Page 36 of Always My Comfort

Logan

It had beena whole month since Jaxon and I started dating—a whole thirty days of keeping the biggest secret from him. And every day, the guilt ate away at another piece of me.

“I don’t know why you haven’t told him already. You know he’s the sweetest man on the planet, and he’s had your back from the first moment you met.” Scarlett and I were at a dress shop, where we were struggling to find something that concealed my bump and matched the navy color scheme.

“You know why. What do you think about this one?” I held up the only reasonable option, and she scrunched her nose.

“Do you want to look like a whale?” Rolling my eyes, I put the dress back on the rack. “How do you get out of sex?” I shrugged.

“He hasn’t asked.” She paused.

“You must be joking. That hot, extremely sexy, baseball-playing cowboy with the most perfect ass I’ve ever seen hasn’t asked or evenattemptedto have sex with you in a whole month?” I nodded and held up another dress for her, which she shook her head at.

“I think he’s been waiting to introduce me to his family.” Which I was insanely nervous about. Richard never introduced me to his family, and I never thought anything of it, but now that someone wanted me to meet their family, I was basically one breath away from an anxiety attack.

“That’s good and bad news. Do you have to wear navy? Look at this black one.” I shook my head.

“You can’t wear black to a wedding. That’s bad luck.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“That’s bullshit. Plenty of people wore black to mine, and look at me and Matt. I think we should head to a maternity shop. We aren’t going to find anything here.” I knew she was right, but maternity clothes always put emphasis on the bump, and I didn’t want him to find out this weekend.

“Maybe I should wear a pantsuit instead. I mean, I’m only five months. I can still hide it, right?” I glanced at a mirror, where I could see my small bump protruding.

“Why are you trying to hide your perfect little baby, Logan? I wish I had one. I’d walk around topless so everyone could see.” Surprising coming from the woman who didn’t like kids. If I was in her boat, I’d probably be doing the same thing, but I wasn’t, and she would never understand. She wasmarried. I was not.

“How far is the maternity store? He’s going to pick me up in two hours.” She pulled it up on the GPS on her phone, and we quickly got in her car and arrived at the nearest one.

“I can’t believe you waited until the last minute to get a dress. You are totally crazy. Also, I can’t believe he invited you to a wedding the same day he decided he wanted to date you. He’s crazy about you. You’re basically made for each other,” Scarlett gushed as she held open the door for me. A bell went off, announcing our arrival into the small boutique.

An hour later, we found a navy dress with long sleeves that didn’t emphasis my belly. If anything, it hid it. We then rushed home and threw everything I might need into the suitcase for the weekend trip. She threw in some sexy lingerie just in case, which made me roll my eyes, and then, we waited for Jaxon.

“You do know I won’t be using that. Not even in the slightest,” I told her, but she just grinned.

“Maybe that’s how you should tell him. I really don’t think he’ll be mad. Shocked, yes, but never mad.” Matt walked into the kitchen and threw his wife the side eye.

“Don’t push her, Scar. If she doesn’t want to tell him until the day she delivers, then so be it.”

“I swear, you are the biggest buzzkill,” Scarlett whined but walked around the kitchen counter to give him a kiss. “Good thing I love you so much.”

“I love you more.” He kissed the top of her head and wrapped his arm around her. He was always trying to keep her in place, out of kindness and love, because he had seen her burned before from giving advice. He had been witness to the fights between her sisters and her mother—even her and me.

He was the peacekeeper.

A knock sounded at the door a minute later, and Scarlett lit up, like it was her boyfriend and not mine. “Have fun. Do everything I would do.” She hugged me tightly and then whispered something to my belly. Once she left with Matt to give me some privacy, I swung open the door and smiled at the breathtaking, handsome man waiting on the other side.

“You are a sight for sore eyes.” He cracked a lopsided grin, and my heart skipped a beat at the lame line.

“It’s only been one day,” I whispered, closing the distance between us. Leaning up on my toes, I pressed a quick, soft kiss to his stubble. He’d been growing a beard for the last two weeks, and I loved everything about it.

“Doesn’t matter. I can’t get enough of you, sweetheart.” He reached behind me for my suitcase and brushed his lips against mine, stealing my breath away.

How after a month of kissing him, he could still make my heart race and my lungs struggle for air was beyond me.

“Come on. Get in the truck. We’ve got to get there for the rehearsal dinner. My damn sister-in-law, Kenna, is being real annoyin’ about this whole weekend.” He’d already explained his entire family tree, from his three older brothers to their wives and children. He showed me pictures, so I wouldn’t look like a fool. I was ready to be part of a family again, even if it wasn’t really mine.

An hour into the drive, he was whistling along to Luke Combs, an artist I noticed he listened to a lot. “Where are your parents?” I had been wondering when he was going to ask. I didn’t like to advertise the information, and I didn’t like the pitying looks that followed.

“They both died.” He jerked his head in my direction, the car swerving into the other lane for a brief moment.

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