The Love Series: Volume 3

“Gracie,” I croaked, my throat suddenly dry as a desert. “Are you…?”

“Um...I think...maybe—”

I didn’t wait for her to finish, just scooped her up into my arms again, being a little more careful this time, before I hotfooted it to our bathroom.

After placing her down on the counter, I set the grocery bag beside her and withdrew one of the boxes. My heart beat a mile a minute as excitement swirled around in my stomach. I’d dreamed of the day when I’d finally put my baby in Gracie, and while I’d resigned myself to it being in the future, I’d never been able to completely squash the hope for it to happen sooner.

My eyes scanned the instructions, and I was so intent on them that I almost missed Gracie’s hesitant question. “Are you disappointed?”

My head whipped up, and I stared at her in shock.

“Am I what?”

She squirmed uncomfortably and glanced away for a second.

A thought struck me just then. “Is this what’s been bothering you?”

She nodded. “You agreed we should wait at least four years to get married and have babies.”

“Hold up, baby,” I stopped her suddenly. “I agreed to wait. I didn’t agree that we should wait. For fuck’s sake, Gracie. I’m the one who insisted we go bare our first time.”

Gracie’s ocean pools were glowing with hope, but her hands were wringing together nervously. “I know. But this isn’t the plan. I mean, we haven’t even really started school yet, and we were going to wait. I-I—” Moisture swelled in her eyes, and a few tears leaked from the corners.

I grabbed her cheeks in my palms and brought our faces millimeters apart. “Fuck the plan, Gracie. I don’t give a shit about plans. I’m thrilled as fuck that you’re carrying our baby. I’ve been dying to knock you up since long before I should have.”

She exhaled a little huff of exasperation, but a smile was playing at her lips. “We don’t know that I’m pregnant, Hudson.”

I grinned smugly. “You are,” I stated confidently.

Her eyes narrowed. “I know we haven’t been the most careful”—I couldn’t help a little scoff. Yeah, condoms weren’t exactly a high priority in my mind, and I might have forgotten...on multiple occasions—“but a little extra exhaustion and some morning vomit aren’t conclusive proof.”

“You’ve been getting sick, and you didn’t tell me?” I growled. She opened her mouth to respond, but I shut her up with a quick, hard kiss. “Never mind. I’ll take care of you from now on. I have no doubt my boys did their job, but if you need proof, go pee on one of these thingies.”

Gracie rolled her eyes, but they were bright with amusement. “Go wait in the bedroom.”

“Not happening, baby,” I replied absently as I tore open the first box. I read the directions and handed her the little white stick.

She snatched it from my hand with a glare. “You’re not going to watch me pee.”

With a laugh, I lifted her off the counter and set her on her feet. “Go on.”

“Hudson,” she growled adorably.

“Gracie.” I shot a pointed look at the toilet.

She threw her hands in the air and huffed, “You're such a boy!”

“You’re such a girl,” I volleyed. “Now do it.”

7

Hudson

“Hell yeah!” I shouted a few minutes later as I twirled Gracie around the bathroom.

“Hudson, you’re going to make me sick!”

I immediately stopped spinning but couldn’t shut down the giant grin on my face. “We’re having a baby.”

Gracie’s expression was soft and happy, but I still sensed something was off with her. “What’s wrong, baby?”

She shrugged. “It’s just...really early, you know. My dad taught me to be independent, to make something of myself, and here I am, barefoot and pregnant before I’ve even really started college. We’re not even married.”

“Oh, shit.”

Jonah was going to castrate me if he found out I’d knocked up his daughter before marrying her.

“Right? What are we—”

“It’s not the school thing, baby. I promise, if you want to finish your degree, I’ll do everything in my power to make it happen. But we need to get married.” I put her on the ground and slung an arm over her shoulder before guiding her out of the bathroom.

“Wait, what?” Gracie shrieked as she tugged on my shirt, trying to force me to halt. I just dragged her along with me until we were inside our walk-in closet.

“If you want to have more kids, we need to get married right fucking now. Maybe if we’re married when we tell your dad you're pregnant, he won’t remember that we weren’t when it actually happened.”

“Hudson, you can’t be serious,” Gracie protested, finally managing to separate from me while I searched for some decent clothes. She crossed her arms under her tits, almost distracting me, but my sense of self-preservation won out.

“Gracie, baby, I promise I will sweep you off your feet with an amazing proposal and we will have the wedding of your dreams. Later. But tonight, I will be making love to my sexy, pregnant, wife.”