Page 108 of Verdict

"Can we not? Not tonight. I don't want to get kicked out," Farrah pleaded. "I'm too pregnant for this shit."

Walker's eyes softened towards his wife. "Fine. But after you have our baby, can I punch your punkass brother in his stupid face?"

Farrah smiled, placing her hand on his thigh before giving it a squeeze. "Yes, Ace. You have my permission to punch him in the face."

"What!? That's not fair. Now I won't know when it's coming!" Nate whined. He sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, pouting.

Walker wore a shit-eating grin. "Exactly, you little shit." He pointed at him with his fork.

Once that was settled, everyone went back to their respective side conversations.

Cohen draped his arm across the back of my chair, leaning close, his lips brushing my ear. "Remind me again why I decided to buy us a house here?" he joked.

I laughed and turned toward him, placing a quick kiss on his lips. "Because you love it, and you love me."

He smiled against my mouth. "That's right."

Addison cleared her throat, breaking our focus from each other. I glanced over at my sister. "Dean and I thought tonight was as good a night as any to make a little announcement."

My eyes flicked down to the very full glass of beer that was still in front of her. My eyes went wide, and not being able to control myself, I yelled out, "You're pregnant!!"

Addison huffed and narrowed her eyes at me. "Seriously, Ava?"

Dean wrapped his arm around his wife with a laugh. "Yes, we're having a baby!" He pulled my sister into his side and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

Addison mumbled something about me ruining her surprise as everyone stood up to offer their congratulations and hugs.

When it was my turn, I pulled my big sister into a tight hug, "Sorry, sis. I was just so excited!" I pulled back to look at her. "We get to be moms together!" I beamed.

She smiled. "I know! I'm so happy you’re moving back home with Cohen." She wrapped her arms around me again, squeezing tight. "And I'm so happy you two finally stopped being stubborn and saw what everyone else has for a long time. You're perfect together."

I grinned— all of the fear, heartbreak, uncertainty, and hope from the past year came rushing back. "It took us a minute, didn’t it?"

The last several weeks had been a whirlwind. If you’d told me a month ago that I'd be standing on this gorgeous property in my hometown with Cohen wrapped around me, I'd have told you that you were a goddamn liar.

We wouldn't close for another month, but the house was a new build by a custom home designer, which meant we could check it out without anyone around. Cohen wanted me and Ellie to see the house and the property before he left tomorrow.

The house was perfect for us. It was tucked away in the hills but had a large expanse of flat land for Ellie to run around, and if I begged enough, a future dog as well. We didn't have any rivers or ponds on our property, like my brother and sister had, but there were plenty of large oaks and beautiful rock formations.

With Ellie settled on my hip, I ventured down one of the hallways to check out the bedrooms. The house had blonde hardwoods throughout, adding to the airy feel of the space. The entire back of the house was covered in windows that pulled the hill country landscape in. Farrah had told me all of the ideas she had to really make the place ours, and I couldn't wait to start turning this house into a home. I was most excited to put together Ellie's room. It had the sweetest little window seat, where I imagined us snuggled up together reading books before bed, her looking at the stars.

I made my way back into the kitchen, where I found Cohen checking out all the cabinets. "Hey, baby. Look!"

He opened a drawer, then went to slam it shut, only for it not to. It closed slowly and softly.

I chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, CoJo. Those are called soft-close drawers."

He had a boyish grin on his face as he opened and closed the drawer again. "No shit? That's awesome."

I shook my head. I swear, the things that entertained this man.

When he was done playing with all the drawers, and after he realized the cabinet doors were also soft-close, he walked over to Ellie and me. We were looking through the glass sliding doors that led out onto the massive patio.

"I think we should get one of those big swing sets and place it over there." I pointed to the space off to the right of the patio.

Cohen nodded. "What about a pool? Texas gets hot as hell."

"True. Yeah. I'd be down for a pool." I placed Ellie on the floor so she could crawl around. The girl never wanted to sit still anymore.