“Alpha Male,” Pike corrected, squeezing her butt one last time before he set her on her feet. “Alpha Male in heat, who loves you so much he can’t wait to make more babies with you.”
Tulsi took his hand, smiling up at him. “Still thinking three more?”
“Five. Enough to fill every room upstairs. And we can add on if we’re not finished after that.”
“Our families are going to think we’re nuts if we have that many kids,” she said, reaching for the door. “You realize that right?”
Pike shrugged, following her down the hall, past the entrance to the home gym and the rec room Clem had taken over as her playroom. “They already think we’re nuts for getting married so fast, and you know how much I care what other people think. Your opinion is the only one I care about.”
Tulsi sighed happily as she looped her arm around his waist. “My opinion is that we should have lots of sweet babies, but we should have pie first. I’m starving. I don’t know if I can wait for the turkey to come out of the oven.”
“I’ll distract the grandmas, you go for one of the pumpkin pies and two spoons,” Pike said. “Then we can sneak out to the tree house and eat it straight out of the pan.”
“I like the way you think,” Tulsi said, slipping out from under his arm and dashing for the stairs. “Race you.”
“Cheater!” Pike bolted after her, but let her stay in the lead because it was more fun to sneak peeks up his wife’s skirt as she ran than it was to beat her at a race.
Upstairs, they scored their pie, but ended up sharing it with Clementine, who caught them on the way out to the tree house. Later, they all settled into the dining room with the floor to ceiling windows and breathtaking views of the snow-covered Bitterroot Mountains, but there was nothing bitter in Pike’s heart. He was decadently happy and after supper, when everyone had settled into the comfy couches in the great room to watch a movie and nap off the food coma, he drifted off to sleep with heaven in his arms—his wife curled against him on one side, his daughter on the other, and all the love he’d ever need living in the air between them.
There were people who said Pike was a lucky bastard for making such a comeback so late in the season, but Pike knew the biggest stroke of luck he’d ever received was the day his path had crossed Tulsi’s again, and they got back on the road to forever.