Alone with the Mountain Man (Rosewood Ridge Fire #4)

Epilogue

NASH

“ Daddy, can I start up the sirens?”

I looked over at my four-year-old, Evelyn, seated on my wife’s lap in the fire truck. Well, technically, she was on my wife’s leg since Aurora’s pregnancy bump extended so far, that was as close as our daughter could get these days. We also had a six-year-old son, Sebastian, who was in the parking lot with his older cousins getting their faces painted.

“You sure can,” I said, gesturing for her to come on over.

She moved to my lap, and I showed her how to work all the gadgets while Aurora watched both of us with a big smile. That happened often these days. I’d be doing something with the kids and look over to see her watching, the admiration clear in her expression.

Evelyn quickly got bored with the fire engine tour and wanted to be put down so she could join her older brother. While Aurora took her outside, I turned the tour over to one of the newer volunteer firefighters and headed to the parking lot to round up some food.

Aurora was already standing by the table, holding a plate with a slice in each hand. “I’ve been waiting for this all day.”

I grabbed the plate without taking my eyes off her. She, on the other hand, closed her eyes as she bit into the combination of cooked dough, cheese, and meat.

“Mmm,” she hummed as she chewed.

“You’ve been waiting for pizza all day?”

Her eyes popped open. She shook her head, then wiped her mouth with the napkin she’d been holding under her plate.

“To spend a few minutes alone with you,” she said.

I smiled. I liked that.

“We do need to work in more alone time,” I said.

It wasn’t easy, though. Between work on the construction crew and my duties at the fire station, I stayed more than a little busy. Any free time I had, I wanted to spend with my family, but that almost always included the kids.

Aurora had been with Sebastian twenty-four seven until he started kindergarten. And now that Evelyn was in preschool, Aurora was doing some part-time risk management work just to keep her skills active.

“Look at them,” Aurora said.

I was still chewing, but I followed her stare to the area where our kids were. Evelyn was in the seat now, getting painted, and Harper held her phone in front of her face, taking a picture of our son, who now had an interesting design on his left cheek.

“You know, we might have a few extra minutes,” Aurora said.

I flipped around, taking her in through narrowed eyes. “What do you have in mind?”

“Do you think you can get that basketball? I’d love to challenge you to another game. We’ll leave our clothes on this time.”

I was almost disappointed at that, but she was right. With the kids around, it wasn’t a good idea to take that kind of risk.

We still found ways to shake things up in the bedroom, though. We just had to be quiet about it. Both of us were competitive, so the basketball game was only the first of many times we gamified our sex life.

“Finish up that pizza,” I said. “I’m going to smoke you in a game of around the world.”

She laughed. “We’ll see about that.”

But she was gulping down that pizza even faster now. She couldn’t wait to get on the court. And I couldn’t wait to spend a little one-on-one time with my wife. Even if we stayed fully clothed for it.