Chapter 34
THIRTY-FOUR
Shane
Fuck, it’s been a long couple of days. Usually, I don’t mind being at work, but having to leave after the bullshit drama Jamie tried to cause nearly killed me.
All I wanted was to spend the night with Kinsley, reassuring her that she was all I wanted. But I couldn’t leave my brothers in a lurch. If something had happened and they didn’t have enough guys, I would have had to live with that. So, begrudgingly, I left.
But that didn’t stop me from texting Kinsley damn near every hour. Especially after Taylor relayed what she’d overheard when she was eavesdropping on her mom and Kinsley.
I’ll never forgive Jamie for the shit she spewed, and while she might be Taylor’s mom, after the crap she pulled, she’s no longer welcome in my home, and I told her as much.
All I want is to go home and spend time with Kinsley and my daughter, but going to the shop is the next best thing since it means hanging out with Kinsley and watching her do what she loves.
“Shane,” Lachlan says when I walk in, extending his fist to bump mine. “How’s it going?”
“Good,” I tell him, glancing around to make sure Kinsley isn’t near us. “I need to speak to you, but not here. Could we meet up for a drink one day this week?”
After nearly losing my daughter, I’m reminded of how delicate life is, and I’m done wasting time with Kinsley. I love her, and I want her in my home, in my life, as my wife.
Lachlan stares at me for several seconds before a knowing grin spreads across his face. “We can meet up for a drink anytime you want.” He leans in so nobody else can hear his next words. “But if you’re going to ask me for permission to marry my daughter, you already got it.”
I chuckle and nod. “Am I that obvious?”
“You remind me of myself,” he says with a shrug. “A man who’s in love and wants everything with the woman who’s captured his heart.”
“Dad, what are you going on about?” Kinsley asks, appearing out of nowhere. “Shane, let’s go,” she says. “We need to get started.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I tell her, following her back.
“I was thinking for today’s session, we’d do something a little different,” she says, closing the door behind her, but it’s been nearly forty-eight hours since I’ve seen her, and the only thing I want to do is kiss her.
So, I do just that.
Spinning her around, I gently press her against the counter, and holding her face, I press my lips to hers. She tastes like the perfect mixture of sweet and sour, and I realize she’s chewing on a Sour Patch Kid.
“You stealing my favorite candy?” I ask when I pull back.
“You left them here, and I had a craving.” She shrugs. “I missed you,” she says, wrapping her arms around me.
I lift her onto the counter and step between her legs. “I missed you so much fucking more.”
I trail my tongue along the seam of her lips, loving that she tastes like my favorite snack, and then run my tongue along her neck.
She tilts her head to the side, giving me better access to kiss my way up to her ear.
“I think we should forget the tattoo and go back to your place so I can spend the next couple of hours inside of you,” I tell her.
“Not happening,” she says, pushing me back. “Sit. I have a cool design, but since it’s not one you suggested, I’m going to draw it with a marker first, and then if you like it, I’ll tattoo it.”
“Okay.” I sit in the chair. “But you know I trust you, right? Anything you want to draw on me, I’m going to be good with it.”
Kinsley grins, her eyes twinkling with happiness. “I love you, Shane.”
“I love you.” I grip her hips and pull her into my lap because I can’t help myself. “One more kiss, and then you can draw on me.”
I reach around and fist her hair, pulling her face toward mine, and kiss her with everything in me, hoping like hell she knows just how damn much I love and want and need her in my life.
When we break apart, her eyes are glassed over, and I’d bet anything, if I reached into her pants, she’d be wet. But I don’t because if I did that, there would definitely be no drawing on me today.
She climbs off me and sits on the rolling seat and then gets to work. While she draws on my arm, she’s quiet, concentrating on whatever it is she’s creating. It doesn’t take long, and once she’s done, she steps back and smiles at me, looking almost nervous.
“Okay,” she says, handing me a mirror. “Take a look.”
But before I can look, she snatches the mirror back. “Actually, I’m going to take a picture of it, so it’s not backward.”
She pulls her phone out and takes a picture, then hands it to me. The first thing I notice is that she drew Sour Patch Kids.
“That’s you and me and Taylor,” she says, pointing to each one.
“That’s cute. I love it.” But then I notice that there’s a fourth one. It’s smaller than the others, making it look like a Sour Patch Baby instead of a kid.
I look at the image she drew, trying to wrap my head around what it means.
And then it hits me—a Sour Patch Baby.
“Are you pregnant?”
I glance up at her, and she nods, the most beautiful smile lighting up her face.
“I am,” she admits, taking my hand and placing it on her belly. It’s still flat, but the thought that there’s a baby growing in there has me wanting to never let go.
“I had it confirmed when I went to the doctor to get on birth control.” She smirks. “Looks like you have some kind of super sperm,” she says with a watery laugh as she pulls a piece of paper out of her back pocket and hands it to me. It’s a sonogram photo. “And our little Sour Patch is due December 16.”
Holy shit, she’s pregnant. Against all odds, we created a miracle.
“I wish I had been there,” I tell her, looking at the photo. It’s just a grainy gray-and-white image with a tiny speckle in the middle since she’s not that far along, but she’s fucking pregnant with my baby.
“You know what this means, right?” I say, setting the photo aside and standing.
“That we’re going to have a baby?” she smarts.
“That you’re moving in with me.” I grip the curves of her hips and pull her toward me. “And I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“We’ll discuss it,” she says, her gaze filled with mirth. “Now, do you want the tattoo as is, or are there any changes you want me to make?”
“It’s perfect,” I tell her, kissing her soft lips. “But make sure you leave room.”
“For what?”
“For when we need to add more babies because we both know this won’t be the last time that I knock you up.” I smirk, the thought of Kinsley growing my babies in her filling me with pride. “I have plans to fill you with as many Sour Patch Babies as you’ll give me.”
* * *
“I still think we should go to your place,” I say a few hours later as I drive us back to my house.
After she finished my tattoo, she mentioned she was hungry and asked if we could go to lunch. After we ate, she insisted we go by the bookstore, saying she needed to pick up the latest book in the series she loves—and grabbed a copy for Taylor as well.
When I suggested we go back to her place—since the only thing I want to do is get her naked, and going to my place means having to wait until Taylor either leaves or goes to bed—she said she’d rather go to my place.
“We’ll have plenty of time for that,” she says, raising a brow that tells me she knows right where my mind is at. “I want to get back to Taylor. She’s still recovering.”
“She’s going to school tomorrow,” I point out. “She’s doing just fine.”
“Then, we’ll have all day tomorrow to get naked.”
“I’m not waiting until tomorrow,” I scoff. “Tonight, the second she goes to bed, I’ll be inside you. It’s been too long since you were avoiding me.” I shoot her a look, and she smiles sheepishly.
“I’m sorry. It was just so much at once. With Taylor and Jamie getting into the accident and then finding out I was pregnant. I think I needed a minute to wrap my head around it all.”
“I get it,” I tell her, taking her hand and threading my fingers through hers. “But you’re not in this alone, so in the future, when you need to wrap your head around shit, come to me, and we’ll do it together.”
She’s quiet for a few minutes, until we pull into my driveway, and she turns toward me. “I want to wait until I’m twelve weeks to tell anyone outside of our immediate family about the baby, just in case something happens. We can have dinner with my parents and yours to tell them, but I want to tell Taylor first.”
Fuck, this woman. She has no idea how special she is, but I’m going to spend every day for the rest of our lives reminding her.
When we get inside, Taylor’s sitting on the couch, reading a book. She looks up and grins at Kinsley like she knows a secret, and when Kinsley smiles back, it confirms they’re definitely up to no good.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Nothing,” Taylor says in a tone that tells me she’s full of shit.
“I got you a new book.” Kinsley reaches into her bag and pulls out the one she got her at the bookshop. “And they’re signed.”
“Oh my God, thank you!” Taylor jumps up and grabs the book, giving Kinsley a hug. “I wanted to get one before they sold out, and I completely forgot to ask Jillian to get it for me. We’re going to buddy-read it, right?”
“Of course.” Kinsley pulls out her copy of the book and waves it around before setting it down. “After we finish our current read.”
“Cool. I’m going to put it in my room.”
“Okay, and then afterward, can you come back down?” I ask her. “Kinsley and I want to talk to you.”
Taylor looks between us suspiciously, nods, and then heads upstairs.
“You know,” I say, pulling Kinsley into my arms, “we never discussed you moving in here. With a baby on the way …”
“A baby that won’t be here for several months,” she notes. “I need to go pee, and then I’m going to freshen up.”
I follow her into my room, and the second we enter, something feels different. The first thing I notice is a candle on the dresser. One I haven’t seen before.
“Did you buy this?” I ask, picking it up. It’s white, and it reads, We love sex in the first chapter .
“No.” She laughs. “My cousin Natalia gave that to me a few years ago for my birthday.”
She takes it from me and sets it down, then heads to the bathroom, but I stay where I am, looking around. There’s a picture frame on the dresser that wasn’t there before. It’s of Kinsley and her parents in a whitewash wooden frame. I’ve only been to her place a few times since we usually come here, but I remember it being on her end table in her living room.
I glance around and notice several more items that weren’t here before—Kinsley’s pink silk pillow, a HomePod that I saw on her nightstand, another picture of her and her cousin Natalia.
I walk toward the bathroom to ask when she brought this stuff over—I mean, I don’t care because I want all her shit here, but I’m confused as to when she brought it all over since she hasn’t been here—when my eye catches on the clothes in the walk-in closet.
I step inside and find that my clothes have been moved to one side while the other side contains hundreds of pieces of women’s clothing. I look down and find several pairs of women’s shoes next to my sneakers.
“Sour Patch,” I call out.
“Yeah?” she says, popping her head out.
When I meet her eyes, I can see the humor in them, and it clicks—why she and my daughter were smiling at each other.
“Tell me this isn’t some kind of joke,” I warn. “Did you move all your stuff in?”
“I didn’t,” she replies in a serious tone, making my heart sink.
Did I somehow misunderstand?
“But Taylor did while I kept you busy all day,” she adds, a smile spreading across her face.
“You moved in?” I ask, just to make sure.
“I did. Taylor apparently knows a lot of guys with big trucks, and they helped her move all my stuff in.”
“Taylor,” I call out.
“Yeah?”
“I owe you big time!”
“I know,” she shouts back, making Kinsley giggle.
“This is for real?” I ask, scooping her up into my arms and making her squeal.
She wraps her legs around me and nods. “This is for real.”
“No take-backs?” I joke.
“No take-backs,” she says through her laughter as I carry her over to the dresser and set her on it.
“Fuck, do you have any idea how happy you’ve made me?”
“Hopefully as happy as you’ve made me,” she says. “And I’m hoping as happy as Taylor will be when we tell her that she’s going to be a big sister.”
Oh shit. That’s right. Taylor’s waiting for us out in the living room.
“She’s going to be thrilled,” I tell her, giving her a quick kiss. “Let’s go share the good news.” I lift her off the dresser and set her on the floor. “And then, tonight, after she’s asleep, we’ll be celebrating,” I say as we walk out of our room in search of Taylor. “Not only is my woman pregnant with my baby, but she’s living here for good. Can life get any better than that?”
“Can life get any better than what?” Taylor asks, having caught the tail end of what I was saying.
“There’s something we need to tell you,” Kinsley says.
“Kinsley’s pregnant,” I finish.
Taylor grins and then laughs. “I knew it!” she exclaims, hugging Kinsley and then me. “When we were moving your stuff, I found the prenatal vitamins, but I didn’t want to assume. This is so awesome! When are you due?”
“December 16,” Kinsley tells her.
“Wow,” Taylor breathes. “I’ll be graduating, and you’ll have a new baby in the house.”
“Speaking of which, we never got to go on that tour,” Kinsley points out. “You should check when the next one is so we can go.”
Taylor nods, but doesn’t look very excited.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” I ask her.
Taylor shakes her head, but her glassy eyes tell a different story.
“Tay, talk to me,” I insist.
“It’s nothing,” she says as tears fill her lids and fall. “I guess it’s just hitting me that this time next year, I’ll be graduating.” She sniffles. “It’s going to be hard to leave you, and now, with Kinsley living here and a baby on the way, it’s going to be even harder.”
“Yeah,” Kinsley agrees, “it will be hard, but you won’t be far at NYU, and we’ll come visit.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” Taylor says, enveloping Kinsley in a hug.
“Trust me, we’ll be there so often that you’ll get sick of us,” Kinsley tells her. “Want to see a picture of your baby brother or sister?”
“Yes!” Taylor pulls back, and Kinsley pulls out the sonogram image.
“Check it out,” I say, pointing at the speckle on the paper. “That’s our Sour Patch Baby.”
Taylor laughs. “You guys are so adorable. Meet-cute, single dad, small town. I seriously hope, one day, I find love that’s fit for a romance novel.”
“You will,” Kinsley tells her. “Because you’ve seen firsthand what a good man looks like.” She glances at me. “And you won’t settle for anything less.”
“Damn right I won’t,” Taylor says. “Now, I just have one question. Because everyone knows that a good romance book has to have a happily ever after … when are you guys getting married?”