everyone knows everyone.
“I made the double chip your daughter likes,” I tell him. “Thank you!” I shake my box with excitement, giving him a big smile as a goodbye.
“What the hell is going on?” I spin around to see Clay standing at the door of the truck, glaring at us. He’s got some dirt on his jeans and his shirt has a small rip in it. I always find it extra hot when he shows up sweaty from working all day. He really is a hands-on man.
Mitch mutters a curse. Everyone in town knows how Clay can be. I step in front of him just to be safe and make sure Clay isn't going to come at him like a bull. I hadn't thought about what this might look like until this moment. I was so excited, I just followed Mitch right into his truck.
“This isn't what it looks like,” I rush to say and give my husband the sweetest smile I can muster.
“It looks like my wife is going to get a red ass this afternoon.” A ripple of pleasure spikes through me.
“Clay!” I hiss. “Thanks,” I mutter to Mitch before I give Clay my hand to help me down from the truck. “I was getting my box.”
“Last I heard, they bring those to the door.”
I stick my tongue out at him. “Last I heard, you’re supposed to be at work.”
I’ve got another five minutes until he should be back for lunch, which I forgot to make. I don’t think it matters because the look on Clay’s face says he’s going to be eating me.
“You’re asking for it.” He gives my ass a smack and I let out a yelp.
I take off toward the front door, but not before I hear Clay tell Mitch he better not catch me in his truck again. He’s crazy. Mitch is happily married and has a grandbaby on the way. But I don’t think there is a more possessive husband in the world than mine. He’s lucky I find it endearing.
I clear the threshold of the house, but that’s as far as I make it. I’m lifted off my feet, and I don’t fight it because I learned that lesson long ago. I’m dropped down onto our bed a few moments later and smile up at my husband.
“Spill. You’ve been acting funny,” he says, pulling his shirt off over his head, and my eyes drop to the V that disappears into his jeans. “Dotty,” he warns, and I glance at the box.
He snatches it from me and rips it open in record time. I sit up and snatch it right back. A giant smile spreads across Clay’s face.
“You don’t need a test, babe. You're knocked up.”
“You don’t know that.”
He grabs the test back and tosses it over his shoulder. “You can take it later.” He reaches under my sundress and pulls my panties off before I even know what he’s doing.
“How do you know?”
“Babe, I know your body and you're late.”
I grab him and pull him down on top of me. “You really have given me more than I could have ever dreamed to ask for.”
“The feeling is mutual. I was only passing time until you came along. Now I’m finally living life.” My eyes fill with tears. “Don’t cry on me. You know those tears kill me.” I sniffle, wrapping my arms around him.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” he says before he kisses me.
Clay was right. I was pregnant. And not with just one baby but three. That’s the story of us, we go big or go home, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Epilogue
Clay
Ten years later…
“Go ask your mama to bring me some lunch,” I say to my son Noah as he puts the hammer back in the toolbox and takes off his gloves.
“Yes, sir,” he says, walking over to Otis. “Papa, you wanna ride with me back to the big house?”
Otis smiles and nods as he gets up from his bench in the shade and climbs on the Gator with Noah. Otis is foolish about our babies, and he’s the grandfather I always wanted for them. He’s always showing the boys how to build stuff and take care of the animals. And he’s always going on and on about the girls and how they can cook as good as their mama.
I think about the big house as Noah drives away and how my family’s dream of filling it with children came true. We had the three boys all