“What?”
“Purple or white?”
She shakes her head a little. “Purple, but what—”
“Good. Now, centerpieces.” I lift a sliced and sanded piece of wood and a Mason jar. “Which one?”
“Jay, I don’t—”
“Which fuckin’ one, Livvie?”
She fists her hands at her thighs. “Why are you asking me this shit?”
“Because I’ve been trying to decide for weeks because I wanted our anniversary party to be perfect, and as much as I know you and I think I know what you want, I can’t make a decision to save my life because I don’t know how to make it perfect, and I can’t ask you since I wanted to make it a surprise. So instead of driving myself insane, I hired an event planner who I met at a hotel to look at the room options. I put her in charge of making it perfect because that’s what you deserve.” I’m practically panting, and her eyes close as her face falls. “I know you know how much I love you, and the fact that the thought could cross your mind that I’d step out on you makes me livid.”
She licks her lips, and her wet eyes find mine. “You turned me down the other day.”
My shoulders sag, and I drop my head.
“You’ve never said no to me, and you left the room to take a call, and you were late picking up Jaydon. Then I overheard you behind the coffee shop, and I—”
“Livvie, we had Mexican for dinner that night.”
Her mouth snaps closed.
“I wasn’t about to fuck you when my stomach felt like ass. And I had to go over details of a case that I did not want my woman hearing because they were brutal. I wasn’t late getting Jaydon, either. I was in the garage with your dad talking to him for an hour before I went inside.” Her throat moves when she swallows, and she bites her lip. I count to five before I point at the floor in front of my feet. “Come here.”
She scurries around the bed and doesn’t hesitate, burying her face in my chest. I wrap my arm around her back, slide my fingers through her hair, and cradle her head, bending my neck to rest my lips by her ear. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“You know me better than that.”
“I know.”
“Then why would you even let that thought cross your mind?”
Her body shakes with a sob, and I push all the party shit onto the floor, then lay us across on the bed. Brushing some of her hair away from her face, I cup her jaw and rub my thumb along her cheek. “Talk to me, sweetheart.”
“I still have the baby weight and—”
“Do not fucking go there.”
Her bottom lip trembles. “It’s the truth.”
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Any weight you’ve gained is because you grew our perfect son inside your body, and it does nothing but make you that much more amazing. You’re gorgeous. Every inch of you.”
“But—”
“No. No buts, and if you don’t feel that way, then I need to step up my game because there is no way in hell my girl needs to think she’s anything short of perfect.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not you. You tell me all the time. I just… I don’t know. And now I feel bad, all the work you’ve been doing, and I ruined it all.”
“Baby, you didn’t ruin anything. In fact, it works out better this way because now you can pick all the shit and—”
“Oh, no. This is your thing. I think it’ll be fun to see what you end up picking.”
I grin. “I’m not picking anything. Remember, I hired someone to do that for me.”
“Who?”