Ivy took one look at our faces and frowned. “What’s going on?”
My eyes flew to Jess’s. “Well … I just told Jack my news. It looks like you and I will be pregnancy buddies again.” I said this a little warily because I didn’t want to steal the spotlight and I also remembered how good I’d had it with my pregnancy with Tabby compared to Jess’s with Tyler.
Jess barely contained her squeal as our friends tried to lower their voices and their surprise. “I can’t believe this.”
“I know!” I jerked my thumb between Coop and Jack. “It’s like these two can’t do anything if it’s not together.”
The two best buddies grimaced at my crack while Vaughn and Michael ribbed them.
“Enough,” Jack said, waving them off. “You guys mind watching Tabby for an hour?”
Every single one of them got a knowing gleam in their eyes.
“Go.” Cooper sighed. “At least one of us should get a shot at something better than a quickie in the bathroom.”
Jess smacked his arm while I blushed beetroot. This only made Jack give a bark of laughter. I was about to rescind my capitulation to copulate when he abruptly took hold of my hand and hauled me around the side yard to the exit.
“Tabby?” I hissed at him in semi-exasperation as I heard our friends laughing behind us.
“She won’t even notice we’re gone, Em.”
This was probably true.
“An hour,” I reminded him as he helped me into his truck.
Jack flashed me that wicked, wicked smile of his that had gotten me knocked up again in the first place.
* * *
We were longer than an hour.
In fact, Jack took his sweet time making love to me for a blissful two hours that afternoon.
Afterward, we returned to the party to discover Tabby had not noticed we were gone because the détente between her and Tyler had ended, and she was wrapped up in their mini war. Jess assured me Ty started it by telling Tabby her dress was ugly and he didn’t want her at the party.
Unlike other little girls who might cry at this, Tabby had told him “he could stick his party where the sun didn’t shine.”
I blamed Jack for that one.
Jess said it was hard to reprimand her when most of the adults were choking on their laughter.
As the other kids went home, leaving only the Lawsons’ closest friends at the barbecue, Ty and Tabby settled down once they had the focus of Iris and Ira. The Greens might not have been blood, but they were definitely doting grandparents to our kids.
It was a splendid night.
Tabby fell asleep in the car, and I took pleasure in watching Jack carry her up to her bed. She was so small in his arms. The sight of them together always made my chest ache with love.
I was in our bedroom undressing when Jack strolled in and purposefully shut the bedroom door. There was a scorching tenderness in his eyes that I knew well.
I waited as he came to me and rested my hands on his chest. He cupped my face in his warm, roughened palms. “You’ve given me everything, sunrise.”
“The feeling is mutual, sweetheart.”
“Do you know how much I love you?” he asked, his voice hoarse, his gaze searching my face for the answer he already knew.
“I do.” I looked up at him with all the love and belief I had inside of me. “It’s the truest thing I’ve ever known.”