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“Scotty, what’s wrong?”
I snapped out of it and shook my head. “Nothing. What’s up?”
She knew I was lying. “What was Sal doing in here?”
“We were just talking.”
“About what?” she asked quietly. “What’s wrong?”
The apprehension in her voice and the immediate fear that consumed her made me decide real fast that I was never telling her what I knew. “Work shit.” The last thing I wanted was to add more to the already huge pile of disappointment regarding her father than she had. Whether she knew he was there watching the whole thing or not didn’t matter anymore.
“Please don’t lie to me.”
“Everything is good, sugar.” I cupped her face and kissed her forehead. “You trust me, right?”
“But you don’t trust me.” She pulled away and took a step back. “Sal knows, doesn’t he? That’s what he was telling you.”
Fuck, she knew. This was not the time to have this conversation, though. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let’s go back to the party and—”
“God, why didn’t he come to me first? I didn’t want you to figure it out until I was ready to tell you, but him and his freaking superpowers are impossible to hide anything from. That’s why I met him in person, okay? I paid him in cash, so you wouldn’t question it. I wasn’t cheating on you. I’d never cheat on you.”
My concern quickly shifted to anger. “What the fuck are you talking about? Who did you meet?”
Her teeth snapped together, and she took a step back. “Shit. You really were talking about work. You don’t know, do you?”
“Paris…”
“I’m sorry, okay. I met him in a parking lot in the middle of the day. I was safe.”
Her not knowing I know about Arthur should have taken some weight off my chest, but it was just getting heavier and heavier. “Who the fuck did you meet?” I growled.
She swallowed and avoided my eyes, but when I took a step toward her, she talked. “Okay, listen. This was supposed to be a surprise, all right? I’m really pissed it’s ruined.” She took her phone out of her jeans and angrily smashed some buttons on the screen while I waited impatiently. “I wanted to be completely sure before I told you.”
Holy shit. “Are you pregnant?”
“You’re gonna be a daddy.” My heart leaped to my throat, and it sank back into my chest when she turned the screen to me. “To Jaq and Gus.”
I stared at the picture of two rats, and when I realized what the fuck she was talking about, I laughed so hard I tweaked a muscle in my back. “You were going to surprise me with rats?”
“Well, yeah. I had Bristol look online for me, and she found a rescue and gave me the information.” She shrugged adorably. “You loved yours so much, and you’ve given me… you’ve given me everything.” Her bottom lip wobbled. “You healed me, and I know you’re strong, and you’ve already dealt with your past trauma, but I’d never seen you as sad as you were when you told me about Ratunzel. I just wanted to repay you somehow, and the only way I could think to do that was to give you rats!”
“Oh, baby, come here.” I was still chuckling when I pulled her into my arms. “Stop crying, Paris.”
“You don’t want them.”
I had to take a second so I could tamp down the humor. I lifted her onto my desk and stepped between her legs. “First, yes. I want them, and it means the world to me that you thought of it. Second, when it comes to me, the word repay doesn’t exist. Anything I do for you is because I love you and I want you happy, not because I want payback. You loving me is all I need. Taking my last name? Giving me babies? That’s nothing but gold-tinted icing on top of the five-tiered wedding cake covered with pictures of your cats that we’ll cut with a custom-made diamond-encrusted knife on our wedding day.”
She gasped, appalled. “If you think I’d want gold icing on my wedding cake, you don’t know me at all.”
“But pictures of your cats and a fancy-ass knife aren’t out of the question?”
She wrapped her arms around my neck and rested her forehead on mine. “I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”
EPILOGUE
A year and a half later.
Beau
