Page 139 of Lethal Threat

He tips his head back and roars. “Lord, you like to live dangerously.”

Bryan extends a hand to me. His smile is big and genuine. The guy looks a million times better than he did that night at the warehouse. “I think that’s our call.” He pulls me to my feet.

“That’s the call for Cole to get an ass chewing,” Caleb says with a deep belly laugh.

He’s right.

I knock the snow off my pants legs. “Mom’s too glad to haveme home.”

Caleb bumps my shoulder with his as we head to the house. “She’s too glad to have you engaged.”

“Guess we’re going to be brothers-in-law.” Bryan has a neutral voice. He’s yet to say anything positive. Like congratulations.

I bristle, even though things are fine between us. On the surface, at least. “I hope you’re down with that.”

He drops a hand on my shoulder. “I wouldn’t want it to be anyone else. But a little warning would have been good. I got all choked up at the dinner table when you told everyone.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I was there with ya, bro. I’ve never been so soft. Jesus. This love thing...”

Caleb laughs as he holds the mudroom door open. “You have no idea. It’s just beginning. Wait until she tells you she’s pregnant.”

My heart throbs for a few beats. “That would be music to my ears.”

When I look up, Sierra’s leaning on the frame of the door, watching the herd shed their winter gear. “Uh, about that…”

I take a step toward her and wind my hand around the back of her neck under the thick fall of her hair. “If you tell me you’re pregnant, I might just die of happiness right here on my parents’ floor.”

She smiles softly. “Then I won’t tell you.”

Growling, I press my mouth against the shell of her ear. “Don’t tease me like that, woman.”

“How do you feel about being a father?”

Pulling her into the hallway, I get us to a place for a private conversation. I turn her toward me and cup her face in my hands. “If you were pregnant with my baby, I’d be ecstatic.”

She drops her voice to a whisper only I can hear. “Well, it’s early, but I missed my period.”

For a thousand heartbeats, I’m frozen. “You didn’t tell me…”

“I wasn’t sure if I should wait until I knew for sure… I didn’t have time to get a test and I was already a week late when I realized.”

Pulling her into my arms, I fight back the lump in my throat. “The minute we can go to a clinic and find out, we are.”

She wraps her hands around my neck. “I knew you’d say that.”

I tip her back and kiss her. “I love you. We’re going to do this right.”

“I have no doubt. Now, let’s get going. Our friends and family are waiting.”

The kitchen is chaos as usual, and adding Roark, Simona, and Marshall to the mix is even more nuts. But my mother, true to form, has everything running smoothly in no time.

Within minutes, our plates are loaded with one or more of the mouthwatering choices. Cheesecake in three flavors. Flan. Pecan pie. You name it, Mom and Larson have baked it.

Sitting around the tree on the floor, on the couches, on the stairs, the entire living room is full from wall to wall with people oohing and ahhing, stuffing themselves with Christmas cheer.

“A toast!” my brother Caleb calls. He holds his apple cider up and the kids mimic him with sippy cups. “To our newly engaged couple. May the year be full of magic and new opportunities.”

The Agile team holds their cups high, clinking them together. A sense of deep gratitude fills my chest.