I pressed a hand to my heart. He couldn’t possibly want that. Especially with his ban on premarital sex. Would he really do that for me?
“You can’tnotget married your entire life,” Jenny said.
“I mean, I can,” he said with a defiant huff. “I’m not going to be Madden and have her freak out and run away after I ask her. When I ask—ifI ask—it’ll be because I know she’s ready.”
“You would give up the chance to be a dad?” Jenny sounded like she was on the verge of tears. “Ash, you need to be a dad. You’re too goodnotto be a dad.”
As Brooklyn would say, no cap.
“I’ll be a dad to Theo and Charlie.”
Seriously, if he didn’t stop being so gosh dang wonderful, I was going to disintegrate on the spot.
Movement from the balcony caught my eye and I looked up to see Theo and Charlie standing by the railing, listening.
I put a finger over my lips.
I didn’t know what Jenny was going to say next. This whole conversation felt like a loose cannon about to go off. So I walked into the kitchen.
Everyone looked my way. Ash, Jenny, and Ford. I flicked my brows, letting them know I’d heard.
Ashton gave me an apologetic, mortified look as he walked over. “Sorry.”
I offered them a smile and a wave. “I want you to know that there are listening ears. Little ones. Please, be careful with whatever you say next.”
Jenny clamped down on her words. She looked as apologetic as Ashton. And like she’d been emotionally bludgeoned by the news that Charlie and Theo were mine.
“What’s going on?” I asked quietly. “Maybe I can help sort this out.”
Ford’s hands were resting on the granite countertop of the island. “Oh, nothing that serious. Jenny’s just feeling a little broadsided, what with the news that she has two potential grandchildren she didn’t know about.” He made a crashing sound effect. “She likes to plan these things out, nine months in advance.”
Jenny squinted a glare and popped him in the back of the head, knocking his cowboy hat off. “Be respectful. Stop wearing your hat in the house and address your mother properly.”
His jaw dropped. “It’smyhouse and I?—”
“I don’t care if you won a Grammy!” She smacked thecounter. “Or an AMA, a CMA, or a People’s Choice Award.” She smacked it again. “You came out of my uterus. You’re a Dupree. Now have some sense and act like it.”
Ashton snorted next to me.
“What the hell, Mom?” Ford yowled. Jenny popped him in the back of the head again. He clenched his jaw and his nostrils flared.
Ashton chuckled. Relaxing a bit, he reached over, and wrapped his hand around mine. Then he tensed. Crap. I was still wearing the ring.
He picked up my hand and looked at it, eyes wide.
The room went silent for three steadying breaths.
“You’re engaged?” Jenny said, jubilant. “Why’d you let me stand here having this stupid conversation if you’re already engaged?”
“No.” Ashton shook his head. “Mom, it’s not?—”
“It just happened,” I said quickly. “Last night. We haven’t told anyone yet.”
Ashton groaned. “We’re not engaged. She’s kidding.”
I slipped my arm around his waist, drilling my finger into his ribs as a warning. “It’s okay. I’m ready to tell people.”
He turned to face me, frustration etched in his forehead and the crows feet around his eyes. “You can’t kid about stuff like that around my mom. If you put that seed in her head, she’ll grow an entire forest.”
