Page 173 of Return To You

I act offended. “Dad!”

“You made me a promise on my death bed,” he says to Ethan, ignoring me.

“Your what?!” Mom cries.

“You know what I mean,” Dad waves dismissively.

Ethan smiles softly and takes my hand. “That’s up to Grace.”

Dad raises his eyebrows. “A promise is a promise.”

Ethan nods. “And I promised you as many as she wanted.”

Dad grunts.

“What—When did this happen?” I ask, mildly amused and intrigued at the same time. Dad and Ethan talking about grandbabies on a supposed deathbed? That’s news to me.

“Never mind,” Dad and Ethan say at the same time.

Okay, then. My dad and my fiancé have their side conversations. That’s rather sweet, considering where we came from. “We have a wedding to plan,” I state. “We’ll talk babies later.” I sound way more assured than I feel. Just thinking about having Ethan’s babies fills me with something indescribable. And very desirable.

“Well, I would hope so,” Mom says. “You have a dress to fit into.”

“The voice of reason,” I say.

Ethan frowns and grunts. I feel like grunting too. Six more months to go, give or take.

“You’ve waited ten years. What’s a few more months?” Mom says.

Now it’s Dad’s turn to grunt.

“Who wants more lasagna?” Mom asks, dipping the serving spoon in the dish.

We all hand our plates.

Dad frowns. “Oh—now she doesn’t have a dress to fit into?” he asks playfully.

“It’s lasagna, honey. It’s nice and light,” Mom says with a straight face.

Dad laughs heartily at that. “Okay then, since it’s nice and light, double serving for me,” he says, making us all laugh.

Ethan reaches under the table and strokes my thigh, then looks at me with a sweet smile.

Later, after we say our goodbyes, we settle in the SUV that Ethan started a good ten minutes before leaving so it would warm up. “You know,” he says, not driving away just yet, “I had a vague idea of what I wanted in life. Something ideal. With you in the center of it all. But it turned out so much better than I thought. This is all so much more everything… So much more love, and fun, and fulfillment. And there’s so much more to look forward to.” He takes my hand softly in his. “I can’t believe this is just the beginning.”

I lean across the center console to kiss him. His hands come to my nape, pulling me gently to him, cradling me. “You’re the best part of me, Grace,” he says, choking a bit on his words.

He clears his throat, and I sit back in my seat. “Home or nightcap at Lazy’s?” he asks as he pulls out of my parents’ driveway.

I really want to go home, but we haven’t seen our friends in a few days. And it’s still relatively early. “Quick nightcap at Lazy’s?”

His smile tells me this is where his mind was too. We can’t wait to get our hands on each other, but we have all night, and all day tomorrow. Even if we decide to go snowboarding, or skating.

With how it’s been snowing all day today, Lazy’s is less busy than a usual Saturday night. We order hot toddies and chat with Haley, Alex and Chris.

As we’re thinking about heading home, the door opens on Kiara carrying one of her pastry boxes, but this one is so tall you can’t see her behind it—only her legs in fishnet stockings. Which is totally not Kiara’s style. And totally not weather appropriate.

Right behind her, holding the door, Colton comes in, wearing dress pants and a shirt under his coat.

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