Page 147 of Unexpected Forever
We stand, and I give her the biggest hug I can with a nine-months-pregnant belly. “Thank you,” I whisper into her hair.
“Make me proud, lady.”
I pull back and turn to Darcy. “I accept your offer.”
Darcy claps and jumps up to hug me. “Welcome to the Bull Sharks family.”
I smile, but there’s a pain in my chest because I want to call Nate. Tell him the great news and see if we can talk. Work things out.
We have too much at stake to throw it away over fears. Deep-seated fears, but fears, nonetheless.
I’d rather conquer them with him than without him.
I just hope he feels the same way.
Emma’s phone pings and she looks at the screen. She bites her lip and glances toward Megan and Darcy.
“Charley,” Emma says, putting away her phone, “before you leave, I need you to take a look at one last thing for me for one of the upcoming events.”
“Sure.”
I hug Megan and Darcy goodbye with promises to call and get together before Darcy leaves tomorrow.
“We need to go outside, so grab your coat,” Emma says.
“Okay.”
We bundle up and head out into the darkness. The sun has set, and the night is still and cold. I follow Emma around to the back of the building.
“Didn’t you tell me one of the couples met here and the gazebo holds a special place for them?” she asks.
I purse my lips, trying to think about the upcoming events.
And try not to think about how close that sounds to the night I met Nate.
I shake my head. “I’m sorry, Em. Must be the pregnancy brain because I can’t remember which couple that is.”
Well, I can, but that’s not the answer to her question.
“That’s okay,” she says with a grin. “But I was wondering if you think she might like this.”
She opens the door to an electrical box and flips a switch.
The gazebo lights up and I gasp.
Several mason jars sit along the rail and bench, lights inside them twinkling. More lights hang from the roof line in long strings. They dance in the wind.
All the lights look like…fireflies.
Tears fill my eyes at the beauty of it all.
But the lights dim in comparison to the beauty standing in the middle of the gazebo. My jaw drops.
“Oh my God. He’s here.”
Goose bumps slide along my skin, and adrenaline rushes through me when I see him.
Nate Gentry makes my knees weak no matter how he looks, but Nate Gentry in his charcoal-gray game day suit is a force to be reckoned with.
