Page 124 of Her Billionaire Bargain (Kensington Square)

When she looked up at me, narrowing her eyes, I rubbed my thumb over her lower lip. “No rush on that one. I want Berry to know she’s all we need. The other is an optional add-on, not a requirement.”

She drew a circle on my chest. “I thought I was pregnant last week. I’m not,” she added hurriedly, probably correctly gauging the sudden jump in my heart rate. “But for a day, I thought maybe.”

“Optional add-on,” I repeated lightly, tugging her hair until she gave in and smiled. “Not required. If it happens, all good. All great,” I amended. “If it doesn’t, we just practice harder for the hell of it.”

She stayed quiet for too long.

“Talk to me.”

“I was excited. Not afraid. I didn’t once wonder if you’d be happy. Because I know you would. Itrustyou would.”

“Damn straight I would. And you wouldn’t have to wonder. I already have a sky writing company on standby to say how much I love you and our family. But you know what? I don’t have to wait for the maybe-someday kid. I can do it today. I’ll call and get the guy and his plane over here.” I started to roll out of bed, and she laughed, tugging me back down.

Best of all, her sudden laughter erased the furrow of disappointment between her brows.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “I don’t want a baby to be another thing on your task list.”

She ducked her head. “You know me too well. How do you know me so well?”

“Intense study of my subject.” I tipped her chin up with my fingertip. “I’m so happy right here in this moment. Right where we are. I need you to believe me, Sherbet. I already have my daughter, and I’m the luckiest man on planet Earth.”

She pressed her face into my neck. “You make me so happy that even marriage doesn’t sound like jail anymore.”

“Well, now if that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.” I looped my arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “We have all the time in the world. No rush on anything.”

There was the whole matter of the tree and what I intended to come with it, but we’d just leave that aside right now. She’d find out soon enough.

The rest of the morning included making sure homework was done—even helping Berry with some of it, though I’d had to cheat and check something online—and talking through how to handle it if she didn’t know how to do something.

In the past, that would’ve meant she crumpled up the paper and hid it in her book bag. Now she knew different coping techniques. She could either ask one of us or save the problem to ask her assigned helper at school, which she had gotten after her official ADHD diagnosis.

Her fancy-ass school was expensive as hell, but they had resources she just wouldn’t get elsewhere, so it was more than worth it. Even if Shelby still worried about it endlessly as if her paying for it was a concern. It wasn’t.

Berry was mine. End of story.

I’d told the truth when I’d said there was no rush on timing, but I was keeping one secret. There kind of was because I wanted them both to have my name. I hadn’t told Shelby that yet, and I didn’t know how she’d feel about it, but I really just wanted the world to know they were mine every bit as much as Bob and Gumdrop.

Luckily, with the dogs, it wasn’t a matter of law to formally make them Shaws.

After homework time, we had last night’s leftover meatball casserole for lunch and then headed out to the Christmas Tree Farm at Brothers Three Orchard, the same place that had been the site of my first date with Shelby a mere seven months ago.

The whole ride there, I played Christmas music and sang along, much to Berry’s consternation that I was hurting her ears. Her complaints just made me sing louder. Shelby just laughed and shook her head at us as if we were beyond her comprehension.

Wait until I whipped out the giant car reindeer antlers I’d stashed in the trunk. Soon enough, I’d have to put the convertible away for the winter, but until then, Vi wanted a turn at looking like Rudolph.

I’d no sooner parked at the tree lot and lined us up at the adjacent hot cocoa bus that I noticed a familiar SUV parked nearby.

That of my not-so-beloved father and his soon-to-be new wife.

He’d pushed his divorce through in record time and now he and his former admin Courtney had a love shack outside of town. I was trying not to look at it with bitter eyes, but I couldn’t help being pissed on my mother’s behalf, though she was happily dating herself.

That wasn’t the point. He should’ve been a better man and not cheated on our mother. Preston had never liked my more open-minded view on our father’s choices, and now with the wisdom of loving a woman with a child and a douche ex, I could see his way of thinking much clearer.

Sometimes there was no keeping an open mind when you loved someone. If anything, I’d kept myself above the fray far too much in my life.

As my father walked toward us—and soon realized there was no avoiding us unless he wanted to make itobvioushe was avoiding us—I tucked Shelby into my side and she tucked Berry. We were like those nesting dolls, as close as we could get.

“Just give it a minute,” I murmured against her ear, though she was already nodding and bracing. We’d spent a good amount of time with my mom over the intervening months, so Shelby knew quite well what my father looked like, due to his passing in and out like a ship in the night. Berry knew who he was too, for that matter.

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