Book 18 Kevin & Chelsea #4
“I’m saying I love you, I love us, and if we’re lucky enough to have a child together, I’ll love our baby, too.”
“You mean it?”
“I’d never say it if I didn’t.”
She rests her forehead against his chest and takes a deep, shuddering breath.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nods. “I thought I’d ruined everything.”
“You haven’t ruined anything. You told me what you wanted, and you should always do that.”
As Riley predicted earlier, the guys lose their collective minds over the idea of strange men massaging their wives.
“What the hell is going on here?” Blaine bellows, startling the women and waking the baby sleeping in Janey’s arms.
Vivienne lets out a lusty cry that has all the women scowling at Blaine.
Tiffany gets up from her spot on the floor and goes to her husband, placing a hand on his chest and pushing him backward out of the room where the women were gathered in a circle that also includes Maddie, Stephanie, Daisy, Mallory, Victoria, Grace, Sydney Donovan, Jenny Martinez, Hope Martinez, Erin Barton and Lizzie James.
From what Riley can see, there’s no sign of men, except for Joe, who comes downstairs to take the baby from Janey.
“What’s the deal, boys?” Joe asks as he pats the baby’s back and succeeds in soothing her.
Grant begins to laugh, and he can’t seem to stop. He bends at the waist and howls while Mac and Blaine scowl at him.
“What I think the deal is, Joe,” Adam says, “is that our friends Mac and Blaine were led to believe there would be male massage therapists here tending to their wives, and apparently, that was a problem for our intrepid friends.”
Joe laughs. “You guys never learn, do you?”
Maddie’s laughter changes to a grimace when she experiences a contraction.
Mac shouts that she isn’t supposed to have the baby yet.
Adam grabs his brother and tells him to get it together.
Mac picks up Maddie, and they leave for the clinic.
She’s ready to deliver the minute she arrives.
Fifteen minutes later, their son, Malcolm John McCarthy, III, arrives.
Another Mac McCarthy has joined the family.
Kevin agrees to babysit for Laura and Owen, so he and Chelsea can spend time with babies.
They arrived at the Surf, hearing babies crying and Owen and Laura looking exhausted.
Laura meant to call and reschedule due to all three kids being sick, but Kevin assures them he and Chelsea can handle it and sends them on their way.
The babies put them through their paces—crying, diaper changes, more crying, waking each other up, and eventually, waking Holden, too, which is when things really get interesting, because he wanted his mommy and daddy, not his Uncle Kevin.
Hours later, the three of them have finally exhausted themselves—and their caregivers—and are blessedly asleep at the same time.
Exhausted, Chelsea laughingly tells Kevin she absolutely does not want a baby of their own after this experience. Kevin reassures her they would only have one child. He thinks she’ll be a wonderful mother.
The day Kevin receives his divorce papers, he walks into the Beachcomber to find Chelsea working.
He thought of how he wanted to propose and decided he wanted to ask her at the bar, where it all began for them.
Kevin says he received his divorce papers in the mail that morning, and she kisses him, saying she’d never kissed him when he was completely single.
Extending his right hand, Kevin reaches for her left hand. “Thank you for staying with me through all this. You never wavered, even though I know how hard it was for you that I was still technically married.”
“I didn’t really have much choice after you made me fall in love with you.”
“You had all the choices, and you chose to stay, and I love you for that and so many other things, which is why I want to marry you and have a life with you and maybe have a baby with you. If you’ll have me, that is.”
“Kevin,” she says, gasping. “What are you saying?”
He opens his left hand to reveal the ring. “I’m asking you to marry me, Chelsea Rose. Right here in the place where we first started, I’m asking you to take this next step with me so we can spend the rest of our lives together. Will you marry me?”
She lets out a little shriek that has all eyes on them. “Yes! Oh, my God, Kevin, yes, I’ll marry you.” Cheers go up around them as the family and friends he’s invited to help them celebrate come into the bar.
Kevin slides the ring on her finger and stands on the rungs of his barstool to lean across the bar to hug and kiss his fiancée.
Then he sits back as she comes around the bar and launches herself into his arms, laughing and crying at the same time.
They accept congratulations from Riley, Finn, Frank, Betsy, Mac, Linda, Shane, Katie, Grant, Stephanie, Mallory, Quinn, Mac, Maddie, Joe, Janey, Laura, Owen and Chelsea’s many friends and coworkers from the bar.
Kevin has arranged in advance for one of her coworkers to work the bar so she can celebrate her engagement.