Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
S hae
“You know there’s a ring box on your front door, right?” Lydia said as she breezed by me to the kitchen, pastries in hand.
I spun too fast, getting a little lightheaded. The woman had a sixth sense that scared me sometimes. She whirled around and caught me steadying myself on the wall.
“When did you eat last?”
I shrugged, not really concerned with eating when my heart was breaking into a million little pieces.
It was even worse when you knew it was probably your own bullshit that was breaking your heart.
Pointing the finger at Boon was so much easier than dealing with my own baggage, yet my friends had made me confront a lot of things last night that made me wonder what the hell I was doing.
“Don’t know.”
Lydia harrumphed like an old lady, grabbed my elbow, and escorted me to the massage chair I’d been avoiding out of spite. “Sit. Eat.” She thrust the bag of pastries at me, taking out my favorite chocolate croissant and shoving it in my mouth.
I chewed while grabbing the pastry out of her hands. She was liable to choke me if she kept this up. She put her hands on her hips and glared at me.
“Think of the baby, not the jackweasel.”
I swallowed, already feeling better with a bit of food in my stomach, but I wasn’t going to tell her that. “So, you agree with me, then?”
Lydia snorted. “No, not at all, but Boon’s a man. Of course he’s a jackweasel.” She lifted her nose in the air. “Just not in this specific case.”
I slumped back in the chair and took another huge bite. I’d spent most of the night lying wide awake in bed, wrestling with my decision. In the light of dawn, I was still wrestling. Might as well drown myself in pastries. Lydia plopped onto the couch, shaking her head at me.
“Why are you so damn stubborn, bestie?” she mused.
I swallowed the last bit of pastry and even licked my fingers before answering her. If she was annoying me, I was going to annoy her. Based on the twitching eyebrow, it was working. Finally, fingers perfectly clean, I addressed the elephant in the room.
“I think I fucked up.”
Lydia’s eyes went wide at the f-bomb. Then she positively cackled.
“It’s about damn time!” She could barely get the words out she was laughing so hard.
I grabbed the bag of leftover pastries off the armrest and chucked it at her head.
I hated to waste a bag of decadent sugar, but someone needed to shut her up.
She didn’t even care that she just got sideswiped by a donut bag. She just took a donut out of the bag and munched on it, all the while smiling at me like she was highly amused by my misery.
“I’m glad to see you’ve come to your senses.”
“I’m glad to see you’ve given up all form of manners and now talk with your mouth full,” I snapped.
Like an absolute child, she opened her mouth wide, showing me her half-masticated food. I grimaced and looked away. She kept laughing and stood up.
“Let’s go,” she said around the food.
“Go where?”
She threw her donut hand out wide, powdered sugar falling in an arch on my floors. “To get your man, dummy!”
I tried to get out of the chair, but apparently the baby belly was baby-bellying quite a bit these days.
I looked up at Lydia with panic in my eyes.
She held out a hand covered in white powder but I took it, needing the help up.
She opened her mouth to make a snarky comment, but a sound from the front door had us both looking over.
A creamy-white envelope slid under the door.
We looked at each other, my face probably displaying my confusion. Hers just held a smug, knowing smile.
“What’s that?” I tipped my head toward the door.
“Why don’t you go look? And then we need to get you in the shower.”
I waddled over to the door and bent down with a groan, snatching up the envelope. My hands shook, thinking this was from Boon. I mean, the man left an engagement ring with duct tape on my front door. An envelope was actually tame.
Except when I opened it, it was a handwritten invitation to my baby shower. This afternoon!
“Oh shit,” I muttered. “I totally forgot Gigi asked if she could host a baby shower.”
Lydia was by my side, steering me toward my bedroom. “Exactly why you need to get ready.”
“But Boon will be there,” I said numbly.
“No, he won’t,” Lydia responded immediately. “Baby showers are for women, don’t worry.”
My brain was spinning. What day was it? Had Gigi ever told me what day the shower would be?
Why had I spaced on my own baby shower? But Lydia was throwing bottles of shampoo at me and a razor, telling me to reach all the bits I still could these days.
She flipped on the shower and soon steam was filling the air.
The door slammed shut and I was alone with my confused thoughts.
I knew pregnancy brain was a real thing, but clearly I’d lost all track of time and forgotten about the baby shower.
Thank goodness Gigi slid a reminder under my door.
I’d been hoping to spend the day thinking of how to approach Boon with a good enough apology for turning down his marriage proposal.
Twice. I couldn’t just waddle over there and say oops.
I needed a plan to explain myself and make it up to him.
Except Lydia was about to break my door down, yelling at me to hurry up and that she’d blow-dry my hair while I did my makeup.
By the time we made it over to Gigi’s house, I was as put together as a pregnant woman could be in her third trimester where nothing fits and everything’s swollen. And also no closer on figuring out what to do about Boon.
Colson answered the door with that classic Wolfe smile that made every female preen. Not me though. Nope. I turned right around and tried to waddle back home. Lydia beat me to it, grabbing my arm and dragging me inside.
“I don’t bite, I promise, Shae.” Colson gave me a hug and whispered in my ear. “Although I hear my little brother does.”
When he pulled back, he shot me a wink. I glared at Lydia. “You said only women.”
Lydia shrugged her shoulders and pranced off, leaving me alone with Colson.
His expression turned serious. “I’ve been watching from the window, wanting to intercept you before all the craziness starts.
I know my brother can be a handful, believe me, but he’s a good man.
I’ve seen him in his celebrity element. I’ve seen him with women.
He’s different with you. I’ve never seen him so settled, so sure about what he wants in his life.
I know you might have a hard time trusting what he says, but if you look at his actions, it’s clear what he’s about. ”
“Shae!” Kinsley’s high-pitched squeal ended Colson’s speech.
I wasn’t sure if Boon put him up to it, but I’d already decided the same thing. Boon had been showing me over and over again that he loved me. It wasn’t his fault I didn’t believe him. It was all the crap in my own head, my own insecurities, that was holding me back.
Kinsley gave me a big hug, pulling me into the house while she talked a mile a minute. I lifted a hand over my shoulder at Colson, hoping he knew I appreciated his advice.
“We have so much food and it’s all organic and safe for the baby. And we have games planned and prizes. Wait ’til you see the grand prize at the end for whoever makes it to the end with their baby doll!”
My gaze scanned the living room, seeing Gigi, Warrick, Emmerleigh, and Tully. But no Boon. I pasted on a smile and tried to look like a woman who appreciated the couples shower.
“But first, you have to see the human-sized stork Dad and I made!” Kinsley was still talking, dragging me toward the garage. “Dad cut out the wood, I painted it, and then all we have to do is paint the birthweight and date on the stork’s bag once he’s born. It’s so cute!”
She opened the door to the garage, which was dark, and gestured for the step down. I entered first, hands fumbling for a light switch. The door slammed shut behind me the same moment I found the light switch.
“Kinsley?” I called out, grabbing the door handle and finding it locked.
“Shae?” Boon’s voice came from the side door where he and Tatum were coming in from the side yard.
Tatum shoved Boon inside the garage with a “Sorry, Coach!” and a dark object was thrown at Boon before the side door slammed shut and locked from the outside. Boon looked back at the door, then back at me.
“What’s happening?” I asked, out of breath and thoroughly confused.
Boon snatched the object off the floor and came toward me. It was the ring box that had been taped to my door. Suddenly his face lit up in a laugh. “I think we just got parent-trapped.”
I looked at both doors, with us locked inside. My heart rate sped up, not from fear of being locked in, but because I was being given my chance with Boon, whether I was ready or not. “I think you’re right.”
Boon came closer, looking pleased to see me, but also hesitant.
I hated that I’d given him reason to be scared to approach me.
He had dark smudges under his eyes, like maybe he’d spent the night tossing and turning too.
The sound of several car engines starting had Boon walking over to the garage doors, peeking out the glass at the top.
“They’re driving away, aren’t they?” I asked. I knew I hadn’t spaced on the baby shower. I hadn’t even gotten the date confirmed from Gigi! This was all a setup.
Boon spun around, shaking his head. He peered down at me. “Yeah. How are you?”
I took a step toward him. “The baby’s good.”
He shook his head. “I’m glad to hear it, but I asked how are you .”
Tears filled my eyes. He’d been showing me he loved me for a long time now, and I’d brushed each and every gesture off as Boon just flirting.
My self-esteem had been so low I assumed he could never love little old me.
Everyone else had let go of the boxes we put ourselves in in high school, but here I was clinging to mine.
I was thirty-nine years old and still thinking the high school captain of the baseball team couldn’t actually be interested in me.
“I’m mad.”
He nodded. “I know, and I’m sorry for what Cassie said. I’m sorry for not showing you what you mean to me.”
I put my hand on his arm, trying to get him to stop. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay. Please forgive me, Shae. I promise you I lit Cassie up like a Christmas tree. I told her I was in love with you. That you’re my one. My person. I’ve loved you since we were kids, Shae. I was just too young and stupid to know it.”
“And I’m a grown woman, too stupid to see that you love me,” I rushed to interject. “I’m sorry for not really seeing you.”
Boon reached in his back pocket, taking out a folded letter. “I found this while going through Mom’s boxes in the attic. It’s a letter your mom wrote me.”
My heart stopped. “What?”
He unfolded the letter and held it out to me to read. I bit my lip, eyes flooding with tears at her familiar handwriting. Boon explained, seeing that I couldn’t make out the words.
“After graduation, she gave me a card with some money in it. The card had this letter too. She said she saw everything I did for you behind the scenes. She asked me to always watch out for you since they wouldn’t be around forever.”
My hands shook but I blinked back the tears to read the final line Mom wrote.
Keep taking care of her, son.
Tears spilled down my cheeks. Here I was doubting Boon, and Mom had known all along what sort of man he was and how he felt about me. Boon gently took the letter, folding it and putting it back in his pocket.
“She knew.” His own voice raspy. “I’ve been protective of you since we were little kids, only now it’s in hyperdrive.
I thought you needed protecting from bullies, but now I know the truth of it.
I felt the need to protect you because I loved you.
I’ve fallen head over ass for you as a grown woman, the mother of my child. ”
I sniffled, looking up at him and letting the love I felt for him flow through me freely. Instead of bottling it up and trying to call it something it wasn’t, I let myself feel it. “I just didn’t want you to be with me out of obligation. I want the kind of love my parents had.”
Boon reached up and cupped my face, his thumb smoothing across my cheek.
“I’m not here because of obligation, Shae.
I won’t marry you until after the baby’s here if you need me to prove it.
I want you , Shae Fletcher.” His dimples popped out with the smirk I love-hated so much.
“For such a smart woman, you sure are dumb sometimes.”
“Hey! What kind of marriage proposal is this?” Tears continued falling down my cheeks, but Boon kept swiping them away.
He grinned and it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. “I guess it’s hate-proposing.”
My laugh was watery, but it felt so good for the tension between us to melt away.
I wound my arms around his waist, getting as close to him as I could with the baby between us, kicking away like he was excited about this reconciliation too.
I stared up into Boon’s eyes, getting lost in them like I used to do when I was a teenager.
Except this time, I didn’t look away when he stared back with all the love in his eyes.
He deserved to hear it, deserved to be loved in return with the same intensity he loved me.
Thankfully, I’d have a whole lifetime to get it right.
“I love you, bat boy.”