Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (45 page)

As she rushed out of the care home, Tessa pulled out her phone and dialed Brian’s house number.

Answering machine.

Damn it.

His cell phone seemed to be ringing through though.

“Where the hell have you been, woman?”

Tears sprang into her eyes. Happy tears. For all of it—the protective alpha growl, the way he never said her name with a question mark when she called, and the love in his voice that had only grown since they’d last talked. Definitely happy tears.

“Hello to you, too.”

“So does this phone call mean you’re done running?” he asked gruffly.

“I didn’t run!” she argued back hotly.

Really
, she didn’t.

“Where are you now?”

“I was headed over to see you, actually.”

“Good,” came the rough reply. “Then I won’t have to let the air out of your tires.”

Doing a double take, Tessa looked up and saw Brian leaning against her car, staring at her like a man possessed. Or at least a man in love with a woman who made him feel possessed.

She shoved her phone in her bag and launched herself into his arms. “I’ve missed you.”

His arms snapped shut around her like steel bands. “Then you shouldn’t have run,” he grumbled against her hair, a low ragged exhale of relief following soon after.

“I didn’t run!” she maintained pushing back to stand her ground. “I…hid.”

A world of difference.

“You shouldn’t have been hiding from me either, Tessa. When are you going to get it into your stubborn little head that I want you? All of you—quirky habits, too-independent-for-your-own-good tendencies, HD gene and all. I’ve been giving you time, waiting for you to come to me. But you know what? Screw that. You’re coming home with me. Home. With me. That’s where your home is. Not that apartment. Not wherever the hell you’ve been for the last few days.”

He took in a deep, jagged breath and cupped her cheek. “I know you’re scared and I am too, sweetheart. But if Huntington’s is going to steal your memories one day years and years from now, well then we’ll just make its job that much harder and longer by filling our lives with more memories than it can take, fill that busy little head of yours so it takes years, decades to wipe out. Green hair, ATV trips, you name it, we’ll collect an endless string of memories. Together.”

She stared at him, her heart hammering, legs barely holding her up. “That could be the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Really?” His voice graveled even more. “How about I do one better…” Dragging her back into his arms, he said gruffly, “Marry me. Be by my side to watch Skylar graduate from high school, go to college, and whatever else she decides to do. Be by my side so she’ll be inspired to go out and fall in love. But mostly, be by my side so I can be by yours too. Marry me, Tessa Daniels.”

Heart swelling to double capacity, words were failing her completely. Oxygen too, for that matter.

“You don’t have to rush on answering, sweetheart,” he continued gently. “I’m not going anywhere. But one thing I do want to give you a heads-up on is that your mother knows already because I called her this week—not to
ask
for your hand, but to tell her I was damn well
taking
your hand in marriage.”

Later, she’d process this all much more carefully but for now, all she could do was parrot back the most shocking of all the verbal grenades he’d just launched her way. “You called my mother?”

Funny, in her head, she was sure her mouth was going to ask the much more burning question:
You really want to marry me?

“Yes. I had Jay find her phone number for me soon after you left. I was worried out of my mind and I decided to tell her off, basically. To tell her exactly what I thought about her. About how horrible she’d been to you. But instead, I ended up telling her exactly what I thought about
you
instead. How much I love you. How incredible you are and how happy you’ve made me. How happy I want to make you in return for the rest of our lives.”

Every ounce of love she had for the man lodged in her throat. “H-how did it go?” she finally managed.

“I think her voicemail was very moved,” he replied roughly, looking thoroughly disgruntled. “I must have called her a hundred times and she never once answered her phone.”

A soft laugh somehow found its way out of her. “My mom screens all her calls on her cell phone. That’s why I usually call her on her landline.”

“I tried that, but her landline was disconnected.”

“Right. That’s because she moved. Or so I discovered when I flew out there this past week.”

This time it was Brian’s turn to be stunned. “You went to go see your mother?”

“Yes. That’s the other thing I’ve been doing—and also why I was gone for those extra few days. I just…needed to. She wasn’t at the address I had. Surprise, surprise, she sort of forgot to tell me she’d moved again. So I had to stay an extra few days to find her. I had no intention of leaving without seeing her.” She shrugged. “And of course when I did manage to find her, it wasn’t one of those movie endings. She was on her way to work and literally had only five minutes for me.”

She felt her heart do a double-thump when Brian bristled and growled over that.

“It was okay though because five minutes was all I needed. I told her that I wanted her to see me in person. See that the daughter who’d begun dying in her mind the day the gene tests came back grew up to be a strong, happy woman. A woman who is living with HD and helping others with it. A woman not afraid to love and be loved. A woman who deserves to have a happily ever after with the man of her dreams, and look forward to the future instead of spending her life dreading it.”

Blinding pride took over Brian’s expression.

“I gave her two photos—the one of me with my dad and Willow, along with the photo of you, me, and Skylar from our ATV trip. And I also gave her my phone number, laminated, and on a magnet…which I stuck on her fridge. So if she doesn’t call, it’s not because she doesn’t have my number anymore.”

Despite his obvious disgust with the woman, his expression held hope…for her.

Tessa shook her head. “She ushered me out of her apartment a minute later saying she’d be late for work. And that was the end of that reunion.”

“Honey, I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not. She is who she is, and I became who I am despite that.”

He nodded and pulled her into his arms. “And despite her, you’re going to become something she
never
was.”

She tilted her face up to his. “What’s that?”

He untucked a small gift bag from the cargo pocket of his jeans. “I’ve had this as your homecoming gift from the day I figured it all out.” With a soft smile, he whispered, “Open it.”

Something about the way he was looking at her... She looked in the bag and gasped when she saw the baby onesies in it. “
How
?”

“I guessed. I thought of the one thing that would make you run—”

“
I didn’t
run
!” she growled. “The day of the picnic, I’d stopped at the doctor’s to make sure I didn’t have a contagious bug. With Jilly and everyone else in the care home, we always need to be careful of that. He called me during the picnic to tell me the results of my blood test.”

“And then you—”

She poked him viciously in the stomach. “I didn’t
run
! I told you, I was hiding!”

“Meaning you were trying to hide the pregnancy from me?”

“
What?!
No! I spent the time setting up a trust with my father’s life insurance money and then seeing prenatal genetic specialists to find out about the prenatal HD gene test. This way, when I told you, there wouldn’t be any financial obligations for you to worry about, and I’d have all the info on the HD gene testing for you as well. That way, if you didn’t…”

She couldn’t finish the sentence.

And it was probably a good thing because something akin to shocked, violent outrage crossed his face.

“You thought I wouldn’t want our child?!” he roared.

“No! I just… I have the HD gene—that means our child will have the same fifty-fifty chance too. I just wanted to do everything I could so you
could
walk away if you wanted to, and have all the gene info ready for you if you only wanted to walk away…in certain conditions,” she finished lamely.

With him just glaring at her, likely counting to ten silently, she rambled on, “You can find out for sure before agreeing to be a part of the pregnancy. There are two prenatal genetic tests; the one that’s later in the pregnancy is a little safer but—”

“Don’t do the testing.” His voice had finally calmed and his eyes had warmed first with quiet, uncontainable excitement, and then with affectionate empathy.

The combination, along with his quiet statement had her shaking like crazy—sheer and naked hope being as potent as adrenaline when it was rushing through your veins.

“Are you sure, you don’t want to—”

“Sweetheart, really. Don’t do it. We don’t need the added danger to you or the baby.”

“But don’t you want to know? I mean with me, and Skylar…”

“Tessa, it wouldn’t matter what the prenatal gene test said. At least not to me.” His frame stiffened. “Are you thinking of terminating the pregnancy based on the results?”

Horrified, she gasped in outrage. “Of course not!” She glared at him. “Would you still want to marry me if it were positive?”

He tugged her in close and rumbled against her lips. “Of course I would.”

She smiled and relaxed. “So we’re really doing this?”

“Yes. Now take a better look at your present. I think they’re friggin’ cute as hell and I’ve been holding on to them for days, dying to see your face when you saw them.”

Her heart melted into a puddle of goo.

She opened the bag and broke out into a huge grin as she pulled out the little novelty onesies he’d bought. “He-Man and She-Ra?” she chuckled.

“Yep. I know we won’t know what the gender of the baby is for months, but I wanted to get both just in case. We can return the other or give it to Abby and Connor for their kid if the gender matches.”

She bit her lip to hide the gigantic smile that was trying to break free. “Actually, it might be a good idea to keep both. Just in case we’re having a boy
and
a girl.”

At the slow shock blooming across his grin, she confirmed, “Because we’re having twins.”

EPILOGUE

“YOU READY TO GO on our honeymoon, sweetheart?”

Tessa giggled. “Did you see the look on everyone’s faces when we told them what we were doing for our honeymoon night?”

“Yes,” Brian chuckled. “And I’d pay good money to see it again.”

He helped his gorgeous wife with her barely showing baby bump into the SUV. Meanwhile, the small group of their closest friends and family were waving and blowing bubbles.

“Oh! Did you remember to get the cd back?”

Precious thing. “Honey, I keep telling you, I’ve made over dozens of copies.” And backed up the file in over ten places.

When she just kept right on staring at him, waiting for an answer, he replied lovingly, “Yes, I remembered to get the cd back.”

She beamed.

It thrilled him to no end that she’d loved his little musical surprise for her today. Since he’d wanted Tessa to have something truly special for their wedding day, he’d taken all of willow’s compositions and tracked down her old piano teacher, who’d been happy to play and record every single one. And though Tessa hadn’t heard the music in decades, she’d recognized it almost immediately when it came through on the speakers as the processional music for her walk down the aisle.

She’d burst into tears.

Happy tears, she later reassured him after he nearly had a heart attack and went racing up the aisle to get to her.

“I know you made copies of the cd. And I’m not being weird.
This
copy is from our wedding day. So I want to keep it as one of our keepsake memories from the ceremony. Of something my amazing husband did for me—and my sister.”

He stilled for a surprised moment and then broke out into a grin. Per usual, Tessa was always surprising him. Not wanting to spend another second delaying their honeymoon, he quickly slid a kiss over her smiling lips and then ran around to the driver’s seat.

And waited.

“What’s wrong?” asked Tessa.

He checked his watch and opened the glove compartment, counting down
3..2..1.

Her phone chirped.

Eyes dancing, she grabbed for the phone and went straight to her calendar.

He knew exactly what she’d find:

Happy wedding day

Where we’ll go: our honeymoon

What we’ll do: pitch your first tent in the yard…clothing optional.

She burst out laughing, and the sound hit him square in the heart like it always did.

“Exactly how many of these calendar entries have you put in my phone?”

“Just the one,” he said as he finally started up the car. “Because I intend to give you the rest of the reminders of how much I love you in person every day for the rest of our lives.”

-- THE END --

* * * * *

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Fear not dear readers, you haven’t seen the last of the Sullivans! My spin-off Cactus Creek series—four standalone novels and two novellas—takes place in that quirky town of Cactus Creek I’ve been referencing throughout all the Nice Girl and Nice Guy books.

Gosh I love this place. I first ‘created’ this special, ruggedly beautiful town years ago; and since then, all my characters from
both
the Nice Girl/Guy and Cactus Creek series just up and decided it was the place to be. Though my muse and I tried to keep them from crashing each other’s series, these defiant characters were not having it! They each thought the other set of characters were far too interesting. Before I knew it, they were all becoming friends, hanging out together, and eventually butting into each other’s lives with no regard for this author’s sanity. *grin*