Page 23 of Forbidden Appeal

EPILOGUE

JAMES

5 years later

“I bought you a new coat. You don’t need to wear that one that doesn’t fit anymore.” I put on my sternest glare as I enter the porch.

She turns and looks at me, unafraid, pouting, a tendril of her dark hair over one green eye. “I like this one.”

For crying out loud. “But I just bought you a new one, so you should wear it. We went shopping together for it only last week. Andthat one doesn’t fit.”

“I told you Daddy would be upset you didn’t want to wear your new coat.”

My eyes meet Mia’s over our elder daughter’s head. Our youngest is more pliant to what she wears, since she’s still nursing, strapped to Mia’s chest and asleep in a pink hat and mittens.

“Don’t care.” Iona storms out of the house in her wee boots and coat that shows a full inch of sweater beneath the cuffs. It’s way too small.

“Are you going to try and get her back?” I ask Mia.

She shrugs and shakes her head. “Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll opt for you warming her up when she gets cold.”

I nod. Mia’s right. “I’ll commission a custom-made version of that coat until she’s bored of it.”

My wife laughs. “She’ll be going on dates aged eighteen in a coat with pink snowmen.”

“She will not be going on dates aged eighteen.” No way. Not my wee daughter.

Mia laughs even harder, and I grumble, dragging on my boots before I wrap my arm around her waist as we head out into the crisp cold day. The sun is white in the blue sky, and Iona is making another snowman on the main lawn.

On the hill the Highland cattle Mia insisted on having paw the snow to get at the grass, braving the weather. The dogs and the cat are somewhere nearby, causing mischief no doubt. The goats and sheep are undercover, as is Mia’s precious Land Rover. It took me months to find an exact match to the one she had to sacrifice, and she keeps it tucked warm in the garages. She doesn’t drive it much, because the lassies are too young to travel in it, but I know sometimes when I’m looking after our bairns in the summer she takes a book and goes and sits in it to read and feel close to Duncan. A place all her own to be with her thoughts. In addition to the whole floor of the main castle she’s taken over and the estate covered with her animals.

There’s so much to be grateful for. Mia. Our family. The wild and beautiful home we live in. When we had breakfast together after disposing of her uncle all those years ago, we talked about Mia taking over his position in the Barnes mafia. With my support as her henchman, of course. But in the end, she wanted to settle in my castle with our babies and lots of animals. More fun.

I’d already disappeared, and Mia’s cousin, running Barnes, turned out to have no interest in hunting her down once he knew whose protection she was under.

So that was it.

“What is it with you lasses and clothes that don’t fit?” I grumble, looking at Iona.

Mia nudges me with her elbow. “At least the clothes I like that don’t fit are toobig.”

“Mmm. That is compensation.” She knows I love it when she wears my shirts. “All the better for me to access…” I whisper into her ear, and she giggles. “If you weren’t wearing so many well-fitting clothes right now, I could—”

“Not in front of the baby!” she laughs, light in her eyes. We both know how that bairn was conceived, after all. When babies are asleep, parents can playall sortsof sexy games.

I grin and lean over to kiss our second daughter’s head, then brush a stray tendril of Mia’s honey-blonde hair from her cheek. “Later then.”

Mia nods eagerly.

“Daddy, Daddy!” Iona rushes over, green frog boots kicking up snow. “I need your help with the snowball for the snowman! It’s too big for me to push!”

I widen my eyes. “Too much for even you, my wee lass?”

“Aye!” She has the sweetest accent that pivots between my Scottish tongue and Mia’s southern plum-in-the-mouth.

“Then we’llallhave to help.” I take Mia’s hand and we go to help make yet another snowman.

With luck, it won’t be the only life Mia and I create today.

* * *