Page 70 of Beau & Autumn

“We didn’t either,” I say. “But we just wanted to be spontaneous and go with how we felt. Like Beau said, you can’t fight what you want.” The words sound less and less like a lie every time I say them.

“We love each other,” Beau adds.

My heart. My heart is literally aching. I’ve wanted someone to love and treat me the way this man is for so long, and now that I have it, my heart wants all of it to be real. I don’t want to fake it, but I have to.

Gabe grabs his phone. “We gotta get Gray and Brook in here.” He walks away, shaking his head in disbelief as I try my hardest not to cry.

The Bassetts are amazing people. They’ve been so good to me. And here I am, lying away like it’s as easy as breathing.

“Tell me everything.” Georgia sits down. She looks pale. “I need to know the details.”

“Don’t be scaring Autumn out of the family,” Beau says. I snuggle into his side. He smells so damn good.

“I’m really sorry we didn’t say something.” I take a deep breath. “We just didn’t tell anyone because we knew it would get out and then we didn’t have time to plan a wedding at such short notice and?—-”

“You knocked up your best friend?” Brooklyn whoops as he bounds in through the door and embraces his brother in a big bear hug. “Way to go, little brother!”

My cheeks flush.

“I didn’t knock her up!” Beau tries to shove his brother off but he’s already hugging the shit out of him. “We’re… in… love…” His words grunt out as Brooklyn shakes him up and down.

Then he turns to me. I hold out my arms with my palms flat. “No bear hugs for me, thanks, Brook.”

He smiles down at me. “Autumn Leaf Bassett, that has a ring to it.” He pulls me into a hug before I can even protest, squashing me into his chest.

“I’m sorry we didn’t have time to?—”

“What the Hell?” Gray’s voice booms across the room. Oh, no. I knew this was coming. Double shit. And how did they get here so fast? “Beau? Autumn? You’re married?”

“I need to call Celeste!” Georgia says. “Oh, and Hartley… and Skye… and Eden…”

Gray’s still standing there, demanding answers with his hand on his hip and his look more stern than Bob Bassett’s was earlier.

“They’re denying they're pregnant, but I don’t know.” Brooklyn finally lets go of me. “Autumn does have that radiant glow about her.”

I want to shrink into a hole and die.

Gray comes toward us.

“I know it’s sudden—” Beau begins.

“Sudden? You were only dating a few weeks ago.”

“Two weeks,” Gabe ever so helpfully puts in. Out of everyone I thought Gabe was going to be the one who didn’t accept it, but it seems I’ve misjudged him. Gray’s the one to convince.

“Yeah, but we, uh, didn’t want to wait,” Beau stammers. I know he’s not afraid of Gray, but he cares about what his brother thinks. More so than anyone else, including Gabriel who can also be intimidating.

“It’s sudden, yes,” I say, trying to help out Beau with an explanation that may be passable to Gray. “But we can’t help how we feel, and we couldn’t wait any longer. In actual fact, we’ve both been having feelings for one another for quite some time.” Also not a lie, on my part anyway. “And well, we acted on it impulsively, but we’re both very happy about it.”

Beau turns to me and I meet his eyes. His mouth curls into a smile and I lean up on my toes and we peck one another again.

“Aww! You guys are so cute!” Brooklyn squeezes Beau’s cheek like a grandma would as Beau tries to slap his hand away.

“Stop embarrassing me in front of my wife!”

I roll my lips. It’s the first time he’s said that to anyone except me. His wife.

Oh, God. I love the way that sounds. It rolls off his tongue like a sweet melody.

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