INICIAR SESIÓNThe backyard looked like a dream, streamers of soft blue, pink, and gold fluttered between the trees while balloons bobbed lazily in the warm breeze. Brielle stood at the patio door for a moment, taking in the sight she and Jaxon had created: a perfectly mismatched celebration filled with everything Emma and Mason adored. A giant bubble station. A craft table covered in glitter jars. A mini obstacle course that Jaxon swore was “safe enough.” And the centerpiece: a huge picnic blanket with a big handmade sign reading Happy 5th Birthday, Emma & Mason! Brielle smiled, her heart swelling. “Five,” she whispered to herself. “How did that happen so fast?” “Because they refuse to stop growing,” Jaxon murmured behind her, slipping his arms around her waist and pulling her back against his chest. She melted into him instinctively, her smile widening. “You did all this,” she said softly. “I just made cupcakes.” “Brie,” he murmured against her cheek, “you made cupcakes for fifty people. T
Before Brielle Hartley ever stepped foot back into Willow Creek, before the shock of seeing her in the farmers market hit him like a punch to the lungs, Jaxon Reed had already been living with a quiet, persistent ache he never once admitted out loud. People thought they knew him, confident, steady Jaxon who helped at the community garden, repaired fences, laughed easily, lived simply. But no one knew about the nights he drove the long road behind the high school for no reason except that it was where he used to see her. Or the mornings he stood in front of the mirror and wondered why he still remembered the way she said his name. Or the way his chest tightened every year she didn’t come home. Most of all no one knew he had been waiting. Not actively. Not expectantly. But deep down, in a quiet corner of his heart that refused to close, he had been waiting for Brielle without even realizing it. The year before she returned, Jaxon threw himself into work, early mornings repairin
The morning sunlight spilled gently through the kitchen windows, warming the wooden floors of the home Jaxon and Brielle had built together, literally built, down to the last cabinet handle and porch beam. Five years had passed since the day they first held Emma and Mason in their arms, and sometimes Brielle still woke up stunned at how much her world had changed. The house was full now full of soft laughter, soft footsteps, and soft chaos. The kind that made her chest warm every day. Today, though, felt especially perfect. Because today was quiet. Too quiet. Brielle paused halfway through pouring coffee, listening. No thudding footsteps. No arguing over cereal. No tiny squeals of “MOMMY HE TOOK MY TOY!” Just… silence. Which, in a house with five year old twins, was cause for immediate alert. She set down the mug. “Jaxon?” He looked up from the stove where he was flipping pancakes, hair sticking up adorably. “Yeah?” “Where are the kids?” A slow smile spread across his li
The house was finally quiet. For the first time all day. Brielle closed the front door softly, leaning against it with a long, tired exhale. Jaxon’s parents had picked up the twins an hour ago, an overnight stay for Emma and Mason’s first full “grandparents’ adventure.” The moment the door clicked shut, silence settled over the house like a warm blanket. A rare silence. A precious silence. The kind they hadn’t felt in… well, exactly a year. Jaxon appeared from the living room, barefoot, hair slightly messy, wearing a fitted charcoal T-shirt that clung to him in ways that always made her pulse misbehave. His smile was slow and warm as he crossed the room toward her. “They take the twins?” he asked softly. She nodded, dropping her purse onto the entryway table. “They did. Emma walked right to your dad like she owned the place.” Jaxon chuckled, sliding his hands into his pockets as he leaned against the wall near her. “Our little girl is getting too brave.” “And Mason w
Emma and Mason were everywhere. Not in the emotional sense though Brielle could swear her heart expanded every time she heard her babies laugh but in the literal sense. Two months ago they could barely lift their little heads, and now? They were crawling like tiny explorers on a mission to investigate every corner of the living room. Jaxon laughed as Mason tried to crawl over his foot. “Buddy, you’re going the wrong way again.” Mason stopped, screeched happily, then immediately turned and crawled even faster in the wrong direction until he bumped into the wall. Emma, meanwhile, was attempting to scale Brielle’s leg like she was a mountain. “Wow,” Brielle muttered, picking Emma up. “No one warned me babies had the energy of caffeinated squirrels.” Jaxon grinned. “They got that from you.” She shot him a playful glare. “If they got their energy from me, they also got their stubbornness from you.” He scooped Mason up and kissed the boy’s chubby cheek. “Then we’re doomed.” They w
Two months. Two months of sleepless nights, diaper explosions, soft baby coos, and mornings that blurred into evenings. Two months of learning the rhythm of their twins’ tiny lives, two heartbeats that had rearranged both Brielle’s world and Jaxon’s. Two months of falling more in love than either of them imagined possible. It was early morning, sunlight streaming through the curtains in warm gold ribbons. The house was quiet—shockingly quiet which meant one thing: Both babies were actually asleep. For once. Brielle lay back against the pillows, her body sinking into the mattress with a soft groan. Her muscles ached everywhere, shoulders, arms, back, even her cheeks from smiling so much the last few days. But she wouldn’t trade a second of it. Beside her, Jaxon tiptoed into the bedroom, holding two freshly washed bottles like fragile treasures. His hair was messy, sticking up in uneven angles. His T-shirt was inside out. He looked exhausted. He also looked unfairly beautiful.







