Page 35 of Accidentally in Love

I never planned to blab to everyone about Avery’s pregnancy. Still, Allen had been at the brewery the night she showed me the sonogram. Allen kept things close to the vest so he wouldn’t say anything. Although we lived in such a gossipy small town, I was sure word would get out soon, anyway.

He shooed me away and took over my work. “Go talk to her, man!”

I wiped my hands on my apron, went out to the floor, and saw Avery laughing with my brother. She turned at my loud footsteps and gave me a big smile.

I felt something warm spread across my chest when she smiled at me.

“Hey, is everything okay?” I asked.

She stood up, and I saw Gemma give her a thumbs up from behind the bar. I wondered what that was about. I smiled as Avery walked toward me.

“Okay,” she said firmly and with a bit of conviction.

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, what?”

She smiled up at me and pulled my face down to her level. She shocked me by kissing me hard on the mouth. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her closer to me. I only pulled away at the sarcastic cheers from my employees. A cute blush crept up across Avery’s face.

“Okay, I’ll marry you,” she said, and her mouth curved up into a sweet smile.

“Really?” I asked in surprise. That had been the last thing I expected to come out of her mouth.

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Why? What changed?”

“My sister told me that if you’re offering me what I’ve been searching for, I should take it. That we should really try.”

Okay, not exactly her telling me she had feelings for me, but if she wanted to get married and let me try to be the man she deserved, I would take it. Maybe in time, she would come to love me, too.

I put my hands on her growing belly. “Avs, I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy. You and the baby.”

She put her hands over the top of mine like she was telling me how much we were in this together. “I want a courthouse wedding. Can we do that?”

“Whatever you want.”

I kissed her again, and she didn’t freeze up or care that we were in front of people. I didn’t know if she loved me like I loved her, but it was a start. People had shotgun weddings all the time and fell in love. Maybe this would be like that. We already had amazing chemistry and knew how to make a baby. How hard could marriage be?

“Come on, let’s go home,” I said when I pulled away from the kiss.

“We have a lot of things to talk about,” she agreed.

I kissed her again and felt her melt into my arms. I only pulled away because a rag hit me square on the back of the head. I looked over at the bar where Gemma and Declan were giving us shit-eating grins.

Avery smiled up at me with an I told you so look.

“They’re planning our wedding, aren’t they?” I asked.

She nodded. “That’s why I want to go to the courthouse.”

“Get out of here!” Declan yelled at us.

I gave him the one-finger salute and walked out of the bar with Avery’s hand in mine. When we got to my house, I sat her down on the couch and ran upstairs to grab my mother’s ring.

“Where are you going?” she called up to me.

I went into the office and unlocked the safe. I took out the box with my mother’s ring and locked the safe back up. I rushed back down the stairs and into the living room, where Avery still sat on the couch. She gave me a perplexed look while I kneeled in front of her and opened the box to her.

“Avery Jensen, will you marry me?”