Page 39 of Easy On Me

I shrank into the couch. “Him.”

“And why do you act like that’s something to be ashamed of?”

“Because we’ve been together like . . . weeks. And I’m pregnant. And I didn’t do things the way you said–”

“Tyler.” Her tone brooked no argument, the way it had when I’d first come to live with her and she’d been setting boundaries around my behavior. “A person can do all the right things and still end up with a life different from what they planned. And that unexpected life can be unexpectedly beautiful.”

I knew she was talking about the end of her marriage – and about me.

“If he were talking about marriage and there was no baby, what would you think?” She lifted her own mug. “Would you want him?”

Want a man who listened to me, who saw me? Who treated me with respect and made me laugh? Who touched me like I was valuable?

“Yes.” The admission emerged as a small whisper.

“Honey, do not be ashamed to claim what you want.” She shook her head. “I didn’t raise you that way.”

“What if I turn out to be her? You know, make the same mistakes?” The idea haunted me. What if I damaged my baby the way she’d damaged me? I wouldn’t be able to live with that.

“Sweetheart, you would never.” Mama Nancy’s face softened. “You’re not her.”

“He says it would make all the baby stuff easier.” I rattled my nails on the side of my mug again. “If we were married.”

“Tyler, you do not need an excuse to make the decision you want to make, to do what is best for your life. You also don’t have to marry him.”

“No.” Again, there was my small voice when I didn’t want to be small. When what we were becoming wasn’t small in the slightest. I swallowed, my throat aching. “But I want to.”

The admission was huge. We were awful early in our relationship, but he was what I wanted – a good man. A steady one. I’d tried to push Colt into being what I needed.

Jase simply was.

“Sometimes we just know. My grandma met my grandfather at a Georgia Tech game, and they eloped to the Atlanta courthouse less than a month later. They were married sixty years.” She fixed me with a steady look over the rim of her mug. “And if it doesn’t work out, you get a good divorce attorney.”

I snorted on a swallow of tea.

“And you don’t have to decide today.”

I nodded, a slow, pensive dip of my chin.

Although we both knew I already had.

I voice-texted him once I was a few miles outside of Coney. His reply bounced back almost instantly.

Come over. Waiting for you

When I pulled in the driveway, I found him under the carport, vacuuming his freshly washed truck. Shirt damp, he straightened as I climbed out of my Explorer. He leaned down to kiss me then gestured at my car. “I’ll get yours, too.”

“You don’t have to.” I ran it through the wash whenever I filled up, but I couldn’t remember the last time I vacuumed.

With a slight grin, he touched the center of his chest. “Hey, let me have the small stuff. I’m supposed to do things for you.”

I did feel like I could let him do those things without giving up too much of myself. Colt had offered – the two of them obviously had similar upbringings – but something held me back with him. I couldn’t relax into him, so I needed to maintain my independence. With Jase, I could allow him to perform small acts of service and still stand on my own.

“I wouldn’t mind a cup of coffee if you wanted to make me one.” Picking up the vacuum hose, he slanted a charming smile in my direction. “There’s that orange tea you like, too.”

Warmed that he’d remembered, I went inside to prep us each a hot drink. I already knew he liked his coffee black and strong, and the simple moment offered a glimpse into what our life might be like. Laundry tumbled in the dryer, the clean warmth of fabric softener hanging in the air, the hum and thump adding a normality to the quiet house. I pulled down two of his vintage Corelle mugs, the white and green pattern. People were going crazy over this stuff online, and he had two different sets of it, the white and green plus another white and yellow, thanks to Mrs. Hatcher.

I hadn’t seen her since that evening at Country Crossings. She’d seemed to like me, seemed happy to see me, but that was as his date. Wonder what she’d think about me being pregnant with his baby so soon after meeting him? Wonder what his parents would think? I hadn’t even met them yet, so what if they didn’t even know about me?