“You want to do what?” Lauren asked me as she stood outside Alex and Grace’s flower shop.
Alex held up her hands and began waving them. “Wait. Gray, are you hearing yourself? Because you’re talking so fast that I’m not even sure I understand what you’re saying.”
“A wedding. I want to plan a wedding for tonight.”
Grace laughed. “Tonight?”
“Yes. Tonight.”
“As in today tonight?” Lauren said as everyone looked over at her.
“Um . . . yes?” I said as I stole a peek over to Colt who smiled and gave me a let-it-go look.
“You don’t even have a marriage license,” Grace said.
With a chuckle, I looked at Grace. “I don’t want to do a real wedding, I want to reaffirm my love for Meagan and I want her whole family there. How about that?”
Libby did a little jump as she said, “We can totally do this! We can totally put this together. It will be like a pre wedding! Alex, Grace, all you need to do is make a bouquet for Meagan.” Libby turned to Lauren. “Lauren, all you need to do is find Meg a beautiful white dress and your closet is full of beautiful clothes.”
Lauren smiled and called out, “Oh my glitter! I have the perfect dress in mind!”
“Once she gets back from spending the morning with Taylor, I’ll do her hair and tell her you planned a romantic dinner for two and doing her hair gives me an excuse for having some one-on-one girl time with her.”
Smiling, I looked around the small group. I’d never met a group of people like them. There wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do for each other and I was amazed at how they opened their hearts up to me.
Noah walked up and gripped my shoulder. “Welcome to the family, Gray.”
Blowing out a deep breath, I shook my head and said, “Damn I’ve missed you, Noah.”
Noah pushed my shoulder back and laughed. “Falling in love has made you a *. Come on, let’s get this all taken care of so we can go out and celebrate the good news.”
Meagan
I SAT IN a chair in the middle of Libby’s living room as she pulled my hair up and began messing with my make-up.
“Lib, it’s just dinner in Fredericksburg. It’s not like I’m getting married.”
“Why would you say that?” Libby asked as she walked around and stood in front of me with a shocked look on her face.
Narrowing my eyes, I tiled my head and gave Libby a look. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?” she asked as she dabbed at my lipstick and fixed a curl hanging down.
“Something is going on. Taylor was acting weird today, Gray was acting weird, and now you’re acting weird.”
Libby let out a nervous laugh. “You’re paranoid, Meg.”
Dropping my shoulders, I thought about it. Was I being paranoid? Probably.
“Have you enjoyed being home the last few weeks?”
Happiness bubbled up inside of me, but was quickly replaced with dread. For all those years I’d repeated over and over I didn’t want to live in Texas. I didn’t want to live in Fredericksburg or Mason. The last two weeks all I had been thinking about was living here. Being close to my friends and family. Every time I thought about the baby, I had to fight back the urge to cry.
Gray was so happy with his job and he was a detective. There was no way he could move to small-town Texas and even come close to that. Then there was his mother. No way would he ever even think of leaving her even though James had asked her to marry him.
“What’s wrong, Meg? You look lost in thought and a million miles away.”
I pressed my lips together and forced a fake smile. “Nothing. I guess I’m feeling a bit queasy.”
“Oh yes, the morning sickness that lasts all day.”
The sound of a car pulling up had my stomach twisting, but in a good way. “Gray,” I whispered. I’d only seen him once today and that was this morning before I left to spend the morning with Taylor. We’d talked a few times on the phone and I could tell something was weighing on his mind. I had planned on talking to him about my conflicting feelings about living in Colorado tonight at dinner.
Libby rubbed my shoulders and said, “You’re all done. Wait until your baby daddy sees you.”
The door opened and Luke and Grayson walked in laughing about something. My body warmed at the sight. Grayson fit into our little group like he’d been there his whole life. It was another reason I was struggling with going back to Colorado. Sure, I had Melissa there, but really no friends. Not like my friends here.
Grayson’s eyes met mine as his smile turned to a look of pure fascination. “Meg, you look beautiful.”
I glanced down at the off-white dress Lauren had insisted I wear along with my cowboy boots.
My hair was pulled up and pinned to perfection, according to Libby.
With a shy grin, I kicked at nothing on the floor and sunk my teeth into my lip as Grayson made his way over to me. His hand came up to my face where he softly brushed his thumb across my skin.