“Other Daddy did.”
Matty grinned. “Hey, we brought you back something at least.”
“Well, then I’m sending you three-quarters of my thanks.”
Chuckling, Emma rose to her feet and smoothed down her skirt. “Are you ready to go shopping now, Ivy?” she asked. “Let’s get your princess dress.”
“And a mermaid dress?” She peered up at Emma with the same eyes she used on Matty.
“No, baby,” I said around a bite of the cookie. God, it tasted good. “Remember, we talked about this last night. It’s a flower girl dress. Something very special for your daddies’ wedding.”
She sighed dramatically but nodded. “Okay.”
“Our ride should be here.” Emma held a hand out for Ivy, who took it. “Do you want to ride with us?”
“Nah, we’ll take my truck,” Matty said. “But we’ll go down with you.”
While Emma whiskedIvy off to find her flower girl dress, Matty and I had gone the opposite direction, straight to the men’s boutique where we’d booked our suit fittings. It didn’t take long. Neither of us was fussy. Matty knew his size down to the half inch, and I’d never been one for preening in front of mirrors. A few quick adjustments, a couple of nods from the tailor, and we were done in under an hour.
With time to kill, we walked the block, coffee in hand for me, a lemonade for him. We ducked into a bookstore, browsed shelves we didn’t need, bought Ivy a couple of new mermaid books, and a Kama Sutra book we found that made us both look up and grin at each other. It was easy, domestic, like we’d been doing this for years.
By the time the two hours were up, we were back at thecondo, stepping off the escalator into the lobby. I thumbed my phone, frowning at the empty screen. No messages. No calls. Ivy could be fussy, though she’d been doing so amazingly with new people lately. Maybe because she felt safe, but I had expected Emma to call half an hour into their shopping date to tell us she was crying or demanding to see her daddies.
“Do you think they’re back already?” I asked.
Matty bumped his shoulder into mine. “We’ll find out in a minute. Stop checking your phone. If Mom needed us, she’d have called. She has both our numbers.”
Maybe. But my gut still knotted.
Turned out we reached the condo before they did. The silence was thick when we stepped inside, our footsteps echoing across polished floors. I felt like we were intruders without Emma there. Matty seemed to be able to flow effortlessly between the rancher and the city boy. He was as at home in his mother’s condo as he was knee-deep in muck and cow pie.
“Come on.” Matty tugged my hand toward the glass doors to the balcony. “If you keep pacing like that, you’ll wear a track into Mom’s fancy rug.”
Out on the balcony, the city stretched out in a glitter of sunlight on glass. The air was cooler out there, quiet above the traffic below. We sat together on one of the cushioned chairs, his thigh pressed against mine, his hand finding my knee like it belonged there.
“Nice try.” I swatted away his hand. “We’re not having sex on your mother’s nice chairs. They already look fragile.”
Matty threw his head back and laughed. “Is that what you think this is?”
“It isn’t?”
He got up on one knee, proving me right when he kissedme. Before I could pull away, he upended me on the chair, slanted his lips over mine, and lifted one of my legs so it was hitched on his hip.
“Mmm.” He slid his hand under my shirt and brushed over my abs. He raised his head and smiled down at me. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you this time, not sex you up.”
“In this position? You tease.”
I snipped at his lip with my teeth. “How do you feel about all this? The wedding planning. Still want to marry me?”
“Of course.” I slipped my fingers through the fine hairs at his nape. “Nothing can stop me from marrying you, Matthias Magnuson.”
He huffed out a laugh, brushing a hand down my face. “I don’t regret meeting you, Hudson Granger. Don’t regret being with you, whether that’s four years ago or now.”
My eyes misted, and my nostrils burned. “No regrets?”
“None. We’re right where we need to be, and this is our perfect timing. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I’m resigned to the fact that things had to happen the way they did so we could have Ivy because our lives wouldn’t be the same without her in it.”
“Matty.” I pulled him down to kiss him, wrapping my arms tightly around him. “I love you so fucking much.”
