Page 130 of Rebellious Hearts

I laughed, the joy bubbling up in my center and taking over. I’d never been this happy. Never thrown caution to the wind this way.

Never thought my happily ever after would come.

And even if it did, I didn’t think it would be right now.

But with Ben in my life, determined to make me happy in every way possible, I’d found my Prince Charming, and we were going to ride off into the sunset together.

The two of us, soon to be three.

41

BEN

Telling my parents we were engaged was a shock. They hadn’t even known I’d had someone in my life. But I’d always kept things from them, thinking that my life didn’t have enough worth to share much.

That was going to change. I still had some learning to do, some changes to make—knowing what my mistakes were was one thing, getting out of old habits was another.

But I had time, and that would all come.

Of course, I had to show Sofia off to my family.

My dad had met Sofia once in passing, but knowing I was engaged had called for a family meeting with her included.

It had gone amazingly. My parentslovedher. And so had Charlotte. She’d pulled Sofia in, making her feel like part of the family already.

I’d always known Charlotte had been a great addition to the family, but she’d just proved herself again when she’d set Sofia at ease.

Telling my family Sofia was pregnant had caused another shocked, ripples of uncertainty, but Charlotte had been the one to step up and toast to the new family member.

She’d done everything to make us feel like it was okay.

Telling my mom the wedding would be in less than a month hadn’t been a problem, either. It had been a challenge. I’d told her that she didn’t have to make a big deal out of it, but she went all out, anyway. Charlotte had helped her, and Amy had jumped in, too.

And now, I stood in my old room at the Blackwood Mansion, folding a bow tie in the mirror.

Alex lounged in a chair, and Chris sat on the bed. Daniel came in with a tray of drinks.

“You’re a crazy son of a bitch,” Alex said when Daniel handed me my drink. “I thought that the whole story with Charlotte was crazy, but you took it to the next level. Always trying to outshine me, huh?”

“Not eventrying,” I said with a sniff, and we both laughed.

Things with Alex were different now. We’d always been in competition with each other. Or rather,I’dbeen in competition with him.

I’d started realizing that he’d never really competed with me. I’d been the one feeling worthless and so I’d always thought that Alex was the golden boy, the standard to reach.

I’d been so wrong.

Now that I knew who I was and what I was worth, looking toward the future instead of the past, Alex and I had become a lot closer as brothers, not as competitors. We only joked about it now.

“I still don’t know how you pulled it off getting Mom to plan a wedding in a month,” Chris said. “I mean, you’ve pulled crazy stunts and put this family through a lot, but that…”

“Hey, I was okay getting married in court.”

“Mom would die before she lets that happen,” Daniel said.

I shrugged. “I still didn’taskher to go crazy.”

“No, but you know what she’s like. And this is going to look good in front of her friends, too,” Chris said.