Delaney's POV:

"I know we talked about telling the kids when we got to the beach house but I don't think I can wait that long." I said excited from the passenger seat of my SUV. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I was carrying three little lives inside of me. One would have been a blessing. Two would have been an even bigger one. But three? Well, that was nothing short of a miracle. A miracle that I was ecstatic about. Sure, having three kids at once, on top of the four that Brantley and I already have between the two of us was going to be a learning adventure, but it was one that I was more than ready to take on.

Now, after they are born and all three are screaming in the middle of the night while I'm utterly exhausted from a day of work and raising kids might be a different story. And even if it is hard on me, I'll never take any of this for granted.

"I don't want to wait either," said Brantley, taking his eyes off the road only for a moment to look at me, a huge smile spread across his face.. "I want to shout it from the damn roof tops."

"Want to tell everyone when we get to your mama's?" I asked. "Pretty sure Mama and Daddy both are over there."

"Absolutely. I just need to call dad and Kolby, see if they can meet us there."

"Okay."

I sat, looking out the window as the landscape passed me by outside as Brantley made his calls. Not for the first time since reconnecting with Brantley, I thought about how different my life is with him, about how lucky I am to have a man in my life that loves me with his whole heart. I know it sounds cliche to say but it makes love feel even more special when you know that the feelings you have for someone are reciprocated, that the love you have for someone is given back to you just as strongly as you can give it. To say it's a big change from what I thought love was just a year ago is a gross understatement.

"Whatcha thinkin' about so hard over there." said Brantley, lifting our connected hands from the console and to his lips, placing a kiss on my knuckles. I'd been so lost in my thoughts that I didn't even realize that he had finished making all his calls.

I turned to him, a smile on my face. "Just thinking about love and life."

"Well, if that smile on your face is any indication, it means that you are happy."

"B, I'm so much more than happy. I honestly don't think there is even a word in existence that covers just how happy I am."

"Same here, baby."

"And it's all because I came home to lick my wounds after my divorce."

And here I was thinking it was because of your inability to tell Chloe and Colt no when it came to them wanting a puppy."

"That too." I smiled. "I didn't know it that day but those puppies were the beginning of some of the best days of my life. There have been some bumps for sure but that day, reconnecting with you, getting to live out high-school-me's dreamt up life everyday for these past few months have been a literal dream. You have shown me what it means to be loved and to love someone so deeply. You have shown me how a woman is supposed to feel loved and cherished. You've shown my kids what a father is supposed to be. And for all of that B, I will love you for the rest of my life."

"Then marry me, Delaney."

Brantley's words made my heart skip a beat. Did I hear him correctly? Did he just...

"Yes, Laney. I really said it." Said Brantley, seemingly reading my thoughts.

"B, I–do you think–"

"The only thing I think right now is that I want you to be my wife." said Brantley, cutting me off, pulling the SUV off to the side of the interstate. Outside, cars sped past us, but I didn't even notice. All I could think about was what he was asking, and the fact there wasn't even a doubt in my mind as to how I would answer that question –once I could get my mind and my mouth on the same page so that I could tell him.

"Right now, all I can think about is the fact that I want you as the mother to my kids, I want you to be my wife when our children are born. I want to wake up every single day with you in my arms and go to bed with you every single night for the rest of my life. I want family dinners around the dining room table. I want christmases spent around the fireplace as we watch the kids open their gifts. I want it all with you Delaney. I want the happily ever after, the good days, the bad days, the ups and downs. I want you by my side in everything in my life. I want to be by your side for everything in yours. Togetherness baby, that's what I want. I want to take two broken families and make them one big happy blended one that loves one another and would do everything for one another. I. Want. It. All. I know that you might not be ready for that yet, that things might be moving faster that what you think is appropriate, but I mean it Laney, I want everything with you and that starts this weekend if you will let me make it happen."

Tears were falling down my cheeks in little rivers at his words. Hearing him say them had been something that high school me would have thought she would only hear in her dreams. But hearing them now, having him look at me with so much love for me in his eyes, it was so much better than anything that I could have imagined.

"Yes, B. God, yes!" I said, flinging myself over the console and into his waiting arms.

Brantley slammed his lips down over mine, kissing me senseless then. Hands roamed, teeth nipped, and love blossomed right there on the side of the interstate.

"I meant what I said, Baby. I want you as my wife before the babies are born." said Brantley when he broke the kiss. "And I can't think of a better setting for a wedding than a sandy beach in North Carolina. I'll rent out every house on the island so that everyone can be there if that's what you want, baby. Just say the word and I'll make it happen."

"It's a race weekend. Chase –well, Clyde– and Ryan wouldn't be able to make it. And neither would Amanda and Layla since they would be at the track with their husbands." I said, remembering that Amanda told me earlier today that the guys were in Kansas this weekend.

"Planes, baby. They fly everywhere. If you want them there, they will be there." Said Brantley.

"B, I–"

"I'll make it happen, Laney." he whispered, pressing his lips against mine, silencing me.

"Okay."

"Okay." he replied. "Now, let's go tell our families to pack a bag because they have a wedding to attend."

"How do you think that mama and Becky are going to react to the news? I mean we're about to tell them about an impromptu wedding and the fact that they are about to become grandparents to three children at once. It's a lot of news, B." I said.

And then it dawned on me. Daddy was as old fashioned as they come for the most part. He would want Brantley to ask for my hand in marriage. Brantley spitting the words out in a spur-of-the-moment type way was as far from what daddy would want as possible.

"B, did you ask daddy if you could marry me?"

"I didn't have to." he said, that cocky smirk on his face. "He told me the day that you all came and picked out the puppies that I needed to prove to you that I am a man that deserves happiness, that I am not the same badass kid I was back in high school. Said that I had proved it to the whole town so it was time that I prove it to someone that I felt a connection with. He told me that when I did, he would be more than proud to call me his son in law."

"He said that?"

"He did."

"So he knew that you and I would end up here?"

"I think he did, baby." he said, his fingers tightening around mine for a brief second. "Hell, I think all of Jefferson knew years ago that you and I would find our way to one another when the time was right."

"I wanted that time to be so many years ago"

"Things would have just ended badly had we gotten together when we were young," said Brantley. He shifted in his seat as if what he was about to say next was making him uncomfortable. And I understood why when he continued. "I was too much of a stubborn shit to see that my ways were hurting me and those around me. I didn't care about anything but the high that the drugs gave me and doing music. And for a long time, I thought that in order to have one, I needed the other. That thought process was why I got as bad as I did, why I refused to see that I had a problem. Because of all that, if Amber hadn't been in the picture and I had pursued something with you, you would have been one of those that got hurt when I was spiraling. It's bad enough that I hurt Amber back then and I thank the lord above that he planned everything out so that I got a second chance with her. If he hadn't, I wouldn't be the man I am today and I wouldn't have two awesome kids to show for it all either."

"Everything does happen for a reason." I said, a smile on my face and love for the man sitting in the driver's seat in my heart.

"That it does, baby. That it does."