Page 39 of Jaxson

“Shut the fuck up, Jaxson. If Kate bought that test for herself, I’m kicking your ass.”

“You’d be kicking the wrong guy. I won’t touch her. She’s more like a sister to me.”

Kate’s mom returned a couple of minutes later. “She bought the test, but it wasn’t for her, it was for a friend, and she refused to tell me who.”

Jaxson looked at Kate’s mom and couldn’t help but wonder if Kate and her mom were on friendly terms. He had never seen the older woman at the shop, helping Kate out. It was as if she had run the fabric shop into the ground and dumped it on her daughter to fix.

There was only one way to handle this, and that was to get in his truck and drive out to the fabric shop.

“Where the fuck are you going?” Cruz asked.

“Fuck off,” Jaxson said.

He should have known that wasn’t going to get him any kind of peace or quiet, as Cruz got into his own truck and started to follow him.

Jaxson put his foot down, making the short distance that would get him to town, so he could see Tillie before she left the fabric shop. His dad had given him the engagement ring passed down from wife to wife, through the generations. It stayed with him at all times as he kept waiting for the perfect time to give it to her. Of course, that hadn’t happened.

He arrived at the fabric shop and saw her car was already parked in the main lot. Jaxson also saw that she was heading out of the shop and had Belle in her arms. Cruz arrived a few moments later, cutting across his view of her, and it pissed him off. He rushed toward her.

“Jaxson?” Tillie asked. “What’s going on?”

“Did you take a pregnancy test?” Cruz asked, his voice booming the question for everyone to hear.

Tillie’s eyes went wide and she looked at Jaxson. “You’re bleeding,” she said, gasping.

“It’s nothing. This asshole came at me, thinking I had knocked up Kate, but you were the one that got her to get that pregnancy test, weren’t you?” he asked. Seeing her right now, he was hopeful.

“Jaxson?” She frowned and looked behind her as Kate came out of the shop, and then she looked toward Cruz, finally toward him. “Yes, I took the test. Kate offered to get it, and—”

“Seriously?” Kate asked. “You know this already? It has been like an hour and a half.”

“Are you?” Jaxson asked, as he was no longer interested in whatever anyone else had to say.

Tillie held Belle in her arms, lifting her bag up so she could rummage around it, and then finally pulling out a pregnancy test stick.

“It’s positive. We’re going to have a baby.”

He took the stick from her hand and looked down at the blue lines that indicated she was going to have a baby. This was everything.

“Marry me,” he said.

“Jaxson?”

He got down on one knee and pulled the ring out of his pocket. “I’ve been wanting to ask you for so long now, and I didn’t know when the right time would be. Work has been crazy busy, and I was trying to figure out how you would like to be proposed to. With lots of flowers, a meal at a restaurant. A dance melody, and yes, I was tempted to do a dance-off to tell you I love you, Tillie Short. I love you and I want to marry you, and yes, I went to your parents’ resting place to ask for their ... blessing.”

“You did?” Tillie asked.

“Yeah, and there was this bird. It was a weird moment, but I got the sense they gave me their agreement, or blessing, whatever you want to call it. I have their blessing, and I can get married to you. I want to get married to you. I want to be a father to this baby, and I want to be your husband.”

“Yes,” Tillie said.

“Yes?” he asked.

“Yes.” She burst out laughing. “Do you think I don’t know how to say yes?”

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for a hug, kissing her at the same time. “I love you, Tillie Short. I love you with all my heart, and I promise you’re not going to regret this.”

****