Page 64 of Be My Baby

Simon barrelled past him and rubbed his hands together, stopping in front of Millie. “Ooooh! Coffee?”

Millie laughed. “Yes. Coffees all ’round.”

Max leaned in while the others reached for their drinks. He lifted her chin until her gaze hit his. “Hello, gorgeous.”

He leaned down, his kiss soft and unassuming. Millie’s breath caught and Simon swore.

“Hey! Watch it, Max. She’s gonna drop the drinks.”

He looked down in time to see Millie right the tray that had tilted toward the ground. “We can’t have that, now can we?”

A pink flush brightened her cheeks and she frowned at him, but her eyes gave it away as the bluff it was. She held up the tray to him. He raised a brow at his name in black marker pen scrawled across the top.

“I asked Cat to put your names on them so Mr Whinger here wouldn’t complain if he got the wrong one.” She motioned to Simon, who stood sipping his with a blissful expression on his face.

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, Miss Millie. Your harsh accusation is duly forgotten since I have an awesome drink in my hands.” Simon raised a brow at them in salutation, slurping loudly on the lid of the takeaway cup.

Millie waited until Max had taken his own, then looked at him expectantly.

“What?”

She was practically bursting, her eyes bright and her lip caught between her teeth. “I have news.” She waved around her. “That’s why I’m here.”

“And you couldn’t have led with that?” Gabe asked, laughing.

Millie shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “Are you going to ask me what it is?”

Max breathed in the aroma of the fine coffee that Cat used and leaned back against the fence. “Okay. What news do you have, Mildred Stevens?” he asked, exaggeratedly solemn.

Millie sat a hand on her hip and sent him an affronted look. “I should make you wait for that. But I won’t. Trey heard from the insurance company about, oh,” she looked at her watch, “half an hour ago?”

Max straightened, his coffee all but forgotten.

“He agreed to let me come tell you instead of an impersonal phone call.” Her face softened, but the smile stayed. “They’ve agreed to honour the policy with the proviso we don’t go to court and you don’t contact the media.”

Simon let out a loud, excitedwhoop, followed by Gabe slapping his shoulder, hard.

He held Millie’s gaze, unwilling to believe it. Not daring to.

“Really?” he whispered. He stepped closer to her. “They’re really going to do it?”

Millie nodded, unshed tears glinting in the morning sunlight. “Really.” She took hold of his hand and squeezed it tight. “You won, mister.”

He threw his arms around her and swung her off her feet. She squeaked, then laughed as he swung her around, her arms around his neck. So much emotion swirled through him that he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Either, or both, would suit him just fine.

“Give me that!” Gabe snatched the coffee from his hand before he could drop it, then grabbed the now-empty cardboard tray. Happy grins looked back at him from both his brothers’ faces. “This is awesome, Max.”

He nodded and let out a loud yell, his head tipped back, face toward the bright, cloudless, autumn sky, and pulled Millie tighter.

He kissed her forehead. “I love you, Millie Stevens. So very much.”

She grinned up at him. “And if I’d hadbadnews?”

He leaned his head to hers. “I’d still love ya.” He placed her gently on her feet and tilted his head. “So much so that I might even give you the present I have for you, early.”

She didn’t know it yet, but he’d planned her favourite meal for dinner that evening—slow-cooked lamb shanks, mashed potatoes, and greens. It was already on and cooking.

And in the strawberry mousse dessert, he’d planned to put the pink, snowflake-cut sapphire ring that was currently zipped up and seemingly burning a hole in his inside jacket pocket. He hadn’t trusted it anywhere else but on his own body. At least, not until he gave it to her.

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