Page 115 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

As we waited for the countdown, I heard a gasp beside me. I turned and saw Nadia staring across the bar. All of the color drained from her face like she’d seen a ghost. I followed her gaze to see what she was looking at. The ‘ghost’ in question was a very tall, very sexy, very square-jawed, and dimpled man I’d never seen before.

“Nadia, who is that? Are you okay?”

She continued staring ahead, and when I looked back, the man was gone. Before I could say anything else, Will, her date, said something in her ear, and she shook her head and took a large swig of her drink, then started making out with him.

I nudged Zoe in the arm and gestured to tall, dark, and mysterious. “Who was that?”

“Who was who?”

I tried to look for the man who had disappeared. “The guy Nadia was just staring at like she’d seen a ghost.”

“I don’t know.” Zoe shrugged as Miles wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

As we waited for the countdown to start, Declan asked, “So, wife, do you have any New Year’s resolutions?”

“Well, I already found a man who looks at me like Clyde looks at Bonnie.” I smiled up at him.

He leaned down and whispered against my ear, “And it doesn’t hurt that he’s hung like him, too.”

I laughed as the countdown started.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six…”

Declan’s arms squeezed tighter around me.

“…five, four, three, two, one, Happy New Year!”

The room exploded in cheers. Declan claimed my mouth in a dizzying kiss as he dipped me back. When he straightened me back up again, we clinked our glasses, and he took a drink of his. I brought mine to my mouth but didn’t drink it. I didn’t think he’d notice. No one else had the entire evening. I’d been going to the bar and ordering cokes and water and nothing with any alcohol. I should have known that Declan wasn’t like my friends. He noticed everything.

“What’s wrong?” Declan’s brow furrowed.

“Nothing.” I smiled.

“Why didn’t you drink?”

When I was getting ready to go out, I realized I was a week late. So, when I went over to borrow Skylar’s shoes for tonight, I grabbed a couple of pregnancy tests that came in the four-pack she hadn’t used when she found out she was pregnant with Mason. I took them right before we left. They were both positive. I didn’t know if it was too soon to tell him since I figured I had to be four weeks along since I’d gone on antibiotics before the Christmas party.

“We can talk about this later.” I patted his chest.

“Talk about what?”

“Nothing.” We hadn’t specifically spoken about having kids. I knew that, in theory, he wanted a family. But I had no idea when he wanted that to happen.

His expression darkened. “Are you sick?”

“No.”

His whiskey stare intensified as he stared down at me, and I knew that he was not going to let this go. He wouldn’t be able to even if he wanted to. That was just how his mind worked.

As fireworks exploded above our heads, I rose up on my tiptoes and whispered in his ear, “I took two pregnancy tests before we came here, and they were both positive.”

I lowered back down on my heels and looked up at him, waiting for his reaction. I didn’t know if he was going to be upset because this wasn’t planned. I knew that with his OCPD, he needed things to be planned. When they weren’t, he felt like his life was out of control.

I braced myself not to take whatever his response was personally. He was allowed to have feelings around this, even if they weren’t positive. He lifted his hands and cupped my face.

“You’re pregnant?” he repeated.

I nodded.

“I love you,” he whispered against the top of my head. “I love you, wife.”

“I love you, husband.”

He leaned down and kissed my mouth, then my nose, and then my forehead before pulling me into a tight embrace. His arms surrounded me in safety, in protection, and inlove.

THE END