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Two months later

“MAKE SURE YOU’RE taking your prenatal vitamins. Oh, and I also read you should be having protein first thing in the morning, so have Slade boil some eggs for you,” Dad lectures over the phone.

I smile and let him fuss over me. From the moment, Slade and I found out we were pregnant a few weeks ago and told Dad, he’s been obsessively trying to make sure I’m as healthy as can be. Considering that my mother died during childbirth, I smile and enjoy the fact that he wants to make sure I’m taken care of. He was helpless then, so I will do what I can so that he doesn’t feel helpless now.

“I’ll crack the whip on him,” I tease.

He chuckles and wishes me a goodnight before hanging up.

My eyes trail back over to the Christmas tree that’s set up in our bedroom.
My first Christmas tree.
Derek and I went down to the hardware store the day after Thanksgiving and bought a twelve-foot, artificial, tree, which we spent that whole day decorating. We even picked out a blond-haired angel tree topper in honor of my mom. Somehow, I think she would have loved seeing this tree. It’s hard to believe that, this time next year, we’ll have a little one to share these traditions with.

Speaking of traditions . . . Since neither Derek nor I had typical a childhood and we both missed out on normal Christmases, we decided we’d be
those
people. The obnoxious ones who go all out. We’ve played nonstop Christmas music at the bar for weeks now—to the point that Delia has made very serious threats about quitting. I made Slade put lights on the outside of the building. Simon and I even decorated the entire inside very festively. And each night, Derek and I have a Christmas movie marathon—tonight is It’s A Wonderful Life, which seems fitting.

We had just started the movie when he received a phone call about a delivery. I paused the movie and called Dad while he ran downstairs.

“Cupcake?” Derek calls from the hallway.

The sound of his voice sends a shiver through me just like always.

Things happen in your life for a reason. For me, being uprooted from my life and forced to be someone else meant that I was able to meet Derek. And even though Kent was a long-time boyfriend, when I look back, it seemed more like a friendship. There wasn’t an ounce of the passion with Kent that Derek and I share. We can hardly be in the same room without feeling the need to touch one another, which sometimes makes work difficult. When Dad told me that Kent is dating one of my friends named Molly from college, I felt as if a weight had been lifted. Molly is a Barbie to Kent the Ken doll.

Pulling myself from my happy thoughts, I climb off the bed and pad over to the door. When I open it, he’s standing there looking like my handsome Wolverine. The little boy from church, who I now know as Mason, asked his hero to grow out his facial hair. Derek refused to let the boy down and has been growing it ever since. My man can wear a beard very well. Perhaps too well. Every time I see him, I have the need to pounce on him like a damn cat in heat.

“I have an early Christmas present downstairs for you,” he grins. Those steely eyes of his twinkle with joy, and my heart patters in my chest.

“Is that so?” I purr as I slide my hands up the front of his chest. Then I stand on my toes and kiss him on the lips. He smells like hot chocolate—another one of our new traditions.

His hands slide down to my ass and give me a squeeze to pull me to him so he can deepen our kiss. He’s hard between us, and I can already feel the moisture forming between my legs.

Then he breaks away from our kiss and growls. “We better get downstairs before I fuck you right here in the hallway, little kitten.”

I giggle at him. “Fine, but my only condition is that you take off your shirt.”

Another growl. God, I love it when he does that.

Without any argument, he peels off his shirt and dazzles me with his sculpted chest. I want to stay and stare all day, but he scoops me into his arms like I’m his bride and bounds down the stairs.

Bride.

Could that be his surprise? Will he ask me “officially” to marry him? I look down at my ring finger and smile. It wasn’t that long ago that I worried I wouldn’t have this finger any longer. Now, I’m worrying about whether or not he’ll put a ring on it.

“Close your eyes,” he instructs when he makes it to the bottom of the stairs.

I close them and feel him stride through the bar to the farthest corner. A big thud hits my chest as realization hits me. When he sets me down on a cold, wooden, no-longer-rickety bench, I burst into tears.

“Shhh, Cupcake. You don’t even know what I have for you yet.”

But I do, and it’s too much.

“Derek,” I whimper.

He scoots in beside me. “Okay. Now open them.”

My eyes fly open and immediately begin devouring the mahogany-colored masterpiece before me. The same piano he “sold” has been fully restored. This piano was my saving grace. He stole it from me, and now, he’s giving it back to me better than before.

“Oh, it’s perfect,” I laugh through my tears.

The keys have a lid to protect them, and he’s had beautiful words engraved across the top.

Derek loves Joss.

More tears.

“I want you to play me a Christmas song,” he urges.

Smiling, I decide I’ll play Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” But when I carefully lift the lid, my heart drops. Sitting on one of the center D ivory keys is a beautiful diamond engagement ring.

“Derek!” I gasp in surprise.

He slides one hand on my thigh and picks up the ring with his other hand. “Joss, I might be a big grump sometimes. And I might not always say the right things, which sometimes pisses you off. But know this: I will always love and protect you, little kitten. I’d follow you to the ends of the Earth if I had to, but lucky for me, you want to be right by my side. It just doesn’t get any more perfect than that,” he says sweetly as he slides my ring on. “Please marry me, baby.”

The piano now forgotten, I scramble into his lap and straddle him. “Yes! A million yesses!”

His lips find mine and we seal our newly made promise with a heat-filled kiss. I can feel how hard he is between my legs, and I know I want him.
Now.

“Make love to me right now, Derek,” I pant as I lift up on my knees.

A growl rumbles through his chest as he sets to unbuttoning his jeans and freeing his cock. Then he slides a hand around my ass and stands so quickly with me in his arms that he knocks the bench back with a loud clatter.

I cry out when he pushes me against the piano keys and enters me with a bang. As he thrusts into me, our moans and the keys I’m hitting with my ass make a beautiful song.

Our song.

My life before Derek Slade paled in comparison to the colorful, perfect one I live now. I’d erase Joss over and over again if it meant that, in the end, I could always have the man who’s pouring his heart and soul into me right now.

We’ll spend the rest of our lives writing a new history over the ones we erased to get here, and hopefully, we’ll make many more songs like the one we’re playing now.

Derek loves Joss.

Four years later . . .

“G CC CD E”

Jillian’s little finger plunks out each note to “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” as Joss guides her hand around the keys. Her blond curls, so much like her mother’s, bounce as her head bops to the music. They are sitting at the refinished piano I gave Cupcake the night I proposed to her. We built a house on the land near the bar, and I made sure to include a music room for Joss to play in. Eventually, we added a grand piano, but she teaches our daughter to play on the old piano that is so special to us. I listen to them softly singing it together, and there is no sweeter music in the world.

As I walk into the room, Jillian’s head turns my way before she scrambles down off the bench and run towards me, her arms outstretched.

“Daddy!”

I will never tire of hearing that.

“Hey there, shortcake.” I grab her under the arms just before she hits my legs and swing her up, tossing her in the air.

She squeals with delight, her sweet laughter bouncing off of the walls. Once she lands back in my arms, she lays her head in the crook of my neck and snuggles in tight.

Joss gets up from the bench and walks towards me, a soft smile on her face as she watches us. “Is it here?” she asks.

“I just set it up in the den.”

It’s our first Christmas in the house, and today, we had our tree delivered. Tonight, we’ll keep up our tradition of decorating the tree, drinking hot chocolate, and watching the sappy Christmas movies that I will never admit to liking out loud.

I slip my free arm around her waist and lay my hand on her swollen belly and when she leans up for a kiss, and I pull her in close to lay my lips on hers.

When I pull back, Jillian giggles and asks, “Can I have a kiss too, Daddy?”

I give her a kiss on the cheek with a loud smack and she lets out peals of laughter.

The boxes of Christmas decorations are all piled up in the den at the back of the house. They take up a lot of space because Joss covers every inch of our home in festive décor, making up for the years of having none at all. I set my baby girl down, watching her run to the twelve-foot tree and gaze up at it in awe. I feel a contentment like no other wash over me as I look at my daughter and hold my beautiful wife in my arms.

“Want some hot chocolate, shortcake?”

Jillian smiles bright and nods enthusiastically.

I grab Joss’s hand and pull her to the kitchen area of the big room. Once in there, I envelope her in my arms and bring my lips down to hers. Now that I’ve had a taste of her, I can’t help but deepen the kiss, tangling my tongue with hers. She lets out one of her sweet little whimpers, and I start counting the hours until Jillian goes to bed and I can get my sexy wife underneath me. But for now, I let out a groan and drag my lips away.

“I love you,” I whisper. When she beams at me, I give her a little grin before adding, “If it weren’t for our munchkin, I’d have you spread wide open on the counter with my face buried in your delicious pussy, baby.”

Her eyes, which are already glazed with lust, darken even more. Pregnancy hormones make my girl insatiable, and I love to tease her. I’ll make up for it when we’re in the bedroom after shortcake goes to sleep. For now, I give her a peck on the lips and rub her belly before pushing her back towards the couches.

“Go put your feet up, Cupcake.”

She makes her way to the couch, and Jillian crawls up next to her with a Christmas book she dug out of one of the boxes.

Sometimes, my mind still has trouble comprehending how much I’ve gained and how much I’ve changed. My inner caveman still makes an appearance when some douchebag at the bar is ogling my wife, and I can still be an asshole at times. But my girls bring out a mushy side I didn’t know I had—and refuse to admit exists. After the way I grew up and the course of my adulthood until I met Joss, I didn’t think I was capable of being a good husband and father.

They giggle together, and I’m filled with happiness and contentment.

After I get hot chocolate ready, I grab the TV remote to turn on It’s a Wonderful Life.