I rise from my chair, take two steps around the table, and scoop her into my arms. “Then we both know who won the game, but I’m winning the whole damn night.”
I carry her out of the living room and into the bedroom, which is dark but for the dim light coming from the lamps on the nightstands. I kick the door shut behind us and walk her over to the bed.
“You’re really calling thewholenight a win? Complete with baby puke and everything?”
She sounds upbeat, but I hear the undercurrent of concern in Magnolia’s voice. She’s afraid, after Mount and Keira’s kid’s vomiting episode, that I might have second thoughts about doing the whole baby thing. That’s where she’s wrong.
“Mama, there would be no greater privilege in my life than to put a ring on your finger and give you a baby. I’m not changing my mind at the first bump in the road. Kids are a mixed bag of a whole lot of crazy shit, but as long as it’s you and me taking it on together, I’m ready.”
Magnolia’s face softens. “You really mean that.”
I lower my head to touch my forehead to hers. “Damn right I do. And if you give me a baby girl, you better pray for us all, because I’m going to have to stay jacked and ripped as hell so no boy ever looks at her twice. I’ll have to get T-shirts printed with my picture on them sayingThat’s My Daddyso they know what they’re dealing with if they get within twenty feet of her.”
Magnolia’s joyful giggles fill me with things that are both unexpected and welcome. Lightness. Hope.Peace.
“You’re crazy, Moby. I seriously hope we have at least one girl, because I love the sound of all that.” She goes quiet for a beat, and her expression takes on a serious cast. “And I love you.”
My heart slams against my chest, and I know my woman can feel it. Her arms tighten around my neck as I let her words sink in, repeating them in my brain.I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you.
I’ve waited so fucking long to hear those words from her, and it takes me a good ten seconds to pull my shit together. My arms constrict around her, and I crush Magnolia to my chest.
“I fucking love you, woman. So goddamned much. I should’ve come back sooner—”
Magnolia silences my regrets with a shake of her head. “No more agonizing over the past. We’re living in the present and only looking forward.”
“I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” I whisper into her ear as I keep her locked against me.
“Does it matter? Because you’re stuck with me now.”
I lift my head. “Damn right. So this baby-making business ... from what I hear, it takes a lot of rehearsal to get itjustright.”
“You know, I believe I’ve heard the same thing.”
I lower her the rest of the way to the bed, and neither of us says another word that anyone else could understand for the rest of the night. And when I fall asleep beside my woman, my hand curved around her hip, I’m certain it’s all going to work out.
I don’t know what the fuck we’re going to have to go through to get to the other side, but there’s no way in hell I’m going to lose the paradise I’ve found.
I will fight for this.
For us.
For our future.
Come hell or high water, I’m never letting her go.
Twenty-Nine
Magnolia
Two more days of playing house at Mount and Keira’s, and we still don’t have any more answers. At this point, I’m starting to wonder if Trey really is as good as Moses says. Although there’s no way I’m going to ask that question. Especially since the asshole who wants me dead has been erased and must know all the tricks for staying off the radar.
Still, it’s frustrating as hell. At least, during the day. At night, Moses drives all dread and worry from my head with that big, hard body of his. GoodLord, the man has it going on.
And every night, when we fall asleep, he has to be touching me somehow, somewhere. Whether it’s his hand on my leg, or me pulled back against his chest, he’s always making contact with me.I love it.
And speaking oflove, after we both said those three little words for the first time, they now come out easily.
I’ve never had this before, and it feels like a revelation.