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I flush red at first, but she’s right. Before long, we’re both howling like maniacs. Iris is doing her best impression of me trying to act “normal” after a night of James after dark.
Suddenly, the sound of the brass bell above the door makes us both stop.
“What’s so funny?” James asks, his deep voice silencing both of us in a second, with Iris suddenly needing to go back to her store. She stops just long enough to squeeze James’ forearm before she does what she always does best—walks back over to her coffee shop. She shoots me her sly wink as she passes the window.
“Everything all right?” James asks, noticing the change in my mood.
I’ve gone from crazy laughter to a bundle of nerves, knowing I should’ve told James and Iris, too, but I only found out last night.
Although I had kind of figured I was pregnant, I never found the right moment to bring it up. With James on tap, it is pretty easy for a girl to get distracted.
“Jasmine?” he asks, moving over to me and taking my hands in his.
I’m still on my stool, which is just as well. I have a dizzy spell, which I have been getting lately, and James squats down in front of me, telling me firmly to let him know what’s wrong.
Nothing’s wrong. Everything is just perfect.
Okay, here goes…
“Remember how I said the store was my baby?” I ask, watching him consider it and nod before he gives me a blank look.
“Well…”
I try to find the words but reaching for James’ hands, I hold them over my belly, pressing them gently but firmly. It takes a moment, but once I see James connect the dots, I see just how happy it makes him. I already wish I’d told him sooner.
It feels like the one thing I can give him that he can’t get anyplace else. All his money and influence… all that charm he oozes. It takes two to make a baby.
“Our baby,” he murmurs. His lips form a crooked smile at first, and then he hugs me so tight I feel the stool disappear from under me. He lifts me up into his arms and spins me around.
“A baby!” he calls out. “I’m going to be a daddy!”
I watch his face keep moving long after he stops spinning, making me way dizzier than I was a minute ago, but it’s the best feeling.
“Then just tell me yes. Right now,” he says, smiling so wide I think his face might actually peel off his skull.
I feel my expression going blank, my mind wandering as I watch him.
“Yes to what?” I ask, sounding way blonder than I am.
“Just say it,” he pleads in a softer tone. “Make today the happiest day of my life, Jasmine. Tell me I’m going to be a dad, and then tell me you’ll be my wife.”
It’s the last thing I expect to hear him ask me, and here in the store, of all places—me in my grubby denim overalls and track pants.
Him in his thousand-dollar leisure wear.
James Jones, a man with the world at his feet, wants me to be his wife.
“Yes…Yes.” I tell him calmly, saving all the shrieking and hollering for when Iris creeps back over in a few minutes. It’s as if she already knew that James would ask once he found out I was carrying his child.
Our baby.
The instant family neither of us ever had. I can tell from the look in his eyes that whoever they are, they’re going to need a little brother or sister to play with… and as soon as possible.
EPILOGUE
FOUR YEARS LATER
James
