Page 76 of Sticking Out

“I know you don’t, and it’s one of the many things I love about you.” Her smile is soft and shaky. “Yeah, so karma. That day…the baby, and then Alec. I spent years waiting for the next ball to drop. I was so terrified it would have something to do with us.”

“Losing each other,” she whispers quietly.

“Yeah, and we did just that.” My aching heart pounds a little harder. “Because of lies and secrets.”

“You didn’t want to hurt me.” She lightly rubs my arms. “I understand that.”

“The worst thing that could have ever happened to me was losing you, and then that happened. I was at rock bottom, karma hitting me in the face. Then my parents assured me Alec’s death was not my fault, and that I was a good person.”

“You’re the best person I know.”

“When you told me never to call again…” She cringes, and I brush her hair back. “Hey, I get it.” I snort out a laugh. “It was then that I’d lost everything, and that’s when I knew I had to fight…I had to try. What else could I lose?” She weaves her fingers through mine. “I knew I had the fight of my life on my hands, because I was not letting anyone take anything else away from me…from us.”

“No one is ever going to do that again. My whole heart belongs to you.” A whimpering sound comes from the doggy bed, and I turn to see the pup having puppy dreams. Dani grins at our new family member. “Well, maybe a small piece of my heart belongs to him now, too.”

“And when we have a baby, we’ll be sharing our heart even more.” I bend and press my lips to hers. “You’re going to be a great mom, Dani.”

Her eyes fill with tears. “Do you think?—”

“Yes, I think,” I say, cutting her off, and her worries that she can’t get pregnant. “Actually, I know.” I brush my thumb over her damp cheek.

Hope fills her eyes. “Yeah?”

“Yeah, I also think—know—that we should go to your bedroom, and start trying again.”

She bites her bottom lip, worry in her eyes. “I lost track of my ovulation schedule.”

I inch back. “Oh, well then,” I tease playfully, my heart so full of love that we haven’t lost each other, I’m sure it’s going to burst. “If you’re not sure if you’re ovulating, there’s no sense in?—”

She whacks me, a huge laugh bubbling up in her throat. “Practice makes perfect, Conner.”

I let my head fall forward. “Ah, so it’s just my wood you want,” I tease.

“Well, I’m not going to lie about that.”

“No more secrets,” I promise, and she nods in agreement. “But before I give you wood, first this.” I drop to one knee, and her hands go to her mouth.

“Conner…”

“Je t'aime. Veux-tu m'épouser?” I speak to her in French because I want her to know I’ve never given up on us, or our secret shared language and what it represents to her, and our future. “And a honeymoon in Paris, if you’d like.”

She sniffs, and nods. “I love you too. Yes, I’ll marry you, and I’d love to honeymoon in Paris. Now put that ring on my finger, take me into the bedroom and start making good on your promise.”

I put the ring on her finger and scoop her up, ready to turn our brand new, small family of three into…four, and hopefully more.

Epilogue

Dani

Seven months later:

* * *

It’s the all-star weekend in Toronto, and a bunch of us decided that staying in Boston in February is not our idea of fun, which is why I’m currently stretched out on a lounge chair, beachside in the Caribbean, and the guys are all playing beach volleyball. I’ve never been to the Caribbean, and I have to say, I’m pretty sure I never want to leave. Although I’m missing my sweet pup, Kai, who’s not so much a pup anymore. Brady Fisher, aka Coddy, who’s from Newfoundland, helped us come up with the name Kai, which means from the sea and we thought it was perfect for our big, gentle giant.

And while Coddy has been giving us a list of other names, I’m sure Conner and I will be coming up with our own two…for our twins. Yes, I finally got pregnant in November, and we were both over the moon when we found out we were having twins. Although we think that might be fun now, but in reality, I’m sure I’ll be run off my feet, especially when Conner is on the road.

But I’ll have a lot of help from my family and his. They were all so excited for us, and Rylee was thrilled that her kids were going to have cousins. We haven’t announced it widely just yet, as we were waiting for this trip and I wanted to finish my first trimester. But we did sell my house and I moved into his, which he baby proofed from top to bottom.

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