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“Yes.”
Matt shakes his head, like he’s having a hard time working all of this out.
“With Allie?”
“No, with the queen. Of course, with Allie. I’ll get my own place, but the idea is to get to know my daughter and hopefully, one day she might even want to move over here.”
Matt breaks into a grin as everything clicks into place. He steps forward and pulls us both into a firm hug. Annie steps into rescue Elina from me, before she’s crushed by Matt’s enthusiasm.
“Good for you guys,” Annie says. “This is fantastic news. I’m so happy you worked things out and how perfect is this?” She shakes her head. “I’ve got plenty of friends over there if you need somewhere to stay,” she adds.
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” Luke smiles at me and wraps his hand around mine. “I guess we better get back, considering how much we need to do before we fly out.”
“I guess we should.” I nod, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.
“When are you leaving?” Matt asks.
“Next week,” I say, my heart racing. “I’ll go to London with Luke for two weeks, then fly to Bern.”
“Jesus, so soon?” Becca frowns. She hugs me again, which makes me tear up. “Really though, I’m so happy for you guys. I knew you’d work it all out.”
“Dinner here Sunday night.” Matt’s voice is firm. “If you think this is your farewell, you’re in for a shock.”
“Fine.” I grin. “I wouldn’t expect anything less.”We say goodbye to everyone and then head back to my place. I walk inside, and I reach over and take his hand and squeeze it, his warmth calming me down. I let go of his hand to slip out of my jacket and leave it hanging over the chair, then I turn to Luke and put my arms around his waist, kissing him. He grins at me. I smile back and then take a deep breath out.
We’re really doing this.
“You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” he asks.
I shake my head. “Hell no. I’m nervous, excited and a bunch of other things, but not doing this hasn’t even entered my mind.”
“Good,” he grins. “If it makes you feel better, I’m shitting myself too.”
“Have you told Allie yet?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “I’m going to surprise her. Just rock up at school next week to pick her up.”
I love the way his face lights up when he talks about her.
“She’s going to love having you around,” I say.
“I’m going to love it too,” he admits. “What I’m not looking forward to is not seeing your beautiful face every day. I guess we will just have to make the most of the time we have together.”
“Oh really?” I smile. “What did you have in mind?”
He places his hand beneath my chin, lifting my lips up to his. I smile as he kisses me, brushing his mouth against mine. I shiver as he takes my hands and leads me down to my room.
“I’m going to miss this too,” I murmur.
“There are ways around that. We can skype. Phone sex.” His eyes sparkle. “I hear there are some great sex toys on the market you might want to test out.”
“You did not just say that,” I growl at him.
He laughs and attempts to shield himself from my attack, then he pulls me into his arms and kisses me.
“You’re wasting time. You know that, right? The things I could be doing to you right now…”
“Fine.”
I glower at him, and then relent, putting my hands up in defeat. I laugh as he scoops me into his arms and carries me down to the bedroom.
“But you’ve got some serious making up to do for that comment…”EpilogueTwo years later.
Laura“Oh God, what am I doing?”
I pace back and forth inside my penthouse luxury hotel suite in Santa Monica, where I’ll be marrying Luke tomorrow afternoon. Marrying Luke. I run my hands through my hair and hunch forward, my stomach twisting into knots. I’m getting married tomorrow. It’s not the married part that’s scaring me—I would have eloped the day after he proposed, if I could’ve talked him into it. It’s the wedding and thinking about all the things that can go wrong.
The last few months had been non-stop stress, trying to get this wedding together. Everything that could have gone wrong, had—from our first choice of venue burning down, to our celebrant double booking the day. I have no fucking idea how it’s all come together so nicely in the end. I’m getting ahead of myself now, because there was still plenty of time for shit to go wrong.
I’m going to be sick.
Becca launches herself off the couch and grabs hold of my shoulders, shaking them as she gives me a stern look. I stare back at her, breathing heavily as the panic slowly begins to lessen. Becs. God knows that I’d do without her in my corner. I nod and breathe in deeply, but then a fresh wave of panic hits me. Becca glares at me.
