She smiled warmly. “Nice to meet you, Jada. Well, nice for us. Sorry the kids gave you a scare.”
Aggie got up, offering to take Della’s jacket, while Gray pulled out a chair at his right for her. Hayes got in beside her, putting them across the table by Bryce and me.
“So, this is the one?” Hayes asked Bryce, tilting his head at me.
“She is, but you can call her Jada.”
My heart melted for just a moment before I noticed Hayes’s sly smirk. “Tell me, Jada, he’s gotten a dick implant, hasn’t he? You know if I was rich?—”
Della whacked his arm. “Get off it, Hayes.”
Aggie’s olive cheeks darkened with embarrassment, and Gray rubbed his temples. “Damn it, Hayes…” he muttered, exasperated.
Bryce looked mortified, but I had to laugh. “So this is what it’s like to have siblings?”
“You have no idea,” Bryce muttered.
After eating breakfast, where I did more laughing than eating, I went upstairs and got dressed for the day. Meeting the rest of Bryce’s family painted a picture for me so I felt like I knew him even more than before.
I saw a home full of laughter, love, acceptance, annoyance, decades-old jokes, and children who were making their own memories on the Madigan ranch.
So at the end of the day, when everyone had gone home and Bryce and I were lying in bed together, I looked over at him and said, “I can see why you love it so much here.”
He smiled at me, looking more at peace than he’d seemed since I met him. “It’s not perfect, but it’s home.”
“It’s perfect because it’s home,” I told him. Then my eyes flared open, and I sat up. “Holy shit, Bryce.”
He got up quickly, scanning the room for danger. “Did the snake come inside?” he asked, muscles flexed to protect us.
“No, not that.” I put my hand over his arm to settle him. “We haven’t talked about where we’re living after the wedding.”
His expression went blank. “Shit. We haven’t.”
I nodded emphatically.
“Well, you’ll move in with me. I have an extra bedroom for the baby. Plenty of room on the property for us to spread out.”
“Do you have an extra room for Glamma?” I asked, fiddling with the yarn knot on the quilt. “Because I can’t leave her on her own. At least not for long.” My heart ached at the thought. “She’sdoing okay now, but her age is showing. I don’t know how much time we have before she’ll need me more.”
Bryce took my hands in his, and I realized how fast I’d been talking only when his touch helped calm me down.
“We’re going to figure it out together, okay?”
I nodded, instantly feeling protected by him. Something about Bryce oozedsafe. And he’d done nothing to make me not trust him.
“On Monday evening, we have a press conference scheduled to announce our engagement,” he said. “Are you free Tuesday night?”
I nodded. “That’s when Glamma goes to play mahjong.”
He smiled at that. “Okay, Tuesday night, it’s you and me, figuring out our next steps.”
I bit my bottom lip. “And tonight?”
He smirked, leaning in to kiss me. “Tonight is all about you.”
54.Bryce
My phone vibratedin my hand as I rode the elevator to the top floor of The Tower. I turned it over, looking at the message.
