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“I thought I’d do that now.”
“Is he here with you?” she asks excitedly, and I smile.
“I told him I thought I had a UTI.”
She smiles hugely, then, apparently thrilled with my deception. I’ll have to tell Jake when all of this is over. Maybe he can recruit her for the KGB. “Please tell me I can go get him?”
I nod, and she shoots out of the room before any other words can be exchanged. I move my hands to the table under my butt and sit on them.
It’s the only option, really, with my nerves running this rampant. I’m jumpy and awkward still—that hasn’t changed. And I don’t need to be waving my arms around, get out of control, and end up knocking myself off the table.
There’s a knock on the door, and I suck in a huge breath to try to calm myself down. Cheryl must be back with Jake. I have to admit, though, it’s really more nervous excitement than anything. Jake Brent has a way of making me know he’ll be okay with any surprise I throw his way—even this.
“Come in,” I call, my voice shaking noticeably.
Jake’s face is immediately drawn as he steps into the room and gets a look at me, and it’s all I can do to keep myself from crawling out of my skin.
Cheryl backs out of the room slowly, but I really wouldn’t be surprised if she and the other gals are leaned up against the other side with a glass to their ear.
“What is it, Holl? You’re scaring me.”
I smile and shake my head. “I don’t believe you. Jake from the Ocean isn’t scared of anything.”
“I’m scared of losing you.”
“Losing me? Ha. You’re stuck with me forever, buddy.” I grin and lean forward, and right there, against his lips, ask, “Are you scared of having another baby?”
He freezes for the briefest of moments before jerking back to look me in the eye. “Really?”
I nod. “I’m pregnant, Jake.”
“Holley,” he says softly, his heart swirling in the Caribbean pools of his eyes. There’s happiness and hope and the most beautiful display of unconditional love. Yeah, single dads really are the jackpot.
He grabs his phone and scrolls through the music. It’s surprising, given the circumstances, since he’s yet to actually react with words of affirmation or excitement, but when the song starts, it’s not surprising anymore. Just as he intended, the choice says it all.
“Even the nights are better,” I say, and he nods.
“Air Supply.”
“My God,” I say with a laugh. “Chloe already thinks we’re old. What’s this baby going to think, us playing 80s music to celebrate the news of its conception?”
“Who cares,” he replies. “We’re going to love them, and each other, enough that it doesn’t matter.”
Swoon.
I don’t know what I did to deserve this man, but hell’s bells, I’m never letting him go.Three months later…
Jake“I was concerned about your empty nest, Daddio, but I didn’t think you’d go quite this far to fill it,” Chloe says with a wink.
“I guess I’m just extra,” I tease, making her howl with laughter.
“Well, well. You’re finally caving, huh? Learning some of my kind of English after all.”
I smile and shrug. “I guess I’m going to need it.”
Garrett leans forward from his spot on the other side of Chloe and shakes his head, his voice low as we wait for Holley to walk down the aisle.
“Jesus.” He laughs. “Never thought four months ago that I’d be in the middle of a divorce while you’re marrying your pregnant bride-to-be.”
I smile, looking down at the floor as Chloe snorts.
“I don’t think any of us would have pictured it quite this way, Garrett.”
Chloe’s voice is full of a smile as she disputes me. “I would. I mean, maybe not the baby. But I was definitely hoping you’d be walking down the aisle to someone like Holley.” She laughs as she realizes her gaffe. “I mean, Holley walking down the aisle to you. Obviously.”
Almost as if on cue, the music starts, and Holley’s dad steps out into the aisle, the most beautiful girl in the world, my bride-to-be, his daughter, on his arm.
She has a bouquet of Gerbera daisies pulled in close, presumably to hide her stomach from the people she’s not quite ready to tell, and a smile on her face that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.
It reminds me so much of the reasons we’re here—the reasons I want to spend the rest of my life with her.
She raises an eyebrow to smirk at me, and as if I planned it myself, bobbles slightly and trips over the fabric at the front of her dress. She catches herself quickly with the help of her dad, and I have to admit, I don’t think her walk down the aisle would have been complete without it.
“Dude,” Garrett whispers. “You’re one lucky son of a bitch.”
