Page 44 of Twin Babies For The Grump

It never once crosses my mind not to tell Beau; why would it? For one, I know that he’s not going to repeat this to anyone. Beau comes from an influential family, just like mine. He understands that some things aren’t meant for the press until they’remeantfor the press.

There’s a moment of truly stunned silence, where Beau just stares at me, his mouth open, lips slightly parted. “What did you just say?”

“I’m going to be a father,” I repeat, even more excited.

“I’m going to have a family. Coming here, seeing Tess again, beinghere, right here.” I jab a finger against the top of the counter. “Right now.” And do it a second time. “That was on purpose. This was on purpose. The universe wanted me to be here, forthis.”

“A father?” Beau jumps to his feet, nearly knocking both of our glasses over as he reaches across the island counter and grabs hold of my arms. “You and Tess—"

“I don’t think I need to tell you to keep things quiet for now,” I say, and he nods at me.

“Of course. I would never speak about it. But— Owen, does this mean you are going to be getting married? I did not think that you would ever settle down. Owen Bale, back home and staying!” Before I have a chance to respond, he continues, “You had best be planning on asking me to be your best man!”

Married?

I freeze.

The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind.

I rake a hand through my hair, pushing it out of my face. I intended to have it cut before I moved here but with everything going on, it’s just a long mess in desperate need of a trim.

“You had thought about that, didn’t you?” Beau asks.

I shake my head. “I just found out; I haven’t thought about anything.”

“I can see that.”

“What’s certain is that I’m back home and staying, with a family of my own,” I repeat his words with a laugh. “I would never have guessed it either.” Then something clicks with me. “But you came here for a reason. Shit, Beau, sorry! I should have asked why you stopped by before anything else.”

Beau laughs. “It is fine. You are celebrating! That is understandable! I just wanted to ask you a favor.”

“Oh, that sounds daunting.”

“Not really. Well, maybe. I'm going to Italy, for two weeks,” says Beau. “And before you say anything about the contest, I know. It is bad timing but—” He shrugs. “What can I do?”

I frown a little bit. “You aren’t worried about your ranking?”

“My wine is made, it will not get better or worse just because I am sitting here staring at it,” says Beau. “And Veronica is handling the press for me.”

“Are your parents alright?”

“Fine, fine, they just need my help with something. It's not a big deal, you should not concern yourself with it when you have so much else going on already,” says Beau, with a wave of his hand. Between the accent and the way that he talks with so many gestures, it’s easy to tell thatItalyis and always will be home for him.

“Okay, so what do I have to do?”

“I need your help—Bubbles and Bear, I need someone to watch them. I would normally have Veronica do it, but since she is going to be handling the press, I was hoping that I might be able to leave them here, instead.”

“Oh,” I say, with a relieved sort of laugh. “That’s fine. I can watch the boys for you, that’s no problem.”

“Are you certain? Even with—” He makes another gesture. “Everything going on with your girl? I did not realize beforehand, or I would not have asked.”

“Your dogs are always welcome here,” I reassure him, with a huff of laughter. “It’s seriously no problem. When do you need me to come and get them?”

“I know it is short notice,” says Beau, “But I was hoping that I could bring them by this weekend? I had to get an early red-eye flight to Italy.”

“That’s fine! In fact, let’s go pick them up now, before I have anything else to drink,” I say. “Forget the weekend.”

“Are you sure?”

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