Page 79 of Anger Bang
“Your mom will be thrilled with that,” Thea said, already planning backup names as she rubbed the belly bump just beginning to protrude.
Kade laughed and blew raspberries on the baby’s tummy. “Your mom will, no doubt, push her classic Hollywood choices.”
It was true. Her mom had lobbiedhardfor Marilyn, Monroe, Cary, or Grant. She’d been less than thrilled with Rex but had eventually relented when she remembered Rex Harrison.
“Meanwhile,” she said, “Dex and Jackie will sit back and let the two moms offer all of their unsolicited naming advice for our next baby in hopes that it gets their attention off the fact that they went with the name Hawkeye for theirs. Very duplicitous of them.”
He shrugged and started the job of getting a new onesie on a squirming baby. “So remind me, why did we all decide to move to the same building in Harbor City when Dex and Jackie got parts in the same theater production?”
“Because we love them.” And now there were weekly family brunches, casual shopping trips, and just hanging out together as the kids napped. “Even though they’re a lot.”
“You know,” he said as he snapped the buttons on Rex’s onesie closed. “I think there’s only one way to get everyone to stop offering up their opinions on baby Raptor.”
Thea giggled and walked over to the playpen, grabbing Rex’s favorite triceratops-shaped rattle. “We are not naming our child Raptor.”
“Good thing I have another plan to distract our moms from their insistence on helping us name the baby.” He picked up Rex and turned him around. “How about a dinosaur-themed wedding?”
Thea was still trying to process the question when she glanced at Rex’s onesie. Then she really looked. It read:Mommy, will you marry Daddy?
Her heart sped up, emotion clogged her throat, and she gasped. Then, a rush of love and excitement and joy crashed over her, so strong that there was no way she’d ever be able to stuff those feelings away even if she wanted to—which she most definitely did not.
“I thought you never wanted to get married?” she finally managed to get out.
Hugging Rex close to his chest, Kade crossed over to her and dropped a quick kiss on her forehead. “That was before I met you.”
“Kade, you don’t have to.” She looked up at him, her heart filling at the offer but not so much that she’d plow over him like people used to do to her. “I’m happy how we are. I love you, and this works for us. You don’t have to marry me to make me happy, and I promise I’ll never leave.”
“I know, but I love you, Thea, and I can’t imagine a day when you aren’t the first person I kiss when I wake up and the last one I hold at night. You are the best thing to have ever happened to me.” He swiped the rattle out of her grasp and gave it to Rex before putting the baby down in the playpen and turning back to her. “Say yes.”
That three-letter answer was on the tip of her tongue, but she hesitated. Was this really what she wanted? To spend the rest of her life with Kade, traveling from dinosaur digs to book signings before going home—together—to Harbor City, where they were surrounded by the families they were born into and the one they were making? A certainty settled in her belly, an undeniable knowledge that she’d never wanted anything more.
“Yes,” she said, then immediately held up her hand to stop whatever he was going to say or do next. “But only on one condition.”
He stilled. “What’s that?”
“We make all the bridesmaids wear inflatable T. rex costumes.”
“That’s only fair,” he said before sweeping her up into his arms and kissing her, sealing the deal and their forever.
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Chapter One
Five Years Ago…
Astrid…
What kind of asshole would dump his fiancée via FaceTime minutes before their wedding ceremony was about to begin?
That wasn’t the kind of question Astrid O’Malley had ever thought to ask herself—especially not when her best friend was fastening the eighty-two million buttons going up the back of Astrid’s wedding dress, which hadn’t been worn since her mom walked down the aisle.
She hadn’t considered it when she’d lifted her mimosa glass and blinked back tears—never trust waterproof mascara against the power of bridal tears—when her dad ended his pre-ceremony toast by telling her that her mom was with her in spirit and would be so proud of the woman she’d become.
It hadn’t even been a flicker of an idea when Tig Jones’s face had popped up on her phone screen as an incoming FaceTime call. Instead of an uneasy feeling ofoh-fucktaking her stomach down to her toes, she’d dipped into the attached bathroom of the First Methodist’s Sunday School classroom, where the bridal party was doing last-minute makeup touchups. Holding her million-mile veil (going by what her dad had told her growing up and the pictures she’d seen, restraint had never been her mom’s style), she’d popped in her earbuds as she stood in front of the child-sized sink and aimed her phone camera at the mirror that only captured her from the boobs down before hittingjoin call.
She set her mimosa glass down on the counter, accidentally on purpose leaning forward to give Tig a better view of how good her boobs looked in this dress, and asked,“If you can’t see my face that doesn’t count as really seeing me, right?”
