“Henley, sweetie. Are you awake?” I feel Jeff’s lips right against my ear and my body shivers at the heat of his breath on my skin. “Honey? It’s morning.”

He’s a little too chipper for the sun not even being up. I groan and pull the comforter over my shoulder tightly. Delicately, he traces tiny circles between my shoulder blades with his fingertip. I want to be annoyed, but I can’t help but melt at his touch.

“Heeeeenley,” he sings softly.

“What time is it?” I yawn, begrudgingly.

“It’s six thirty-three. Rise and shine.”

“What the hell, Jeff? Go back to bed.”

This boy is as dumb as a rock if he thinks he’s going to earn any brownie points by waking me up at this ungodly hour. Jeff curls up close to me and begins kissing the exposed skin on the back of my neck. I immediately feel his rock hard length pressing into my leg.

Yep.

Stupidity confirmed.

His dick has stolen seven inches worth of blood from his brain.

“Not this morning, babe. I’ve gotten up to pee no less than eight times since I saw the clock turn three A.M. I’m cranky, and I haven’t shaved my legs in two weeks.”

“Huh? What are you talking about, babe?”

I roll my eyes as he feigns ignorance, then in a huff, I reach out to grab his cock to show him exactly what I’m talking about, except the palm of my hand wraps around the remote that was wedged between us.

Oh.

“Hen, I’m not in the mood for TV. I just wanted to talk to you.”

“Can’t it wait? We can talk when I wake up at a normal hour. You know, after I’ve had the only eight ounces of caffeine I’ve been granted to consume each morning.” And those eight ounces of caffeine I require daily to make sure I don’t stab anyone. God, I miss drinking a full coffeepot on my own. Stupid doctor rules about pregnancy.

“No.”

I sigh and then roll over to face him, raising my eyebrows. This had better be good.

A softness overtakes his expression, and his eyes crinkle around the edges as he smiles. “Did you know that exactly one year ago today, at this exact moment … well, this moment two minutes ago when I first tried waking you up, we first met?”

And suddenly, I’m the asshole.

I love how this crazy, thoughtful man loves me even when I’m at my worst. “I … I didn’t realize that was today.” I smile fondly at the memory of Jeff taking the seat next to me on the plane to Denver. I was headed there for work, and he was off to visit his family and celebrate his brother’s engagement. I had planned on working on a presentation during the short ninety-minute flight from Kansas City, but instead, I listened to him nervously prattle about nothing and everything. It was quite endearing. I slipped him my number as we deplaned and told him to call me when he was back in Kansas City if he ever wanted to meet up for drinks.

“Yep, it was today. I overslept and nearly missed the flight, and the first available seat I saw was next to a gorgeous, fiery, redhead. I never imagined the course of my life would change all because I’d accidentally turned my alarm off. If I had been there on time, I would have been one of the first people on the plane, finding a way to bogart an entire row to myself, and our paths would never have crossed.”

I giggle and lean over to kiss the tip of his nose. “Happy day-we-met-iversary, Jeff. It’s a shame you couldn’t oversleep this morning too, babe. I am seriously sleep deprived.”

“I know, but this will only take a minute.” He sits up and reaches over to his nightstand and takes out a small slip of paper, then hands it to me. I push myself up and wipe the sleep away from my eyes. I scan the small square, and it’s the stub from his boarding pass from last year.

After all this time, he kept it.

“Flip it over.”

Scrawled in his chicken scratch in faded blue ink he wrote, Today I met Henley. The woman I’m going to marry.

My breath hitches and when I look up, he is down on one knee on the floor holding the most ridiculous rock I’ve ever laid eyes on.

“Oh my God,” I whisper, then swallow hard, suddenly wide awake.

“Henley Louise Carson, it took an hour and a half at ten thousand feet to fall in love with you one year ago this morning. And now my favorite part of every morning is waking up next to you and falling in love with you all over again. Would you give me the privilege of spending every morning, noon, and night with you for the rest of our lives?”

“Oh my God! ” Excitement floods my veins like a runaway train, and all I want to do is kiss him in spite of my horrendous morning breath. “Oh my God, yes!”

Jeff takes my hand and slips the princess cut stone encased in white gold onto my ring finger — except it gets stuck at the knuckle.

“I’m sorry, I swell in the morning. Just one of the many joys of pregnancy.” I laugh with tears of happiness prickling my eyes.

He smiles, then kisses my knuckle, licking it in the process so he can maneuver the ring on the rest of the way. “It’s okay, we can get it resized.”

Jeff climbs back up onto the bed, and I throw my arms around him tightly. We quickly lose balance and fall backward into a pile of pillows. The awkward way he lands on top of me triggers an urgent and insatiable need to relieve myself.

“Oh, shit! Move! Now! I gotta pee!” I playfully swat at his chest, pushing him away.

He howls with laughter as he rolls onto his back and I hustle into the bathroom to avoid embarrassing myself right here in front of my fiancé.

Fiancé.

I roll the strange word around in my mind while I admire Jeff’s excellent taste in fine jewelry from the confines of the porcelain throne. The ring truly really is stunning and looks enormous on my delicate fingers. But the moment my body feels relief, my mind takes a hairpin turn, and those nagging fucking voices taunt me.

What if he’s proposing out of obligation?

Because if he’s doing this because he thinks I want him to, or because he feels he has to, I will be devastated. Getting married just because I’m pregnant is a terrible idea. I’ve thought a lot about all of the heart to hearts Tara and I have had about Jeff. And I know without any shadow of a doubt, that he’s the Chachi to my Joanie and the Ross to my Rachel. This isn’t the plot to some modern day rendition of For Keeps. Is it?

“Henley? You okay in there?” Jeff calls out from his bed.

I look down at the floor and see a pile of toilet paper shredded into confetti. I hadn’t even realized I was ripping it apart.

I know I’m stalling.

And I know I need to set the record straight about this so I don’t spend the next lifetime wondering.

“Yeah, I’m fine! Just a minute!”

I lean down and pick up the scraps of toilet paper and flush them down with uncertainty I felt moments ago. When I come back to bed, Jeff is propped up on his arm, watching me intently.

“Are you’re sure you’re not just proposing because I’m pregnant?” I mean, I’ve always known that Jeff and I would one day get married. I just figured it wouldn’t be for a while.

Jeff looks at me earnestly and pats the empty spot next to him on the bed. I snuggle into his chest, and he threads his fingers between mine. “First of all, we’re pregnant, not just you. You may be carrying my baby, but we’re a team. We’re in this together — I am with you every step of the way. Where you walk, I walk. And secondly, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life.”

He leans down and presses his lips to mine in a feverish kiss. This kiss is full of hope and unspoken promises. It makes my heart soar. When we pull apart, there’s a truth in his eyes that reassures my soul.

This man is it.

He’s it for me.

“I wish you knew just how much I love you, Henley. But I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives showing you just how much.”

“I do. I not only feel it in my bones but because I love you just the same.”