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Katie held back, smiling as she observed Aleks strap Alina into the car seat. She gave me a big smile, free of any resentment. “I’m happy for you,” she said. “I admit I was mad about the secrecy at first, but I know I had no right to be.”
“Poor Aunt Marjorie missed another wedding,” I said, feeling a little cheated myself. Now that I wanted to stay married to Lev with all my heart, I wanted the whole world to know it.
“We should plan a double wedding so she doesn’t feel left out,” Katie said. “As soon as I can fit back into my old clothes.”
I laughed. By the time that happened, I’d be showing. “Maybe,” I said noncommittally. “If Aleks ever calms down.”
“I’ll work on him,” she promised. “It shouldn’t take long since the only reason he has to be mad is on my behalf, and he’ll figure out I’m really fine with it soon enough.”
“I’m so glad you are,” I said, tearing up as I hugged her.
She made me swear to come down for Spring Break, summer at the latest, and I readily agreed. They hadn’t evenpulled out of the resort parking lot yet and I already missed my niece.
Once we were back home, the first order of business was to invite Brooke over to my cozy cottage mansion. I hadn’t seen my best friend in far too long, and I was sick of keeping all those secrets from her. I spilled everything as soon as she was settled with a tall glass of iced tea out in the garden. The quickie wedding, the fake internship, and even the baby. It felt amazing getting it all out in the open.
Until she started laughing hard enough to bust a gut, refusing to believe it wasn’t a practical joke.
“I swear it’s true,” I said.
She still didn’t believe me, so I had to find Lev, who was working in his office, and get him to come out and back me up. When we returned to the lavish patio holding hands, she still thought it was a joke he was taking part in, only finally believing when he swept me into his arms and gave me a searing kiss in front of her.
“It’s all true,” he said, his hand resting on my belly.
“Well, um, congrats?” she said, her jaw hanging. She became suddenly shy in front of him, so he left us to finish our visit. Once it was just us again, I begged her not to be mad.
“It all happened so fast,” I said. “It’s such a long story, but it’ll have to be for another time since you have your evening class.”
The only thing I hadn’t yet revealed was what Lev did for a living. She only knew about the lobbying company, but I didn’t want to spring too much on her at once. She looked like she might skip her class to hear all about it, but I hustled her out with promises that I wouldn’t be so elusive now that sheknew the truth. She was my best friend in the whole world, and eventually, I’d give her every last detail, but it was a lot to digest, and I wouldn’t let her miss a class when there was plenty of time. She was still serious about school.
As for me, it wasn’t as if I was no longer serious about my education. It was more that the semester had gone completely to hell due to all my stress. I had let so many of my classes fall to the wayside that there was no way I could catch up.
“You can do whatever you want,” Lev told me when we’d discussed it on the ride home from Monterey. The closer we got, the more he could tell my stress level was rising. “I’m not going to push you to put things on hold. I’m just concerned about your health. And the baby.”
At the time, I had been reticent, and I was not sure I was ready to give up. Remembering this conversation made me make my final decision, and I found him in the kitchen, putting together the dinner our chef had left for us.
“I’m not giving up,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow, and paused with the chicken dish halfway out of its fridge container. He looked so adorably domestic and not at all like a ruthless mafia lord that I rushed to his side and hugged him.
“What’s this about? What aren’t you giving up?”
“School,” I said, rushing to explain before he could grumble. “But I’m going to drop everything for at least this semester. Long enough to reassess what I want and start fresh in the fall.”
It was exactly what he’d suggested, and he was totally shocked that I had agreed with him. He had the good grace notto be smug about his victory, only tightening his arms around me.
“Whatever you want,” he said. “You know I only want you to be happy.” He patted my belly. “And healthy.”
“I know,” I said, resting my chin on his chest and looking up at him with a smile. “It’s one of the things I love about you.”
My cheeks burned as his eyes darkened. “What else do you love?” he asked.
“You say it first,” I demanded, feeling utterly ridiculous. We both laughed at how silly it was. “We’re married and going to have a baby, and we still haven’t—”
He cut me off with a kiss, so deep and soulful I felt it to my toes. When he pulled back, his eyes shone as clear as a summer sky and just as blue.
“I love you, Jenna,” he said. “I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you, and I’ll love you for the rest of my days.”
Those annoying tears that continued to plague me started to well up in my eyes, and I clung to his waist, beaming up at him as he gently wiped them from my cheeks.
