Starry Night

wherever you are. I think to be fair to us both, we can divide our time between Seattle and Alaska.”
    “You’d be willing to do that?”
    Finn smiled down on her and kissed her again. “I want the opportunity to get to know my mother, and this will give you a chance to be close to your own family. We’ll make it work, Carrie.”
    “My home is with you and with Hennessey, and then later, of course, we’ll be adding to the family.”
    His head came back up. “You want another dog?”
    Carrie slapped his chest. “No, silly. Children.”
    “Oh, yes,” he said with a chuckle.
    Carrie nestled her head beneath his chin. “Things are right between you and your mother?” Although she hadn’t been able to take her eyes off Finn, Carrie had noticed the happiness that seemed to radiate off Joan. It seemed both Carrie and Joan were having the best Christmases of their lives.
    “You were right about her. She’s never stopped loving me.”
    “You seem to have that effect on women.”
    He brought her mouth close to his. “Certain women, at any rate.”
    “This woman.”
    Finn spread nibbling kisses down the side of her neck. “This man loves this woman.”
    “Good, because this is just the beginning for us. And this time it’s for keeps.”
    “For keeps,” Finn repeated. He was willing to admit he’d been a fool. He’d assumed he’d be able to walk away from Carrie and not look back. At the time, it’d seemed the prudent choice. He knew when he found the article on her laptop that Carrie had never intended to submit it. Finding it gave him all the excuse he needed to break it off. Only she’d called his bluff. She’d forced him to lie. He wasn’t proud of the things he’d said to Carrie. At the time, it had seemed necessary. Finn had believed that it would be tough the first couple of days but within a short amount of time he’d be over her.
    Wrong.
    Miserable didn’t even begin to describe his feelings. Hefelt lost, cast adrift with nothing to anchor him. Before Carrie had entered his life, everything seemed perfectly fine. He’d been content. Happy, even—and perhaps he was.
    Then she was dumped into his well-ordered existence—no thanks to Sawyer O’Halloran—and everything changed. All at once he became aware of the dark shadows in what had once been light, the isolation he’d accepted rather than deal with the past and his parents’ divorce. At first he assumed he could let her go, and he later realized he was making the same mistake as his father with his unwillingness to compromise. His father had been determined to stand his ground. If Joan loved him, she would accept his terms, and as a result he’d ended up lonely and bitter. Finn refused to repeat history. He loved Carrie, and if loving her meant spending part of the year in Seattle, then that was a small sacrifice in order to make her his wife. In order to make her happy.
    His thoughts returned to his ridiculous efforts to sever the relationship. Carrie knew him far too well, had refused to believe he didn’t love her. How easily she saw through his ploy. She’d read him perfectly. If that wasn’t bad enough, she’d been unwilling to settle for his token apology by giving her the opportunity to write the article about him that everyone seemed to want.
    This woman could be stubborn. It didn’t help mattersthat she held his heart in the palm of her hand. Still, he fought it; still, he assumed he could go on without her. What a laugh that turned out to be.
    It wasn’t only Carrie, either. In all the years since his mother had walked out, not once had Finn felt the need to connect with her again. She’d left him and his father. Pride demanded that he have nothing more to do with her, despite her repeated efforts to reach out to him.
    Feeling alone and lost, Finn had to accept that as difficult as it was to admit, he needed his mother. His children would need their grandmother.
    Carrie wanted children. The thought both thrilled and terrified him.
    “You’ve got a funny look,” she said, gazing up at him, frowning slightly.
    Finn kissed her again, and a sense of happiness and joy filled him until it felt as if he could soar. “We’re going to be just fine.”
    “Yes, I know,” Carrie agreed.
    Her parents and his mother came back into the room, and Carrie scooted off his lap. They stood and he slipped his arm around her waist.
    Her mother’s eyes were moist with tears, and she held her fingers against her lips, watching