by Scott, J. S.
She smiled up at him. “Gladly. You look hot when you’re sweaty and shirtless. And I think your butt is delicious in jeans.” He’d played the corporate game for years, trying to be more like his brother Evan. It was time for Jared to just be himself. “Is it really what you want?”
“Yeah. It is. I guess I finally realized that what I want to do and Selena and Alan’s deaths aren’t really connected. They were only linked in my head by guilt.”
Mara stroked over his whiskered jaw tenderly. “Then do it. I want you to be happy.” She was jubilant, knowing that Jared was finally free. After years of tormenting himself, he could finally move on.
He pulled her tightly against him and buried his face in her hair. “I’m already happy because I have you, sweetheart. Going back to restoring old houses like I’d like to do would just be a very small amount of icing on an already very sweet cake.”
“Then bring on the frosting,” she murmured right before she pulled his head down and kissed him tenderly. “A cake can never be too sweet.”
“You’re amazing,” he said huskily. “I think I really did need to talk to you.”
Mara thought he did, too. Otherwise, he would have talked himself out of it, claiming he was too invested in commercial real estate to pursue his original dream. The last thing they needed was more money. Jared was already one of the richest men in the world.
She was startled when Jared’s cell phone rang, and he scowled as he pulled it back out of his pocket again. “It’s Jason.” He answered it immediately.
Mara listened intently as Jared spoke, his voice sounding nervous.
“Okay, we’ll be there soon. I don’t care if there’s nothing we can really do. I want to be there. This is my first nephew, and I want to be around when he’s born,” Jared grumbled into the phone.
Mara smiled. Obviously Hope was in labor, and it might be a very long wait at the hospital since it was her first child, but Mara wouldn’t miss being there for any reason. She knew Hope was excited and nervous. If Hope had to wait around for her labor to start in earnest, Mara wanted to be there for her.
Jared hung up the phone. “Hope’s in labor. Jason said it could be a while, since the contractions are pretty far apart. I should be able to grab a shower.”
“I’ll make us all something to eat while you clean up,” Mara agreed as she moved to put her jacket back on. “I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see my new niece.”
“Nephew,” Jared rumbled. “It’s the first Sinclair of the next generation. It will be a boy. In case you haven’t noticed, boys seem to run in the Sinclair family.”
Mara laughed. “You know Jason and Hope didn’t want to know the sex of the baby beforehand. You’re basing your information on the fact that there are historically more boys than girls in your family?” Nobody would know the new infant’s sex until he or she was actually born.
His shirt and jacket now on, Jared grinned. “Not really just that.”
“You just hope it’s a boy,” Mara accused him with a laugh as he pulled her toward the door, her heart light at the thought of welcoming a new baby into the family. “It could just as well turn out to be a niece. Would you really care?”
“Nope. I don’t really care whether it’s a niece or nephew. I’d be just as excited to have either one.”
Mara stopped at the door to stare at her husband. “Then why do you keep saying it’s going to be your nephew?”
“Because Beatrice told me. She said her spirit guides are speaking very loudly to her.”
Mara burst out laughing. “Yeah. And she told me Evan would be married within the next six months to a woman who would be his perfect match, just a few days ago. She met Evan at the wedding.”
“She predicted Sarah and Dante. And she predicted us.” Jared pulled out his keys as he opened the door, dangling his key chain that still sported the Apache tear stone that Beatrice had given him. “Call me crazy, but I’m starting to wonder if there isn’t something kind of interesting about her predictions.”
Mara did have to admit he was right. Beatrice did seem to have a few rather eerie and unlikely predictions that had come true lately.
“We’ll see if I end up with a nephew or a niece,” Jared teased as he pulled her out the door and locked it behind him.
They sprinted to their vehicles because of the frigid temperatures, Mara following Jared back to the Peninsula so he could shower and she could put food together before they went to the hospital to await the arrival of Jared’s first nephew . . . or niece.
It was a very long night, but they had plenty of company with all of the Sinclair family gathered there in the waiting room. In fact, Hope didn’t deliver her healthy baby boy until the next morning.
Mara walked out of the hospital the next day yawning, her head resting on Jared’s strong biceps after they’d finally had a chance to welcome the new baby to the family.
“It was a boy,” Jared said smugly.
“Coincidence?” Mara asked sleepily.
Jared shrugged and pulled her closer to him to shield her body from the cold wind as they walked toward their vehicle. “I guess we’ll see if Evan ends up married soon. That would definitely make me a believer in Beatrice’s predictions.” Jared’s voice sounded slightly amused.
Mara nodded and huddled closer to Jared’s warmth. That particular prediction of Beatrice’s was a long shot. But she silently hoped that it did come true, no matter how unlikely it might be.
Somehow, she’d ended up married to Jared, and to her that occurrence had been nothing short of a miracle. She yawned as Jared unlocked the door of the vehicle and opened the passenger-side door for her.
“Tired?” he asked in a concerned voice.
“Definitely.” Now that the excitement of the new arrival was over and both Hope and the baby were healthy, her exhaustion had hit her like a rock.
“Let’s go home so you can get some sleep.” Jared settled her into her seat and belted her in before he jogged around to the driver’s side.
She smiled as her husband got into the car, shooting him an adoring look before she closed her eyes peacefully and started drifting off to sleep. Home wasn’t a place or a building for her anymore; it was a state of mind. As long as Jared was with her, she’d always be home.
~The End~
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2013 Carrie Herzog
J.S. “Jan” Scott is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author. She’s an avid reader of all types of books and literature, but romance has always been her genre of choice. Writing what she loves to read, Jan writes both contemporary and paranormal romances. They are almost always steamy, they generally feature an alpha male, and have a happily ever after, because she just can’t seem to write them any other way!
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