She was a science major! How could she, of all people, have forgotten the biology of what a man and a woman together could produce? How could she have been so reckless? She had acted without reason, swept away in a tsunami of passion. She hadn’t asked him to take precautions, and he had probably assumed she was on the pill.
But she wasn’t. She’d given up on love. She knew better. She’d made the very reasonable decision, based on facts, that love was a whirlpool that sucked in everything around it and tossed the wreckage back out when it was done.
Was she pregnant?
The fear that overtook her made her heart pound.
Because this was her parents all over again. A marriage that should have never been held together by a poor baby, born with a job, a responsibility.
Krissy turned quickly away from the lodge before anybody saw her. She started to run through the trees toward the cabin, panic driving her.
Calm yourself, she said as she arrived back at the cabin. She had to make rational decisions. And that was never going to happen as long as Jonas was in the picture, clouding her reasoning processes.
She had to get out of here, before she saw him again. Where was Chance? She had to get her dog and go home, buy herself some breathing space, find out if she really was pregnant or if she was just being hysterical.
Decide for herself—away from the hypnotic presence of her beautiful husband—if any of this was real, or if it was all part of his game. It was not as if he hadn’t warned her.
That it would be complicated. That he was master of the elaborate prank.
The thought that those vows they had spoken might be part of a prank made her sick to her stomach. It was all too much. Too much had unfolded over the last month, and especially these magical days at Boy’s Den.
All Krissy’s old fears around family swarmed to the surface. She realized she had made a terrible mistake. She had let herself be seduced—literally and figuratively—into thinking make-believe was real. She had been pulled into a fairy tale when she of all people should have known better.
Where was Chance? The last she had seen him had been last night. He had been trailing Mike, a sleeping boy over each shoulder, to the main lodge.
The boys who had called her auntie with such excitement last night.
Her sense of loss deepened. She was not their auntie, not really. None of it was real.
She couldn’t risk going to find her dog and bumping into Jonas. Besides, her dog loved it here. He loved having little boys to play with. Chance was better off without her.
Just like she was better off without Jonas.
She threw things into a bag. She paused at the white dress. She couldn’t take it, this poignant reminder of the most incredible day of her life.
But she couldn’t resist it, either. She stuffed the dress in her bag, scribbled a note to Jonas and went out the door. She slid through the trees like a ghost to the main gate and then the main road.
She did something she had never done before.
She stuck out her thumb. She wasn’t afraid.
* * *
Jonas looked at his watch and smiled. Krissy was sleeping late. Well, who could blame her? It had been quite the night. Dawn had been breaking when they had finally collapsed into each other’s arms and slept.
He grabbed her a coffee, taking great pleasure in making it exactly how she liked it, and then he made his way up to the cabin. He was going to kiss his wife awake.
He kicked open the cabin door. “Hey, Mrs. Boyden, time to—
The bed was empty. The cabin was completely empty. He thought she must have gone in search of him, but how could he have missed her? And then it occurred to him the cabin had a strange aura of abandonment clinging to it. And that her things were gone.
Even the dress that had lain in a crumpled heap by the side of the bed this morning was gone.
He felt a sense of panic rising in him. And then he saw the note, tucked under a jar that she had put her bouquet of lupines into.
Jonas raced over and picked it up, sank into a chair.
Jonas,
I am just feeling entirely overwhelmed. I feel we’ve been swept away by passion and realize that may not be the best way to make this kind of momentous decision. Please respect my need for some time and space.
She signed it simply Krissy. And then added a PS asking him to give Chance to his nephews.
His nephews. Not her nephews, as if those vows they had spoken yesterday, that joined them so completely, did not matter. As if they were not married at all.
He sank into the chair and the note trembled in his hand.
Of course she didn’t trust love. She’d told him about her parents. But now he saw she didn’t trust it so much that she didn’t even want to risk loving her own dog.
His heart felt as if it was shattering.
For himself.
But for her, too.
And this was a truth he’d always known about love. It left you open to the worst kind of pain. A pain that felt insurmountable, as if it would never end, a gaping wound that would never heal.
Krissy was right.
They had not thought this thing through nearly enough. He was shocked at himself for allowing himself to be exactly as she had stated, swept away by passion.
But for him, it wasn’t passion. He was no newcomer to passion. If he’d been swept away by it in the past, it had been temporary. A moment, and then he’d found his feet, himself, his equilibrium.
This was not passion that was sweeping him away.
It was love.
What did love do? Did it go after her and insist on
