Page 16 of Fall Wedding With the Mountain Man (Ozark Mountain Men Falling For Love #2)

Elizabeth

Three years later.

I’d vision-boarded and goal-planned my entire future.

But I hadn’t accounted for love.

Life wasn’t about color-coded action plans.

It was messy and full of U-turns.

Like this moment right now.

If you’d asked me three years ago if my life would look like this, I would have laughed at the idea. And now I couldn’t imagine it any other way.

The nurse put our baby in my arms, and my heart opened wide. She was everything .

Hudson wrapped an arm gently around me as he took her in, just as awestruck as I was.

“We made that,” he rumbled quietly.

“Yes, sir. We did.”

I was exhausted, sweaty and in need of some pain medication. But it had all been worth it, even if the delivery had taken a little longer than planned.

Now that she was here, and I was staring into her beautiful blue eyes, I realized we’d gotten it all wrong. “I think we should name her Edna.”

Hudson wrinkled his forehead into a knot. “But I thought… you wanted her to be Camille.”

I laughed and stared into her tiny little face. “I do. I mean, I did. She can be Edna Camille Woods. How does that sound?”

Hudson had wanted to name her Edna after his great-grandmother on his mother’s side. Evidently, he’d been really close to her growing up.

But I’d felt like the name sounded too old-fashioned. Now that I saw her, though, I could tell it was the perfect name. It had always been the perfect name.

I cooed down at her, “Hi Edna. We’re your parents. And we’re going to love you and take care of you. You’re going to have a good life. A really good life.”

Hudson squeezed my shoulder and kissed the top of my head, his eyes never leaving his new baby girl.

“Can I hold her?” he asked in a reverent tone.

“Of course.”

We’d both studied parenthood like we were planning to take the bar exam.

So we knew the first few minutes were important for bonding.

Gently, he scooped her up, supporting her head, then cradled her in his arms.

The look on his face was sheer delight. “Hi there, little Edna. I’m your daddy.

Imagine that. And mom’s right. You’re going to have a good life.

And you’ll get straight A’s just like your momma did.

And you won’t date any boys until you’re twenty-one.

Do we have an agreement? Drool once if you agree. ”

We’d done this. Together.

Life was like nothing I’d ever imagined it could be. I worked at a small law office in Fernwood now, the commute nothing compared to the New York subway system.

I’d taken a six-month leave of absence so I could spend time with our baby. That would never have been possible at Williams, Phelps and Harmon.

And Red Oak Mountain was even more special than I’d imagined it could be. Mostly because Hudson was here. And it was nice being just one town away from Shelby.

She and Thatcher came to visit every weekend, unless we made plans to go see them in Deer Springs.

I had friends, family, and love. I had everything a woman could ever want.

My life might not have as much cashmere in it now. But I’d traded all that in for something better.

I watched the man of my dreams holding our baby, and something clicked into place that I’d been waiting my whole life for. Today was somehow even better than our wedding day. And I’d never thought anything could top that.

A feeling of satisfied contentment filled me.

We’d done good.

We’d done real good.

Will Sasha let her guard down long enough for Buck to help her out of a bind? Find out in Picking Pumpkins with the Mountain Man .