“And now I’m sworn to secrecy, right?”
“I think that goes without saying, yes.”
“So now the shoe’s on the other foot. Which would explain theswift make up between you and Sloane.”
“You catch on fast.”
I inhaledeeply, holding her tight to me. “Well, I can tell when a womanwants something, that’s for sure.”
“You can, can you.” She purrs, kissing me softly on themouth.
A softscoff. “Sure.” I can tell by the expression on her face that shewants to finish what we started earlier. “What about the pizza,love?”
“It’ll be here any minute.” She answers, holding me close,kissing me chastely, yet letting each one linger.
“You think your sister’s going to call you in hysterics later?She planning on telling Jacob tonight?”
“I told her to, but then again, we never listen to eachother.” She says between kisses. I’m trying like hell to keepthings PG here, but with Ellie, it’s difficult. She’s a woman whogoes after what she wants. No holds barred.
“You think we ought to put this on hold in case she needsyou?”
“She got pregnant on her own, she can deal with it on her own,Maverick. Besides, she’s worrying for nothing. Jacob’s going to beover the moon. His sister-in-law is expecting, and Sloane says thathe dotes on her.”
“See, I don’t know why women worry so much. I mean, that’s theproof in the pudding, when a man can make a family. Least, that’show I was raised.”
“Yeah, well, some families see unwed parents as a curse on thefamily.”
“Ah, that’s biblical bullshit. Hell, how christian my mama is,it doesn’t bother her in the least. Any one of us could have tenbabies without being married, and all she’d think about is thosegrandbabies.”
Thedoorbell rings and Ellie kisses me once more before answering thedoor. She takes the pizza, tips the delivery guy, and closes thedoor. “You hungry?” she asks, setting the boxes on the table. Theplace immediately smells so good my mouth is watering.
“Absolutely.”
We sittogether, eating the delicious pizza, talking about our day, andthen her phone rings. “It’s Sloane.”
“Go ahead, love, take it.”
Shewalks into the other room for privacy, and I finish my pizza, andwalk to the washroom. As I pass by Ellie’s bedroom, I see the smallgift bag on the floor. The one that has the little onesie in itthat I bought her for the baby. As I pull it out of the bag, Ican’t help but feel like what happened was a million years ago. Itseems so far out of reach, yet, if Ellie told me tomorrow that wewere having a baby, I’d still be ecstatic about it. I supposethere’s only one common denominator here, and that is, that I loveEllie like no other. We belong together, and it doesn’t matter whathappens, I’ll always love her.
“Sloane told Jacob.” She says, walking up to me. I hadn’theard her approach. She wraps her arms around me from behind,noticing what I’m looking at. “You think I should keep that or giveit to Sloane?”
“It’s up to you, love. It was a gift, but I suppose it may bea little weird keeping it, since we won’t have anyone to put iton…at least anyone that belongs to us, anyway.”
She hugsme tight. “Do you want to have a baby, Maverick?”
“I only want what you want, sweetheart. As long as I have youit doesn’t matter.”
“That your trained response, or the real one, baby?” she asksso sincerely that it breaks my heart.
“Darlin’, you won’t find anything other than the truth in me,so believe it when you hear it.”
“Call me old fashioned, but I want to be married when I startmy family. My folks were married, and all my family, they weremarried, too. I think somehow it just looks more professional thatway, as much as it sounds crazy.”
“It doesn’t sound crazy at all, Ellie. If that’s what youwant.”
“It is what I want. And I think it’s what Sloane wants, too,which is probably more so the reason why she’s freakingout.”
“You think Jacob won’t want to marry her?”
