And that had worked for her. But she no longer needed or wanted that. Even when she was an unlovable mess, he looked at her in a way that stole her breath every time.

He was her person.

He hadn’t stopped missing Rowan and he never would, but he didn’t let it hold him back, and in turn she’d been able to do the same. When she was with him, she felt like she could do anything.

He braced his weight above her with one arm, touching her face with his free hand. “What are you thinking about?”

“That I didn’t think anything could still surprise me, but you do. I can’t wait to see what comes next.”

He grinned. “It’s going to be you, babe. You’re going to come next.”

She laughed and shook her head, but he dipped his to kiss her softly, the laughter gone. “You still surprise me too,” he murmured, voice husky the way it got when he was particularly moved. “Every day you show me more about love and life than I thought possible. I don’t know what comes next either, but I can’t wait for it. I think the next sixty or seventy years should be enough time to see, don’t you?”

Her breath caught. “Maybe eighty . . .”

“Yeah. I like the way you think.”

Epilogue

Two years later

Piper and Winnie stood back from their creation and took a long look at their work.

“Man, we’re good,” Winnie said.

“We are,” Piper agreed.

“Arf, arf, arf!” This came from Chance, the eight-week-old puppy Piper had rescued last week after a work call at the local SPCA. The manager had fallen and broken her leg.

Piper had fallen too. She’d fallen in love with the tiny little puppy in a crate at the front desk giving her the biggest, saddest eyes she’d ever seen. She’d gone back three days in a row just to hold the puppy, until finally the lady who’d broken her leg gently asked Piper if she’d ever considered a dog.

She hadn’t until that very moment. She scooped up the puppy and kissed the top of his fuzzy head.

“Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma,” garbled the adorable one-and-a-half-year-old in the baby carrier strapped to Winnie’s chest.

“Aw,” Piper said, bending in to kiss the top of her niece’s fuzzy head as well. “And you’re right, Ro. It’s definitely time for a food break.”

“Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma!” This was accompanied by wild arm waving and a smile.

Baby Rowanne, “Ro” for short, had come into the world much like her daddy had lived in it: wild and carefree. And she loved to talk. None of them could actually understand a word, but they all pretended they did.

“You heard that, right?” Piper said. “She’s telling us it’s lunchtime. In fact, she quite clearly said she’s starving and that we are working too hard.”