We’d gotten around to getting me a ring while we’d been in France. Intricate and delicate woven threads of platinum surrounded a brilliant cut diamond. The threads were designed to look almost like leaves that the stone was nestled in. I loved it.
Thinking back on Caleb’s proposal, both the public one at that show and the one in Paris once he had the ring when it’d only been the two of us and the glowing lights of the Eiffel Tower at midnight, brought a similarly bright glow to my heart.
I’d never been more surprised or overwhelmed in my life than I’d been up on that stage when he’d dropped to his knee. And I hadn’t been the only one blindsided. Everyone had been taken by surprise, and the move had sent tongues wagging in the industry.
Some people were even convinced that it was just another publicity stunt, same as they thought when Jared proposed to Alicia. We let them think what they wanted. Alicia had issued an official statement from the band saying that they were ecstatic about Caleb’s impending nuptials, though I personally thought she was the only ecstatic one.
Maybe Jared too. He seemed genuinely happy for his brother, and the two had been getting along much better since it’d happened. The other guys had welcomed me into the fold as much as they had with Alicia, and while Matt was thrilled for both brothers, Nick and Dom were more reserved.
Dom, however, had surprised me when he’d found out about the pregnancy. He’d ordered a bunch of prenatal vitamins and made sure that the hotels, dressing rooms, and planes were stocked with healthy goodies. When I’d asked about it, he’d grunted something about every baby deserving the best possible start and left it at that.
Jared and Caleb both thought that it was just his hunt for perfection. They claimed he was the same with every new song, nurturing to the point of nausea, but Alicia and I were puzzled.
We’d managed to hide the pregnancy from the fans so far, but with my now fast-growing bump, I didn’t think we’d be able to keep it to ourselves for much longer. Alicia was already working on the official statement.
She was super excited, assuring us that she would handle all the fan reactions. I didn’t quite know what she meant by that, but she also assured me that she’d had non-disclosure and privacy agreements sent to the hospital and that everything would be fine.
Whatever. I trusted my sister. She was good at her job. Whatever she was anticipating, she had it covered.
Caleb drew me from my thoughts by planting his hands on my ass and pulling me close again. My breasts pushed up against his rock-solid chest, and a surge of desire shot through me. The pregnancy hormones were one thing I hadn’t been prepared for.
I’d heard of them, of course, but I hadn’t expected it to be as intense as it was. Once my morning sickness passed, I became like a sex demon. I was even more insatiable now than I had been with him before, and that was saying a lot. Caleb adored it, always rising to the occasion and insisting that he’d stay at home to be my sex slave.
I couldn’t say that I complained about his offer. What I wasn’t about to do though, was to have sex in the baby room. It didn’t have any baby stuff in it yet, but it was the principle of the matter.
“Not here, babe,” I mumbled, nuzzling Caleb’s neck.
His fingers skated to the waistband of my pants, and my arousal levels skyrocketed. “Why not?”
“It’s the baby’s room,” I reminded him. It used to be one of his empty guest rooms, but soon, it would be a nursery.
“Eventually, it’ll find out how it was made,” he muttered, drawing my earlobe between his teeth. I shuddered in his arms, every part of me was so damn sensitive at the moment that it was hard to focus when Caleb set his mind on this. “Besides, if it’s a boy, he’ll be doing the exact same thing in this very room as soon as our asses leave the house.”
“Caleb,” I protested. “Why do you have to say stuff like that?”
He lifted one shoulder, raising his head to look into my eyes. “Because it’s true. Maybe if I can tease him about beating him to doing it in his room, it’ll put him off. I’m trying to do our son a service here. Those teenage girls are dangerous.”
I laughed, shaking my head at him. “What if it’s not a boy? What if it’s a girl?”
Caleb shook with silent laughter, tugging at the bun I’d thrown my hair into earlier. “Then she’s never allowed a boy in here, and we’ll never tell her a thing about sex. She’ll live forever thinking a stork dropped her off.”
“Double standards much?” I smiled, taking the chance to escape from his arms before he stoked the flames of desire any more. I really wanted to get some of these choices about the room made today.
God knew there was a lot of work to be done on this house before the baby came. We’d only been back from the tour for a couple of days, but all my stuff was already here. Caleb insisted on my moving in immediately, and I couldn’t have been happier about it.
I couldn’t wait to unpack all my stuff and make this my home too. Our home. Already, his stark, empty bachelor pad was becoming warm and cozy. He’d told me the night before that he thought he’d left the house as an empty canvas for me on purpose, even though he hadn’t known it at the time.
He was loving seeing it taking shape and helping me unpack, getting settled. I’d been afraid that he was going to get nervous at this very obvious manifestation of all the changes in his life and his official departure from the single life, but he’d surprised me in his enthusiasm over everything.
Over and over again, he told me that the baby and I were the best thing that’d ever happened to him. He smiled at me, drawing me back into his arms.
“It’s not double standards. It’s expected from fathers of daughters. I’m only conforming for once in my life. Besides, if you’d let us find out the gender of the baby, we could stop having these hypothetical arguments.”
Though I still didn’t want to know the gender, he had a point. Not knowing was making everything more complicated, from the mundane to the important stuff to our preferred names. We had to make every list twice.
“What, so you can start rigging your shotgun if it’s a girl?” I teased him, running my fingertips up and down the sculpted muscles in his back.
“Exactly,” he murmured, closing his eyes as I continued to scratch his back. “Speaking of shotguns, did your boss break out one on you when you told her?”
Shaking my head, I thought about Hannah’s reaction. It’d been much worse than her breaking out a shotgun. It’d been disappointment and resignation. “Nope. She told me that she’d been waiting for me to resign since the news of our engagement broke.”
Caleb’s eyes popped open, darkening with concern. “You know I’d support your decision if you wanted to stay, right?”
“Right.” There was no doubt in my mind about that, but the decision I’d made was the right one. “But I’m okay with this, really. More than okay, actually. I want to be able to work from home when the baby is born, and I’m looking forward to revitalizing my blog. I’ve started playing with ideas on how to do it, and I think it’s going to be great.”
His shoulders relaxed as he leaned forward to kiss my forehead. “And in the meantime, it’ll give us time to plan the wedding.”