Room for Just a Little Bit More(6)

“I’m glad you had such a good day.”

“All right, you crazy kids.” Mom walked over to us with Fred following right behind. “Us old folks are heading to bed. Turn the lights off when you’re done?”

“Got it, Mom.” I yawned, suddenly feeling just as tired as Brody looked.

She leaned over and kissed my forehead before she and Fred disappeared down the hall.

Brody rested his chin on his fist and smiled lazily at me, his beautiful green eyes sparkling. “You look tired too.”

“I wasn’t until you got home.” I yawned again. “Suddenly I’m ready for bed.”

Brody cocked an eyebrow at me as the corner of his mouth pulled up in a sexy smirk. “Ready for bed, or ready for Brody?”

“Well, I meant bed, but I could possibly be persuaded into something else.” I giggled.

“No, if you’re really tired, we’ll just go to bed.”

“I’m tired. I’m stressed. I’m just… blah.”

“Wanna talk about it?” He reached over and squeezed my hand.

I shrugged halfheartedly.

“Come on.” Pulling me to a stand, he held on to my hand and led me to the living room, where we both sat on the couch. He lifted my feet into his lap and started massaging them as he looked at me. “What’s going on? Talk to me.”

“I think Alexa’s comments yesterday are bothering me more than I initially thought.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like a slacker because we haven’t picked the wedding date and location and a dress and everything else, all within forty-eight hours of being engaged.” I sighed.

“Ah.” He nodded. “Those comments. Yeah, I kinda got the same thing from Andy today.”

“You did?”

Who knew guys talked about wedding planning too?

“Yeah, he actually said he got a few e-mails this morning from different places offering to host our reception.”

“Holy shit, seriously? I don’t get it. Why do so many people care where we get married?”

Brody shrugged and shook his head as he continued the best foot massage ever given by any human ever. “Publicity, probably. Then they can forever say they held Brody and Kacie’s wedding there.”

I tilted my head to the side and narrowed my eyes at him skeptically. “Gimmie a break. They don’t care about the Kacie part. They just want to be able to say Brody Murphy got married there. Who you’re marrying is irrelevant.”

“Not to me,” he said sweetly, trying to make me feel better.

“Oh, I know and it’s okay. I couldn’t care less what the public or whoever thinks of our wedding. It’s for us, you and me, and that’s all that matters.”

“I’m glad you feel that way.” He bent his leg under him and turned to face me. “I had a thought while I was driving home.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not eloping.”

“No, no. I know that. But you’re right… about not letting them have our wedding, the paparazzi and leeches who thought it was okay to post a picture of the girls in the newspaper. I don’t want them having any part in our day, so I was thinking, what if we had the ceremony and the reception in my parents’ barn?”

My mouth fell open as he held his hand up. “Don’t freak. Just hear me out. I know it’s a crappy rundown barn, but I was thinking how cool it might look if we hung thousands of little white lights or even candles everywhere, though we don’t want to burn it down, but you get what I’m saying,” he rambled, barely taking a breath. “I can hire a company to come in and clean it up. We’ll rent some tables and chairs and whatever other crap you need for a wedding. Anything you want, Kacie. The sky’s the limit. I just want you to be—”

I put my hand over his mouth to stop the adorable, incoherent sentences that were tumbling out of his mouth.

When he stopped talking against my hand, I lowered it and scooted forward, cupping his face in my hands. I looked him straight in the eye. “Brody, I think that’s the best idea I have ever heard.”

“Really?” His eyebrows shot up in surprise.

“Yes, really. I don’t want our celebration at some stuffy banquet hall where two thousand other people have gotten married. I want ours to be special, and I can’t think of a more special place than your parents’ barn.”

A devilish grin spread across his face. “We do have history in that barn, don’t we?”

“Correction.” I moved closer to him and gently brushed my nose against his. “We almost had history in that barn. The girls came in and interrupted us, remember?”

I gently kissed the corner of his mouth and flicked his lips with my tongue. “How could I forget? I still don’t think my balls have recovered.”

“Oh, please.” I ran my teeth gently along his jawline and kissed just under his ear. “We’ve had sex like five hundred times since then.”

His hand clutched my thigh and squeezed gently as he started breathing heavier. “If you keep kissing me like this and then go to sleep, I’m gonna have navy blue balls all over again.”

“I’m not tired anymore.”

“You aren’t?” Pleasant surprise filled his voice.