“You’re the only man in the world for me, Blackie. Of course I’m saying yes.”

He grinned. “Good. Because I never cashed the check you made out to me, and now I just won’t. All we need now is the ring. You said you were going to wear it, but I’ve never seen it on you.”

“I need to get it resized. I was afraid it might slip from my finger and go down one of the shop drains.”

“We’ll take it to a jeweler tomorrow. I want a ring on your finger.”

Julie went up on her tiptoes to hug his neck. “I never wanted to get married again. Until I fell in love with you. And just so you know, Blackie, I would have married you even without a child factoring into the equation.”

“And I would have asked you to marry me, anyway. Like I said, you’re a dream come true for me.”

She tightened her hold on his neck. “Oh, Blackie, how will we ever manage? My shop keeps me so busy, and you have your own business to run. I don’t want our baby to have exhausted, overtaxed parents.”

“It won’t. I’ve saved a lot of money over the years. Maybe we can sell our individual businesses, pool our funds, and start up the brewery we’ve both dreamed of. Then we can take care of the baby while we’re working. We’ll both be around. And neither of us will be exhausted or overtaxed.”

“A brewery? You mean it? That would be so awesome!”

He chuckled, set her away from him, and ruffled her hair. “Plans for that have to come later. Right now we need to sort out our lives. I think we should live here with the understanding that I’ll pay off the mortgage. I don’t want a house payment hanging over our heads. Until I sell my shop, I can rent out my apartment.” He grabbed her by the hand and led her upstairs. “While I was taking care of you, I toured the house. I wasn’t thinking in terms of a baby at the time, but now that I am, I suggest that we should knock out a wall between two of the bedrooms up here to create a large master suite. Then we can turn one of the other bedrooms into the nursery. That will still give us two spare bedrooms in case we have more kids.”

“Put on your brakes, Blackie. Let me get through this pregnancy before you start talking about having more kids.”

When they reached the landing, he gathered her into his arms and kissed her. As always, Julie felt as if she were melting into him.

When he came up for air, he smiled down at her. “This is right, you know. We were meant to be together.”

Julie couldn’t have agreed more. “Let’s go look at the bedrooms and choose our baby’s nursery.”

* * *

After dinner, Kennedy helped clean up the kitchen at the bunkhouse, then walked over to the main house to speak with Slade and Vickie. He’d waited to tell them about Ginger, the female bear, until Jen checked into it further and was absolutely certain that an adoption could occur.