Southern Devotion (Southern Heart 4)
“Jamie?” McKinley asks again.
“Uh, just water for me too.”
Her voice is off. I look up and study her; she looks nervous as hell. “What’s up with you?” I ask her.
“What? Nothing,” she says way too quickly. I hold her stare and see the moment she caves. “I’m pregnant,” she says softly.
“I’m going to be an aunt?” I say too loudly, causing little Beau to jump in my arms. “Shh,” I soothe him back to sleep. “I’m going to be an aunt?” I say again, softer this time.
“Yeah.” She smiles. “You’re going to be an aunt.”
“How far along are you?” I ask, fighting the tears that are threatening to fall.
“Eight weeks.” She blushes. “When we decided to get married in the Keys, I stopped taking my birth control. We didn’t want to wait,” she tells us.
“I’m so happy for you,” I say as I lose the battle with my tears. I look down at Beau and then back to Jamie. “You’re going to have one of these,” I murmur. “My brother is going to be a daddy.” I laugh.
“He is, and he’s excited. We were going to wait until the first trimester ended, but I knew I would end up spilling the beans tonight. He told me to go for it.”
“Thank you.” I look Jamie in the eye. “Thank you for loving him, for bringing him to life and giving our family this gift.”
She wipes at her tears. “He’s my heart.”
“What about you?” Whitney asks. “Any wedding news?”
“No. I mean, he says we’re going to be married, and he even suggested I buy a dress, which I did.” I blush.
“What? When? We would have gone with you,” McKinley says, passing out bottles of water.
“She went with me,” Jamie says. “Called me out of the blue, asked if I had a dress, and we went shopping. We both fell in love with the first dresses we tried on and the rest, as they say, is history,” she explains.
“Does he know you found a dress?”
“He does. He keeps trying to get me to show it to him.”
“Show it to us,” Whitney tells me.
Grabbing my phone from the arm of the couch, I unlock the screen and pass it to McKinley, who oohs and aahs and then passes it to Whit. “That’s beautiful,” McKinley says.
“It really is,” Whit agrees.
“So, has he asked you?” Jamie chimes in.
“No. He went from asking me at least once a week to radio silence. Well, not really radio silence, but he hasn’t asked me once since then. We talked about it. He said he’s only getting down on one knee once in his life and he needs to do it right. Then he said it was happening. We talked about the wedding and what I’ve always drea
med it would be. He said he doesn’t care as long as I’m the one walking down the aisle.”
They all melt at that. I can see the soft expressions on their faces, not to mention the rounds of “He’s so sweet.”
“He said what I want is simple, and it sounded to him like the dress is the hardest part, so he told me to start looking. I never dreamed I would find the dress day one, let alone the first one I tried on. I bought it and sent it home with Jamie.”
“He loves you,” Jamie assures me. “You can’t look at that man when you’re around and not see it.”
“She’s right,” McKinley agrees. “He’s always looked at you like that.”
“He’s planning the grand gesture, I’m sure of it. It’s obvious he’s no longer playfully asking you because the next time he does, he’s going to be on one knee, and you better say yes.” She points at me.
I can’t help but laugh at her. “I’m so saying yes. I know you guys are right, but I’m anxious for it to happen. I spent all this time letting worry keep us from moving forward, and now that I’m ready, I feel like we’re at a standstill.”