Conspiratorially, she swatted at Lillith. “Tell her, Lillith. She loves them so much she’s over there squeezing her thighs together and shifting on her seat just looking at them. Mouth watering. Am I right?”
Lillith sent her a teasing scowl. “Always trying to chase away the good ones, aren’t you?” She turned her attention to me. “Although, I guess we officially get to keep you.”
I widened my eyes. “You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.”
“Says the girl who just told us to pass in the bridesmaids’ dresses,” Nikki said.
A giggle escaped. “Fine. You’re right.” I reached out and pulled the tray closer to me. “And I want them all. They’re mine. I need all the cupcakes.”
“Oh no, greedy girl, those are for everyone. You don’t want to go and break Maw-Maw’s heart, now do you? After I went over there and got her hair done up real nice just for the occasion.” Jenna swung her attention to her grandmother who sat right next to my mama. “Right, Maw-Maw?”
Her grayed eyes glinted. “Only reason I came was to get me one of those cupcakes.”
My mouth dropped open in mock offense. “Watch yourself, Maw-Maw. I don’t share my man.”
“That’s good, because I don’t share, either.” The deep voice hit me from behind.
A shiver raced my spine, and this time, I really was pressing my thighs together. Trying to quell the instant ache.
That’s the way I felt. Every moment of every day.
This constant desire for a man who stole my breath and filled up all the missing pieces in my life.
The one who stood by me. My support. My foundation.
Because times weren’t always easy, and the fear in our lives could never be fully erased.
But he was there to hold me up through it.
“No, you don’t, Sir Bryant. Stop right there.” Jenna pointed at him. “No boys allowed. Get that perfect ass back downstairs where it belongs.”
He shot her one of those heart-stopping grins. “Don’t get your panties all up in a twist. Just need to talk to Shortcake for a quick minute.”
Jenna’s eyebrows rose so high they disappeared behind her bangs. “A quick minute, huh? That all it takes these days?”
“Ouch . . . you really know how to hit a man where it hurts, don’t you?”
Crossing her arms over her chest, she quirked a brow. “Oh, you can count on that.”
Kale laughed. “I knew you were going to be all sorts of trouble.”
His expression shifted into feigned seriousness. “It’s incredibly important I speak with Hope immediately. We have some important business to attend to, and it just can’t wait.”
“Really?” she challenged.
“Really,” he said, dropping those blue eyes to me, mirth swimming in their depths.
Love.
It burst from every cell.
I glanced around at the faces grinning back at me. “Well, if you all will excuse me for a second, my fiancé has something important he has to say to me.”
Kale wound my hand in his and helped me to stand.
He started us for the glass partition accordion wall.
From behind, we were hit with a barrage of Ooo’s and teases and taunts, a brown chicken brown cow shouted from Nikki, the little punk.
She and Jenna definitely had to have been separated at birth.
I dropped my head in an attempt to fight the rush of heat that flushed and burned and ignited.
He sent me a smirk over his shoulder as he pulled me through the same gap he’d led me through that night when the only thing I’d planned on giving him was a single dinner.
That dinner that had turned into my giving him my body. My heart. My life.
The same way as he’d given me his.
“Oh, Cowboy, I don’t know what you have up your sleeve, but I have a party I’m supposed to be attending. Same as you,” I whispered through the swell of euphoria that swept through me.
Joy.
I’d never known it could be quite so bold.
Palpable as it surrounded us. Fortified by devotion and loyalty.
He gripped my hand, walking backward as he faced me, watching me with one of those smiles that sent a scatter of butterflies flapping through my belly.
Dominant and persuasive and sexy.
There was my cocky boy.
“Last time I checked, those parties were all about the two of us. Besides, I’ve got something important to tell you.”
He spun me around then pulled me close in an exaggerated, impromptu dance, his arm wrapping around my waist as he tucked me against his body.
His beautiful heart thundered, in sync with mine.
A giggle slipped free, and I stared up at him as he swayed me in the moonlight that poured down from above. “Oh, yeah, and what is that?”
He grinned, but his gaze was soft. “In two days, you’re going to be my wife.”
I tucked my bottom lip between my teeth, struggled to play along. Because it still blew my mind.
In two days, I would be Kale Bryant’s wife.