She was pressing her lips together now. But she finally said, “Yeah, I guess that’s it.”
“I’m glad you realize that.”
“I’m glad you feel that way.”
“Because that means your penguins are in good hands?”
“That…” She smiled up at him. “And because it makes how I feel about you make more sense. I love you too, Zeke.”
He was amazed by the surge of pleasure and desire that went through him hearing her say that.
He knew that Donovan and Fiona were helping her with the penguins more than he could. He knew that his grandmother had given her advice that had somehow calmed her down about the pregnancy in a way that he couldn’t. He knew that Dana and Addison had invited her into their mom group. Even his brother had given her jelly she could eat when he’d given her jelly that would’ve caused an allergic reaction.
But none of that mattered. It was okay for those other people to help her with things he couldn’t. Because no one would love her the way he did, and it was because of him that she had those people in her life.
He knew that Jill had spent the last few years in Omaha living a fairly solitary life. He knew she’d done it by choice. But he loved that she was now not only living but appreciating a life where she had people who would help her out and who she could depend on.
She could have her penguins, her amazing career saving the planet, along with people who would have her back, who would be there when she needed them, and a guy who would love her, exactly the way she needed to be loved.
“You know, I’m going to let you make this call, but if you ever want to be like the penguins and mate for life, I’m right next door.”
She smiled up at him. “I’ve been thinking about that. I think that could be a really great idea.”
“Yeah?”
“I like your shower better than mine. And I mean, you do have a refrigerator and washer and dryer.”
He laughed. “That’s true.”
“But I was thinking we could keep my house too, and you could finish it, and we could use it for when people come to visit. I mean, I have friends and family who would love to come to Autre and do the swamp boat tours and see the animal park.
“And it seems like there’s an awful lot of people here who come from somewhere else originally, and just happened to land in Autre for a little bit and then fell in love. Tori and Paige both have family back in Iowa, Juliet’s family is in Virginia, Bailey is from Minnesota. It wouldn’t be so bad to keep the house as a family house.”
Zeke’s heart squeezed hard. “A family house.”
“All those people will come down here to visit and after about ten minutes with the Landrys will be considered family, right?”
“Absolutely right.”
Jill smiled. “So I’m going to head to Kansas and tell everybody the news and then invite them down to meet everyone.”
“You know, you’re making me really glad I knocked you up.”
She smiled, her heart swelling. “You were already glad about that. I saw how emotional you got watching all those kids at Ellie’s and I see you when you watch Josh with Ella.”
He nodded. “I was thinking about our kid growing up with Tori and Josh’s. And I know my other cousins are going to start having kids. I know Jordan and Fletcher are already trying.”
Jill’s eyes widened. “Jordan and Fletcher want to have a baby?”
“Yep. Jordan’s always wanted to be a mom. They’ll probably have six.”
“Oh my gosh, do they want ours? I mean, that keeps the baby in the family, and—”
“That’s not funny,” Zeke said. “It’s not a casserole dish that you just pass around to family members.”
Jill laughed and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his waist, and giving him a hug. “I don’t know about that. Your grandma and I had a long talk and it sounds like the kids in the family did get passed around to different relatives all the time. A weekend here, an overnight there. Don’t think that I’m not going to take everybody up on wanting to borrow ours whenever they want.”
Zeke wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her. “Okay, fair enough. At least that way the kid will have a chance to eat something other than peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese.”
18
Jill pulled up across the street from Blissfully Baked, the pie shop in her hometown of Bliss, Kansas.
It wasn’t an established business from her childhood. The shop had been started just a few years before by a man named Rudy Carmichael. Rudy had been, unbeknownst to everyone in the community, a billionaire from New York, who had been driving past Bliss when his Cadillac, Elvira, had broken down. His little bit of time in the town had convinced him to turn over a new leaf. He’d moved to Bliss, opened the pie shop, and lived the remaining months he had left before he died of cancer.
His will had stipulated that his triplet daughters had to move to Bliss and run the pie shop for a year in order to inherit their billions. So, Cori, Ava, and Brynn Carmichael had blown into town like a tornado of sass and class, and had quickly stolen the hearts of three of Bliss’s most eligible bachelors—Jill’s best childhood friend Evan, and his buddies Parker and Noah.
The three couples were now easily the six most influential and beloved people in town. And the pie shop was booming.
As she got out of her rental car, Jill couldn’t help but smile. She’d borrowed Zeke’s idea about telling everyone the news at once and had asked her mom and dad to meet her here where she could make the big announcement to them and to Evan and Cori at the same time.
Sure, her group was a lot smaller than Zeke’s, but that was good. The pie shop was a lot smaller than Ellie’s bar.
The bell above the door tinkled merrily as she stepped inside.
The pie shop also smelled like sugar, cinnamon, chocolate, and coffee rather than cayenne and beer. And the people gathered were all talking quietly at the various tables dotted throughout the bakery rather than lounging at one big family table and yelling things like, “No fucking way!”
It was such a stark contrast to walking into Ellie’s that Jill paused for just a moment on the other side of the threshold.
But as soon as Evan noticed her, he came straight toward her with a huge smile.
“Jill!”
Her name caused everyone in the room to turn and several to rise from their seats.
Evan hugged her first, then passed Jill to her mother.
“I’m so happy to see you! This is all so mysterious, though,” Holly Morris declared.
“I’m so happy to be here. I’ve missed you,” Jill told her, avoiding the subject of the mystery. For now.
She was passed person to person, hugged and exclaimed over appropriately, until she ended up in front of the bakery case facing Cori Carmichael Stone.
“Welcome home! You didn’t give me much time, but we were still able to put together a party.”
It was the first time Jill had a second to look around the bakery closely. Cori was well known for her party planning and being able to turn even the most mundane events into something fun and special.
Jill now noticed the black-and-white theme that included everything from the plates, to the paper cups they were using, to the mini cakes she had set out across the top of the bakery case.