Jack was very still at the end of the dock, watching his son with an expression that had nothing restrained about it at all.
"Yes," Dove said. "Obviously, yes."
Trent exhaled. Like he'd been holding that breath longer than just tonight, longer than just this month—like he'd been holding it for the entire wild, impossible run of this last month and had finally found somewhere safe to let it go.
He slid the ring onto her finger, stood and pulled her up with him. He cupped her chin. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too.”
He kissed her, slow and gentle. It wasn’t long, but it was passionate.
Her mother jumped out of her chair. “Oh, my God.” She practically shoved Trent out of the way. “I’m sorry. I honestly never thought I’d see this day.” She hugged Dove so hard, she couldn’t breathe.
Her dad took Trent's hand and Jack hung back for exactly two seconds before he put his arm around his son from the other side, and for a moment all five of them stood on the dock in the dark over the water with the stars glittering in the sky.
But Dove couldn’t let another day go by without telling Trent and since he proposed in front of the family, she might as well make this a family thing. “I have something I need to tell everyone, and it’s kind of a big deal.”
Trent took her hands. “Bigger than getting married?
She decided to just blurt it out. “I’m pregnant."
Trent's face went through approximately four separate expressions in the span of two seconds. Surprise, calculation, something that was trying to be composed and wasn't, and then something that was so far past composed…shock.
He reached behind him and lowered himself.
But there was nothing behind him, and Trent went backward off the dock and hit the water with a sound that sent every gator in the moat to the far bank.
"Trent." Dove was at the edge of the dock. "Trent."
His head came up. He was in about four feet of water, sitting on the bottom, staring up at her with hair and mud plastered across his forehead. He brushed it from his face. "You're pregnant," he said.
"Yes."
"We're having a baby."
"That's what pregnant means,” she said.
His father burst out laughing. Her father joined in.
Her mother cried. It was that happy cry, but there were still tears, and Dove had been making her mom cry since she graduated from high school.
Trent sat in the water for a few more seconds. He didn’t smile. He didn’t frown. Nothing. “Holy shit," he said.
“We need to watch our language,” her mother said. “Good practice for when the little one arrives.
Jack reached down and took Trent’s hand. “Let’s get you out of that water before a gator decides you’re dinner.”
Trent took his dad’s hand and jumped up on the dock, dripping, still wearing that expression, and Dove put her hands on either side of his face the way he'd done to her at least a hundred times.
"You okay?" she asked.
"I think so." His hands came up and covered hers. Warm, even soaking wet. "Yeah." He turned his face into her palm for a moment. "Yeah, I'm good."
"You fell in the water."
“Shock will do that to a man.” He smiled. "We're having a baby."
“We are,” she said.
