Page 79

We’ve spent the last three days with my family, and it’s literally better than I could have imagined…you know, minus the whole my brother almost died thing. They spring him from the hospital Friday morning, and Friday evening, the adults are sitting around Connor and Marissa’s table eating dessert after a huge but heart healthy meal. The boys are up in their rooms on their tablets, and Marissa just ran upstairs to grab some of the journals she’s been selling on TikTok.

Gabby excuses herself to the restroom after she finishes her cake, and my mom leans in close to me as she sits between my brother and me.

“You better marry that girl.”

I choke on my bite of ice cream, my eyes bugging out as I glance at my brother for interference.

He nods. “She’s right, you know. And knock her up good and quick before some guy better than you swoops in and steals her out.”

God, he’s so fucking useless.

My mom mock smacks him in the arm. “Stop it.” Then she turns to me and claps her hands a little. “But do it! I need more grandbabies. Maybe a girl at some point.”

“Jesus Christ, you two,” I say, a warning edge to my tone.

“When are you going to do it?” my mom presses.

I roll my eyes. “When we’re both ready.”

“So you’re gonna do it?” Connor asks.

“Do what?” Gabby asks, walking back into the room.

I shake my head. “You leave the room for two seconds and these two are all, you need to marry her .” I raise my voice a few octaves to imitate my family.

My mom has the grace to look embarrassed that I outed her, but Connor sure as shit doesn’t, the fucker.

“We told him to put babies in you, too,” my brother says.

You’d think I’d be embarrassed by him, but I’m just used to him.

I roll my eyes and jut my thumb in their direction as I wait for Gabby’s reaction. “See what I have to deal with?”

“I think it’s sweet.” She reaches over and squeezes my bicep. “They just want you to be happy.”

“And it’s clear she makes you happy,” my mom adds. “She makes all of us happy. She brightens the room when she walks in it.”

I toss an arm around Gabby’s shoulders. “She does. And I’m confident all that is in our future when we’re both ready. Gabby wants to graduate college and establish a career before she has to deal with a husband and taking time off for a newborn.” I glance at her and nod, confident I’ve said enough to shut off the peanut gallery beside me, and I take a bite of my cake.

“I’m flexible on that,” she says, and goddammit, I choke on my cake again.

“You’re flexible? I mean, I know you’re flexible, but you’re flexible ?” I say after I chug down some water to clear the pipes, and my mom lets out a little giggle at my double meaning even though this certainly isn’t the kind of conversation I want to be having in front of her.

“I’m flexible.” She offers a small smile and a raised brow, and I have no idea what she means but my jaw hangs open as I try to figure it out.

“You got any wedding planners in there?” Connor asks as Marissa chooses that moment to return to the kitchen with her journals. “Sounds like we’ve got a wedding to plan.”

“A wedding?” Marissa asks, looking around.

Connor nods toward Gabby and me, and her cheeks flush as I’m certain mine do, too.

I haven’t proposed…yet.

But the last three days have pushed us even closer than we were before, and seeing how she fits into my family in a way none of my exes ever did is just the icing on the cake. When I saw her holding baby Olivia, it was like divine intervention stepped in and I just knew.

This is it.

This is the right fit for all of us—for me, for Gabby, and for my family. I already know I fit in with her father, but exactly how we’re going to tell him still eludes me.

I guess we’ve gone from semi-serious to really serious over the last few days. We’ve talked about how short life is, and not just from my own perspective given my father’s early death and my brother’s health scare, but also from hers. She lost a grandmother she misses every day, and she lost eighteen years with her father.

Her main concern in getting serious with me at this point is how to ensure she won’t lose more time with him. I told her it’s not like she has to choose between him and me, that we can figure out how to coexist, that we need to tell him…but she’s not ready.

She is ready for other things, though. Things she didn’t think she was ready for. Things she’s spent the last few days around, like Olivia and my nephews and my family and a life we’ll build with each other.

Still, to get to that destination…we have to tell her dad. There’s no way around it.

It isn’t until we’re on the flight home that I bring it up. “When do you think we should tell your dad?”

We’re at ten thousand feet when the question falls from my lips.

She sighs as she turns to look at me. “I feel like we’ve had a lot of heavy conversations over the last few days, and this still feels like one I’m not ready for.”

I reach over and grab her hand in mine, lacing my fingers through hers. I clasp it tightly, and I nod. “Okay.”

Maybe I should object, but she’s right. We have had a lot of heaviness, and we’ve come to some new revelations about our relationship and where we want it to go from here. Still, it bothers me that she’s not ready to tell her dad.

She’s ready to talk about marriage and babies in front of my family, but she won’t even tell her father that we’re in love.

How can we move forward to those other things without that part of the equation?

Maybe I’ll change my mind once I’m back in the same state as him. We’ve sort of lived in bliss the last few days, and even though Gabby seems to be on the same page as me, that doesn’t mean we have to rush into anything.

This entire thing has been rushed. I suppose her not being ready to tell her dad might be the one thing that slows us down to a normal speed for a minute.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“I’m sorry,” she murmurs, her head sliding over to face me as she leans back on the seat.

“It’s okay.” I mirror her position, our eyes meeting in the middle.

“I feel like you’re upset. I just feel like we need to come up with a good plan for when and where and how to tell him.”

“You’re right.” I know she is, even if it’s hard to admit—especially as I stare into her pretty eyes. “And it might be better to wait until we’re in season. Right now we have a lot going on with the expansion draft coming up in a month and a half, and I don’t want to pull his focus from that. We have too much to hash out before then for things to get awkward between us.”

She nods. “I’m kind of sad we’re going home.”

I raise a brow. “Why?”

“I really love your family.”

My lips quirk up. “They loved you, too.”

“Really?”

I nod, and I lean over and drop a soft kiss to her lips. “Really. You fit in like the missing piece.” I pull back.

She studies me for a beat before she asks, “Wanna go join the mile high club?”

I laugh, not sure how to tell her I’m already a member, but she narrows her eyes at me.

“You’re already a member, aren’t you?”

I twist my lips. “Guilty. But I’d love to upgrade my membership if it means I get to bang you on a plane.”

She laughs, and it’s just one more thing to love about Gabby Grant. Everything feels so blissfully easy right now.

I just wish I could shake the feeling that it won’t last long.