Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 571(@200wpm)___ 457(@250wpm)___ 381(@300wpm)
Angling my hips a slightly different way, I make more contact with her clit. Magnolia’s eyes fly open as she comes. Her hand shoots up to cover her mouth and muffle the sounds. I need a hotel room. I need to take her away when the time is right and get her somewhere she can be loud. As it stands, I drink in every noise she makes.
“I love you,” I whisper into her ear, and she clenches around me again, finding her release. Still flushed, still clinging to me, she stares into my eyes and tells me she loves me too.
I hope it stays like this forever.
EPILOGUE
Magnolia
One year later
There’s nothing like autumn in South Carolina. Trust me on that one. At college, the fall was cold and bright and intense, but it has a gentler feel here by the sea. We’ve got the same crisp reds and oranges in the leaves, but the nights aren’t so frigid. Nothing seems bitter this fall. Some things might be bittersweet, but isn’t that how life goes?
Subconsciously, I spin the diamond on my ring finger and Renee laughs. “You look gorgeous, babe. Stop being so nervous.”
“It’s my wedding day, and it kind of snuck up on me.”
“How did it possibly sneak up on you?” Renee faces me in the lobby of the courthouse downtown, an elegant building with white pillars and old Southern charm. Hundreds of people have been married here over the years. Hundreds of brides have probably stood right on this creaky hardwood floor. I hope all of them had a best friend like Renee.
Even if she’s lying to me when she tells me she and Griffin are fine. I know there’s something going on there.
“Well, once you’re pregnant time does funny things, like speed up and go by in a whirlwind.”
Little hands on my belly emphasize the point. “Are you gonna have the baby today, Mama?” Bridget asks, her eyes big and round, staring at my belly. Kids don’t let you get away with anything. It would have made the waiting easier if we hadn’t told her. Oh well. Secrets are hard to keep when they’re such happy ones. My six-month bump rounds out the front of my white lace flowing dress. The dress is my something new for the wedding. The something old is my mother’s wristwatch. The blue and borrowed is the handkerchief Adeline, Brody’s mother, gave me the last time she was here. She said I was going to need it sooner rather than later, and she was right.
“Mama,” Bridget repeats her question, bringing me back to the now. “Is the baby coming today?
“Not today,” I tell her, ruffling her curly hair. Her dress is mine in miniature, complete with the delicate straps. She twirls with a laugh.
We kept meaning to plan a wedding, Brody and I, but that’s the thing about being so in love. It makes time do funny things. Brody and I jumped into life together without hesitation, like the way we do cannonballs off the side of a sailboat. His brewery has taken off, becoming a favorite destination around town in the evenings. Including the fried pickles. He said we had to have them since it was our first meal together. With my salt tooth, they’re my favorite thing on the menu. I never knew how many sporting events there were in the world until Iron Brewery became the popular hangout.
And then we found out I was pregnant. We weren’t trying, but we also weren’t not trying.
I’ll never forget the moment I told Brody the news. I hadn’t even had time to come out of the bathroom. He barged in, not knowing I was in there, and found me standing at the sink with the stick balanced on the ledge. “Magnolia,” he said, and I met his eyes in the mirror. I didn’t have to speak the words, and he knew.
The smile, charming and contagious, grew on his face as he stared down at the plastic stick with its positive indicator. He turned me in his arms and knelt down on the floor, his smile pressed against my belly. I’ve known a lot of love in my life, but it suffused me in that moment. I had no belly to speak of. I was a month pregnant at most. Brody placed trembling hands over my flat belly and leaned his forehead there too. “I’m going to be here every second,” he whispered, emotion thickening his voice. “I’m not going to miss a thing.” Hearing him say it healed the last regret in my heart. He couldn’t be there for my first pregnancy, but this one—
Well, he’s been there for everything. Every baby appointment and late-night craving.
So the plans for a huge wedding didn’t come together, but I can’t wait for another day to marry him. Good thing I won’t have to. We’ve got a reception planned for next summer and a lifetime together after that.