Page 91 of Love is a Drum Beat
Jo groaned. “Wasn’t a small sized Drew enough? Now, we have a way-too-big Drew.”
“I heard that.” Drew smirked. “How are my two favorite girls?”
“We’re fine, thanks.” Jo crossed her arms.
“Kinda meant Alien and Stella.”
Jo pointed to the screen. “See! He called her alien too.”
Dax hooked his pinky with hers. “Do you really want to follow Drew’s lead on this?”
“No.” Jo glanced at Noah and Stella huddled over the baby. “Fine, it’s just Ali.”
Melanie perched on the arm of the couch. “With many of us back in town, we thought having a meeting would be good.”
“A meeting. The day I come home from the hospital? Forgive me for saying it, but Mel… I kind just want to sleep and hold my baby.”
“There’s a reason for this meeting.” Dax pressed a kiss to her cheek.
Jo looked to each of her friends, the people claiming to be her family. “Dax Nelson, you better not be proposing.”
He choked on a laugh. “Well, if I was, you’d have just ruined it.”
She loved Dax, she knew that now. “I’m sorry. It’s just… there’s so much changing right now. I love you. I know I’ll love you until you’re dead and buried.”
One eyebrow lifted. “And if you die before me?”
“Won’t happen. But the point is I just had a baby. Yesterday. I pushed a bowling ball alien out of me. My entire life is going to be different. I just… I need time to get used to this before everything changes aga—”
Dax pressed his lips to hers. Noah hooted and hollered until Melanie slapped him. At least, Jo assumed it was Melanie when she heard it.
“I wasn’t going to ask you to marry me.” He stepped back away from her. “One day, I will.” A smile stretched across his lips. “I never used to know what to say to you, Jo. But now, now I can’t stop talking. You changed my life.” He held out a hand. “Come with me.”
She took it without thought, trusting him in anything he said. He pulled her toward the guest room next to the room she’d lived in for the past month or so. The others followed.
She faintly heard Drew yelling for them to put him on a tablet. Ben fiddled with that so Drew could come wherever they were going.
Dax stopped at the closed door, his hand resting on the knob. After a moment of hesitation, he opened the door. “All lights on.”
Just like in the rest of the house, the lights responded to his voice, illuminating the room. Jo’s steps faltered, and she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“This is why I wasn’t at the hospital yesterday afternoon. It’s why Ben and Noah didn’t come today. We needed this to be ready for you.”
Tears welled in Jo’s eyes as she took in the dark wood crib and matching changing table. A white rocking chair took up one corner next to a bookshelf and dresser.
“There are also bottles and pacifiers in the kitchen.” Dax stood at her side. “You can change anything. We can paint the walls. I didn’t have time for that. But if you don’t like it, that’s okay.”
“Dax,” she whispered.
He kept talking. “I know some moms like to pick out the stuff themselves, but you hadn’t done any of that, so we—”
“Dax.”
He stopped and looked down at her.
She swallowed back a sob. “This is the question, the one you want to ask me today? Please, just say it.”
“Oh.” His cheeks reddened as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, your apartment is awfully small, and I have this giant house.”
