Her heart fluttered at the offer, but she shook her head. “The colonel would not be pleased.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty thrilled about walking you down the aisle, but he’s not my priority. You are.”
She was pretty thrilled to have him walking her down the aisle too, particularly since her father couldn’t be bothered to request leave to attend the wedding. Much like her mom, he’d given her the “Didn’t we do this once already?” comment and told her to send pictures. Oh well. To paraphrase one of the smartest people she knew, her parents were not her priority. Michael was. She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. “As long as this day ends with my husband in my arms, it’s exactly what I had in mind.”
“You sure? My family can be a pain in the ass sometimes.”
“They’re wonderful, all of them. Your parents, Trevor, Kylie, Logan.” They were. Trevor and his very lovely, very glowing, six-months-pregnant wife Kylie could not have been more welcoming, which was good, because something told her she’d be speaking to Kylie pretty regularly soon. Logan, his younger brother, she didn’t know as well, because he lived in Colorado and spent what seemed to be every waking hour buried to his neck in the responsibilities of running his rapidly expanding business. But he’d flown in for the weekend to attend the wedding and arrived at the rehearsal dinner last night with a big, charming smile on his handsome, somewhat stressed-out face.
“Kylie’s wonderful. You don’t know the real Trevor, because she’s sanded down the worst of his bossy, abrasive side. And Logan? Ha, don’t let the polished facade fool you. He—”
“Looks like he needs a good massage.”
Michael scowled at that and tightened his arms around her possessively. “Typical. Women always want to get their hands on Logan. Let him find his own masseuse. You’re mine.”
She laughed and rose up on her tiptoes to kiss the frown line between his brows away. “I am yours. Today, tomorrow, and always.”
He kissed her back, long and hard enough to have her head spinning when he drew away. “No cold feet? No doubts? No feeling trapped?”
“None of the above. I can’t wait to put a ring on your finger.”
“I hope you’re wearing running shoes under your dress, because Harding’s so anxious to see this wedding happen, I’m afraid he’s going to march you down the aisle at double time.”
“He’s worried he’s going to cry. Says he always cries at weddings.”
“He should worry. Half of 3rd MAW has laid bets he won’t make it to the altar without bawling.”
“That’s mean. I’ll just have to distract him so he doesn’t get choked up.”
“And how do you plan to do that?”
She couldn’t keep the sappy smile off her face. For the hundredth time since the phone call she’d received yesterday morning, she found two little words ready to fly out of her mouth. She’d been trying to hold them back until after the wedding, but through fate or whatever, she and Michael had a quiet moment right now, and, what was that saying? No time like the present. “I’ll tell Harding we planned the wedding as quickly as we could, but it turns out we weren’t smart enough to avoid complications.”
Michael stared at her for a long moment, his face completely blank. “Complications?”
She nodded. “Uh-huh. In about six months we’re going to add another chapter to our Grandkid Story. One that might eventually result in actual grandkids.”
His expression remained unreadable, so she hurried on. “I know, timing-wise, this isn’t what we planned, but, then again, nothing about us has ever gone according to anybody’s plans, so, in a way, it’s kind of perfect…don’t you think?” Her heart pounded because, honestly, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking.
“Six months. So…the night in New Mexico?”
She nodded again and wished she hadn’t told him like this. He seemed to have slipped into a state of shock. “Are you okay? You’re awfully quiet.”
“I’m thinking.”
Shoot. This wasn’t going well at all. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking I’m about to kiss the mother of my child until she can’t see straight.”
“Oh.” Relief loosened her body and she leaned into him. “In that case, Major, it’s time to put those thoughts into action, because we’ve only got ten minutes.”
He pulled her close, so their lips hovered mere millimeters apart, and grinned. “Chloe, we’ve got the rest of our lives.”