RATH
“It’s not a competition,” I say, annoyed with Bram.
“I know, but seriously, way to show us up with your romantic and intimate wedding. I can’t stop thinking about the candles and twinkle lights. I’ve never been in more of a dreamy atmosphere.”
It’s the morning after our wedding, my wife is tucked under my arm, and we’re enjoying brunch with our friends at our apartment.
Since we were in no hurry to get married—you know, because Grandma wasn’t really sick—we held off our plans for a year so we could get to know each other more deeply. Tuesday quickly became tell-all Tuesday, thanks to my office confessional I lined up for Charlee. So, every Tuesday night, we eat tapas and tell each other stories about our past. We’ve learned a lot about each other, maybe too much at times—Charlee getting her first period at her boyfriend’s house and having to use his underwear as a backup. But it was all worth it, because when I saw her walk down the aisle last night, in her grandma’s dress, I knew everything about the woman walking toward me.
I knew there was no way I could ever let her go.
I knew that despite her quirks and love for office supplies, I couldn’t live without her.
I knew that, because of her incredible eye for detail and talent, Westin Enterprises was about to unveil its own Westin Internal Planner. Color-coded. With a Spotify list for Fridays.
I knew after watching her delight my parents—who love her like she was their own daughter—that she was my future. I was a fool for not introducing them earlier on and it was one of the ways I was holding back from her, but then again, Vanessa was the only girl I had ever introduced to my parents, and everything turned to shit between us. Almost felt like a bad omen. I didn’t want the same thing to happen to Charlee. Looks like I went through the heartache anyway.
And I knew that even though she knew almost everything about my past, she still loved me for me, making me the luckiest guy on the planet.
We kept our original plans—a small wedding, super intimate, and we also kept crab cakes off the menu—don’t even get me thinking about them. I still become nauseous from the thought of that day. And even though the wedding was simple and small, it was perfect because it was all we needed.
“Your wedding was beautiful,” Charlee says. “I’m just sorry I wasn’t there for the whole thing.”
“Be sorry that you had to see a repeat of Roark’s dancing last night,” I say.
“What the fook is wrong with my dancing?” he asks, nursing a chocolate milk like the rest of us.
“You can’t Irish jig to Lizzo, it just doesn’t work.”
“I can Irish jig to whatever the hell I want, right, Sutton?”
She rubs her growing stomach and says, “Oh yeah, you were so great last night.” She calmly rolls her head side to side. She’s due any day now, and I know they’re both growing impatient about meeting their little guy.
Speaking of which . . .
“Where did Sunny go?” I ask, looking for my niece.
Bram waves his hand. “Probably chewing on some electrical cords somewhere.”
Julia elbows him in the stomach. “She’s taking her morning nap.”
“I was just kidding.” He laughs and kisses her head and then turns to me. “When are you two going to add to the family?”
I look down at Charlee and say, “Sooner rather than later. We don’t need her grandma faking death again just to get a great-grandchild out of us.”
Charlee chuckles next to me and says, “After last year, I wouldn’t put it past her.” She grips my hand and says, “Hopefully soon.” And when she looks up at me, those beautiful eyes staring into mine, I can read exactly what she’s trying to say, hopefully this month.
We’ve been trying. We both want kids, just two, but we want them, and when we came to that realization on a tell-all Tuesday a month ago, we started trying immediately.
She’s been a few days late, so who knows . . . maybe.
I want her to take a test, but I’m letting her do this on her own time. It means a lot to her, to carry our baby, and I don’t want to pressure her.
“All this pregnancy talk reminds me,” Roark says, reaching into the bag behind him. He flops a book on the table and says, “This book was pure crap.”
“What?” Bram reaches across the table and gobbles up the novel to his chest. “How can you say that?”
“The girl never gets pregnant despite Lord Frederick forgetting to pull out multiple times? Come on, they were fertile myrtles back then. There’s no way, especially since she already had two kids with another man.” Roark shakes his head. “Terrible story.”
“You’re mad about Carissa not getting pregnant? Maybe she wasn’t ovulating. Ever think about that?” Bram argues. “Did you even read the story? The passion between them but the class difference. It’s a forbidden love.”
“It was crap.” He points at the book. “Don’t suggest crap like that again. I like that good medieval porn that makes sense. Not this bullshit.”
Bram turns toward me and asks, “You liked it, didn’t you?”
I waver my hand. “Normally I like your suggestions, but this was a total DNF. Sorry, dude.”
Charlee snorts next to me and covers her mouth.
Tickling her side, I say, “What’s so funny?”
“You and your book club, you’re actually using book terms.”
“And I thought we made an agreement there’s no book talk when we’re together. Save it for your football Sundays,” Julia says.
Football Sundays that suddenly became book day Sundays.
“You did agree on that,” Sutton says.
“Technically it’s Sunday,” I say. “Which means, you ladies are now honorary members. Congratulations, you’re now part of My Lord, My Lady Sweet Reads.” Yes, that’s what we call our book club.
Julia and Sutton both stand and start clearing the plates, clearly wanting nothing to do with the book club, but my girl, she stays and leans forward. Hands out, preparing us, she says, “All right, boys, I have quite the tale for you. It involves a maid, her grace, and a marriage of convenience. Think you can handle it?” She turns toward me and whispers, “What do you think, boss man bridegroom?”
Smiling, I press a kiss to her forehead and say, “I can easily handle that.”
THE END
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The Secret to Dating Your Best Friend’s Sister
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(Sassy and sweet romance with an Irish rebel)
(A romantic comedy intertwined with an office romance)
Standalone Sports Romance
(Baseball Romances)
Port Snow Series
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The Duets
(Complete Box Set compiling The Blue Line Duet and The Perfect Duet in one place)
The Romance Novelist Chronicles
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**The Virgin Romance Novelist, The Randy Romance Novelist, and The Parenting Romance Novelist are all combined into one book The Virgin Romance Novelist Chronicles**
The Virgin Romance Novelist Chronicles
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The Perfect Duet
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The Blue Line Duet
(An epic romance with many twists and turns)
The Dating by Numbers Series
(Adventurous dating series full of laugh out loud moments and very heated scenes)
The Binghamton Series
(Full of heart, humor, and heat and some HOT CONSTRUCTION WORKERS)
Standalone Novels
(Full of heart, humor, and heat and some real laugh out loud moments)
The Stroked Series
(HOT sports romance with plenty of humor)
The Jett Girl Series
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The Love and Sports Series
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The Hot-Lanta Series
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The Warblers Point Series
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