Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77827 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“I know, I’m sorry.” Ellison sighs. “I just hate leaving her. Are you sure you don’t mind watching her?”
“Ells, baby, we’re just going to be up town. A few miles away. If anything happens, they’ll call us, but look at her.” We all turn to see Grandpa Dean blowing raspberries on Lainey’s belly. The giggle she rewards him with is infectious. “She’s perfectly content.”
“I just feel guilty since being back to work and leaving her during the day.”
“Go… Shoo. All of you. Get your hind ends out of here. We have a great-granddaughter to spoil.”
“Her favorite blanket—” Ellison starts, but Copeland kisses her to stop her.
“Baby, let’s go. She’ll be just fine. She won’t even know that we’re gone.”
Ellison’s face crumbles. “Copeland!” She smacks his chest.
“You know what I mean. I love our girl, and I hate leaving her, too. But I really want to spend time with my wife on the dance floor on a date night. We won’t stay long, promise.”
“I know, I’m being ridiculous.” Ellison pulls away from Copeland and moves toward the couch, where Grandpa Dean is making faces at Lainey, who’s eating up the attention.
“Bye, sweetie. Mommy and Daddy will be home soon.”
Lainey coos, then her attention is pulled right back to Grandpa Dean.
“Let’s go,” Copeland says. He leans over and places a kiss on Lainey’s head, making her squeal with delight. She’s a daddy’s girl, but still, Grandpa gets her attention back.
“That will be us soon,” Macklin whispers just for me, his hand resting over my belly.
Tears well in my eyes, but I quickly blink them away. We found out this morning that I’m pregnant. I’d been feeling off, and I was a few days late. Not late enough that I should have taken a test yet, but when I told Macklin, he ran out and bought one of every kind, and he stood with me the entire three minutes we waited. When the results of all five tests read positive, he held me while I cried.
I always wanted kids of my own, and for some reason, after Todd’s decision, I felt like it would never happen for me. But Macklin was right. My body knew that my head and my heart were on different pages, and once they aligned, once I admitted that I’d fallen in love with him, well, here we are. Starting our family.
“I love you.”
His eyes soften. “I love you, too, my beautiful Baylor. So much.” He kisses me again, and everything fades away.
“Okay, love birds, let’s go,” Courtlynn calls out.
We’re both laughing as we ease out of the kiss. I stand, offering Macklin my hand to pull him out of the chair. We wave goodbye to my grandparents and follow everyone out the door.
Tonight is friends’ night at the Hideaway. Oddly enough, it was Ellison who decided it was happening, even with her reluctance to leave her daughter behind for a few hours. She claims that we don’t spend enough time together, and we all agreed. So, she called Bowen, and he reserved the back room of his bar for our group, and that’s where we’ll be the rest of the night.
“Leighton, we’re driving separately,” Courtlynn calls out as Macklin and I make our way down the front steps. “We have to separate ourselves from the love fest,” she says, looking over her shoulder and winking at me.
“You don’t know what you’re missing!” I call back to her. Macklin chuckles, squeezing my hand and leading me to his truck. I wait for a snarky comment about me proposing to him, but it never comes.
The drive to the Hideaway is short, and Macklin’s driving like he’s ninety. “What’s wrong?” I ask him.
He glances over, and the smile he gives me almost stops my heart. “Nothing. Just dreading sharing you with everyone.”
“It’s a few hours.”
“I know,” he says, pulling into an empty parking space. “It’s a few hours too long.”
“Do you want to tell them?” I ask him.
“Baby, that’s up to you. I know some don’t until they reach the end of the first trimester, right? Like thirteen weeks,” he says, his brow furrowing as if he’s trying to remember.
“You’ve been reading.” I smile at him.
“I have. I want to know what you’re going through and how I can help. You’re going to be doing all the heavy lifting until this little one gets here.” He reaches over the console and places his hand flat on my belly. “I’m going to be there for every moment, Bay. I don’t want to miss a single second.”
My eyes tear up again. “Stop.” I smile, wiping at my tears. “Hormones,” I mutter.
“You decide, baby. Whatever you want to do.”
“I think I’ll have to tell them if they don’t guess. I won’t be drinking.” And I know my sisters, especially Courtlynn, she’ll pick up on it, and my little sister won’t hold any punches.