“You’ve found my special spot before…” Jessie winked.
“What has gotten into you today? I love it, don’t get me wrong.”
“Everything feels… I don’t want to say okay, because Lachlan is still in the hospital and he has such a long road ahead of him, but things feel like they aregoingto be okay. And spending time with our friends and family was just what I needed.”
“I love hearing that.” Hawk kissed her cheek. “Are you up for the rest of the trek?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
Jessie’s heart banged around wildly in her chest, not because of the insane workout it had been to get her hugely pregnant self back to her favorite hidden spring, but because she couldn’t believe what her eyes were seeing.
There, hanging in an old oak tree, off a low branch, was the dress she’d fallen in love with when she went shopping with Adrienne and Mae.
“What… I don’t understand? How did you…”
Hawk just chuckled beside her, the low vibrations seeping into her bones.
“Mae told me this caught your eye. I called the store and bought it that day. I wasn’t sure how this was all going to playout, but I knew after a day at the springs, and with what I have planned next, you’d want to be in something other than that incredible bathing suit.”
“I can’t change into it out here, though,” she sighed, her fingers running over the wispy blue fabric. God, the little bees were even more adorable than she remembered.
“You can. No one is out here with us. And we can be fast. I’ll slip the dress over your head, and you can slip your bikini top off once the fabric is covering you.”
Goodness, she really did want to put it on. And Hawk was right, there was no one around…
“Okay,” she laughed, plucking the strings loose from around her neck. “Let’s do it.”
Hawk’s eyes dropped to her exposed chest, heat blazing immediately in his gaze. “Pretty Girl, you can’t be doing that to me right now. We’ve got a schedule we have to adhere to.”
“We do, do we?”
“Yep.” Hawk shook his head, closed his eyes for a moment and then grabbed the dress off the branch, all while Jessie tried not to laugh. “Arms up, beautiful.”
The fabric slipped over her body, somehow still cool from sitting in the shade of the late afternoon sunlight. Her skin pebbled as his feather light touch dusted over her arms, her breasts, her waist, and her belly.
“Hey, baby girl. How about we go see this place Mama wants to show us?”
Jessie ran her hand over her belly, letting it rest at the bottom. All that walking must have kept their daughter asleep, even through the rising blood sugar aftermath of her sweet treat indulgence.
Her eyes lingered over Hawk, who was fidgeting with something in his pocket.
And in that instant, it all clicked into place.He already knew about her secret place.About the place she’d told herparents about all those years ago, when she would imagine what it was like to be proposed to. And he got her a pretty dress, and was walking with her up there now.
“She’s still asleep. But I’m finally ready.”
Hawk’s eyebrow raised so high she thought it might end up in his hairline, but as soon as she winked, his shoulders relaxed and he gave her such a genuine smile that his left dimple popped out. God, she hoped Bee had dimples just like him.
Jessie grabbed the bottom of the fabric and shakily put one foot in front of the other. They were only a minute or two away from the spot, and every step was filled with earth-shattering anticipation.
But not even the realization of what was about to happen could have prepared her for the reality of it. Because right at her favorite hidden spring, with water so clear and blue it looked just like Hawk’s own eyes, there were hundreds—maybe thousands—of flower petals scattered about. In her favorite tree, the one that had been bent and nearly blown over in a derecho years ago, flowers were weaved in and out of the branches to make the most beautiful arch she’d ever seen.
“I… Hawk?”
He took her hands, gently leading her until they were standing under that windblown tree.
“Jessie—”
“Yes,” she blurted. Oh god, her cheeks were burning. “You’ve been wanting to ask all this time and never once have you held it against me that I wanted to wait. But that’s just the thing, Hawk, I don’t want to wait any more. So, before you even ask… before you say the words I know you have probably been practicing since the day we found out about the baby… I want you to know that right now, today, and every day going forward, my answer will be yes.”
