Rushing the Goal
Page 160

“You got me something?” she gushed, holding it up and gasping at it. “Oh wow, it’s sparkly and hockey!” She giggled as she looked it over, her eyes bright, and he nodded.
“And a number twenty for me and a number fourteen for you,” he said, pointing to the little numbers that hung by the hockey stick. She grinned over at him and then kissed his cheek.
“It’s awesome, thank you.”
“Good, I’m glad you love it.”
“I do,” she decided with a nod. “I love you too.”
“That’s always a good thing. Because, not only do I love you, but I need your help,” he said with more dramatics than needed, but he was trying to keep from breaking down and crying from the overwhelming love he was feeling. He never thought this could happen, to not only have a good, strong woman who loved him, but a beautiful, spunky little girl.
He really did have it all.
Her eyes widened as she sat up straight, ready. “Oh, I love helping!”
“Now, this is important,” he said, holding her gaze. “How should I ask Mom to marry me?”
She popped up, her ice cream flying before she held her hands out. “Oh my goodness! I thought you’d never ask,” she shrieked, hopping on her heels as she held his gaze. “First, we get a dolphin and then we have Mom come stand on the beach. And you ride in on the dolphin, the ring in your hand with rockets going off and glitter falling out of the air before me and the fairy mermaids come out of the ocean and we all say ‘Will you marry Benji?’ Insert more glitter, some more rockets, and lots of ice cream, ’cause Mom loves ice cream!”
Benji could only blink.
Well, that was one way of doing it.
When Lucy pulled into the driveway of Avery and Jace’s house, Benji met her out front.
“Okay, don’t get mad.”
She rolled her eyes, and he swore that simple movement was hot to him. She had been gone all morning doing the final touches on Shea and Elli’s beach house. It was looking awesome, and he was sure they would love it, but like always, Lucy was nervous about it. She wore the stress all over her gorgeous face. “I always get mad when you start it like that.”
“I know, but…” he said, flashing her a grin, “I thought since it’s our last night, we can have some pictures done on the beach. So we can have nice family pictures for the house. You always say our pictures are too crazytown.”
She looked torn, letting out a long breath. “But, Benji, I’m tired.”
He smiled. “Please.”
She didn’t even really think about it; she just nodded and he laughed. “Let me go change. Are you wearing that? What’s Angie wearing?” she said, passing by him on her way into the house. As he followed her inside, she looked at Angie and shook her head. “Come on, let’s go get ready.”
“I am ready!”
“Angela, come on. I have two white dresses we can wear. Come on,” she said and Angie followed as Benji smiled.
“That was easier than I thought,” he called down the hall, and she grinned back at him.
“I wanted to do it anyway.”
“Then why fight me?” he asked and she shrugged.
“I like to see you beg,” she teased, her eyes full of heat, and his lips curved into a smirk.
Before he could say anything else, though, Ashlyn started to cry. She was in her playpen right beside him, so he picked her up as Avery and her friend, Mekena, who was taking their pictures, came through the back door. They had gone to college together, apparently, and when Avery moved down to Florida with Jace, Mekena decided to move too. She was nice but really quiet, very much stayed to herself, while he was trying everything he could to talk to her, to make sure she got the right shots.
He was worried, but Avery guaranteed him everything would be fine. Mekena had a part-time job taking pictures at the mall, and she had done all their pictures and Ashlyn’s. The pictures around the house were gorgeous, so he felt a little better, even though Mekena wouldn’t look him in the eye. But he had to make sure he documented what was about to happen. Jordie had made such a huge deal about how important it was to have photo evidence of these kinds of things. It seemed to work for him, and Benji sure did love the big print in the Thomas’s house of Jordie and Kacey kissing after he had asked her to marry him.
“Oh, thanks, Benji. She’s hungry. Let me make her a bottle.”
“No problem, I like the little stinker,” he said, kissing her head as she smacked his face playfully. She looked just like her daddy. The genes of the Sinclairs continued to scare him.
When Lucy came down the hall, her eyes wide, his brow quirked as he took in that her dress was half on. “Hey, now, Avery’s in the kitchen, and I’m holding a baby.”
She rolled her eyes as she ran toward him, coming right up to him before going up on her toes and whispering in his ear, “I have to tell you something, but you can’t say anything, okay?” He only nodded, his heart picking up in speed. Did Angie tell her their plan? Shit. “Baylor is pregnant.”
He looked back at her, his eyes wide. “No way.”
She nodded her head wildly as she pulled him back. “Yeah, she’s, like, thirteen weeks, and they did an ultrasound and the baby looks wonderful, healthy.”
Pulling back to look at her, he was shocked. How could no one know? Her family basically called when one of them took a shit. But when he saw the tears in her eyes and he smiled, he knew why. “You knew.”