Kaleidoscope (Colorado Mountain #6)(120)

Emme and her man, standing close, sides tucked tight. His arm was around her shoulders. His other arm was tucked under the tush of a dark-haired toddler who was straddling his side. A hound was sitting on his behind, resting against the leg of Emme’s man. A Rottweiler was sitting by Emme’s leg but the dog wasn’t leaning into her, though it was close.

Jacob Decker had on jeans and a nice tailored shirt.

But he needed a haircut.

Emme Decker had on a stylish but casual dress that went to her ankles and fit close to her body. She also was wearing high-heeled sandals that were even more stylish than the dress.

And last, the dress didn’t disguise the fact that she was more than a little pregnant.

They looked perfect together. Strangely perfect in that they looked like they belonged in the mountains, with the healthy glow of their tans, their dogs and Decker’s jeans (and need for a haircut), but they were standing in a majestic entry, the kind that would launch a million dreams.

Then again, they looked like they belonged there too.

Harvey looked down to the bottom of the picture to read the caption.

Jacob and Emmanuelle Decker, with their son Chace and dogs Buford and Daisy Mae in the famous starburst entry that they stunningly refurbished in the Canard Mansion in Gnaw Bone, Colorado.

Harvey’s eyes went back to Emme to see her smiling, carefree and bright, at the camera.

So bright, it was nearly blinding.

He took one last long look, closed the magazine and finally, finally, he felt it.

Redeemed.

He looked to the ceiling.

Then he whispered, “Thank you.”

After that, he went out to get his groceries.

* * *

Deck

“That is not gonna happen,” Emme declared, and Deck turned his head from watching Chace in his highchair somewhat eating, mostly throwing his food to the black-and-white-diamond-tiled floor, and looked at his wife who was standing in front of her six-burner Viking range.

“I didn’t say it was going to happen tomorrow,” he told her, fighting a grin.

“Of course it isn’t going to happen tomorrow. He’s not even two. But I’ll just point out, honey, it’s not going to happen ever,” she retorted.

“Yeah it is. I’m thinking when he’s twelve,” Deck replied.

She threw up her hands. One had a wooden spoon in it that luckily, with the force of her action, was clean.

“It’s not happening at all!”

Daisy Mae, lying on her belly four feet from Emme, picked up her head and looked at her mistress. Always on the alert, even as often as this happened.

Buford, on the other hand, with more experience, was moving around under Chace and Deck, cleaning up Chace’s mess.

“It’s just a BB gun,” Deck stated.

“I don’t care if it’s just a BB gun. A gun’s a gun!” she shot back.

“No one can get hurt with a BB gun,” he declared, her eyes got huge and she was so damned cute, he was finding it harder to fight his smile.

“No one… no… no one…” she spluttered. Then she slammed her fists on her hips, which wasn’t easy to do with a spoon in her hand and their baby daughter who would come into this world in about a month taking most of the space of her middle, and she hissed, “Haven’t you seen A Christmas Story?”

At this ridiculous question, Deck stared at his wife.

She was very pissed, very pregnant, very beautiful, and very cute. She was also standing in her expensive, flawless kitchen in their rambling no-longer-a-wreck mansion with her dog at her side, her son throwing food and her man in her sights.

He took all that in, he did it for a good long while and he enjoyed every second as he realized, with Emme, the kaleidoscope that was their life just kept on spinning.

Then he burst out laughing.