Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Sure, it’s the last fucking thing I expected to hear come from Katy’s lips, but now it’s all making sense. Her running out of the auditorium on Friday and the way she looked yesterday.
She’s pregnant. With my child.
I feel like someone has put a shot of adrenaline in my veins, and I almost don’t know what to do with myself. I want to run. I want to shout the news from the rooftops. I want to kiss Katy like she’s never been kissed before. I want to do a million things right now, but her next words pull me up short.
“I’m sorry,” she says, like she’s supposed to apologize to me for the best fucking news I think I’ve ever heard. “I know things didn’t end well yesterday and I know I was a bitch to you, and I understand if you need some time to think about this…”
What?
“I know this was just supposed to be a fun fling between us and this isn’t at all what you had in mind, but I—”
“Katy.” I say her name to get her to stop talking nonsense. “I love you,” I tell her and reach down to gently hold her face in my hands. “I love you,” I repeat so she doesn’t misunderstand what I’m saying.
“You…you love me?” Her voice is so small that I know with certainty there is so much more she needs to hear me say.
“Katy, I am so far deep in love with you that there is no going back for me. And I came here today because I don’t want to be anywhere else but with you.”
“You love me?”
“Yeah, Katy, I love you. More than words. More than anything.”
More tears spill from her eyes. “You love me?”
“He loves you, Katybug!” Kai shouts from behind us.
“But…you’re not freaked out?” she asks, and I shake my head.
“Honestly? I’m the opposite of freaked out. I’m all in, babe.” I smile as I pointedly place my hand on her belly. “I want you and I want this baby and I want our future together. It’s all you, Katy Cat. Just you, babe. It’s all I want and need.”
Her eyes search mine for the longest moment, but then, like the heavens themselves open up just for me, she says the three words I didn’t realize I’ve been longing to hear from her. “I love you.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” She nods. More tears slip down her cheeks. “I love you, Mack. So much.”
Between one breath and the next, she’s in my arms and my lips are on hers. I kiss her with everything I have. I kiss her with everything that I am. And I kiss her with everything that I know we’re going to be together.
“Hell yeah!” I can just barely hear Kai cheer in the background.
“I’m going to be a grandmother!” Melissa exclaims.
“I know my Harry isn’t here with us, but he’s certainly looking down at us from heaven, smiling that big, handsome smile of his!” Gran calls out. “Oh, and Kai, I think you need to try to get some bail money, dear.”
“Ma’am, you’re not under arrest,” a voice I’m not familiar with announces with a laugh. “You don’t need to have your hands behind your back.”
And it’s that voice that has Katy and me ending the kiss to see what’s going on.
“You’re not going to take me to the slammer?” Gran questions, and the security guard is smiling down at her.
“No,” he says. “But just so you know, you need to be three miles away from the coast when you spread ashes into the water, okay?”
“Okay,” Gran says with a shrug and not a single ounce of regret. She’s also quick to move her attention back to Katy and me. “So, do I get to witness a proposal on this ferry too?”
Katy laughs outright. “How about we take this one step at a time, Gran?”
“Honey, just so you know, it usually goes marriage first, then baby.”
“Yeah, well,” Katy comments and smiles up at me, “Mack and I never seem to do things in the typical way.”
“Well, Katy, that’s normally true. But today, it’s not.” I step back from her a bit and then sink down onto one knee. I pull the ring box out of my pocket and click open the lid, my smile broad and brilliant.
“Katy Dayton, would you do me the honor of marrying me?”
A titter rings out as the crowd catches wind, and every romantic bone in my body sings with the satisfaction that I’ve done exactly what the billionaires suggested.
Grand gesture moment, here I come.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Katy replies unexpectedly, immediately dissolving into tears and shocked laughter. “My gran just chucked my granddad overboard, and I just found out we’re pregnant less than twenty-four hours ago. Do you think you could give me a little time just to get my bearings first before you freaking propose?”