I leaned over him and kissed him softly. “Thank you. You’re an amazing man, you know that?”
“I don’t mind being reminded.”
I shoved at his chest before rolling off him and waddling on my knees to the edge of the bed, where I hopped off and made for the bathroom to have a shower. “Are you coming? We have a big day ahead of us.”
Max clasped his hands behind his head and watched me retreat to the bathroom. “What’s in it for me?”
I spun around, showed him my ass, and wiggled it for him.
His booming laughter followed me as I ducked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. The water hadn’t even begun to heat up before he caught me, pushed me through the open door, and trapped me against the wall under the stream of icy water. My shrieks of protest did nothing to spare me from his wrath, but the heat of his kisses warmed me up until the water caught up to us.
I held up my left hand so it was in the frame as I talked to Piper on a video call. She gasped and pulled her phone right up to her face. Her right eye took up my whole screen as she stared at the ring on my hand.
“Holy shit, Janie! That thing is huge!”
Max, who was working on cutting vegetables behind me in the kitchen, snorted. “That is not something I want to hear my ex saying to my fiancée.”
Piper and I giggled and I rolled my eyes. “Ignore him.” I wiggled my fingers. “But it is stunning, isn’t it? I can’t believe it’s mine. I can’t believe I’m engaged. Does it ever stop feeling surreal?”
Piper’s big brown eyes grew a little less big as she drew the phone away from her face. She was sitting in her and Wyatt’s living room. He was out on the ranch doing chores while she was nestled up in a cozy armchair surrounded by blankets while a personal back massager worked at knots in her lower back. She’d told me when the time came that I got pregnant I needed to order one of those things online. Apparently, it was helping with a lot of lower back discomfort. From where I was sitting, it looked hilarious because she kept shifting and rolling whenever the pressure changed.
“No, it feels surreal until you’ve been married for about six months,” Piper said. “Then reality sets it. But whatever the next step is just brings all those surreal feelings back. Like getting pregnant.”
“We still have time before that step,” I said.
Max clicked his tongue. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
Piper arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Max has it in his head that we should be parents sooner rather than later,” I explained. “He sends me cute baby videos on a daily basis. The man is brainstorming nursery ideas, Pipes. He’s lost his marbles.”
“He’s in love,” Piper said dreamily.
“The two are one and the same,” Max said.
I rolled my eyes. “He’s delusional. We just got engaged. I don’t want to rush things.”
“There’s no perfect timeline,” Piper said. “Wyatt and I imagined we’d be married for a year or two before we wanted to have kids but it turns out we wanted to make a family sooner rather than later, too. After everything you guys have been through, I can’t blame Max for wanting to jump on the baby-making bandwagon now.”
“Well, I can,” I said pointedly as I shot a look over my shoulder at Max. “I’m not ready to give up wine yet.”
Max gestured at the vegetables that still needed dicing and chopping. “Are you going to talk to Piper all afternoon or are you going to help me?”
“Yes. Sorry, Pipes, I should go. Nana Ridley and Holly are coming for dinner tonight.”
“Oh, that’s big!” Piper said.
I’d spoken to Nana Ridley dozens of times over the phone before but she and I had never met in person. I knew how important she was to Max and Holly. She was basically their mother. Max got a lot of his charm and sense of humor from her. He didn’t see as much of her as he’d like because she lived out in New York City, but they still spoke on the phone on a near daily basis.
Tonight, she’d be coming over and spending a few nights with us. Holly was going to pick her up at the airport on her way here.
It would be our first dinner as a family and as an engaged couple. I couldn’t wait to celebrate with them.
“Say hi to Nana and Holly for me,” Piper said.
Sometimes, it felt weird to remember that Piper had gone through all of these steps before me. Weird but not unsettling.
I smiled. “I will. Hey, Pipes?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for choosing your cowboy and breaking Max’s heart. Now we all have our happy endings.”
Piper smiled so big it looked like she might tear up. “And even happier beginnings.”
Chapter 24
Max
We heard the front door open as Janie opened the oven door and leaned over to check on the chicken roasting in an apple juice and white wine au jus. Fresh herbs were tucked around the bird, and three orange slices rested on top. The smell of citrus and apple flowed out of the oven and Janie looked up at me looking like a deer in the headlights.
“Are they here?” Janie whispered.
Seconds later, Nana’s voice echoed down the hall from the front door. “Max, have I ever told you that your house is too damn big for a little old lady like me?”
I grinned at the sound of her voice. Janie smiled too, but I could see the nerves building in her. She wanted to make a good impression with my grandmother, and even though I’d assured her a thousand times over this afternoon that she would, she was still nervous.
“She’s going to love you,” I reminded her for the hundredth time. “I promise.”
Janie closed the oven and nodded. She wiped her hands on the dish towel hanging off the oven even though she hadn’t touched anything. Next, she smoothed out the skirt of her silky maroon dress, fluffed up her dark curled hair, and plastered a pleasant smile on her face.
I took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Just be yourself.”
Nana and Holly came around the corner of the kitchen.
Holly was loaded down with our grandmother’s copious amounts of luggage. She never had been a light traveler. She required outfit options, she always insisted. Nana had always been a good dresser and that was something that hadn’t gone away in her elderly years. In fact, I suspected it was something that helped her feel youthful. She dressed colorfully and oftentimes on trend with whatever season it was or whatever holiday was approaching.
Today, she wore a pastel yellow cardigan with a floral-printed long-sleeved shirt underneath. Her slacks were cropped a few inches above her gold sandals, which showed off freshly painted pink toes. Rings glittered on her fingers that matched her earrings. Her hair was white, short, and spiky, and today, she had pink streaks in the front of it.
Nana Ridley held out her arms to me. “I’ve been in this beast of a house of yours for over two minutes and still haven’t received a hug from my grandson. Look alive, Max.”
Janie giggled as I left her side and leaned over to give my petite grandmother a big hug.
She patted my back and laughed softly. “You’re always taller than I remember. No wonder you need such a big house.”