“It’s making me crazy that I haven’t properly and publicly claimed you and I’m becoming more obsessive about it by the day.”

“But baby…” she starts. She looks up at me through her thick lashes like she does when she wants me to do what she wants. “I’m not ready.”

My cock jerks in my pants and I reach down as discreetly as possible to adjust myself in an attempt to relieve some tension. “We’re never going to be fully ready to tell them this.”

“What if they disown us?”

“They won’t.” I shake my head at her. “They love us.”

“They won’t love this.” She tucks a long dark brown strand behind her ear.

“Doesn’t mean they’ll stop loving us.”

She furrows her brows and scrunches her nose. Fuck, she’s cute. “I’m not prepared to lose our family.”

“We won’t,” I tell her. “But…I’m ready to start my own family.” I give her a smile. The smile she can’t say no to. “With you.” We’ve had a few talks about children and while she’s still on the pill for the foreseeable future, the idea of children together isn’t that far off.

She visibly shivers and a shy smile finds her perfect pout before a look of worry takes over. “I want that too…I’m just scared.”

“I know, but I’ll protect you, just like I always have. You and me against the world, Gab.”

She snorts. “Yeah, literally.”

“Baby, it’s not going to be that bad.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.”

“How?”

I shrug, preparing to drop a bomb on her that I know she’s not ready for. “Because I already talked to Dad when I bought your engagement ring.”

Her eyes widen. “WHAT?” she screams and the entire restaurant turns to look at her. She looks around and I wave at the people staring as if to say sorry, as you were. “What?!” She repeats, this time at a more reasonable volume. “First of all, Dad knows?” She looks around. “When? How long? And ring? Seriously J, you’re springing this on me in public?”

I can see several different emotions crossing her face from shock to worry to excitement. “Okay, you’re right. Not my best idea.”

“How long has Dad known? And you’re telling me Mom doesn’t?”

“No, Dad does not want to be the bearer of that news. And I told him last weekend while he was here.” Our father had come to the city for a meeting and while the three of us had dinner the night before he left, I had lunch with him the following day while Gabrielle was in class.

“Oh my God, what did he say? How did he take it?”