Page 78 of Love Unexpected
But today was not about my fans.
Today was about Rosie. And all the ways she’d changed my life for the better.
Dani poked her head into my bedroom door. “How are you? Are you good?”
I nodded. “Nervous. But good.”
“Rosie’s parents just got here. Mom and Dad are entertaining them downstairs. And Mom said to tell you she picked up the ring, but she’s with the twins now, so she gave it to Dad. He’s holding it for you.”
“Got it,” I said. “Mom, twins, Dad, ring. How are the twins, by the way?”
She yawned in response. “Exhausting. I swear they never sleep at the same time. Or for longer than an hour.”
“And yet, you and Alex make parenthood look so easy.”
“Alex makes it look easy. The man is some sort of magic baby whisperer. Me? Not so much.”
I put my hands on her shoulders. “You’re doing a great job, Dani. You’re a great mom. Those babies are lucky to have you.”
“I know. And I’m lucky to have them. But man, I’m tired.” She reached up and straightened my tie. “You look good, little brother.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re only older than me by five minutes.”
“Five minutes is three hundred entire seconds. And every single one of them counts.”
I followed Dani downstairs where I hugged my parents, retrieved the engagement ring I’d had sized to fit Rosie from my dad, and ushered everyone out onto the back patio so Rosie wouldn’t see them when she first arrived. The engagementpartycouldn’t be a surprise until after the actualengagement.
Jade and Diedre were there with their kids, as well as Greta, Vinnie, Tyler, and a few other friends from work who had gotten to know Rosie over the past few months. Max ran over, and I scooped him up to give him a hug.
“Where’s Rosie?” Max asked, quickly wriggling himself back to the ground.
“She’ll be here soon.”
Maxalwaysasked about Rosie. I’d been his favorite at one point, but Rosie had easily nudged me out of the top spot. I’d have to work harder to spoil Dani’s twins just enough to keep them loving me the most.
“Tell her I found her another shark’s tooth when she gets here. This one is as big as my pinky finger.”
“That big? That’s amazing.” Max also always had shark’s teeth to give to Rosie. She had at least a dozen that she kept in a little jewelry box on her nightstand. A pulse of longing moved through me as I thought about Rosie and the way she interacted with Max, and the possibility of one day having our own kids. I ruffled Max’s hair. “I gotta get back inside, kiddo. But we’ll be back outside soon, all right? I’ll make sure you get a chance to give Rosie her shark’s tooth.”
I turned off the lights on the back patio, leaving everyone with nothing but the faint winter moon to light the space around them. At least it was a relatively warm night. December was like that in Charleston. Cold one day, and then in the seventies the next. It was hard to keep up. “All right, guys. She’ll be here in another five minutes or so. Try to stay quiet if you can.”
There were four children five and under on the patio. Odds probably weren’t very good. But I didn’t plan on wasting any time once Rosie arrived. I moved back into the living room where I’d hung twinkle lights across the ceiling, crisscrossing back and forth to make a canopy of indoor starlight. The room was filled with a hundred roses in ten different colors. Cliché, maybe, but roses were Rosie’s favorite. Red Renegade played softly in the background—a carefully cultivated playlist of their most mellow songs.
Everything was ready to go.
All I needed was Rosie.
Not two minutes later, she sounded a quick knock on the front door before letting herself in. “Isaac?” she called. “Where are you?”
“In here,” I called, hoping my voice was enough to lead the way.
“I’m having second thoughts about this dress,” she called as she approached. “Dani told me—” Her words cut off when she rounded the corner, her eyes wide as she looked around the room. “Oh, wow.”
I crossed the room and slipped my hands around her waist. “Why would you ever have second thoughts about this dress?” I didn’t know fashion like Dani did, but the dress looked like it had been made for Rosie, melding to her curves and flattering her figure. But then, it probably had been. “You look amazing.”
“You really think so? I mean, I love it. Ireallylove it. Your sister is a wonder. I just wondered if it was too...I don’t know...too much for someone like me. Like, can I really pull this off?”
“Oh, you’re definitely pulling it off.”
