Gasping, I put both hands over my mouth and twist in his arm to face him. His smile is the most gorgeous smile I’ve ever seen, and the gold in his eyes is winking at me.
“Marry me, sugar. I would get down on one knee, but you’d just tell me to get up before I hurt myself and ruin my speech.” His smile gets bigger as I nod. “Nora, sugar, I’ve never been the type of man who thought about the future, I never thought I was the settling type, but since I met you all I do is think about the what-ifs and one-days and I can’t imagine you not being in any of my future scenarios. Will you please share them with me?”
Cupping his face in my hands, I nod as the tears fall down my face. “Yes, Tuck, I will share all your tomorrows with you.” I push myself up onto my toes and kiss him hard.
Breaking the kiss and lifting his head, he says, “Are you gonna put it on? It took me hours to pick it out. I wasn’t leaving the jewelry store without the perfect one.”
Letting go of him, I step back and hold my left hand up, and he slides the ring on my finger. Perfect fit. I tilt my hand back and forth as the sun shines and sparkles in the stone. “It’s perfect, Tuck.”
He grabs my hand and pulls me, limping quickly to the house. “Hey, why are we going so fast?”
Without slowing or turning around, he says, “I’ve got six bedrooms, a den, a living room, and a game room to christen today with my wife and I don’t want to lose any daylight.”
I laugh and pick up the pace.
35
FIVE YEARS LATER
Nora
Kinley lowers herself onto the pool lounger next to me, her six-month bump cute as ever in her bikini and coverup. I, however, am in my eighth month and as big as a whale. I couldn’t bring myself to wear a bikini when I’m not pregnant, much less at this size.
Tuck says he loves my pregnant body and proves it to me with every pregnancy. We didn’t realize it the day he surprised me with our home and asked me to marry him, but I was pregnant with our Isabelle.
Looking across the pool, squinting from the sun sparkling off the water, I see Tuck taking turns throwing Isabelle and then Abigail into the water. Their red heads practically glow in the bright sun. His hard, muscled body is also sparkling in the water, and I squeeze my thighs together. Apparently, some women get super horny when pregnant, and I’m one of them. He hasn’t complained.
Little Elliot kicks me in the lungs again, and I slide my hand over my round belly.
Because I’m so far along, it wasn’t safe to travel to Oklahoma for the Fourth of July this year, so the family came to us. All of them.
I love it when the entire family is together. When I was growing up, it was just me and Grams; it got lonely sometimes, but it would be impossible to get lonely in this crowd. There are so many children running around the pool and the yard, laughing and screaming; it sounds like pure chaos.
But it’s music to my ears.
The sun is out, and the smell of sulfur and charcoal is in the air since the bigger kids have been popping fireworks all day, and Rhys and his father, with Gray, are standing around the grill in the outdoor kitchen grilling steaks, brats and burgers.
Across the yard, Jax and Mason are setting up the fireworks display area for tonight, safely away from the house. Their boys, Beckett, Weston, and Luka, are helping in the disorganized way only little boys can.
Kinley sips her virgin margarita and sets it on the table between us in the shade of the giant umbrella Tuck put up for me to sit under. “Do you think you’ll have another after this one?”
Shrugging my shoulder, I smile when another kick stings my ribs. “I don’t know, we haven’t really talked about it. I wouldn’t mind a couple more. Since I didn’t have siblings, the idea of a big family makes me happy.”
For the first six months after we had Isabelle, Tuck refused to fall asleep near her. Her bassinet always had to be on my side of the bed, and if she fell asleep on his chest, he wouldn’t let himself sleep until she woke up or I took her. He was scared to death he might hurt her if he had a nightmare.
He accidentally fell asleep once after Abigail was born with her on his chest, and he nearly lost his mind, he was so mad at himself. He went to his gym in the basement and stayed there for hours.
Now, if either of them comes to our bed at night, his rule is that they have to sleep on the other side of me. Away from him.
I think he’s being overly cautious. In the past five years, he’s only had a handful of nightmares. But that’s part of what makes him so great.
He’s the best father I could ask for. To other people, he seems like a grumpy asshole, but to me and the girls, he’s affectionate, protective, and giving.
Kinley laughs. “Damn, girl. This is it for me, I’m finally getting my girl, and I’m going to get my tubes tied. I’m too old to have anymore babies anyway. Did I tell you my obstetrician called all my pregnancies geriatric pregnancies? Just because I was past thirty-five. Bitch.” Her nose wrinkles, and she squints her eyes; she looks like a high school girl when she does that.
“I’ll bet Rhys is excited about having a girl.”
“Oh! He’s over the moon. Since we bought the new house and his dad moved in with us, they’ve painted the nursery pink, and set up princess furniture. I’ve started painting a mural on one wall. I’m pretty sure she’s going to be spoiled out of her mind.”
