Page 114 of Rebel Heart
But now, I was standing inside the spare bedroom that Beau had converted to a nursery. A gorgeous crib sat on one side of the room, the changing table on the opposite wall. A beautiful chest of drawers to match, and a glider in another corner.
“This is beautiful, Beau.” My hand squeezed his as I marveled at what he’d done. “I can’t believe you did this.”
“You’re not mad, are you?”
I sent him a confused look. “Why would I ever be upset about this?”
His shoulders lifted to his ears. “I held off on officially decorating, because I figured you’d be better at that and would likely want a say in some part of the process. But I wanted to do this. It meant a lot to me to be able to take this crucial step toward becoming a father and provide my baby with a safe place to sleep and grow and, eventually, play.”
I draped my arms over his shoulders and kissed him. “You’re already an amazing dad, Beau. The way you’ve looked after me is proof enough of that. But I love this, and I love that it meant so much to you to do. Thank you.”
His hand stroked up and down my back as he kissed the top of my head. Before he could say anything, his phone buzzed in his pocket.
Pulling it out, he said, “That’s Cooper.”
“Oh, no. I hope Rosie can still go today.”
Beau answered the call. “Cooper?” There was a brief pause before he said, “Not yet. We were just getting ready to leave. Is everything okay?”
As Cooper responded to Beau, I crossed the room to the crib and admired it. He’d done such an amazing job, not only selecting a set but assembling it without me ever knowing.
“Oh, that’s not a problem. In fact, it’ll probably beeasier for us to meet you there anyway. We’ll leave now and see you in a few minutes.” Another pause. “Later.”
The ease of that conversation wasn’t lost on me. When I’d first introduced Beau to my family, I didn’t dare to dream there’d ever come a time when he’d have exchanged numbers with my grouchiest brother or that Cooper wouldn’t care if Beau set up a day of fun for us to have with our niece.
When he ended the call and slid his phone back into his pocket, he said, “We have to pick Rosie up at the hotel. Cooper was planning to spend the morning with her at the house until we arrived, but he got a call that he needed to deal with some issue at the hotel. Since Skye is already out for the day with Lily, he had no choice but to take Rosie to the hotel with him.”
“Oh, I bet that’s going to be productive for him,” I murmured. “We better go.”
“Yeah, I can imagine he might have more to fix if we don’t hurry.”
He turned to walk out, the sound of my laughter trailing behind him. There was a high probability of Rosie creating more work for her dad. But I didn’t want to overlook what Beau had done, so I reached out and curled my fingers around his wrist.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I want you to know how proud I am of you,” I told him. Gesturing to everything in the nursery, I said, “This is amazing. And I love you so much for loving me and this baby the way that you do.”
His features softened, his expression warming. “It’sbeen the absolute greatest joy of my life to love you, Jules. Nothing else has ever brought me such fulfillment.”
After a rather intense kiss, we left to pick up Rosie.
When we arrived at the hotel, Beau called Cooper. “Hey, we just got here. Where are you?” Silence as he waited for Cooper to respond. “No, that’s okay. We’ll come down to the ballroom to get her, so you can keep working.”
A moment later, we were walking down the long corridor that led to one of the ballrooms. I half expected Rosie to run out and greet us, if Cooper had revealed that we were coming to get her. But no such luck.
We made it to the ballroom, and when Beau opened the door for me to step inside ahead of him, I gasped.
“Surprise!”
The room was filled with family and friends and decorations and food. It was… It was a baby shower.
I spun around to look at Beau, who was beaming at me. “Surprise.”
“You knew about this?”
“Every last part of it.”
I smacked him playfully on the chest and tipped my chin up to kiss him. “What about all the Christmas stuff with Rosie?”
