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“Hello, Viking,” I answered.
“Angel,” he chuckled.
“How are you?”
“I’m good, curly. Are you good?”
“I am,” I chirped happily.
“I’m going to be home late tonight.”
I felt my face fall. “Why?” I whined, then figuratively slapped myself, and recovered. “What’s up?”
“My dad needs help with a build he started in the backyard. Rhys is coming to help as well, so it shouldn’t take too long, but I’ll have a visit and eat dinner with my parents tonight.”
I hoped my disappointment didn’t sound in my voice, but I think it did.
“No problem, Barrett. Say ‘hi’ to everyone for me.”
When we got off the phone, I told Junie that my plans had been foiled again.
“This is never going to happen. I’ll have to hire a skywriter,” I complained.
“It’s going to happen,” she soothed, “you just have to get all your ducks in a row and then-.”
I cut her off. “These aren’t ducks, Junie, these are chickens! Chickens! Chickens don’t listen worth a shit!”
Junie laughed but reassured me that it was going to happen. “Just plan it for Sunday. You already have a plan to go for a drive-out, so plan it for Sunday.”
“I guess,” I grumbled, but I still held out hope that I’d be able to tell him sooner.
I was asleep before he got home, but I woke up in the middle of the night to feel him curled protectively around my back, his big hand splayed across my stomach.
Chapter 48
Someone Else’s
Barrett
After Rhys and Barrett helped Calum erect the arbor for the hoped-for wedding on Saturday, there wasn’t much else to do but sit around and wait. Bex, Mara, and Junie bought four dresses for Willa, all floral of one kind or another, with matching shoes, and they were hanging in the spare bedroom of his parents’ home.
While it was true that he needed to help his dad, the job took an hour, tops. He was hiding out since he got Junie’s text telling him that Willa planned on spilling the beans.
Thank, God, tomorrow he could go straight to her place after work knowing the girls were going to kidnap her at six. He didn’t know what they were up to, but there was a lot of snickering about it, so he was guessing he didn’t want to know.
He could breathe easy knowing Friday was covered as well. Minty arranged for all five of them to go for a spa day and a nice dinner in Toronto, where they were all staying overnight. The plan was to get Willa ready, including what they considered to be a necessary trip to the lingerie store, so she’d be fully ready for their wedding on Saturday.
It was just tonight that he had to avoid her.
After the night they’d had, where she physically and verbally gave herself to him, he no longer had nerves about Saturday. Whether she wanted to go through with it right away or not, he knew she was his, and she knew he was hers.
But he hoped.
He handed the bands over to his brother but pocketed the engagement ring. He wanted to be ready in case she sprung her news on him.
Rhys and Zale hung out with him at Calum and Jeanie’s to lend credence to his story, and to ensure that Willa did not begin to worry that there was anything untoward going on.
He remembered when Rhys married Amy, how he’d moved home for the last few days before the wedding. Looking at his brother now, he could see he wasn’t the only one who remembered.
