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“Breathe,” she whispers, and I breathe in deeply through my nose for the first time since we boarded the plane this morning. She knows how to unwind me—and just as I’m reaching to tangle my hands in her hair, she pulls away, lips swollen and dark pink.
“But as your agent,” she begins in an altogether different tone. I like getting a taste of what everyone else gets from Nora Mackenzie too. “I need you to know, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you don’t lose this job you love until you’re ready. You saved my ass, and now I’m going to save your deliciously firm butt cheeks too.”
I nod. “Thank you, Nora.”
“Of course. What is a friend-slash-agent-slash-accidental wife for!” Her grin softens. “Go to the hospital and be with your friends today. Try not to worry about any of this work stuff and I’ll go to the office and sort it all out.”
Wait.She’s not going with me to the hospital? The tightness in my chest coils up again.
“I thought you were going with me to see the baby.” There’s no way to say that without sounding miserable and clingy.
“I want to. But I need to get to the office and figure out what’s going on. Is that okay?”
I stare into her green-gold eyes for a beat, emotions tugging meboth ways. This is the first moment we’ll separate since we got married. The first moment that real life will try to rip us down the middle. Last time that happened, I lost her. Anxiety fizzes in my stomach like a carbonated soda. I don’t want to lose her. But I can’t sink my teeth into her and refuse to let go either. I’ve got to give her space and find some trust if this is going to work. Plus, she’s my agent. She has to do her job. I’m just now realizing, though, how tricky this is going to be going forward.
After an awkward amount of time, I answer, wishing it were honest, “Of course it’s okay.”
My ventriloquist smile is back, and as I hold her hand in the car, I can’t help but run my thumb over the little black tattoo on her finger, wishing we’d spent a little less time talking about our past on our honeymoon and more about our future.
—
When I enter the hospital, I check in at the front desk and am told my friends are all gathered in a private waiting room and given instructions on how to get there. It’s pretty typical to be given a room off to the side anywhere we go because when me and the guys are all together (especially with Nathan present), we tend to garner a lot of attention. Attention the hospital probably doesn’t care to have.
I open the door to the waiting room expecting to find a somber environment, because we were all up the entire night waiting to hear word about Hope and the baby. I am dead wrong.
All I get is a glimpse of long curly hair before I’m grabbed by the wrists and tugged abruptly inside the room, where a shower of confetti rains down on my head. All the guys plus Bree cheer and whoop at the same moment that Nathan pops a bottle of hospital-appropriate sparkling grape juice and the Bruno Mars song “Marry You” ignites through the portable speakers.
I feel like I’m experiencing this moment through a funhouse mirror. Or high on an edible.
“Mr. and Mrs.—” Bree cuts off suddenly with a scowl. She’s holding a tacky veil attached to a hair clip in her hand.
I grin at the veil. “Is that for me?”
Everyone’s smiles fall when they realize my “other half” is not in attendance.
“Where the hell is Nora?” Nathan asks with something close to a glare. Like maybe I forgot her in the car or something.
Price crosses his arms. “Dammit, Derek, did y’all already break up? Is this because you cut the honeymoon short? I told you not to—”
“Would you shut up for a second and let me hug you?” I say, walking up to Price. His arms go around me the second mine extend to him. We’ve hugged before—after winning a big game mainly. But this is different. Price doesn’t let go of me right away and I don’t let go of him. He hugs me like a brother. Like a brother whose life has just changed for the better and he wants me to feel the terror and wonder swirling around in him. I hang on until he’s ready to let go.
“I’m a dad,” he mumbles into my shoulder, and emotion rips through me. I’m grateful I’m here for this.
“Hell yeah you are,” I say, squeezing him harder.
“And you’re married.”
“Hell yeah I am.” I chuckle. “Sort of.” We pull apart and I eye the mess around me. “Speaking of, what is all this?” I ask Nathan when he steps up to hug me next and then Lawrence after him. You’d think I was the one who just had a baby. Bree is still put out that Nora isn’t here.
“It’s a wedding reception,” says Nathan. “Or it was supposed to be if you’d bothered to bring your wife.”
Bree slaps my arm. “For real. Where is she? Did you break up?”
“You guys have zero faith in me.”
“Because you’re a big baby,” Jamal says from the side of the room with a grin while holding a teddy bear the size of his body.
“Tamara finally get sick of you and leave you to your girlfriend?” I say, nodding toward the bear.
