Page 32 of Single Mom for the Mountain Men (Mountain Men Why Choose #3)

“ W hy didn’t you explain that the first time?” Brody grouses at Tanner as he pulls a nail back out of the board in his hand and changes his grip.

“I did, but you didn’t listen to me,” Tanner replies tartly, repositioning the board and then hammering his end into place.

“Guys, this constant bickering is getting ridiculous,” Aiden chastises them from his spot on the other side of the area that will be the new family room of the cabin.

I grin to myself as I watch them working, finally able to imagine the larger and more comfortable cabin that they’ve been building. I look up at the trees swaying in the late summer breeze, and I let the sun kiss my face.

“Be careful that you don’t lose your ring somewhere while you’re helping us out,” Brody says to me while coming over to wrap his arm around my waist to give me a kiss.

“I’ll take it off and put it on the chain around my neck in a minute,” I reassure him, holding out my hand to admire the sparkle of the classic, simple engagement ring that Brody got for me a month ago.

The boys decided that Brody was the most logical one to marry me, because he’s the most financially secure, but that doesn’t change the dynamics of our relationship in the slightest. Being loved by three different men has been nothing short of magical, and having all of them helping to care for Sophie while I recovered from my wounds made it easy to rest and recover.

Once I was up and moving around, I decided that it was time to get back to work again. I missed the challenge of using my brain, but I didn’t want to go back into the corporate way of life that had consumed all of my time before I came up the mountain to escape James.

Brody had encouraged me to start my own motivational and coaching business, something that I had dreamed of doing since I got out of college.

I had been astonished at the number of women who had immediately reached out to me for help with their careers, bad relationships, parenting, and so much more.

It turned out that my life that had been full of challenges and mistakes had actually made it really easy for me to give expert advice to my clients in nearly every aspect of their lives.

It felt good helping people to live better lives, and I had started to feel whole as I made new connections and new friends through my work. The boys had been supportive of my efforts, and I had gotten a work-from-home job so that I didn’t have to go to an office in town to work.

Tanner had been working on paying back the money that he owed to a variety of different businesses, and he had opened up a guided tour company with Brody’s help that was thriving.

The mountains in Whitefish were so beautiful that it was easy to find large groups of people to take around to see the sights, to go fishing, or to learn about hunting.

“Momma, I found a bug,” Sophie says to me as she hurries over with a little captive trapped in between her hands.

“Oh, how…lovely,” I say to her skeptically as I look at the little winged creature on her palm. She giggles at my clear aversion.

“Is my room going to be big enough for all my toys?” she asks the men as she toddles around to look at their work.

“Yes,” Tanner tells her. “I took inventory of all of your toys yesterday, and I made sure that your room is big enough for all of them to fit.”

I laugh, but Sophie angles her head back to look at Tanner on his ladder. Her pudgy, little hands come down to her hips, and she says sternly, “Are you making fun of me?”

Aiden laughs loudly. “He’s not actually teasing you, baby,” he says. “We really did take that into consideration.”

And they really had. It warms my heart to see them embracing her like their own in this way. Not every man is good at being a father, but somehow, I’ve managed to end up with three men who are excellent dads.

I press a palm flat to my belly as I watch my men working hard on the house.

I have a little secret that I need to tell them about, but I’ve been waiting for the right time.

There’s been so much going on lately, and I’m not even sure how they all feel about children.

I know that they love Sophie and care for her like their own, but we haven’t really had time to talk about having any more kids.

I, of course, don’t have any idea who the father is, but that doesn’t matter to me. I hope it won’t matter to them, either. Our family shares one love and one life, so any child of mine is a child of theirs, if you ask me.

My phone pings, and I pull it out of my pocket to see that the wedding planner has reached out to me.

The wedding is just a few weeks away, and it seems like there is a never-ending list of things to take care of as we head into the final weeks of prep time.

Thankfully, a friend of mine from college, Mindy, has been willing to tackle all of the work of being a long-distance maid of honor, and she’s handled most of the stressful parts of planning the event.

“I thought I would just call you,” I say to the wedding planner as she picks up the phone. “I think we can substitute another kind of white flower if we can’t get roses. I just don’t want a strong flower smell, if that’s okay.”

I answer a few more questions, then hang up, my hand cradling my belly again as I look at the three strong, handsome men building the new house that will keep us all safe from the tough winters up here on the mountain.

When had I become a mountain woman? I wonder.

I realize that it happened slowly as I became a part of the fabric of the boys’ lives.

If you had asked me a year ago if I would one day live far away from a proper city with Sophie and three men, I would have laughed.

Frankly, during that time in my life, the thought of escaping James would have been impossible as well.

Everything about my life has changed for the better since I met the three men in front of me. I love them more than I thought I could love anyone besides Sophie. My life is brimming to the top with everything that I always wanted and never thought I would get to have.

“Lena, can you hand me some more nails?” Tanner calls to me.

“Sure,” I say easily, crossing the plywood floor of the new cabin to help him out. I know that our lives here are going to be fulfilling and incredible, and I can’t wait to start enjoying them.