He meant it. I could see him deciding he meant it.
“But…we’ll need a bigger place,” he said. “Not enough room for five kids in that little apartment next to Rick’s.”
I blushed. “God…you don’t have to take that seriously?—”
“Why not? You told me you want it. I listen.”
I stared at him.
He looked back, completely calm, like he hadn’t just casually accepted the possibility of five children at seven in the morning after two days of knowing we were together.
“Nash,” I said.
“Mm.”
“You can’t just—agree to five children before coffee.”
“I can do what I want,” he said. “And so can you. And whatyouwant is to have five kids.”
I laughed—surprised out of me—and he caught me around the waist and pulled me back against him, his chin on my shoulder.
“I’m serious about moving in,” he said, more serious than before. “Not today. Not next week. But…soon. Before you start showing. I don’t want you here alone for that.”
I gazed into his eyes, searching them for all the things he wasn’t saying. This all felt so sudden…but also inevitable.
“I didn’t get to do it right with Nell,” he said. “Her mom—she insisted on doing it alone, didn’t tell me a damn thing. I want to do this right. With you, I’m doing it right. I’m gonna give you everything you ever dreamed of, Maggie Laine.”
I could see it all with the way he described it…us together, growing a family, moving somewhere in town that was just forus. A house with room for all the babies we could ever want.
Starting with me, Nash, Nell, and whoever our baby was going to be.
“I don’t want to wait to start telling people,” I murmured. “The school…Delia said she would help me navigate administrative stuff.”
“Good,” Nash said. “Because I wasn’t planning on hiding you.”
“I know,” I said. “But there’s a right way to do it. Principal Daniels first, before anyone else at school finds out. And we should probably—I should probably offer to have Nell moved to another class for the spring semester. Conflict of interest.”
Nash frowned. “She won’t like that.”
“I know,” I said, “but it’s the right call. It protects both of us.” I paused. “And it protects Nell. She can’t be in my class if I’m her…”
I trailed off and Nash’s lips quirked at the corners. “Her what, Maggie?”
I smiled too. “Her mom?”
He pulled me close and kissed me all over my face. It felt so good. Soright.
“Okay,” I said, pulling myself together. “So…the plan.”
I somehow managed to wrench myself away from him, then I padded out to the living room in nothing but my t-shirt. I heard Nash a second later as I went through my school bag—and I found him in his boxers, standing in my kitchen and making coffee.
I loved him.
I really, really loved him.
I turned around with my planner and my gel pens in hand, then I curled up on the couch.
“If you’re okay with it,” I said, “we should tell Nell today. I know it’s fast, but…I think this is right. I want her to have plenty of time with me before the baby becomes a thing.”
