Harlequin Romance March 2021 Box Set Cara Colter (the mitten read aloud TXT) 📖

“Her fur is the color of your hair, Red. It’s so nice,” Andy said, making the back of Red’s eyes suddenly start to prickle.

His heart swelled. This was what he had always dreamed of, sharing special moments…with his family.

EPILOGUE

ALONG WITH THE thrum of the helicopter’s engines, Ronnie felt a warm thrum in her chest. Andy was sitting next to her, and Red was in the seat directly across from them. They were all wearing protective headsets, and Andy looked so small in his. Her eyes began to mist. This was a dream she had never envisioned, flying over Toronto at night, viewing the jeweled skyline and multicolored beams of light from the skyscrapers reflected in the shimmering waters of Lake Ontario.

And sitting across from the helicopter’s owner, Redmond Brannigan II.

In the couple of weeks since Andy’s birthday party, Ronnie had felt like she was on top of the clouds. Red had taken her and Andy for an extensive tour of his Victorian mansion, and Andy had been delighted with the secret nooks and crannies, and the hidden staircase up to the attic. Red had shown him and Ronnie the designed templates on his laptop for the pool and water slide, basketball court, treehouse, and mini movie theater, and Andy had looked at him with big brown eyes and said eagerly, “Can we come and visit you when they’re done?”

Red had exchanged a smile with Ronnie, a smile that had filled her with such emotion that she had had to discreetly blot the tears that were starting to blur her vision. She and Red had agreed that they would let Andy get used to the idea of them being friends and sharing some good times together before letting him know that they would be sharing the rest of their lives together as a family…

Casson and Justine had invited them all to their place for skating on the frozen stretch of bay, and then later, dinner and a bonfire, roasting marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate. Red had taken turns with Ronnie skating alongside Andy, and at one point, Red had asked Andy if he was up to speed skating—which meant being carried as Red speed skated. Andy had said yes and Ronnie had watched with a thumping heart as Red zoomed around the ice, with Andy’s little arms around his neck and his face registering both excitement and joy.

Ronnie’s heart had done a pole vault a couple of days later when Andy had asked Ronnie if Red could come over to help them make peanut butter cookies. “He’s funny,” he had said matter-of-factly to Ronnie, “and he said he would help me build something awesome with my LEGO set.”

Later that evening, watching them both on the living room floor, working together with the colored blocks, Ronnie had taken the tray of cookies that Andy and Red had made out of the oven. She had noticed that R+R+A had been etched into one of them and had looked up quickly to find Red’s gaze fixed on her. And then he had winked.

Yes, she had been floating on top of the clouds…

And now she almost was, soaring in Red’s helicopter over Toronto.

Red had reminded her of their conversation about returning to the city for a night view. Ronnie had thought to herself that returning alone would be bittersweet, like taking in a star-studded sky alone, without anyone to share the magic of it.

Well, she had returned with the man who had put stars in her eyes, and it felt so, so sweet. Last night, Red had told her to clear her schedule for midafternoon; he had a surprise for her and Andy. The only instructions he had given her were to go to Casson and Justine’s place and to look out the big bay window at 4:00 p.m. She and Andy had done so, with Casson and Justine looking on, and at precisely 4:00 p.m., they heard an approaching rumble. Andy had let out a squeal when the blue-and-white helicopter had come into view and not long afterward, started to descend, whirling to a stop on the frozen bay, yards away from the skating surface.

Red had emerged wearing his headset, and carrying a bag. He glided across the ice and minutes later was in the house, inviting Ronnie and Andy to go for a ride in his helicopter, and handing them their headsets. Ronnie had caught the gleam in Casson’s and Justine’s eyes as she and Andy had gotten dressed. “You knew about this,” she accused them, and they laughed and waved her off.

The pilot had greeted them and, after they were all safely secured in their seats, started the engines. Andy had been mesmerized the whole time as they flew past Parry Sound and the Thirty Thousand Islands along Georgian Bay, and over the Muskokas. The vast wooded areas looked like an enchanted wonderland with their snow-dusted boughs sparkling in the sun along countless lakes. Sitting next to her, Andy was practically glued to the windowpane, and when they reached Toronto and the CN Tower came into view, he cried out, “Look, Mummy! Look!”

Ronnie was in awe herself, and despite her initial worry that she would become light-headed or queasy as she had been on Red’s penthouse terrace, she had experienced none of those symptoms so far.

Red had intermittently pointed out buildings that Brannigan Architects International had been commissioned to design, and when he indicated the Four-Leaf Clover, the residence tower with his penthouse, he told Ronnie that he had been the one to design it. When she looked up at him in awe, the gleam in his eyes as his gaze dropped to her lips made her pulse quicken.

He, too, was thinking of the kiss they had exchanged there…

When daylight turned to dusk, the pilot circled back toward the entertainment district. Looking out the window to the dazzling lights of the city against a backdrop of apricot and red-orange sky blotted with indigo clouds took