Jill smoothed the front of her khaki pants and the lavender t-shirt and straightened her cardigan. She was dressed the way she dressed every day. She could have just as easily been going to see the penguins as she was going to see her baby’s other side of the family.
Her stomach swooped at the thought. The bar was going to be full of aunts and uncles, cousins, great-aunts and uncles, grandparents, and even great-grandparents.
Zeke had warned her that he had asked everyone to gather together. He seemed to think everyone was under the impression they were getting engaged. Jill figured they were all expecting an announcement about when they could come see the penguins.
When she’d asked why they would jump to that conclusion about them, he’d said that he had never called a family meeting before. She’d said the idea of the two of them getting engaged so fast was crazy but he’d shook his head and told her she didn’t know his family very well.
That was an understatement.
And that was all about to end. She did know enough about Autre and this family to know they were very similar to Bliss, Kansas, and her family, and that meant that as soon as they all knew there was a new Landry on the way, she wasn’t going to get away with avoiding them any longer.
She pressed her hand over her stomach where butterflies were spinning and diving.
“Is this okay?” she asked as Zeke bounded up her front steps and stopped with only a couple of inches between them.
He looked down at her. “Is what okay?”
He seemed excited. Dammit. He’d actually been excited over the past two weeks in general. They had talked a lot, and he’d been amazingly supportive. He completely understood that this pregnancy was throwing a huge wrench in every plan she’d ever made. He’d been very reassuring about how much help he was going to be.
He’d even tried actually cooking for her one night.
It had only been grilled cheese. And he’d burned it. All three times he’d tried. And they’d ended up raiding Jordan and Fletcher’s fridge again. But the attempt had been sweet.
Having Ellie and Cora cooking for their child was a really good idea, they’d decided.
“Am I okay wearing this?”
He chuckled. “To my grandma’s bar? You might be overdressed.”
“But I’m meeting your entire family.”
“Yeah, and most of them are just coming off a swamp boat tour. They’ll be dirty and windblown,” he said. “You’re fine.”
“So can we just walk in and make the announcement and then walk back out?”
“No, we cannot,” Zeke said. “I fully intend to soak up all of the affection and praise.”
“Praise?” Jill asked. “They do know how babies are made, right? And they’re all doing the same thing most nights? And that an accidental pregnancy isn’t exactly praiseworthy?”
Zeke shook his head. “That is not how they’re going to see this. They’ll see this as me having amazingly good taste in women. And then getting crazy lucky by making the best one I’ve ever found stick around.”
“I’m just nervous.”
“Why? They are definitely gonna think I’m the one who upgraded and am the most likely to screw this up. They all think you’re smart and driven and passionate, and funny and charming and sweet.”
“Why would any of them think that? I don’t even know any of them.”
“Because that’s what I’ve told them about you.”
A warmth washed over her and she felt the knot in her stomach loosen. She looked up at him. “You’ve been talking about me?”
“Apparently, even before I was aware of it. They all know an awful lot about you and your penguins. But over the last couple weeks, I’ve made a specific effort to make sure they know that I’m completely smitten.”
“I suppose it would be nice for your mom and grandma at least to think that you really like the girl you knocked up.”
“I do really like the girl I knocked up. It’s not like I’m trying to convince them of this to cushion the blow or something. I want them to know I consider this a good thing.”
She sighed. “You really do think this is a good thing, don’t you?”
“I really do. And I promise to make it as good a thing for you as I can.”
She reached out for his hand. “Zeke —”
It was then that she noticed his left hand was wrapped in white gauze.
“What happened to your hand?”
“Burned it.”
“Burned it on what?”
“Um…”
She lifted both brows. “Zeke?”
He rolled his eyes. “I was making grilled cheese again.”
She laughed and then pressed her lips together. “What? Why?”
“I was going to feed you before we went to the bar. I didn’t know if you’d want to eat with everyone around.”
God, he really was a good guy. “Grilled cheese is not working out for us.”
“It’s really not.”
“Are you all right?”
“Probably,” he said.
Probably wasn’t good enough. Jill realized that she should take a look at it. She was a doctor, after all. No, not of human medicine, but she did know what to look at when it came to burns.
She hadn’t seen a burn in a really long time and had never treated one on a human being, but she was willing to look at Zeke’s. After all, this man had put up a fence to keep Chuck out of her yard—actually the fence extended all the way around her house and his so it was one big yard that she could walk across without worrying and without carrying her lasso-thingy. And he was not only willing to co-parent with her but was happy to do far more than his share. Though she kind of hoped his mom would do the baby’s laundry. And that Cora would be in charge of grilled cheese.
“Let me look at it.”
He shook his head. “You don’t have to.”
“No, really.”
He reluctantly let her take his hands and unwrap the gauze. The burn looked kind of nasty. It was second-degree at least. “We should clean this. And put something on it. I can rewrap it then.”
“Okay, do you have stuff to do that?”
She didn’t. Of course. “No, do you have some stuff?”
“No.”
“Do you even have Band-Aids at your house?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You realize that we’re talking about having a child and neither of us even has first-aid supplies in our homes?”
“But we can get some.”
Of course they could. That wasn’t really the point. The point was neither of them was used to taking care of themselves and, even more importantly, other people. “What were you planning to do about this?”
“I’ll let Cora and Michael look at it. Cora will have some cream for it.”
Jill wasn’t proud of the rush of relief that went through her, but she did acknowledge it. It was definitely not nurturing of her, but it was nice to know that there were plenty of other people who could step in when she and Zeke had no antibiotic ointment. Or food.
“Okay, let’s go get you taken care of. Maybe we can take care of your burn before we tell everyone about the baby?”