David set the turkey down in the middle of the table, and we all took our seats at the large antique maple dining table. It was another item David had brought with him when he’d moved in, pulling it out of the storage unit where many of his belongings had been placed following his divorce. Even though we’d had to get rid of a wingback chair and a side table to carve out a “dining room” in my long, rectangular living room, I was glad to have it. Somehow, sitting around a proper table made the holiday feel that much more special. More grown up. Which was probably a good thing since we were in our mid-thirties and about to have a kid.

“All right. You know the drill.” My gaze swept between Theo, Alex, and Drew, staying put on my youngest brother, who always went first since he was the baby of the family. “What are you most thankful for this year?”

Drew blew out a breath and cracked his knuckles. Before he could answer, Alex said, “And no bullshit answers either.”

Drew shot him a dirty look. “I wasn’t going to.”

“Yeah right,” Theo laughed. “Last year you were most thankful for skinny jeans.”

“I mean, can you blame me?” Drew smirked and waggled his eyebrows. “But in all seriousness, I’m thankful that when I told everyone that I’m bisexual, you all had my back.”

“Was there ever any doubt?” Theo set his palm to Drew’s shoulder.

“Um, maybe?” Drew answered, scratching his cheek, a telltale tic that meant he was nervous. “A lot of people think being bi is a cop out. Like, it’s just a phase people go through until they figure out whether they’re actually straight or gay.”

Alex’s reached for the green beans and began scooping them out onto his plate. “I mean, I don’t get the whole liking cock thing myself,” he shrugged, “but if you tell me you like both, who am I to say you shouldn’t?”

David chuckled and shook his head.

“What?” Alex barked, casting a warning glance David’s way. “You got a problem with that?”

Ugh. I’d hoped after their little standoff in the kitchen earlier that afternoon, Alex would have done me a solid and cut David some slack, but it seemed like that wasn’t going to be the case. Alex had such a strong sense of right and wrong, and as far as he was concerned, me getting pregnant before David and I had gotten married fell squarely into the ‘wrong’ category.

David poured wine in his and Theo’s glasses before holding the bottle up to Drew, who nodded in the affirmative. “No problem,” David said slowly, “except that you somehow managed to sound both sexist and supportive all in the same sentence.”

Alex slammed own his bottle of beer, the liquid foaming over the top and down its sides onto my tablecloth. “Are you questioning whether or not I support my siblings.”

“Not in the least. I know you want the best for them. Hell, you’re ready to kill me, and all I did was ask your sister to marry me.”

Drew gasped and his eyes dropped down to my left hand and then narrowed into angry slits. “When were you going to tell me?”

I pushed a lock of hair behind my ear and met my brother’s surprised gaze. “So umm … it turns out that I’m pregnant.”

He winced, but then immediately tried to cover his reaction with an over-bright smile. I didn’t hold his reaction against him, though; Drew had once confessed that he never wanted kids of his own.

“Congratulations?” he asked, clearly unsure whether this was a happy announcement or not. I understood his confusion. Based on Alex’s behavior, you’d think this pregnancy was a bad thing.

“Yes, congratulations are in order,” I told him, my hand once again dropping to my tiny pooch.

When I realized what I’d done, I raised it back to the table and reached for my glass of water. I’d need to work on that. I’d always abhorred those women who every time they talked about being pregnant cupped their bellies for added emphasis. Obviously, I was going to need to work extra hard to make sure I didn’t turn into one of them.

“David said he’d asked you to marry him. A baby and a wedding? Go big or go home, I guess.”

Theo took a drink of his wine to hide his smirk, and Alex clenched his fists on either side of his plate.

“No, we’re not getting married,” I clarified.

Drew’s brows collapsed into a deep vee.  “But David just said he asked you to marry him.”

I took hold of David’s hand and squeezed it. “He did, and I said no. Or rather, not yet.”

“You did what?” His gaze flicked between David and me, and I could tell that he really had no clue what was going on. He looked as if I’d just told him up was down and black was white. Then again, our situation wasn’t exactly straightforward.

Truly, I got it.

I’d planned to pull Drew aside after dinner for a nice long chat like we’d done in the olden days—you know, before our lives had been completely upended again with our mother’s latest marriage. But thanks to the pissing contest currently taking place between Alex and David, we were going with Plan B instead. Not that I’d actually had a Plan B. I was making it up as I went along.

I hated that I had to explain my decision at all, but until my brothers understood where I was coming from, they weren’t going to let this drop. Well, two of them at least. Thankfully, Theo had been much more pragmatic in his response. A slight shrug of his shoulder and a “you do you, Vick” had been the extent of his reaction when I’d taken him aside and gave him the lay of the land.

While I formulated my response, Drew jumped in with even more commentary. “Seriously. What’s wrong with you? You’ve been in love with him—” he notched his chin toward David “—since the moment you met. Who says no when the guy they can’t live without proposes?”

“Not that it’s any of your business … or yours—” I tossed an annoyed look Alex’s way “— but this isn’t the nineteen-fifties. The world will not cease to exist if we have a baby out of wedlock. If we’re going to get married, I want it to be because that’s what we want, not because society expects it of us. This is not a do-or-die situation.”

Alex grunted and returned to loading up his plate while Drew looked to David. “What is she talking about?”

David shifted uncomfortably in his seat and out of the corner of my eye I saw him shake his head infinitesimally at my brother. My gaze darted between them. “What’s that look about?”

“Nothing,” David answered tersely, his eyes bulging as if to warn Drew away from spilling some secret only he was privy to.

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

I turned to my brother. “Spill the beans, Drew.”

David pushed his chair back, muttering under his breath. “I don’t know why I even bother.” Then louder, “If you need me, I’ll be fetching the pies.”

When he’d disappeared into the kitchen and was out of hearing range, I shot my youngest brother an expectant look. “Any day now.”

Drew ran his hand through his hair. “I honestly don’t know why he didn’t tell you this himself, but fine. Last month, I ran into David on campus. He was walking to his car, and I was … well, never mind what I was doing.” His cheeks turned pink, but he soldiered on. “We exchanged pleasantries as you do, and then he asked if he could take me to get a cup of coffee. He said he had something he wanted to talk to me about. When we got to the cafe, he pulled out his phone and showed me a picture.”

“A picture of what?”

Theo rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Have you always been this dense, or is this a new thing?”

I glared at my oldest brother. “No one’s talking to you.”

“Vicky, I wasn’t even there, and I already know how this story ends.” His gaze darted to the other side of the room, and I swiveled in my seat to follow it. David was leaning against the door jamb between our living room and the kitchen, his lips drawn into a tight line and his arms crossed over his chest. “You were already planning to ask my sister to marry you, weren’t you?”

David’s eyes locked on mine. “Yes. I wanted to get Drew’s opinion on the ring.”

That didn’t make sense. “But we didn’t even know about the baby until today.”

Alex muttered under his breath, “Looks like ‘pregnancy brain’ is a real thing.”

David pushed off the door and came to my side. Dropping into a crouch in front of me, he took my hand in his. “When Drew kept changing his mind about what ring he thought you’d like best, I decided to hold off on picking one out. I thought it would be fun to let you choose the one you wanted instead. But I’d still wanted a ring to propose with, so I found this Christmas ornament …”

My eyes filled with surprised, happy tears as realization dawned. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Victoria …” He shook his head and his lips shifted into in a sad smile. “You were pretty adamant about your reasons, so I decided I could bide my time.”

I slid my hands from his as tears streamed down my face. “But this changes everything!” I cried, smacking him lightly against the shoulder.

“It does?” he asked, hope suffusing his features.

I nodded and threw my arms around his neck. “Ask me again.”

He leaned away. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure.”

David perched on one knee, took my left hand in his, and cleared his throat. “I um … I hadn’t really expected an audience for this.”

Reaching out, I cradled his cheek in the palm of my right hand, his stubble soft against my skin. “Our relationship has pretty much been a family affair since the afternoon of our parents’ wedding. Why change things now?”

He smiled then—a true smile—and it lit his face with joy. He turned to my brothers, saying, “If any of you interrupt or give me any shit, I’ll kick your ass.”

Theo put his palms up. “Don’t look at me. I’ve been in your corner since the beginning.”

Drew tossed him a double thumbs up.

Alex tried to fight a smile of his own, but eventually it won out. “You couldn’t kick my ass if you tried, but I’m happy to welcome you to the family.”

I cleared my throat, drawing David’s attention back to me. Call me selfish, but a woman was only proposed to by the love of her life … twice, as it turned out. “You were saying?”

“I was saying …” He squeezed my hand and took a deep breath. When his gaze locked with mine, his eyes were filled with so much love that it was all I could do not to interrupt and ask him to marry me instead.

I considered it for a brief moment, too, but held myself back. The last time David had asked a woman to marry him, it had been under duress. It wasn’t the life he’d wanted, or the marriage he’d planned for. David was a romantic at heart, and I knew how important it was for him to be able to ask this question on his terms this time around. Well, at least somewhat on his terms. Because now that I’d found out he’d been planning this proposal all along, I wasn’t waiting until Christmas.

“I never thought I’d fall in love again, but now I know that’s just because I was waiting for you to sail into my life. Every day with you has been an adventure—” one of my brothers laughed; I thought it might have been Theo “—and despite our rocky start, you fill my life with so much joy and happiness. And if you’ll do me the great honor of becoming my wife, Victoria Ann Witherspoon, I promise I’ll spend every day of that life trying to make you happy, too.”

All at once, a barrage of tears sprang forth, coming down my face in thick, salty rivulets. “Yes!” I said. “Yes, yes, yes!”

David laughed, tears brimming in his own eyes, as I launched myself into his arms. He stumbled backward against my assault and we fell to the rug where I murmured words of love and devotion, peppering his face with kisses in between each statement.

It wasn’t until Drew shouted “get a room!” that I realized we still had an audience and a holiday dinner to get through.

David and I returned to our seats, and my brothers lifted their glasses to toast to our happy future. As I looked around the table at my family, I knew we’d be happy. I still needed to speak with my mother, but with my brothers and my fiancé by my side, I couldn’t imagine things being any more perfect.