Full Circle (Rockin' Country #3) (16 page)

“It’ll be fine telling our parents.” Garrett laughed as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back to his front, dropping a kiss against her neck.

They were grilling out for the announcement, having invited everyone important to them to their house in Nashville. The California relatives had gotten into town the night before and had decided to stay at a hotel—even though they were more than welcome to stay at the house. Right now, everyone was on their way over for a cookout.

“I know, and I know our mothers are going to be positively vibrating with happiness, but it’s been nice, ya know?”

“Having a secret?” He smiled over at her as he set a plate of steaks down.

She grinned back at him. “Yeah. You know, the guys know, and Shell knows, but they’ve been very good at keeping the secret. I don’t think Stacey knows.”

“She doesn’t. Brad promised, and even though he and I don’t see eye to eye on everything, I know he kept that secret.”

She watched as Garrett turned back towards the deck, going to get the chicken he’d grilled for her. There was no seasoning on it—it was plain as could be. Her stomach growled loudly, even though she was shaky, and she put a hand over it. “Soon, baby, soon.”

“If you need to eat something, I’ll grab you some crackers,” he offered. “They should all be here any minute, but you know as soon as we tell them, there’s going to be lots of screaming.”

He walked over to the cabinet, reaching up with his full height to grab out a package of her favorite crackers. They were regular crackers on one side, pretzels on the other. She reached out for them, but he held them out of her reach, winking as he walked a few steps over to their fridge and grabbing out a can of Sprite. Once he had both of those, he put them down in front of her, and one side of his mouth kicked up in a smart ass smile.

Grabbing the box and the can, she stuck her tongue out at him before opening the box and popping the tab on the can. She gratefully ate one and took a long drink before speaking again. “Do you think they’ll be able to tell before we tell them?” she asked as she smoothed her dress over her stomach. Although she’d gained a little weight, her bump still wasn’t completely visible when clothed.

“I don’t know. Both of our moms kinda have an uncanny ability to guess things before we tell them. Whatever, I’m glad I don’t have to watch my mouth anymore.”

She laughed. “I know. They’ve both been hinting at it for at least a month. They almost got me to tell them by confusing me on a couple of occasions.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but the sound of a bunch of people coming through their front door stopped him. “It’s time.”

*     *     *

Hannah watched as the people they all loved most came through the front door of their house. All the guys from the band were there, along with Garrett’s parents and sister, Hannah’s parents, Shell, and Rick. She took a moment to look at everyone greeting each other and had to blink back tears.
Emotional
was not a strong enough word to describe how she’d been feeling the past few days. All of the internet research she’d done said that it was normal for her to feel that way, but sometimes she still felt like she was crazy.

Kevin greeted his son with a hug. “Good to finally see you. Are you ready to head overseas?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. You know those people are insane.”

Marie made a bee-line for Hannah and hugged her tightly. “I’m so glad to see you. Talking on the phone and through FaceTime just isn’t the same.”

“I know.” Hannah nodded, hugging her mother-in-law as her mom came up and sandwiched her from behind.

“Missed you, honey,” her mom said in her ear.

“Missed you too!”

For several minutes there was loud talking over each other and attempts at catch up. Eventually, everyone moved into the kitchen, filling up their plates with food and glasses with drinks.

“Don’t you want steak, Han?” her mom asked, as she glimpsed the small amount on her plate, taking note of the very plain piece of chicken.

Hannah had never been a huge steak eater but usually loved a grilled one. She shook her head. “No, I’m good. I can’t really stomach it right now.”

Elizabeth put her fork down and gazed at her daughter closely. “Something’s wrong, isn’t it? I knew when you were in the hospital that something was wrong. I didn’t believe for a second you had the damn flu. Be honest with me, Han. What’s going on?”

This wasn’t exactly how she’d wanted to tell them, but it would have to do; her mom was upset, and she could see exactly where this was going to go. They were going to ask if her eating disorder was back, and then they’d try to “help her”.

“Yes, mom, something is going on, but it’s not what you think,” she was quick to assure.

“You honestly think I’d be sitting here calm and cool if something was wrong with her?” Garrett raised an eyebrow at all of them. “You all know how I feel about her.”

That seemed to mostly satisfy everyone who didn’t already know, but the rest of them waited, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Do you have something you need to tell us?” Kevin asked, looking at the two of them, concern on his face.

Garrett sighed and laughed slightly. He scooted as close to Hannah as he could, putting his arm around her neck and pulling her close. “You wanna tell ’em?”

She grinned up at him, her heart in her throat. Once they unleashed this on their family it would be out in the world. She nodded before turning her head to face the rest of them.

“I’m pregnant.”

They didn’t let her get any more words out. Screams were heard from the ladies, shouts of approval from the guys, and the soon-to-grandparents and aunt rushed forward to give them hugs and congratulations. Havock barked loudly at the amount of noise. Once everyone was settled again, Marie started with the questions.

“When are you due? How are you feeling? Is my son doing everything he needs to be doing to help you?”

Garrett laughed. “Seriously, Mom?”

Hannah’s mouth was watering as she looked at her uneaten chicken. “Can I please eat? If I don’t now, while I’m hungry, I won’t be able to.”

Marie turned her attention to Garrett. “Has she been sick?”

He looked at his own food, realizing he was going to have to field these questions. “Alright, we’re due in January.”

“She’s twelve weeks and we haven’t heard a peep?” Elizabeth’s fork hit her plate loudly.

“Mom, it was my decision,” Hannah spoke through her chewing. “I was really sick to begin with. When I was in the hospital, this is why.”

“And you couldn’t have told us? What if something had happened to you, had happened to the baby?”

“Then my husband and I would have handled it,” she spoke clearly, her voice firm. “We wanted to make sure that nothing would happen before we told anyone; I was very sick.”

Stacey folded her arms over her chest. “But I’m betting the band and Shell knew about this, huh?” She gave Brad the evil eye.

She opened her mouth to answer but was beaten to the punch by none other than Jared.

“You all should be fucking ashamed of yourselves. This isn’t about who knew and who didn’t know. This is about a young family who was scared to death as Hannah sat puking her guts out. She was in the hospital because she was dehydrated, dangerously dehydrated, and they were scared. Of course we knew—we live with them. There are lots of things the group of us know about each other than no one else will ever know. That happens when you’re in close quarters, but there’s also a certain degree of trust. They trusted us with their secret. All of us at this table know that as soon as they announce it to the world, they aren’t going to have a minute of peace. This is the one place they should have it, and the fact you all are trying to make them feel bad about a situation they decided on together is complete bullshit.” He paused to take a drink of his water. “They aren’t little kids anymore who have to clear anything with any of you. They’re a married couple about to have their own child, and what
they
choose to do about that is their business.”

Hannah smiled over at him, thankful that he’d had the guts to speak.

Robert put a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder, holding her back from saying anything else. “Let’s leave it at: congratulations, you two. I can’t wait to be a grandpa.”

Those were the words that settled everyone down. After a few minutes, the tension was gone, and Hannah sat back with a sigh of relief. That had gone better than she thought it would.

*  *  *

End of July

H
annah looked out over the German crowd; ninety thousand strong, as Black Friday performed their set for the summer festival. She was so thankful she had taken this time off. If she hadn’t, she wouldn’t be here for this, and she knew she wouldn’t want to miss it. Garrett held the huge crowd in the palm of his hand. Every time he asked them to do something, they did it without hesitating. She had never seen this many people before in her life. These rock festivals were much larger than the country festivals that she attended.

“Amazing, isn’t it?”

She glanced up at Shell, nodding. “It is. I can’t believe all these people have been out in this intense heat all day.”

From where she stood, Garrett was in the shadow of the setting sun, and his silhouette was beautiful against it. Pulling her phone out, she snapped a few pictures, uploading one of them to her Instagram account.

“My wife is here today,” he said to the crowd. “I’d like to invite her out here, if it’s okay with you?” There was a huge uproar from them, clapping and whistling.

They hadn’t talked about this. She knew he wanted to make the announcement today, but she hadn’t been aware he wanted her to go out and be with him.

“C’mon, babe.” He crooked his finger at her.

She was immediately glad she had taken the time to put her hair in a braid. The black shorts she wore weren’t too short, and the tank-top she wore was billowy enough that no one could make out the fact she had gained a few pounds. She pushed her sunglasses over her eyes and walked out onto the stage. It was breathtaking to see that many people in one spot, and it felt like it took forever until she reached where he stood. He held his hand out to her.

“So everybody, this is my gorgeous wife, Harmony.” He toyed with the braid that rested over her shoulder.

Not sure what to do, she waved out to the crowd.

“Say hi.” He held the mic up to her mouth.

“Hi.” She giggled, nerves getting the better of her.

The crowd was so loud she was afraid they would knock her down with their response.

“They love you almost as much as I do.” He stood behind her and grabbed her around the waist.

He dropped the mic to his side and moved his mouth to her ear. “Do you wanna tell them?”

“We can if you want. Everyone who needs to know already does.”

He dropped a kiss on her nose, and the crowd went wild. “The reason I brought her out here is because we wanted to share something with all of you.”

Hannah held on tightly to his hand that spanned her stomach. If he hadn’t been holding her up, she was afraid she would have slid down in the face of all these people. The crowd continued to yell as he waited; they grew louder and louder until he put the mic back up to his mouth.

“Okay, okay. You wanna know, I’ll tell you. Sometime in the new year, there will be a little Reaper or Harmony running around. She’s pregnant.” He didn’t want to give them exact information, but he wanted the fans to know. She was going to really start showing soon, and he didn’t want there to be speculation—he wasn’t sure she could handle that.

The roar of the crowd was so loud and the enthusiasm so much that they both physically took a step back. At some point a “kiss her” chant started, and Garrett smiled at her, pulling her to him. “Now that the cat’s out of the bag, we don’t have to worry about keeping secrets anymore.”

“We sure don’t.” She wrapped her arms around his neck, squealing when he bent to pick her up and put her legs around his waist.

This time the picture that went around the world was the one of them lip-locked in front of ninety-thousand fans in hundred-degree weather. It would be the most popular picture of the two of them for months.