Allie didn’t listen to Magnus’s conversation with Stephanie. Mostly she just stared at him, thoughts chugging slowly through her head. Magnus had played the heavy with Liam about his choice of language, sparing her from being the bad guy for a change. But he’d also done it well in her opinion, being firm but following it with love. And she hadn’t been lying to Liam. Magnus had saved her life when he’d pushed her away as Stephen was about to have at her with the machete. She had no doubt he had been aiming to take her head. But Magnus had saved her from that, and had done so despite the fact that it had put him at risk and seen him terribly wounded. And the man was willing to give up his castle and use it as a vacation spot to live here in Port Henry to make her and Liam happy.

Added to the constant thoughtfulness he’d already shown her, as well as the passion he gave her, Magnus Bjarnesen was really something special. His love was nothing like the versions of love that she’d experienced growing up. He would never stand by and watch her die. She was quite sure he would fight for her with his last dying breath. And Allie thought she might do the same for him. He was a man worthy of that kind of love . . . and she was now one hundred percent certain she did love him. Because just looking at him right now was making her heart hurt and filling her with a longing to take him in her arms and simply hold him and never let go.

“Allie?” Drina said quietly.

“Hmm?” Allie turned to smile at her, promising herself she would tell Magnus that she definitely did love him later, when they were alone.

“I’ve been thinking,” Drina said, her hand moving to her stomach. “If I haven’t lost this baby . . .”

“Yes?” Allie asked when she hesitated.

“Well, you know Elvi, Mabel, and Tricia deliberately had babies at the same time so their kids could be friends, right?”

“Did they?” Allie asked, but wasn’t really surprised. It actually sounded kind of smart to her.

“Yes, they did,” Drina assured her. “And, well, I’ve been thinking,” she began, and Allie listened to her plan with mounting interest.

Epilogue

“Time to wake up, sleepyhead. Your surprise baby shower is in thirty minutes.”

Allie groaned in protest at having to get up, but then smiled when she felt Magnus’s chest against her back and his arm slip around her very large waist. Yawning sleepily, she covered his hand on her belly with her own, and muttered, “It’s hardly a secret. Drina figured it out weeks ago and told the rest of us.”