He looked at the girl who had changed his life with doses of sweetness and sassiness and enough love to pull him from the wrong side of that invisible line and make him never want to go back, and his heart poured out. “My family gave it to me. It’s ours, baby girl, and I can’t wait to see you fill this yard with gardens and have your family over for steaks and soccer and see you smile every time you walk through that door.”

Her jaw dropped. “What? You want to move in together?”

He gathered her in his arms and kissed her. “Damn right. I love you, Trace. I want to wake up with you every morning, put up pictures of our families on the walls, and do dirty things to you in the moonlight on the porch.”

She laughed, but the joy glittering in her eyes told him she wanted those things, too.

“Come on. Let’s go check out our new home.” He slung his arm around her shoulder and headed for the door.

“You know, a girl likes to be asked to move in, not told.”

God, I love you. “This is me asking, baby girl.” He lifted her into his arms and carried her up the porch steps, silencing her laughter with a long, slow kiss.

Chapter Twenty-One

“HOW MUCH TIME do we have?” Diesel called out from the bathroom where he was shaving.

They were getting ready for Penny and Scott’s wedding. It had been six months since Diesel had found out that Axel was his father, four months since they’d moved into the cabin, and two months since Penny had given birth to Liam Wilson Beckley, their adorable baby boy.

Tracey pulled on her underwear. “We have to leave in forty-five minutes. I’m going to grab a snack. I always get hungry at weddings.” She slipped on his dress shirt and headed out of the bedroom.

In the kitchen, she grabbed a container of yogurt from the refrigerator, smiling at the meticulously organized shelves and drawers. Everything in Diesel’s life had a place, and she was so glad to be part of it. Sunlight spilled through the French doors, bathing her bare legs in warmth as she sat at the table to eat. Diesel and the guys had cleaned the place inside and out, refinishing the hardwood floors, adding more windows, replacing appliances and tiling, and building a deck off the kitchen that faced the woods and their private path to the creek. They’d christened every room—and the deck.