Chapter 47 Jada
At the end of the workday, Bryce met me outside of the daycare center. He’d changed out of his typical suit and wore a pair of jeans, a dark-green T-shirt, and cowboy boots. My eyes did a doubletake on the boots. They were even scuffed up.
“How much did you pay for them to be distressed like that, cowboy?” I asked him with a teasing smile.
His cheeks gained a pinch of color. “I didn’t pay for that. I told you, my family owns a ranch.”
“You’re a billionaire,” I said. “I can’t exactly picture you shoveling out the stalls.” That’s what cowboys on TV did, anyway. I had no idea what they did in real life.
“To you, I’m a billionaire. To my dad? I’m an extra set of hands.” There was a hint of sadness to his voice I couldn’t quite explain. But he extended a hand for me anyway. “Ready to go? Gen’s waiting out front.”
I slipped my hand into his, reveling in how good it felt. “Gen is driving?” I asked. “Isn’t Cottonwood Falls two hours away?”
He nodded as we made our way toward the massive glass doors at the front of the building. “Usually, I’d drive myself, but I thought we could use the time to prepare. I got Gen a hotel, so she’ll have the weekend to herself once we get there.”
“You bought her a hotel?” I asked, stunned.
Bryce chuckled, “No, I booked her a suite. I’m not always crazy...” He leaned in, kissing my cheek. Then whispered, “Only when it comes to you.”
A shiver went up my spine, and suddenly, I wished it was just the two of us so we could pull over somewhere. The combination of Bryce Madigan and these pregnancy hormones was wild.
The glass doors swung open, greeting us with a blast of cool fall air. I shivered a bit, and Bryce reached out, rubbing his hand over my arm. It was almost like an instinct for him, taking care of me.
His big white pickup was waiting out front in the loading zone, and Bryce strode to it, pulling the back door open for me.
“Cowboy boots and a pickup? Laying it on pretty thick, don’t you think?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Get in the truck, Jada.”
Laughing, I did as he asked, using his offered hand as help to step in. Something about the gesture made me feel so dainty. A rarity as a tall, plus-size woman. Although I liked being strong and independent, feeling taken care of in this way was unexpectedly nice.
Bryce got in, closing the door behind him. Gen greeted us both with a smile and then passed him a manilla folder.
“What’s this?” I asked, giving it a pointed look.
Bryce opened it up. “We have a lot to go over before we arrive.”
If it weren’t for the thick folder, I might have thought Bryce was joking.
But no. He held it open and said, “There is a lot two people getting married need to know about each other. And my family is nosy as hell. They’re going to ask.
So I want us to be ready before they start giving you the fifth degree. ”
A nervous shiver went down my spine. “What if they don’t like my answers?”
Bryce closed the folder back up. “My family is going to love you. You know me—I like to be prepared.”
Thinking of the pregnancy books he’d read, I nodded. “True.” That’s when I realized this was as much for him as it was for me. So I asked, “Where should we start?”
Producing a pen from his back pocket, he opened the folder back up and said, “I have a list of all the common premarital questions we should know about each other. Let’s go over them.”
“Sure. Hit me.”
His light-blue eyes flitted side to side as he skimmed the page. “Do you want to have children? If so, how many?”
My lips quirked involuntarily. “Yes. At least one. If not several.”
He grinned, seeming happy about that. “No specific number?”
I shook my head. “Numbers always go out the window when real life gets involved.”
“You’re a realist,” he commented like he was filing away that information.
“Wasn’t always.” A sad smile touched my lips.
He nodded with a look of understanding. “I’d love to have more children too. Maybe two or three. But I’m happy with one.” He put his hand over my stomach, and I covered it with mine. Somehow, the gesture felt even more intimate than a kiss.
“What’s next?” I asked.
“What is a deal-breaker for you in a relationship?” he read from the page.
“Cheating,” I answered. I’d been cheated on before, and I never wanted to go through that again. “And I know your business matters to you, but if we’re raising a family together, I don’t want to feel like I’m in it alone.”
Bryce nodded. “I know guys at my level who outsource everything in their lives, but being a father is one thing I’d never want to hand off to someone else. I promise.”
My heart fluttered at the words, and baby girl kicked like she was dancing at the news. But I reminded myself that actions meant more than words. I prayed Bryce would continue showing me his good character.
“Cheating and keeping secrets are mine,” he said. “I want us to be honest with each other, no matter how hard it gets.”
My stomach squirmed, because I’d come so close to betraying him in the biggest way. “I’ll be honest from here on out,” I promised him.
He gave me a weighty look that spoke volumes. “I know you will.”
My lips twitched, relieved, happy too.
For the next half hour or so, we went through Bryce’s list, answering everything from if we wanted pets (no, neither of us had time) to what we wanted birthdays and holidays to look like.
Just when I thought we were done, Bryce asked Gen for the next folder, and she passed another one back.
“There’s more?” I asked.
He cringed a little. “This one is on my family. They’re a lot, so I thought you might want to know what to expect going into it.”
The gesture was kind of sweet, and I found myself eager for him to peel back the cover and show me the people who made him who he is.
I leaned a little closer, my senses getting inundated with the subtle hint of his cologne. I swear the stuff made my ovaries shiver. Was that part of being pregnant? Getting turned on at the drop of a hat? Because damn, I was already uncomfortable.
The first page showed an older man and woman together on a cruise ship.
They stood in front of the railing, a vast expanse of blue ocean behind them.
The man looked friendly, with blue eyes and deep-set wrinkles that spoke to a life in the sun.
The woman was younger than him, by a decade or so.
She had tawny skin like she may have been Hispanic or some other ethnic mix.
Her black hair was long and straight, and her smile looked incredibly kind.
Like she was the kind of person you could sit by and instantly feel like friends.
“That’s my dad and his wife,” Bryce explained. “They got married a little over ten years ago, although they’d been in love way longer than that. Aggie’s sweet as pie, and my dad’s nice too, but he’s famous for his come-to-Jesus talks. I don’t think you’ll need one of those.”
I winced a little. “Let’s hope not.... Does he know I’m expecting?”
Bryce shook his head. “I thought we could tell them, if everything goes well.”
I nodded, not sure how I felt about that. If I should feel any way at all. The whole situation was messy, but messy didn’t seem to scare Bryce away.
As the Texas countryside blurred out the windows, Bryce went over the rest of the pages.
He had four brothers who were all married.
Two of his brothers had beautiful, blended families.
One brother and his wife were child-free, and another brother was married to a stunning redhead and had two red-headed kids.
Looking at the photos, I noticed that one of Bryce’s brothers had a child I recognized. “Maya is your niece?” I gasped.
With a twinkle in his eyes, he raised a finger to his lips. “That’s our secret around the office. She goes by her mother’s last name and everything. We don’t want people thinking she gets special treatment because we’re related.”
“Does she get special treatment?” I countered, arching my eyebrows.
Bryce chuckled. “She doesn’t need it.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s the hardest worker in the company. If she were any good with tech, she’d have my job in a heartbeat. But her talent is seeing what’s needed and filling in the gap before you ever knew it was a gap. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
Then it hit me. “Is she going to be here this weekend?”
Bryce nodded.
“Why didn’t she ride with us?”
“She wanted to take her own car. Something about being young and staying with your parents makes you want to have an exit plan.” He chuckled.
I wished I understood. But I lifted my lips anyway.
Gen spoke up. “Here’s the B&B.”
My eyes widened, and I got closer to the window to look around.
There wasn’t much to see, though. The hotel must have been in a more residential part of town because when I looked around, all I saw were smallish houses and a larger brick building with a school- or church-style letter sign that said Cottonwood Falls B&B.
Bryce opened his door and said, “Let me grab your bags and walk you inside, Gen.” Then he placed his gaze on me. “I’ll be right back. Don’t miss me too much while I’m gone.” He winked.
The wink made me release a noiseless chuckle. “I won’t,” I promised him.
Out the window, I watched him reach into the bed of the pickup and then haul a duffel bag over his shoulder. It struck me that she was his employee, yet he was serving her. Did Bryce treat everyone in his company with such respect?
Before I had too long to think about it, he was opening the door for me and saying, “Why don’t you ride up front with me on the way home?”
“You don’t want to be my driver?” I teased.
“Hard to hold your hand when you’re sitting in the back seat,” he replied, making butterflies dance in my stomach. I knew it was butterflies this time. Baby girl’s kicks seemed to be few and far between, or at least hard to notice.
I got out, sitting in the passenger seat as he drove out of the small town, showing me a few things on the way.
The diner, a hair salon, even an old brick schoolhouse that had been converted into boutique senior living.
It made me think of Glamma and how she’d gushed about Bryce after our evening spent wedding planning.
If you don’t marry that man, I will, she’d warned.
I just hoped his family liked me as much as Glamma liked him.
As we got out of town, I stared around at the empty fields—what little I could see of them in the headlights. And that’s when I realized, there were no lights for miles. “You grew up out here?”
He nodded.
“Tell me the spot where you’d pull off and fool around,” I ordered. “I need to get the full picture.”
The tips of his ears went red, which was so endearing I almost wanted to embarrass him more.
“There’s a tree row up there,” he told me, pointing at a stand of cedar trees. “If you park and turn off your lights, no one could find you at night.”
I lifted my eyebrows. “Like right now?”
He grinned. “Like right now.”
Tapping my chin, I said, “Should we try it out?”
I’ve never seen a man slam on the brakes faster.