Arm around Lia, I hold her close as we all say yes.
“Huxley, you do the honors.” Lottie holds her phone out, and I have no idea what’s happening, but Huxley presses a button on the phone, and the pool lights up in all different colors. Instrumental music plays in the background, making a grand show of it, and then the lights start blinking. Lottie clutches Huxley tightly.
They flash blue.
Then pink.
Then blue.
Then pink and pink . . . and pink again just as the music crescendos and everything stops.
“It’s a girl!” Lottie shouts and throws her arms around Huxley. He holds her tightly, kissing the top of her head, and . . . Jesus Christ . . . is that a tear in his eye?
No, it can’t be.
Is it?
And then, lo and behold, he reaches up and rubs his eye.
Oh my God, Huxley Cane is crying.
“Is that what I think it is?” Lia says quietly.
“If you think Huxley is crying, then you’re right.”
“Wow, never thought I’d see the day.”
“I don’t think anyone did.”
But hell, look at him. Look at Lottie and their excitement. It’s palpable. I can only hope that one day Lia and I will be in the same position. It would be the best future possible.
“Do you think we got to take home croissants because we’re an item now?” Lia asks as I brush her hair out of her face while we lie in bed.
Once we got home from the brunch, which lasted another three hours after the baby reveal, we went straight to my apartment, where I slowly peeled off Lia’s clothes and made love to her. That’s how I see it—making love—because that’s how I fucking feel about her.
“That’s a great observation because Penn and Banner didn’t get to take any home.”
“Oh my God, do you really think it’s a couples’ thing? Are we in some sort of unofficial croissant club now?”
“From Scrabble club to croissant club, look how far we’ve come.”
She chuckles. “Today was kind of crazy, all the announcements, all the questions.”
Lying on my side so I can look at her beautiful face, I smooth my hand over her hip as I ask, “Did they ask about me?”
“Oh yeah. A lot.”
“What kind of questions?”
“The basics. If we kissed, because they knew I was waiting for that, and I told them we kissed under the fireworks at Disneyland. They, of course, all thought you are the better Cane brother.”
“Really?” I ask, a smile on my face.
“Yeah, but then I told them how you’re just okay in bed, and they changed their minds.”
I tickle her side, causing her to laugh as I say, “You did not say that.”
“No, I didn’t. I told them the truth, that you have the biggest dick I’ve ever seen and that it’s almost too big, which makes sex not fun.”
“Fucking liar.” I tickle her again.
“Fine, fine. I told them easily the best sex I’ve ever had.” Pleased, I lean down and press a light kiss to her lips.
“Better.”
“What about me?” she asks as she strokes a strand of my hair. “Would you say that about me?”
“Seriously?” I ask. “Do you really need to ask that?”
She shrugs. “Maybe.”
“Lia,” I say softly as I cup her cheek. “Before you, sex was just a means to an end. There was nothing to it other than release, but with you, it’s completely changed everything about me. The connection we have is so powerful that I feel like I’m in another world when I’m with you. Sex with you is unmatched.”
She smiles. “Wow, you sure know how to make a girl feel good about herself.”
“It’s true, though. Everything is different with you. It’s as if I can see better, hear better, taste better. You’ve brought vivid color into my life, Lia. You’re the one pumping the oxygen through my veins.”
“You mean that?”
“Yes,” I answer.
Her eyes soften as she loops her hand to the back of my head and brings me down to her lips where she kisses me deeply, intimately, with every inch of her body. As our breath becomes ragged, she pushes me to my back and then kisses down my neck to my chest, and then down to my stomach.
She pushes the sheets down with her and exposes my erection, which she takes in her hand and starts pumping as she moves her mouth lower and lower.
“Lia,” I whisper, desperately wanting her to know how she makes me feel.
She doesn’t say anything. Instead, she kneels in front of me and then takes me in her mouth, where she sucks hard on the head of my dick.