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“I knew it!” I wiped tears. “He’s sort of the best.”

“He’s okay.” Piper hugged him, then approached me.

Her arms wrapped around me again, but as they did, I felt something and pulled back.

“What?” Chloe asked.

“Uh… I think I just felt him kick,” I gripped my stomach.

“What?” Piper gasped. “Wait… it’s a boy?”

Cole and I exchanged a glance. He nodded, suggesting I should tell her.

I snickered. “It’s a boy. And we haven’t named him yet, so don’t ask.”

“Well, I will love the hell out of him,” Piper giggled, patting my stomach. “He better kick me soon.”

“That was the first kick,” I said. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Piper grinned. “So, are we moving in?”

“If you want, yes,” Cole said. “Otherwise, you can keep the carriage house.”

“Nah,” Piper said. “As long as I get the room that is in the attic in the middle. And I can decorate it the way I want.”

“We can make that work,” I agreed. “Whatever you want, kid.”

“Great. Now, I am going to go say hi to the other horses. They must have missed me.”

And just like that, Piper departed. Cole and I stood there a hot minute, taking in all that unfolded.

“We don’t deserve her,” I sighed.

“We definitely don’t,” Cole chuckled. “But she’s okay. I should have known she would be.”

He wrapped me up in a hug and squeezed me tight. The baby kicked again, fluttering in the most beautiful way.

“He’s kicking again,” I said. “He has to know.”

“He will,” Cole said. “God, this kid is going to be spoiled!”

I grinned. “Would you have it any other way, Mr. Hayward?”

“Absolutely not.” He kissed me sweetly. “All the chaos, all the time.”

I took his hands. “Are you ready to do the next part?”

“Today? Is it really time?”

“It is,” I said. “Let’s watch it live.”

I was finally ready to tell the world what happened. We’d recorded a corny video I hoped everyone would eat up. The goal was to tell our families and then drop it out of nowhere. Thanks to Meg’s creative choreography and Jerry’s endless encouragement from behind the camera, we managed to get through it. I could tell Cole loathed participating in these things, but played along.

I sat in the office at my laptop, pulling up my profile, and pressed publish on my phone, pushing our adorable little announcement into the wild. We watched comments roll in while viewing the complete cut for the first time.

The video showed me standing in the arena holding Zee. He stood, looking away from the camera. We’d tried to get him to focus, but he was everywhere at once. This is why I hated filming with the big idiot.

“I need to come clean about something—a lot of things,” I said. “And I’m coming to you today with good news and bad news. Let me start with the bad news first.”