Lucky in Love

by Kelly Elliott

  “Thank you,” I said.

  He looked at me and tilted his head as if confused. “For what?”

  I looked at the playhouse and then back at him again. “For agreeing to do the playhouse and not letting me fire you.”

  He laughed and pulled me against his body. “It’s just the beginning, sweetheart.”

  I nearly swooned in his arms, but my daughter’s repeated calls to come look at this or that had me walking into the castle. The attention to detail was beyond amazing. Truitt had taken me to a few other playhouses he had designed, and I knew he was extremely talented. They had really thought of everything. I was beyond proud of him.

  “In one tower is a dress-up area and stage to perform little plays,” Truitt said from behind me. “The other tower is, of course, Princess Liliana’s bedroom with a little place to do art work.”

  “There’s a ballet barre in here!” I gasped as I walked in and saw a small area had been made up as a tiny dance studio. Another area was a little lounge with a small sofa and pillows on the floor. A TV hung from the wall and was flanked by family photos of me, Ryan, and our parents. On one wall was a small bookshelf lined with books that my parents kept in their house for Liliana.

  I spun around and watched as Ryan climbed a twisting staircase and followed Liliana and my father up.

  Another squeak of delight came from my daughter, followed by one from my father. I looked at Truitt who simply smiled.

  “That one is for the older kids. It’s a media room.”

  My mouth dropped open. “A media room?”

  I quickly climbed the staircase and stopped at the top. Six chairs faced a wall that had a pull-down screen. My parents must have paid a small fortune for this playhouse. Hell, could you even call it that?

  “There’s a projector. Holy shit, he put in a projector!” Ryan exclaimed. “I’m totally spending the night more often.”

  “Think of the football games we can watch up there,” my daddy said.

  I covered my mouth with my hand and stared in disbelief. My mother walked in and had to grab onto one of the recliner chairs.

  “It’s your own personal movie theater, Liliana!” my father exclaimed.

  “Yay! What’s that?” Liliana asked mid-jump.

  “It’s where you watch movies, pumpkin. But on a really big TV,” I answered.

  There were two walkable bridges that took you to each tower. Liliana’s bedroom was done up in the most adorable way. It was princess-themed with a light shade of yellow for the wall color. My heart soared as I watched Liliana climb up onto the bed. A beautiful net surrounded the bed and could be closed or left open.

  “This is too much. Way too much,” I mumbled. I faced my mother. “Did you have to take a loan out on this? How in the world did he get this thing built in just a few months?”

  She shrugged. “He devoted all his time to it from what I’m told. Paid his employees overtime to get it done by Christmas Eve. He didn’t do it for me, he did it for her.”

  My mother pointed to Liliana who was spinning around the room and laughing.

  “I plan on having more grandchildren, so it was a good investment. Truitt said the dress-up room in the other tower can easily be made into another bedchamber, should we need to make one for a boy.”

  “Yeah, my bedchamber, please,” Ryan said as he headed down the winding staircase.

  “I can’t believe he built this,” I said again.

  Wrapping her arm around my shoulder, my mother said, “He is one very talented young man. His attention to detail is unbelievable, and I’m not sure how he pulled this off. It’s like a small house!”

  “It’s like you said, he did it for her,” I whispered. I faced my mother and our eyes locked. “I love him, Mom.”

  She gave me a soft smile. “Fate is a funny thing, sweetheart.”

  I saw Truitt pop up and I gasped. “You cannot be climbing these stairs with your knee, Truitt!”

  He laughed. “It’s fine. I wanted to see what you thought about her room.”

  My eyes filled with tears of happiness. “It’s perfect.”

  You’re perfect, in every single possible way.

  “Truitt, everything is amazing. It’s beyond amazing. It’s beautiful. Y’all must have killed yourselves getting this done.”

  He simply shrugged and then gave me one of his famous winks that nearly left me panting with want. I was going to have to find a way to sneak off with him sometime today.

  “I’ll head back down, meet y’all there,” Truitt said.

  As my mother followed Truitt back down, I took another look around. Happiness engulfed me, and I placed my fingers on my lips to keep from crying.

  With each step down the winding staircase I couldn’t shake the feeling that life couldn’t possibly be this amazing.

  Truitt

  CHRISTMAS, MY BIRTHDAY, and the new year came and went in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it, it was the end of January. Things with Saryn were going strong and steady. I had pretty much moved in with her and Liliana, or it felt like I had. Rus and I spent more time at Saryn’s place than we did at my own. Saryn and I had decided I would stop setting my alarm early in the morning and sneaking into the guest room. Most mornings I was up before the girls anyway and going for a run.

  Saryn had agreed to come work for Imaginations Unlimited, much to Lee’s delight. She was now able to take more time off, and Saryn proved to be a natural at decorating the interior of the playhouses. Yesterday she had come to the office and handed me a drawing she had done of a playhouse we had been asked to design. I stared at it for the longest time before she had asked me if it was terrible.

  “The opposite, sweetheart. This looks like our architect drew it.”

  She simply shrugged. “I love doing it.”

  I rounded my desk and pulled her into my arms. “And I love having you do it.”

  Her eyes met mine, and as I moved down to kiss her, she whispered, “I love you, Truitt.”

  With a smile, I replied, “I love you, too.”

  When our mouths parted, I looked deep into her eyes and prayed what I was about to say wouldn’t spook her. “I’d like to have Liliana pick out a room at my house. Y’all can decorate however you would like.”

  Her eyes lit up. “Truitt, she would love that!”

  “I know we haven’t talked about it yet, but I’d love to move you and Liliana into my place sometime in the future. It’s a bit more…private.”

  Saryn laughed. “I think that is a great idea.”

  “I think we should seal it with a kiss.”

  And seal it we did.

  I pushed open the door to the Rusty Nail and walked in. It had been a long while since I had met up with the guys for a night out. I moved through the crowd and caught my brother walking toward a corner table with a handful of beers.

  In the booth sat Ryan. Next to him was Pete, who had called off his wedding to Wendy when he came home early from work one night and found her in bed with another guy. Saryn had also dumped Wendy after they had met for lunch one day, and she began to fill Saryn in on the supposed love affairs I had going on all over town.

  Jack sat on the other side of Pete. Since Paul had gotten married last year, he had declined almost every one of our guys’ night out invitations. I was pretty sure Roger had stopped inviting him at this point.

  “Finally! I didn’t think you were going to show up!” Ryan said as Roger handed him a bottle of Bud Light, then passed one to me.

  “I told you I’d be here,” I said, flipping a chair around and sitting on it.

  The four of them looked at me as if waiting for me to say something. I took a drink from my beer, set it down on the table, and then laughed.

  “Why in the hell are y’all staring at me?” I asked.

  Roger lifted a brow. “Is there something you want to tell us?”

  I thought about it for a moment. “No, should there be?”

  Ryan frowned. “Are you sure?”
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  I gave them a hard stare.

  “Unless you want to hear about the new playhouse we’re fixin’ to design, then no, I don’t have anything new to tell y’all.”

  Roger huffed as Ryan shook his head. Pete looked out at the dance floor while Jack stared at me.

  “What’s the matter with y’all?” I asked.

  Jack motioned his beer toward Ryan. “It’s your sister, you should be the one.”

  I started at Ryan. “Should be the one to what?”

  With a sigh, Ryan placed his bottle of beer down. “Lucy said that she heard from Ms. Townsend’s niece that you were seen coming out of Boerne Jewelers earlier today.”

  “So?”

  “So?” they all said at once.

  It didn’t take me long to figure out why they were all staring at me like I was keeping something from them.

  “The owners are interested in a playhouse for their daughter. They asked me to meet them there since it’s close to Valentine’s Day and they’re busy.”

  “Thank fuck,” Roger mumbled. “My God, I thought you had lost your mind.”

  I shot him a look. “What do you mean?”

  “Lucy hinted that you might have bought Saryn a little something for Valentine’s Day,” Ryan said.

  “A ring. They all thought you were going to ask her to marry you, but I knew better,” Roger stated with a smug expression.

  I laughed. “I know we moved fast when it came to getting together, but I don’t think Saryn is in a rush to walk down the aisle.”

  When I noticed Pete hadn’t said anything, I looked at him.

  “You’re quiet on the subject.”

  He looked around the table and then at me. “I need to talk to you.”

  “Okay.”

  With a shake of his head, he added, “In private.”

  “Right now?” I asked with a half-hearted laugh.

  “Yes. Right now.”

  He motioned for me to follow him, so I did. “We’ll be right back,” I said as I stood and turned to walk behind Pete. He walked down the back hall and then slipped into a back room that was used for private parties. When I followed him into the room, he shut the door.

  I faced him. “What’s wrong?”

  Pete scrubbed his hands down his face and then dropped them to his side.

  “I know something, and I probably should just mind my own business but I…I can’t.”

  “What’s it about?” I asked.

  He gave me a blank look. “Saryn and you.”

  My stomach lurched, and for a panicked moment I thought he was going to say he’d seen her with another man. I quickly pushed that out of my head. I knew Saryn would never do anything like that.

  “Okay, what about us?”

  Pete looked serious as all get-out as he said, “How serious is it with y’all, Truitt? I mean, do you see a future with Saryn?”

  I chuckled. “I would say it’s pretty damn serious. I’m damn near living with her, and I can’t imagine my life without her.”

  He blew out a breath and looked relieved. “Then you might want to rethink the whole asking her to marry you thing, and do it quickly.”

  I tried to figure out what in the hell was wrong with him.

  “Why?”

  He shook his head. “God, I want to tell you, but she’ll kill me.”

  “Who?”

  “Saryn. And Renee.”

  “Who’s Renee?” I asked, starting to feel slightly frustrated.

  “She’s someone I started dating a few weeks ago. I picked her up for lunch yesterday and…I saw Saryn leaving the office where Renee works.”

  “Ooookay. Can you give me a little more information there, Pete?”

  He looked nervous. “Renee didn’t know I knew Saryn, and she happened to mention something about her that she really shouldn’t have…the whole patient privacy thing and all. When she realized I knew who Saryn was, she made me swear I wouldn’t say anything.”

  “You’re starting to freak me out, Pete. Is Saryn okay? Where does this Renee work?”

  “Northwest Ob/Gyn Associates. She’s a nurse there.”

  I paused for a moment before my heart started to beat rapidly.

  “She’s been feeling sick the last week, couple of weeks, actually,” I mumbled.

  “In the mornings?” Pete prodded.

  I nodded.

  “Throwing up?”

  “Yes.”

  Pete attempted not to smile. “Sooo, morning sickness…”

  I took a step back in utter shock. “Saryn’s pregnant!”

  “She is?”

  Confused beyond belief, I pushed Pete. “I don’t know!”

  “You said it, not me!” Pete said, looking relieved and excited all at once.

  I pushed my fingers through my hair. “I don’t know if she’s pregnant!”

  “Oh, well…”

  “What in the hell! What are you saying? What did this Renee tell you?”

  He held up his hands for me to slow down.

  “Take a breath, Truitt. Take a breath.”

  “I am taking breaths! A lot of them! She can’t be pregnant, Pete. She’s on the pill. I wear a condom every single time. So it’s impossible!”

  “Truitt, just take a second to slow down.”

  I leaned over and placed my hands on my thighs as I dragged in one deep breath after another. Could Saryn be pregnant? How would I feel about that? How would she feel? The moment of panic quickly vanished and was replaced by an excitement I’d never experienced before.

  When I finally stood up straight, Pete was staring at me, clearly worried he had fucked up big time.

  “I wasn’t sure how you would feel about it. I asked Roger what you’d do if Saryn ever got pregnant, and he said you’d freak.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Don’t ever ask Roger anything about relationships. He’s going to stay single his entire life.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “It depends, what did Renee say?”

  He turned, putting his back toward me. “When Saryn walked out of the building and Renee saw her…”

  “Wait. Pete? What in the hell are you doing? Why are you standing with your back to me?”

  “I can’t tell you directly. I told her I wouldn’t, so I’m just sort of talking to myself in the same room as you.”

  My mouth dropped open. “This is what you’re going to tell yourself? That you were talking out loud and I happened it overhear it?”

  “Yes.”

  I shook my head. “How are you a doctor? Seriously? How?”

  “Do you want to know or not?”

  “Yes, I want to know, you dickhead, but turn and look at me, goddamn it!”

  He spun around. “Fine! Renee saw Saryn and laughed. She said that she was a patient of theirs and had just found out she was pregnant, and when the doctor told her, Saryn apparently threw up. All over the doctor. Then I said something like holy shit, Saryn is pregnant, and then Renee freaked because I knew her, and the rest is history.”

  “She threw up on the doctor? Why?” I asked.

  Pete shrugged. “Nervous, excited, scared? I don’t know. Dude, did y’all ever have sex without a condom?”

  “I already said—”

  I stopped talking, and Pete raised one brow.

  “Shit. The second time we ever had sex the condom broke. Saryn said she was on the pill, so I honestly never thought anything about it.”

  “Well, neither is a hundred percent accurate, you know.”

  “No shit, Sherlock.”

  Pete attempted to hide his smile. “So how do you feel about this? About Saryn being pregnant so early in your relationship?”

  I thought about it for a moment or two. Then a strange feeling of warmth settled over me. I looked at Pete, and that happy feeling was replaced by anger.

  “How in the hell could you tell me? Why would you tell me? It should have been Saryn telling me, not you, dickhead!”

  He looked at me, befuddled
. “Are you angry because you’re going to be a dad, or because I’m the one who told you?”

  I balled my fists. “Because you told me, you idiot!”

  “Right. I can see that…now that I think about it. Probably wasn’t the best thing for me to do.”

  With a frustrated groan, I turned and headed to the door.

  “Where are you going?” Pete asked as he followed me out. I ignored him as we made our way back to the table.

  Taking a twenty out of my wallet, I tossed it onto the table. “I’m heading home.”

  “What happened?” Ryan asked, looking from me to Pete.

  “Nothing, I’m just eager to see Saryn, that’s all.”

  Roger laughed. “Dude, I know Ryan is cool with it and all, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t need to know you want to…”

  “Shut up, Roger,” I said as I looked at Ryan. He appeared amused by me leaving.

  “This is why I refuse to settle down with anyone,” Jack said. “Once they get their claws in, all the fun is sucked right out of you.”

  I slapped him on the back and said, “Just wait until you fall in love.”

  He and Roger both made gagging sounds as Pete and Ryan laughed.

  With a wave goodbye to my brother and friends, I quickly headed to my truck and drove straight to Saryn’s house.

  Saryn

  I PACED THE living room as I thought about how I was going to tell Truitt I was carrying his baby.

  Yes, things had been good between us. So good. Great, in fact. But a baby.

  A baby.

  A surprise baby.

  I was over the moon, but how would Truitt feel? He hadn’t even mentioned not using condoms anymore. He still put one on every time we had sex, and I assumed it was a double precaution because he wasn’t ready for a baby.

  I thought back to when I had thrown up on the poor doctor, and then asked her how in the world I had gotten pregnant. I knew it only took one time, one thing going wrong. The condom had broken in the shower. But I had still been on the pill. Then it dawned on me. I’d missed taking my pill back in November for a few days. With everything going on and seeing Truitt again and the move back home, I hadn’t given it a second thought.

  “Oh, Truitt. How are you going to react?”