“Did you get me a present?” she demanded.
“Of course.” I gave her a glittery stuffed unicorn in a bag.
“Thank you!” she said before taking the unicorn to show to her dad. He was coming in behind her with a bunch of birthday balloons.
“We have our first guest, then, birthday princess?”
“I’m not a princess, Daddy. I’m a queen.” She touched her tiara. “Queens can wear tiaras, too.”
“I can’t argue with that,” agreed Logan. He looked up and saw me. He went still. “And Candace gave it to you. Did you say thank you?”
“Yes, Daddy.” She rolled her eyes. “I want tokens, please.”
“Let me put the balloons in the party room, and then I’ll get the tokens for you.” He walked over to me. “Sorry I can’t shake your hand right now, my hands are kinda full.”
“No problem.” I gave him a stiff one-armed hug. It felt weird to be formal with him when the last time I’d seen him, we’d spent the night together. “Let me know if I can help.”
“Chuck E. Cheese is used to kids’ birthday parties. They’ve taken care of the cake and the pizza. I went deluxe and also got pitchers of juice, so there’s not much for me to do.”
“Okay.” All I had to do was relax and have a good time. “Why did Annabelle insist on me coming to her birthday party?”
“No idea.” Logan cleared his throat as he put down the balloons in the party room. I was trailing him. “But I’m glad you took some more time off and came.”
“I’m training my assistant to take over most of the day-to-day minutiae so that I can spend more time off.” My hand almost touched my stomach. “She’s doing really well so far.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, I’m trying to slow down a little bit.” I kept thinking about my stomach, which wasn’t showing anything yet. “I’m trying to figure out some of my priorities. Your happy family life made me want one of my own.”
“You thinking about having kids?” Logan went straight for the jugular.
“Maybe,” I said weakly. He seemed to know that anybody who met Annabelle would want children of their own.
“Are you dating anyone?” He was so blunt. Logan had always cut to the heart of the matter.
“No.” I wouldn’t call one night together or two nights in his house dating.
“Neither am I.” Logan was quiet. “Would you like to be long-distance with me?”
He caught me on the back foot. I needed to tell him. “Yes, I’d like to be long-distance with you.”
A smile burst across his face like a sunrise. “I’ll like that.” He leaned in and gave me a peck on the mouth.
“There are kids around, or I’d do more.”
I smiled back at him, wondering when I’d tell him that he would be a father again. “Have you ever thought about having another kid?”
“Is this hypothetical?”
“Maybe, maybe not.”
“I’d love another kid or two,” admitted Logan. “Are you telling me you want to have kids?”
I put a hand on my stomach. “I might be telling you you’re going to have another kid.”
His jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
I hadn’t thrown away my positive test. Bianca had demanded a picture of it, so I showed him the picture in my text conversation with Bianca. “Yup.”
He threw his arms around me and gave me a movie-star style kiss right there. “I have to stay here for Annabelle’s party,” he apologized to me. “Or else you’d get a whole hell of a lot more.”
I smiled at him. He was over the moon with excitement. “There are adult chaperones here.”
“True.” He looked around. “Now if only there were a handy coat closet…”
I laughed, even though he seemed serious. “It can wait for after the party.”
Annabelle loved her Minnie Mouse cake. There was a horde of small children who seemed intent on getting as grubby as possible before smearing all the machines with their sticky hands. By the time two hours had passed, I was exhausted. I’d been told before that being pregnant was like having the flu, and I was starting to feel low on energy. Logan had a cart to take away all of Annabelle’s presents, and we left while there were still kids running around. I followed Logan in my rental car home, full of excitement about tonight. Annabelle fell asleep in the car, so Logan whisked her out of the car and put her in her room. Her toys were unloaded quickly by the two of us. Then Logan took me to a room.
“I bought this after our night together.” Logan rummaged in his sock drawer. “I had to keep it hidden from Annabelle, or there would’ve been a lot of questions.” He pulled out a ring box. “Open it.”
I reached for it, heart in my throat. “What?” I opened it to see a giant sparkly ring inside. “Are you serious?”
“I should’ve married you when we were kids,” Logan said. “I wasn’t going to let you slip away twice. You’re the one that got away, and I swore that if I had another shot with you, I wouldn’t let it go to waste.” He got down on one knee. “Candace, will you marry me?”
“Yes!” I sank down on my knees to kiss him. His hands were all over me in a moment, peeling off my little black dress and undoing my necklace. I smelled like pizza; Logan didn’t care at all. He made quick work of his own clothes. Suddenly, my thighs were spread as he started to lick me gently. He knew exactly how to touch me. My legs were shaking as I made my way through an orgasm. As I peaked, he gently entered me and stayed still as I contracted around him. When I was done fluttering, he started a slow and steady pace until I found my peak again. He released inside of me with a sigh. “I can’t wait to be married to you,” he whispered as he eased out of me. He cleaned me up, then we cuddled until we fell asleep.
Epilogue I
“I can’t find my tiara, Mommy!” screamed Annabelle. She was the flower girl for our wedding, and you would’ve thought it was her day to shine. Logan had bought her a rhinestone tiara for the wedding. I had a crown of flowers, bright colors that contrasted with my dark hair.
“Check in your backpack, sweetheart.” I had put the tiara in there only last night. She peeked into her red backpack and pulled it out.
“Okay, we’re ready now.”
I smiled at her antics. My wedding day was a big deal, of course, but Annabelle had been there every step of the way. Annabelle had particularly liked taste-testing different kinds of wedding cake. She was over the moon about having a younger sibling and was amazed by the way my stomach had grown. My wedding dress was custom-made with Valenciennes lace and had been shipped from Spain. Annabelle had a smaller version of my dress that was pink while my own dress was cream.
The ceremony itself was a blur. We’d gone through rehearsal the day before, and Logan had been making faces at me while the celebrant tried to do the most serious part. But finally I got to the point where I said, “I do.” Logan waited patiently and said, “I do.”
We were married. I could hardly believe that my childhood sweetheart had been single when I came back around. We lived in Indiana now; I could run my business from anywhere with an Internet connection. I had a lot of web conferences nowadays, which my mentors preferred because it was less hassle to find a place and time to meet. My business was booming with a few bestsellers knocking it out of the park. Annabelle had already expressed interest in writing her own children’s book, which I would put out in an ebook version and a print-on-demand version. I focused primarily on genre fiction, but Annabelle’s talents deserved to be seen by the rest of the world. Romi had been blessedly absent from everything. She barely saw Annabelle as it was. Logan called her to tell her that he was getting married again; she couldn’t have cared less. I found out that Logan paid Romi palimony to keep her happy. Annabelle called me Mommy now, too. I couldn’t be more content.