By the time we broke apart, Finn and Carrie were beside us. Finn was grinning and clapping with the rest of the customers and Carrie was…crying?
“Oh, fuck. You’re pregnant again, aren’t you?” I blurted out without thinking.
Finn punched my arm.
Carrie blinked. “How did you…? Oh, I don’t even care. Come here!”
She pulled me into a hug, and Finn picked up Marie and swung her in a circle, making her shriek and cling to his arms. I grinned and let go of Carrie. “Congrats.”
She swiped her hands across her cheeks. “Same to you.”
“It’s about damn time,” Finn said, offering his hand.
We clasped hands and did a bro hug, thumping each other’s backs. Carrie and Marie talked in a rush of unintelligible words, but they seemed to understand one another.
I watched, frowning.
Finn leaned in. “I think they said something about a double date. Wait, no, triple.”
“Quadruple once Ben and Sara come back.”
“You know…” Finn stepped back and looked at the girls, rubbing his chin. “All of our girls are pregnant except—”
“Hush your mouth,” Marie said, coming back to my side and wrapping her arms around me. “We need time to get comfy with our existing children before we think about adding more.”
I kissed her temple, my heart so fucking full that it felt like it was going to explode because she’d referred to my sisters as “our children” and that was all I could ask for and more.
Finn chuckled and hugged Carrie, who snuggled against him with wet cheeks and a huge smile. “Don’t think I forgot that you owe me money,” she said.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I groaned. “You’re actually going to collect on that stupid bet?”
Marie looked up at me with a wrinkled forehead. “What bet?”
“I bet him that if he went away with you for the weekend, you’d end up hooking up,” Carrie said with a big smile.
“And you bet you wouldn’t?” Marie asked me, staring.
Well, shit. Was I about to get in trouble? “Only because I thought that you didn’t want me to kiss you. I figured it would be an easy win since I’d never kiss you unless you asked me to, which I didn’t think you would, so I made a bet. But if I’d known—”
“Joseph?” she said with a small laugh.
I gratefully shut up. “Yeah?”
“Chill.” She poked me on the tip of the nose. “We’re cool.”
I kissed her, unable to help myself.
“See?” Finn gestured at us. “They’re cool.”
Carrie rolled her eyes.
“We’re more than cool,” Marie whispered in my ear. “And if you take me out of here right now, I’ll show you just how cool we are before I head in for work.”
I was already late, just like she was, but ask me if I gave a damn. “We need to go,” I announced with finality.
As I dragged her toward the door, Carrie started forward and said, “But we just got together, and we have so much to—”
“Ginger,” Finn said, tugging her back. “Let them go.”
We walked outside, the warmth of the sun hitting my cheeks, and my girl’s hand in mine. I stopped moving, staring up at the clouds that danced across the sky. I needed a second to absorb that this was happening. This was actually happening.
Marie hugged my arm against her side, looking up at the sky, too. She frowned and glanced around, apparently confused. “What is it?”
“It’s the sun,” I said, pointing at it.
A laugh escaped her. “Wow. Thanks, I never would have known that.”
“It’s a sure thing, the sun. You know? It comes up, it goes down, we revolve around it, and it never wavers.” I spun her in front of me and rested my hands on her shoulders. “My love for you is even surer. I’ve loved you for years, and now I finally get to say it out loud. As sure as the sun comes up, I’ll be there for you, babe. I’ll be there.”
Her lip trembled, and she lifted up on her toes to kiss me. “I love you, too.”
“I’m yours, babe, and you’re mine.” I cupped her hips and tugged her body against mine. “Forever.”
“Forever,” she echoed against my mouth.
Epilogue
Joseph
Six months later
I leaned closer, squinting. “Hold still. This is hard.”
“I’m trying,” Meggie mumbled, fidgeting.
I frowned at the curling iron, letting go of the long strand of brown hair. It flopped to Meggie’s back, completely uncurled and barely warm. “Why won’t this stupid thing take—?”
“I’m home!” Marie called from downstairs, closing the door behind her.
“Thank God,” Meggie and I said in unison.
I stepped back, glaring at her uncooperative hair.
Marie came in, breathless. “Sorry I’m late, I—what did you do to her hair?”
“I tried to curl it.”
Marie rolled her eyes. “Give it to me.”
I gladly handed it over.
Meggie kept fidgeting.
Marie stepped behind her, turning the dial on the handle so it was on eight. “You had it too low.”
“But I saw videos where girls burned their hair off, and I didn’t want to—”
“You watched videos of curling hair?” Marie asked, smiling.
“I did, and I wasn’t about to burn her fu—freaking hair off.”
Meggie rolled her eyes but smiled. “You can curse, Joey. I’ve heard the eff word before.”
“Not from me.” I held up a hand when she opened her mouth. “Not intentionally, anyway.”
Meggie snorted.
Marie smiled at me.
There was a warmth to her eyes that I’d never get sick of seeing. We’d been dating for six months, and we’d moved into her home last month. Some might say that was too soon, but I say it wasn’t fast enough. Besides, she lived in the same school district that Meggie had gone to, so the move had been a good one. Even Meggie was happy, now.
Well, as happy as teenage girls got, anyway.
“Marie?” Meggie said impatiently.
Marie shook herself off. “Sorry. Here we go.”
As Marie worked, they talked about the upcoming gala.
What to say if this girl said this, and how to respond if that boy said that. The bases they covered were wholly baffling and confusing, yet they seemed to understand it all perfectly.
Meggie looked beautiful.
She was in the dress that the three of us had picked out at the mall last month after hours of trying on at least a hundred dresses, maybe more. In the end, she’d picked out the first dress she’d tried on, the one me and Marie had loved. I’d wanted to shout that we’d wasted a whole damn day for nothing, but then I’d seen how happy Meggie looked as she spun in a circle for us, and I’d bitten my tongue and told her I’d never seen a more beautiful dress in my life.
I’d meant it.
That wasn’t to say raising a teenage girl was a walk in the park. She cried and yelled more than she smiled or laughed, and I was terrified her boyfriend was going to knock her up, and I was going to have to go to jail. When Meggie asked for Marie to take her to the doctor to get her some birth control, Marie had to drag me to our room and shut the door in my face as she handled it.
I say we handle it my way instead…
With fists and a few well-placed threats.
Trying to stop thinking about that, and what she might be planning on doing tonight at the prom, I reached into my pocket and touched what I’d hidden there. I had a surprise for my girl, but first…we needed to get our girl off to prom.
Marie stepped back, holding the curling iron. “Done.”
Meggie stood nervously, facing me. Her long blue dress fell to the floor in a rush of gauzy like material and what Marie called “intricate beading.” She looked at me, biting her carefully painted bright red lip. “Well?”
I walked up to he
r, rested my hands on her shoulders, and said, “You’ll be the most beautiful woman there.”
Meggie’s eyes watered, but she hid it by rolling them. “Yeah, yeah.”
The doorbell rang.
That little horny fucker in a tux was here.
“And if that boy tries anything you don’t want him to—”
Marie smacked my arm. “Stop it.”
“—kick him in the nuts and call me.”
Meggie laughed. Actually laughed. “I will. I promise.”
I hugged her and watched as the pimply faced asshole put a corsage on her wrist, and then snapped pictures like the dutiful parent I now was. As the limo pulled away with my little sister in it, Marie and I waved with big smiles. She was pressed against my side, as usual, and the second the limo turned the corner I dragged her inside to the kitchen. “We have the house to ourselves all night long.”
She followed me, skipping to keep up. “Yeah, so what’s your hurry?”
I pulled the champagne out of the fridge and let go of her. As I popped the cork, she got two glasses out. “We need to celebrate.”
She looked over her shoulder at me, both glasses in hand. “What are we celebrating?”
“You’ll see,” I said, taking them out of her hands and setting them on the counter so I could fill them. I poured the champagne with trembling hands, almost spilling them both.
As I faced her, she tugged on her fingers nervously.
I held a glass out. She took it.
“To us,” I said.
She cocked her head and clinked her glass to mine. “To us.”
We both took a sip, and I chugged the rest of mine before setting it down.
She blinked. “Whoa.”
“I love you.”
She finished hers, too. “I love you, too.”
I took the glass and set it with mine. “You know I want to marry you.”
“I…” She licked her lips. “You’ve mentioned it once or twice, yes.”
More like a million, but sure. Once or twice. “It’s no secret, so I can’t make a grand gesture that will surprise you.”
She blinked.
“So I came up with a different surprise.”
There she went tugging on her fingers again. “Okay…?”
“Here.”
I handed her a piece of paper.
She unfolded it and read out loud.
When she looked back up at me, she had a wrinkled brow. Especially when she saw I was down on one knee. “What…?”
“It’s a poem,” I said unnecessarily as I pulled my next gift out of my pocket.
“Wow, thanks. I never would have—”
Holding up a hand, I cut her off. “I know how much you love this house.”
She frowned.
“And the owners didn’t want to sell because you were a single woman and not a family.”
She nibbled on her lip.
“So I spoke to them, because I got my inheritance, and it was a lot—”
She gasped. “Joseph!”
“If you want it? It’s ours, babe. It can be ours, we can get married, and we never have to leave—”
“You spent your inheritance—?”
“Not yet. I’m not stupid. But I want to, and I want to buy this house, with you, as your husband. I want to add to our family, and give Meggie the stable home she deserves, and—” I pulled out the purchase agreement and a ring box. “—and I don’t want to wait for another second, because I waited long enough already. So Marie, will you do me the honor of buying this house with me, and marrying me, and being the mother of our children?”
She dropped to her knees, tears running down her cheeks. “I already am.”
I broke the kiss off. “Is that a yes? Because in case it’s not clear, I’m asking you to marry me, too.”
She laughed. “And to have sex with you a lot so I can have your babies.”
“Well…” My cheeks heated. “Yeah, that too.”
“Yes. So much yes.”
Opening the box, I started to pull the diamond out. I’d agonized over it with the help of Carrie, Sarah, and Noelle. “I picked this out, but if you don’t like it—”
“It’s perfect,” she said immediately.
She kissed me, not even bothering to look at it. No surprise there, my Marie didn’t give a damn about the tokens of life, she cared about the life we lived itself, which was why I’d had to make the grand gesture of buying this home. It was our home. Our safe space. Our life.
And I was the luckiest man alive.
About the Author
Jen McLaughlin is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of sexy books with Penguin Random House. Under her pen name, Diane Alberts, she is also a USA TODAY bestselling author of Contemporary Romance with Entangled Publishing. Her first release as Jen McLaughlin, Out of Line, hit the New York Times,USA TODAY and Wall Street Journal lists. She was mentioned in Forbes alongside E. L. James as one of the breakout independent authors to dominate the bestselling lists. She is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.
Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal-clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, and four cats. Her goal is to write so many well-crafted romance books that even a non-romance reader will know her name.
Also by Jen McLaughlin
THE OUT OF LINE SERIES
Out of Line
Out of Time
Out of Mind
Fractured Lines
Blurred Lines
I’ll be Home for Christmas
On the Line
THE SONS OF STEEL ROW SERIES
Dare to Run
Dare to Stay
Dare to Lie
THE MCCULLAGH INN IN MAINE SERIES
The McCullagh Inn in Maine
A Wedding in Maine
A Princess in Maine
FORBIDDEN LOVE SERIES
Bad Romance
Lust is the Thorn
SEX ON THE BEACH SERIES
Between Us
Losing Us
GAME IN THE GAME SERIES
The Backup Plan
Undercover_An Out of Line Novel Page 15
