“We would love that. Wouldn’t we, baby?” Noah asked Riley.
She tipped her head up and looked at her dad. “We’d like that very much.” She pulled away and walked back to Noah’s side, and then he automatically curled an arm around her waist. Riley couldn’t grasp how her life had changed so much. Six short weeks ago, she came to camp a scared little girl, and now she was going home with a future husband, her place in the world, and a stepmother.
She never would have imagined it but was glad it was happening.
Epilogue
“I’m not ready for this, daddy. Let’s go back home,” Riley whined as Noah drove them over to a friend’s house.
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course, I do. But you don’t know how mean girls are,” Riley replied.
“I know these girls, and they are all delightful. I promise you’re going to like them, and they you.”
Riley blew out a breath. She wasn’t going to get him to take her home, so she decided to try the best she could.
She’d dressed in her favorite pink dress, with her white bobby socks and black Mary Jane shoes. Her hair was left down and curled, so it bounced with ever
y step. Noah didn’t let her wear makeup except to play with, so she’d just put on her favorite bubble gum lip gloss.
Riley’s eyes widened when they pulled up to Darian’s house. “It’s a castle,” she exclaimed.
Noah chuckled. “I thought you might like it. It looks a little like the one in Beauty and the Beast, doesn’t it?”
“This is where that girl Larkin lives?”
“Yes, she and Darian have been married for a few years now. You’ll have to ask her sometime how they met. It’s a great story. In fact, they all have stories they can tell about meeting each other.”
Noah drove up to the front, got out, and came around and helped Riley out. He took her hand and tugged her along, grinning when she tried to slow her steps. She even tried to dig her heels in.
The door opened before they got there.
“There they are,” Darian said. “We’ve been waiting for you.”
Noah and Darian shook hands, and then Darian closed the door behind them after they’d come into the house. The other three men came forward to greet Noah.
Noah huffed out a laugh when he noticed Riley had scooched to hide behind him when she saw the four girls in a group together, staring at her. He pulled her around in front of him.
“Gentlemen, this is Riley. Baby girl, these are the friends I’ve been telling you about.”
The four men grinned when she nodded, but she didn’t take her transfixed gaze from the girls.
Kaleb cleared his throat to get her attention. “The girls have been anxious to meet you, Riley. I have to tell you they’re afraid you won’t like them, so they’ve been driving us nuts.”
Riley glanced at him, and her mouth dropped open. “Really? I’ve been driving daddy nuts, too.”
The five men chuckled.
“Why don’t you go say hi to them?” Noah coaxed her.
Riley stuck her pointer finger in her mouth as she gathered her courage to make the first move. She took several steps until she was close to the other girls and pulled her finger out of her mouth. “Hi, I … I’m Riley.”
“I’m Larkin.”
“I’m Aleena.”
“I’m Brylee.”