“Garrett?”
“Yes, Jane?”
“Why are all of you guys looking around at each other like there is some tea to spill?” Jane wonders aloud with wide eyes. The rest of the ladies stop chatting amongst themselves and look to Garrett. “You all have been having some sort of secret conversation since dinner.”
“Oh, um–” Garrett fumbles, looking at Trys first before looking my way. Damn, he’s bad at keeping a secret from her.
“Oooohhhh, no you don’t. You don’t keep things from me. What do you know?”
Laughter bubbles out of Ava’s chest as she grabs Charlotte from Brynleigh. Brynleigh tosses a questioning look up from the floor at Trystan.
“Don’t look at me! I’m not squealing.” Trystan tosses up his hands in the air. Mark clears his throat. The box burns against my thigh. Sydney unlatches Wren and hands her up to Colin while fixing her clothes under the cover.
I shift, grabbing Holly’s water bottle and setting it on the side table next to the couch we’re sitting on; I pull the little box from my slacks as I lower onto the floor, onto one knee. Gasps from all the girls fill the room.
“Well, nice timing, guys,” I toss out with a devilish smirk as I shake in my fucking boots on the inside.
“Anytime,” Mark says, and Ava slaps at his jean-clad thigh to shush so she can hear every word. I look up into golden brown eyes, filling with the sweetest of emotions.
“I said I’d do it right this time.”
Jane gasps louder, like she missed something, and I hear Garrett shush her.
“Cupcake, I meant every word I said the other night. These last months have taken every plan I had for myself and replaced them with an even better dream. You see, I walked into a hospital room and overheard the naughtiest of details one could ever spare from Miss Jane over there, and nothing’sbeen the same since. I have never sought out, chased, or yearned for something or someone so hard in my life. Until you. Suddenly, uprooting myself and moving towns, jobs, homes, meant nothing as long as I knew I even had a chance at seeing your face again. When I found you, I knew I’d move heaven and earth to win a smile from your lips again. I wasn’t going to give up. The more you pushed me away, the more I felt resolved to win your heart. With the help of some very smart, very talented local matchmakers–”
Throats clear in the background, but I only have eyes for my girl.
“The best weekend of my life happened, and I knew you were mine. I surrendered all of my tomorrows to you in a matter of days. I would chase you to the ends of the earth or wait as long as you’d make me, proving myself over and over again if I had to.”
Awwwschorus behind us, and Holly giggles.
“I’ve finally found the one I want to have all of my adventures with, and they’ve already started.”
My eyes ping back and forth between hers, wondering if I can add in the other news to what I have to say, tilting my head in question as I cast my eyes down to her belly then back up. She nods. My heart swells.
“You’ve given me the greatest gifts any man could ask for. Your love, your heart, this family…ourfamily,” I add, reaching for her belly.
The room fills with another loud round of gasps. Happy tears run down her cheeks, and she nods with the truth.
“So, Holly Nicole Irving…” I lift the top of the box and her lips part in surprise. She’s so beautiful. “Will you go on this adventure with me? Will you promise me all of your tomorrows? Will you be my forever? Be my wife?”
“Yes, Jaxon, yes!” she chokes out happily as I slide on the ring. Holly throws her arms around my neck as our friends clap and celebrate, and I hold my whole world tightly to me, my heart soaring with all the joy.
“Did I see and hear that right?” Jane asks in the midst of the hugging. “Did you say what I think you did?”
Holly steps back and reaches for her purse, pulling out a sheet of tiny pictures, and all the girls squeal.
“Yeah, it was definitely a surprise, so…Surprise!Found out today I’m around eight weeks along.”
“New bestie?!” Jane asks breathlessly with a big ol’ grin on her face.
“New bestie!”
Jane jumps and pulls me into her arms excitedly, crushing me against her chest as she does.
“Oh-my-gosh-this-is-perfect!” She stops and points at Brynleigh and Ava. “Get to work!”
Mark and Trystan look at each other, and I can’t read it. It’s somewhere between sizing each other up for a ‘challenge accepted’ look or an ‘oh shit, we’re on a time crunch now’ look. Either way, the point seems to have been made, and the race has silently begun.
