Lead Me Home (Fight for Me #3)(116)

Turned out, she wasn’t so bad after all.

I laughed. “Oh man, I do miss my wine.” Tenderly, I ran my hand over my belly. “But she is definitely worth it.”

Yep.

She.

Just like Ollie had insisted since the day we found out.

He may have been a bear before, brash and protective and nothing but a brute, but he’d taken it to all kinds of new levels. Watching over us so carefully, love shining so bright in his blue eyes.

Sometimes I still woke wrapped in his arms and thought I was dreaming, having wanted this for so long, tied to a man in such an intrinsic way, that it didn’t seem real.

Then he’d tuck me close, and it’d all come rushing back.

He was mine, and I was his.

“Is there a cool place we can put the cake?” Hope asked Cece.

Cece grinned. “Tell me that cake is complements of A Drop of Hope.”

Hope laughed a light sound. “Well, of course it is. As if I’d trust anyone else to make the cake for Ollie’s big day. I mean, unless he wanted a pie,” she teased.

Sometimes I wondered how there wasn’t a baking war going on between Rynna and Hope.

“And it doesn’t even have sticks with pictures of Ollie on it.” Sadly, Jenna shook her head. “What a shame.”

“Don’t even remind me of you going and pulling that with Kale. Putting pictures of my man on cupcakes for all the girls to devour. That’s sacrilege.”

“Um, those cupcakes were delicious,” I told her. “Everyone needs a little sex on a stick.”

She shooed me. “You’ve got your own man, Nikki. Don’t be licking on mine.”

“But I don’t have one,” Jenna whined.

“Me, neither,” Cece called.

“Y’all are ridiculous.” Hope was laughing when she took the cake from Jenna as if she no longer trusted her with it. “Where to?”

Cece lifted her chin. “Go through the swinging door there. Cleared a spot in the refrigerator.”

“Thank you.”

Hope waddled her way back there just as the band was striking up.

Ollie’s favorite.

Carolina George.

One of his oldest friends was the guitarist, and it only made sense for me to invite them.

I rubbed my palms together. “Am I missing anything?”

Cece squeezed my shoulder as she strutted by. “You’re good, Nik. Ollie’s gonna love it. Relax.”

“Thank you.”

Didn’t mean I wasn’t totally nervous. This was his first birthday that we’d really been together, and I wanted him to remember it forever.

What life was like when it really started.

Guests started showing up at a quarter to six. My mama and then my grandma in her wheelchair, which just made my heart sing.

Sammie and her husband were next, Penelope at home with a sitter. Even though we were in Alabama, we definitely didn’t need any babies hanging out in the bar.

Lily and Broderick walked through the door with Rynna.

Some of Ollie’s friends, guys from the bar and the shop that he had a partnership with came as well.

My heart stammered when I saw who warily came through the door, nervous as her gaze jumped around the bar.

Ollie’s mama.

I eased that way. “Margaret, I’m so glad you’re here.” I gripped both of her hands between mine.

“Thank you for inviting me.”

“Of course.”

Their relationship had a long way to go, but when Ollie had started counseling to work through his lingering guilt over Sydney, his therapist had urged him to make peace with his mother.

Even if she didn’t accept it, he had to seek it.

Come to terms with it.

Forgive himself.

She’d broken down when he’d reached out, also haunted by their separation.

Sometimes forgiveness took time, but they were well on their way.

Ten more minutes passed, and we all gathered together when Hope got a text from Kale that they were almost there.

I held on to Lily and Hope’s hands when we saw the guys walking up the sidewalk, laughing and joking, Ollie thinking they were coming in to share a beer before they went on their own way.

They opened the door and stepped inside, and everyone yelled surprise.

But they weren’t looking at Ollie.

They had all of a sudden all turned to look at me.

They made a circle around me, a gap at the front as Ollie slowly approached me.

He tipped me up a cocky, gorgeous smile. His beard was a little shorter, hair neat, definitely not wearing the jeans he’d been wearing when he left this morning.

Instead, he wore a fitted button-up with the sleeves rolled up his forearms, flashing the ink that danced above his muscle like the beat of the song that was quietly playing.

A tremble of something rippled through the air.

Something so big.

And I didn’t know why, but a tear slipped from my eye.

“Ollie,” I whispered, looking around at everyone who was grinning.

“Nikki.”

He started moving my direction, a grin on his striking face but the world in his eyes.

That’s what he was.

My great big world.

“It’s your birthday,” I whispered like I was issuing some kind of plea, trying to catch up to what was happening.