I don’t want to deny Grayson the chance to see the real test, because I know him—he’ll want to see it. I wrap it all up in plastic and then place it in a box. I wrap it with silver paper and a huge bow. Once I’m dressed in my red Christmas sweater, I hunt down coffee. My father corners me in the kitchen. He looks younger today, happier. Even the wrinkles around his eyes seem to have lightened, despite the heavy salt and pepper in his hair and beard. He holds up a bag. The bag with my tests! I grab them. “Thank you. Did you tell anyone?”
“No, of course not. Are you?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “I’m going to tell him today.”
“Does he want a baby?”
“Oh yes. Yes, he does.”
He pulls me into a bear hug and when he pulls back, he’s tearing up. “I’m happy for you, for you both.”
“Should I tell him for a wedding present or a Christmas present?”
“If you can manage to keep the secret, it’s a part of starting your new life. Tell him on your wedding night.”
“Yes. Yes, that feels right.”
“Speaking of new lives,” he says. “I met someone. She’s away for the holiday. Her daughter is in Europe. I’d like you to meet her when she gets back.”
I touch his face. “You look happy, Dad. I’d love to meet her. New beginnings.”
“New beginnings.”
It’s Grayson, and I turn to find him standing in the kitchen, wearing a tan sweater with a high collar. “Hi.”
“Hi, baby,” he says, and when I walk to him he pulls me into his arms and kisses me. “How about a walk?”
“I’d love that.”
We spend the next two hours walking, talking, and lounging in our lighthouse. When we return home, we cook. We eat. We exchange gifts. Eric gives me a peanut butter pie, which has us all laughing. And a beautiful butterfly necklace. “You’re spreading your wings and flying, baby,” he says about his thoughtful gift.
He gives Grayson a rare AC/DC vinyl record. “I thought you might add to your father’s old collection.”
My father, gives us an album of photos he took the holiday before last of us. It’s perfect and Grayson and I will spend way too much time looking through it later, for sure. Finally, it’s our turn to give gifts.
For Eric, we gift him flight lessons. It seems that the one thing the inked SEAL, savant, attorney, and investor hasn’t done is fly a plane. But I also give him an infinite number symbol statue. It’s engraved with the words: Forever friends. Forever family. He doesn’t tear up. That’s not for savants and badass SEALs, but he hugs me so hard I almost choke. I’m not sure it’s good for the baby.
For my father, Grayson and I give him a new car that Grayson has delivered to the house with a huge red bow on it. A Porsche. My father does cry. Like a baby. I give Grayson a ring for his right hand engraved with the words: My best friend, my lover, my soulmate.
He doesn’t outwardly react, but he kisses me hard and deep, right there in front of everyone and the look in his eyes is pure love.
Next, he hands me his gift. A pretty red box with a silver bow. I open it and smile when I find a stunning bracelet with hearts and diamonds chasing the chain. A small charm dangles from it that reads: No fear. Only love, All my love, Grayson.
Now I’m tearing up at the message that speaks to our journey together. And our forever. I wrap my arms around him and he holds me close, his lips finding my ear. “Forever, Mia.”
“Forever,” I whisper.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Mia
We sign all the legal paperwork, including our license, a few days before the wedding in the Hamptons. Afterward, bundled up in jeans and sweaters, with jackets over our clothes, we visit his parents’ graves. Together we lay down flowers on each. At his mother’s grave, Grayson kisses my hand and says, “She would have loved you and you her.”
“And my mother would have loved you.”
We leave the graveyard and stop at a Christmas shop where we choose an ornament for each of our parents and then go home and place them on the tree.
The eve of our wedding arrives and a crew with it to set-up for the wedding. Our living room furniture is moved and chairs are set-up in front of the tree. Little diamond ornaments are dangling from our ceiling to sparkle and shine like snowflakes twinkling in the moonlight.
It’s ten when Grayson caves to my demand that he stay in a hotel. “It’s bad luck to see the bride on the day of the wedding before the actual wedding.”
We make it to the front door to say our goodnights, and he carries me back to our bed, where we end up naked. Somehow by 11:59, I get him out of the door. He calls me the minute he’s in the hotel. “Tell me again why I’m not in bed with my future wife?”
“Bad luck.”
“Hmmmm. Tell me what you’re wearing.”
I laugh. “You’re bad.”
“Right. Should I come home?”
“No.”
“Mia—”
“No, Grayson.”
He gives a heavy sigh. “Okay. But this is the only night for the rest of our lives that I’m sleeping anywhere without you.”
“That’s a hard vow to keep.”
“Not hard at all. Goodnight, baby. I love you.”
“I love you, too.” We disconnect and I snuggle into his pillow and inhale that spicy, male scent of his, missing him. The way I missed him every day we were apart. The way I never want to miss him again.
***
I wake alone and feel the emptiness of the house. My close friend, Courtney, has been traveling for work, and apparently married an Italian man in Italy. My mom is gone. Then Grayson sends me a text: Almost mine.
A smile spreads on my face and I type: Already yours.
Prove it, he replies. Say I do. I love you, baby.
I love you, too.
We’ve finished our exchange, and I’ve dressed in leggings, and clipped my hair on top of my head, when new friends come through for me. Cat calls me mid-morning with a surprise. “My brother is babysitting. Surprise. I just landed at the airport. Reese is here, too. He’s going to see Grayson and the guys at the hotel.”
Instantly, I’m smiling all over again. A few minutes later, she pulls up in a rental car. She exits with coffees in her hands, jeans and a pink sweater as her gear, and smiling her way past the front door. And somehow, some incredible somehow, the minute she’s set her things down and really looked at me, she knows I’m pregnant. “Oh my God. Congratulations.” She hugs me.
“How did you know?”
“You glow, Mia. It’s such a beautiful glow. When are you telling him? Or does he know?”
“Tonight and if you know, maybe he knows.”
“Oh he probably knows, but he doesn’t know. Something just seems different to him. It did to Reese.”
From there it’s all girl talk and nerves for hours.
Late in the day, Cat helps me set-up a surprise for Grayson at the lighthouse. By the time we’re back, not one but three stylists are waiting on me. Grayson clearly went overboard. At some point after my shower, Cat forces me to eat, but I don’t even know what I eat. Banana bread, I think. Fruit, maybe. I’m just too nervous to know.