“Thank you, Grandma.”
“You’re more than welcome, my dear boy. Now go.” She fixes her expression into one of feigned severity. “And don’t come home without the mother of my great-grandson.”
I tilt my head. “How do you know it’s a boy?”
She kisses my cheek, then turns from me, heading back in the direction of the ballroom. “It’s just a feeling I get.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Nora
“Oh, Chloe,” I breathe as Lincoln hands me the little pink-wrapped bundle. “She’s absolutely beautiful.”
I pull back the blanket, admiring little Eloise’s chubby cheeks and fuzzy, blonde hair. Bringing her closer, I nuzzle her as she sleeps, inhaling that addictive smell of a newborn.
“She just couldn’t wait to make her appearance, could she?”
“She certainly couldn’t.” Chloe adjusts herself in the hospital bed. “It’s probably a good thing she came three weeks early, considering she’s already eight pounds. I don’t think my body could have handled anything bigger.” She looks up at Lincoln. “I blame you for that.”
Leaning down, he feathers a kiss against her temple. She closes her eyes, basking in the touch. Even from a few feet away, I can physically feel their love. It makes me long for the way Anderson would kiss me like that right before I’d drift off to sleep. Now the only thing remotely close to that is when Izzy and Asher’s dog, Treble, curls up next to me and licks my face, treating me to his stinky breath.
Since I returned to New York nearly two weeks ago, Treble’s been my shadow. Normally, he’s indifferent to my presence. But instead of sleeping in his bed in Izzy and Asher’s room, he sleeps with me every night, as if he can sense I need his comfort when the tears find me.
And they do, especially at night.
Especially when I notice my stomach growing a little bigger each day and think about going through all of this alone. But as my friends have reminded me, I won’t be alone. It takes a village to raise a child, and they’ve sworn to be my village. To be with me every step of the way.
“You did awesome, baby,” Lincoln says. “You deserve a gold star.”
“Thanks, Professor,” she jokes. “But the true hero was the anesthesiologist. That epidural was heaven. I couldn’t feel a damn thing. Until it wore off. Now my vagina is officially on fire.”
I roll my eyes. “Thanks for the visual, Chloe.”
“What are friends for?”
“Knock, knock,” a sing-song voice says.
I peek up from smothering Eloise with kisses to see Evie and Izzy standing in the doorway, a few bags in their hands.
“Do you have room for two more?” Izzy asks.
“For you girls? Always,” Chloe answers.
They barge into the hospital room that now feels on the small side. Visiting rules typically limit it to the spouse and two additional people, but since Izzy’s a nurse here, still wearing her scrubs from her shift last night, I doubt anyone considers her a visitor.
“I’ll let you all have some time together,” Lincoln states. “I could use a shower anyway. It’s been a long night.”
“Get ready,” Izzy taunts. “They’re all going to be long nights from now on.”
“If Eloise is as much of a handful as this one…” He hitches a thumb toward Chloe, “I have no doubt.” He gives her one more sweet kiss before turning toward where I sit with Eloise.
I stand, allowing him to take her from me.
“See you soon, baby girl.” He kisses his daughter’s forehead, lingering for a beat to breathe her in, then hands her back to me.
I hold her in my arms once more, making sure to cradle her head. Then I look at Evie and Izzy. “Who wants her next?”
“Me! Me! Me!” Evie waddles across the room, ready to pop any minute herself. “At least before I need to pee again, which will probably be in mere seconds at the rate I’ve been going lately.”
She lowers herself into one of the chairs. Once she looks as comfortable as she can when eight months pregnant, I hand her little Eloise. Much like me, she nuzzles her, inhaling that fresh baby smell.
“What’s in the bags?” Chloe asks.
“We brought some essentials,” Izzy states, handing over a bag. “When Lincoln called to say you’d gone into labor while at dinner and didn’t have time to head to Rye, then back to the city again, we figured you might need a few important things. Like nipple cream. Breast pads. Lotion for your hands.”
Chloe exhales in relief. “You guys are a godsend.” She grabs the lotion, smoothing it on her hands and arms. “I swear. The air in hospitals is so damn dry.”
“How do you feel?” Izzy asks.
“Some irritation, but surprisingly okay. She’s worth it.”
I beam at my friend, marveling at how far she’s come since our freshman year of college. Back then, she ran as far away from anything remotely resembling any sort of committed relationship. Now she’s officially a mother, something she swore she had no interest in being. It’s amazing how meeting the right person can change your outlook on things. Soon we’ll all be mothers — Evie in a matter of weeks, me in about six months, and Izzy a month or so after that, having shared the news of her pregnancy with all of us last week.
“I’m happy for you.” I squeeze her arm and give her a sincere look when the television catches my attention.
I blink, my heart dropping into the pit of my stomach, all my focus drawn to the man on the screen.
“What is it?” Chloe asks, noticing my expression. When she glances at the TV, she sucks in a breath.
I’d purposefully avoided all social media and any cable television since returning to New York, not wanting to flip through the channels and stumble across some news story about me. Or, worse, Anderson.
“Can you turn that up?” I ask softly, although part of me doesn’t want to listen to whatever this is, especially when I notice Anderson sitting in the same chair as my mother did a few weeks ago during the interview that cost me everything.
But it’s not just Anderson who has my curiosity piqued.
It’s who’s sitting beside him.
Mary and Benjamin Copeland. Hunter’s parents.
Chloe grabs the remote, raising the volume.
“Thank you so much for being here today, Prince Gabriel.” Carly’s voice grates on my skin, especially considering the last interview of hers I saw. “I have to admit, I was a bit surprised when my producer told me you’d agreed to sit down with me.”
Anderson laughs. “I almost didn’t. But then I realized something.”
“And what’s that?”
He looks from Carly to the camera. People may think he’s talking to them. But I know that look. It’s his Anderson look, the one reserved for me.
“Sometimes you need to break the rules.”
“And being here today is breaking the rules for you?”
“Giving an interview like this is generally frowned upon for members of the royal family. Sure, I’ve done a few interviews with the occasional magazine, but a live television interview is a big no-no. But I needed to set the record straight, despite strong opinions from within the royal household that I not. That I continue to allow them to use Nora Tremblay as a sacrificial lamb of sorts.”