Thrown: Studs in Spurs, Book 6 (25 page)

“No.” Garret let out a laugh. “But I guess we weren’t exactly trying too hard not to either. Not since she went off the pill because the hormones were messing her up.”

“Dude. Too much information. Enough, please.” Aaron held his hand to his eyes.

“You said you’re freaked out. You not happy about this?” Mustang never did pull any punches.

“Nah, I’m happy. Just surprised…and scared shitless. I don’t even feel like a grown up some days. How am I supposed to be a father?” Garret swallowed hard and looked a little green around the edges. It made Skeeter feel a little better about all the uncertainty in his own life.

“You’ll be fine. Nothing like a baby to make you grow up fast.” Slade slapped Garret on the back. “Congratulations. I’m happy for you two.”

“So speaking of babies…” Mustang shot Slade a glance. “Anything you need to tell us?”

Slade’s brows drew low. “No, there’s not, and no, I didn’t ask Jenna to marry me because of that. She’s not pregnant. I’m just tired of being apart from the woman when there’s no good reason for it.”

“Just checking.” Mustang turned to Skeeter. “And we’re back to you, I guess. Anything we can say to talk you into waiting on this thing with Riley?”

“Nope. My mind is made up.” Skeeter had already started on the plan.

He’d called his mom way too early this morning and talked to her about it. She’d cried, but he was pretty sure they were happy tears. She’d offered him his grandma’s wedding ring to give to Riley. It was there at home waiting for him until he could go pick it up.

Mustang let out a breath. “Okay, then I guess I’ll wish you good luck. Know that I’m here for you if you need anything.”

“We all are,” Chase agreed. The rest of the guys nodded.

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“All right, then.” Mustang pushed off from the fence where he’d been leaning. “If there are no more announcements or life-altering events on the table for discussion, I’m going in to get cleaned up and eat.”

The rest of the guys followed Mustang toward the house, but Aaron hung back next to Skeeter. “Skeets, me too. I’m here for you. I want you to know that.”

“Thanks, Aaron.”

“And I’m sorry I slipped about…you know.”

Bringing up the virgin discussion again wouldn’t help anything, so Skeeter shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. It’s forgotten.”

“So when are you gonna ask her?”

“Don’t know yet. Soon, since I want it official by the time you guys all leave for home and we’re alone here. But I’d like to have the ring when I do it. I just hate to spend a day on the road driving back and forth to get it.” If he took the time to drive all the way home, he’d like to stay a few days and visit with his mom, but right now wasn’t the time to leave Riley for that long. Not when she was still getting back on her feet.

Aaron raised a brow. “You don’t have to drive to get it. Ever hear of overnight mail?”

Skeeter hadn’t even thought of that. “You think? Is it safe? What if it gets lost?”

“The post office has bar codes and delivery tracking and all sorts of shit now. Insure the hell out of it and put tracking on it. It’ll be safe.”

His heart sped just at the thought. He could have his mother overnight it to him today. It could be here tomorrow. In a little over twenty-four hours, he could be engaged to Riley. “Thanks, Aaron.”

Aaron shook his head. “I should have kept my big mouth shut. Maybe you would have had a change of heart if you’d had to wait to get the ring.”

“Nope. Not a chance. I’d have done it without the ring if I had to.” When it came to Riley, his heart was already lost. No changing that.

“All right. I guess you’re sure then?”

“I’m sure.” He’d never been more sure of anything.

He loved Riley and he’d do anything to be with her. God, he hoped she felt the same.

Chapter Twenty

“Mmm. I thought tonight would never come.” Riley reached for Skeeter, fisted his T-shirt and pulled him closer.

He laughed. “Wow. You’re, uh…enthusiastic tonight.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “That’s because you didn’t come downstairs last night.”

Skeeter raised one brow. “That’s because when I asked you how you felt yesterday you said you were sore.”

“I’m not sore tonight.” She stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Mmm. Let’s go to bed.”

He smiled. “We’ll get to that. I promise. Can we talk first?”

Riley’s pulse picked up, but it was for a different reason than before. If Skeeter wanted to talk rather than get into bed, something was definitely not all right. “Okay. Sure. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. Sit?”

Sitting was not good. Sitting was what people asked you to do when they were afraid you’d fall over because they were about to tell you something horrible. Her heart couldn’t take much more right now.

“What is it? Please tell me.” Her voice was no more than a whisper.

“All right. I’ll get right to it.” Skeeter drew in a breath and Riley was sure it shook. Whatever he was going to say, he was nervous about it. The possibilities, all of them bad given her recent run of luck, swam in front of Riley. “I realize we haven’t been a couple for very long, but I’ve known you for a while. I am certain of one thing, and that is that I love you.” He opened his fist and she saw the ring in his palm. “Will you marry me?”

“What?” She was so breathless—on top of being shocked, confused and overwhelmed—the word was barely audible.

“I want us to get married and live here and keep the ranch running. Together, legally before the eyes of the law, and God and your preacher.”

“Skeeter…” She laughed because the whole situation seemed so strange. “I don’t even know your real name.”

He smiled. “Sorry. It’s Steven. My mother still calls me Stevie once in a while. Look, Riley. I know it feels fast, but I’m sure. I love you. That’s not gonna change with time.”

Tears stung at the back of her eyes. “I love you too.”

Skeeter let out a short laugh. “That’s good. When you didn’t say it right away, I started to get a little worried. What about the other part?”

Riley glanced down at the ring again and shook her head. “No. I can’t marry you. Not now. Not like this.”

His mouth opened and then closed. His brows knit in a frown. He drew in a breath, but didn’t speak.

“Skeeter, I do love you.”

He nodded. “Okay. But…”

She covered his hands with hers. “But I’m not going to get married just to make the preacher happy.”

Skeeter lifted one shoulder. “I thought maybe you’d wanna marry me. Want to be with me.”

“I
do
want you here with me. Every day and every night. I just don’t want to get married right now.”

“So you think you’ll ever want to?” He brought his gaze from where he’d been focused on the carpet back to her eyes.

“Yeah. One day. I think I’ve got a little more growing up to do first. Don’t take this the wrong way, but both of us probably do.”

“Yeah, I guess.” He blew out a breath. “So I pretty much made an ass of myself here, didn’t I?”

“No.” She took a step closer and rested her hand in his. “You made me love you even more than I already did.”

“Really?”

“Really.” She eyed the small circle of gold still held in his hand. “I suppose we could make that a promise ring for now. I’ve heard of people doing that.”

He held up the ring for her to see. “This belonged to my grandmother. She left it to my mother. And when I told my mom about you, about how I felt about you, how I wanted to marry you, she insisted I give it to you.” He slipped it over the fourth finger of her right hand, instead of onto the ring finger on her left hand. “My promise to you is that I’ll always be here for you, for as long as you want me to be.”

“My promise to you is that you have my heart for as long as you want it to be yours.” She wiped her eyes. “Dang it.”

“Sorry. I make you cry again?”

“No, I made myself cry this time.” Riley glanced up at him through the tears. “I love you so much.”

“And I love you. So much. I know it seems crazy. It happened so fast, but it felt—”

“Right?” she suggested.

“Yeah. Exactly.” He let out a sigh. “What are we going to do about the ranch? You need help and there’s no way that pastor is going to be happy with me living here with you.”

“You let me deal with that. I can handle the pastor.”

“Oh, really? How do you plan on doing that?”

“I’m going to tell him my father raised me right, and he has to trust me to make the right decisions now that Daddy’s gone. And that even though you and I will be living under the same roof while we’re not married, we’re in a serious, committed and loving relationship, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”

Skeeter pursed his lips. “That’s quite a speech. Think it will work?”

“Don’t know, but I’ll give it a try.”

“And if he doesn’t buy it?”

“I’m gonna be twenty soon, Skeeter. I’m an adult. I own a million-dollar livestock operation that I can’t run by myself. You helping me is good for the business. I respect Pastor Porter and I know he means well, but he’s got no say in the matter. It comes down to my decision and I choose you.”

He smiled. “You can be quite the little pit bull when you get riled up.”

She nodded. “I can.”

Riley didn’t know she had it in her to be this strong, but it seemed she did. Good thing. She had a feeling she was going to need every ounce of her newfound strength to get through the near future.

“Then I’m glad you chose me.” He leaned down and brushed a kiss over her lips.

“You still want to be with me tonight? Even though I said no?”

He let out a snort and took a step closer until they were touching. “What do you think?”

She felt the evidence clearly growing and pressing into her belly. “I think we need to get out of these clothes and into bed.”

“I agree.”

Riley led the way toward the bed. Over her shoulder, she glanced at Skeeter behind her. “I will, you know. Not now, but one day.”

“Will what?” he asked.

“Move this ring from my right hand to my left and marry you.” She stood next to the bed and turned when she realized he’d stopped following her. He looked a little surprised at her statement. “Um, unless your offer is off the table?”

A small smile crooked up one corner of his mouth. “No, the offer is most definitely still on the table.”

“Good.” She kneeled on the mattress, about to crawl to the other side to make room for him. “You know, we might want to get a bigger bed.”

Skeeter laughed. “Already thought of that myself.”

Riley grinned. “See, we’ll make good partners.”

He returned her smile. “Yeah, we will.”

A few hours later Skeeter crept up the stairs to the attic, but by now he knew Aaron would wake up, no matter how quiet he was.

“So? Did you ask?” Aaron’s voice came through the darkness, just as he’d predicted it would.

Skeeter smiled. “Yeah.”

“And? How did it go?”

“She said no.”

Aaron hesitated a beat. “I’m sorry, Skeets.”

Skeeter laughed. “Don’t be. It was a really incredible no.”

One he wouldn’t be forgetting and hoped to repeat real soon. Making love to Riley now they’d declared how they felt toward each other was even more mind-blowing than it had been before.

“Uh, a’ight. Then I guess I’m happy for you.”

“Thanks, man.” Skeeter had a lot to be happy about himself.

Epilogue

“Happy birthday, Riley.” Garret handed a gift bag overflowing with pink tissue paper to Riley. “This is from the three of us—Silver, me and Aaron.”

Skeeter watched the smile light her face as she took the bag. He thought for the dozenth time that day what a good idea this party was. It was time to celebrate life and all they’d overcome these past few months. He rested a hand to the small of Riley’s back and pressed a kiss to her head.

She smiled up at him before turning back to Garret and Silver. “Thank you, guys. You didn’t have to get me anything. And, Silver, oh my God, I can’t believe you’re showing already.”

Silver ran a hand over her expanding belly. “I know, right? It’s faster than I’d guessed.”

Aaron leaned in. “You are getting pretty huge there, sis. Hope it’s not twins or something.”

Garret paled. “Don’t even say that out loud.”

Chase stepped up with his girlfriend, Leesa, at his side. “Hey, y’all. Sorry we’re late. Riley, you remember Leesa?”

“Of course. We met at a few events. Thanks so much for making the trip.” Riley smiled, the perfect hostess, as usual.

“Don’t be silly.” Leesa drew Riley into a hug. “I wanted to be here, so I planned my trip to visit Chase this month around your party. Happy birthday.”

“That’s sweet. Thank you.” Riley accepted the gift box Leesa handed her after the hug.