by Quinn, Taryn
“Yeah. Kinda what I said when I figured it out.”
I turned toward him in the seat then grabbed his hand. “I’m so sorry, Gideon. I don’t know what came over me the other day. I just saw you and Jessica and all I could think was that it was happening again. He’s going to choose her. He’s not going to choose me.” My throat was on fire, and I cursed the flowing tears. But I wasn’t going to run this time. I was going to fight. “I was wrong. So wrong.”
“Yes, you were, but I didn’t help matters by being secretive and I’m sorry for that. I was afraid too, but for a far different reason.”
“I know. It’s about your kid. That great kid back there who I love with all my heart.”
He pulled the truck over on the dirt road that was far too familiar. “Dammit, Macy.”
Dusk had set and there wasn’t much light near the lake over here. But there was enough for me to see him. To make sure he knew how important he was to me. I undid my belt and slid over to him. “I love you too. When it was me and Lou, it was all about his child. It’s not that way now. It’s so different between us. I know you’re a good man. A good man who would never hurt me. I just messed up for a minute.”
He undid his own seatbelt and grabbed me, dragging me in for a hot, desperate kiss. I held onto him, my fingers crawling up his shoulders so I could wrap myself around him.
I wasn’t ever going to let him go again.
“Shh, baby. Don’t cry. God, don’t cry. You’ll kill me.”
I sniffled. “Yeah, well, I don’t like doing it, pal. And I’m not pretty when I do it.”
“You’re beautiful, and you’re mine. I love you, Macy Devereaux. So fucking much.”
“I love you too.”
“Thank God. Because there’s a little more we need to discuss.” He opened the door and pulled me out.
“Gideon.” I was wearing heeled boots, and they were not made for walking on a dark path.
“I should have thought of all this when I came up with this plan. I’m not used to you pulling all this girl stuff on me.”
I punched him in the arm. “Excuse you.”
He laughed and dragged me into his chest. “I mean, the skirt and heels. Fucking hot, by the way.”
“I wore heels on our first date.” Somewhat mollified, I only pinched him lightly.
“Ow.”
Not that lightly.
He dragged me up the dirt lane and I laughed. “What the hell is going on?”
“Figured I was going to screw this up.”
“Screw what up?”
I cursed his name when he didn’t say anything more. “Would you stop manhandling me?”
“You’re the one who wore heels, dammit. I’m trying to make sure you don’t end up like Dani.”
Finally, we ended up where we’d been that day in the truck. The place I’d taken him to. The moon was rising, shimmering on the lake.
“Okay, there.”
“I appreciate the trip down memory lane, but you should have driven the truck up here if you wanted to make out again.”
“We did way more than make out in that truck, woman.”
I laughed. “True.”
“No, take a look that way.” He angled me to the left. In the distance was my house—well, not my house exactly, but the one I allowed myself to dream about—and it was freaking glowing. Hundreds of pumpkins were flickering with flames.
“Marry me. Make a home with me. Make a life with me.”
I turned to him, and he was down on his knee with a ring. “Oh my God.”
“That’s not an answer.”
I leaped into his arms, knocking him on his ass. “Yes. Yes! This is crazy.” I looked at him, then at the house with its wraparound porch and land. With the space for a family.
“I know it. But I didn’t want to wait anymore. I’m all in, Mace. No matter what.”
“I want babies with you,” I blurted out. I straddled him and gripped his shirt. “Your babies.”
“What?” He fell back in the leaves.
I caged him in. “Yes, I’m willing to, you know, go for it. A Halloween baby seems my kinda thing, don’t you think?”
“I didn’t ask for that. I wouldn’t.” He cupped my face, the ring stuck on the first knuckle of his forefinger.
“I know you wouldn’t. But I want your kid. If you want one. I mean, you need to be a willing—”
He covered my mouth with his, the kiss wild and passionate and so very us. Then he sat up and pulled me tighter into him. “I do.” He kissed me again before pressing his forehead to mine. “I want a family with you so badly, but I swear it would be enough to have a life with just you and Dani.”
That was why I wanted it most of all. Because he’d never ask it of me. I could give it to him freely.
I held out my hand and when he slid the ring down, it fit perfectly. It was too dark to see exactly what he’d gotten me, but I already knew I would love it. I brushed my thumbs through his beard along the hollows of his cheeks. In the limited light, I was pretty sure Gideon’s eyes were shining just like mine.
He hugged me close. “Can we go look at the house now? My ass is frozen.”
“I can’t believe you got me a freaking house.”
“Well, I don’t have it yet. But I’m working on it. I wouldn’t make such a large decision without you.” He dragged me up with him.
“Good answer, but it was probably just in case I said no.”
“I knew you’d say yes.”
I poked him in the ribs.
He hooked his arm around my shoulders. “Eventually.”
I peered up at him in the low light. “Since you’re gonna be my husband, does this mean I get a reduction on my bill? Maybe a deal on future renovations?”
“Macy Devereaux, do you think I’m that cheap?”
“How about bat carvings for blowjobs?”
He scooped me up and tossed me over his shoulder. I hung down and slapped his ass. “Upgrade on siding for butt stuff?”
“I think we can figure something out.”
Epilogue
Macy
A couple weeks before Christmas
Whomever had decided pregnancy was beautiful deserved a kick in the rear with steel-toed boots.
Actually, no. They would get the second kick. The sperminator in question should get the first one. A man got to enjoy making the baby and then just sat back and waited for the cigars. While the woman gained weight from looking at a cookie and then tossed them up whether or not she’d even eaten any.
“Goddamn you, John Gideon, I hate you.” I gripped the edge of the toilet bowl in our new house. We’d just moved into it, for pity’s sake, and I hadn’t even made it two weeks without indoctrinating it in an unexpected way.
Not wholly unexpected. I’d opened these floodgates the night of Gideon’s proposal. But I’d been thinking the baby would come, you know, sometime in the future.
I definitely hadn’t meant to get pregnant near this Halloween. Hello. The kid would be born in July most likely, and my cats hated fireworks.
They probably hated babies too.
Which was one more irony, since Trick, that hussy, had gotten herself knocked up, a fact I’d only discovered this morning during a routine vet appointment. She’d escaped a couple of weeks ago through an open door, and since she was an indoor-only cat, I’d never gotten around to getting her spayed.
My lesson was a litter of kittens that would be born…soon. She’d damn well be getting spayed after that.
Dani would dance on the ceiling. Gideon? Not so sure. He was still adapting to having two cats, never mind half a dozen. But since he was the one who’d left the door open while reinforcing the jamb or some such, this was basically his fault.
He was to blame for lots of pregnancies around these parts lately.
That horrible mouth-watering feeling came up again, and I swore as I rapped my engagement ring against the porcelain bowl. My perfectly gorgeous solitaire ring had gotten an upgr
ade with an honest to God black diamond bat ring wrap from my husband-to-be.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t used to the extra heft and banged it on every-freaking-thing.
It dug into my finger as I heaved again and prayed for the agony to subside. My Google-Fu had shown me not all women got morning sickness. Or afternoon sickness, or whatever the heck this was at just past noon. I’d always loved being the exceptional one.
Closing my eyes, I wiped my mouth with a wad of toilet paper and rolled on my side on the nice, fluffy bathroom rug. As places to die went, there were probably worse.
The next time I opened my eyes, it was past two and I was almost late to pick up Dani at school. Holy fuck. I’d actually passed out on the rug like a hungover socialite with an angry minion in her belly.
My only day off this week from my very successful businesses was not going as planned so far.
I thought longingly about a shower and decided I’d take one before bed. Or maybe I’d take a bath. With bubbles. Which usually was not my idea of a good time, because who wanted to sit in their dirty body water? But I was now operating as if every potential self-care item was a must do, on account of the fact I had actually let Gideon knock me up on purpose.
No accidental sip of the Crescent Cove water here. We’d tossed out the condoms and he had lied in my face that it usually “took awhile” so “no rush.”
I stared down at my flat-ish belly. “Tell your kid that, pal. Seems like he or she disagrees.”
After changing my shirt, I grabbed my jacket and my keys and hurried out to my car. I wouldn’t say I speeded to pick up Dani, but let’s say that when a cop came up behind me, I started readying the waterworks to pretend to be a scared new mom with diarrhea or whatever would get me out of a speeding ticket.
So, I needed to Google more. So, sue me.
But Sheriff Brooks turned on his siren to get me to move over and waved as he passed, so I dodged that bullet.
I slid into the carpool line at Dani’s school and had to grin when she came bounding out a few minutes later with some crazy art project that looked like a reindeer had chugged too much eggnog.
“What is that?” I asked with a laugh as she slid into the backseat.
“Hello, it’s Rudolph. It’s for the mantle. See, his legs dangle.” She tugged on the spiral paper that served for legs and the whole thing nearly came apart, but I smiled and nodded as if it was entirely secure.
Besides, I had Super Glue and I knew how to use it.
“Did you get the bats?” she asked excitedly, snapping on her belt before I signaled back into traffic.
“Yes. But your father is going to flip. You have to pretend it was all your idea.”
“It basically was. I was the one who suggested pastel bat Christmas.”
“You were.” I had to beam with pride. “We’ll put them on the other tree I got, not the main one so your dad can pretend he still has a measure of control. I also got some hard hats to put on them. He’s gotta like that, right?”
“Oh, that’s sick.” I looked in the rearview mirror as Dani gazed at me with wide eyes. “We don’t have much time. We need to be done decorating before he gets home or else he’ll wig out.”
“Pretty sure wigging will be on the table tonight anyway.” I took a deep breath and tapped my fingers on the wheel as instinct took over. “What do you know about babies?”
“You did not.”
I slid a glance at the rearview mirror. “Excuse me?”
“Shut up.”
Now my eyebrows lifted. “You know you’re not supposed to say that, Danielle.”
“Okay, hush up. Really?” She started bouncing up and down, straining against her seatbelt. “When? Soon? A boy? A girl? Oh, oh, oh! Both?”
I had to laugh, mainly so I didn’t start sobbing. I hadn’t even considered twins.
Dear God, I had to spend less time with Vee. What if that shit was contagious?
“I literally just found out. Like this morning. I mean, I suspected, but you know, PMS can be rough.”
A glance back showed Dani was nodding sagely, although she had no clue. But she would.
“So, um, yeah, I took a test. And surprise! I mean, we aren’t even married yet and it’s nice to be before you start propagating the earth. But definitely not necessary, since this isn’t the dark ages. But it’s good,” I added, remembering impressionable ears were listening to my panic babble. “Very good. Marriage is sacred.”
“No one wants to be the size of a moose in a wedding gown. At least that’s what Toby’s mom said.”
Toby’s mom was either a genius or a jerk. I’d puzzle it out later.
“I’m supposed to be the flower girl,” Dani reminded me. “Does this mean I have to wait forever?”
“No. I don’t know. It’s a lot.” I gripped the wheel and focused on slow breaths, in and out. Practicing for when I would eject a small water buffalo from my private area.
Right, there was the thought to calm me down.
“But weddings are fun. You get to dance and get sick on cake. Plus, I’ll have a pretty dress.”
“You sure will, especially since I have an important question I’ve been wanting to ask you.” She went still and quiet as I chanced a quick look at her in the back, still clutching Rudolph. “Will you be my maid of honor? I know you had your heart set on flower girl.”
“No way. That’s like the best job of them all, isn’t it?”
“Pretty much, other than getting married to your dad. Which you can’t do, because illegal.”
She didn’t laugh at my joke, just wrinkled her nose as if she was waiting for the punchline.
Me too, kid, me too.
She still hadn’t answered when I pulled into the driveway a short time later. “So, what do you say? Don’t leave me hanging here.”
“I say yes, but does that mean the baby will be the flower girl or boy?”
“Maybe it’ll be before the baby. I don’t honestly know. Your dad doesn’t even know yet.”
Dani’s eyes grew huge. “Uh oh.”
“What uh oh?”
“You should let me tell him.”
“I should? Why?”
“Because I know how to handle him. He’s special.”
While I couldn’t fault that logic, I had to admit curiosity at what she was getting at. “Do you think he won’t be happy about the news?”
“Oh, sure, he’ll be happy, but if I tell him, he’ll be even more happy because then he won’t have to worry about, you know, sibling rivalry. Toby hates his brother. He tried to kill him with a plastic phone once.”
“Um…” I hoped she was being metaphorical. “So, you’re sure you’re okay with this? I know we haven’t had much time together just you and me and your dad, but the baby won’t be here for ages.”
“I thought it took nine months. Only elephants are longer.”
There wasn’t much chance of slipping anything past this child, that was for sure. “Yeah, but that’s a while. We’ll do lots together before then. And you’ll have fun with him or her, I’m sure. I mean, I loved my brother to pieces until he betrayed me, but honestly, brothers and sisters are the best.”
Pretty sure I wouldn’t be winning any parenting awards this year. Or ever.
“I’m excited. I will teach her everything she needs to know about dealing with Dad. You, I’m still figuring out.” With that, she exited the car.
So, according to Dani, we were having a girl. Or else she was decreeing it so since boys sucked. Right now, when I was hungry enough to salt my car bumper and eat it for an appetizer, I couldn’t claim to disagree.
I followed her up on the porch and we went inside to go through the loot I’d gotten at the craft store. Thank God bats seemed to be popular for the spooky types all year now, since they were kind of out of season. It helped that the store was ginormous and stocked basically everything.
“I have an idea,” Dani said a little while later, tilting her head. We were surrounded by bat
s and hard hats and garland and other Christmas doodads. “Let’s spell out baby with the extra bats. Or…we could dress up Trick in a baby outfit?”
“Definitely the first.” I cleared my throat. “Speaking of surprises, guess what? Trick is having kittens.”
“Really?” Dani shot onto her knees and clasped her hands, her face glowing with utter delight. “Can we keep them? Please, please, pretty please?” She crawled over to me and hugged me, making me laugh as she rained sloppy kisses all over my face. “Please, please, pretty please. I’ll clean their litter box and play with them and brush them, and I’ll let them sleep in my bed and—”
The front door opened, and Gideon stepped in, smelling of sawdust and with white paint flecks dotting his dark hair. He stopped dead to take in the chaos we’d begun to unleash in the living room.
“What is this I just heard about cleaning litter boxes?” He narrowed his eyes at Dani. “You have two cats now. You don’t get more.”
Dani made a face. “You’re not supposed to eavesdrop. It’s rude.”
“You were practically yelling. I’d need earplugs not to hear you.” He gave me a hard stare, and it was probably because he’d injected me with baby serum, but holy crap, he looked hot today. “No more cats. Right?”
Dani crossed her arms. “If we can have more babies, we can have more cats.”
So, yeah, guess that particular feline was out of the bag.
Coincidentally, Trick chose that moment to appear and rubbed against Dani. She gave a loud sniff and picked her up, pressing her face into the cat’s dense black fur. “Let’s go read, Trick.”
“What about the bats?” I didn’t look at Gideon. At least I hadn’t heard his body hit the floor.
Then again, my heart was stampeding so loudly, I was fairly certain I wouldn’t have heard an ax murderer yell, yoohoo, honey, I’m home.
“I’m sure he won’t allow them. Because he’s mean.” Dani flounced past Gideon, and to add insult to injury, Trick swiped out at him with her paw as they passed.