“What makes you think that?” My hand cups the back of her neck as I lean down, my lips hovering over hers.
“Call it a feeling.” I give her a kiss, cutting it short because if not, we will be back in bed, and then my woman will really be fighting mad.
“Whatever you think, Trace. I’m going to grab a shirt. You want a pair of shorts?”
“Please.” My eyes don’t leave hers, not with the way her body moves, hips swaying, ass shaking, and Dove is definitely in for it later tonight.
Twenty
Dove
I don’t know who likes to gossip more, Trace or his momma, but word travels fast, and the very next morning, breakfast was served at her house. Everyone was there. Alright, not everybody, just my parents, his parents, Knox and Blakely. After we ate dinner last night, tempers calmed down, okay, my temper calmed down, and we made the rounds to my parents’ house first. Dad side-eyed me when I told him it was my idea to wait to get married, while Mom shewed him away, and the rest, well, we talked about the baby.
Trace’s dad wasn’t shocked in the least. He just grumbled that the McCray men sure fall for women who know what they want and won’t bend to our ways. I laughed at that, because at first, I didn’t see myself as strong-willed, but the longer I was around Mrs. McCray and Blakely, it came out. I think it was probably buried in me all along because my mom is as stubborn as a mule.
“Come in, come in,” everyone says, but I’m stopped in my tracks. There’s another set of people I haven’t met before, but it seems Trace knows them well.
“Thank goodness I put on my good clothes this morning,” I tell my mom as I give her a hug.
“Oh hush, you always look amazing. I can’t believe you don’t have any morning sickness. The second I was pregnant with you, I was running to the bathroom. Some people have all the luck,” she jokes.
“Hey, Daddy.” I give him a hug. He’s tucked into a black cup of coffee that smells so good, but I’m off the coffee for the next however many months.
“I see that look. That’s one Mary wore twice in her life, and she cussed me up and down a blue moon,” Trace’s dad, Derek, tells me as he comes up beside me, giving me a one-sided hug.
“Ugh, can you tell I’m already dying for caffeine? Maybe I can just hold it in my hands and sniff it?” I try, but he just shakes his head and laughs, as if he knows that won’t work.
“Don’t worry, little momma, I’ll drink all the coffee for the two of us.” Trace comes up to my other side looking more handsome than ever, though it could be that proud-as-a-peacock smirk he’s wearing. He seems to think he has super sperm that attacked my womb and succeeded in its rightful duty to get me pregnant while on birth control and dealing with polycystic ovarian syndrome.
“You better, or you’ll be sleeping in the barn,” I tease, knowing that will never happen.
“I want you to meet one of my childhood friends.” He brings me into the fold. There’s a man about Trace’s age and a lady around the same age as my mom.
“Okay.” I’m not apprehensive in the least, even if he’s taller, way taller than Trace, and Trace is just over six-foot tall, but where my man is on the muscular side, this guy is on the leaner side.
“Wolf, I’d like you to meet Dove. Dove, meet Wolf.” I shake his hand, but he doesn’t let that fly. Nope, instead, I’m wrapped up in a bear hug, and the man beside me is none too pleased.
“That’s enough. Get your own woman. You should see enough of them down in Galveston,” he laments.
“Oh, ignore those two. They’ve been in a pissing match for as long as I can remember. I’m Julia, Julia Shaw, and it sure is a pleasure to meet you. When Mary called last night to tell me the news, I just knew we’d have to come up and meet the lucky lady who roped in Trace McCray. It seems like every one of these boys is falling hard. Except Wolf. Lord, that boy is going to be the death of me.” She hugs me, kissing my cheek, and then I’m being moved back into the family room while the boys hold their pow-wow.
“His time will come, I’m sure, and it’s a pleasure to meet you. I have a feeling if anyone can find your son a woman, it’s the women in this room,” I joke because I’ve heard about the cahoots that Mary gets herself in when it comes to making the magic happen.
“Hmph, you’d think, but he’s a tough one, my boy. Though he probably gets that from his mother. It wasn’t easy growing up without a father figure around twenty-four-seven. Even if the men in this town tried their hardest to help out.” It seems Julia is a wealth of knowledge, and I’m thinking I’ll be getting her and Mary around to hear about all the antics the boys got into when they were younger.