“Wow, you really don’t have a lot of stuff, do you?” I laugh as I look at the few boxes. “Like nothing. I thought you were going to fill my whole house up, but there’s nothing here. It’ll be like you’re not even here.”

“I know, but you saw my apartment. It was pretty much empty. I really don’t have a lot of stuff.”

“Well, that’s okay.” I pull her in toward me for a kiss. I honestly can’t stop kissing her, I love the taste of her lips. “We can always get you more stuff now that you’re here. Make you feel at home.”

“I don’t need anything, but our baby does. Any money you want to spend, that’s where you do it. We still need lots of stuff. The nursery is amazing, but now we need to put some stuff in it.”

Ring, ring . . . ring, ring . . . ring, ring . . .

Her body stiffens like crazy as her phone rings, and I wonder if it’s going to be him again.

“Lucas isn’t still in touch with you, is he?” I ask in a tone that might be a little too demanding.

“He can’t be. I changed my number, remember? The call from the jail when he asked me to bail him out is the last time I spoke to him. I really don’t think it’ll be him calling me.”

She grabs her phone and stares at the screen, visibly relaxing as she does. Even if Lucas can’t get hold of her, there’s a tension there. I didn’t see that before, but now that I think about it, it was also there on that night when she was furiously texting him, before she raced outside to try and stop him from killing me.

How did I ever think there was anything between them? He makes her freaking scared.

“Oh, it’s Millie. I’m just going to take this quickly. I’ll be right back.”

As she scurries into the other room, I start unpacking some of the stuff for her. She’s doing too much at the moment, and I want her to relax more. Of course, as always, she won’t listen to me. She does what she thinks is right, and unfortunately, because I haven’t always been around, I can’t tell her what to do. But I can help.

“Right, yeah, I’ll see you later. Okay, Millie. I hope everything is okay.” As she hangs up the phone, Jodi knots her eyebrows together in confusion. “Hmm, that was weird. Millie sounded all upset.”

“She did?” I struggle to keep the smile inside as my plan begins to unfold. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. She just said that she needs to meet me for a bit today. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No, of course not. It isn’t like you have anything to do here. I’m almost unpacked for you already.”

“Oh my goodness, I didn’t mean you had to do that. I’m so sorry.”

“Jodi, you have about three things. It’s fine. I’ve done it. You go out with your friend and cheer her up.”

“Okay.” She rises up onto her toes and presses her lips to mine. “Thank you, Brock.”

She races into the bedroom to get changed. Most of her clothes have been hung up in the wardrobe over the last few days. She’s moved in slowly, trying to act like it’s a trial period, but we both know it’s for real. She’s here now, and it’s all going really well. But I’m happy for Jodi to say whatever she wants to about it.

I furiously text Josh while she’s out of the room to check that he’s in on it.

Brock: Are you on the way over? Millie has already called Jodi.

Josh: I’m coming, boss. Everything is in place. Don’t worry.

Brock: Good, thanks. See you soon.

Josh: Don’t get nervous. It’s going to be fine. I got your back!

I can’t text back, mostly because I’m nervous. I shove my phone away and shake my head, smirking to myself. I might be nervous now, but I’m sure it’ll all be fine.

“Did you want to take my credit card today? Get some stuff for the nursery?” I call out toward the bedroom. “It’s weird seeing a big empty room. I think we need to fill it, don’t you?”

“Yeah, that could be good. Obviously, I’ll pay half for everything.”

“I know you will.” She knows I won’t take it even if she does. It’s going to take her a while to realize that what’s mine is hers now that we’re together, but that’s something I love about her. She definitely isn’t after me for the money. “But for now, you can just let me cover the cost, can’t you?”

“Yes, I suppose so.” She grabs the card from me and kisses me again. “Thank you, Brock.”

“Don’t get anything huge, like the crib. Let me help you with things like that.”

“I know, I know. Plus, I’m sure you want to have some input on that. I’ll just get small stuff.”

“You know it’s all out of concern for you. I don’t want you doing any heavy lifting now that you’re so far along.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She rolls her eyes at me. “Sure thing, boss.”

“I’m not your boss anymore. Although I miss the days when I was.”

“I bet you do,” she growls while pushing against me. “But we can always play . . .”

“We could.” God, I want to. I want to so damn bad it hurts. “But you have a day planned.”

“Oh, yeah of course. I do need to check in on Millie, but maybe later on.”

I feel the same flutter in my heart I always get with Jodi. “Yes, sounds perfect. Later on.”

As she goes out the door in a wave of her delicious citrus scent, I blow out a deep breath of air. Today is huge—even bigger than Jodi knows—and I have to get started soon. Today, I want everything to be perfect.

My heart skips a beat as the door clicks open. Everything that I’ve planned is about to come to fruition, and I’m absolutely petrified. I think it’ll go the way I want it to, but there’s still a tiny glimmer of self-doubt.

“Bye, Millie,” she calls out through the front door. “I’ll see you soon.”

It’s going to be fine, I remind myself as her footsteps draw nearer to me. It’ll be okay, honestly.

“Brock? Are you here? What’s going on? What are all these . . . oh, they’re pictures of us. There’s us at your casino. Oh, and us by the fountains. I almost forgot about that night. That was so much fun.”

“I wanted to make you feel more at home, so I got some printed out for you. I hope that’s okay.”

“Oh, I love it. These pictures are all really sweet. I didn’t even know you kept them.”

“I guess I didn’t quite let go of us as much as I thought I had. Thank goodness.”

Finally, she enters the living room, and her hands clap against her mouth in shock. She drinks in the candles, the home-cooked dinner, the fairy lights twinkling around the room. She drops her shopping bags on the ground and runs her eyes curiously up and down me, drinking in the suit I’m wearing.

“Have I forgotten something? What is all of this? What’s going on here?”

I dig into my pocket and curl my fingers around the small square box inside there. I pull it out and take a step closer to her. She gasps loudly as I drop to one knee in front of her.

“I know this is a bit quick, Jodi, and I understand if you don’t want this, but for me, it feels right. We’re about to start this family, and I want to do it in the right way, I really do. Plus, I already know that I want to be with you forever. I think I’ve known that from the very first moment I laid eyes on you. You made my heart skip a beat then, and you still do now. I love you more than anything in the world. I want you to be mine.”

“I already am yours,” she whispers emotionally through her tears. “And you’re mine.”

“And now I want to make it official.” I pop open the box and show her the princess-cut diamond ring. “So what do you say? Will you make me the happiest man alive and agree to be my wife?”

“You’re serious?” A single tear rolls down her cheek. “You actually want to marry me?”

“Of course I do! I wouldn’t have arranged all this, I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t. I want to grow old with you, to have a life with you. You, me, and the baby. I really think we can have the happiest existence ever. I see us growing old together in a farmhouse somewhere in the countryside. We’ll have more kids running around our feet, grandchildren one day, a dog perhaps, but through it all, you and I will always be in love.”

“You think about that stuff? Like, the future and things?”

“I do. I think about it a lot. I really do want a future with you, Jodi.”

She leans down as far as she can, her bump getting in the way, and she cups my cheeks. “I want that too, all of it. I would love nothing more than to be your wife, Brock. You make me so freaking happy.”

I rise to my feet and wrap my arms around her, kissing her as I do. She holds out her finger to me, and I slide the ring over it, loving how snugly it fits. It’s destined . . . we really are perfect together.

“So when are we going to get married?” she murmurs against me, her breath tickling my mouth as she does. “We’ll have to do it quickly if you want to be hitched before our baby is born.”

“Oh yeah? One minute you want to take things slow, and the next you’re dragging me down the aisle?”

She pinches my side playfully. “Well, I don’t see you complaining about it!”

“Yeah, that’s true. I’m definitely not. I would marry you tonight if I could.”

“What about tomorrow?” She sways her hips coyly. “We could go to one of the adorable chapels they have here. It isn’t exactly like we have no choice in Vegas, is it? It’s wedding central.”

“You would do that? You don’t want to have a big fancy ceremony with all the trimmings?”

“No, that isn’t me. You know that isn’t me. I don’t want all attention on me. I just want to have a lovely wedding, just me and you. Millie and Josh, too, if they want to come along.”

I remember my last wedding. It wasn’t the fanciest then because we couldn’t afford it, but we stretched our budget, spent way too much, made it a massive affair, and it crashed and burned anyway. This is so much better. Just us, declaring our love for one another, solidifying our relationship forever.

“Tomorrow it is then.” I smile widely at her. “I suppose this is my last night of freedom.”

“It sure is. How do you want to spend it? Drinking with strippers? Hanging out and getting wasted?”

“Hmm, that sounds really tempting.” I stroke my chin. “Maybe that’s what I’ll do.”

“Okay, yeah, and I might go and watch that famous show of male strippers. I hear it’s good . . .”

“Or . . . we could just stay here, eat this dinner, then cuddle up in bed with a movie?”

“Hmm . . . you know what, that sounds good too. Let’s go for that one. Domesticated bliss. Sounds perfect.”

“You know what? It does to me too. Practice for the rest of our wonderful lives.”