“That’s a shame,” she says, hooking her arms around my neck. “But it’ll get used now.”
“Right. With all the fancy dinner parties you’re going to have.”
She laughs. “I don’t think having your family over counts as fancy.”
“You spent like an hour decorating the table.”
“Tablescapes are fun.”
“If you say so.” I bring my head down and kiss her on the lips. “I’ll go check on dinner.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“You just want wine, you lush.”
She slaps my butt. “I’m saving that for later.”
I laugh and whirl around, picking her up, I kiss her hard and set her on the counter in the kitchen. Her legs go around me, and she runs her fingers through my hair. My eyes fall shut and I put my head against her breasts.
“I love you,” I whisper.
“I love you too.”
We kiss again, right as the front door opens. Breaking apart, I go through the kitchen to welcome my parents into the house. We invited everyone over for dinner tonight. It was Charlie’s idea, as a bit of a celebration for her officially moving in. We held off for a while before deciding it just didn’t make sense for her to pay for an apartment when she’d be here most of the time anyway. She was able to get her deposit back and everything. Another reason it was meant to be.
“Dinner smells amazing,” Mom tells Charlie.
“Thanks,” she says. “Though I can’t take credit. Owen made it.”
“Really?”
“Thanks, Mom.” I laugh and open the fridge, pulling out a beer for Dad. Logan and Danielle are the next to arrive, and Danielle comes bearing gifts. Specifically, leftover sugar cookies from the bakery. She and Charlie hung out three times this week, making this whole thing even more perfect than I could ever imagine.
My twin’s wife and my girlfriend—who will be my wife soon enough—are friends.
Quinn, Archer, and their kids walk through the door and Wes, Scarlet, and company are next. Dean and Kara are always the last to arrive, and I don’t understand why they’re almost always late and the two couples with multiple children get here on time. Regardless, things go along just fine, and everyone enjoys dinner.
Logan and Danielle stay a while after, and we have every intention of playing a few rounds of Mario Kart. But Danielle falls asleep on the couch and apologizes when Logan wakes her up.
“Don’t worry about it,” Charlie says. “You’re growing a human. That takes a lot of energy.”
“I used to think people exaggerated how tired they were during the first trimester, but the exhaustion is real.”
“Let’s go home,” Logan tells her and helps her to her feet. We walk them to the door, and then Charlie and I go back into the kitchen to finish putting dinner dishes away. Charlie freezes as she puts one of her million coffee mugs away.
“Owen,” she exclaims.
“Yeah?”
“I just realized something.”
“You want to go upstairs and have sex?”
She gives me a pointed glare. “I do, but also…I, uh, haven’t had a period in a while.”
“How long is a while?”
“Since before we got back together.”
“Do you think you’re pregnant?”
She slowly shakes her head back and forth. “I…I don’t know. Maybe.”
Chapter 37
Charlie
I pace back and forth on the front porch, swatting away bugs. Owen ran to Walmart to get a pregnancy test. I don’t feel pregnant. Not at all. I have zero symptoms, and while many women can go through the whole nine months without “feeling pregnant,” I know I wouldn’t get that lucky.
Still, we want to be sure.
I chugged a big glass of water when he left, and now I really have to pee. Headlights illuminate the street and I hold my breath, hoping that truck belongs to Owen. It doesn’t, and it goes right past our house. Getting close to needing to do the potty dance, I decide I’m going to give Owen five more minutes before going to the bathroom. Luckily, he pulls into the driveway only a minute later.
He stands outside the bathroom door, waiting for me. The test said to wait a few minutes until you check, but I look at that baby right away. The control line pops up first. I watch, waiting for the second line. I don’t see one, so I set the test down and pull my pants back up. After washing my hands, I open the door and Owen picks the test up off the floor.
“You’re not pregnant,” he says after looking at the test for a good minute. “Is it weird I’m a little disappointed?”
“No.” I move next to him and hook my arm through his. “Because I am too.”
Owen sets the test down on the counter and wraps one arm around me. “This isn’t the first time we’ve thought you might be pregnant. We had a few scares there in college.”
I nod. “I remember those. And seeing the negative was such a relief. But now…now…” I trail off and shake my head. “I shouldn’t want to be pregnant. We’re not married yet.”
“Yet?” He raises his eyebrows. “Are you proposing? Don’t spoil my surprise. Though I do want a hint so I can get my nails done beforehand.”
I laugh and look up at him. “You really would have been happy if I were pregnant?”
He brings his head down and kisses me. “Yes. I love you, Charlie. So fucking much. You know I meant it when I said I’d go to the courthouse and marry you right now if that’s what you want.” He takes my hand and leads me into the bedroom. He pulls me into his lap and sits on the bed. “Until then, though, we can practice for when we really do want to have a baby.”
“Didn’t we get enough practice in this morning?”
He laughs and kisses me. “You can never be too prepared, you know.”
“You actually can, though. You need to save it up and not deplete your sperm count.”
“So romantic.”
“I know, right?”
We fall back on the bed, and it only takes a minute of Owen kissing my neck while rubbing my back to get me in the mood. After sex, we shower and then finally go downstairs to finish in the kitchen. We both have to work in the morning and go up to bed. I snuggle close to Owen, feeling like I’m where I’m meant to be.
With him.
Together.
In love.
* * *
“I’m running a little late,” Owen tells me. “Go ahead and start dinner without me.”
“Okay. How late are you going to be?” I shut my office door and get into the elevator. I was at work late tonight too. It’s seven-thirty and I’m just now leaving. Dad scheduled meetings with clients today, and our last one didn’t start until seven. The entire client meeting was bizarre too, and after talking about nothing that had to do with what the client wanted to hire us for, he left.
“Maybe an hour or so. It’s been really busy at the bar all day.”
“Well, that’s always a good thing.”
“Yeah. It is. Are you heading home now?”
“I am. I’ll see you in a bit then. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I end the call and walk down the block to my car. My new car, which I bought only a week ago. It’s a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I love it. The four-wheel drive will come in handy in the snow, that’s for sure. Summer is just now coming to an end, and while I’m not looking forward to the cold, Midwest winter, I might be a little excited to try out just how well the Jeep handles.
Owen’s truck is in the garage when I get home, which surprises me. Maybe he and Logan drove together to work? They’ve done that in the past, though it doesn’t really make sense since we live on opposite ends of the town. The house is unlocked too, but when I step inside and go to turn on the lights, nothing happens.
“Owen?” I call, reaching into my purse for my phone to use for light. He doesn’t answer, but something shuffles inside the house, and flickering light pours from the screened-in porch. “Owen?”
Breath hitching, I slowly walk through the house and peek into the screened-in porch. Owen is in there, looking out at the fountain. Several candles are lit, and there’s a little table set up with dinner.
“What is this?” I ask, a smile coming to my face.
“Surprise.” He strides over and pulls me into his arms.
“Owen! This is so sweet! Is that—”
“The fancy pasta you like? Yes, it is.”
I lean up and kiss him. “I love you.”
He gives me a wink. “I know. We should eat before the food gets cold.” He breaks away only to come right back. “Fuck it.”
“Fuck what?”
“I was going to wait until after dinner, but I want to ask you now.”
“Ask me?”
He drops down to one knee and pulls out a ring. “I love you, Charlie. I’ve always loved you and I always will love you. Will you marry me?”
I bring my hands to my face, tears filling my eyes. “Yes!”
He takes the ring from the box and slips it on my finger. It’s a perfect fit. It’s dark in here, so I move closer to a candle to look at the ring. It’s gorgeous.
“This whole thing was a set-up!” I whirl back around. “You saying you’re working late and that bullshit meeting at work.”
“Yeah.” Owen smiles and takes me into his arms again.
“My dad was in on this!”
“He was. And he’s probably waiting for you to call him so he can act like he had no idea.”
“Oh, Owen!” More tears fill my eyes, and I hold onto Owen as tight as I can. This time, I know there is no letting go.
Epilogue
Owen
The next year…
“What about this one?” I point to a pink-and-purple sheet set. Charlie looks at it and then shakes her head.
“It’s too girly.”
“We’re buying it for a girl.”
“I know,” she agrees. “But I don’t want to set her up with gender stereotypes from infancy.”
“Babies don’t even see in color when they’re born.”
“Aww, you did read the books.”
“Cover to cover.” I motion to another sheet set that’s white with colorful birds on it. “This one?”
“Ohhh, that is cute!”
“It’s not too girly?” I give her a smirk and she playfully nudges my arm. “These birds look pretty girly.”
“I like them.”
“That’s the whole point of this,” I whisper-talk. “We get to pick out what we like.”
Charlie rests her hand over her stomach. She’s just now starting to show, and we found out we’re having a girl only this morning, continuing with what Quinn insists is karma for being raised in a house full of older brothers. Though she’s expecting her third and they’re not finding out what they’re having. My money is on a boy.
And who knows, maybe our next one will be a boy as well.
Things can change, but right now our plan is to start trying again when our sweet little girl is around nine months old. As Charlie puts it, we’re not getting any younger, and we want nothing more than to keep growing our family.
She found out she was pregnant two weeks before our wedding, and it was really hard hiding it from everyone. I caved and ended up telling Logan, but I held out longer than Charlie, who told her own sister the same day she found out she was expecting.
We shared the news the day after the wedding, making it obvious she got pregnant before we were actually married. That wasn’t why we kept things a secret, though. Planning the wedding was stressful enough. We didn’t want to add anything else to the mix.
“You’re probably going to nix this one right away.” I grab a pale yellow blanket with tiny flowers stitched along the hem. “But I like this.”
Charlie smiles as she takes it from me, running her fingers over the flowers. “I like it. And yellow is neutral enough.”
“If picking a changeable sheet set is this hard, how the hell are we going to decide on paint colors for the nursery?” I laugh.
“I actually like it the way it is,” she insists. “It’s all about accent colors, and pale pink and yellow would look really pretty.”
I grab the corresponding sheets that go with the soft blanket. We came to the store with the intention of just looking at baby stuff and making a preliminary list of things to register for, but caved and decided to buy just one thing.
“We’re still meeting Logan and Danielle for lunch, right?” Charlie asks.
“Yeah, what are you craving today?” We walk up to the register.
“Greasy diner food. Still. I’m going to be a million pounds when this baby is born.”
“Your tits have gotten bigger but that’s really all that’s changed.”
“My ass too.”
I grab it just to check. “I don’t feel any difference, and trust me, I know this ass well.”
She laughs and pushes me away. “Not in public, Owen!”
“Want to sneak into a bathroom?”
“Now that the second-trimester hormones are hitting me, I’m very tempted to say yes.”
I take her hand and kiss the top of her head. We pay for the baby blankets and then head into town, going to the only place other than Getaway to order cheeseburgers and fries. I call Logan to let him know where to meet us.
Charlie and I get there first, and she puts in an order of French fries right away. Logan, Danielle, and their baby, Paige, get here right as the fries are served.
“How’d it go at the doctor today?” Danielle asks Charlie.
She smiles and looks at me, and I give her a nod.
“Great. We found out the sex.”
“And?” Danielle’s eyes widen.
“It’s a girl!”
Logan claps me on the back. “Congrats, man.”
“Thanks.” Charlie reaches across the table and takes my hand. I give her fingers a squeeze and look into her eyes and feel like the luckiest man in the whole fucking world.
And really, I suppose I am.
We got lost along the way but found our way back to each other. The journey was full of pain, tears, and heartbreak, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Every little thing shaped us, made us who we are today.
And if you ask me, we’re pretty fucking perfect.
Thank you
Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy life to read Fight Dirty! I hope you enjoyed Owen and Charlie’s story. I LOVED writing it so much! The cocky asshole who just needs a hug is my favorite to write ;-)
I appreciate so much the time you took to read this book and and would love if you would consider leaving a review. I LOVE connecting with readers and the best place to do so is my fan page and Instagram! I’d love to have you!
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About the Author
Emily Goodwin is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author of over a dozen of romantic titles. Emily writes the kind of books she likes to read, and is a sucker for a swoon-worthy bad boy and happily ever afters.
She lives in the midwest with her husband and two daughters. When she's not writing, you can find her riding her horses, hiking, reading, or drinking wine with friends.
Emily is represented by Julie Gwinn of the Seymour Agency.
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Also by Emily Goodwin
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Never Say Never
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All I Need
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Bad Things (Cole & Ana Book 1)
Battle Scars (Cole & Ana Book 2)
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End G
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Side Hustle (The Dawson Family Series Book 3)
Cheap Trick (The Dawson Family Series Book 4)
Dead of Night (Thorne Hill Series Book 1)
Dark of Night (Thorne Hill Series Book 2)
Call of Night (Thorne Hill Series Book 3) Coming July 2019
Fight Dirty: A Dawson Family Novel Page 23