I shake my head, laugh loudly. "Babe. Don"t ever say baby mamma again."
"Are you in love with her?" she yells.
"I don"t know!" I yell back, trying so d.a.m.n hard to keep it together. "Are you insane?"
"Where have you been, Lucas?"
I try to come up with a lie. Quickly. But I can"t. So I cross my arms, lift my chin, revert to the age we first met. "I"m not telling!"
"You will so," she grinds out.
"Will not."
"Will so."
"Will not!"
And then she looks at me with those eyes filled with tears, and those lips now trembling, and she whimpers, and I feel like an a.s.shole. "Baby, I"m not cheating on you."
"So why won"t you tell me?"
I tell her the truth. "Because it was supposed to be a surprise."
She frowns. "That you have a baby with another woman?"
"Stop," I say through a chuckle, hugging her to me. "It"s so silly that that"s the first place you go when you think I"m keeping a secret. There"s no other woman and there never will be. You know you"re the one for me, Lois Lane." I rub her back, treat her like Lachlan, because right now, she"s acting like him. I rear back, look in those eyes. "Wait for me by my truck, okay? I"m going to get the keys from the apartment. Just don"t leave me. Please?"
She nods.
"Promise?"
She smiles. I win. "Promise."
I run up the stairs, quickly grab the keys, and run back out. Then I unlock the truck, help her into the seat. As soon as I"m behind the wheel, she starts on me again. "Are we going to meet the baby? Is it a boy or girl?" At least, this time, she"s kidding. I think.
I start the engine, head toward the same place I"ve been going to for the past week without her knowledge.
"Where are we going?"
"Remember our first date? When you kept asking questions, and I told you to stop?"
"Yes."
"Stop."
We don"t leave the property, but we go as far out as you can get. I park at a clearing on the edge of the lake that up until two weeks ago was covered in trees and bushes. Then I get out, open her door for her. "Are we still on your property?"
"Just," I tell her, helping her down. "I"m going to do that cute thing where I come in from behind and cover your eyes, okay?"
"Okay."
I remove her gla.s.ses, pocket them. Then I stand behind her, cover her eyes. They"re still wet from her tears, but I ignore them, knowing it won"t last long. I walk her through the yard, onto the concrete slab, tell her when to take a longer or higher step and when to duck. Then I let her go. "Open your eyes," I tell her, and she does.
I give back her gla.s.ses and she puts them on. "The lake?" she asks. "I"ve seen the lake before."
"No." I laugh. "Look down and around you."
She looks down at the concrete slab, then the beginning of the outer frame of a house. She turns to me, her eyebrows drawn. "You"re building a house here?"
"I"m building our house here."
Her gasp is soft, those eyes wide. "Our house?"
I nod. "It"s far enough away from the main house that we"ll have our privacy, and I got a permit to build a driveway to the street so we don"t need to come in through the main gates. It"s three bedrooms, two baths, office and craft room-"
"Lucas," she cuts in, turning to me. "You"re building me a house?"
I nod again.
Her mouth parts, but she doesn"t speak. And those eyes, those eyes are staring at me, disbelief and shock and then glee and shock and then, "You"re building me a house!" she repeats. "And there"s a craft room?" She reaches for me and I take her in my arms. She whispers, "My heart... it"s... I think I need to sit down." She"s crying now, her tears of pain replaced with tears of joy.
I release her just long enough to grab the cooler from what will one day be the bathroom. I set it next to her, help her sit. She covers her mouth, her eyes locked on mine. She"s shaking her head, laughing, crying, laughing some more. "I can"t believe you"re doing this."
I motion for her to move over so I can sit on the cooler with her. She melts into me, and I hold her close, look out at the lake.
"You"re building me a house," she says. Again. She takes my hands. "With these two hands-you"re building me a house. Why?"
I shrug, too overwhelmed by her reaction to speak.
"You have to take care of me, don"t you?"
I look back at her, nod slowly, and I tell her, my voice cracking with emotion, "When I was growing up, I"d see the way Dad treated my mom and Lucy. It was so different to how he treated us boys. I didn"t know what it meant then, but I do now. And I know it might sound s.e.xist, and maybe it is, but when I watched Dad, it was like his sole purpose in life was to take care of his girls, and I feel the same way. I nearly lost you once, Laney. I"m not going through that again. I"m going to take care of you for the rest of our lives. No matter how short that might be."
She cups my face, rests her forehead on mine. "I love you so much."
You have no idea, Laney. "I love you, too."
"It"s so beautiful out here," she says, and she has no idea that she"s the beauty out here.
I rear back, kiss her hands. "I don"t want to miss out on my brothers growing up, or my dad getting old, or Cameron and Lucy getting... whatever they"re getting. My mom and dad envisioned the same thing-having us grow up close to each other. That"s why they purchased such large land."
"It"s perfect," she says, looking around us.
"The house is small, but we can always extend. I think it"s a good place to start," I tell her. "Get married one day." I smile when she does. "Maybe have a kid or eight."
"Eight?" She laughs.
"You know I"m compet.i.tive."
"Oh G.o.d," she says, her smile wide when she looks out at the lake. Her hands shake as she covers her mouth. "I can"t believe this."
I pick her up, settle her on my lap, absentmindedly ma.s.sage her knee. Her arms wrap around my neck, her head resting on my shoulder. "So what do you think, Lois Lane?" I ask. "You picture yourself living here with me, growing up and growing old? Loving each other right?" I kiss her temple. "It may not be the stuff dreams are made of. It"s a simple life... but a good life."
"No, Lucas," she says. "It"s a great life."
THE END.
Want MORE?.
Want more of Cameron and Lucy"s story? You can find out all about them in the More Than Series, particular More Than Forever (can be read as a standalone).
More Than Series.
More Than This.
More Than Her.
More Than Him.
More Than Forever.
More Than Enough.
Also by Jay McLean.
The Road Series.
Where the Road Takes Me.
Kick Push.
Coast.
Combative Trilogy.
Combative.
Redemptive.
Destructive - Coming Soon.
Boy Toy Chronicles.
Volume One.
About the Author.
Jay McLean is an international best-selling author and full-time reader, writer of New Adult Romance, and skilled procrastinator. When she"s not doing any of those things, she can be found running after her two little boys, playing house and binge watching Netflix.
She writes what she loves to read, which are books that can make her laugh, make her hurt and make her feel.
Jay lives in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, in a forever half-done home where music is loud and laughter is louder.
For publishing rights (Foreign & Domestic) Film, or television, please contact her agent Erica Spellman-Silverman, at Trident Media Group.
end.