“That’s a woman thing, son,” Cabot said.

  “Oh, stuff it,” Mia said to her father. “It’s because we are, in fact, usually right.”

  “Do you hear the way she’s talking to her old man?” Cabot asked Izzy.

  “I do, and I think her old man, who isn’t that old, loves the way she talks to him.”

  “Yes, he does.” Cabot seemed as content as Izzy had ever seen him. “He loves it all.” He glanced at her as he said that, and Izzy forgot all about her deadbeat dad and anything that wasn’t Cabot, how much she cared for him and how excited she was to be starting something meaningful with him.

  She fully appreciated how difficult it was for him to commit—and why—so she was determined to show him something better than anything he could’ve imagined for himself. He had only his failed marriage and the ensuing nightmare with Mia for reference. He’d never been in a successful relationship. She’d been in several that, while they hadn’t lasted forever, had brought her joy for a time. Only one of them had ended “badly.” The rest fizzled out quietly, but had shown her the difference between good and bad.

  Izzy understood the goal and wanted to show him what was possible.

  “So how will this work between you crazy kids with Dad living in Boston and Izzy living in Vermont?” Mia asked over dinner.

  Izzy had been impressed by the lengths Cabot had gone to make a vegan dinner that Mia and Wade would enjoy. “We haven’t gotten that far yet,” she said between bites of her cousin Hannah’s tasty lasagna.

  “We only sort of made it official today,” Cabot added.

  “Is that right?” Mia raised a brow. “And the fact that you’ve already been here almost two weeks doesn’t count?”

  Cabot gave Izzy a deer-in-headlights look.

  “She’s your daughter,” Izzy said.

  “She’s ten steps ahead of me,” Cabot said.

  “Don’t feel bad,” Wade said. “She’s usually twenty steps ahead of me.”

  “Oh, hush,” Mia said. “Both of you. I love that Dad met Izzy through us and that he’s hanging out in Vermont, but I also know he can’t do that forever. What about the council?”

  “I’ve been thinking about resigning from that.”

  “You have?” Mia and Izzy said in stereo.

  Cabot nodded. “For a while now. I’ve done three terms, and I’m up for reelection this fall. I think I’m going to let someone else take it on. It’s a lot on top of a very demanding work life. That frantic schedule suited me when I didn’t have anything better to do.” His gaze encompassed both Izzy and Mia. “But now I have other things in my life that I didn’t have before. If I didn’t have the council to deal with, I could work remotely from anywhere, even the cell phone disaster land known as Butler.”

  “We have cell service at our house,” Mia reminded him.

  “Ah, yes, you found the one square block in Butler that has service,” Cabot said.

  “Don’t forget Colton’s mountain, too,” Wade said. “They have the best service up there.”

  “Good to know,” Cabot said. “Maybe I can rent office space on the mountain from Colton.”

  “He’d be down for that,” Wade said, “but you’d have to be willing to see him walking around naked up there.”

  “Uh… naked?”

  Izzy cracked up. “You never know what you’ll get when Colton’s involved. Just ask Lucy. She’ll tell you.”

  “He’s feral,” Wade said bluntly. “We left him alone up there for too long, and now he’s ruined. We’re still amazed that he got a very nice woman to actually marry him.”

  “And procreate with him,” Mia added.

  “I can’t imagine what Colton’s child will be like.” Wade laughed along with the others. “Lucy will have her hands full with the two of them.”

  Wade glanced out the window. “The snow is really coming down out there.”

  “Supposed to get a foot tonight,” Izzy said.

  “You guys are so casual about a foot of snow,” Cabot said.

  Mia laughed. “We’re Vermonters. Flatlanders can never understand how blasé we are about snow that would cripple other places. We’re used to it.”

  “Maybe you guys ought to get home before it gets much worse,” Cabot said.

  “Are you kicking us out, Pops?” Mia asked.

  “Not at all. I just worry about you driving in this weather,” he said, looking at Izzy, “especially after recent events.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Wade said, “but we should go soon. I’ve got an early meeting with one of our suppliers, who’s coming up from Rutland.”

  “In Boston, everything would already be canceled for tomorrow,” Cabot said.

  “You’re not in Boston anymore, Toto,” Izzy said, smiling at him.

  “I guess not.”

  “Mia, don’t forget you have something you wanted to tell your dad,” Wade said.

  “Oh, right! So I’m changing my name—again.”

  “To what?” Cabot asked, confused.

  “I never got the chance to be a Lodge, so my legal name going forward will be Mia Lodge Abbott, and I plan to go by the full name.”

  For a moment, Cabot was too undone to speak. “That’s amazing, honey. I’m honored that you’re taking my name along with Wade’s.”

  She put her hand on top of Cabot’s as Izzy placed a hand on his knee. “It should’ve been my name all along.”

  “Yes, it should have.”

  Wade and Mia left a short time later, taking dinner leftovers and the vegan cookies Cabot had made for them to enjoy at home. Mia was excited to not have to cook the next night and had kissed her father on the cheek before she left. “Thank you for all the trouble you went to making a special dinner for us.”

  “Completely my pleasure,” Cabot had said, hugging her.

  “You’re very cute with your daughter,” Izzy said when they were settled on the sofa in front of the woodstove Cabot had kept burning all day.

  “She’s just the most delightful person. I have to give Deb credit for raising such a lovely young woman.”

  “It’s amazing that you can give her credit for anything.”

  “I can hate what she did while acknowledging the daughter she raised is magnificent.”

  “She obviously adores you.”

  “That makes me feel so lucky. I’m well aware that it could’ve gone either way. She could’ve come to Boston, met me and gone on with her life.”

  “Knowing Mia just a little bit, I don’t think she ever could’ve done that after finding out the truth about you and what’d happened years ago. Does she talk to her mother?”

  “Rarely, although Deb tries frequently. She has a lot of unresolved issues with her. Deb told her a lot of lies over the years and did things like set her up with a fake Social Security number that nearly tanked her relationship with Wade when the truth came out. We’ve talked a little about our feelings toward Deb, but we don’t really dwell on that.”

  “Yeah, I suppose that’s counterproductive to building your own relationship with Mia.”

  “It is, but sometimes I wonder about what she’s not saying and whether she’s dealing with it all.”

  “I’m sure she talks to Wade about it.”

  “I hope so. How about her changing her name? Just when I think I couldn’t love her more…”

  “It’s wonderful.”

  “I almost broke down when she told me that.”

  “I know. I could tell you were trying not to.”

  “It rights another terrible wrong.”

  “Yes, it certainly does.”

  He turned to face her and reached for her hand. “As much as I love talking about my daughter, now I want to talk about my new girlfriend.”

  Smiling, Izzy said, “What about her?”

  “Everything about her. I want to know everything.”

  “That might take a while.”

  “It seems like we’re going to be snowed in, so what better time for you to tell me all about the lovely Isabella Coleman?”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Your favorite color, favorite food, favorite sibling, favorite everything. To start with.”

  “Let’s see… Navy blue, Mexican, I don’t have a favorite sibling. My favorite book is Twilight. I was Team Jacob all the way.”

  “I have no idea what that means.”

  “It’s okay.” She laughed at the face he made. “You don’t need to know.”

  “That was about vampires, right?”

  “Yep.”

  “I don’t understand the allure.”

  “That’s because you’re very practical and literal.”

  “My sister Emily says I was born without the suspension-of-disbelief button.”

  “That sounds about right. You have to suspend disbelief to buy into vampires.”

  “See? That’s a problem for me.”

  “We’ll watch the movies, and then you’ll understand.”

  “If you say so. Could I ask you something else, something a little more… important?”

  “Sure.”

  “What are your thoughts about having kids?”

  The question surprised the hell out of her. “Uh, well, I’m not sure.”

  “Is that something you want?”

  “Maybe?” She took a second to get her thoughts together. “Growing up as the oldest girl in a big family, in which the father took off when I was fourteen, I did a lot of parenting long before I should’ve had to. That sort of made it so I didn’t want kids of my own for a long time.”

  “And now?”

  “I think about it. Sometimes. It’s not like I’m dying to go there any time soon, but the older I get, the more I seem to think about the time getting away from me.”

  “You’re still a spring chicken.”

  “Tell that to my moldy eggs.”

  She loved the sound of his laugh and loved being the one to make it happen. He was so serious all the time that seeing him relax and enjoy himself was such a pleasure. “What about you? Where do you stand on that issue?”

  “Well, I have a twenty-seven-year-old daughter.”

  “Whom you didn’t get to raise. Wouldn’t it be fun to get to do that?”

  “I’m going to be forty-eight in March. I’m getting kind of long in the tooth to be starting a new family.”

  “Eh, age is a number. You’ve got a lot of years left, and you should spend them doing things that bring you joy.”

  “I’m going to be honest with you.”

  “I would hope so. That’s sort of critical to making something like this work.”

  “I want to make this work, which is why I want to be honest.” He looked down at the floor for a second before returning his gaze to her. “Before I met you, the thought of having more kids never occurred to me.”

  “And now?” she asked, holding her breath.

  “I guess I wouldn’t rule it out if it was something you really wanted.”

  “The only way I’d have one was if I knew I could have two. After growing up in a big family, I’d want my child to have at least one sibling.”

  “I get that, and I agree. I wouldn’t have survived everything that happened without my siblings.”

  “Same. We’ve been there for each other through everything.” She gave him a cute little side-eye. “So have we gone from deciding to be together to talking about kids, all in the same day?”

  “I believe we have.”

  “That has to break some sort of land-speed record.”

  “I’m twelve years older than you, Izzy. I’ve got no time to waste if you’re wanting me to father your children.”

  She waved a hand in front of her face. “You’re going to need to give me a minute to catch up to you, stud.”

  Smiling, he released her hand so he could caress her face. “I’m happy to give you all the time you need, but you’re hitching your cart to an older man with a lot of baggage. I want to do this right and be open with you.”

  “You’re doing a great job with that so far.”

  “You make it easy. I feel like I can talk to you about anything, and it’ll be okay.”

  “It will be.”

  He kissed both her cheeks, the end of her nose and then her lips, being careful to avoid her injured bottom lip. “You’re doing quite a number on me, Ms. Coleman.”

  “How so, Mr. Lodge?”

  “You’re making me want things I thought would never happen for me again.”

  “What sort of things?”

  “You know.”

  “Tell me anyway.”

  “Love and babies and happily ever after to start with.”

  “That’s a lot to start with.”

  “Uh-huh.” He bent his head to place a kiss on her neck.

  Izzy tipped her head to give him better access, wishing she felt well enough to show him what he meant to her. But what they’d shared thus far was enough.

  For now, anyway.

  * * *

  On the way home, Mia was lost in thoughts that swirled through her mind every time she saw the father who’d been missing from her life for so long. Spending time with him was such a pleasure. Things as pedestrian as sharing a meal took on greater significance because she was with him after wondering about him for so many years.

  “Whatcha thinking about over there?” Wade asked as he drove them home slowly through the accumulating snow.

  “Just about how cool it is that my dad made us a vegan dinner and that I can see him any time I want now. It never gets old.”

  “I’m so glad you found him and that he turned out to be such a great guy.”

  “He’s so great, and that just adds to my confusion about why my mother did what she did. I can’t reconcile the man she says wasn’t good for us with the man I’ve come to know.”

  “You should ask her about that.”

  “I hate the idea of dragging up all that crap again.” She’d struggled with her relationship with her mother over the last year and had spoken to her only sporadically. Deb was pushing her for more, even threatening to come to Vermont to see her if that’s what it took, but Mia had resisted her mother’s overtures. If she was being truthful, she was so freaking angry with her mother that she wasn’t sure she would ever get past it.

  “It’s only natural that you have questions, honey. Anyone would. She owes you an explanation.”

  “Part of me feels it doesn’t matter. She did what she did for reasons she must’ve felt were important, but the bottom line is now I have my dad, and I really, really love him. I don’t want to hear what she has to say about him. I just don’t.”

  “Which makes all the sense. She must know she’s very lucky not to be in jail right now, and she has you to thank for demanding they drop the charges before you’d see Cabot. She owes you everything.”

  “I wish I had the guts to come right out and ask her the things I want to know.”

  “You have the guts. You’re the gutsiest woman I’ve ever known. Look at how you brought down a whole drug operation, almost single-handedly.”

  “That was easy compared to asking my mother about stuff that happened in the past that I know she doesn’t want to talk about.”

  “Too bad if she doesn’t want to talk about it. She owes you the truth, Mia.”

  “I know.”

  “Why don’t you write it all down and maybe send her an email so you don’t have to actually talk to her about it? That might be easier, no?”

  “That might work,” Mia said, perking up at the idea of getting the answers she craved without having to confront her mother. “She’s been saying she wants to come visit us and to meet you, but I’ve been holding her off because I have all these questions.”

  “So write to her and tell her you have questions that need answers before you can consent to a visit.”

  “I’ll think about that. Thank you for listening to me for the umpteenth time on this same topic.”

  “I’m happy to listen to you on any topic at any time.”

  When they got home a short time later, they trudged through the snow into the house they were slowly but surely restoring and making their own. They kicked off their boots and hung coats on hooks in the mudroom.

  The kitchen had been fully renovated, and the family room was almost finished. Next, they’d move upstairs to redo the en suite bathroom as well as knock some walls down to make bigger bedrooms for their future children. Despite the chaos of living in a work zone, Mia had never loved any house more than she did that one, mostly because she got to live there with him.

  “Hey, Wade?”

  He turned to her, sweet, sexy and adorable with cheeks red from the cold and hair mussed from the knit cap he wore everywhere this time of year. “Yeah?”

  “I just want you to know how much I love you and our life. I can’t figure out how I ever survived before I had you and this.”

  Wade put his arms around her and held on tight. “I wonder the same thing. All that time when I knew you were out there somewhere… I thought I’d go mad from wanting you and from worrying about you.”

  “Same for me. After the first time we met, you were all I thought about.”

  “When you weren’t conspiring to bring down a drug kingpin, that is.”

  “Other than that,” she said, laughing. “Sometimes when I think about all that, I can’t believe I made it as long as I did wishing I could be with you.”

  “Don’t think about the bad stuff, love. All that matters is the here and now, which is as perfect as perfect gets.”

  “It is perfect, and I’m so damned thankful for that—and for you.”

  Wade kissed her with the sweet tenderness that was so much a part of their life together. Everything about this was different from what she’d had with Brody, when she’d lived in fear of him most of the time. “Let’s go to bed.”

  She took hold of the hand he offered and followed him upstairs.

  Chapter Ten

  “The thing about love was that it caught you unawares, turned up in the most unexpected places, even when you weren’t looking for it.”

  —Sarra Manning

  After a delightful dinner, Vanessa left at the same time as Troy, following him out of Grayson and Emma’s as they stood at the door, watching them go.