Page 105 of Crazy for You

EPILOGUE

TWO MONTHS LATER

Emma stared at the plastic stick in her hand. She gave it a little shake, as if that might somehow change the plus sign to a minus. Because yeah, she was two weeks late, and she felt like she might throw up, but pregnant?

She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees until the spinning sensation in her head had stopped. This was so not part of her plan right now. She and Mandy had just taken over Artful Blooms. She was knee-deep in the Silver Springs Lodge project and a few weeks into her first semester of business school.

She didn’t have time for a baby right now. A baby. Her eyes welled with tears. Holy crap. She and Ryan had made a baby together. That was…amazing…and terrifying…and wonderful.

How would he react? They’d only been together a few months. Their love was still so new. They’d never even mentioned marriage, let alone starting a family. Something warm grew in her chest, spreading through the panic clutching at her insides.

A baby. Her and Ryan’s baby.

She let out a shaky breath, tossed the pregnancy test in the trash, and walked outside to her car, unable to wait another moment to tell him. She drove straight to Off-the-Grid and parked, still in somewhat of a daze.

“Hey, Emma,” Ethan called, waving as he walked toward the zip-line course.

“Is Ryan around?” she asked.

“He’s down by the ropes course fixing a loose board.”

“Thanks.” She walked briskly down the path until the ropes course came into view.

Ryan sat straddling the top of the climbing wall, hammer in hand. A huge smile covered his face when he saw her. “Hey, Em. What’s up?”

“I’ve got something to tell you, but you might want to come down from there first,” she said, anxiety knotting in her stomach.

Ryan’s smile faded. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, just come down. Please.”

He dropped to the ground and walked to her, taking her hands in his. “You’re shaking. What’s wrong?”

“I’m…” She sucked in a breath. “I’m pregnant.”

Ryan was silent for a beat, his expression hidden behind his mirrored lenses. Then his arms were around her, her body crushed against his as spun her around, kissing her like crazy. “No shit?” he said as he lifted his head.

She nodded, her heart pounding against her ribs. “I just took a test. We’ve been careful, but?—”

“So this is what they warned us about in all those sex ed classes in high school,” he said, but he was grinning widely, his arms still warm and tight around her.

“I guess. It’s the worst possible timing.” Tears welled in her eyes. “With work, and school, and you and I just…”

But Ryan was shaking his head. “Remember that night at the commons? We were eating cupcakes, and we talked about how the best things in life are the ones we never saw coming. This is one of those moments, Emma. This might be the biggest moment in our lives.”

“Really?” She dabbed furiously at the tears spilling over her cheeks.

He released her, and she took a step back. He reached down and pressed his hand against her stomach. “A baby. Our baby. I don’t know when it happened, but I know it’s amazing.”

“Our baby,” she whispered, resting her hand over his.

“I bet it was that night a few weeks ago when we christened the back of the truck.” He was still grinning, and if she wasn’t mistaken, tears glistened in his eyes, too.

“That was quite a night.” She laughed through her tears, remembering how they’d made love in the bed of his truck, a pile of blankets beneath them, a blanket of stars overhead.

“Emma,” he said, his voice gone low and serious.

“Yeah?”

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