The Temporary Roomie: Extended Edition (It Happened in Nashville #2)

Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37

Drew

“Well, you pulled it off, man,” Cooper says, clapping me on the back.

We’re standing off to the side of the room, and I can’t take my eyes off Jessie. She’s by the door, wearing the “Baby Mama” sash Lucy made for her and thanking guests on their way out. I haven’t been able to stop watching her and her beaming smile all day. I’m addicted to it now, already planning hundreds of ways I can keep it on her face for the rest of her life.

When I don’t respond to Cooper, he says in a mocking tone, “No, Cooper, it was you and Lucy who did the heavy lifting! I couldn’t have pulled it off without you two!”

I begrudgingly pull my gaze from Jessie. “Sorry. I was distracted.”

Cooper’s eyebrows rise, saying he already knew that. “Yeah, I gathered as much.” He grunts a laugh. “You’ve got it bad. I’ve never seen such a pathetic shmuck.”

“Really? I have—about two months ago, when you were marrying my sister after like two days of dating.”

“It was a month, thank you very much, and I looked hot while smoldering at Lucy. You look dumb.” He makes the most ridiculous puppy eyes, hanging his tongue out and panting.

I shake my head. “I do not look like that.”

Lucy pops up beside me and laughs way too hard for my liking. “Are we impersonating Drew?! Here, let me try!” I can’t even describe the idiotic face she makes. It’s twisted and upsetting, and I just hope to God I don’t actually look like that.

“All right, get out. Both of you. Out of my house.” I point toward the front door, prepared to pick them both up and deposit them on the sidewalk if I have to.

Lucy props her hands on her hips. “Yeah, right! Jessie hasn’t even seen the main surprise yet, and since I was the one who stayed up until midnight last night making it happen, I deserve to see the big reveal.”

Oh geez, I forgot about that. Now my heart is beating so hard I can feel it in my fingers, because knowing Jessie, she could either really love what I’m about to show her or really hate it. I’m prepared for her to take one look and bust a hole through the wall in her need to leave as quickly as possible.

“Hey, preggo!” my sister yells after Jessie closes the door behind the last guest. “Drew has one final present to show you.” Lucy singsongs the words and then shoves me into the middle of the room near Jessie like she’s offering me up to a lion. I flash her a look of warning over my shoulder.

Jessie’s eyes sparkle with amusement as she slowly moves closer to me. “Is it just me, or did she make that sound really dirty?”

“It’s going to sound worse when I tell you to follow me upstairs.”

“Oooh.” She grins and lifts her eyebrows. “Lead the way.”

“Ewww. Is this how it’s going to be from now on? I don’t know that I like it,” says Lucy, following behind us up the stairs. “I haven’t had enough time to adjust. One minute you hate Drew, and the next you’re trying to get him to do unspeakable things with you at your baby shower.”

“I didn’t know there was a baby shower inside, okay?! Leave me alone. Besides, you and Cooper are way worse,” says Jessie.

“I agree,” I say as we reach the top of the steps. “I don’t think I’ve even seen you guys sit in your own chairs yet. It’s really gross.”

Jessie makes an over-the-top gagging face. “Maybe we all need some PDA rules in place.”

“I’ll never agree to the terms,” says Cooper, hooking a finger through one of Lucy’s belt loops so she can’t race past and beat us to the reveal like she’s intending. Lucy pouts and Cooper gives me a Go ahead nod.

And now my palms are sweating worse than they did before my first kiss. (Melissa, I still feel bad about that awful kiss. I’m sorry.) I try to get rid of the sheen on my palms by wiping them on my jeans, but Jessie notices and gives me a wry smile.

“You okay over there?”

“Yeah.” My voice box is a squeaky toy. Nice.

Jessie’s eyes widen because now she knows something serious is about to go down. I’m seconds from changing my mind and finding a potted plant to hand her instead. What if she sees this and thinks I’m insane? What if she hates it? What if . . .

“Drew?” Jessie asks, sounding a little concerned as she takes my hand. “Seriously, are you feeling all right? You’re white as a sheet all of a sudden.”

I clear my throat and nod, putting my hand on the small of her back to push her down the hall a bit. We stop outside the closed second guest bedroom door, and before I have the chance to chicken out, I push it open. Jessie is still smiling at me curiously until her gaze slowly moves to the room and the smile falls from her face.

Oh no.

I knew it.

This is too much too soon.

It was a stupid idea.

She’s going to break up with me.

“Jessie . . . say something . . .” I ask, afraid she’s stopped breathing. I’m going to have to resuscitate her.

She’s motionless, staring at the room, and I’m just about to pull her back out and slam the door with a hundred apologies when I stop short. Her jaw tics and eyes flutter several times like she does when she’s trying not to cry, which is honestly about fifty times a day lately—but are these good tears or bad tears?

“You . . .” She sucks in a breath, then presses her lips together with a shake of her head like she’s not ready to talk yet because she knows a sob will spill out. After another few seconds, she finally looks up at me, her green eyes full of unshed tears, and when a small smile pulls at her mouth I know these are happy emotions. “You made me a nursery?” Her voice cracks and shakes, her joy sitting so fragilely on the surface of her skin that it makes me want to cry too.

I nod just as Jessie’s arms fly around my neck. I wrap her up, trying to pull her as close to me as her belly will allow. “I know there’s a very real chance your house won’t be done in time for the birth . . . and . . . I just wanted you to have a place to bring the baby home to and not feel displaced.”

“Why would you do all of this for me?” she says into my neck.

I pull away enough to look down into her eyes. “Isn’t it obvious? I love you, Jessie. I lo—”

My words are cut off when her mouth crashes into mine. She wraps her arms around my neck again and nearly pulls me over. I spin Jessie around to lean her against the wall.

She smiles up at me in between kisses and whispers, “I love you too.”

I look back and forth between both of her eyes and then dive back down to take her lips, but Lucy interrupts before I get the chance.

“Mm-hmm . . . and we’re the gross ones. Come on, Jessie! Peel that pucker away from my brother and look at this nursery already!”

Jessie laughs and rests her forehead against my chest before sliding out from under my arm to walk around the room with Lucy and admire everything. She cries again when she realizes I bought her the things off of her secret registry we made together, the one she thought only existed so she could go back and buy it all when she got home. The moment she fell asleep that night, I purchased it all and had it overnighted. What’s the point of having an incredible salary if you can’t spoil someone with it?

“Thank you,” Jessie says, looking at me with equal parts awe and terror. I know her—I know it scares her to receive a gift like this from a man, but I plan to show her over the coming days, weeks, months, and years that she can trust me to love her well. To give her gifts not because I need anything from her, not because I’m apologizing for something terrible I did. Just because I love her.

“Yeah, yeah, Drew mashed his finger on the Buy Now button—big whoop! Cooper and I are the real MVPs here,” Lucy states with zero delicacy, making me and Jessie both laugh.

Cooper runs his hand down the gray velvet curtains like he’s modeling them on QVC. “And how about these bad boys? Just take a look at how level that curtain rod is.”

“Did you hang the curtains, Cooper?” Jessie asks, her smile so big and wide I’m sure her cheeks will hurt tomorrow. Good.

Lucy hip-checks him out of the way. “No! I did. He strung the curtains on the rod, but I did all the drilling. Don’t try to steal my spotlight.”

Cooper grins down at Lucy. “I think you’re using the phrase all the drilling a little too liberally.”

“I was the one who held the drilly thing and pushed the button to make it spin.”

“The drill. It’s just called a drill. And I’m the one who put the drywall anchors in, lined up the screw, and held it in place so you could push the button.”

Lucy sticks her tongue out at Cooper, and he narrows his eyes on her mouth, and I’m honestly scared of what’s happening between them right now. It doesn’t feel like animosity, I’ll tell you that much. Jessie gives me a look that says she’s worried too. Jessie swiftly interrupts their weird eye chemistry by hugging Lucy and spilling out all of her gratitude. Their tears are flowing like waterfalls, and that’s when I exchange a look with Cooper that says, Take your wife and get out.

He chuckles and goes over to Lucy, wrapping his arm around her and steering her out of the room while she’s still talking to Jessie. “Okay, and the diapers are in the bottom drawer!” she says over her shoulder as Cooper pushes her from the room like she’s a helicopter mom dropping off her oldest baby at college for the first time.

“Later, man,” he says before they both disappear into the hallway.

And then it’s just me and Jessie. Alone. Finally.

She holds my gaze, and her smile grows slowly, a tilt to it that makes my stomach coil up. “You didn’t have to do any of this, you know.”

“I know.”

“It’s too much.”

“It’s not enough.”

She bites her bottom lip and looks around the room again. “I can’t stop feeling scared of all this.” She says all this but gestures between us, and I know she means our new relationship.

I start closing the gap between me and her. “That’s okay. I’m not asking you to not be scared, because I’m confident you have nothing to be scared of—and I’m excited to prove that to you.”

I run my hand from her shoulder down her arm to intertwine my fingers with hers. Her lashes are cast down, studying where our hands meet. “You’re awfully cocky.”

I grin. “That’s nothing you didn’t already know.”

Her eyes pop up to me, green and sparkling. “I kinda like it.”

Lifting an eyebrow, I step as close as possible to her. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

I lean down and brush my lips over hers, never finding purchase, just taunting and teasing. “How much?”

Her eyes flutter shut and her lips part. “A little.”

I hum and nip at her bottom lip. “How much?”

She grins but keeps her eyes closed. “Some.”

“Not good enough,” I say, gathering her up in my arms and bending down to lay hot kisses up her neck.

“A lot.”

“Better,” I mumble against her jawline, and now she feels like a heavy limp noodle in my arms. “How much?” I ask one more time.

Jessie doesn’t answer me with words this time.