Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 169(@200wpm)___ 136(@250wpm)___ 113(@300wpm)
“We’re sharing, you down with that?”
“Absolutely.”
“But we have to be careful not to take the wind out of Tom and Mika’s sails,” I warned.
“Agreed.”
“Can Chloe keep a secret?”
“To the grave. Matt will be cool too. But don’t tell Sasha until later. She’s got a big mouth.”
“Right.”
“They won’t mind about the conversion, although Genny and Tom are both practicing Christians. But let’s leave that for later.”
“Gotcha.”
His face changed in a way I memorized every centimeter of it, though I didn’t have to, since the vision of it was burned into my heart.
“I love you so fucking much, it hurts,” he said, his voice low, but fierce.
Oh yeah.
My man was happy I was having his baby.
And I was ecstatic.
I framed his face with my hands. “Same,” I whispered.
The elevator pinged.
Well, I guessed that meant we could communicate thoroughly and come to an understanding on a variety of subjects in a short period of time, because we just did it.
Hale kissed me as the doors to the elevator swished open.
I had a feeling it was supposed to be a quick peck of shared joy, but it didn’t end that way.
So when we finally broke free and turned to the elevator, Duncan and Genny were standing there, Duncan’s arm slung along Genny’s shoulders, both of Genny’s arms wrapped around Duncan’s middle.
Oh, and her eyes were shining, bright and happy, and aimed at me.
“We can take a walk around the block and come back,” Duncan offered.
Duncan was such a good guy.
I opened my mouth.
But Hale beat me to it.
“Elsa is having my baby.”
Duncan’s lips parted before they spread into a huge smile.
Genny let her husband go, clapped twice and rushed us.
I got a hug, then Hale got one while I got one from Duncan. Then Hale and Duncan did that man thing where they started with shaking hands then ended up in a one-armed hug, still clasping hands.
While they did that, Genny cupped my cheek.
“Okay?” she mouthed when I caught her gaze.
“Totally,” I mouthed back.
She came in and pressed her forehead to mine.
She then moved away and turned to Hale.
“I hope you have champagne,” she stated.
He didn’t answer. He just went right to the wine fridge.
The cork popped and we all shouted like it was New Year’s.
It was the only time in my life I was okay being around an opened bottle of champagne without a glass being offered to me.
Correction.
I wasn’t just okay with it.
I was thrilled.
CHAPTER 5
PRIVATE JET
Hale
“Oh my God, how could you even?” Chloe demanded in a low voice, her eyes on him, and they were enraged slits.
“It was an accident,” he told her, then stated firmly, “A happy accident.”
They were sitting at the dining room table doing the first wave of breakfast.
With Elsa acting in her usual capacity as his sous chef, Hale had made scrambled eggs with goat’s cheese and chives, hash browns, bacon, brioche toast, and the breakfast dessert homemade ginger nut muffins were cooling on the counter.
And he’d just shared they were pregnant.
Except for Sasha, everyone was awake, including Matt, even though, with the change in time zones, it was seriously early for him.
But Matt had always been that kind of guy, even before being pre-med turned into being pre-vet, then vet school, internship, and now he was practicing at the large animal hospital where he’d interned in Prescott.
For this visit, all Hale’s siblings were staying with him, however, for the last six months, this happened every time they were in town.
Chloe and Judge should stay with Jamie, because Jamie missed his boy when he was away, not to mention he’d missed a lot of his life while he was growing up. But Hale knew Chloe put a stop to that after Hale had opened the box his dad left for him.
And Chloe wasn’t the only one.
They were hovering, and he should let them off the hook, share he was okay, or more to the point, Elsa had this.
But he didn’t mostly because he liked having them around.
Genny and Duncan, and Duncan’s boys Sully and Gage were staying with Jamie. Alex and Rix were at Alex’s dad, Ned’s house.
The entire gang had gotten the text that morning reminding them the family meeting was going to be at Jamie’s.
So that meant this surprise engagement party was being handled by Nora.
But that was for later.
Now, he was shocked as shit Chloe was acting like a brat.
“Babe,” Judge muttered.
She whipped her head around to her husband. “No, Judge. They don’t even have an outside so I could go out and whoop for joy in a place Sasha can’t hear me. You can’t just share you’re pregnant and then tell the people you’re sharing it with they have to be quiet about it because your big mouth sister is upstairs, and if we wake her by shouting and carrying on, she’ll know and tell everyone so Dad and Mika’s big news day will turn into Hale and Elsa’s big news day.”