The Proposal & Solid Soul - Brenda Jackson [65]
The dress she was wearing was beautiful and the style hid the little pooch of her stomach. The doctor had warned them that because of the way her stomach was growing they shouldn’t be surprised if she was having twins. It would be a couple of months before they knew for sure.
“Do you want to go somewhere for tea…and me,” Jason leaned over to whisper close to her ear.
Bella smiled up at him. “Think we’ll be missed?”
Jason chuckled. “With all these Westmorelands around, I doubt it. I don’t even think your parents will miss us. Now they’re standing over there hanging on to Sheikh Jamal Yasir’s every word.”
“I noticed.”
Jason then took his wife’s hand in his. “Come on. Let’s take a stroll around our land.”
And their land was beautiful, with the valley, the mountains, the blooming flowers and the lakes. Already he could envision a younger slew of Westmorelands that he and Bella would produce who would help take care of their land. They would love it as much as their parents did. Not for the first time he felt as if he was a blessed man, his riches abundant not in money or jewelry but in the woman walking by his side. His Southern Bella, his Southern beauty, the woman that was everything to him and then some.
“I was thinking,” he said.
She glanced over at him. “About what?”
He stopped walking and reached out and placed a hand on her stomach. “You, me and our baby.”
She chuckled. “Our babies. Don’t forget there is that possibility.”
He smiled at the thought of that. “Yes, our babies. But mainly about the proposal.”
She nodded. “What about it?”
“I suggest we do another.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “I don’t have any more land or another horse to bargain with.”
“A moot point, Mrs. Westmoreland. This time the stakes will be higher.”
“Mmm, what do you want?”
“Another baby pretty soon after this one.”
She chuckled again. “Don’t you know you never mention having more babies to a pregnant woman? But I’m glad to hear that you want a house filled with children because I do, too. You’ll make a wonderful father.”
“And you a beautiful mother.”
And then he kissed her with all the love in his heart, sealing yet another proposal and knowing the woman he held in his arms would be the love of his life for always.
SOLID SOUL
To Gerald Jackson, Sr., my husband and hero.
To my sons, Gerald and Brandon,
who constantly make me proud.
To my agent extraordinaire, Pattie Steele Perkins.
To my editor, Mavis Allen, who asked me
to be a part of the Kimani Romance line.
To my readers who have supported me
through forty books.
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper
and be in good health, even as thy soul prospereth.
—3 John 1:2
PROLOGUE
“MY MOM NEEDS TO GET a life!”
With a sigh of both anger and frustration, fifteen-year-old Tiffany Hagan dropped down into the chair next to her friend, Marcus Steele.
“I thought you said that the reason you and your mom moved here to Charlotte a few months ago was for a better life,” sixteen-year-old Marcus said after taking a huge bite of his hamburger as they sat in the school’s cafeteria.
Tiffany rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s what I thought, but now it seems that her idea of a better life is making mine miserable. Just because she got pregnant at sixteen doesn’t mean I’d go out and do the same thing. Yeah right! I don’t even have a boyfriend and if she keeps up her guard-dog mentality, I never will. She needs a life that doesn’t revolve around me.”
“Good luck in her getting one,” Marcus said, taking a sip of his soda. “My dad is the same way, maybe even worse. He’s so hell-bent on me making good grades and getting into an Ivy League college that I barely have time to breathe. If it weren’t for my three uncles I probably wouldn’t be playing