His eyes grew wide. “Tell me you are not working in there! I mean, we all text on the toilet, but even now?”
“Just do it, please.”
He sighed. “Fine.”
“Is everything alright?” her mother asked from across the room.
“Yeah, I just want to go over my vows one more time.”
Sammy passed her phone through the narrow opening. “What, did you write them in notes?”
He sounded mildly horrified, but Paige didn’t bother to answer. Instead she merely snatched the phone out of his hands and pushed the door closed. The exasperated harrumph from the other side told her Sammy did not appreciate the move, but at the moment she had far more pressing concerns.
Can you get my mom out of here? she texted him. I need a few minutes alone.
Done, he replied, probably relieved to have something to do. A moment later, Paige heard the unmistakable sound of Samuel Lee at his best. The man could herd anyone anywhere so smoothly that they were usually halfway out the door before they even realized they were in motion. When the coast was clear, Paige made her way out of the bathroom and into the small parlor in the back of the church. A mixture of excitement and nerves swirled in her belly. She was going to be a mother. Holy moly. She took a deep breath. Over the past year, she felt liked she’d really been killing the stepmom thing, but Maddie had come into her life as a fully functioning human, more or less. A baby was a whole new ball game. She started to wipe her palms on her dress, then stopped. At this rate, she was going to end up with sweat stains under her armpits. She didn’t need them streaked down the front of her gown as well.
She needed to talk to Lucas. But the ceremony was going to start in—she glanced at the gilded clock that sat on a pedestal table alongside her bouquet of lilies—twenty minutes! And wasn’t there some superstition about the bride and groom not seeing each other before the big entrance? Oh, who was she kidding? There was no way in hell she was going to be able to make it through the entire ceremony without telling him the news. Surely it was better to do it in the privacy of the bride’s room, taboo or not, than risk giving poor old Father Murphy, not to mention her mother, a coronary by blurting it out in front of the entire congregation.
I need to see you, she texted him.
Please have your phone, please have your phone, she chanted to herself as she paced the rug. After what felt like an eternity, her phone vibrated in her hand.
The groom isn’t supposed to see the bride before she walks down the aisle, his message said.
He’s also not supposed to have sex with her before the wedding night, she replied.
Fair point. Tiny bubbles filled the bottom of the screen as he typed. Where are you?
Bride’s room. Back of church on left.
How am I going to make it past Sammy? More bubbles. Or your mom?
Got rid of them.
A second later, her phone rang in her hands. “Is everything alright?” Lucas asked. “You’re not having cold feet, are you?” The nervous edge to his voice caused a wave of warmth to rush over her, instantly calming her. Not because she wanted to cause him any unnecessary anxiety, but because it reminded her of the last time she’d heard him sound so adorably panicked. It was the night he had proposed…
They’d barely seen each other that week as he’d spent the bulk of it finishing up a major kitchen renovation. It was his fourth project since arriving in Chicago, and the list of jobs he had lined up for the rest of the year was nearly twice that long. After only six months, Lucas had earned himself a reputation for top-notch work, something that allowed him to charge top-notch prices. But it was also how he ended up spending five straight nights with his crew instead of his girlfriend.
He’d called her at lunchtime on that Friday. Well, not actually her, but rather Sammy. That really should have been her first clue that something was up. Sammy told her that Lucas had called to see if dinner at six would work with her schedule, and to ask him to give her directions to the “great new place” he’d found on the north side of the city.
At the time, Paige didn’t really think much of it. Because while Lucas had never done something like that before, he’d often joked about cutting out the middle (wo)man and just making plans directly with her assistant. But when she arrived at the address Sammy had given her, she was more than a little suspicious. Because while it did look like a “great place,” it didn’t look at all like a restaurant. The address was for a three-story brownstone, and while it wasn’t unheard of for that type of building to house a business or restaurant, this particular location was in a residential area. The quiet, tree-lined street wasn’t at all the type of place where you would find anything but individually owned homes. There was even a playground at the end of the block.
Maybe he had it wrong. Sammy had been wearing many hats over the last month as he prepared to step into his new role as partner, so maybe he’d transposed the numbers. Paige double-checked the address in his text, then looked at the numbers etched into stone on the front of the house. Yep, right place. But not only was there no sign indicating this was a public establishment, there weren’t many lights on either. In fact, aside from one fixture that lit the porch, the place looked completely dark.
She was about to call Lucas when he appeared at the front door. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans, a charcoal sweater, and the smile that never failed to make her pulse race a little faster. Shy and sexy all at once, the look on his face was her kryptonite, capable of melting her heart and her panties at the same time.
“Welcome,” he said, gesturing to the door that stood open behind him. “Come on in.”
Confused, Paige made her way up the stone steps and into the entryway of an empty house. The carved wooden staircase looked to be over a hundred years old, as did the electrical system if the cloth-covered wires poking out from the ceiling were any indication. There were cobwebs in the corners of the vaulted fresco ceilings, and the baseboards that stretched along the hardwood floors had to be at least nine inches high. The house was equal parts spectacular and horrifying.
“What are we doing here, Lucas?”
He took her hand and guided her through leaded-glass pocket doors to what was surely the dining room. An entire wall was filled with a built-in buffet, complete with beveled glass doors and a marble serving top. But instead of a formal dining-room table, the room held nothing more than a square card table and two folding chairs. They were nothing special, but what was on top of them contained everything Paige never knew she wanted: a silver picture frame with a photo of her with Lucas and Maddie taken shortly after they’d moved to Chicago. Next to the frame was a pair of tapered candles and beyond that sat two place settings.
“We’re eating here?” she asked.
He nodded. “And for many years to come if you say yes.”