Page 117 of All In
“Barely.” I helped her to her feet. “I’m sorry, Kace. It probably won’t do any good, but I had to tell him.”
“Maybe not, but it was everything I needed to hear, or else I was going to lose it, right here on the porch.” She ringed her arms around my neck. “Everything I needed to hear.”
Oh shit.
She searched my eyes a minute, then tucked her head under my chin as she’d done when we’d danced at Oscar and Dena’s wedding. “Are you proposing to me, Teddy?”
My old instincts rose in me, warning me to shut the hell up, to mutter away how I felt. Instead, I told her the truth.
“Not here, not after that. But one day…I will. Because I want nothing more on this fucking earth than for you to be my wife.”
“You want to marry me.” She sighed, and I felt the tension melt out of her shoulders.
“I want to marry you,” I whispered against her head.
“But this isn’t a proposal,” she said against my chest.
“Definitely not.”
“Then I’m not saying yes.” She raised her head to look at me, the blue of her eyes shining like the purest glass. “Definitely not…” She brushed her lips to mine. “…Saying yes.”
We walked down to the curb, and I opened the passenger door of the rental car for her. As I shut it and turned, my eye caught Kacey’s mom standing at the front window. She raised her hand as if to wave, but only rested her fingers on the panes, her gaze trained on the car.
She caught me staring, withdrew her hand as if the glass burned her and let the curtain fall across the glass.
CHAPTER
FORTY-SIX
“So let me get this straight,” Dena said. “We have a weddinganda baby shower to plan?”
“Teddy did not propose to me,” I said, forking a bite of salad. We sat in the crowded mall, in the food court after an afternoon of house-hunting. “He told my dad he was going to marry me, and I overheard.”
Dena shot me a sly look. “His version of asking your dad for your hand in marriage.”
I nodded, laughter welling up in me. “Exactly. Theo asked for my hand by telling my dad he had his head up his ass.”
“He’s such a traditionalist.”
“Stop,” I managed, waving my hands. “My cheeks hurt.” I sucked in deep breaths and wiped my eyes. “Oh my God, it was so horrible it’s actually funny.”
Dena’s eyes grew soft. “Are you okay?”
“Not really. But I can laugh about it, anyway.” I gave my head a shake. “It’s done. They’re done with me, but at least I can say I tried.”
“You did,” Dena said. “You should be proud of yourself.”
I felt the laughter bubble up again. “I’m prouder of Teddy for not burning their house down.”
Dena bent over her plate as we both dissolved into laughter, the kind that keeps going long after you remember what you were laughing for.
“Oh shit,” I said, wiping my eyes. “Okay, belly laughing made me hungry. Either that or my first real craving just hit.” I nodded at the storefront at the end of the food court. “If I don’t have a Cinnabon right this minute, someone’s going to get hurt.”
“I don’t think that’s a pregnancy craving, so much as a mall craving,” Dena said. “They pipe the smell of their frosting into the air, I swear.”
One sticky, gooey cinnamon roll later, Dena and I returned to her car in the outdoor parking lot.
“Do you want to—” My words choked off in a small cry as a blinding, razor-sharp pain exploded in my lower belly. A stab through my left side, stealing my breath and bending me over. The pain spread like wildfire around my middle, down my thigh, and around my back. I would have screamed at the agony, but I didn’t have the air. The ground rose up toward me as I crumpled down, feeling as if I were being ripped in two. A flush of wet warmth spread between my legs, down my jeans.
