I threw my hand back and laughed, slapping my hand on the table. “You silly ogre. You can’t tell me what to do.”
He winged up his brows and glanced down at my stomach, hidden beneath the table but the heat in his eyes made it clear. “You’re carrying half of me in you. I can so.”
“Half of me.” I chuckled and speared an asparagus with my fork. “You make it sound like I’m already the size of that Eiffel Tower behind me.”
He chuckled and raised his hand. “The baby book I downloaded, specifically for dads, told me to never comment on your size so I’ll claim the fifth on that one.”
My mouth might as well have dropped to the table. Electricity jolted through my veins as I watched his smile spread. “You… you downloaded a baby book? About dads?”
And oh dear. Why did I suddenly feel like crying? He went blurry and I blinked, trying to clear my eyes but it was no use.
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Is that… is that making you cry?”
“Shut up.” I flung the rest of my asparagus at him. He nabbed it out of the air like it was a puck heading straight at his face and tossed it into his mouth. “I cry all the time.”
“You’re a pretty crier. Beautiful all the time, but you cry pretty, too.”
“God,” I moaned and dropped my face into my hands. “You’re going to make it worse.”
His knee bumped into mine beneath the table and then one of his hands reached out, pulling down my fisted hand. “Hey. I’m in this. I’m all in. I want to know everything, be there for you, be there for us and the baby. Of course I want to understand what you’re going through.” He stopped, glanced toward the fountains again as they lit up and he cleared his throat. “I won’t be able to be there. Not all the time. Not with travel and you know…” If I went back to Chicago after these next few weeks.
“Garrett—” I practically breathed his name but he continued before I could think of anything else to say. I couldn’t, wouldn’t, make promises I couldn’t keep and luckily, he soldiered on with what was on his mind.
“Anyway, I want to be involved. Here for you. I can’t do that if I don’t know what’s going on.”
At the end of my first trimester, I was still trying to wrap my head around everything. It’d taken me three weeks before I started reading baby books, before the reality settled. Sure, I’d known enough to start taking prenatal vitamins, to call my OB-GYN’s office and for the first time, schedule an appointment for something more than my annual exam. They’d handed me pamphlets. Done a vaginal ultrasound. Only then, once I heard the wild whoosh of a heartbeat that was most definitely not mine, had I finally broken down and ordered my baby and pregnancy books.
It’d taken Garrett days. Of course it had. Because that was the level-headed, excited, and involved kind of dad he would be.
“I want this.” I squeezed his hand back and my second hand dropped to my stomach. “I want this with you. All of it.”
“Good.”
We shoved away our plates and soon the server came with our check. Once Garrett signed it and slid in a tip I would have stabbed someone for in my high school years, we walked the Strip.
We wandered down to the gondola rides in front of the Venetian before turning around. On the way back, I convinced him to walk through Flamingo Hotel’s casino even though neither of us wanted to gamble. We took pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower. Strolled through Caesar’s Palace and then back toward the Bellagio. By the time we stopped at the fence, the sun was setting and I was thankful I’d grabbed a heavier cardigan. I wrapped it around my waist, tucking my arms in close as Garrett caged me in at his chest and curled his hands around the handrail. He brushed his chest to my back before settling his chin at my shoulder.
The scrape of his beard sent shivers down my arms but the heat of his body warmed me straight to my toes.
His lips brushed over my cheek, back to my ear, intensifying my reactions, and I loved every single moment. There was not another man alive who could ever make me feel like Garrett.
“I’m so damn glad you’re here with me. No joke, Lizzie. I want this.”
I uncurled my arms from my stomach and settled my hands over his on the railing. “I do too.”
The fountains burst in front of us, water changing colors from the lights and the music played. People lined the railings, all of them mesmerized by the sights in front of us, but all I could think of was Garrett, and this chance I’d been given to make things right with us.
Please don’t let me screw this up.
As the thought hit me, my backside pressed close to his vibrated. Once. Twice. Then again. “Is that your phone or are you happy to see me?”
His chuckle rumbled through his chest, against my back. “Group text from the guys on the team.”
“Do you need to go check it?”
“No. There’s nothing more important than what I’m doing now.”
Holy swoon. Thank God I wasn’t wearing a corset and was being held up against him or else I risked fainting straight into the fountains. Yeah, I really needed not to screw this up.
I let go of him, turned my back to the railing and pressed my hands to his cheeks. “Thanks for making this so easy.”
His head bent and he brushed his lips over mine. “I love you. It’s as simple as that.”
“Right,” I rasped, and slid my hands down his body, over the curve of his chest and wrapped my arms around him. I snuggled up close, turning so we could finish the show. As it came to a gentle close, dozens of tourists clapped and the chatter around us increased, Garrett held me to the side.
“Let’s get out of here. I want to hit the store to make sure you have what you can eat and then I want to get home.”
14
Lizzie
Garrett stocked up on groceries like the world was ending. Our cart was overflowing to an insane degree and we had more bags in the back of his Suburban than a family of eight had to have for a two-week grocery trip. I couldn’t stop teasing him for it. Every time I said something sounded good, he threw three in the cart. Add in the fact he had a week-long home stretch of games and he consumed more calories a day than an elephant, I was practically doubled over in laughter by the time we pulled into his garage.
He was still shaking his head at me like I was being ridiculous, probably because I was, and I was still laughing. I couldn’t help myself from egging him on further.
“So. Is there anyone else who has a key to your place?”
His smile fell. “Are you fucking with me?”
“Too soon?”
“It will always be too soon for that joke, dumbass.” He leaned across the console and kissed me. “Get out of my truck. Go inside. I’ll get the groceries in.”
“I can help.”
“Yup. You’re a capable, strong, independent woman. I know this. I also know when you’re not laughing, you’re yawning, so you’re getting tired. So go inside, get into whatever clothes you’ll wear when you fall asleep in twenty minutes or less, and relax. I’ll get the food in.”
I shot him with a playful glare, but opened my door. “You know. Sometimes it sucks how well you know me.”