The Lemon Sisters (Wildstone #3)(98)

“I know.” He smiled. “But it’s nice to hear you say it.” He sank his fingers into her hair and met her gaze. “I love you, too, Brooke.”

She grinned. “I know.”

A laugh escaped his chest as everyone crowded back into the room. Snoop reached them first and jumped up to join the embrace.

Mason hit them next and began climbing up Snoop to get to Garrett. Garrett scooped the kid up and bent again for Maddox. Brooke got Millie.

“Are you going to have kids?” Millie demanded to know.

Garrett smiled into Brooke’s face. “Maybe we’ll just share you and your brothers.”

“You can have one of them!” Millie said. “Take both!”

“Millie,” Mindy said.

Millie shrugged, like, I tried, right?

Then Mindy and Linc joined the group hug, and Garrett’s dad, and Tommy. Cole had made himself scarce, and Brooke understood. “Thanks for being here,” she told them all, her tribe, having to swallow past the threat of tears. “Thanks for coming for me.”

“Always,” Garrett said, his warm eyes and the way he held her, along with the huskiness in his voice, telling her how very much she meant to him.

“Always!” Mindy murmured as well, and Linc nodded.

“Always!” Millie mimicked.

“Always!” Mason yelled.

Maddox tipped his head back and howled.

“So it’s unanimous,” Garrett said. “To always, for forever and ever.”

Brooke’s breath caught. “For forever and ever.”





Epilogue


Two years later

“I’m going to smother you with a pillow.”

Summer had hit early and hard, leaving the patrons of Wildstone hot, sweaty, and grumpy as hell. It amused Brooke, because she could remember her years traipsing across the planet to places that had been hotter than hell with no air-conditioning, much less electricity. So she ignored all the bitching and told everyone to suck it up.

Except for Mindy. Whenever Mindy got uncomfortable, Brooke moved heaven and earth to help her. In fact, she stepped out the back door with a tray for her sister, carrying slices of her sweet lemon bread and a fresh pitcher of lemonade, the ice clinking gently against the glass.

“You’re an angel.” Mindy sighed from where she was stretched out on a lounge chair. “But I’ve got to pee.”

“Again?” Brooke asked in disbelief. “It’s been five minutes.”

Mindy grimaced and waved a hand for help up, which Brooke gave because her sister was about a million years pregnant.

With Brooke and Garrett’s baby.

When Mindy had first offered to be a surrogate for them a year after their wedding, Brooke had been stunned. But the idea was appealing because she had viable eggs—she just couldn’t carry a baby.

But Mindy could. And she claimed that Brooke had helped her find her happy and she just wanted to give something back, something Brooke was missing.

It took a minute for Brooke to hoist Mindy out of the chair, and it was no easy feat. She didn’t dare grunt with the effort, but Mindy managed a breathless laugh anyway. “I know, I’m the size of a house. Pass the sweet lemon bread. I’m starving.”

Brooke eyed her sister’s hugely swollen belly with no little amount of alarm. “Where are you going to put it?”

“Funny. Maybe I’m growing two babies in there, you ever think of that?”

Even knowing it wasn’t true, Brooke felt herself pale. “That’s just mean.”

Mindy smirked and then stilled. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh, what?”

Water suddenly cascaded down the inside of Mindy’s legs. Brooke looked down at it and then at Mindy. “What’s that?”

“My water breaking.” Mindy sighed dramatically. “Dammit! Hey, hand me that sweet lemon bread before the guys find out I’m in labor and tell the doctor, because she won’t let me eat until I push your baby out my vagina.”

Brooke stared at her sister in horror. “You’re in labor?”

“Yes.” She smiled. “And you’re in shock, otherwise you would have yelled at me for saying ‘vagina.’”

“Stop talking and concentrate on my baby!” Brooke searched her pockets for her phone. “Don’t panic, we’ve got a plan.” Suddenly she was the one breathing like she was in labor. One, two, three, four . . . One, two, three, four . . . “Garrett’s going to drive us. Linc will wait for Brittney to come watch the kids and then meet up with us at the hospital.”

“Take your time, this baby’s certainly going to,” Mindy said, her mouth sounding full.

Brooke whipped back around and found her sister shoving sweet lemon bread into her mouth with alarming speed. She snatched the plate away. “The second my baby is out of you, I’m going to smother you with a pillow.”

Mindy sighed. “You’re not a lot of fun when you’re having a baby.” But then she gasped, grabbed Brooke in a death grasp, and doubled over. “Oh, shit. I always forget how much it hurts.”

“Oh my God. Okay, you’ve got two choices. Stuff your face, or get to the hospital and get drugs.”

“Hospital, please,” Mindy said through clenched teeth. “Shit. Definitely yes to the drugs.”