She smiles and lays a hand on her flat belly. “Thanks.”
She walks out of the room, and I hear her leave with Ryan.
Mick stands in my doorway. “Everything okay?” he asks, his eyes soft and kind.
“Fine.”
“She told you.”
I nod. “She told me.”
“And how do you feel about it?”
I take a deep breath. “Incredibly sad that I made her feel like she shouldn’t tell me. And really happy for both of them.” I smile at him.
“I’m going to be an uncle.” He rubs his hands together like he’s excited. “I get to teach him to throw peas at Ryan. And when he’s a little older, I can teach him all the dirty words in sign language. Ryan will shit a brick. It’ll be great.”
“You’re going to be one of those uncles.” I laugh. “The naughty kind.”
“The fun kind.” He narrows his eyes at me. “Although I wouldn’t mind being naughty if you’re involved, too.”
My belly flutters. “Stop that. BFFs don’t do that.”
He smirks at me. “Do you want to go somewhere with me today?”
“Where?”
“Anywhere.” He grins. “I’ll take whatever I can get.”
He’s so damn cute. I wish I was ready for him.
“Breakfast?” he asks.
I nod. “Sure.”
Mick
Last night after Wren’s ex-boyfriend left and then she threw me out of her apartment—technically when I was being nosy and jealous—Henry told me the story of how he won Nan over.
“She wouldn’t have anything to do with me,” Henry confessed. “It was like I had cooties or something and she didn’t want to catch it.”
“How did you meet her?”
“I saw her across a crowded room, and I was done for. Gone. Finished. She was the one. She had this air about her. It wasn’t the curl of her hair or the polish on her shoes. It was just her. She was it for me. I knew it the moment I saw her. The bad thing was that she didn’t agree.”
“What makes you say that?”
He snorted. “She snubbed me. In front of everyone. I asked her to dance and she said her feet were tired. I asked her to have dinner with me and she said she wasn’t hungry.”
“What did you do?”
“I did what any thinking man would do. I found out where she’d be and then I put myself in her path all the damn time. If she was going to a party, I was there. If she was going to the library, I was there. If she was going to a movie, I made sure I saw the same one, because just in case I ever got to take her out, I wanted to have something to talk to her about, you know?”
I didn’t know, but I could imagine it.
“How long was it before she caved?”
“She never did cave. Stubborn as the day is long.” He laughed. “But then one day, I saw her sitting in a little café. She had a book in her lap. She was wearing a pink dress with a white belt and white shoes with shiny buckles on her feet. God, she was pretty.” He got a faraway look in his eye. “I stood there looking through the window at her, and she didn’t look up. She was engrossed in her book, so I just stared at her. She was something, and I knew she was my future. I just had to convince her of that.”