His head stopped its descent and he said, “Right here, Vi.”

“I liked that but what I have to say right now needs to be between us.”

That tender look left his face and his eyes locked with mine.

“What?”

“Not that the girls can’t know…”

“What?”

“Soon… ish,” I went on.

“Buddy, what?”

“We just gotta figure out... um –”

“Vi…” he was getting impatient, I could tell. He always was when he had to repeat himself which, unfortunately for Joe who lived in a house with three women, was often.

“I’m pregnant.” I blurted and Joe’s entire frame went solid.

Then he whispered, “What?”

“I know it’s soon. It seems my body’s incapable of waiting to get pregnant until after I’ve said any marriage vows but I missed a couple of pills and I thought I caught up but –”

“Vi –”

“I guess I didn’t.”

“Buddy –”

“And this is a lot. I know. The whole mess and then the next mess and then more mess and now this vacation and then you asking me to marry you and now this. The girls, I don’t know –”

“Baby –”

“I’m worried. Only so much they can take. Keira’s been the baby since –”

“Vi. Shut it.”

I shut it and stared at him.

“How pregnant are you?” Joe asked.

“How pregnant can you be?” I answered nervously, not certain about his question and I saw his mouth get tight.

“How many months, Vi?” he continued.

“Eleven weeks,” I answered and his sky blue eyes went unfocused.

“Nearly passed it,” he muttered and I stared.

“Passed what?” I whispered as the three month mark was the mark you couldn’t cross for an abortion and I thought he might be thinking about that. If he was, I would be shocked and it would hurt a lot, too much and furthermore, I couldn’t do that. I thought he wanted a baby and I thought he’d be happy and I wanted a baby if it was our baby and it was. I figured maybe he wouldn’t want it this soon but I thought he’d still be happy.

Though it was too soon. We still hadn’t settled. He’d just proposed the night before.

Well, thinking about it, he seemed pretty settled and the girls seemed okay with everything but it was all still relatively new, living life as us without the cloud of Daniel Hart and the heaviness of mourning shrouding our lives.

“Passed the three month mark,” Joe answered. I thought his answer followed my train of thought and bit my lip.

“Yeah,” I said and his hand pressed gently into my belly as his eyes went there.

“We’ll wait.” His voice was soft and his eyes were still at my stomach.

“For what?” I asked and his gaze came back to my face.

“You two. To get passed the three month mark. We’ll wait until we know it’s all good with you and the baby then we’ll tell the girls.”

I felt a shimmer of electricity against my skin and I whispered, “Joe.”

If I meant to say more I couldn’t have. Something shifted into his eyes and stayed there. Something peaceful and warm and so beautiful, looking at it, I couldn’t breathe.

“Crash,” Joe whispered back and I blinked.

“What?”

“That’s the sound of my side of the scales, buddy,” Joe said and my hand left his at my stomach and went to his scarred cheek.

“Joe,” I whispered again.

“Kid’ll be beautiful,” Joe whispered back.

“Joe,” I repeated.

His hand pressed in at my belly again, a slight movement, a sweet one. “Gorgeous,” he murmured.

“Aren’t you gonna kiss me?” I asked.

“Yep,” Joe answered but didn’t move.

“Well?” I prompted and Joe grinned.

Then he moved but he didn’t move toward my mouth. His hand slid up the tee I was wearing and his head moved to my belly. His arm wrapped around my hip and I watched his dark head bend and felt his nose slide along my skin and then his lips rested there.

That’s when I felt the tears slide out the sides of my eyes.

“You happy, baby?” I whispered my question and his arm at my hip convulsed but his head came up and he looked at me.

“Yeah,” he replied, the word was heavy and it was thick.

Both my hands went to his face and I smiled through my tears.

“Good.”

His head bent again and with my hands still at his cheeks he kissed my belly once more. Then he moved up and rolled, his arm at my hip taking me with him so I was on top. One of his hands slid into my hair and the other one slid into my panties and over my ass.

“Mawdy! Joe!” Kate shouted, Joe’s hands stilled and my head came up but Joe’s eyes went over my shoulder to point in the direction of the door he couldn’t see. “Taylor’s got boogie boards but the water’s cold and he says we need wetsuits. He says there’s a surf place in town where we can get them. He’s gonna take us there. Is that cool?”

“How much do wetsuits cost?” I shouted back and Joe’s hand tensed on my ass and I knew he didn’t care how much wetsuits cost firstly because he tended to get the girls anything they wanted even after we’d had several conversations about him not doing this (conversations he totally ignored) and secondly because them going to town, which was a twenty minute drive away, meant we’d have some serious alone time.

“Don’t know!” Kate shouted back.

“Ask Taylor,” Joe ordered, “my wallet’s on the kitchen counter. Grab the cash you’ll need.”

“Cool!” Kate shouted.

“Joe!” I hissed, looking down at him.

“Baby,” Joe grinned, smiling up at me.

“Oh!” Kate kept shouting. “I sussed it this morning! Taylor’s got the hots for Keirry. Just so you know. I’m Little Miss Matchmaker!” she declared proudly.

At these words Joe got tense and then he knifed to sitting, me astride him. His eyes were pointed at the door and they were narrowed. One look at him and I knew that he hadn’t quite cottoned onto the beach frolicking and teenaged flirting likely because Keira was Joe’s little helper and even though logically he knew she was a teenage girl with a gorgeous face, fantastic hair and a body built for a bikini, illogically he couldn’t conceive of these same things and couldn’t abide a boy-man named Taylor who lived next door acting on liking them.