Page 140 of Bae

All of it. Right in front of me.

Awws and ooohs went around the crowd, but I barely heard. It took a while for me to actually find my voice. “How did you know?” I marveled.

“Drew hacked your secret Pinterest board,” Ivy declared.

I laughed.

Drew was entirely too handy with a laptop. Not only had he managed to keep the #BuzzBoss website down for several weeks after Missy’s stunt in California, but he also erased a lot of the content from there permanently.

Afterward, Romeo leaked her identity to the press with an exclusive “tell-all” about what the press had now dramatically dubbedthe two million-dollar bounty.Up until this point, Missy had been able to hide who she really was, but not anymore.

Her days of hurting people with personal details and secrets were over. No one in the business would trust her ever again.

And the public?

They tried and sentenced her a horrible person. I was hoping she’d move to another country. I knew I’d never see her again. And if I did?

I’d break her nose again.

I was no longer harassed by the press to the point of being in danger. We were back on the list of most well-loved and once again were known as football royalty.

I didn’t care, honestly. I just wanted my baby to be safe.

But enough of that. Let’s get back to the presents.

“I cannot believe you bought all this,” I said, looking out over the huge display of stuff, which included a crib, a rocking chair, toys, teddy bears, blankets, and rugs. There was everything one could possibly need to fill a nursery and a closet.

“Well, we were starting to think this baby was going to be naked when he came home,” Braeden joked. “We had to take a stand, sis. No nephew of mine will be seen with his boys dangling.”

“Little boy babies don’t dangle.” Ivy admonished.

“Mine does,” Romeo said.

“Damn right.” B nodded, and then all four guys gave each other high-fives like the state of my potential son’s dangly parts was something to be proud of.

I thought I might be traumatized.

“Roman Anderson,” Valerie told him. “We have guests.”

“Sorry, Mom,” Both Romeo and Braeden mumbled.

Valerie looked at Trent and Drew expectantly. They apologized immediately.

Ivy and I laughed.

“It could be a girl,” I said and caressed my belly.

“We all know it’s a boy.” Braeden argued.

Actually. We didn’t. I refused to know the sex of this baby, something the techs at the hospital got pretty creative in hiding from us during our many ultrasounds.

I hadn’t bought much either. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. No matter how excited I got or how happy I was, I still didn’t want to do anything that might jinx it. I mean, it was a little far-fetched and altogether dramatic to say this baby would be going home naked. I did have a few moments when I couldn’t resist a stroll into a baby boutique, which always resulted in a few outfits here and there.

So yeah, here I was thirty-seven weeks pregnant, and we didn’t even have a nursery.

Correction: we did now.

“It’s not all from me,” Romeo told me, taking my hand. “It’s from all of us.”

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