Chapter 11
Four weeks later…
N ick propped his pillow up, staring at the waterfall of hair flowing over his chest, Leandra’s arm draped over his bare stomach.
He glanced out the window of his brother’s guest room. Custom built homes on acre lots lined along the palm-tree-dotted quiet Orlando street.
Logan living in the ’burbs, about to get married, and with a baby on the way.
Life and it’s strange turn of events.
Leandra let out a soft purr as she stretched. “What time is it?”
“Almost nine.” He brushed her hair from her face.
“Why’d you let me sleep so late?” Her eyelids fluttered.
“You need it.” He smiled. “Ready to meet my mother?”
“No.” She pulled the sheet over her head. “Can’t it wait until your brother’s wedding? ”
“That’s not for another month.” Nick laughed. “Come on, it can’t be worse than how I met your parents. I mean, really. Nice introduction.” He tugged at the covers, tilting her chin. “Hey, Mom and Dad, this is Nick, and oh, by the way, I’m pregnant, and it’s his.”
She smiled. “I was just killing two birds with one stone. I don’t know who looked more shocked. You or my dad. But really, it’s not like you didn’t know it was possible.”
“So not the point.” He brought his mouth to hers, pressing his tongue between her lips.
After everything had gone down in Miami, he’d gone back to New York with her for a few days before he was sent on another assignment, which took a week.
When he returned, she’d dropped the bomb, one he hoped she’d drop, but the idea he would be a father still rattled his nerves.
Especially when he’d yet to tell the baby’s mother that he loved her.
“You’re trembling,” she whispered.
“My mother still scares me.” But that wasn’t what caused the fear swirling in his gut.
What if Leandra didn’t love him back?
They hadn’t talked of marriage or being together as a couple; although, every time they were together, they ended up in bed.
She could have stayed in one of the other guest rooms, but she didn’t say no to staying with him.
Or meeting his mother.
“Wonderful. Now I’m even more terrified.” Leandra let out a long sigh. “What time is she supposed to be here?”
“She’s already here.”
“What!” Leandra bolted upright. Her tank top shoulder strap fell down her arm. His boxers rolled down low over her hips.
“She got in yesterday, but since we got in so late, she was already asleep. I’m sure she’s down in the kitchen making food for everyone.”
“We’re eating brunch here?” Leandra slapped his arm. “You should have told me that. I thought I was meeting her at some public restaurant where she’d have to be nice to me.”
“You’re carrying her grandchild. She’s going to love you.”
“I wanted her to like me for me, not because you knocked me up.”
“Well, same went for your folks, but you shoved me under the bus.”
She leaned back in the bed, her shoulder rubbing against his. “That’s different.”
“I don’t see how.”
For a week now, he’d been trying to find the perfect moment to tell her he loved her and wanted to marry her, but every time a moment came, something like her parents, or his mother, ended up ruining that moment.
“What the fuck,” he muttered.
“Excuse me?”
He jumped from the bed and rifled through his rucksack until he found the little box. With trembling fingers, he climbed back onto the bed, hiding the box behind his back.
“I’ve wanted to say this for a while now, but honestly, something gets in the way, or I’m just afraid.” He sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a long swish before looking her in the eye.
She smiled sweetly, her brown eyes melting his heart like a marshmallow over a campfire.
“I love you.” He braced himself for the ‘oh, well, I don’t feel the same way, just having fun, but we can co-parent’ rejection.
“I love you, too.” She cocked her head.
He blinked, shoving a finger in his ear, wondering if he still suffered from temporary hearing loss. “What?”
“Why are you acting so surprised? It’s not like we haven’t said that before.”
He coughed. “We’ve never said those words. I’d remember since I’ve been terrified for weeks that you’d tell me all our future would be was occasional screwing and co-parenting.”
“Oh, my God. We’ve never said we loved each other?”
He shook his head.
“But I’ve known for a while you love me. How could you not know? Don’t I show it?”
He nodded. “Yeah, but I need the words.”
“I love you,” she said, cupping his face and smacking his lips. “Better?”
“I’d feel a lot better if you put this on your finger.” He opened the box and held it out in front of her. It wasn’t a huge diamond, because he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t want that.
“Nicholas Emmerson Sarich,” his mother’s voice yelled from somewhere a little too close.
The hair on the back of his neck stood at attention. Nothing terrified him more than when his mother used his full name.
“The door is locked, right?” Leandra asked, staring at him, while he still held the engagement ring in front of her.
The door rattled.
“I guess not,” he said softly as the door flew open.
“Logan tells me Leandra is here…” His mother’s words trailed off as she planted her hands on her hips, glaring at him.
“You didn’t tell her I was coming?” Leandra asked.
Nick wanted to crawl under the bed. If he had told his mother, they wouldn’t have had a second alone the moment he’d set foot in this house.
“No, dear, he didn’t. I thought I was going to have to fly to New York to meet the woman strong enough to bring this one to his senses.” His mother grabbed him by the ear and yanked.
“Mom, really?” Heat spread across his cheeks. “You’re embarrassing me here.”
“Well, maybe if you’d told me, I wouldn’t have to come barging in.” His mother let go of his ear and held out her hand. “I’m Catherine Sarich and the mother to this idiot. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too. ”
He watched Leandra and his mother shake hands right next to a ring he still held in his palm.
“Well, breakfast will be ready in fifteen minutes. Don’t be late,” his mother said, turning on her heels, but she stopped at the door and glanced over her shoulder. “I’m going to tell you two something similar to what I told Logan and Mia.”
“Oh, God, Mother, please don’t.” He rubbed his ear.
“I know you’ve both been married before, and I’m never going to be mother of the bride, so do what you want about that. But do not make me wait too long for lots of Sarich grandbabies.”
“You’ll only have to wait about seven and a half months,” Nick said with a smile, enjoying the way his mother’s eyes widened with her mouth hanging open.
She let out a breath and shrugged. “Well, it’s only fitting we have another shotgun wedding since that’s how your father and I did it.”
“What!?” That was news to Nick. “I’m shocked, Mother.”
His mother laughed as she gently closed the door.
“Well, that was entertaining,” Leandra said, taking the ring out of the small box and sliding it on her ring finger. “Embarrassing, but highly amusing.” She reached out and snagged his ear.
“Ouch!”
“I’ll have to thank your mother for showing me how to keep you in line for the next fifty years.”
Nick batted her hand away. “Interesting way to say yes to a marriage proposal. ”
“I have a feeling our life together is going to be very interesting.”
Thank you for taking the time to read HER LAST HOPE .