The Complete Series Boxed Set (53 page)

“What is that?” they
asked
in unison.

He looked down. Josie was juggling Laura’s ring like it was a hot potato.

“Oh, Alex,” she murmured. “Oh, my God.” Her hand flew to her mouth.

Double shit.

“Oh, um. That’s…that’s, um…” His words didn’t just fail him. They fled his body like rats on a sinking ship. God damn it—of all the times to have his mind go blank, to try to explain what was going on, and yet—she had some explaining to do, too!

Baby! They’d made a baby! His mother would be a grandma. Grandpa Ed would meet his first great-grandchild. Alex would help make an entire human being with the woman he adored most in life.

“I…I know what it is, Alex,” Josie whispered, so somberly it jolted him out of his baby reverie. Fuck. Now Mike and Dylan’s surprise would be ruined because he’d—

“You bought this for me,” she added. It wasn’t a question.

“Uh,” he stammered. That was
not
what he expected her to say.

As she opened
the box with shaking hands, tears filled her eyes. “Oh!” she gasped, looking up, a blend of terror and joy in those eyes, the look one he could describe on his deathbed in sixty or seventy years, so crystal clear to him as if it were painted on his soul by
Michelangelo.
 

A hand reached out and snatched the box from Josie,
closing it
. “Thanks!” Mike had appeared out of nowhere, his other hand clapping Alex on the back. “I appreciate it.
Laura’s going to love this.” And with that, he winked at Josie.
 

Alex swore he felt the earth move as Josie’s heart snapped shut, closing up like a potato bug being poked in the stomach.

“Ha!” she said, the sound like someone being gut-punched, the air forced out by pain. “That’s a beautiful ring. Of course,” she said, clearing her throat, clearly struggling for composure. “Of course she’ll love it.”

Unsure what he was watching, Alex knew one thing: she was upset, and if he wasn’t completely off-base, he
would
swear she was also…

Disappointed?

She wouldn’t look at Alex. Pulled away, but not to the booth where she’d just been sitting. Just pulled away, like an animal that needed to have four paths of escape to feel safe.

He wanted to wrap his arms around her, to make her feel protected and sure, to cradle the new life inside her—their baby. If she was mad at her erroneous impression that he would ever be so presumptuous as to propose to her now—when she had made it abundantly clear in a thousand different ways that she wasn’t ready for marriage—he needed to talk to her, to sooth
e
her, to make everything smooth between the two of them.

“Josie,” he said softly.

She wouldn’t look at him.

His eyes skittered over the pregnancy tests in the bag behind her, then
he
took a careful inventory of her face. The understandable assumption that the ring in his pocket was for her and her anger made him—

And then her eyes met his, and something in him melted and exploded at the same time, because she wasn’t angry.

She was
sad
.
 

The gas station bathroom had turned out to be the last place on earth where she should have tested her urine to figure out whether she was going crazy or really pregnant.

Then again, the toilet was so nasty it wasn’t hard to straddle the porcelain bowl and aim for the end of the little plastic stick.

Which, sixty second
s
later, gave her the answer.

Pregnant.

Two more tests later and she was sure.

The wind whooshed out of her. A wildfire flush ripped across her pale skin as the truth began to sink in. She really was pregnant.
A trembling hand reached up and brushed her long, blonde hair off her face, tucking it behind her ear. She looked pale, though the blinking, half-dead fluorescent light in the nasty bathroom might have accounted for some of that. A roiling feeling of nausea hit her—and it wasn’t the pregnancy.
 

D
amn was she fertile, because hello? Still nursing and on the pill? Did Mike and Dylan have supersperm?

Apparently so.

At least
one
of them did.

After she washed her hands and carefully threw out a
l
l the tests, she climbed back in the car and headed toward Jeddy’s. Ridiculously late at this point, she sent Josie a quick text while she was at a stoplight.

By the time she got to Jeddy’s, she could see Josie talking with Alex. Alex? Good grief, were they joined at the hip? She’
d
told
Josie
absolutely no testicles at this meal. Ovaries only.

Ovaries, estrogen, and lots of ice cream.

As she yanked the front door open and prepared to pretend to be okay with Alex’s presence, that flush she’d felt earlier turned into a full-blown creepy-crawly feeling, like being gently stroked with a paintbrush.

Josie.

Alex.

Mike.

Dylan.

Jillian?

Why were they all here,
of all places
?

Dylan looked at her with those soft puppy-dog eyes that she loved so much, his body bent protectively around Jillian, who was in his arms and playing peekaboo with Madge. The old waitress used a cloth napkin to cover her face and reveal it, much to Jillian’s delight, squeals of laughter filling the restaurant.

Sweaty, confused, and bubbling over with emotion, Laura took in the scene. Mike and Dylan walked close to her, while Josie hung behind, moving off to a corner, face impossible to read.

What was going on?

Mike gave Dylan one of those looks that drove her nuts all the time, the exchange of glances that w
as
some form of shorthand. Madge took Jillian from Dylan and gave him a wink.

No, really.

What.

Was.

This?

“Mama! Mama!” Jillie shri
e
ked, her voice still happy but beginning to take on that edge toddlers get when they realize they might not get what they want immediately. Madge frowned, shrugged, then brought the baby to Laura, handing her off.

She seemed so little, yet so gigantic compared to the tiny newborn she’d been a little over a year ago. Time really flew, didn’t it?

Lately at the speed of a supersonic jet.

Alex stayed in place and looked awkward, eyes shifting between Laura and Josie, his mouth turning down with a slight frown when he looked at Josie. Had something gone wrong? Why was Josie standing apart from him, her face a mask, but her eyes so red?

Was Madge sick? Had something happened to Ed? Jillian played with the necklace around Laura’s neck and moved just enough to make Laura’s stomach feel off, a tendril of nausea making its way up.

And then.

Mike and Dylan moved within a few feet of her and Jillie, Mike’s eyes glistening with…was he crying? Nearly crying? Dylan looked nervous, giving Jillian a wink and stopping to study
L
aura’s face, his head at an angle, his eyes steady and true.

“What are you—”

They both dropped down, each on bended knee.

Oh, God.

“Laura,” they asked in unison, “will you marry us?”
The words echoed like a chime that hits the perfect
frequency, all sweetness and light, all love and comfort in one clear note.
 

Mike held out a ring, with two enormous diamonds on either side of a pearl the color of her hair. His hand was suspended in thi
n
air, Dylan gently taking the box from Mike and standing, slowly. Mike
rose
as well, and they closed the gap between them.

She was completely stunned.

“This is the part where you answer them,” Madge shouted. In a dim, distant part of her mind, Laura knew that other patrons were watching, with various smiles of amusement or confusion dotting their features. How often do two men propose to the same woman?

With one ring?

“I…I…
O
h my God, yes! Yes, of course, yes! But we can’t actually be married!” she protested. The room erupted into applause as she said yes, the rest of her words drowned out by catcalls and cheers.

“
Yes, we can,” Dylan said firmly, eyes firm and loving. “The real marriage is the one the three of us forge together.” And with that, he kissed her, Jillian’s little fingers slipping into her hair, her babbles a sweet backdrop to the taste of her one true love.
 

Her
other
one true love interrupted them with hands on her shoulders, his sun-kissed hair pressing into the family crowd. “That’s
my
wife you’re kissing,” Mike said with a mock growl, dropping the jokes as he turned
L
aura toward him and slipped the ring on her trembling hand. It fit perfectly.

Her arms slipped around his neck and his kiss tasted like love and dreams, his hands like anchors and tethers, Dylan’s arms enveloping them both until Jillian said, “Top it! Top it!” and the three broke apart, breathless with glee.

“
This wasn’t the first proposal I’ve ever seen here at Jeddy’s. Not even the first time I’ve ever seen two guys propose to the same girl in one day. But I’ll be damned if I’ve ever seen two men propose to the same woman and have them all marry each other!” Madge crowed. “That deserves a big meal, on the house!”
 

M
adge turned to Alex and said with a half-grin, “Same for you too,
s
port. When you decide to make a decent woman out of Josie, I’ll give you whatever you want.”

The look on Josie’s face made Laura’s joy fade.

She’d never seen Josie look so
sad
.

When she’d seen the ring in Alex’s pocket, her first thought had been horror. Mind-grinding terror that made everything in her seize up.

And then she realized how fucking
fake
that was.

She wasn’t really terrified to marry Alex. She was afraid of
wanting
to marry Alex. Those were two completely different emotions, and being able to distinguish between them was critical.

H
ad she really just developed a
habit
of freaking out at the idea of marriage?
Trained her mind to think she didn’t want to marry Alex, when in fact, she did?
 

And desperately so?

While she’d been shocked to hold that ring in her hands and think it was from him, and that he was about to propose, what had been more shocking was having it removed by Mike. Learning
that the ring
wasn’t for her. Comprehending that Alex had just been carrying it for Mike and Alex wasn’t planning to ask her to marry him.

Her heart felt like someone had chainsawed it out of her chest.

She had no right to feel like this. None.
Pushing Alex away because of her fear of commitment had practically become the Official Josie Mendham National Sport. She could have her own flag and uniform, if she kept it up like this. If anyone deserved the one-two punch of finding that box in his pocket and having it turn out to be for someone else, it was Josie.
 

S
o why was she so distraught?

Clamming up and shutting down was her default. As time passed, though, and she became more comfortable and trusting of Alex, she found that withdrawing emotionally didn’t work. It was no longer a sanctuary. Building an emotional fortress around herself didn’t help.

Didn’t work.

In fact, it caused more damage than good, and left her with an ache for those long, strong arms that were a better wall than anything she could ever create.

Sensing this, Alex walked across the room as the fellow diners cheered for Laura, Mike, and Dylan. Her eyes tracked his smooth movement across the linoleum floor, how his legs carried him toward her with such
confidence. Assurance.
 

Permanence.

“You are not okay,” he whispered as one arm reached around her for an embrace, the other cradling her jaw, fingers light and gentle against the back of her head, her ear tickled by the long surgeon’s hand.

“How’d you guess?”

“You look like you wish you had ruby slippers and could click the heels furiously.”

“I think I’d rather have a house fall on me. I’m more the Wicked Witch type and less the Dorothy type,” she joked, but a sob caught in her throat and ruined her ruse.

“It’s fine,” he said soothingly in her ear. “The tears are normal. They happen to women in your…women like…” The stumbling over his words was odd. Alex didn’t generally—

W
ait.

Women in your
what
?

“Women like…?” She drew out the question, pulling back to look into eyes that radiated so much love she thought she might go blind.

His palm flattened against her belly. “In your condition.” He bent down and kissed her cheek, a small bit of wetness registering in her mind. When he pulled back, she saw why.

A single tear had fallen from those loving eyes.

“Condition?” she choked out, completely confused. What condition?

Now his eyes clouded slightly, the confusion shared. “You, um…” His gaze turned to the booth. “You had a bag of tests next to you, and one fell out. You’re pregnant—or think you are, right?
I’m going to be a dad.” The tears in his eyes filled in, and the expression on his face made her feel like a goddess.
A slow caress from ribs to belly button made her melt in place.

Or maybe that was simply shock.

“PREGNANT?” she shrieked, laughing and crying at the same time.
He thought she was pregnant? One half of her mind registered his dismay as her words and braying giggles hit him. Oh, shit. Alex
wanted
her to be pregnant?
 

T
he other half realized his dismay matched her own—over the ring.

She
wanted
him to propose.

His hands tightened on her body, pulling her closer, yet his face was a mask of an attempt to cover up the churning ocean of emotion inside him. Josie could feel it. See it.