That big, warm hand of his curled around my hip for maybe the one-hundred-thousandth time over the last few years. “Good. Did you finally get back to Trevor and tell him you’re gonna do the show?”
The show. Trevor.
That was another thing I couldn’t believe, the fact that Trevor was now somehow my manager too. My agent and manager in one. He’d come to me with the proposition about a month after Zac had won his first ring, weeks after we’d headed to Austin after our first Disney trip. “You’ve got the potential, and I’ve got the connections. What do you think?” he’d offered. And I’d taken the leap, trusting in him, and I could honestly say I hadn’t regretted it much… only when he nagged me. And even then, it wasn’t really regret I felt, more like temporary annoyance.
But I definitely hadn’t regretted him when he came to me with an offer to have me judge a kids’ baking show for the Food Channel.
That opportunity, I still couldn’t believe.
“Yeah. The dates work out perfectly with your off-season,” I told him, scooting in closer to his toasty body. He wrapped his arm even more around me, bringing me in so close my knees brushed his thighs.
“I’m so excited for you,” he said softly as his fingertips grazed my back. “Next thing you know, they’re going to be offerin’ you your own show.”
I could only dream. My WatchTube channel had grown over the last five years, slowly and steadily. I’d managed to squeeze in so many more “guest” appearances since, with CJ alone hitting ten videos with me, Zac clearly in the forties now because he was a viewer favorite—and my favorite—and I’d even had more of his teammates and two coaches join in. Even Vanessa, Zac’s close friend and now my very good friend too, had done one with me.
But it was my books that had really taken off.
Some days, I didn’t know what the hell I’d done to deserve any of what I had, starting with the man looking at me on our bed with the goofiest, most tired expression on his face. He could barely keep his eyes open. And that made my stomach feel goofy.
Well, goofier than it had been feeling lately.
I’d been waiting to tell him in person what I’d found out the day before, not wanting to give him the news over the phone.
I was pretty sure he had an idea, but… knowing Zac, there was a chance he was totally oblivious to it too. But I knew I had to tell him, and I had to tell him ASAP. I just hadn’t found the right time during the day because Paw-Paw and Zac’s mom had been over, then my site had crashed, and I’d wanted a quiet, calm moment to let him know.
“Snack Pack?” I whispered as I set my palm between his pecs, touching the curly hairs there.
He blinked at me sleepily before leaning forward and giving me a kiss and a “Hmm?” Those light fingers brushed my back a little more. He really was too handsome for his own good.
“Did you decide if you’re doing the next Anatomy issue?” I asked, going for that question first.
Part of his mouth curled up. “Not yet, darlin’, but if you’re fixin’ for my Texas peaches, you know they’re all yours.”
I snorted. “I was just wondering. But it would be nice to update the framed picture I have on my desk with a more recent one.”
His tired laugh was a puff against my mouth that made me smile.
He was fading fast, and I knew I could wait until tomorrow, but… I didn’t want to.
“Zac?”
His eyes were already drifting closed again as he asked, “Yeah, sweetheart?”
“What would you think about… a Tiny Texas?”
Zac’s light blue eyes went wide in a fucking instant. He shot up to an elbow and stared at me, giving me a full view of that incredible chest. “A Tiny Texas?” He blinked. “You serious?”
I pointed at him. “Big Texas.” Pointed at my chest. “Little Texas.” Then I pointed toward my stomach, totally exposed by the cropped top I had on. “Tiny Texas.”
Before I knew what the hell was happening, his hands pulled me over and across, so I was straddling his hips. His eyes were brighter than ever, his face shocked but not white. Even his mouth was a little parted as he basically gasped, fully awake, “You serious, Bibi?”
I licked my lips and nodded. We’d talked about kids right before we’d gotten married that summer after his first season with the White Oaks, but it had been one of those things that we’d both shrugged off, thinking someday. Whenever. What’s the rush?
But it wasn’t like I hadn’t known he loved children. I did too. One night about a year ago, we’d casually talked about what we’d name our kids one day, if we had them. “Lupita,” he’d suggested, if we had a girl, and my heart had nearly exploded at the tribute to my grandma. Or “William James,” after Boogie and Paw-Paw.
I touched his cheek. “I haven’t gone to the doctor yet, but I took the test yesterday, and… it was positive,” I told him, watching his face and his eyes as he did the same right back. “So… is it feeling like a ‘yay’ or are you scared? Because, true story, I’m a little scared. But also, this is technically your fault. I told you I forgot to take a few of my pills, and then you started tickling me, so then I started tickling you, and then we both got all….”
If someone had told me a decade ago that one day I would be sitting on Zac’s lap one night, with him in his underwear, in our house, on our bed, I would have thought they were repeating something straight out of dreams.
And if someone would have told me that I’d be doing that, telling him I was pregnant with his baby, a baby Zac, and that he’d sit up and wrap his arms around me, kissing my cheeks and my mouth and my neck and chest… well, I would have thought they were just being cruel.
But that was what happened.
Zac kissed me and kissed me as he whispered things into my skin that sounded like “I love you so much,” and “I can’t believe it,” and “Are you serious?” and “We need to go to the doctor tomorrow mornin’,” and “What the hell do you have to be scared of? We got this,” and “You’re the love of my life, kiddo.”
And he was right.
Together, we had this, me and the love of my life. Hands down.