Five Years Later
“Aunt Penna?”
Melody’s sweet voice startled me, and I put down my phone on the counter in Pax’s kitchen. Funny how one phone call could change, well…everything.
I took a deep, shaking breath and tried to calm my emotions, which were currently on a roller coaster that didn’t show any sign of stopping.
“What’s up, Mel?” I asked the four-year-old, kneeling down at her level. She had Pax’s blue eyes paired with Leah’s serious nature, and was far more concerned with how motorcycles worked than ever getting on one.
“Are you ready to give Uncle Cruz his birthday present?”
My smile was instant, and I blinked away tears that had sprung from nowhere. This was a birthday my handsome husband would never forget.
“I think so,” I told her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Want to help me?”
She nodded, her eyes lighting up.
“Okay, go grab your brother and Skye and meet me in the barn, okay?”
Another quick nod and she raced off, the kitchen door slamming home as she ran toward the ramps.
I followed, pausing on the giant porch Leah had demanded Pax add to their home a few years ago. It had transformed Renegade Ranch from our headquarters to their home and was the perfect place to sit with my friends and watch the sunset.
So much had changed in the last few years, but summer at the Renegade Ranch was still my favorite time of year. No matter where we’d all gone for the off-season, summer was sacred, and we came home.
“There you are,” Landon said with a smile, meeting me at the bottom of the porch steps and slinging his arm around my shoulder.
“I sent Mel to grab Mason and Skye, if that’s okay.”
“If you can get Skye off that ramp, I’ll be impressed. Both Rach and I have asked her four times if she’s ready for a break.” He laughed, pointing to where his three-year-old daughter hit the mini ramp on her tiny bike.
“Whoa, she got some air on that one.”
“Takes after her aunt.” He gave me a squeeze as Skye rode to where Nick sat ready to give her guidance as always. His girlfriend, Joy, was out of town this weekend on business, but they were never far apart for long.
“Lunch is about ready,” Leah called out from the long, shaded picnic table, where she sat with Mason and Rachel. Right on cue, the two-year-old wiggled from his mama’s lap and toddled toward his favorite person—Pax.
Pax lifted the little guy and headed for us. “It’s all set up. You ready?”
Before I could answer, Cruz came around the back of the largest ramp, wiping the grease off his hands as he laughed at something Little John said.
“We’ll meet you in the barn,” Pax said with muffled laughter when I couldn’t peel my eyes from my husband.
My heart swelled, as if the happiness that flooded me couldn’t be contained in something as small as my body. I felt as radiant as sunshine, all because that man had gifted me with the sun in more ways than one.
He grinned when he saw me, which effectively turned my stomach to mush just like always. Three years of marriage, but his effect on me never changed. Hell, it only got stronger.
My eyes didn’t leave him as he crossed the distance to where I now stood alone. Did life get any better than this? Than being surrounded by your friends, your family, the man you love? I couldn’t imagine anything better, but I knew we’d have “better” coming our way soon.
“Penelope,” he said, his voice low as he looped his arms around my waist.
“Cruz,” I answered, smiling up at him like an idiot. “Happy Birthday.”
“You said that this morning when we woke up, and then an hour later once we got out of bed. Then again as we drove over,” he reminded me, kissing my forehead.
“And I’ll probably tell you another dozen times before it’s over. If you can manage to tear Skye off the ramp, I have your present waiting in the barn.”
He raised those dark brows, his eyes just as chocolate and melty as ever. “No one else can get her, huh?”
I shook my head. “Nope.”
We walked toward the ramp, where Skye finished another run with even more air. She hopped off her tiny bike and ripped off her helmet, running for Cruz. “Uncle Cruz! Did you see me? Did you?”
“I did!” he said, swinging her into his arms. “You looked great! Are you having fun?”
“Yes!” she nodded, sending her chin-length black bob swinging. Then her eyes narrowed. “Melody didn’t want to ride.”
“That’s okay. Melody doesn’t have to ride for you to have fun,” he told her as we headed toward the barn. Cruz was the one person Skye gravitated toward, which constantly melted me.
Nick caught up to us, squeezing my hand. “Thank you for the break. She’s relentless.”
“Wonder where she gets that from,” I motioned to where her parents waited in the shade of the barn.
“Born a Renegade.” He laughed.
I glanced over to Cruz and Skye. Cruz would make an amazing father. Not that we hadn’t tried. We’d wanted to start a family as soon as we were married, to have our kids while we were young enough to run after them, to raise them with the new generation of Renegades, but that hadn’t worked out for us the way we’d initially planned.
After the first year, we’d sought help and learned that I wasn’t exactly a prime biological candidate for conventional motherhood. We’d had more than our share of heartbreak, specialists, injections, appointments, and failed IVFs in the last three years. It seemed the harder we tried, the worse it hurt, the more it mattered. It was a cycle we’d needed to step away from. Four months ago, we’d stopped fighting nature with science and decided to give ourselves a break.
“So what did you get me?” Cruz asked playfully as we made our way into the barn. He lowered Skye to the ground, and she ran over to her daddy, the very miniature of her mother.
“You’ll see,” I said, pulling him by the hand through our small group of friends.
“Is that…?” His voice pitched upward.
“Pull off the tarp.”
He shot me a look of pure excitement and lifted the cover off the exquisite dirt bike. The paint job mirrored my Elizabeth the Second’s, only in blue. “Penelope! Is this…?”
“Next year’s model! It’s not even for sale yet!”
He ran his hand over the seat and then turned toward me, those dimples fully out. “It’s amazing, thank you,” he said, pulling me in for a quick kiss.
“Happy birthday!” I told him.
“What are you going to name him?” Pax asked with Melody tucked in between him and Leah and Mason on his arm.
Cruz’s eyes narrowed in thought before he nodded to himself, as if he’d decided already. “Darcy.”
“What?” Landon asked.
“You have Elizabeth the Second,” Cruz said softly. “It’s only fitting that I have Darcy.”
Swoon.
“You have me to the toes of my Pride and Prejudice heart,” I told him before he kissed me again.
“Okay, love birds, let’s go. Lunch is waiting, and this new documentary won’t plan itself,” Pax said, leading his family out of the barn.
International Waters III had come out to rave reviews and a cult following, which gave us more than enough backing for the next installment, which we’d begin filming next year.
I tugged on Cruz’s hand when he turned to leave, and he paused.
“You guys go ahead, we’ll be there in a minute,” I told Rachel when she looked back.
When the barn was empty, I looked up at my husband, memorizing every detail about this moment. I wanted to be able to replay it countless times for the rest of our lives.
“I think I’m going to have to pull out of the documentary this time,” I told him, my lower lip near trembling. Don’t cry. Not yet. You have to tell him first!
Concern immediately etched his face. “Okay, you know I’ll support whatever decision you think you need to make, but if this is about me—”
Cruz had given up teaching in the formal sense—our affair had pretty much ruined his résumé, but he was happy tutoring the younger Renegades to make sure everyone had their high school diplomas or succeeded in getting their college degrees.
“It’s not. I know you’re happy wherever we’re together. It’s about me. Well, about us.” My voice broke on the last word, and I blinked back the tears that had threatened since I’d taken that phone call.
“You’re scaring me,” he said, cupping my face in his hands.
Emotion closed my throat, and instead of speaking, I took one of his hands and slid it down my body until it rested on my lower abdomen. “It’s about us,” I repeated as the first tear escaped.
Then my beautiful, brilliant, articulate husband lost his ability to speak. His mouth opened and shut several times, his eyes jumping from my belly to my face. “Penelope?”
My smile was wide as more tears tracked down my cheeks. “Dr. Silverman just called. I’d gone to see him yesterday afternoon because I didn’t want to think…to hope, but it had been months since…”
“You’re pregnant?”
I nodded. “He thinks about eleven weeks from the labs and the dates, but he wants us in for an ultrasound first thing tomorrow morning to check.”
He swept me into his arms, holding me tightly against his chest and burying his face in my neck. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he repeated, and I didn’t know if he was thanking me, or God, or fate, or Dr. Silverman. I didn’t care, because I felt the same way.
“Happy birthday,” I whispered, and he squeezed me lightly before putting me back on my feet. The kiss he gave me was dizzying—passionate and tender and so very Cruz.
Then he dropped to his knees in front of me, lifted up my tank top, and pressed a kiss to my belly. “Best day ever.”
We eventually told the others, and Pax demanded we hold off filming for a year. He said that we filmed together or not at all, and we could all use the year to spend with our families.
So we all took it off.
Our daughter was born. Our perfect, seven pound, three ounce daughter who somehow had Cruz’s dark hair and my blue eyes.
And in our delivery room, after Aria had been placed in my arms, the Renegades made their way in. I introduced our daughter to her family, including Cruz’s grandma, who had no trouble elbowing Landon out of the way to get to her great-granddaughter.
While everyone chatted, I snuggled my daughter close and whispered, “Ride or don’t ride. It will never matter to anyone in this room, and we’ll never care as long as you’re happy. This is where you belong. Where you’ll always belong.”
Cruz leaned down, gently kissing me before running his finger along the soft skin of Aria’s cheek. “What are you thinking?” he asked.
“That my whole life I’ve been out chasing adrenaline, the rush of adventure, and yet I look at her, at you, and I know this is our greatest adventure.”
“Living dangerously, Penelope.” His smile was breathtaking as he echoed the first words he’d ever spoken to me.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
His kiss was soft and full of every emotion we couldn’t name. And I realized this was it.
This was the pinnacle of the jump, the moment at the podium.
“Best day ever,” I whispered to our daughter.
“Best day ever,” Cruz repeated.
And it was.
