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“Very ready.”
“Are you nervous at all?”
“No. I feel like I’ve known your family for so long, they’re already basically my family. And let’s be honest, I think they all thought we’d end up together, or at least knew you had feelings for me over these last few years.”
“Good,” I agree. “I already know once Deck and my cousins find out, they’re going to rake me over the coals about it all. They’ll be beyond happy, but they’re going to have a helluva time teasing me.”
“They should. Took you long enough to get your head out of your ass.” She laughs.
“It really did, and now I’m going to make sure I spend every waking second making up for that.” I grab her hand, tugging her toward me across the cab of the truck to kiss her. Within seconds, it grows heated like it always does between us. There’s a passion—a fire—that’s always simmering just beneath the surface, threatening to take over. “Fuck,” I pull back, reaching down to adjust my hardening cock. “You always take me from six to midnight in a second.”
“Gives you something to think about through dinner.” She giggles, opening her door.
“Great, you want me thinking about fucking you during dinner with my parents?”
“You love keeping me on pins and needles with your naughty little texts when I’m at work, so two can play at that game.”
I swing my door open, climbing down and walking around to help her out of the truck. “Twocanplay at that game, honey, but just remember that once we get back home,” I grip the back of her neck, leaning in to drive my point home, “I’m going to make sure I fucking win.” I close the door behind her, smacking her ass as we make our way to my parents’ front door.
* * *
My mom smilesas she opens the box in her lap. “What’s the occasion?” She seems oblivious, but when I look over at my dad, I see something in his eye. A tear? A twinkle? I think he’s caught on to the fact that I moved back home, and now Dolly and I are in a relationship and having an intimate dinner with them.
“No occasion. We just haven’t had dinner with you two since Ranger moved back home, and since we’ve officially become a couple.” Dolly smiles over at me, her fingers tangling with mine.
“Which we are just so thrilled about.” My mom stops unwrapping the gift, her eyes already welling up with tears. “We have always loved you as our own daughter, and when Dean passed . . .” She fans her face and my dad reaches over to rub her shoulder. “Well, we just hated to see you go through that, and we knew that you and Ranger have always been so close. I know you’ve both been through so much, and we don’t know nor do we need to know all the details, but we just want you to know that we’re so happy you’re together.”
“Thanks, Mom.” I look over at Dolly, and she has tears in her eyes as well as she smiles back at my mom. With her pregnancy hormones, she’s been more emotional than normal lately, something she’s been struggling with. I lean in and nudge her shoulder.
“Brennan, sweetheart, I think the kids want you to open the gift.” My dad nods his head toward the gift that’s half-opened in my mom’s lap.
“Oh, right, I’m sorry.” She finishes unwrapping the package, reaching inside the box and pulling out the tiny onesie. She holds it up, staring at it for longer than necessary before slowly lowering it into her lap, tears streaming down her face as my father pulls her into his arms.
“Good tears, I hope?” I ask as my mom finally jumps up from the couch, throwing her arms around both of us as my dad stands up.
“I can’t believe it!” My mom releases us, her hands resting on Dolly’s belly as they both begin to cry.
“Congrats, son.” My dad pulls me into a hug. “I’m so happy for you, and I’m so proud of you. I knew it was only a matter of time before you got this all figured out.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.
“Come on, son.” He chuckles in that low, throaty voice of his. “I’ve known for years that you were going to end up with her, and I knew that was a wrench thrown into the Texas expansion.”
“Ah, so you just let me suffer?” I laugh.
“No, I knew you needed to figure it out on your own. You’ve always been headstrong, Ranger. Even if I gave you my advice or my opinion, you were always going to do what you wanted to do—what you felt was right—and that’s what I wanted. I knew you’d figure it out in time, and if not, I’d fly down there myself and set you straight.”
“Is that why you came down with Milly?”
He smiles. “That’s why IsentMilly.”
We both laugh and I shake my head. “Well, it worked. She was the messenger with the letter that told me about the pregnancy.”
Before my parents can ask why I was still in Texas for the first trimester of Dolly’s pregnancy, we explain how I ended things with Dolly because I couldn’t ask her to move to Texas, and how the letter she left for me was stolen by Paige.
“I always told you that young lady was trouble.” My mom wags her finger at me. “And your father always told you your wild ways would bite you in the ass someday.”
“Well, you weren’t wrong there,” I concede, Dolly giving me a knowing smile. “I think Dolly might have told me that same thing a time or two over the years.”
