Seaside Secrets (27 page)

“If that’s what you want, then that’s what we’ll do. All I ask is that you marry me soon, because I’m not taking a chance that you change that brilliant mind of yours.”

Amy touched her forehead to his, knowing there wasn’t a chance in hell that she’d change her mind.

FRIDAY MORNING TONY was up before the sun, but not to run off unwanted stress. They planned on telling their friends about their engagement over breakfast, and he knew that once the news was out, the girls would monopolize Amy’s time until after the wedding took place.  She still hadn’t spoken with her father, and he wondered when she would get around to it, but he didn’t want to pressure her. He knew it was going to be a difficult conversation for her, and he also knew Amy well enough to know that when she was ready, she’d take charge of that situation just as she had of getting his attention before Jamie’s wedding. Right now he wanted a few quiet minutes alone with her before the wedding became their focus.

She was lying beside him in her bed, one arm stretched out under her head, the other draped over his stomach. Her hair fell away from her face in golden streaks across the back of the pink nightshirt he’d given her over the winter. He could see the tail of the kitten that was imprinted on the front of the shirt. On the front the kitten was curled into a ball with one eye open with the words
Stroke me
above the kitty and
I’m into heavy petting
beneath.

He was already thinking about where they’d live if she took the job with Duke. Tony owned houses on the East and West Coasts, as well as the cottage on the Cape. Adding a house in Australia was fine with him, as long as Amy was happy. He worried about her being that far away from her friends. Not that Amy saw them much between summers, but now that all the other girls were living at the Cape full-time, he wondered if she’d rather be there with them. They were as close as family to both of them. He was thinking about how to ask her without sounding as though he would rather not move to Australia when she lifted her pretty face and smiled up at him from beneath her long lashes, and his thoughts fell away.

She pressed her lips to his side, and damn if he wasn’t already getting hard. He rolled her onto her back, feeling her bare thighs against his and the soft skin of her belly against his arousal. He ran his hand down her hip and groaned at the feel of her bare skin. She hadn’t put panties on after they’d made love last night, and as he grabbed the curve of her ass, he stroked his tongue along the length of her neck.

“Oh my,” she whispered.

He felt her body shudder as he lifted her shirt, baring her breasts.

“Jesus, you’re beautiful.” He rocked his hips against her belly as he laved first one nipple, then the other, loving the way her body reacted to him and the feel of her nipples pebbling against his tongue. He slid his hand between her legs, and he stifled another greedy groan at the feel of her wetness.

“You’re so ready for me.” He sealed his lips over hers and kissed her as he positioned himself between her legs. “God, I love you, Amy.”

Amy clutched at his hips, urging him forward.

“In a hurry?” He smiled down at her.

“A little. I feel like I’m going to crawl out of my skin if you don’t get inside me soon.”

He nuzzled against her neck. “Now, that’s the kind of greediness I like.”

He pushed into her until he was buried deep, gripped her legs beneath her thighs, and drew them up, opening her wider and pulling a sexy moan from her lips. He thrust deeper, harder, feeling her muscles tighten. She dug her fingernails into his shoulders and her breathing quickened. He knew she was on the verge of coming apart. He settled his mouth over her neck and sucked until her hips bucked up to meet his and her head fell back. She gasped one quick breath after another, and it was all he could do to keep himself from coming. Her body shuddered beneath him as the last pulsation squeezed him tight, and she finally opened her eyes.

“Wow,” she whispered. “You make me feel so good.”

“I’m about to make you feel a whole lot better.”

He withdrew from her center, and she made a soulful mewing sound at the loss. But he didn’t leave her for long. He kissed the arch of her breasts, her nipples, the milky underside of each perfect mound, then licked a path straight down the center of her body to her pubic bone, causing her whole body to shiver. He slid his hands beneath her ass and lifted her hips again, stroking her wet center with his tongue and bringing her right back up and over the edge. He’d never get enough of her sweetness. Before she could recover from the intensity of the orgasm, he plunged into her and sealed his lips over hers. She fisted her hands in his hair, meeting every hard thrust with her own and taking him over the edge with a release so magnificent he saw stars behind closed lids as she succumbed to a third orgasm. They lay together until their breathing slowed, and then Tony reluctantly withdrew and hugged her against his side.

 “Tony?” She laced her hand with his.

“Mm?”

“What if we get married and I get pregnant and…” She lowered her voice. “And I lose the baby again?”

He went up on one elbow so he could look at her face. “Hopefully, that’s not going to happen. We’ll be more careful—no surfing if you’re pregnant—and we’ll talk to your doctor and see if that seems like it’s something we should be worried about.”

“I have. He said he didn’t see any medical reason for me to be at risk of another miscarriage.”

A slice of relief cut through him. “Well, does it scare you? Would you rather not try to have children? Because as much as I’d adore biological children, I’ll adore adopted children just as much.”

Amy smiled. “No. I want to try, but thank you. I just don’t want to disappoint you.”

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Babe, you could never disappoint me. My love for you is unconditional. If we have children, wonderful. If we adopt, beautiful. And if it’s just you and me for the rest of our lives, it’ll be just as perfect.”

“You wouldn’t feel like you were missing out on something?” She searched his eyes, and he hoped she saw the truth in them.

“I’ve missed out for fourteen years.” He kissed her and held her close. “I love you, Amy. I want a life with you. Kids are a bonus.”

“I want the bonus deal,” she said against his chest. “A couple times over.”

He leaned back and smiled. “Then you’re going to get the bonus deal. As many times as you want. And, baby, if what happened before happens again, we’ll deal with it together. I’m not letting you turn me away again, and there’s no way in hell I’m going anywhere. That’s a promise.”

BABIES, BABIES, BABIES
. That was all Amy could think about after she and Tony talked about having children earlier that morning. Now, hours later, surrounded by all their friends while they ate breakfast on Bella’s deck, Amy was looking at each of her girlfriends and wondering what she’d feel like if they could have babies and she couldn’t. If they had baby bumps beneath their sundresses and she was the only one with a pitifully flat stomach, would she resent them? No. She’d like to believe she would never be so petty, but the heart could be petty. Her dart-board practice confirmed that much.

“I still can’t believe we’re all getting married,” Bella said.

“Well, almost all of us,” Sky said as she French braided Jenna’s hair.

“No need to rush things, sis.” Pete gave Sky a brotherly narrow-eyed gaze, then reached down and petted Joey.

Jenna smacked his thigh. “She’s twenty-five, Pete. She can do whatever she wants.”

“I’m in no rush, thank you very much. I’m having fun just hanging out.” Sky finished braiding Jenna’s hair and patted Jenna’s back so she knew she was free to move. “When will you guys get married? My friend Lizzie owns a flower shop in P-town. I bet she’d love to handle the bouquets.”

“That would be awesome,” Jenna said. “We need to coordinate dresses, flowers…
shoes
.”

“Oh God, here she goes. OCD Central coming through,” Bella teased. “And this one over here can’t stop looking at her engagement ring.” She nodded at Amy.

“Do you blame me?” Amy held her hand out and wiggled her fingers. Tony squeezed her thigh. He was sitting beside her with the same ridiculously happy grin he’d had on his face all morning.

“It is gorgeous.” Sky took a closer look at the ring.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I would really like a simple wedding,” Leanna said. “I have to leave for the flea market, so let me just lodge my vote. Beach wedding, casual dresses, just us.”

“Whoa, babe.” Kurt petted Pepper, who was cuddled up in his lap. “While that sounds more than perfect to me, I think my sister and mother might have an issue with not being there.” He set Pepper on the ground, and Pepper ran directly to Amy and rolled over.

Amy petted his belly and Joey nosed her way into the petting action.

“Oh, right. Well, I guess my family might want to be there, too.” Leanna looked at the others. “And I can’t imagine all of y’all’s families won’t want to be there, too.”

Pete groaned.

Sky laughed. “Yeah, they’ll want to be there. Dad would be mad if he missed it. And trust me, Hunter, Matt, and Grayson will want to witness the first Lacroux to take the plunge.”

“My parents, too,” Caden added.

Tony took a sip of coffee and glanced at Amy. “Babe, your parents will want to be there, too. I think this wedding is getting much bigger than we thought.”

“But…everyone waited for us to get married,” Amy said.

“Jamie and Jessica didn’t,” Bella reminded her.

“Well, Jamie wasn’t really included in the three of you holding out, but I think Jamie was afraid I’d never get engaged, and he was so ready to marry Jessica anyway. I think it was hard for him to wait as long as he did.” Amy thought about what kind of wedding she really wanted. When she thought of marrying Tony, the only image that came to mind was all of the Seaside gang, on the beach, getting married at the same time. She looked around the table, and no matter how hard she tried to skew the wedding in her head to include all the families, it didn’t work.

“I think I have an idea,” she said, and all eyes turned to her. “What about if we have our private beach wedding. Just us, and Theresa, of course. She is part of Seaside. We can wait until Jamie and Jessica come back with Vera, and then we can each have another wedding with our own families.”

Tony put his arm around her shoulder and tugged her in closer. “Brilliant.” He kissed her cheek. “I love that. Our families are important, but you know once we get all the families together, the wedding will become a zoo. Leanna’s brother Dae will want to blow something up. Grayson and Hunter will want to construct a steel sculpture to commemorate the day—”

“And you haven’t met my sister, Siena,” Kurt said. “Siena and my mother will want to be part of the planning, from the dresses to the food.”

“Does anyone not like my plan?” Amy scanned her friends’ faces. Pete raised his brows to Jenna, who smiled and nodded. Bella and Caden whispered among themselves, and Leanna and Kurt nodded in agreement.

Evan came through the cottage door with a chocolate doughnut in one hand and his cell phone in the other. “I’m all for a beach wedding.” He took a bite of his doughnut.

“Well, if Evan’s in agreement, it’s settled.” Tony held his hand up and Evan high-fived him.

“I can handle the music,” Evan offered. “And I can video it if you want.”

“That would be great,” Bella said.

“I have to take off.” Leanna said. “This sounds great to me, if Kurt’s okay with it.” 

Kurt patted his leg and Pepper came to his side. He scooped up the pup. “Sounds perfect to me. I get to marry you twice. You guys just let me know what I can do to help, financially or coordinating, whatever. I’m heading over to the bay to write today.”

After Kurt and Leanna left, Jenna went into Bella’s cottage and came back out with a notepad. “Okay. I’m ready. When do we want to do this?”

Pete, Caden, and Tony exchanged a
Let’s get the heck outta here
glance and rose to their feet.

“Anyone else feeling the need to go split some wood or wrestle a bear?” Tony asked.

“Please.” Pete kissed the top of Jenna’s head and patted his thigh. Joey bounded to his side. “I can feel my breasts growing from all this girl talk.”

“At least you weren’t feeling Jenna’s while we were sitting here,” Sky teased. “Go on, men. We can handle this. We’ll tell you where and when to show up.”

“Sounds perfect,” Caden said. “Come on, Evan. Let’s blow this taco stand.”

“I’m taking the schooner out. You guys wanna come?” Pete asked.

“Heck, yeah.” Tony kissed Amy; then the men headed toward Jenna and Pete’s cottage.

“There go our men,” Jenna said.

“Your men, my brother,” Sky reminded her. “This is going to be so fun. I was thinking, there’s this great little shop by my friend Lizzie’s florist shop. It’s got summer dresses that are fancy enough for a beach wedding, but not crazy fancy, so you can wear them again.”

“Sounds like we need a day in Provincetown to go over flowers, dresses…what else?” Jenna scribbled on the notepad.

“Oh, you know what might be fun?” Sky leaned in closer, her tone filled with excitement. “You guys could make a weekend out of it. Have your beach wedding, then take Pete’s boat to Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard for a mini-honeymoon.”

“We just went to Martha’s Vineyard in May.” Bella tapped Jenna’s arm. “Remember? You and Leanna got those matching bags.”

“You did? I didn’t hear about that trip.” What else had Amy missed out on, and why did she feel like missing out on anything was missing out on too much? She wondered if she was feeling overly sensitive because of her impending move to Australia.

“I thought we told you about it,” Bella said. “Remember? We took the night ferry back?”

“And made out like teenagers on the upper deck.” Jenna raised her brows in quick succession.

“Made out like teenagers?” Amy felt like she’d been excluded from the prom.

“Don’t feel bad, Amy. I wasn’t there either.” Sky patted her hand.