Willow was beyond excited to be a stay-at-home dad. Or a stay-in-hotel dad, as he kept calling it. He’d already bought a baby bag and practised packing it at all hours of the night. He knew more about her birth plan than she did and was already reading books about raising teenagers.

He took her hand. “If you’re announcing the pregnancy tonight, does that mean you’re doing the Instagram post tomorrow?”

“Yeah, Cheryl’s almost done editing the photo of me and the bump.”

He grinned. “Excellent, I can finally tell Derek the G-Wagon’s mine.”

Eden rolled her eyes. “You’re not really gonna take his car, are you?”

“Of course, I am!”

“But it hasn’t been a year.”

“Yeah, but we’re pregnant, that’s ten times better!”

Eden patted his hand. “Yes, dear.”

Willow scowled, then his face brightened. “One more thing?”

Eden looked at Locanda De Gusti, sure Auntie Isla was beyond pissed. “We need to get inside, baby.”

“In a second.” Willow pulled something from his pocket. A  harmonica.

Eden squinted. “What are you…?”

“Hang on.” Willow brought it to his lips and slowly, but clearly, began to play ‘Leaps and Bounds’ by Paul Kelly.

Eden gasped. “You learned? For me?”

He smiled, still playing the song, haltingly but with a twinkle in his eye. He must have been practising for ages. Hiding in hallways so she couldn’t hear him. He finished, tucking the harmonica back into his pocket. “There we go. Never let it be said an old dog can’t learn new tricks.”

Eden threw her arms around his neck. “You’re so fucking talented.”

“Thanks, pretty girl.”

“Hey, now you can rock the tin sandwiches, we’re both musical.”

“You’re right. We could start a band. The… Cartwright-Williams experience?”

“We can workshop the name.” Eden touched her belly, where the child she’d taken to calling her star-seed silently grew. “We’re going to be a musical family.”

“Of course, we are.”

Willow enveloped her in his big, summer-scented arms, and it occurred to her that she’d said the word ‘family’ without so much as a wince. She smiled into Willow’s chest.

Thank you so much for reading FIRST AND FOREVER and joining the Rebirth gang on their journey! As teased, there might be a novel in the future for young Patrick Normal and serial dad-dater Cheryl, but we’ll have to wait and see…

If you haven’t read the other books in the series, there’s no better place to start than BEGIN AGAIN AGAIN.

“Begin Again Again is a breath of fresh air romance that cuts right through the haze.” NYT Bestseller, Tessa Bailey

And if you haven’t read about how Derek and Mara’s daddy dynamic fell into place, check out RETURN ALL.

If you’re craving more dirty romance, I recommend my bestselling Daddy novel ACT YOUR AGE!