With Me In Seattle: Bundle Two (66 page)

“Are you kidding me?” I whisper.

Gray smiles in that sweet way he does when I’ve amused him and Kevin just chuckles and shakes his head.

“Can we have your hands, please?” Gray asks.

They each take a ring box out of their pockets.

“We had trouble deciding who should go first, but finally came to the conclusion that we should do it based on who’s oldest, so I get to go first,” Kevin says with a wink.

“You’re two months older.” I laugh and dab at my eyes with a napkin, then give them my hands again.

“He’s still older,” Gray replies with a laugh.

“And nervous,” Kevin adds as he licks his lips. Oh, my sweet man. He’s good at being silly and outspoken, but I’ve learned that he has a soft side too. “I love you, Bailey.” He pins me in his green gaze. His blonde hair is all messed up from his nervous fingers, I’m sure. “You’ve brought so much to my life in the past few months. I can’t imagine my life without you, and I don’t ever want to know what that reality feels like. I want you to be mine, to be
ours
for the rest of our lives.”

Gray clears his throat, catching my attention. His blue eyes are calm and clear. “I love you Bailey, for all of the million little things that make you you, and for all of the ways you’ve made us better. I can’t wait to see what the future brings for us.”

They glance at each other and then back at me as the tears finally spill over and down my cheeks.

“Marry us,” Gray says. “Spend the rest of your life with us.”

“We will spend every day of our lives devoted to you, Bailey. We promise you that.”

I bring their hands up to my lips and kiss them both at the same time.

“I would be honored to marry you,” I reply and find myself in the biggest bear hug of my life, trapped between two very strong, very happy men. Gray lifts me off my feet and kisses me with everything he has, then passes me off to Kevin for the same treatment before they open the ring boxes, which are both…
empty.

“That’s the way to knock a girl off her feet,” I say with a laugh.
What do my amazing men have up their sleeves?

“We thought of each buying you a knockout engagement ring, and you could wear one on each hand,” Gray begins.

“Then we thought about buying just one ring,” Kevin continues. They’re both looking down at the boxes, almost as if they’re embarrassed, then they both look up at me.

“But that’s not who you are,” Gray says. “Every time we try to spoil you with something expensive, you decline.”

“I don’t need…” I begin but Kevin lays his finger over my lips, shutting me up.

“Yes, we’ve heard it, over and over again,” he says with a smile.

“We’d like for us to all wear matching platinum bands, if that’s okay with you,” Gray says. “If we’re way off base here and you’d rather have the diamonds, we’ll happily buy them, but we didn’t think that’s what you’d want.”

God, they know me so well. I swipe at the tears pouring down my cheeks and shake my head.

“Oh shit, we fucked up.” Kevin rubs his fingers over his lips as I laugh.

“No, you’re right. This is perfect. Matching bands are perfect.” I pull both of their faces close and kiss them, then they lean their foreheads against mine. “I love you both so much. How do we do this? I’m quite sure a marriage between the three of us isn’t legal, even in the state of Washington.”

“No,” Kevin agrees and looks at Gray.

“You’ll marry Kevin legally and take his name,” Gray says and shushes me as I begin to protest. “He’s the oldest.”

“We come to the table equally, Bailey,” Kevin continues. “We make the same amount of money, and most of what we own is in both our names. Either of us can put you on our insurance policies. We can both take care of you equally, so we decided that it should be the older of the two of us.”

I shake my head and bite my lips. “It doesn’t feel right.”

“Washington is a liberal state, sweetheart, but not that liberal.” Gray smiles and brushes his knuckles down my cheek. “It’s okay.
We
know that we love each other and are committed to each other.”

I chew on my lip, considering the options. “I’ll legally marry Kevin, but I’m changing my name to Bailey Welling-McDermitt.”

Both of their jaws drop as they watch me in a stunned silence.

“You’d do that?” Gray’s voice is hoarse as his eyes fill with tears.

“People will know, Bailey. You won’t be able to hide that you’re married to both of us.” Kevin tucks my hair behind my ear. “Are you sure you want that?”

“Are you ashamed of me?” I ask uncertainly. “Are you ashamed of the three of us being together?”

“Hell no,” they reply in unison.

“Fuck people then,” I insist. “You will be my husbands. I’m not ashamed of either of you. I
love
you.” I link my fingers with theirs again. “If we’re going to do this thing, we’re going to do it right. I’ll take both of your names.”

“I love you so much,” Gray whispers and he crushes me against him, clinging to me.

“I love you too.”

“Well,” Kevin says and he kisses my forehead and wipes the tears from my cheek and Gray continues to hold me against him. “It’s going to be one hell of an adventure.”

“My favorite kind,” I reply with a wide smile.

Breathe With Me

Book Seven in the With Me In Seattle Series

By

Kristen Proby

BREATHE WITH ME

Book Seven in the With Me In Seattle Series

Kristen Proby

Copyright © 2014 by Kristen Proby

All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the property of the author and your support and respect is appreciated. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Cover Art:

Photography by: Regina Wamba of Mae I Design and Photography

Models: Tena and Preston Pettis

Cover Design: Okay Creations

Dedication

For Pamela:

I can never repay you, not just for everything you’ve done for me, but for your friendship as well. I love you.

Prologue

Eleven years ago

~Meredith~

Meet u at ur place in 30. Luv u
.

I grin and type back a quick
luv u 2
and snap my phone shut as I hurry home from dance class. I really wanted to skip dance today, but Mark insisted that I go. He said he understands how important dance is to me and that he would see me later.

We are celebrating my seventeenth birthday tonight. It’s a week early because my mom will be home on my real birthday, but she’s gone tonight on a business trip, and Mark told his folks that he’s staying at a friend’s house so he can stay with me all night.

I can’t decide if I’m super nervous or super excited. Maybe I’m both.

Because tonight we are going to do
it.

I grin and shimmy my butt in a little happy dance in the driver’s seat of my 1995 Ford Escort. I just have enough time to take a quick shower and touch up my makeup before Mark gets to my house.

I hurry through the shower, but pay extra attention to shaving my legs and bikini line. I wipe the fog off the mirror in my bathroom and wrinkle my nose. My makeup did not survive dance
and
the shower, so I quickly scrub my face clean and just reapply my eyeliner and mascara and smooth some lip-gloss on my lips. Mark’s seen me without makeup plenty of times, but I want to at least look like I’m making an effort tonight.

I pull the short black skirt and red-cropped sweater that shows off my belly out of the closet and after slipping into some lacy black underwear that I’ve been saving for this exact occasion, I shimmy into the cute outfit and take a turn before my mirror.

“You’re so beautiful,” I hear from behind me and smile when I turn to see Mark leaning his shoulder against my doorjamb. “So this is what it looks like.”

“This is it.” I open my arms wide and glance around my bedroom. Mom doesn’t allow Mark up here with me when he comes over.

And, it’s probably a good idea, given what we’ll be using this room for tonight.

Nerves suddenly take hold and I wring my fingers as giant butterflies take flight in my belly.

“I like it.” His eyes still haven’t moved from me. I smile shyly.

“You haven’t even looked at it.”

He smiles and glances about my frilly room. My dance shoes are scattered about. Photos of my dance teams and friends clutter a cork bulletin board above my desk where my computer sits. A photo of him and I together at Pike’s Place Market is framed next to my bed. The top of my dresser is littered with makeup and jewelry. My double-sized bed is made neatly. I changed the sheets before I left for dance this afternoon.

“I like it,” he repeats. “Why are you standing way over there?”

I shrug one shoulder and glance out the window, watching the rain fall down the window pane.

“Hey, M.” He walks to me and hugs me close. This is what I needed, the familiarity of his smell and the feel of his strong arms around my shoulders. He’s so much bigger than me. His muscles are crazy defined, but it’s his sweet smile and blue eyes that have done me in since the day I saw him in biology class last year.

When he smiles, it looks like he has a naughty secret.

I hope I learn all of his naughty secrets tonight.

“I’m making you dinner,” he says before kissing my forehead and taking my hand to lead me downstairs to the kitchen.

“You are?” I giggle and bounce down the steps behind him. “What are you making?”

“Chicken parmesan and pasta.”

“Holy calories, Batman!” I exclaim and mentally calculate how many miles I’m going to have to run to burn it off.

“It’s your birthday, M, the calories don’t count,” he says and leads me to the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

“You brought me flowers!” I exclaim and immediately bury my nose in the beautiful red roses sitting on my kitchen counter. I yank the card out of the plastic holder and read it aloud. “To M, Happy Birthday. Love, M.” I grin but in my head I’m bouncing up and down like a big dork and launch myself in Mark’s arms. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He kisses me hard before setting me down and getting started with dinner. “You’ll get your real present later.”

“There’s more?” I ask and clap my hands excitedly.

“Yep,” he replies. He pours me some bubbly water and I sit back and watch my man move about the kitchen.

“You’re good at this.”

“Mom makes us all take turns cooking,” he replies with a shrug. “She says we have to earn our keep.”

“I love your mom,” I say and sip my water.

“She loves you too.”

“I’m so glad that we like each other’s parents. It would really suck otherwise.”

“Did you have any doubt that I could charm your mom?” he asks.

“No.” I giggle and shake my head. “You’re quite charming.”

“I’m just kidding. I like your mom a lot. I feel kind of guilty that we lied to her about tonight.”

“I know.” I bite my lip and look down into my glass.

“Hey, it’ll be okay.”

I nod and sit back to watch him bustle about the kitchen, enjoying the way he moves. He has a natural grace that appeals to the dancer in me. When we danced together at the junior prom, I didn’t think that anything could get any better than that.

When dinner is done, he serves me first and we laugh all through the meal, talking about school and our mutual friends.

“How is Luke?” I ask casually.

“Good. He’s about to audition for some movie project about vampires,” he replies with a laugh. “Can you see my brother as a vampire?”

I laugh with him and shake my head. “He’s too nice to be a vampire.”

“Sam is enjoying college,” he continues as he clears our dishes. “The house seems quiet without her.”

“She doesn’t like me,” I reply and bite my lip. No matter how hard I try to talk with Mark’s older sister, she just doesn’t like me.

“Sam doesn’t know you very well, and she’s kind of stand-offish with strangers,” he says and loads the last dish into the dishwasher, then takes my hand in his and kisses it gently. “Besides, I don’t care if Sam doesn’t like you. Sam isn’t dating you.”

“Thank goodness,” I say with a grin and lean into him, hoping he’ll kiss me again. I can’t get enough of Mark’s kisses. He rests his forehead against my own and rubs his hands up and down my arms softly, sending shivers through me.

“Are you sure about this, M? We don’t have to do anything more than lie on the couch and watch TV if you want to.”

“Is that what you want?” I ask with a small voice.

“No.” He chuckles and if I’m not mistaken, blushes just a bit. “I can’t seem to keep my hands off you, and I want nothing more than to make love with you, but it’s a big step, and I just want you to know that it’s okay if you’re not ready.”

I love him even more for that speech. With a renewed sense of confidence, I link his fingers with mine, toss a sassy smile over my shoulder and guide him up the stairs toward my bedroom. Once inside, he shuts and locks the door—just in case—and follows me to the bed. Keeping eye contact with him, I crawl onto the bed and, leaning back on my elbows in the most seductive pose I can come up with, I crook my finger in invitation for him to join me.

“I guess this means you’re sure,” he mutters and pulls his shoes off quickly and crawls onto the mattress with me.

“I guess so,” I whisper. My stomach is doing crazy somersaults as he leans in and kisses my cheek and then down to my neck.

“You’re so beautiful, M,” he whispers. “I’m so lucky that you’re mine.”

I smile and close my eyes as he pushes his fingers into my hair and turns my head to meet his lips. He guides me to my back and hovers over me, kissing me for what feels like forever. My hands are all over his back and arms. God, I love the feel of his body, and I suddenly want to feel him naked.