Come to Me Softly (Closer to You #2)(73)
Author: A.L. Jackson

I stilled, strained. Longing pulled at my heart. God, how badly I wanted to. To know my child. To see his or her face.

I smiled at her and slowly slid a single hand upward to the center of her chest. “No . . . not yet . . . but I can feel your heart beating.”

Redness settled on her cheeks, and I dropped my forehead to hers. For a few minutes, I lost myself in her.

The doorbell rang.

I groaned and Aly giggled. “It’s party time,” she sang with an obnoxious waggle of her eyebrows that was about the cutest f**king thing I’d ever seen.

Aly tipped her head to the side. “Go answer that. I’m putting five bucks on Megan and I need to get this cake frosted before she sees it.”

I helped her down from the counter, making sure she was steady on her feet. Impatiently the doorbell rang twice in a row.

Striding toward the door, I glanced over my shoulder at Aly, who was slathering the remnants of my burst fantasy all over the waiting cake sitting on the opposite counter. “Stall her,” Aly mouthed, smiling proud.

God, I loved her.

I swung the door open to Megan. She was all dressed up, her blond hair set in these long, wavy curls, wearing jeans and heels and probably the biggest f**king smile I’d ever seen the girl wear. “Happy birthday, Megan,” I said, pulling her in for a quick hug.

“Hey, Jared.” She patted me on the shoulder. “How are you?”

“Pretty damned good.”

Aly’s voice bellowed behind us. “Happy birthday, Megan! Don’t move, I need to get this cake done and you’re not allowed to see it until I’m finished.”

Megan laughed and waved her off. “Pssh . . . I won’t look, I swear. Why don’t you put me to work instead?”

Megan tossed her purse to the couch.

Aly smiled across at her. “Fine . . . but no peeking. But I can use some help. There are some veggies and dip and chips and stuff that need to be set out. You want to handle that?”

“On it,” Megan said. She smoothed out her shirt and stood tall, like she’d just put on her work face.

Laughing a little, I grinned across at my girl. “What else do you need done, baby?”

“Just the backyard stuff.”

I crossed into the kitchen and dropped a swift kiss to her forehead. “Is that your way of trying to get rid of me?”

“Never,” Aly said at the same time as Megan said, “Yes.”

A short giggle escaped Aly, and she hiked up on her toes and planted a playful kiss to my lips. “I think we just need some girl-talk time before everyone else gets here. And outside work is”—her eyes widened in emphasis—“man work.”

My head cocked. “Man work?”

“What, do you want your pregnant girlfriend hauling wood and lighting fires?”

“Pregnant fiancée, almost wife,” I corrected. “Big difference.”

She squeezed my jaw. “Fine . . . Do you want your pregnant fiancée, almost wife hauling wood?”

I wrapped my arms around her expanding waist, rocked her in the middle of our floor, kissed her a little deeper than was entirely appropriate for a witness.

But hey. She was asking for it.

Pretty sure she was begging for it.

“No, I definitely do not want you out hauling wood.” With a smirk, I stepped back. “I’ll just leave you two to the kitchen.”

Megan beaned me in the head with a baby carrot.

“Ow!” I lifted my arm to shield myself from the next that flew through the air as she pelted me again.

Megan was grinning hard. “You’d better be watching yourself there, Jared Holt. That’s some hot water you’re dipping your toes into. Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to mess with a pregnant woman?”

“Yeah,” Aly shot back in defiance, doing her best to muster a look of offense, as if the girl could be angry for a second of her life.

“Fine, mama bear,” I baited through the smile pushing to my mouth. I dipped in for another kiss. “I’ll be outside. You let me know whatever you need me to do.”

Soft affection passed between us as I slid open the back door.

I escaped outside, narrowly missing whatever gossip began to spew from Megan’s mouth.

That’s really what the backyard had become.

An escape.

I came out here when my thoughts got too thick. Out back here, in our small patch of desert, I could work through them, sifting through all the bullshit.

Crazy thing was those thoughts always ended up in one place. On the girl inside.

Tonight the air was cool. Twilight stretched its fingers across the sky, light blues and a stark white hanging on to the horizon as the sun disappeared. Faint stars began to blink high in the sky as it deepened to dark.

I finished stocking the coolers with beer. I broke up little pieces of wood into kindling, and piled them into the fire pit I’d installed off to one side of the yard.

I got to one knee, my head craned over as I flicked my lighter against the wadded-up pieces of newspaper I used as a starter. Instantly, a flame consumed the paper. I blew on it, urging it to spread.

The back door slid open behind me.

“Hey, man, what’s up?”

I looked over my shoulder.

Christopher stepped out with a huge-ass grin on his face. He dove a hand through his hair, then shook the mess free as he closed the door behind him.

“Just getting this started . . . supposed to be chilly tonight.”

He laughed, though it sounded too low. “Playing with fire. Always f**king playing with fire.”

I glared at him. Fucking smartass.

Pissed me off he was always treading so close to the truth. I gestured to the woodpile I had stacked up against the back wall. “Make yourself useful and bring me some wood, would you?”

“Not a problem.”

Christopher crossed to the far end of the yard, stacked a few pieces of wood in his arms, and lugged them back over to the fire. He dropped them unceremoniously next to the pit.

“Thanks.” Sarcasm lifted my brow as I grabbed the smallest one and wedged it over the growing flames.

He cackled, all raucous and loud. “That’s what I’m here for.”

“Asshole,” I mumbled the slur, unable to stop my smile. God, this guy. Didn’t know how I got through all those years without him around to razz my ass. He’d started to feel like a necessity, like something fundamental would be missing if I didn’t have him there to give me a hard time.

Laughing, he traipsed over to the cooler. “Want a beer?”