He pursed his lips up in thought and looked like he was thinking it over. "No, I'm sorry. That's just not going to work for me, Joe. I'm afraid I'm going to need an answer."

"What if I give you the wrong answer?" she asked, feeling her lips twitch.

"Then I guess I'll just have to keep you strapped to that board until you give me the right one," he said, cupping her face in his hands.

"Oh? And what's the right answer?"

"That you'll marry me and make me whole, Joe," he said on a reverent whisper.

"And if I don't?" she asked, her voice breaking as joy like nothing she'd ever known before surged through her body.

He shrugged even as he brushed his lips against hers. "Then I'll just have to stuff worms down your shirt until you say yes."

"I'll just make you eat them," she pointed out, smiling even as more embarrassing tears streamed down her face.

He chuckled softly against her mouth. "Marry me or I'll have my big brother beat you up."

"He's a pushover," she felt obligated to point out.

"Fine," he said, smiling. "Marry me and I'll finally get you that steak dinner I promised you."

She pretended to think it over for a minute before asking, "Can I have an appetizer with it?"

"Will you give me children?"

"Maybe," she said coyly, trying not to grin hugely at the thought of having his babies.

"Then mabye," he conceded slowly.

"And dessert?"

He sighed heavily as he pulled back to look in her eyes. "Will you put out at least five times a week if I do?"

She nodded. "I'll put out twenty times a week if I can have ice cream with it."

"Then you can have ice cream, you little gold digger," he said with a putout sigh.

"Then my answer is yes," she said, not even caring that she was crying anymore as he leaned in and kissed her. She was happy, but more importantly she was his.

Epilogue

Four years later.......

"He's going to kill her," Joe felt obligated to point out as they watched in fascination as Nathan's eyes darted from his butter knife to the latest harpy Alice tried to set him up with.

"But it will entertain us and really that's all that matters," he said as Emily, their two year old rambunctious daughter, climbed onto his lap.

Eric adjusted her on his lap so that she was sitting on his knee and close enough to steal his dessert without falling. He kept one hand pressed against his little girl's tummy as he returned his arm to lie across the back of Joe's chair. She shifted uncomfortably on the chair as she rubbed her large stomach.

"Are you okay?" he asked for probably the hundredth time since he got off work and picked her and Emily up.

"I'm fine," she said, giving him a tight smile.

He moved his arm from the back of her chair to place his hand on her stomach. "Is he giving you problems?" he asked, rubbing his hand soothingly over her stomach, chuckling when his little boy decided to follow the moves with little kicks that his mother probably didn't appreciate.

"He's just really active today," she said, pushing her plate of triple fudge cake towards Emily only to have it snatched up.

Eric watched in amusement as his brother dug into the cake. "I need it more than she does," Nathan grumbled and Eric couldn't agree more. The woman was an annoying pain in the ass and Eric had to wonder where the hell his mother kept finding these women. Seriously, after all these years she should have run out of available annoying woman, but not yet.

Of course he also knew that if their mother didn't have a strict no drinking policy when Emily was in the house that Nathan would probably be drunk off his ass by now.

"What is it that you said you did again?" the woman, whom he didn't even bother learning her name, demanded suddenly.

It wasn't until he looked away from his brother pouting that he realized that she was speaking to him. She was a beautiful woman, of course she had nothing on his Joe, but she was stuck up and rude in his opinion at least. She hadn't felt the need to acknowledge him or Joe with more than a murmured hello two hours ago. Instead she spent the entire time giving Nathan as much attitude as she could muster while their mother fretted around the kitchen nervously.

"Drug lord," Eric answered, chuckling when Joe poked him in the ribs. Nathan smiled for the first time since this dinner from hell started and their mother even cracked a smile, but not the ice princess. She simply glared at him.

"He's a paramedic for the city," his mother felt obligated to explain. "He's also a field supervisor," she said proudly, making him roll his eyes. The woman did love to brag.

"But I'm still his boss," his beautiful wife pointed out teasingly.

The woman shifted her eyes over to Joe and blinked as if she'd just realized his wife was there. How she could have missed Joe with that huge stomach he'd never know, but she looked genuinely surprised to see her. Then again most women took one look at his wife and easily dismissed her. They were all idiots. His wife was f**king hot and he knew it and so did most of the guys much to his horror.

It was one thing being married to the hottest woman on earth, but it was quite another for other guys to notice as well. Even after four years of marriage it still pissed him off when he caught some ass**le checking her out, not that he could blame them, but still......

"She's a supervising dispatcher for the city," his mother said proudly as she sent Joe a fond smile.

"Oh," the woman said, not sounding too impressed. Not that he was a snob or anything, but he really didn't think a woman who worked at the mall customer service counter had any business looking down her nose at anyone.

"Grandma?" Emily said, drawing his mother's attention.

"Yes, pumpkin?" she asked, giving Emily the smile reserved solely for her.

Emily pointed accusingly at Nathan. "He took my cake," she said, pouting.

"Nathan Parish!" their mother said in shocked outrage as she reached over and took back the half eaten slice of cake and placed it in front of Emily, who happily attacked the frosting.

"Tattletale," Nathan grumbled even as he sent his niece a wink that made her giggle.

"Alice? I'm not trying to be rude or anything," the woman started and he seriously doubted that. She'd been incredibly rude throughout the entire meal. "But, I think you have a leak or something," the woman said, gesturing to the floor as she stood up and walked away from the table.

"What?" Alice asked, looking confused as she peered down at the floor.

"Not a leak," Joe said, gasping. "My water just broke."

"Shit," Nathan gasped as Eric stood up and passed his daughter over to him.

"Let's get you to the couch, Joe," Eric said calmly as he reached down and scooped her up into his arms.

"I don't think you should be doing that," the woman pointed out. "You could hurt the baby!"

He sent his mother a glare for inviting the woman as he walked towards the living room. A talk was long overdue about the woman's unwanted dating services. Judging by her reluctant nod she knew what was coming.

"More cake?" Emily asked sweetly.

"You sure can," he heard Nathan say as he walked into the living room.

He wasn't too surprised when his brother walked in a minute later, talking on the phone while he handed Eric a pile of white towels and blankets.

"Is that 911?" Eric asked.

When Nathan nodded Eric held out his hand and took the phone. Nathan quickly sat down by Joe's side and put his arm around her as he offered her his hand to squeeze. That actually surprised Eric since the last time the man did that Joe ended up breaking three of his fingers during a rather nasty contraction.

"What's the address?" he heard Roger, a dispatcher of two years ask.

"Hey, Roger, it's Eric."

Roger chuckled. "Let me guess, Joe's the one ready to burst?"

"Oh yeah," he said, watching as his wife squeezed Nathan's hand as she bit back a scream. Nathan didn't fare so well. He dropped to his knees on the floor, whimpering but he never pulled his hand away.

"Only give her two fingers so she doesn't break your damn hand," he said in exasperation as his brother struggled through another contraction.

With a sigh of relief his brother pulled his hand away and offered only two fingers. Joe grabbed onto his hand as she bit back another scream. He didn't need to look to know that his little boy was going to be making his appearance soon. This was her second child and that usually meant a quicker delivery and judging by the space between her screams it was going to be real soon.

"What's the address?" Roger asked.

"458 Cranberry Road," he answered.

"Okay, I'm sending them now. Good luck, Eric."

"Thanks," he said before hanging up.

He placed the phone on the coffee table and knelt in front of Joe. "Baby, I think we should get you set up on the floor. What do you think?" he suggested, brushing her beautiful long hair out of her face.

"I think," she said, glaring at him with murderous intent, "that if you or that damn battering ram you have the nerve to call a dick ever comes near me again so help me I will-Aaaaaaggggghhhhh!" she broke off her beautiful words of love to scream.

"Time to get you on the floor," he said, ignoring Nathan's amused chuckles as he gently helped Joe lie on the freshly polished floor.

"Get behind her and let her sit back against you," he said, thankful that Nathan did what he asked without complaint.

"Um, what are you doing?" the woman he'd forgotten about suddenly demanded.

"Dinner appears to be over. You might want to leave before this gets messy," he said, not bothering to take his eyes off his wife as he carefully pushed up the soft flowery cotton maternity dress that she hated so much.

"I don't think you should be doing that," the woman said, ignoring his polite way of telling her to get the f**k out.

"It's fine. I really need you to go now," he said as he gently gripped Joe's wet pink panties and pulled them off. When he saw what was waiting for him he nearly groaned.

"Look, you shouldn't be doing that. I'm going to call an ambulance for her," the stubborn woman said, obviously refusing to leave.

Eric liked to think he was a patient man, but his wife was in pain and from the looks of it his son was crowing and ready to make his appearance. "Look, sweetheart, this is a family moment and you're not family so you can either haul your ass out of here or I can throw you out. It's your choice," he snapped, moving to do just that.

"Fine, you didn't have to be so rude about it," she snapped, placing her phone in her purse and she practically stormed out of the house. "Don't bother calling me," she bit out, probably to Nathan, he decided as he placed a towel on the floor between Joe's legs.