Page 76 of Rebel Heart
“Yes.”
I grinned at her. “You’ve got yourself a fiancé for a whole day.”
Jules bit her lip. “We should celebrate.”
“How?”
“I’ve got a surprise for you.”
“A surprise?”
She nodded. “Not as big as the one you just dropped on me, but still a surprise I think you might appreciate. Unfortunately, I have to muster up the strength to get off the couch to give it to you.”
A chuckle escaped. “Whereis it?”
“In the Westwood’s bag I brought home.”
At that answer, I got a clue about what the surprise might be. “Oh, you’re the best.”
I got up from the couch and went in search of the bag she’d brought home. Jules took it from me when I returned and dug inside it. A moment later, she pulled out two chocolate cupcakes. “I remembered the last time I had a cupcake and licked the frosting off my finger without you there.”
I groaned at the image that was still on my phone, an image I often looked at when I went home alone every night.
Holding the cupcake out to me, she said, “Happy engagement, Beau.”
I took it from her and gave her a kiss. “Happy engagement, Jules.”
A moment later, I sunk my teeth in and hummed with delight.
Everything about the moment was perfection, even if it was just another thing in a long list of things I hadn’t envisioned for my life.
But I didn’t regret it for one second.
Tomorrow, I’d have a wife.
Tomorrow, I’d be a husband.
20
JULES
“Alright,ladies. I’m out of here for the next day.”
Birdie closed the register drawer, turned, and said, “Have a good night, Jules.”
“See you later,” Serena added from where she was restocking the to-go containers we used for the cupcakes. “Enjoy your day off tomorrow.”
If they only knew what I was up to…
I beamed at them. “I will. Thank you.”
There was nothing strange about me having the day off tomorrow. I always tried to work one in for myself every week to ten days just to break things up. It was good, because it gave the girls time to work together without having me there, and I was able to enjoy just a little extra time off. A day like today got me thinking, though. And I realized that the conversation I’d had with Beau last night had been prudent. At some point in the very near future, I was going to have to look at hiringsomeone else, even offering Serena some full-time hours. Hopefully, she’d be interested. Because there was no telling how things were going to progress with this pregnancy. And even if it was uneventful, I was certainly going to need to have another set of hands on deck to help ease the burden on Birdie and Serena once the baby arrived, and I took off for an extended time.
For now, I was glad I had the two women I already did helping me out.
But I’d been worried that at least one of them would’ve noticed that I was acting a bit unusual today. All day long, I felt like I was hurrying, rushing to get everything done. And I wanted it all to be perfect.
It was my bakery. I’d been doing it for years, and I hadn’t ever had a day like I’d experienced today. I knew it was adrenaline. The excitement about what was ahead. It was a wonder I’d been able to think straight all day and accomplish any tasks with how I felt on the inside.
