For the Love of Anna (The Town of Pearl 1)

“Oh, my God! That is so awesome! The guys are going to be so thrilled.” Anna began to cry, and so did Stacy.

“Oh, Anna, I’m so glad that you’re happy about this. I was afraid that you wouldn’t be.”

“Me? What are you, crazy? I love babies. Who in the world wouldn’t?”

Stacy wiped her eyes as she drove.

“I can’t believe it.”

“When are you going to tell Eric and Max?”

“I don’t know. I have a feeling that once those two hear the news, they are going to be even more protective than before.”

“That’s what you want, Stacy. You want them to be so into it and so loving. They’re going to make great fathers,” Anna said then covered her mouth to try and hide the tears.

Stacy reached over and touched her hand.

“They are going to be great fathers. They will be thrilled.”

“I’m so happy for you, Stacy. I think you should do something really romantic with them. Maybe I can stay at the hotel in town tonight.”

“Don’t be silly. I wouldn’t make you leave the house.”

“Well, I just thought you might feel a little uncomfortable with me in the house while you have a romantic evening at home with the men.”

“Your presence hasn’t stopped us from having romantic evenings yet,” Stacy added sarcastically.

Anna giggled and blushed before she cleared her throat.

“Don’t you sass me, girl. I so don’t need to be picturing such activity going on while I’m alone and sleeping on the other side of the house.”

“Well, I’m sure if you want to leave the house for the night, you could just mention sleeping over at Wyatt, Ben, and Charlie’s place. They would love to have you.”

Anna froze in a stunned stare at Stacy.

Stacy laughed as she pulled into the driveway at the Triple C ranch.

As they parked the truck, the men seemed to come out from everywhere.

Eric came out from the stables, along with Ben, and Charlie came around from the other side of the horse training stables. It was as if they waited to hear the sound of the truck arriving.

Anna turned toward Stacy. “You can have the house tonight to tell Eric and Max the good news. I think I’ll try that little hotel in town. It looked really nice. I’d love to get the whole town of Pearl experience, really.” Anna rambled on and on, and Stacy continued to laugh at her.

“I give you all of about two seconds after telling your men that you’re going to a hotel before one of them is tossing you over his shoulder and bringing you to their place to stay. So don’t be silly.”

“My men? Who would that be?”

“You know damn straight who I’m talking about. Two of them are headed this way, and one had his mouth all over you on Main Street just about twenty minutes ago.”

With that, Stacy opened her door and stepped out and into Eric’s arms.

“Hey, honey. How did it go? Does Francine’s have a new cook?” Eric asked as he led Stacy around to the front of the truck where Ben and Charlie stood with Anna. They had helped her out of the truck and both had a hand on her shoulder.

“Come on, honey, tell us the news,” Charlie asked.

“I am the new cook at Francine’s starting tomorrow.”

They each cheered and gave her a hug, then Charlie pulled her to him and checked her forehead for fever.