I scanned the crowd for Ben and Ruby and grinned when I caught sight of them, hands full of apple cider donuts. My heart warmed at the sight. One year ago, I had my second date with Ben at this same festival. It was the start of an amazing and surprising year.
I would have never expected to fall so completely for Ben and his little girl, too. I had never seen myself as the settling down type of person, yet they had found their way into my heart.
Days spend laughing through adventures, whether at a fair like today, or watching movies in Ben’s cozy living room. Now I couldn’t picture my life any other way.
“Fallon!” Ruby spotted me and ran the remaining distance. “We brought donuts.”
She passed on over to me wrapped in a napkin and I took a deep breath of apple cider goodness. This was my favorite time of year.
“Thank you, Ruby.”
Ben reached us and leaned over to kiss me briefly on the lips. We’d been together long enough for Ruby to be aware we were dating, but still tried to be discreet. While she loved that we were together, I wanted to be sensitive to her mother.
“I ran into Finn,” Ben said. “His mead is very popular.”
My brother had finally gotten the meadery on the property running again and this year was his debut at the Harmony Fall Festival.
“That’s great news. We’ll have to stop by and support him.”
Ben’s grin turned sly. “Maybe later. He seemed to be a bit preoccupied by a redhead.”
I shot him a puzzled look. “The only redhead I know in Harmony is the local beekeeper who supplies his honey. They barely talk.”
Ben shrugged. “They seemed to have plenty to say. I’ll confess I’ve never seen anyone go toe to toe with grumpy Finn before”
“Oh that I need to see.”
Ben placed a hand on my arm. “Not yet. I have something I want to show you first.”
He led me and Ruby over to a tent on the far side of the fair. A pile of puppies were playing inside a large gated area.
“Puppies! Can I play?”
Ben nodded and Ruby ran to join the other children who leaned over the pen to gape at the animals.
“They’re adorable. But I thought you said you had something to show me.”
Ben gestured to the puppies. “How do you feel about dogs?”
His tone was serious and my pulse quickened.
“Dogs are great, but I don’t understand the question.”
“I’ve been thinking of getting a dog. It would be good for Ruby and something her mother and I had discussed when she got to this age.”
“I think that’s a great idea, but why does it matter how I feel?”
Ben tugged me close and put an arm around me. “Because you come over often and I hope someday you might consider moving in with us. If you aren’t in agreement on adding a dog to our family, I’d reconsider.”
Our family.
“You think of us as a family?”
Ben squeezed me gently. “I do. And I don’t want to pressure you and I want to take things slow for Ruby’s sake, but I hope that you will become a much more official part of our family someday.”
Ben was talking about marriage. My stomach fluttered at the thought. Being married to Ben sounded like a dream come true—a dream that I’d never dared dream for myself until now.
And while I didn’t think I’d be ready for that tomorrow, I knew that we would get there together. And that the day would come when I woke up in Ben’s bed, in our house, with Ruby and a dog. Or maybe even two dogs.
The future was ahead of us as far as I could imagine and I planned to spend every day of it with the man I loved.
I reached up to kiss Ben. “Yes, I want that, too.”
Ben circled his arms around me and pulled me into a deeper kiss. The world around us melted away and I was focused only on the way his lips felt like home.
No matter what life threw at us, I knew that Ben would always be home.
* * *
Read more about Chateau Felicity in Reunited with her Billionaire https://books2read.com/Reunitedwithherbillionaire