Chapter 9

SHAYLA

It had been a month since Colton and I began seeing each and in all that time; he hadn't pushed me for more than our quick meet ups, a handful of lunches, and one memorable make-out session in the back of a movie theater. And my heart was more than intact.

He also hadn't pushed me to spend time with Aria or to let my daughter know how important we'd become to each other. And it was past time that I acknowledge just how important he was.

Beyond the awesome sex, we had similar interests and views on a variety of issues. And he made me laugh and couldn't care less that I wasn't super thin. In fact, he loved my curves and the extra padding I carried around my middle. He made me feel like the most beautiful and desirable woman in the world.

While I waited for my alarm to go off, I realized that I'd had the perfect opportunity to not just let Aria, but Colton's family, know about our relationship a couple days ago when we were all together after Brenley had baby Micah. Now I couldn't wait to let him, and everyone know how I really felt about him.

Looking back on the last few weeks, Colton seemed pretty content with how things were going between us. So maybe it wasn't as serious as I now believed and wanted it to be? Nope, not going to talk myself out of believing this was real between us.

Throwing back the bedcovers, I decided to text Colton and ask him to come over tonight for dinner, but before I could get up, Aria comes running into my room and juped onto my bed. Normally, I'd grab her and tickle her until she begged me to stop. But not today.

Today the motion of the mattress as Aria bounced several times made me dizzy, then a sudden surge of nausea rose up. "Sweetie stop." I placed a hand on the bed to steady myself, then took a deep breath. But that didn't help. And before I can say another word to my confused daughter, I took off for the bathroom and puked my guts out.

I managed to get her off to school and reassure her I'm fine, and that I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me. Then I made a beeline for the closest store before heading to work.

Thirty minutes later and a sleeve and a half of saltines and a glass of defizzed lemon line soda, I sat in the bathroom staring at six different brands of pregnancy tests all with the same result.

Someone knocked on the door. "Shay? Are you in there?"

What was Brenley doing here? Scooping up the tests, I shove them into the pockets of my apron. "Bren, what are you doing? You just had a baby!" Rushing out of the bathroom, I switch from freaked-out, holy-hell-I'm-pregnant mode to concerned-friend mode.

"Hayden was driving me nuts. He's so worried about every little noise Micah was making. He was the same with Allie. So, I pumped enough for him to bottle feed the baby when he gets hungry, showered and headed over here." She eyed me as I tried to put distance between us. "Why were you locked in the bathroom so long? You look like you didn't get any sleep last night."

"Yeah, well, that'll be me again soon enough." I mumbled under my breath.

"What was that? Shay, you've got me worried. You're always ready to go first thing in the morning?—"

"I'm pregnant." After I said it, I covered my eyes with my hands, then peeked through my fingers to see her reaction.

"That's funny. It sounded like you said you're pregnant…and you're not joking. You're pregnant! Oh, my lord, that's awesome. What did Colton say?"

"I haven't told him yet. I just found out. Look." I pulled out the pee sticks and dumped them on the counter.

Instead of looking at the evidence, she looked at me, her eyes wide with concern. "Are you telling me I'm the first to know? Okay, I'll cover for you. I can handle things around here for an hour before my husband comes looking for me. The girls should be here soon anyway to work the front end. Now get over to his place and tell my brother he's going to be a daddy."

"But, I'm too old, Bren. And we used protection. Every time." I was losing it, but getting pregnant was so not on my radar.

"Thirty-seven isn't that old to be pregnant, Shay. You're in good health and you've always talked about regretting not having a sibling for Aria. I really don't see the problem here." Brenley said.

Pacing I threw up my hands at how rational she sounded. "The problem is, he's your brother. What if things don't work out between us? I couldn't handle it if something happened to our friendship." Why was she acting so calm? Why wasn't she freaking out like me?

"Okay, here's the thing, Shay. What if things do work out you and have a beautiful family together? Stop looking for the what if and live your life without any regrets, otherwise you're gonna be unhappy and miserable, and you don't want your daughter to see you that way? You want her to go on and have healthy relationships. So show her what's possible." Brenley stepped into my path and hugged me. "And I'm going to remind you of something you said to Hayden when you first met him." Brenley smirked.

I can't remember anything I said to Hayden that first day other than the slight shock that Brenley had fallen fast and hard for the silver fox adventure show host, and oh, damn. "Okay, let me have it." I hung my head and braced myself.

"I'm not going to let you ‘have it'. I mean, it's not like you two have been trying to hide things. It's so obvious how you two feel about each other."

She wasn't wrong. I always showed my feelings on my face. I was a terrible poker player.

"You said to Hayden, ‘I've never seen her happier.' And the same can be said about you. I've never seen you this way, Shay. And when I say I've never seen my brother treat a woman like he does you, as if you're the most important person in the world. It's never happened. Plus, the way he looks at you. I thought the air around you guys was going to combust the other day you two were trying so hard to not look at each other."

Not sure how to respond because yeah, she's my best friend but also Colton's sister, so there was a small amount of discomfort talking about how he feels about me and vice versa or sharing the usual things besties shared. But yeah, since I'm pregnant, there was no getting around the fact that she knew we'd done the horizontal mambo.

"I've never felt this way before." I whispered. Stupid hormones had me on the verge of tears. Knowing she accepted Colton and I being a couple meant more to me than anyone else's opinion.

"Do you love him?" Brenley asked.

My eyes filled with tears before I could answer.

"Well, go. Tell him everything."

He wasn't home. I texted him to get the address of where he was. I couldn't wait until the end of the day. Hopefully, the cement wasn't actually being poured when I got there because I don't think I could hold back and not blurt it out and then be forced to wait for his reaction while he and his crew had to get it spread out before it began to set.

When I arrived, I'd settled myself enough to sit and watch him through my windshield until he was at a point I could speak to him.

As I watched the process, I thought to myself, there's just something about a man who worked with his hands. How was it that Colton, with his rubber boots caked in cement, running a spreader with his ball cap worn backward, wearing a lopsided grin, looked sexier than any movie star I'd ever crushed on?

He exuded confidence and by the smile on his face: joy. He was actually enjoying himself. And isn't that what we all strive for in our work life? Many never achieved it. Sad but true. So, when you see it in someone, someone you care about, someone you're pretty sure you love and want to spend the rest of your life with, then seeing him excel at his chosen second act was one of the best feelings in the world.

He didn't look like a man who'd settle for less in his personal life. He wanted and deserved someone who was all in. I just hoped he'd still want to be with me after I shared my news with him.

When it looked like they were almost done, I walked over to where he stood talking to the cement truck driver. Colton's eyes lit up when he saw me and I held onto that as I continued to run options of how I was going to announce he was going to be a father.

"Hey, gorgeous." He leaned down and gave me a quick kiss, holding his hands out to the side to keep me from getting dirty. "Sorry, don't want to muss up your outfit. You look cute. And tired. Everything, okay." The concern in his voice was almost too much. I felt my eyes tear up. If I was this emotional in the first trimester, what was the rest of my pregnancy going to be like?

"Yeah, no I'm good. Um, do you have a few minutes? There's something we need to talk about." Without waiting for his answer, I walked back to my car, berating myself for rushing over. Maybe I should have waited? Giving him the news at work was suddenly feeling like the worst idea.

"Shay, hold up. Honey, what's going on? You've got me worried." He'd taken off his work gloves and stopped right behind me, then turned me around into his arms. "Hey, whatever it is, we'll get through it."

Burying my head in his chest, I mumbled, "I'm pregnant." I was happy yet scared, and every emotion in between. Real tears began to fall, and I wiped my drippy nose against his shirt.

"What was that? Hey, don't cry." Colton curled his fingers under my chin and lifted my head up. His eyes were so full of concern, I lost my cool and started laughing and hiccupping like a loon.

"Colton, you need to go buy some lottery tickets because we've managed to be hit that two percent failure rate our first time together." How I managed to string that many words together without snot shooting from my nose, I had no idea, but I waited for my nonsensical declaration to sink in.

"You want me to buy lottery tickets? Babe. Do you have a fever? I'm sorry but I'm?—"

"I'm pregnant!" I shouted. Unfortunately, at that same moment, the noise from his crew had stopped and instead of the moment being between the two of us, I had announced to half a dozen men that their boss had knocked me up. I covered my face as another rush of tears leaked out.

"That's, that's…awesome. I mean, are you okay? Tell me what you're thinking?" Colton's expression flashed from confusion to shock and back to concern. "If you're worried about me, don't be. This is good news. Why wouldn't I want the woman I love to be carrying my baby?"

Applause broke out along with shouts of congratulations. "Guys, give me a second here. And thanks." Colton picked me up and carried me over to his truck, set me on the seat, then followed me in and shut out the world. Cocooned in the space where we'd unknowingly created our baby was almost too much. Suddenly, I wasn't worried about his reaction. I was worried that I'd been too stubborn not to tell Colton my true feelings.

"Here, blow your nose and take some calming breaths and start from the beginning." Colton handed me a tissue.

"I'm sure I look awful. Sorry for collapsing into a blubbering mess." I wiped my nose and took a couple shaky breaths, then found the courage to look into his eyes. "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before. I would have handled this whole announcement better."

"When did you find out?"

"I'm pretty sure from that first day when we collided." I gave him a watery smile and, for the first time since I found out, I felt a sense of relief and peace.

"Wait, how could you, we…are we talking about the same thing because I'm pretty sure you didn't get pregnant that first day." Colton scratched his chin. He hadn't shaved that morning, and he had that sexy scruff on his handsome face that I loved so much.

"Oh, no. Based on my cycle, I'm positive I got pregnant that first time we were together. Right here." I patted the seat. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you how much I care about you sooner. I love you Colton Lynch and I'm sorry it took me until today to let you know I couldn't imagine a better man to be the father of my baby. Our baby."

The sexy grin I loved so much filled Colton's face as the realization of what I'd said sunk in. I was going to remember his reaction for the rest of my life.

Gathering me into his lap, he kissed my forehead, then each of my closed eyes. He ended with a slow, feathery kiss across my lips. It was so perfect another round of tears formed.

He placed his hand on my stomach and gently squeezed. "I don't know what to say other than you have nothing to be sorry for. I knew you'd eventually get there. But the baby? That's just icing on the cake."

"I'd eventually get there, huh? On any other man, I'd call that arrogance."

"And on me?" Colton kissed my forehead again, then his hand wandered from my stomach to under my breast and massaged my now sensitive flesh. Like clockwork, the butterflies filled my lower belly and the need to show him how much I loved him became my top priority.

"Justified confidence?" I covered the hand over my breast, wishing desperately we could recreate that magical moment, but exhibitionism was not on my bucket list. I'd have to wait until tonight after we told Aria and after she'd gone to sleep because there would be no more hiding our relationship from her.

Colton threw back his head and laughed. "I'll take it, and I'll take you and Aria, and this baby. When are you going to marry me?"

"As soon as possible. And I know the perfect spot."

"Oh, yeah. Where do you want to get married?" Colton asked.

"How about where this all happened?" I waved my hand over my midsection.

"You want to get married in the cab of my truck? Huh, I would have pictured you as the more traditional type, but I'm game."

"Ha-ha. At your property. At sunset." I could picture it now. Brenley as matron of honor, Aria as our flower girl and ring bearer. Family, friends and love. And flowers. Lots of flowers.

"Wherever you want, I'll marry you anywhere, Shay. I love you so much." Colton dipped his head and kissed me until the wolf whistles and clapping and the need for air broke us apart.

"See you when I get home?" He asked.

"Mine or yours?"

"How about your place, but we call it ours? Because I'm not spending another night without you."

"Yes, I'll see you when you get home. And Colton?"

"Yes, Shay?"

"I love you. So very much."

"I never doubted it. I love you, too."