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Dakota - July

S omeone please pinch me because this can’t be my life right now.

Carson and I are back in Texas for our wedding with only our families and close friends here to witness us exchange vows.

It’s the morning of our wedding, and I just got a call from my publicist Trisha that my publishing deal for my football series was announced. A couple months ago, a major publishing house asked if they could meet with me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think they’d end the meeting with an offer to publish the series. I submitted my manuscript to my editor two weeks ago, but the announcement hadn’t been made public yet.

Too excited to wait, I swing open the door to the room we’re getting ready in and march down the stairs in only my robe and head to the den where the guys are hanging out until they need to get ready.

Peeking my head around the door, I ask, “Hey, Carson, can I steal you for a minute?”

Carson stands with his back to me, and a laugh slips from my lips when I see his shoulders stiffen before he squeaks out, “Austen, what are you doing? I’m not supposed to see you—it’s bad luck!”

“Oh, I don’t believe in that. Come on, Golden Boy. Take a quick walk with me,” I implore.

He slowly turns toward me, and when his eyes land on me, his face lights up with an enigmatic smile. “You look beautiful,” he tells me.

Pointing at my head full of rollers and the gel under eye patches I have on, I roll my eyes at him before he pulls me in for a tease of a kiss.

“I’ll meet you on the front porch,” he says as he disappears into the kitchen. When he joins me on the porch swing, he hands me a cup of black coffee and I smile at him.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome, Dream Girl.” Carson pulls my feet into his lap and begins kneading my arches. “So what did you want to talk about? If it’s a case of cold feet, I can keep them warm.”

I sit up and playfully push at his shoulder. “Never. My feet are nice and toasty over here.”

“Good,” he says as he gives my foot three squeezes.

“I love you more,” I singsong.

“Hmm, I don’t think so,” he murmurs.

“Well, I brought you out here because I couldn’t wait any longer to tell you something—” I trail off as Carson grabs my mug and sets it down on the side table.

“Is it official? Did they announce? Where do I go to look?” he presses.

“They did. I just got off the phone with Trisha,” I tell him as I pull my feet from his lap and stand.

“Did they tell you when they think it’ll release?”

Turning to face him, I place my hands in the pockets of my robe. “Not yet, but I just told Trisha it’s very important to me to have it published before April, because I don’t want to be worrying about my book release while I’m trying to soak in snuggles on maternity leave.”

“Right, that makes sense—” he stops mid-sentence, shooting his eyes up to look up at me. “Wait, did you just say . . .”

When he sees me nod with tears in my eyes holding a positive pregnancy test in my hands, he leaps to his feet, throws his arms around me, lifts me up, and twirls me in circles.

“Golden Boy, stop! I’m going to be sick!” I tell him as tears stream down my cheeks.

“Are you serious? When did you find out?” he asks.

“I’m serious. Just this morning, but I took five tests to be sure it wasn’t a false positive. And don’t worry, I didn’t tell Trisha why I wanted the book published before April. You’re the first to know.”

Carson doesn’t say a word as he just drops to his knees, places his hands on my waist, and rests his forehead against my stomach. I see his shoulders quake before he looks up at me with tear-filled eyes and says, “This is the best gift I’ve ever been given. I’m so overwhelmingly happy. A-are you happy?”

Biting my lip to stop the quivering, I nod my head in response. “So very happy,” I assure him.

He peppers my abdomen with kisses before shooting to his feet and wrapping me in his arms again. Feeling around his thighs, I pull his phone from the pocket of his athletic shorts.

“Easy there, Austen. Watch out or we might end up with twins,” he teases, and I’m shocked to find I don’t mind the idea of twins. At least if we had twins with our first pregnancy, we wouldn’t know any different.

“I can practically hear your thoughts, and I’m right there with you. If it’s twins—hell, if it’s triplets—they’ll be the most loved babies in the world.”

I spin in his arms, my back snug to his chest, as I hold up the phone and press record.

“Hey, baby or babies. It’s your mama and daddy here on our wedding day and we just found out we’re not only going to be husband and wife, but we’re going to be your parents!”

Carson wraps his arms around my waist and gives my stomach three gentle squeezes. Resting his chin on top of my head, he smiles down at the phone. “Hi, sweet babies. I’m saying plural because even if this first one is a singlet, there’s not a chance in heck I won’t be knocking your mama up again first chance she gives me.”

I nudge his side with my elbow, and he just chuckles.

“I’m so excited to watch you grow inside your beautiful mama’s belly. Get used to my voice because you’re going to be hearing a lot of it when I talk to you each night. Be kind to your mama, keep the kicks to her bladder to a minimum. And if you could refrain from making her eat heinous things like your auntie did, that’d be cool too. You’ve got the sweetest big cousin waiting to hang out with you and the craziest uncles and auntie who I’m sure can’t wait to hear all about you. Ti amo, piccolo miracolo .”

“I love you too,” I say and blow a kiss at the phone before turning off the video and tossing it on the porch swing cushions.

“What does that mean?” I question.

“Little miracle,” he whispers in my ear before placing a lingering kiss on my temple. “Today is already the best day of my life because you’re about to become my wife, but finding out that we’re going to be parents too has made this day the greatest of all time.”

I place my hands on top of where his are still resting on my stomach and lace our fingers together. We stand like that, tears streaming down our cheeks as we share our hopes and dreams for the new adventure we’re about to embark on as parents. My heart has never been more full, and I’ve never felt more fulfilled than I do at this moment.