I have to go to Seattle for a little while, but I’m coming back. I’ll always come back.”

Delia couldn’t help herself. “Nick, you don’t need to worry about that.”

Nick whipped his head up. “Yes, I do. My dad never came back. That makes you sad, and I don’t want you to be sad again.”

Her heart clenched. “Nick, honey, I’m sad about your dad because I wish he was here for you, but I’m okay.”

Nick chewed the inside of his mouth as he looked between her and Garrett. Garrett eased his hand to Nick’s back and stroked it slowly. “Okay.”

Delia felt tears well, but she swallowed them and forced herself to breathe. Part of being a parent was holding it together at times when you felt like you might fall apart. The maelstrom of emotions wasn’t always rational for adults, much less for children.

Before she could speak, Garrett did. “I understand why you might be worried. All I can say is that I plan to be with your mom for a long, long time. Maybe it’s not so easy to believe that, but I’ll try to show you. Okay?”

Nick looked up, his eyes wide. “Okay. Are you gonna stay with us?”

Garrett’s brows hitched, an unbelieving smile curling his mouth. “Uh, well, we haven’t figured everything out yet.”

Nick didn’t budge, his eyes holding steady. Delia started to speak, but once again Garrett beat her to it. “How about we agree that we’ll talk again tomorrow?”

Nick looked to her and back to Garrett before he nodded. “Okay.”

Epilogue

It was approaching midnight and the sun had yet to fully set though it hovered low above the mountains. A curl blew across Delia’s face, the late breeze making merry with her hair and the silk of her wedding dress. Her hands were clasped tightly in Garrett’s as they stood on the deck behind Last Frontier Lodge. Summer solstice, the longest day of the year, was about to mark their wedding date. She blew a puff of air to get the errant curl out of her eyes. Garrett’s eyes, so somber, lightened with a half-smile. He freed one of her hands and brushed the curl out of the way, tucking it behind her ear. A hot shiver chased in the wake of his touch.

Every moment of the ceremony, she felt as if she was humming inside and out—joy, desire and intimacy dancing through her. At the feet of the mountains that had surrounded her for her entire life, Delia and Garrett were married on that almost endless summer day under the collective gaze of family and friends. The sun’s bow was slow and spectacular. By the time it fell behind the mountains, the sky was a watercolor of orange and red shot through with gold.

Hours after the ceremony, Delia glanced around the lodge restaurant—a place that had once represented her lost dreams, dreams that drifted away under the mundane reality of being a single parent. Now, the restaurant linked her present with her past. Garrett was deep into a card game with his brothers, Gage and Sawyer. Sawyer had flown up from no-one-knew-where after his latest classified mission as a Navy SEAL. As if he sensed her eyes on him, Garrett looked up—electricity snapped and crackled in the air across the room. She blew him a kiss, her gaze moving on. Becca was leaning against the bar talking with their mother, Jill. Aidan McNamara, a close family friend, stood nearby and could barely keep his eyes off Becca. Delia couldn’t help but wonder about those two. To say Becca was cynical about men would be an understatement. Yet, Becca snuck glances at Aidan whenever she thought no one was looking.

Nick and several other sleepy children were napping in a few booths in the corner. She walked over and brushed Nick’s hair away before dropping a kiss on his forehead. When she stood, she felt a hand stroke down her back and curl around her hip. Turning her head, her eyes collided with Garrett’s.

“Hey babe.”

“Hey.” She bit her lip when he dropped a kiss on the back of her neck.

Ginger paused by them on her way toward the bar. “When are you two making your escape?”

Delia glanced at the clock above the bar. “Soon. Have you seen my dad?”

Ginger waved to the other side of the room. “He’s over there with Helen. It might be weird, but I think they’d make a great couple,” she said with a grin.

Garrett followed her gaze and arched a brow. “You know, you just might have a point.”

Delia considered the one lingering worry she had since she and Garrett had begun planning their life together—leaving her father to live alone in that rambling house. If he and Helen found their way to each other, it would bring him companionship and comfort, and Nick would be overjoyed. As they’d slowly gotten to know Helen, it was obvious Helen not only adored the chance to get to know her grandson, but Nick loved the extra attention.

She gave Ginger a quick hug. “We’re on our way out. See you when we get back.” She tugged Garrett’s hand into hers and made her way across the room to her father and Helen.

“Hey, you two. We’re about to head out. Nick’s asleep in one of the booths over there,” she said, gesturing in Nick’s direction. “You have everything you need, right?”

Delia was departing for a two-week honeymoon with Garrett to the Cayman Islands. This would be the longest stretch of time she’d ever been away from Nick. It was strange she’d never thought about how it might feel to be away from him. He was going on seven years old now and would probably miss her, but he would be busy as ever with activities with her father, Marley and Gage, and any number of friends.

Don caught her eyes with a wry smile. “Hon, I’ve been helping you raise Nick since the day he was born. Pretty sure we can handle the next two weeks while you’re gone.”

“I know, Dad. I’ve never been gone this long, so cut me some slack.”

Helen smiled softly. “He’ll be just fine, dear.”

Garrett squeezed her hand. “Our flight’s leaving soon.”

She glanced up into his navy gaze. With a quick nod, she let him lead her out of the room and into the rest of their life.

***

Garrett rolled over in bed, sliding his hand over the curve of Delia’s hip. “Mm,” he mumbled into her neck. She was soft and warm. In the last six months, he’d come to absolutely adore waking up beside her every day. After a quintessentially romantic honeymoon in the tropics, they’d returned to Diamond Creek. He’d settled into a life he’d have once never imagined. They’d purchased a home on a bluff overlooking Kachemak Bay. He’d gone from a glamorous, relentlessly busy life in Seattle to a much quieter and messier life on the breathtaking coast of Alaska. He’d traded the big city for a small, quirky community.

The pulse of this tight-knit community called to a part of him he’d never known he had. As he’d originally envisioned, he still kept his practice in Seattle, but rarely flew back. He handled most of his work online and only went there when absolutely necessary. His legal work in Alaska was much more varied than he ever could have guessed. He handled corporate cases in Anchorage, small criminal cases in Diamond Creek and other nearby communities, and civil cases ranging from environmental issues to fishing disputes. He was never bored.

A while later, Delia hurried around the kitchen, coffee cup in hand as she slapped a sandwich together for Nick’s lunch.

“Mom! I can’t find my homework!” Nick called out from down the hall.

“Got it,” Garrett said. He’d quickly discovered that while Nick was reliable about completing his homework, he routinely lost track of it once it was done. Garrett had become the expert at helping him find it.

After walking Nick through his evening before, he found it by the sink in the hall bathroom. When he returned to the kitchen, the small folder held aloft, Nick ran over and threw his arms around Garrett’s waist. Garrett’s heart clenched. Just last week, the court had finalized his adoption of Nick. Garrett had never expected that, but Nick’s biological father had died in a car accident a few months after their wedding. He’d already considered himself Nick’s father in every way that mattered, and he hated seeing Nick’s sadness at learning the father he never knew had died. The adoption had offered an odd sense of completion Garrett hadn’t known he was seeking.

Moments later, he watched Nick climb on the bus. Delia was loading the dishwasher. She stood and closed it quickly. When she turned, she headed toward the hall. Garrett stepped in front of her, curling his hands around her arms. She stopped abruptly and looked up. Her soft blue eyes caught his. She took a breath. He felt the tension ease from her body. “What’s the rush?” he asked, a jolt of lust streaking through him.

It still startled him how much he wanted her. If anything, the depth of his desire for her had grown deeper, along with his love for her.

“I forgot to get the pastries ready last night because we were so busy, so I have to get to work early…”

Garrett caught her lips in a kiss. “No you don’t.”

“Garrett, I can’t be late just because…”

“I called Harry already. He said your new assistant is doing great, and you can take the morning off.”

Delia bit her lip, and he was a goner. He swore she did it on purpose sometimes, and he didn’t give a damn. He tugged her close and lifted her to the table. “Now, where was I?”

He caught her giggle with a kiss.

~The End~

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Please enjoy the following excerpt from
Just This Once,
the next book in the Last Frontier Lodge Series!

(Excerpt from
JUST THIS ONCE
by J.H. Croix; all rights reserved)

Chapter 1

The thwack of the windshield wipers was steady as Becca Hamilton drove along the highway. It was approaching midnight, much later than she planned to be on her way to her parents’ home in Bellingham, Washington. She had yet another late night at work in Seattle, but she’d promised her mother she’d be there for the weekend. After failing to come through on the same promise last weekend, she was bound and determined to get there tonight. The visibility was crap with fog and rainy mist encompassing the road. She might as well have been in the middle of a cloud. She rolled her shoulders in a weak attempt to ease the tension bundled in them.

Glancing at the clock, she estimated she had another hour before she made it to Bellingham. Suddenly, lights flashed in front of her as she came around a corner, much too close for comfort. Before she could think and blinded by the lights, she yanked the steering wheel and swerved to avoid the vehicle coming straight at her. She felt the other car bounce off of hers and heard a loud screech before her car tumbled into the ditch. She came to a thudding stop with her car on its side.

Stunned for a second, she started to scramble and tried to climb out before it occurred to her she might want to take stock of her situation first. She froze and glanced around. Rain continued to fall, her windshield wipers carrying on as if nothing had happened. She looked up toward the road to see the taillights of the car that ran her off the road disappearing into the wet darkness.

“Great, just great,” she muttered. “Run me off the road and leave. Dammit!” She adjusted her position, so her hips rested on the console between the driver and passenger seats. She mentally scanned her body and didn’t sense any significant injuries. Her shoulder had jammed against the ceiling. She figured she’d be sore from the impact by morning, but all in all, she seemed okay. The pressing issue was she was alone in the dark, rainy night stuck in a ditch.