Page 8 of Rescued by the Lumberjack (Moonshine Ridge Lumberjacks #1)

A few months later

Adam

W alking into Mountain Mocha, I'm struck by how much has changed since April Hart opened the place six years back.

Back then, I was just dumb kid in my early twenties with no clue what I wanted out of life. I was new to the logging team and new in Moonshine Ridge.

When April first came to town to open up her coffee shop, me and my buddies used to enjoy coming by in the mornings to flirt with the new girl.

That was before Raine Hart walked in here one day and stole her heart with one look.

Those two have been married for years now, working on their second baby, and it's hard to remember April ever being anything other than Raine's.

Since then, I've been in here a million times, of course. Mountain Mocha's the only coffee shop on the Ridge and the only place outside my own kitchen where the coffee doesn't taste like it was scraped off a bar-be-cue grill.

"Hey Adam!" April's bright demeanor hasn't changed much over the years. "You here for coffee or for something else?"

It's been three months since I rescued Phoenix from the side of the cliff and claimed her for myself. Now when I walk into the little coffee shop, everyone knows who I am and what I'm looking for-- even when I order a latte to go with it.

"Figured she'd be done around now," I answer, shaking my head at the cup April holds up in a silent question about that coffee.

"She was just finishing up when I was in back a minute ago. You wanna go back and get her?"

Phoenix and I did keep our clothes on long enough to get to know each other a little better after that first day. Not that either of us learned anything that changed our minds about each other.

I bought her ring the next day.

Turns out, my curvy little sweetie likes to bake. In fact, she'd rented the commercial kitchen that Raine and April installed in the back of the cafe only a few weeks before I found her clinging to the side of a mountain.

This is my girl's dream, comin' in to work an hour before the first birds chirp so she can have the cases filled with baked goods by the time most of the town's people start filing in looking for their daily caffeine fix.

"Did I hear Adam?" Phoenix comes through the door from the back room, her apron already off and her purse in her arm, ready for our trip down to Slow River today.

When she sees me standing aside to let customers choose between cherry turnovers or strawberry tarts, she bolts for my arms, giving me a kiss that'd get us kicked out of most places around town.

But April just gives us a grin as she pulls both the tarts and the turnovers out of the case and boxes them up for the tourists to take with them up to the hot springs where they say they have a campsite reserved.

"Drive safe," she tells us. "We expect pictures."

"I'll be back in a couple of days. There are fresh loaves in the freezer, directions on the board. If you need help-- don't call."

It's a damn good thing I meant every word of what I said when I told Phoenix I was putting babies in her belly right off because, as far as we can figure, we got pregnant that first day. Or maybe the day after.

We were so busy getting our happily ever after started off right, that Phoenix didn't realize she'd skipped a period till she'd skipped the next one.

A trip to Alice McAllister's general store for a home pregnancy test and a confirmation by Doc Jones a few days later and we're heading down to the Valley this afternoon to pick up a few things.

Maternity clothes, baby things, a marriage license. You know, the usual.

There's a lady down in the valley that runs an Airbnb on her goat farm, so we booked ourselves a private little cabin for a few nights as sort of a makeshift honeymoon.

I'll treat my wife to the real deal after the baby gets here, but for now, we decided it would be a fun way to start our life as Mr. and Mrs. Morris.