Page 213 of Boss of the Year

“Marry me because we taught each other how to love, sweet girl. Marry me because you’re carrying our child, and we deserve to be a real family. Marry me so I can spend the rest of my life making you as happy as you make me.”

The room was completely silent except for the sound of Marie’s muted sobs.

“So?” Lucas asked, his voice rough with emotion. “Will you marry me, my sweet Marie?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

For a moment, his heart stopped. He had just asked the woman he had been curious about—no, obsessed with—for eight years to marry him, and he was sure he was having a heart attack.

Had he heard her right?

Then she said it louder. “Yes, I’ll marry you, Lucas Lyons. Of course, yes!”

The room erupted in cheers as Lucas slipped the ring onto her finger and pulled her into his arms. Over her shoulder, he caught Matthew’s eye and saw something that looked like begrudging acceptance.

Or, at least, something besides a broken jaw.

Later,after breakfast had been eaten, and the children had been bundled outside to play in the snow, the adults settled around the living room again with coffee and the comfortable exhaustion that came after a successful Christmas morning.

Lucas had spent the rest of the morning observing.

This was what a real family looked like. The way the sisters bickered was obviously out of love. The casual intimacy between all the siblings, in the way they tugged each other’s hair or playfully pushed someone’s shoulder. His own family had never been like this. Even in Arizona, when he was around his mother. There was never this kind of playful dedication. The closest he’d gotten were those two years after Daniel was born, before he’d left for school.

His brother had been a damn cute baby.

Before he could think otherwise, Lucas pulled out his phone to send a quick text.

Merry Christmas, Daniel.

The response came quickly.

You too, brother. Drinks before you leave town?

Lucas sighed.

How about coffee instead?

It was a start. Maybe that was all they could hope for right now.

“I hate to be the bearer of more change,” Kate interrupted a lively debate about whether bachata was better than salsa. “But I might as well share my news while we’re all together.”

Beside him on the couch, Marie’s whole body tensed. Automatically, Lucas looped an arm over her shoulders and pulled her into him.

“I’m selling the shop and moving to LA full-time,” Kate said. “I have enough clients there now that it just makes sense. I’m leaving as soon as the sale goes through. May not be back for Christmas next year either.”

“Congrats, Katie,” Lea said. “As it happens, the kids and I won’t be here next year either. The guy I do bookkeeping for has asked me to manage his ranch full-time and his books. In Idaho. The kids and I leave after New Year’s.”

The explosion of voices was immediate and overwhelming.

“Idaho?” Joni’s voice rose above the others. “Ranch? What do you know about horses?”

“They could be cattle,” Nathan pointed out.

“He raises alpacas, actually,” Lea shot back. “Among other things.”

“Even fucking worse,” Matthew snapped, causing his wife to put her hands over their baby’s ears. “What do you think you’re going to do in Idaho, Lea? You don’t know anyone there.”

Lucas realized then that one day, he and Matthew Zola would probably get along just fine. He recognized in the man the same tendencies, the same needs, to take care of others that he had himself as another older brother.