Chapter 31
31
ZARA
I zip the suitcase closed and then look beside me at the pile of clothes that have to be put away. It’s like overnight, my stomach grew, and none of my jeans fit me. My little pooch is now as big as both my hands. When I took my picture this morning, you could really tell that I was starting to show. I grab the pile of clothes in my arms, taking them to the bed to fold them and put them away, when my phone rings. Looking down, I see that Gabriel is FaceTiming me. “Hey, Cowboy,” I say once we get connected.
“Is there something you forgot to do today?” he snaps, and my eyebrows pinch together at his tone.
“Not that I know of.” I fold the pair of jeans and look into the phone. “But I have read in the baby books that pregnancy brain is a real thing.”
“Sweetheart,” he murmurs softly, and my heart melts, like it usually does with him, “I didn’t get any good morning pictures of you and my girls.”
I roll my eyes. “I’m going to laugh when we find out it’s two boys,” I tell him and open my pictures, sending him the one I took this morning. “There, I sent it.”
“Thank you. What time are you getting here?”
“I’m only coming tomorrow,” I say and see the disappointment on his face. “I’m going to come with my parents.”
“It’s been a week,” he grumbles out his frustration.
“I know,” I tell him. “Trust me, I know.” It’s been a week of nothing but a heaviness in my heart from the moment he walked out the door to go back home. Every time I got on the phone with him, I wanted to bring up our living situation, but I was always scared to. What if it’s just too much for him and he’s not ready? “But I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon,” I state with a smile on my face, “and I think I can stay until next Sunday.” I don’t think, I know I can. I busted out six meetings this week so I can work from there next week, but I also don’t want to push myself on him.
“What do you mean, you think?” His frustration is definitely making him crabby. “When are you going to know?”
“Later on today,” I lie to him. I can’t just come out and be like, I can stay . “I have to make sure that I can push some meetings around.”
“Push them all around,” he mumbles. “I have to go. I’ll call you back.”
“Okay, Crabby McPatty,” I tease when he glares and hangs up.
I finish folding the pants and then walk out to my office, looking to see how my schedule will be in the following month. The five big contracts I’ve got have been full steam ahead, and we are in the middle of finalizing everything. It’s been a lot of going back and forth to make sure all the buildings had staged apartments for viewing. I’ve had to get all the furniture for twenty-five units in five buildings. It’s been a roller-coaster ride over the past couple of months, and I’m happy it will be quieting down.
I make notes and email a couple of my suppliers, ensuring we are all on schedule. I press send when the doorbell rings and get up, looking down and seeing that I’ve been working nonstop for the past three hours. I’m walking down when the doorbell rings again. “Hold your horses,” I snap, opening the door and seeing him standing, holding on to the doorjamb with both his hands, his head bent. “What are you doing here?” I say, shocked for about two seconds before I launch myself in his arms.
“I came to pick you up,” he says, kissing me, “but we have to hurry. The plane is waiting.”
“Oh my God,” I say when he puts me down and takes me to my bedroom, “it’s like you borrowed a car and not a plane.”
“Called my father.” He looks around my bedroom, spotting my bag. “He said I could borrow the plane.”
“So extra, we were coming down tomorrow,” I remind him, ecstatic that he’s here.
“But now you can come to work with me tonight.” He holds my face in his hands. “Because I missed you, and I want you with me.”
I pretend to be annoyed, but the smile just fills my face. “Fine, whatever.” He kisses my lips. “I’ll go pack my office stuff, and my bag is over there.”
“It’s so small,” he notes, picking it up. “You should leave some of your stuff at my place so you don’t have to carry it back and forth.” The only thing I hear is some stuff and not all your stuff, so I turn and walk out of the room before he sees that it bothers me.
“I’ll be ready in five,” I toss over my shoulder, going to my office. Four and a half minutes later, I’m walking out of my house with my cowboy beside me, and I can’t wait to be back in his house.
* * *
“Oh my gosh!” I squeal when we pull up at his grandparents’ house for the gender reveal. “What in the world did she do?” I ask, looking at the decorations that fill the front lawn with blue and pink cowboy boots.
“She said she wasn’t going to go all out and was going to keep it simple.” Gabriel looks out the window.
“I think this is her simple,” I mumble as he parks, and I look over at him. “Are you ready, Cowboy?” I ask him, and he tips his hat downward, which means yes, apparently. I laugh, getting out of the car and making sure my dress is down. “Do I look okay?” I ask him, and he just grins, making me look down and blush. I stepped out of the bedroom wearing the white embroidered V-neck dress and my cowboy boots, and it took him a nanosecond to have me bent over in the middle of the kitchen.
“What do you think?” He grabs my hand. “My cock is getting hard just standing here beside you.”
“Put it away for later, Cowboy.” I smile at him, walking to the back, and I stop when I see the balloons set up on one side. Pink and blue balloons with square see-through boxes spelling baby, but with little cowboy boots inside them. Then off to the side is a long table with a cake in the middle up on a pedestal, and it, too, has blue and pink boots on top. White round tables are set up all around with chairs already occupied by some of our family.
“There they are.” I look over and see Billy coming toward us. He’s wearing his cowboy hat, like every day. His jeans look like they have been worn in and his white button-down shirt is tucked in with the collar open. He holds Charlotte’s hand in his. “Was wondering when you guys would get here.”
“Sorry we’re late,” I say, walking to Charlotte first, giving her a kiss on the cheek before Billy takes me in a hug.
“How are you doing?” he asks me. “I know this one is on cloud nine.” He points at Gabriel. “He comes over every day to show us how big you are getting.”
“Grandpa,” Gabriel scolds when he says the word he’s not supposed to say, but I give him a look to tell him to shut up. “He can say it, and I can’t?” he asks me, and I smile and nod. “Wow.”
“You better go tell Sofia you are here. She is fit to be tied,” Charlotte urges. “We can’t wait to find out what it is. I think it’s a girl.”
“You think, or he’s said it so much that everyone thinks it is?” I ask. She just smiles at me and puts her hand on Gabriel’s cheek.
“Our first great-grandbaby is having a baby,” she murmurs softly with all the love in the world.
We walk away from them and see my parents talking to his, and we both look at each other. “Well, at least they are getting along,” I mumble before we meet them. Ethan and Hazel hug me so tight, both of them with the biggest smiles on their faces.
“We are taking bets to see what it is,” Ethan says, going to hug Gabriel after me. “I think boy.”
“They all think girl.” He points at the three of them.
My father is the last one to hug me. “Hi, baby,” he whispers in my ear, and when he lets me go, he keeps me by his side. “How are you feeling?”
“Good,” I reply as he squeezes my shoulder. “We have to find Sofia,” I say, looking around when I spot her at the side going crazy doing something. She is giving orders to two people as Matty holds RC next to her.
“We should get over there.” Gabriel motions with his head, and I agree with him.
“Hey,” we greet when we get close enough to her. “This is beyond anything I ever thought,” I say to her as she gives me a hug.
“It was nothing,” Sofia says, batting away with her hand. “Just made a couple of phone calls.”
“JB said you scared him,” Gabriel interjects at the wrong moment, “and Charlie said you told him you would castrate him if he didn’t help.”
“What?” She fakes shock, putting her hand to her chest. “I would never.” She looks around and spots Charlie with a girl beside him.
“He’s lucky he brought his girlfriend, Jennifer, or I’d—” Sofia growls between clenched teeth.
“Why don’t you hold RC,” Matty suggests, “so you can calm down.”
“I am calm, Matty.” She glares at him, and her face immediately changes when she looks at RC. “How’s my perfect boy?” Her demeanor and even her voice change. “Are you being so good for me?”
“Okay, so how are we doing this?” Gabriel asks her, then looks at Matty. “Does he know?”
“No,” Sofia denies at the same time that Matty says, “Obviously, she doesn’t keep anything from me.” I look at him, my eyebrows going up. “Well, not counting you two hooking up and then you being pregnant.” He puts his hands on his hips. “You’re a bad influence on her, and I don’t want you around her anymore.” I can’t help but snort.
“Okay, so I decided to do cowboy hats,” she says. “I’ll put the hats one on top of the other so you can show the first one and then be like—surprise, it’s two.”
“Okay, can we do this?” I say excitedly.
“Hold RC,” Sofia says to Matty, handing him over before grabbing a microphone. Where she got it, I have no idea.
“If everyone can come over here so we can do the gender reveal,” Sofia announces.
“Colson.” I look around. “We need Colson,” I say, putting my hand on my stomach when I see him running from the barn.
“There he is.” Gabriel points in the distance.
“Okay, can we have everyone come closer, please,” Sofia instructs, “and can we start the Zoom?” I turn to see there is a projector screen hanging down from the side and I see all the little squares of everyone who can’t be here.
“Where is Zoey?” I look around and then I spot her coming close to me.
“I’m right here,” she assures me. “We just got in, so we had to hightail it.” She side-hugs me and then puts her hand on my belly. “It’s your favorite auntie.”
“Not her aunt,” Sofia corrects, “it’s more a cousin.”
“Did you know that we share the same blood because our mothers are twins, so we are like sisters,” Zoey retorts like she’s throwing down. “So it’s my nephew.”
“Niece,” Gabriel corrects her.
“Whatever. Can we do this?” I ask. “It’s been killing me.”
“Before we do this,” Gabriel starts, “there is something I want to say.”
“Oh my God,” Zoey says from beside me, and I nervously look at Gabriel.
“They are getting married,” Matthew states.
I gasp. “What?” I ask, looking at him, wanting to kill him for even bringing it up. I don’t even look at Gabriel.
“This is a wedding, isn’t it?” he asks, looking around. “A ruse to get us all here, saying it’s a gender reveal, but then it’s, surprise, we’re getting married.”
“Of course not,” I snap. “That’s a crazy, crazy idea.”
“I told you that you were wrong,” Max gloats. “If she was getting married, you don’t think she would have told her parents?”
“It’s a surprise,” Matthew says, winking at me. “You can tell us; we won’t say anything.”
“We are not getting married,” I finally say, looking over at Gabriel, who just smiles at me and looks down to the ground. Great, I think to myself, now I can’t even bring up us moving in with each other.