Epilogue

Five years later…

Rachel held her breath as she closed the door to the nursery, sending up a silent plea to any deity who was listening for a full night’s sleep. The twins seemed to have developed a tag-team system and she was seriously considering begging her mother to come back as a night nanny just so she and Cam could get eight solid hours. Or even six. Hell, she’d settle for three.

She padded silently toward the great room, the sound of muffled giggling alerting her there was something afoot even before she rounded the corner and saw them.

Cam stood next to the tree, his hand incriminatingly close to the ornaments. “See the trick is to just move them a little,” he was intoning like a Harvard lecturer. “That way she isn’t a hundred percent certain they’re out of place and you can slowly move them around the tree.”

Rachel paused at the edge of the room and smothered a grin, waiting until Cam had Milo’s silver baby’s first Christmas ornament firmly in his hand before she folded her arms across her chest and called out, “I knew it! Caught red-handed.”

Cam whirled. “It’s the fuzz! Hide the evidence!”

He shoved the ornament behind his back. Milo and Cassidy squealed, ducking behind their father’s legs while Sofie, with the lofty maturity of her six-and-a-half years, merely slapped a hand over her mouth to smother her giggles, her eyes glinting wickedly. Of all their kids, she was the most like her father—and the most likely to be lured into one of his schemes.

Rachel approached, shaking her head direly, playing her part to the hilt. “Not only are you defiling my Christmas tree, you’re corrupting our sweet, innocent children.”

The cherubs in question giggled helplessly as Cam held up the baby spoon. “I’ll have you know that Milo’s baby ornament fell and I was valiantly returning it to its place of honor.”

“Mm-hm.” She held out her hand, palm up, and he sighed dramatically before slapping the silver spoon onto it. She turned to the tree, eyeing it to see how much damage he’d already done.

It wasn’t the same tree she’d had when they met. They got fresh trees every year now—but she still spent the most time decorating. Getting it just right. Shifting things around until it was perfect.

And every year Cam messed with her ornaments whenever she wasn’t looking. Though as far as she knew, this was the first time he’d turned the kids into his partners in crime.

She’d worried, when he announced last year that he wanted to retire from baseball and be a stay-at-home dad, that he would be bored. She hadn’t counted on him turning their offspring into his willing accomplices—though Cassidy could always be relied upon to tattle to her. Cassidy loved rules. That one was definitely her baby.

They were in Boulder full time now—which was a relief now that Sofie was in school. Winters in Boulder and baseball season in LA had been a challenge. Rachel had gone to part time at TD Events, with a few breaks for maternity leave, but now she was back to full time. Cam had started encouraging her to start her own company, but for now she was happy where she was. She’d talked to Trista about the toll the company had taken on her home life when she was building her business and Rachel had no interest in putting her kids through that. Maybe someday, but she wasn’t in a hurry. For once, she didn’t need a five year plan. The present was pretty damn perfect already.

She hung the spoon back in its place and Cam sighed dramatically. “You’re a little bit of a tree dictator, you know that?”

“I just like order and efficiency,” she said, the kids all grinning at the familiar refrain. “There’s a system.”

“Uh-huh.” Cam reached out in slow motion, his eyes locked on hers the entire time, and grabbed the spoon, moving it to a branch two inches to the left. Much too close to the Jingle Bell Santa.

Rachel narrowed her eyes. “Seriously?”

“I just want to see how long you can go before you move it back.”

She held his eyes, putting steel into her gaze, determined not to crack.

She lasted five minutes.

Her opportunity came when Cam shooed the kids down the hall for bedtime. “Get moving, team. Pajamas for everyone. Teeth to be brushed. Stories to be read.”

As he herded the kids toward their bedrooms, Rachel took advantage of his distraction to quickly move the spoon back.

Cam’s arms closed around her from behind before she could lower her hand. “Caught red-handed,” he murmured against her hair.

She leaned back against him, folding her arms over his. She’d never believed in love at first sight—until she saw Cam. And Sofie. And Cassidy and Milo and the twins. She’d thought love made you stupid, that it made a person do things that made no earthly sense—until she’d figured out that love was what made everything make sense. It was the logic and the explanation. And five years into her happily ever after, she was starting to think love might just conquer all.

The right kind of love. With the right kind of man. Like the one who had burst into her life and disrupted all her plans.

“I love this tree,” she said, staring up at the branches from the circle of Cam’s arms. “I think the Battle of the Tree might be my favorite part of Christmas.”

“You know what my favorite part of Christmas is?” he asked.

She looked up at him over her shoulder. They knew each other so well now, after five years of ups and downs, arguing and making up. She trusted him completely, down to her soul, but he was still surprising her every day. “What?”

“You. You’re the best Christmas gift I ever got.”

“Aw.” She turned in his arms, grinning and tipping her face up for a kiss. “That was so sappy. I love it. When the kids are in bed, you wanna put on a cheesy Christmas movie and cuddle for five whole minutes before we both pass out from exhaustion?”

Cam laughed, his arms squeezing her close. “Sounds like a plan.”