Finding You

Luke stood with Libby in his arms as his hands rested on her pregnant belly as their daughter ran in circles around them. Libby was due tomorrow and everyone was holding their breath she made it through tonight.

Will and Alex were next to her parents, Gunner and Ellie. Taylor was standing next to her parents, Brad and Amanda, as she kept pointing up and laughing. I think out of all the girls, Taylor was by far the most innocent, and the one who had a heart of gold.

Meagan stood next to Grace and me as she shot daggers at the girls who were falling all over Gray. Laughing, I shook my head as I watched Meagan look away in disgust.

Yep. This night was perfect.

When the fireworks ended, Grace turned around in my arms and smiled up at me.

“Should we keep it our secret?” Grace asked as she lifted her eyebrows.

Letting out a quick breath, I glanced around at everyone again. Shaking my head, I said, “I want to shout it from the rooftops, Grace.”

Giggling, she nodded and said, “So do I.”

“Let’s do it then,” I said as I pulled Grace over to my truck. Lifting her up, I set her in the bed of the truck as I ran over and honked the horn.

Everyone turned and looked at Grace as she said, “Ah . . . hold on. Noah?”

Jumping into the bed of the truck, I stood next to Grace. “Grace and I wanted to first say thank you to everyone for spending your New Year’s Eve here with us and ringing in the New Year. It meant a lot to us to have you all here.”

Cheers erupted as well as some loud whistles.

“Second!” Grace shouted as she took my hand. “We figured since we had y’all in one place, we’d share some news we just found out today. It’s a bit out of the normal, but we were both too excited not to share it.”

“Jeff passed down his T-shirt collection to Noah?” Gunner shouted as everyone laughed. Laughing, I pointed to Jeff who gave me a thumbs-up.

Grace chuckled and said, “No . . . but unfortunately I’m afraid my father has rubbed off some on my husband.”

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart!” Ari called out.

Grace looked at me as she took my hand in hers and asked, “Are y’all ready to hear the news?”

My eyes landed on Ari and Jeff. They held each other as Ari wiped a tear from her eye and Jeff stared at Grace.

“Tell us already, Grace!” Alex shouted.

Grace laughed and then shouted out, “Noah and I are expecting a baby.”

Cowboy hats went flying and cheers erupted as Jeff walked up and reached for Grace. Lifting her down from the bed of my truck, he held her tightly as Grace softly cried into his chest. I jumped down from the truck bed as Ari walked up to me and gave me a smile I don’t think I’ll ever forget. “Congratulations sweetheart.” Taking me in her arms, she held me tightly.

Knowing this wasn’t going to be easy, I tried to push my fears away. I was already scared to death for both Grace and our child. Grace had already told me she was nervous but wasn’t going to walk on eggshells. We needed to have faith and that was what we were going to do.

It felt like our wedding day all over again. Everyone came up and gave each of us a hug and said congratulations. The last two people to approach us were Grams and Gramps.

Gramps hit me on the back and said, “Stop by tomorrow, son. We’ll play a game of dominos.”

Knowing I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to spend time with Gramps, I nodded and said, “I’ll be there, sir.”

Grams cupped Grace’s face and kissed her gently on the forehead. “I’m going to say it’s a girl.”

Grace chuckled. “What makes you say that?”

Giving Grace a wink, Grams smiled and said, “I have my ways.” Laughing, I shook my head. Ari always said that Grams had a sixth sense when it came to knowing things before anyone else did.

Wrapping my arms around Grace, I said, “As long as he or she is healthy, I don’t care.”

Grace scrunched her nose up and said, “Me either. But I’m totally okay if Grams is right.”

Laughing, I pulled Grace closer to me and kissed her as Luke yelled out, “Get your paws off my sister!”

For the next two and a half hours we told stories, laughed, ate s’mores and each person made resolutions for the upcoming year.

By the time Grace and I got up to our bedroom, we both face planted onto our bed and didn’t move.

“Too tired to move,” Grace said.

“Let’s just sleep like this,” I mumbled into the bed.

Grace giggled and said, “Or we could get naked and have hot sweaty sex.”