Under My Skin (Skin Deep #2)

“That was Luke. They’re moving up the wedding date,” I said. Then a thought occurred to me and I fumbled around on my mattress, sitting up again as I hit Emma’s contact info on the screen. It rang three times before she answered, still laughing.

“Yes, Allie?”

“Are you pregnant?” I blurted out.

“Oh my God! Seriously, Allie?” she cried, laughing even harder. “No, damnit, I’m not pregnant! I just don’t want to wait any longer to have the wedding. Why should we wait until next spring when I’m ahead of schedule on planning everything? I’m just ready to do it but I can’t elope because my parents would kill me!”

“Oh. Well, I just…you sprung it on me and that was the first thing that popped in my head,” I said defensively. “So how much sooner are we talking?” I asked.

“Well, you’d better get to writing your speech and planning your little party. You’ve got about two months,” she said with satisfaction.

“Two months?” I shrieked. “Seriously, you’re pregnant, aren’t you?!”

“No, Allie! I’m not pregnant! Geez woman…I swear. We were just talking and we’ve got everything under control and I don’t want to wait anymore. I’m living with him, and it’s just time. I don’t want to wait until next spring. Does that make sense to you? Or do you think we’re crazy?” Her voice dropped a little at the end and I could hear her worry.

“No, I don’t think you’re crazy. I think it’s cute that you guys don’t want to wait anymore. What did your mom and dad say?” I asked her.

“I haven’t told them, yet. You were the first one we told. We were just lying there in bed this morning after he woke me up with his-”

“Em, no. Don’t go there. I can imagine just fine how he woke you up, and that’s not something I should be able to do!” I laughed as I said it because I couldn’t help it. Emma and I both knew more about the other than our own doctors did.

She laughed with me and then I heard a breathy moan come through the phone before she quickly said, “Gotta go, talk later. Love you bye!” and hung up on me.

I chuckled and put my phone back down on the bed beside me, sighing when Jackson’s arms came back around me and Brandon cuddled up to my front.

“What was all that about?” Brandon asked, his words muffled by my breasts.

“Just a thought that popped into my head when they said they were moving everything up.”

Brandon’s head popped up and he quirked his eyebrow at me, asking silently for more details. I obliged, telling him about the conversation. “So,” he began when I was done, “we have two months to get ready for this whole wedding thing, huh?”

I nodded and Jackson and I both laughed at Brandon’s expression. He grabbed my face and kissed me absent-mindedly and then jumped off the bed, mumbling, “Need to call Calland…definitely need to rework the plans…” as he headed into the bathroom.

Jackson twisted me around to face him and proceeded to kiss me breathless. “Good morning,” he said softly when he pulled back from me.

“Mmmm…good morning to you, too!” I murmured. “I have to get up and get ready for work. What do you have going today?”

He stretched before answering, “Got a couple things to do at the office today so I’ll be heading to Cincinnati in an hour or so.” He’d finally found an office building that worked perfectly for him and had already gotten it up and running. He’s pretty amazing like that. “I’ll be back around three or so to do some more work on the house after that. Why? Got plans tonight?” He waggled his brows at me and I laughed at him.

I shook my head and said, “No, nothing going on but I have a feeling we’re going to end up at Emma and Luke’s tonight to discuss wedding stuff. And I probably need to get ahold of Jenna and Leah to start making plans for the bachelorette party.”

He nodded at me and then grimaced. “Yeah, the last thing I heard about the bachelor party for Luke involved strippers and copious amounts of whipped cream,” he said, shuddering dramatically.

My lips twisted into a wry smile and I told him, “Uh-huh, sure…that is completely out of the realm of comfort for you, right?”

He grinned at me and kissed me again quickly before getting up out of bed. I laid there for a minute more and then crawled off the bed, heading toward the closet for start getting ready for the day.

Chapter 11

Work was pretty uneventful at the store that day, and evening found me, where else? At Emma’s. Brandon was still at work since he had the late shift and had a few appointments but Luke, Emma, Jackson, Chloe, and I were all sitting around the kitchen table, munching on some snacks that Emma had set out and discussing wedding plans.

“Did you tell your mom and dad and everyone finally?” I asked Emma. She opened her mouth to reply but a weird, almost horrified expression crossed her face and then she gagged. “Emma? Are you--oh, holy shit! What the fuck is that?” I jumped away from the table, pulling my shirt up over the lower half of my face to block the God-awful stench that started to waft through the room.

Everyone else was following suit, covering their faces with whatever they could find and looking around to try to figure out where the smell was coming from. I saw Luke bend slightly and look under the table, doing the same when I heard him groan and mutter under his breath.

When I peeked under there, I noticed a very large canine sitting calmly with a very large canine smile stretched across his lips, his tail wagging a mile a minute. “Seriously, Doug?” I groaned. “Jesus, Luke! What the hell did you feed him?”

Luke shook his head and threw his hands up. “I didn’t give him anything, I swear! God it smells like death in here!” With that he walked to the back door, swung it open, and yelled at Doug to go outside. Doug, clearly still enjoying his act of doggy-terrorism on our group, trotted outside with his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.

Emma jumped into the laundry room and came out with an industrial sized can of Lysol, spraying like a mad-woman, which left us all choking and spitting. Seriously, it was so thick in the room you could taste that shit on your tongue! I finally gave up and started toward the front door, shaking my head and laughing as Chloe and Jackson trailed after me, and Luke followed behind, but not before he wrestled the can out of Emma’s hand and scowled at her. She scowled back at him and stuck her tongue out childishly, making us laugh even harder when her face screwed up as she got a taste of the cloud of Lysol hovering in the air.

When we were all safely on the porch, I heard Chloe turn to Jackson and say, “Is it always like this?”

I could hear the smile in her voice and knew Jackson was grinning when he replied, “Yep.”

We were all still sitting outside, this time in the back around the fire pit, when Brandon got there. Emma, Chloe, and I were roasting marshmallows and getting to eat maybe one out of every three because they were either stolen by the guys or we were talking and laughing too much and didn’t pay enough attention to what we were doing, so they fell off the campfire forks we were using into the fire.

After a while, Jackson stood up and stretched, yawning loudly. I looked up at him and he winked at me. I grinned back because, well, I just couldn’t help it (God, he’s so hot) and because I knew what that twinkle in his eyes meant. He came and stood in front of me, reaching his hand down to help me up off the bench I was sitting on and wrapped me in a hug before releasing me. I saw him glance over at Brandon who nodded at him and got to his feet, as well. Chloe followed and we all said our goodbyes.