Before You Go Read online

  "Oh, sweetie, I understand." Jocelyn's whole demeanor changed as she stepped up to embrace Laurel in a long hug. There wasn't an ounce of anger left once Laurel took responsibility for the lack of invite. Seriously, I was pretty sure Jocelyn liked my new wife more than she liked me.

  I scoffed, a sound that made both women turn to glare at me. I lifted my shoulders sheepishly. No way in hell was I going toe-to-toe with the two of them. Laurel had calmed my beast of a sister, I decided to just be grateful for that.

  "Now that that's out of the way," Jocelyn said, "I also wanted to thank you for not price gouging me on this house. I'm glad Drew will be able to stay here while he's in school; but if the realtor hadn't eased up when she did, I was getting tempted to tell the little shit he was on his own."

  "No worries. We got more than enough to pay for the new house, that was all I really cared about."

  Laurel smirked. "Has he found a roommate yet?"

  Jocelyn pulled an unpleasant face, which was answer enough. She'd caved and ended up buying my house in Kelley so that Drew could keep living there while he was in school. The caveat was that he had to pay rent, which meant he needed a roommate to afford it. So far, every applicant he met he dismissed out of hand. I'd missed most of the spectacle, but Laurel kept me up to date with each potential roommate failure. It was comical, really.

  "Actually, now that you mention it, I think he's due for a little chat from mommy dearest." Jocelyn's eyes were fiery as she turned to go in search of her son. I didn't envy him at all.

  With the room cleared, Laurel found her way back over to me. She slid her arms around me and squeezed. "Imagine what she would have said if I told her the truth—that you were the one that refused to wait." She let out a soft giggle, completely aware of how much my sister favored her.

  "There's a good chance you'd have been walking out of here a widow today."

  She scrunched her nose and I kissed the tip of it softly. Anything more than that and I was worried we would get sidetracked before we finished getting the house cleared out. For seven and a half long months we'd done the long-distance thing, visiting when we could and relying on near constant video-chatting the rest of the time. I was beyond ready for the two of us to get settled into our new house.

  I lived in the house the school supplied me until the end of my first semester teaching at CMSU. The very next day, Laurel came down so we could choose a house together. Both of us needed that, to put down more permanent roots for ourselves after all the uncertainty we endured over the course of our relationship. I meant to properly propose when we got back to Kelley to pack up the old house, but somehow we'd ended up at the courthouse instead. Laurel was right, I didn't want to wait. We had already spent more than enough time waiting for each other. I didn't need any more time to know what I wanted—and luckily neither did she.

  "We really should get the rest of this stuff moved," I said reluctantly.

  "Okay." She took a few steps towards the door but then paused just as I started to follow. "Hey, are you sure you cleaned out all the drawers in that thing?" she asked.

  I glanced at it, but I knew for a fact I cleaned everything out when I moved for the new job. "Yeah."

  "Are you sure? Because I thought I saw something that got left in that bottom drawer."

  Puzzled, I kneeled towards it. "That's weird. I even re-checked it twice." I yanked it open by the handle and froze. Staring up at me was a white piece of plastic, one that I knew exactly what it was. My eyes flew up to meet her teary ones. "You're…?"

  She nodded, the tears spilling over. "We're pregnant."

  I jumped up so fast my head spun as I rushed to gather her up in my arms. She shrieked as I lifted her straight off the ground. "You're perfect," I whispered against her neck. "This is perfect."

  Grinning, Laurel pushed against my chest until I put her back down. She sashayed over to the office door and firmly shut it. I'd never seen her look sexier than she did as she came back and leaned over the desk towards me.

  "I'm sure the others wouldn't mind a little break from all the packing and moving. What do you say we celebrate?" she suggested, running her hand over the desk so there was no question what she was offering.

  I was one lucky fucking man.

  * * *

  Also by Meredith St. James

  One Good Play

  One Wrong Move

  * * *

  Subscribe to the 737 Brass Books newsletter to be the first to hear about new releases and special offers.