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His eyes bugged out once more. “Are you going to be a mama again?” he asked incredulously.

“I’ll always be your mama,” I reminded him softly.

“And I’ll always be your baby,” he replied.

“And soon, we’ll have another baby here,” Nikolai said as he took my hand on the table and held it.

Now Brady’s eyes lit up. He stood, surprised and finally getting it. “I’m going to have a baby brother?”

I laughed and nodded. “Or sister.”

He whooped loudly, reacting almost like Paloma had with pure excitement, all smiles.

“Is that all right?” Nikolai asked.

“Will you be my brother’s daddy?”

“Or sister!” I said again.

“I will be,” Nikolai told him.

“Can you still be my daddy?” Brady asked.

My heart ached at the hope in his small voice.

Nikolai scooted his chair back from the table and held his arm out for Brady to run to him. “I would be honored to be your daddy.”

Brady grinned and darted around the table. He launched onto Nikolai’s lap and hugged him close.

While he sat on his lap, he watched me with that secret little smile he always reserved for me.

“I want to officially adopt you, Brady. So the whole world can know that you are my son.”

Paloma cried softly. “Oh, this is the best day of my life…”

I dismissed the teeny fear that spoke up in my mind. If the rest of the world saw Brady as a Volkov, then he’d be targeted like all the others. It was a risk, but also a blessing. I trusted Nikolai with our lives.

He wouldn’t let me down.

“You will be Brady Volkov,” Nikolai declared. He held my hand as we smiled at each other.

“What about Mama?” He lifted his head from Nikolai’s chest.

“She’ll be Mrs. Volkov.” After he brought my hand to his lips and kissed the back of it, he smiled that devilish grin I’d fallen in love with. “Because I want to marry her as soon as I can.”

There it was.

I had no room to wonder or doubt.

I stood and went to him, tipping his face up so I could kiss him with all the love and pride that my heart held.

37

NIKOLAI

Icouldn’t have asked for a better experience than that lunch. Brady and I would continue to bond, and I was confident that we’d adjust as a family. When we told him and Paloma that a baby was on the way, I was nervous, though.

He was the only kid. The only boy around us all. For all I knew, he might have enjoyed that status. To be the special one and get all the attention.