Page 186 of Cautious Love

I watch my wife look around and into the kitchen. It’s mildly an open concept house. We decided we didn’t want doors between the living room and kitchen. I didn’t want a dining room, but Shiloh insisted on it. She claimed my man cave could go down in the basement.

Her eyes finally find mine, and a tear slips from them.

I frown, closing the distance between us and brush the tear from her face. “What’s wrong?” I ask her.

She shakes her head and won’t look at me.

I clasp the back of her neck so she can’t avoid me. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing really … I feel like I’m home.”

I consider her words as her pretty eyes look up at me. “I mean you were home in the other house.”

She shakes her head and wraps her arms around my waist, resting her head on my chest. “It wasn’t like this,” she rasps. “This isours.Home isn’t a place. It’s you, it’s us. But … I finally feel like I belong.”

I take her face between my palms and kiss her briefly. “Of course you do. You belong with me, and you always will.”

She nods and purses her lips, asking for another kiss. I give it to her and she hums against my lips, and right as we get into it, someone clears their throat.

I pull away to find our family smiling at us, surrounding us.

“We’ll take that as our cue to leave. Dinner is at the house in thirty,” my mother says, and walks out of the open front door, my dad a few steps behind her.

Shiloh grumbles, and the rest of my siblings are still grinning at me.

“What?” I ask them.

Cooper has Mae tucked into his side.

Fletcher stands behind Tatum, sitting in a chair, with his hands on her shoulders.

June, Sterling, and Gracie are all grinning at us.

“What?” I nearly yell.

They all burst into laughter, and I look down at Shiloh. “What are they laughing about?”

She smiles and shakes her head. “You have no sense of humor, my love, and in this case are as dense as an unbaked pound cake.”

I frown. “What?”

“It’s nice to see you like this, brother,” Fletcher says.

“Like what?” I ask him. “Like my little brother is capable of a smile,” June says.

“Of course I am,” I mutter.

Shiloh throws her head back on a laugh. “We’ll keep working on it,” she says to the rest of the family.

They all chuckle and see themselves out. “See you at Aunt Dixie’s, don’t get too carried away,” Cooper says with a wink and closes the door.

“What does that mean?” I ask Shiloh as I come back into the living room.

She grins and taps her lips.

I kiss her, and she pushes me onto the sofa before crawling on top of me. “It means sheriff, we have to start christening the house.”

“Why would — oh,” I mutter, blood pumping hotter.