Page 84 of Where the Roses Bloom

I could feel the weight of her words pressing into my chest, the way her breath quickened after she said it. Like saying it out loud made it real.

I didn’t feel panic.

I feltpeace.

I cupped her cheek. “You think it’s really possible?”

She laughed, and it made me feel so damn good to hear her laugh again. “Well, Rhett, we’ve been fucking like rabbits…so I think it’s more than possible.”

I huffed a laugh, more relief than amusement, and buried my face in her neck. “Yeah, alright. Fair point.”

She squeaked as I rolled her just enough to cage her against the mattress, my body stretched half over hers. I wasn’t trying to start anything, not really. I just…needed to feel her.

“You mad?” she asked, brushing my hair back from my forehead. “That I didn’t say anything sooner?”

“Mad?” I kissed the underside of her jaw. “No, baby. Not even a little.”

“Just didn’t want to test it yet,” she said again. “Didn’t want to break the moment if I was wrong.”

My hand slid low over her stomach, gentle as a prayer.

“You’re not wrong,” I murmured. “I don’t need a test to tell me something’s growing here. I can feel it.”

She exhaled, all her tension softening.

“I’ve wanted this for such a long time that it doesn’t feel real,” she whispered. “And I thought I just wanted a baby in general, but then I met you…and I knew you were it. I know it sounds crazy?—”

“It doesn’t sound crazy,” I said, cutting in before she could spiral. “I felt it too.”

She stared up at me like I’d reached into her chest and seen something raw—something tender even she didn’t want to look at too long.

“I thought I’d have to do it alone,” she said, voice small. “For years, I thought…I’d wait as long as I could, and then when it was time, I’d just—go to a clinic. Do it myself. Raise a baby on my own, maybe in some rental apartment with hand-me-down furniture and not enough sunlight.”

My throat went tight.

“I didn’t think I’d ever have a partner who’d want the same things. Someone who’d see it like I do—not as a burden or a backup plan, but as something beautiful. Something sacred.”

I brushed her hair off her forehead. “You do know I was ready to marry you the second you looked at me sideways fromthe driver’s seat, right? Lookin’ at me like I’d poisoned your coffee, and I was head over heels from the very second.”

That pulled a startled laugh from her—one of those rich, surprised ones that started in her chest and lit up her whole face.

“You’re such a liar,” she whispered.

“I’m not,” I said, grinning. “I told Beau that day—I said, ‘I think I just met the woman I’m gonna spend the rest of my life tryin’ not to piss off.’ You didn’t think it was a little strange how the town just…decided to play matchmaker? They all knew. Delilah, Mabel…all of ‘em. From the get-go, the whole coven was on your side.”

She studied me for a long moment, her voice quieter when she finally spoke again. “If I am pregnant…is it too soon for you?”

I didn’t even have to think about it.

“No,” I said. “Not if it’s with you. Willow…anything we do together is just catching up on lost time.”

Her breath caught again, her hands framing my face.

“I love you, Rhett Ward,” she whispered.

“I love you too, Willow Rhodes.”

We stayed like that until sleep finally started to pull her under—her body curled against mine, my hand spread over her stomach like I could already feel something blooming there. Something new. Something ours.