Page 107 of Chasing You

“Oh, thank god,” May says, “because two of us being pregnant at the same time would be a nightmare.”

My head whips to her, and the smirk on her face is uncanny. Isla screams, pulling herself out of the pool to wrap May in a hug. “Are you fucking serious?”

She falls backward and May laughs as she goes with her. “Well, I took about six pregnancy tests and they all came back positive, so I’m pretty serious.” Isla does this thing in between squealing, laughing, and crying, and it makes me laugh myself.

“Get over here, D’Angelo,” May pulls on my arm, dragging me to lie on the hot concrete with them. I laugh as I wrap my arm around her.

“How do you feel?” I ask.

“Like shit,” she laughs. “Morning sickness is no joke.”

A tiny part of me stings with envy. Five years ago, I thought I’d be in her shoes by now, throwing up at any given moment and ingesting as much ginger as possible. But the biggest part of me is so fucking happy for my friend.

“Oh my god, Rafael is going to be such a protective dad.” I laugh.

Isla sits up. “He is going to be like ten times more insufferable than he is now.”

“He’s already adjusting my pillows at night, and cooking me whatever it is I’m craving that day.”

“That’s why you were so obsessed with the juice!” I say, and May just nods, laughing as both of us sit back up.

“We should take a photo of the baby on your motorbike, Marina, see if he has a heart attack,” May laughs.

“I don’t really feel like dying at Rafael’s hand. His grumpy face is not the last thing I want to see before I go.”

“No, you’d rather see Miles and his sexy stache before you go.” May giggles.

“Ew, do not call it a sexy stache!” Isla throws her hands over her face, shaking her head.

That sends the three of us into a fit of laughter, rolling around on the concrete. And it’s in this moment that I realize I’m exactly where I need to be. I couldn’t imagine my life any other way right now. Plans be damned, they never work out anyway.

I have two girls I’d give anything for, a community that holds me tight from any angle, and the man I love back in my bed, even if it’s just for a little while.

chapter forty-four

MILES

PRESENT

“Come in, come in, come in.”Marina jigs down the step from the entryway, a wide-eyed Leo following behind her.

The sweet scent of vanilla and cinnamon fills the space, courtesy of the lit candle sitting on the new side table by the entryway. The one that has one of Isla’s landscapes of Ruby Cove hanging on the wall above it.

When Marina said she wanted the first thing people to see when they walk in the door to be one of my sister’s paintings, everything really hit home for me. That this is all real, this life that I never imagined I would have is all falling into place.

“Holy shit,” Leo says, his gaze finding mine from where I stand in the kitchen, pulling a cold beer out of the fridge. “You did good, Beckett.”

I slide a bottle across the bench top to him, and he picks it straight up, not missing a beat. “It’s not too bad.”

“A fully functioning kitchen,” he nods to the warm space I’m standing in, and it throws me back to our conversation about the B&B.

“I do miss Scrabble nights,” I say.

Marina bounds over to us. “We can implement it, as long as we can have puzzles on a Friday.”

“Julia Roberts on Sundays?” I ask.

She smiles when she rounds the counter, pure adoration in her eyes as she approaches me. “Could you be any more perfect?” She wraps her arms around my waist, rising up on her toes to press a kiss to my lips. When she pulls away, she’s got a beer in her hand.

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