Page 125 of Chris

Before Haven responded, the stylist pulled the final curler from Valeria’s hair, and urged her to tip her head over. A brush was dragged through her thick strands, leaving it wild, and wavy. Once she was sitting straight again, the woman nodded.

“Let me get the hair piece, and I’ll work on the style you wanted, Valeria.”

“Thank you,” she told the stylist.

“And I am loving this,” the woman added, pointing a finger at the gold lettering on her silk robe.

Mrs. Guzzi, it read.

She wasn’t a Guzzi yet. A few more hours had to pass before she would walk down the aisle to meet Christopher waiting at the end, but still … she loved the robe, too.

“It’s great, isn’t it?”

“I’ll let Corrado know his gift is appreciated,” Ginevra said, sneaking a piece of cheese from the tray next to Valeria’s chair. “This is good, I need more.”

The stylist went off to do her own thing.

Valeria went back to the conversation with Haven. “Well, which is it?”

Haven laughed. “Neither. I would like to see you more, but we’re both busy, and it’s not like we can’t make time, right?”

“Right.”

“Oh,” Ginevra whispered.

Valeria shot her a look, but the young woman’s hand drifted down to rest atop her swell covered by a pale pink, silk robe. “You okay?”

A wedding day was stressful. Her future in-laws did every single thing to make today easy for her, not to mention wonderful and beautiful. Valeria barely needed to lift a finger to plan this wedding from the moment she said yes when Chris asked her at his father’s birthday celebration.

The most she had to do was sit down with an event coordinator and pick out things she liked. They delivered everything else for her approval.

The most difficult decision she had to make was picking her wedding dress, and deciding whether she should choose her girls’ dresses, or if they should. Haven picked her own dress. Ginevra ended up bringing Corrado and Alessio along last minute for her final fitting because she didn’t like the way hers looked with her pregnancy starting to show … and those men calmed her about the dress, and the way she wore it.

Valeria smiled at the memory.

Yet another reminder she wasn’t alone anymore. She had a whole family, now, spread out amongst many people. Three months ago, she had not realized how much her entire life would change when she rested in a bathtub with Chris, and told him, yes, she wanted to be with him.

It moved fast.

Kind of like them.

Valeria didn’t mind.

A wedding day was still … stressful.

She didn’t want Ginevra to experience any stress today. Not when she was carrying her niece, halfway through her pregnancy, and should only be glowing.

Which she was.

Mostly.

“It’s good,” Ginevra said at Valeria’s worried expression. “Here …”

Ginevra took Valeria’s hand and pressed her palm into the side of her stomach. The soft movement of the baby girl turned into a hard jab. She remembered those hard movements from her long-passed pregnancy with Maria.

“Ouch,” Valeria said to Ginevra.

“Right?” She sighed. “I like the cheese—baby girl doesn’t.”