Shock.
He was staring at me in shock.
I pressed my pointer finger to the middle of his forehead and poked him.
He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts.
“On that note,” Denver drawled. “I’m going to go outside and check on my horses. Let me know when the wedding is.”
Denver hung up.
I placed the phone on the couch cushion and stared at the man in shock underneath me.
“And you were right,” I said. “Her last wish is to see us happy.”
“Are you marrying me because she wants you to?” he wondered.
Kind of.
“No,” I lied. “I’m marrying you because I’ve wanted to be yours since I was sixteen.”
He inhaled swiftly.
“I’m sorry for leaving you.”
He reared back like I socked him in the jaw.
“What?” he croaked. “You didn’t leave me.”
That was a lie and we both knew it.
“I ran out of here like my tail was on fire,” I disagreed. “I was scared and hurt. I didn’t know how to handle your mother. And I didn’t know how to get better knowing that she would be that close. It was either giving you up, or making myself miserable, and I chose to give you up. I’m sorry.”
He caught my face and very seriously said, “You don’t apologize for keeping yourself safe. That’s all I’ve ever wanted, Antoinette. You happy. I don’t care about anything else in this life but that.”
I leaned forward and buried my face into his neck, inhaling his scent.
“I’m stronger now,” I pointed out. “Plus, your grandmother called me a dumbass. I’m not a dumbass, Bart.”
He squeezed me in closer, our torsos smooshed together, as he said, “If you were a dumbass, I was an even bigger dumbass. But we were kids, Net. Those were some adult issues that our brains didn’t have the capacity to navigate yet. We’ll do better.”
“We better.” I snickered as I spoke against his neck, my lips moving against the racing pulse I could feel and see. “We have little Margery Junior on the way, and she’s bound to be tougher than the original.”
Speaking of our little MJ, she chose that moment to start kicking up a storm.
Boone stilled, his body all but melting, and he felt our baby kicking his abdomen.
“This feels unreal,” he admitted. “Every time she kicks now, I feel like a little piece of my heart just flies away, never to be returned again.”
I leaned back and yanked off my shirt.
His eyes went to my breasts, barely being held down with the bra that had once fit like a glove.
Now, the girls spilled over the fabric and you could almost see my nipples over the top of the cups.
He blinked, his mind rerouting to other things.
I smiled and reached for his hand, placing it on my stomach.
