He turns to me and takes my hands. “I love you.” There’s a soft gasp from the room. “I want to be with you, and I’m sorry that I lied to you. I’ll never do it again.” He kisses me softly, and I let him. How can I not? His next words are soft enough that only I can hear. “I don’t care if I lose my career, I’ll find another one. I choose you.”
I kiss him this time, and I can almost forget that we’re in the middle of the party except, “Are you kidding me?!” Sasha is shrieking at the top of her lungs. She looks at Mr. Carlisle, “You’re just going to let him abandon me and our—”
“Sasha.” A deep voice cuts across the room, and a man with silver hair and an impeccable suit steps into view. “That’s enough.”
Adam wraps his arms around me, keeping me pressed against his body, but he doesn’t feel tense.
“Daddy—”
“No,” he says, and I realize that this must be Dr. Pratt.
He approaches Adam and me, and I blush under his gaze. He looks at the two of us long and hard, and then he speaks. But not to the room, just to us. “I wish I had known. Adam, I’m sorry that you felt the need to keep this from me, or that you ever felt you needed to boost your approval by dating my daughter. You’re a fine doctor, and I don’t need you to date Sasha in order to tell you that.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Olivia,” he says. “I hope to see you at the hospital soon.”
Adam pulls me tighter. “You will,” he answers for me.
Dr. Pratt turns back to the room. “Sasha, you and I are going home. It seems we have a lot to talk about.”
She sulks and glares at Adam and me, but amazingly, she goes. The room erupts into whispers as soon as they leave, and I duck my head into Adam’s chest. There’s nothing I want to do right now but hide. Even though the fight is over, everyone is still watching.
Lor appears with a drink in her hand. “That was epic,” she gushes, “but maybe we should let people get back to the party.”
“More like gossip,” Adam mutters. “But yes, let’s go.”
His father is still glaring at us as we leave.
As soon as we’re out of the house, Lorraine hails a cab. “Have fun, you two!”
“Do you want to go with her?” Adam asks softly.
I shake my head. “No.” I don’t want to let go of his hand.
“In that case, my place or yours?”
“Yours is closer.”
He nods in agreement and hails a cab. We don’t speak on the cab ride, though are hands are locked together. It somehow feels wrong to talk about what we need to talk about in a cab. So we wait until we get to his apartment. He goes around turning on lights, and I go to the windows and watch the streetlights from New Jersey sparkle on the river.
“Ollie,” Adam says, appearing behind me. He wraps his arms around my waist, and I lean back into him. “I’m sorry.”
“I know,” I say. My mind has been racing since we left the party, and I’m still not all the way there. “I came to the party to talk to you, not to fight with her. I want you to know that.”
“I know. And I’m sorry that it happened. I’m sorry for so much.”
I turn around in the circle of his arms, and drape mine around his neck. “I accept your apology. I’m still hurt by the fact that you lied, but I can understand why you did. That isn’t going to stop me from kicking your ass if you ever lie to me again.”
“I fully expect you to.”
I clear my throat and look away. “But can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“You said that you—”
“I love you,” he finishes. “Yes, I love you.”
Warmth spreads through my body, a perfect glow surrounding me. “You love me.”
“I do.”
I lean my head on his chest. “I love you too.”
He tugs on my hair, guiding my face up until he can reach my lips and he kisses me, hard and desperate and so sweet it takes my breath away. “Let me take you to bed, Olivia Mitchell, and show you in many ways how thoroughly I love you.”
I laugh, the sound freeing, and Adam sweeps me off my feet and into his arms and into his bedroom. Maybe our bedroom at some point in the future. I can’t wait to find out.
Epilogue
Adam
One Year Later
I carry both of the drinks down onto the sand, and hand the one with zero alcohol in it to my very pregnant wife. My wife. It still hasn’t been quite long enough for me not to be enamored of the title. She’s currently cradled in a beach chair with a book propped on her belly and a floppy sun hat covering most of her face. She looks up as I approach. “Hey, handsome.”
“Hello there, beautiful.”
She snorts. “I’m a whale.”
I hand her the iced tea that she asked for and take a sip of my beer. We decided to take a baby moon before the little one arrives. Still a couple months to go, so we came to the beach. A small house with a very private beach.
It’s the perfect time for it. My residency just finished and I have a few months before I start my work as a pediatrician. I’m staying at Columbia under Dr. Pratt, who never once doubted me or my integrity even after everything that happened with Sasha. I think he’s almost more excited about the baby than I am, and that’s saying a lot because I’m so excited to be a father that I haven’t been able to keep a smile off my face in months.
“You are not a whale,” I say. “And if you are, you’re the hottest whale I’ve ever seen.”
Ollie rolls her eyes but I’m not kidding. I love everything about the way she looks, from the way her breasts have gotten bigger to the curves of her belly. My wife is fucking sexy, and it’s a struggle not to get hard whenever I’m within a ten-foot radius.
“I’ve got another one,” I say, and I can almost hear Olivia roll her eyes. She pretends she’s not amused by my bad baby name suggestions, but she is.
“Hit me.”
“Chrysanthemum.”
Ollie bursts out laughing. “We are not naming our daughter Chrysanthemum.”
“We could.”
“We’re not.” But she’s laughing. “If we’re going with flowers I still like Lily or Rose.”
“What about Aqua?”
“Adam,” she warns.
“Turquoise. Lavender.”
She takes a sip of the iced tea I brought her. “You’re ridiculous.”
“And you love me.”
“I do,” she says, shifting in her seat in an attempt to get more comfortable.
“How’s the book?”
She sighs. “It’s okay.”
“You a little bored?”
“Yeah.”
I reach out and grab her hands, help her to her feet. “Come on.”
She smiles. “Where are we going?”
“In the water,” I say.
Ollie loves the water, and every time she steps into the ocean she lights up like a Christmas tree. Plus, I know that floating makes her feel better for a bit, carrying the baby. But to my surprise, she shakes her head with a coy smile. “Not right now.”