Blowing out a frustrated exhale, he picked up his sandwich again. “Everyone seems to be pregnant lately, including Rory. You know about Bates. The election is only a few days away, so we need to make sure Jenks has all the support he can get. Willa said she’s having triplets, so everyone is watching her like she’s going to explode any minute, and she’s getting grumpy over it. And Quinn and Raider are getting married like next week or some crazy shit.”
I blinked at his rundown of everything I’d apparently missed. I knew from what little I’d been able to catch that Gracie and Willa were both pregnant, but I’d missed the news that Rory was and that Willa was carrying multiples. Holy shit, that was scary. Quinn hadn’t told me she was getting married so soon, and I wanted to be upset she hadn’t mentioned it, but I understood how busy she’d been the last few days.
“How did I miss all of that? You’ve been holding out on me.”
“I’ve been kind of busy, sweetheart. I’ve barely had time to sleep lately.” He kissed the top of my head.
“Yeah, I noticed. I’ve missed you.”
He tightened his arm around me. “I’m sorry, baby. Things will slow down soon. Then we can start making wedding plans.”
“Ugh. You’re not going to want a big wedding, are you?”
“Just the family,” he assured me, but that didn’t make me feel any better. By family, I knew he meant the entire MC family. If that included everyone, it wouldn’t be nearly as small as I would have liked.
“How about this. Me and you fly to the Bahamas, get married on the beach, come back, and have a reception afterward. Like two, maybe three weeks afterward,” I suggested.
He watched me for a long moment, and I just sat there, waiting for him to shoot me down.
“Is that what you really want?” he finally asked.
My heart jumped that he wasn’t outright telling me no. “Yeah, it kind of is. I don’t want a big wedding. Hell, I don’t want much of a wedding, period. I never thought I would even get married, but here I am with a ring on my finger and a sexy biker asking me to make plans with him.” I shrugged, feeling out of sorts. “I love you and I want to marry you, but… I don’t know. I just want this to be about me and you.”
“Okay,” he said, surprising me with how easily he was giving me what I wanted. “As soon as everything is calm here, we’ll take a trip to the Bahamas or wherever you want. I’ll marry you on the beach. Fuck, I’ll marry you anywhere you can think of. I just want you.”
“And that’s why I love you,” I said with a choked laugh, happier than I could ever remember being in my entire life. “Now I have something to plan while I’m being held prisoner in our room. This should be fun, though.”
Standing, he tossed the paper plate in the huge trash can by the door then came back and offered me his hand. “Come on. You promised,” he half whined, half growled when I just looked at his palm. “Please go back to bed and rest.”
Sighing heavily, I took his hand and stood. “Only because you said please.”
Chapter 19
Jos
I finished stacking all the contracts that needed my immediate attention and picked them up. This was going to take more than a few hours in the office to sort out, so I would have to take the most pressing things home with me.
Grabbing my phone and my keys, I walked out of the small work trailer and headed for my car. Dad’s motorcycle was parked right beside it, but he must have gone out to one of the work sites with one of the foremen to check on that shipment I’d been concerned about earlier.
I wasn’t worried, though. I wasn’t expecting anything to happen to little ol’ me. There was no reason they would even bother with me. Still, I knew it would make Tanner feel better, so I hadn’t complained. One or two of the MC brothers had come out to help Dad watch out for me, but they’d changed so regularly throughout the day, I’d stopped paying attention.
“All done?”
I lifted my head from the top paper I’d been glancing over, frustrated because we were going to have to get—beg for, actually—an extension on the contract for the repairs to the grocery store that were supposed to be finished in the next week. It was past dinnertime, the sun long gone, so all I had to see by were the security lights that hung off the ends of the work trailer. Hawk stood on the other side of my car, leaning his arms on the roof. His blond hair was covered with a black beanie. The thick coat he wore hid his cut, but I knew it was under there. The Angel’s Halo VP didn’t go anywhere without that leather vest on.
I’d had a mad crush on him and his brothers when I was growing up, but those feelings all disappeared when Tanner caught my full attention. Still, Hawk Hannigan was fun to look at.
“I didn’t see you there,” I told him, shifting the stack of files to my other arm as I unlocked my car with a push of the key fob. “Have you been here all day?”
“Butch called to say he was going out to one of the sites, and then Brady had to go to work. I figured I had you covered.”
I opened the back door and dropped my load beside Reid’s car seat before straightening. “I wasn’t questioning your ability to watch my back,” I assured him with an easy smile. “I just figured you would be watching over Gracie.”
His lips pressed into a grim line. “I would be, but she says I’m too much of a distraction. Jet and Colt take turns sitting around out front or drinking coffee with the receptionist. She’s probably already home now, though.”
I glanced around for his motorcycle, frowning when I didn’t see one. “You’ve been standing out here in the cold the whole time? You could have come in and warmed up.”
“It’s too noisy when the heating turns on,” he explained. “I can’t hear if someone is pulling up from in there. Gotta be vigilant with Bates walking around.”