Epilogue
“DARLIN’, YOU WEREN’T TOO enamoured of that fool DeViers and her husband, were you?”
Bleary eyed, Hope raised her head. Now her concentration was broken, she became aware of the ache in her back, the pressure on her hips and, at the sound of its father’s voice, the baby started kicking.
Hands braced on the back of the chair opposite her, Jake scowled. Lord above, but her husband was a handsome man. Maybe more silver threaded his black hair than when they’d met, and maybe the lines crinkling the corner of his eyes were a tad more pronounced, but he never failed to steal her breath and set her heart to race.
Leaning back into her chair, she laced her hands over her swollen belly. The DeViers were business acquaintances here in Sacramento and she and Jake seen them only last week at a restaurant in town. Hope refused to confine herself to their home during her pregnancy, and Jake took delight in needling those who found it a scandal. “Why? What did you do?”
“I ain’t done nothing. It was all them.”
A smile tugged at her, but she kept as stern an expression as she could manage. “Them?”
“It was,” he insisted.
Exaggerating a sigh, she asked, “What did they do?”
His scowl grew fiercer. “They were talking out of turn against McElroy Logistics.”
“The company? And this has you riled?”
“It’s your company, ergo they were talking out of turn about you. And darlin’, you know I don’t hold with people disparaging my wife.”
Ergo. Disparaging. Her husband did love a fancy word.
In the three years since they wed, Jake had settled into Sacramento life with alarming ease. At first, he’d had itchy feet, wanting to be out on the trail with nothing more than his horse and a desire to keep moving. She hadn’t stopped him when he’d needed to leave, knowing he would always come back to her, but she’d missed him something fierce. The thing was, he’d missed her, too. The trips had become less and less frequent, until they’d disappeared altogether. He said he much preferred her company to that of his horse, and when she’d playfully hit his chest, he’d caught her hand and told her he was hers, he couldn’t be hers if he was never with her, and he counted his life well spent if it were by her side.
At first, she’d worried he’d become restless and resentful, that a stationary life in Sacramento would kill the Jake she loved. However, time had proven his words true and he’d adjusted to their life with enthusiasm.
He’d thrown himself into their social obligations, and far from despising him or looking down on him, each one of her acquaintances adored him. He’d charmed them with his cocky smile and his tall tales, and she would have to fight to keep her eyebrows where they were as he embellished and expanded, making each more improbable with every retelling.
His wicked grin, though, he kept solely for her. And she was the only one he called darlin’.
When he wasn’t charming Sacramento society, he ran an agency that found bad men for a fee. He joked she kept him in the luxury to which he’d become accustomed, but truth be told the man couldn’t sit still. With a wealth of free time, he’d developed his agency such he now employed three men and was angling to maybe take on a fourth in the new year. He still enjoyed gathering information, and from time to time he could be found in one of Sacramento’s hotels or saloons, his hat pulled low as he read a dime novel and listened to those who gossiped around him.
Margaret was still in Ironwood, and well on her way to earning a place of her own. Hope had offered again to help should Margaret wish it, but she was always gently rebuffed. Margaret was choosing her own path, and who was Hope to stand in the way of that?
Callihan, as Hope had planned, had faded to obscurity. She didn’t follow him obsessively, not anymore, but last she’d heard he’d been awaiting trial for murders and wrong-doing in Utah Territory. She held no real interest, though. She’d had her vengeance, and she counted her success in how difficult it was to find word of Callihan. In any event, she refused to allow Callihan to influence another moment in her life. Now, she had their soon-to-be-born child and Jake. She would always have Jake.
…Who was watching her now with a certain speculative gleam in his eyes. He came around her desk to perch on its edge, his long legs sprawled next to her chair.
A familiar heat settled low inside her. “I didn’t bring you to Sacramento to distract me.”
Eyes darkening, he rubbed his lip. “But darlin, you know I do nothing but distract you. You can’t keep your hands off me.” Gaze dropping to her belly, his wicked grin pulled at his full lips. “What is this but proof?”
“Proof you distract me and that I allow you?”
“Exactly.” Gently lifting her from his chair, he pulled her between the spread of his legs, his thumbs rubbing against her hips. “I love you, darlin’.”
“I know.” Placing her hand on his chest, she felt the steady beat of his heart.
“Do you love me, too?”
She raised a brow. “I didn’t realise there was a requirement for reciprocity.”
Lust flared in his eyes. “Darlin’, you know I love it when you use big words.”
“I do.” Her hand drifted south.
He groaned. “There’s not much I can do about it, Hope, not with you carrying our young one.”
“I’m sure you’ll come up with something. You’re very innovative.”
Another groan. “Stop it, woman.”
“No,” she said simply, and dropped to her knees.
When he was shuddering, his hand tangled in her hair and gasping for breath from the force of his release, she leaned back and wiped the corner of her mouth.
“You’re a full terror, you are,” he managed. Hauling her into his arms, he kissed her wildly and she returned his passion, feeling pretty wild herself.
Pulling back, he kissed the freckle under her eye and looped his hands in the small of her back, her belly nestled between them. She could never have imagined when she’d set out for vengeance that she would arrive here, her world in the man who held her and the baby inside her. “I love you, Jake.”
“I know.” His wicked grin tugged at his mouth. “Darlin’.”
Thank you for reading EMERALD SEA! I hope you enjoyed Hope and Jake’s tale.
You can order the first two books in the series now! They’re going through a spruce up and will be available in early 2022.
Discover what happens when the owner of the Diamond receives an offer to purchase her saloon from a fancy Englishman.
However, appearances are not always what they seem in
The Diamond Series Book 1.
Wondering how Pearl La Monte and Ethan Garrett fell in love and how, exactly, Jake was a thorn in their side? Wonder no more with
The Diamond Series Book 2.
As always, it would be greatly appreciated if you would leave a review.