“You’re probably right. It’s not politically correct. How about forever fuck buddy?”
She elbowed him in the ribs.
He oomphed, and his arm shot across his body.
“Oh shoot! I’m sorry! I forgot Marshall hit you there.” She lowered her voice and said, “But you deserved it. I am way more than your fuck buddy.”
Jiggs’s head shot up from where he slept on the floor, he yawned, and put his head back down.
“I know you are, Trig, but I love riling you up. Just keep your elbows to yourself.” He pulled her onto his lap, wincing with the effort, but still, his smiling eyes caught hers. “What I want to call you is mine, but that’s going to sound funny to other people, so I think I’ll stick with my girl, my better half, and my forever love.”
“And I’ll call you my everyday man candy.” Piper wound her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his. She’d never felt happier and her world had never felt more right than the moment she’d told Harley she wanted forever with him and he agreed to her unconventional proposal.
“Do you think you can fit twelve-inch in there somewhere?”
She put her face beside his and whispered in his ear, “This twelve-inch friend must be very important to you, but sorry, Dutch, I’m not into threesomes.”
He grabbed her sides, and she squealed, trying to wiggle out of his lap as he lifted her and gently tossed her onto her back on the couch.
“I thought your ribs hurt!” she said through a laugh as he came down over her with a devilish grin, carefully avoiding her injured foot.
“I will never be too hurt to do this.” He pressed his lips to hers. “And I’ll never share you with a soul.”
“Then stop with the hugeness references. What would I do with twelve inches?” She was unable to keep from giggling, and she didn’t care that she sounded like a goofy, swoony girl. “It’s too much. It won’t fit. You don’t see me upsizing my boobs.”
“I love your boobs.” He dipped his head and kissed them. “I love all of your perfect little parts.”
“I know you do, and I love your blissmaker.” She slid her arms down his back to his butt and patted it. “And your butt.” She trailed her fingers from his wrists to his shoulders. “Your arms and all of you. But do you want to know what I love most about you?”
“My heart?”
“You do have an amazing heart, and you prove it with the way you love me and everyone else in your life, especially Marshall.”
Marshall and his family would surely go through difficult times when their pasts rose to meet their present, which they all knew would happen from time to time. And they were prepared to deal with the hurt that had been overshadowed by the joy of their reunion. But they were all determined to rebuild their family, and the relief that brought Harley showed in the new light in his eyes. Harley had even mentioned possibly investing in Annie’s Hope. But for now Marshall was going to focus on reconnecting with his family. With the help of their friends and family, Piper was moving into Harley’s house this weekend—their house—and Marshall was moving into Piper’s house once the renovations were complete.
Piper reached up with both hands, running her fingers along Harley’s handsome face, and said, “I love your heart, but your mind is my favorite part, because it allows you to love me for who I am. You could have turned me down today, and I’d have to move away and become a cat lady.”
As if on cue, Jiggs pushed his snout between them and licked their faces. Then he lay down beside the couch with a heavy sigh.
Harley chuckled. “Our jealous dog didn’t like the sound of that.”
“Neither did I, but I love the sound of our dog.”
“We’ve always been yours.” He kissed her softly and said, “I’d have to be a fool to turn you down. I can’t help but think that our moms’ behind-the-scenes magic had something to do with it.”
While Sophie swore Piper and Harley’s relationship developed because of the nachos Harley had made for her, their mothers thought otherwise. They were taking full credit for Harley and Piper’s relationship because of a matchmaking scheme they’d hatched long ago, which apparently included more than potions and a ride home from the hospital. They’d gushed about watching Harley and Piper’s love blossom in the minutest of ways over the years. With nudges from their mothers, the rest of Piper’s family members had also unknowingly been involved. So many things made sense now: Roxie’s random requests for Piper to drop things off at the pub, their friends making sure they were always on the same basketball team, spur-of-the-moment get-togethers for drinks at Dutch’s, Piper’s sisters backing out of evening plans at the last minute, leaving her free to spend time at the pub when Harley just happened to be working. They’d learned that even Harley’s taking care of the girls had started as part of their mothers’ matchmaking scheme. Their mothers had been certain he’d ask Piper to help with his nieces, and when Harley had outshone their expectations, proving himself to be the greatest uncle in the world and messing up their plans, their devious and determined mothers had connived a backup plan. But they’d never put it into action, because fate had stepped in and sent Harley to the hospital. Their mothers refused to reveal what their plan had been, claiming they might need it for future love matches.
“I’ve been thinking,” Harley said. “Do you know how I found out that Marshall had cheated on you when I was away at school? My mother called in the middle of the week and said she thought a storm might be brewing and would I please come home for the weekend to help with the fallout, just in case. I didn’t think anything of it back then, but I do remember that the weather was clear. The other thing is, I used your mom’s body wash for years before you threw them out. I’m pretty sure she put some kind of hypnotizing potion in it that made it impossible not to love you.”
Piper loved how he believed some magical powers had brought them together, and though she was taking extra precautions just in case, she said, “Or maybe your mom really thought there would be a storm and my mom’s body wash did nothing.”
“Is that why you’ve been sneaking it into the bottles you buy at the grocery store?”
Her jaw dropped. “You knew?”
“They smell completely different.” He kissed her again and said, “I love that you believe in it, too.”
“I do not. Not really,” she said. “It was just a little extra insurance because I’m not exactly the easiest person to love.”
His brows slanted. “You are easy to love. You’re the only woman I have ever been in love with. I know you think people change for the worse, but I promise you that twenty, forty, sixty years from now the only thing that will change is that I will love my nacho-eating, hammer-yielding, loud-swearing, beautiful better half more with every passing second. You are easy for me to love, and I’m the only one that matters in the loving-you equation. Don’t ever doubt that, Pipe.”
For the millionth time, her insides fluttered, and she whispered, “I never will.”
“I don’t know if I believe in matchmaking, fate, or the power of nachos,” he said as he cradled her beneath him and rolled them onto their sides, nose to nose. “All I know is that I love hearing my nieces call you Auntie Piper and knowing that every morning I’ll wake up next to the woman of my dreams. We’re in this together, babe, ringed forever.”
He kissed her slow and deep. She finally knew what to do with warm and wonderful—embrace it. She gave herself over to their kisses, melting against him, their hearts beating as one.
He moved his leg over hers, bringing their bodies even closer, and said, “This not-married stuff is pretty fucking great, and I think we should celebrate.”
“With expensive wine and caviar?” she teased.
Heat sparked in his eyes. “I believe my girl prefers beer, nachos, and no less than three orgasms.”
She whispered, “Each,” as his warm, loving mouth claimed hers, carrying them to their breathtaking, ringed-forever ecstasy.
EPILOGUE
<
br /> PIPER LOOKED OUT the second-floor window of Windsor Hall, which Marshall had purchased over the summer. Piper and her crew were handling a few final renovations before the upcoming grand opening of Annie’s Hope. She could hardly believe it had been fifteen months since she and Harley had moved in together and way too many months since they’d found out she was pregnant. She was due any day, and she was truly, blissfully happy. They each had their pet peeves, like the toilet seat being left up and Piper leaving her clothes on the floor, but they were small prices to pay for a life with Harley that was even more amazing than she’d hoped. After she’d moved out of her house, she and her crew had finished the renovations, and Marshall had moved in. He was in the process of buying it from her. He and Harley had gone through a few hairy moments, but thankfully, none of them had ended with fisticuffs. Debra and Delaney had enjoyed a smoother transition with Marshall’s return, and Jolie and Sophie were thrilled to have their uncle in their lives—almost as thrilled as Roxie and Debra were to have another future matchmaking victim on the hook. Harley and Ben and Ben’s business partner, Aiden, were all investing in Annie’s Hope, and the community had rallied in support of Marshall’s efforts. Piper couldn’t be happier about the way Marshall and his family had come back together, or all the ways her life with Harley was blossoming.
She took one last look around the room that would become Marshall’s office and said, “Looks good, Kase. I want to check out the progress on the café.” They had taken down most of the walls on the first floor to create an inviting café. They’d kept all of the original moldings, and they were building meeting nooks throughout the café, separated by half walls that would double as bookshelves and would offer self-help books and uplifting fiction.
As they descended the stairs, a dull ache crept across Piper’s back. She gripped the handrail, stopping halfway down the stairs. She breathed deeply, rubbing her lower back, which had been killing her from carrying around twenty-five pounds of burgeoning baby and bulbous boobs, both of which Harley was madly in love with.
“Are you okay, boss?” Kase asked, bringing rise to the familiar, and frustrating, worry she’d seen in his eyes nearly every week since she’d announced her pregnancy.
“I’m fine. This is totally normal.” Talia and Aurelia had reassured her of that several times over the last two weeks. They’d both experienced the same thing. Talia called it her body’s way of practicing for the big day. She had given birth to her adorable little boy, Evan, named for Derek’s mother, Eva, just after Christmas, and Aurelia had delivered her and Ben’s impossibly cute son, Christopher, right after the New Year.
“You should go home and put your feet up,” Kase said for the tenth time in as many minutes.
She glowered at him. “If you and Harley and everyone else in my life does not stop helicopter parenting/sistering/brothering/friending me, I’m going to kill all of you.” She continued descending the steps and said, “Remember, I’ve had nine long months to figure out where to hide the bodies, and I’ve put every puking, amazing moment of it to good use.”
“I still can’t believe Harley let you come to work when you’re almost ready to pop.”
Piper rolled her eyes. “When have I ever allowed a man to let me do anything?”
Kase mumbled, “Whoever said motherhood softened a woman was dead wrong.”
“Nobody has ever said that. If anything, motherhood makes you stronger. I’d like to see a man carry a human inside them for months without losing their minds. See how guys feel when the baby jumps on their bladders the second they finally fall asleep or makes them puke every time they try to eat a frigging doughnut.” Puking had been her first clue that something was off with her body. She’d been at Willow’s bakery with her sisters before work one morning when she’d eaten her normal goodies and puked them up five minutes later. Her sisters had felt her head, asked her all sorts of annoying and personal questions, and within minutes they’d decided she was pregnant.
They’d decided.
Piper, on the other hand, had taken more convincing.
She’d taken three home pregnancy tests, all of which were positive. For the life of her she hadn’t been able to remember ever missing a birth control pill. Her doctor had gone through a list of medications that could hinder the effectiveness of pills, but she hadn’t taken any. He’d then gone through other sources of potential conflicts, like flaxseed, which was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. Her doctor had doubted that the amount of flaxseed Willow had used in the health-nut muffins she’d started making over the holidays was enough to cause issues, even though Piper had been eating them nearly every day. He’d said Piper was simply among the few who could get pregnant while taking birth control pills. Her mother swore it was the extra F she’d been putting in Piper’s lotions, and Harley claimed it was his supersperm.
She didn’t know why her birth control had failed, but she had a feeling that life just had a way of tripping people up now and then, and if her life with Harley was any indication of how good tripping could be, she couldn’t wait to be tripped up time and time again. One thing she did know for sure was that love as powerful as theirs was meant to be shared, and she was looking forward to the day they’d meet their little bundle of joy. They’d decided not to find out the sex of the baby, and they’d gone with a neutral theme in the nursery: white walls with randomly placed quarter-sized black polka dots. It was clean and simple, with a white crib and dresser and a picture above the dresser that read YOU ARE OUR GREATEST ADVENTURE. They decorated with stuffed giraffes, rabbits, and elephants and pictures of the same. Piper built a white ladder-style bookshelf, and her father had made a gorgeous rocking bassinette. Piper had spent far too many hours in the rocking chair John Love had made for them, dreaming about what it would be like to have their baby sleeping in that room and what it would feel like to see Harley holding their little one.
She followed Kase into the bright, cheery café. Marshall had hired Everly Love to paint colorful murals on the walls, and they never failed to fill Piper with happiness. Sunlight spilled through the large windows, gleaming off the refinished hardwood floors. The ordering area of the café was to the right of the main entrance. There was going to be open seating at the front of the café, and the meeting nooks would be in the rear. It was wonderful to see Marshall’s vision coming to fruition.
“The rest of the bookshelves will be installed today. It’s really coming together nicely.” Kase motioned to the marks on the floor outlining the locations of the remaining partitions. “Creating meeting nooks with sofas and armchairs was genius.”
“Yeah,” she said, reaching for the wall as a cramp shot across her lower back.
“You okay? Want to sit down?”
If he mothered her one more time, she was going to smack him. She reminded herself she had only about two more weeks of coddling and said, “I’m fine.”
Mike poked his head in the door and said, “Lunch is here.”
They went outside, where the guys were digging into boxes of Dutch’s wings.
“Yes,” she said under her breath. Her man was so good to her, even if he made her check in every two hours while she was at work. He was such a worrier, but at least he’d stopped showing up on the job sites unannounced to make sure she wasn’t doing too much. Though she’d never admit it because he’d only hover more often, she loved that he cared so much.
She reached for a plate, and a sharp pain shot through her lower belly. “Holy . . .” She grabbed the table, bending over as the pain worsened.
“Oh shit,” Mike said.
She glared at him, gritting her teeth against the pain as the men closed in on her, panic gleaming in their eyes. When the pain eased, she let out a long breath. “Well, that sucked. You can back off now.”
“You sure, boss?” Darren asked.
“Yes, I’m fi—” She doubled over again as pain clutched her. “Fuuck,” she said, just as a gush of wetness soaked her maternity jeans. “Fuck. Me .
. .”
The men began running around her like chickens with their heads cut off, shouting nonsense. “Call an ambulance!” one of them hollered.
“What should we do?” Darren looked at Kase. “Does anyone know how to deliver a baby?”
“Put her in the back of the truck!” Mike said.
“The front!” Kase shouted. “This wasn’t in Harley’s emergency plan!”
Piper pulled out her phone to call Harley and started to climb into her truck.
Kase grabbed her arm. “You’re not driving.”
“Yes I am.” She yanked her hand away, navigated to Harley’s number on her phone, and put the phone to her ear.
“The hell you are. Harley would kick my ass.” Kase moved between her and the truck and held out his hand. “Give me the keys.”
She handed him the keys as Harley’s voice came through the phone. “How’s my baby mama?”
She used the truck for balance as she walked around to the passenger door. “I need you to meet me at the hospital.” Another pain clutched her. She grabbed the passenger door with one hand and her belly with the other, cursing as the worst pain of her life tore through her.
“What’s going on? Piper, talk to me!”
The panic in Harley’s voice rattled her, but the pain made it impossible to speak.
“I knew you should have stopped working—”
“Harley!” she gritted out. “It’s time.” She panted as the pain eased. “Our baby’s coming. Drive fast.”
“I’m coming! I love you!” Harley shouted, and then there was a crash.
As Kase helped her into the truck, she heard heavy footsteps racing across the floor through the phone, and then she heard Harley shout, “We’re going to meet our baby!” in the distance and realized he’d dropped his phone and run out of the pub.
Kase sped toward the hospital rambling about hanging in there and how she was going to be fine. Fine was not even close to how she felt when the next contraction hit. She mentally scrambled for something to focus on besides the pain. Her mind raced to the last time she’d been to the hospital, when she’d picked up the wonderful man with whom she’d fallen so deeply in love.
She Loves Me Page 36