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Colin nodded, then moved for the pile of boots and coats by the door. Silently, they both pulled on their winter gear as Macaroni watched them.

Gabe pushed the door open, and Macaroni loped out, immediately taking a few steps into the frigid Christmas morning before doing his business.

Since Colin was watching the llama in the slowly encroaching daylight, Gabe didn’t expect him to speak. But he did.

“Are you going to live with us now?”

Gabe scratched a hand through his hair. The kid sure wasn’t going to ask him any easy questions. “Cabin’s a bit small for all that, but I’ll be here a lot, and you and your mom will be with me on the ranch a lot, until we figure out something more permanent.” Gabe blew out a breath and watched it puff into the cold air. He thought there’d be time to parse this all out, but kids weren’t exactly big on deep discussions and taking things slow, were they? “I love your mom.”

Colin pulled a face, but then he shrugged. “Yeah.”

“And, well…” Gabe tried to think about what he might have wanted back then, if his mother had chosen someone else. A good man. The kind of man Gabe wanted to be. He owed that to Colin.

So even though it made his hip twinge, he knelt on one knee in the snow so he could be eye level with Colin. “And I love you too. You’re a part of whatever changes we make. So you’ve got to promise me that you’ll be honest with us when something’s bothering you or not working. Because this is about all three of us, not just me and your mom.”

Colin stared at him, a considering kind of expression Gabe couldn’t quite read. His heart pounded a little too hard in his chest as he waited for Colin to respond in some way.

“Are you guys going to get married?”

Christ. He had to huff out a laugh as he moved back to his feet. Married. It had already crossed his mind, so that wasn’t the shock. It seemed more inevitability than possibility, but it was a complicated question for a kid to ask, for Gabe to answer. Still, he wanted to be straight with Colin. Always. “I have to ask her first. Then she’d have to say yes.”

“New Year’s Eve.”

Gabe blinked down at him, but the boy was still watching the llama. “What about New Year’s Eve?”

“You should ask her on New Year’s Eve. Because that’s the start of a new year. Plus, there’s this movie she always watches on New Year’s Eve with a guy and girl and gross kissing and crying, so she’d probably like it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s soon.” Like aweeksoon.

“Mom always says I should do my homework sooner rather than later. Don’t know why this would be any different.”

“Right. Homework and marriage. Very similar.” Gabe blinked, looking out at where the sun flirted with the horizon. A new day. Christmas Day. A new year. A promise. Inevitability over possibility.

Hell.

“You’d be okay with it?”

Colin finally slid a gaze his way, so much like his mother—practical and certain and just a…force. A force all his own.

“You and Mom getting married? Yeah, I’d be okay.” But his mouth twitched a little bit, and as he turned his head away from Gabe, Gabe caught a glimpse of a grin.

“Guess I’d be okay with it too.” He rested his arm around Colin’s shoulders, gratified when Colin leaned into it. “Maybe…tomorrow or the next day you can come to town with me and help me pick out a ring. If you think you can keep it a secret.”

He puffed out his chest. “Of course I can keep a secret.” He leaned a little harder, looking down so Gabe couldn’t see his face at all. “Would I call youDadwhen you guys get married?”

Oof. Amazing how he wanted to sink to his knees and say yes almost as much as he’d been desperate to run away from this a few days ago. But, God, he wanted to be something of a dad to this kid. And he knew, deep in his bones, he’d do a damn fine job at that, whether he deserved the opportunity or not.

Deserved didn’t matter when he had people in his life who loved him, whom he loved.

Still, he wanted to be careful. Evan had never been careful, and Gabe wouldn’t follow any of those ugly footsteps. “That’s up to you, Colin. I’d be your stepdad, and you’d always be mine to me, but…well, it’s up to you. Maybe something to talk to your mom about. She also has to say yes first.”

“I never knew him, but I know you.”

Gabe was speechless at that.