The Truest Thing - Hart's Boardwalk

“He’s not here,” I told her.

She shrugged. “Who isn’t?”

Letting her have it her way, I stayed silent as she strode across the yard to her nephew.

“I’m telling you, it’ll be another nine years unless I intervene,” Bailey muttered.

“Intervene in what?” Vaughn’s voice called to us.

We turned to see him and Michael striding down the steps toward us, baby girls in their arms.

“I thought they were napping?” Bailey said as she reached for Lily.

He held his daughter close. “I’ve got her,” he assured her.

Dahlia reached up for Michael’s free hand. Jenna was curled in his other arm, her head resting sleepily on his shoulder.

“Uh … I don’t think Coop and Jess knew we were in the house.” Vaughn’s lips twitched. “We thought it best to give them some privacy.”

“Jess is pregnant,” Bailey explained.

“We heard. There was some yelling … but ultimately Coop seems to be taking the news well,” Michael murmured.

“I don’t know why,” Dahlia said. “Her pregnancy was the worst.”

We shot her reproving looks and she glared at us. “Uh, please, like you all weren’t scared shitless of her when she was pregnant the first time.”

We grumbled. But it was true.

“Another baby.” Ivy grimaced. “This is just going to make Jeff so broody.”

“I thought you wanted kids?” Bails frowned in confusion.

“I do. And I know we should start soon.” She shrugged. “But I’m enjoying my time alone with the sheriff. I quite like being able to have sex with him whenever I damn well please.”

Jack and I shared a look, and I knew we were both thinking about this morning and the fact that it was the first time we’d had sex in three weeks. That wasn’t a huge amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but it was unusual for us.

He’d just been so exhausted lately.

And … well … I had a lot on my mind.

A little while later, Cooper and Jess returned to the backyard looking disheveled and pleased with themselves. They explained they wanted to keep the pregnancy just between us so as not to take away from Tyler’s big day. So we didn’t make an enormous deal out of congratulating them, but I was over the moon for my friend. And I really, really hoped her second pregnancy was easier than the first.

“Can we talk?” Jack whispered in my ear, his hand closing around my wrist.

Hearing the seriousness in his tone, I nodded. We excused ourselves, heading into the house. Jack led me upstairs to Tyler’s room and closed the door behind us.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

He rested his hands on his hips, his expression unreadable. “When were you planning on telling me?”

I blinked in confusion. “About Jess?”

“No.” His expression softened. “No, sunrise, about you.”

The light of knowledge in his eyes caught me completely off guard. “How do you know?”

“I enjoy having sex with my wife, so I tend to keep track of your period. And then I saw you waving off that mimosa …”

Before I could stop it, a smile pushed at my lips. Excitement unfurled in my belly. “I haven’t been to see Jess yet, but I took two tests. Both positive.”

The word ‘positive’ was barely out of my mouth before I was in my husband’s arms as he kissed the life out of me. His big hands went to my stomach as we kissed. Then he abruptly broke away. “Me and Cooper need to figure out a way to do business without losing so much time with our families.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

“But right now, we’re going to ask our friends to watch Tabby so I can take you home and celebrate our fan-fucking-tastic news in bed.”

My thighs quivered at the mere thought. “Really? Can we do that?”

“Fuck yeah. We’ll tell them why.”

“Should we do that?”

“They’re going to know soon enough.”

Jack grabbed my hand and hurried me out of the bedroom and downstairs. Thankfully, our closest friends were still huddled, although now Cooper was holding baby Lily.

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.”