Page 85 of Worth the Risk

Her head perks up. “W-what?”

“I’m not wasting time. You’re having my baby, and there is only one way that I want this to go.”

She scoffs at me, but her face says she’s entertained. “We can’t get married tomorrow. You can’t even legally arrange it that quick unless we go to Vegas, and no, I’m not going to Vegas.” She gives me a warning glare.

“We can get a license at the county clerk’s office in the morning and then Pete can marry us.”

“The owner of Jolly Joe’s?”

“Yeah, he’s a retired judge… the candy shop is a retirement hobby.”

Piper blinks her eyes several times. “Oh… you’re serious about everything you said in the last minute?”

I pull her tight then lift her up onto the dresser, setting a hand on each side of her body. “Of course I am.”

Her fingers play with the tie of my hoodie that does not say coach. “I know you are.” She kisses the corner of my mouth. “And lucky for me, I don’t want to take the risk of you losing your patience, otherwise a wedding cake will magically appear anyway.”

I kiss her forehead and interlace our hands. “Is that a yes you will marry me then?”

“Is this the proposal?” She cocks an eyebrow at me.

“Not even the beginning,” I promise.

EPILOGUE: PIPER

ONE YEAR LATER

Ifeel a tickle on my chest, and my eyes flutter open before my body jerks awake.

“Hey, relax.” Hudson speaks in a hushed tone.

It takes a second for my eyes to adjust to our dim bedroom, and then panic sets in when I look down to see my daughter in my arms.

“It’s okay, you fell asleep,” my husband assures me with his hand resting on my shoulder from where he’s standing next to our bed.

Grogginess fogs my brain, but I register that during feeding the baby I must have dozed off. Meanwhile, Grace Ruth seems to be at peace in my arms, alas awake, with her little eyes wide open. We call her Gracie for short.

“What time is it?”

Hudson brushes his finger along my bare breast to Gracie’s cheek. “It doesn’t matter. You go to bed and get some sleep. I’ll take this one and burp her.”

I blink my eyes a few times. “Hudson, you have to travel later for the game. I am positive you need more sleep than I do.”

“Me going away is the very reason that you need a break now. Don’t argue with me.” His voice is soft yet firm as he coos at our daughter. “Mommy just needs to obey a little more.”

A short laugh escapes me. “She may have you wrapped around her finger, but Mommy runs a tighter ship.” I smile because Hudson and I have a tendency to speak in a saccharine tone around Gracie. It happened as soon as she was born, as if we were possessed.

Hudson begins to take our daughter out of my arms. “Go on. I’ll see you at breakfast.”

I yawn and reality hits me that I probably need an hour of shut-eye if I’ll have any chance to survive the day. “Fine, Coach.”

He is already patting her back as she rests her head against his shoulder, and he stares intently at Gracie. “Good girl, Piper.”

Daddy Hudson is my undoing. He has an uncanny ability to sound so incredibly sexy, even when he is in full-on father-duty mode.

I begin to shuffle down and back under the covers of our bed. The moment that my head hits the pillow, I already feel sleep hitting me. Since Gracie is so young, and Hudson is in football season, I keep her in our room in one of those co-sleepers to avoid going back and forth, but we are evicting her as soon as she wakes less at night, and truthfully, she is growing so fast that she could use her crib too.

My eyes close, and I vaguely hear Hudson leave the room.

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