Make Me Hate You(75)

“Do you remember when we were driving down to the Cape for the wedding, and you said maybe we’d come here together one day?”

A flush shaded her cheeks. “I do.”

“Did you really think it would ever happen?”

“No. Did you?”

I smirked, remembering the day like it had just happened — how tired and miserable she’d looked in the passenger seat, yet how gorgeous she always was no matter what. I remembered how I, myself, hadn’t slept, how I was trying so hard to stay away from her, but was hopeless to resist her when she tried to bridge the gap between us like she did that afternoon.

I couldn’t resist her, and I had a feeling that fact would never change.

“Yeah. I really did.”

“No way,” she said, narrowing her gaze. “You had a girlfriend. We hadn’t even kissed or anything at that point.”

“No, but I knew the minute you showed back up in my life that I wouldn’t let you walk away from me again.”

“And you didn’t think we’d just be friends?”

I full-on laughed at that, meeting her gaze with a brow arched high into my hairline. “You. Me. Friends. Okay.”

“Fair,” she agreed on a laugh of her own, but then she tightened her grip on my neck, leaning up to kiss me. “But if you already knew then, why didn’t you just take me?”

“It was a little more complicated than that. You had a boyfriend, too, if you remember correctly.”

At that, she frowned. “We hurt a lot of people, didn’t we?”

“Hey,” I said, tilting her chin with my thumb. “None of that. What happened in the past is just that — the past. And right now, we’re celebrating the future.”

“Oh yeah?” she asked when I pinned her back to the edge of the pool. “And what do you see in our future?”

“Well, first of all, a lot of what happened last night.” I rolled my hips, pressing my erection into her as she laughed, throwing her head back and exposing the neck I loved to bite so much. “After that, I’m thinking a modest house on Lake Tambow, with a dock of our own that we can jump off of any time we want to.”

“And a boat.”

“Definitely at boat,” I said, kissing her neck. “And you’re going to finish your book, and it’s going to sell a million copies, and then you’ll be my sugar mama, and I’ll break Dad’s heart when I tell him I quit.”

“You could never quit,” Jasmine challenged. “You love your job too much.”

“True,” I admitted. “Maybe I’ll just cut down hours, so I have more time to spend with you.”

She smiled, but I didn’t miss the worry that seeped in over her features. “What if I don’t finish my book at all?”

“You will.”

“What if no one reads it?”

“They will.”

She sighed. “How are you so sure?”

“Because I know my girl, and she doesn’t know how to quit. And if by some miracle the book did flop, it wouldn’t matter. It would just fuel your fire to try harder the next time.”

Her smile came back, and she ran her fingers through the damp hair at my neck. “Okay. What else is in our future?”

“A dog. And five kids.”

“Five?” she asked on a laugh.

“At least.”

“And when do we start having these children?”

“Mmm…” I said, looking up toward the blue sky peppered with clouds. “Maybe in a few years, give us some time to travel the world together, and figure out our parenting style with our dog, of course.”

Jasmine chuckled, but then she pushed her sunglasses up onto her head, frowning. “What if we didn’t have time to practice on a dog first?”

“You don’t want a dog?”

“I do, but… I’m just saying… what if it wasn’t a few years from now…” She swallowed. “What if we didn’t even have one full year?”

She froze in my arms, her blue eyes the same color as the water as they locked on mine. She watched me carefully through her lashes as her questions sank in, and I felt my heart beating faster in my chest, pounding out a hard, steady rhythm.

“What are you saying, Jasmine?” I asked. “Are you saying you want to get pregnant?”

“I’m saying… I already am.”

“You…” I shook my head, speechless, and then my hands traveled from where they held her waist to wrap around her stomach. It was still smooth and toned and impossibly flat.

And yet, it wouldn’t be soon.

Everything caught up to me in one crash of emotions, my eyes welling with tears as I pulled her into my chest, hugging her tight, kissing her hair over and over again.

“You’re pregnant,” I whispered, shaking my head. “We’re having a baby.”

“We are,” she said, and her own eyes were blurred with tears when she pulled back and searched my gaze. “Are you okay?”

“Are you fucking kidding? I’m ecstatic.” I reared back, yelling as loud as I could. “We’re having a baby!”

My voice boomed and echoed off the water, and I thought I heard distant claps from the bungalows around us. Jasmine just laughed and shook her head, burying her face in my chest before she peered up at me through wet eyelashes.