“The drink, not the woman,” cracked Aline. “And since I’m her midwife, I should know.”
Everyone laughed until Jenny raised her voice again.
“Thanks, Darcy, for that reminder. To be honest, mine is light on the tequila, too, though not for the same reason yours is. I’m on-call tonight, even though Mira very kindly offered to cover my evening rounds.” She waited a beat. “Now before we get to the book discussion—and I’m just positive all of us have enjoyed the hell out of this month’s selection—” She wagged her eyebrows. “I have some new business. I’ve been dying to share it with you, but I thought it would be fun to make the official announcement here.” Her eyes met mine. “It seemed fitting.”
With a smile so bright it was nearly blinding, Jenny extended her left hand and wiggled her fingers, moving so that the last rays of the day’s sunshine caught on the diamond resting on her third finger.
“Oh, myGod!” squealed Darcy. “You’re engaged? When did this happen? How? Tell us everything?”
I jumped up out of my chair to wrap my best friend in a tight hug. “Congratulations, sweetie! I’m so happy for you.”
Our gazes connected, and the expression in her eyes nearly made me weep. I was the only one here tonight who knew the full story of Jenny and Nico’s romance. I was the only one who was aware that although she’d been crushing for years on the man who was her older brother’s closest friend, for the first few months that Jenny had lived in Harper Springs, their relationship had been fake. There was a long and complicated story behind that mess, but the more important part was the happy ending: for the past year and a half, the two of them had been in love for real.
Now she settled in her lounge chair next to the pool to tell us the story. “It happened Monday night. You know, that’s Nico’s only regular night off.” Her boyfriend was a chef at a restaurant in St. Petersburg. “But I’m on the night shift this week. So I was bummed because I hate to miss seeing him. I was out here by the pool, reading—” Her eyes darted to Cindy, who handled the monthly selection of books. “This month’s book, of course. And I heard a noise, and there was Nico.” Her cheeks went red, and I knew she had to be remembering something really hot because not much embarrassed my friend. “He was dressed only in a loincloth. And he was holding a big palm branch.” She giggled.
“He said that he had come to apply for the job of cabana boy. I told him that I thought he already had secured that position, and he replied that he wanted to make sure that his employment was permanent.”
There were some titters and awwwws around the group.
“I wasn’t sure where he was going with that, so I said that as far as I knew, he’d been doing a good job. Then he dropped down to one knee—” Jenny sniffled a little. “And he held out the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen. He said that no matter where we live and what we do, he wanted to be my cabana boy for the rest of our lives. He asked me if I’d do him the honor of being the wife he never knew he wanted.”
Now there were sighs and ohhhhhs, too.
“And you said yes, of course!” Darcy struggled up from the pool steps. “That’s so sweet, Jen! Can you believe that we’re both engaged now? Have you started talking about the wedding? The when and the where and all the details?”
Jenny shook her head. “Not yet. I mean, we’ve had a little discussion, but nothing is planned yet.” Her eyes slid to me for a moment, and what I saw there mystified me. Before I could pursue that line of thought, she went on, “But listen to this. I knew that Nico had gone up to Virginia to see his mom on her birthday at the end of last month, but what Ididn’tknow was that while he was there, he went to see my dad and my brother Kyle, and he asked their permission to marry me. Isn’t that the sweetest thing you’ve ever heard?”
“Especially considering how Kyle felt about the two of you dating,” I murmured, just loud enough for Jenny’s ears, and she gave me a heartfelt nod.
“Well, we’ve got a lot to celebrate tonight.” Stephanie, one of our nurses, raised her glass. “Let’s drink a toast—full strength or virgin—to our own nurse practitioners, both of whom have found love and fairy tale-worthy happy endings.”
“To love!” added Debby, the ICU nurse.
We all lifted our glasses, clinked with whoever was nearby and took long drinks.
“Now.” Cindy cleared her throat. “Let’s start our book discussion by talking about the overarching theme of this story. Does anyone want to begin?”
Jenny shot me a look. “Uh, I can’t wait to hear all of this, but I need to check something in the kitchen first. Emma, could you give me a hand?”
Cindy narrowed her eyes. “Jenny, we all know that’s your excuse when you haven’t read the book. Don’t bother trying to fool us.”
Jenny shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Cindy. Of course, I read the book.” She lowered her voice. “But I don’t think Emma did, so I’m trying to help her save face.”
Everyone laughed, and Jenny and I used that as cover for our escape to the kitchen.
“Thanks for throwing me under the bus.” I pinched her arm.
“Hey, did you really want to sit there and listen to that boring discussion?” she shot back. “Because I know I didn’t.” She opened the fridge and pulled out a huge bowl. “And I did need to come and get this. Nico made it for tonight because he is a sweetie and wanted my friends to enjoy some seriously delicious food.”
“He’s so wonderful.” I gave her another hug, this time squeezing extra tight. “I’m so glad for you both, Jen. No one knows more than me how much heartache went ahead of this happily ever after.”
“Right?” She leaned a hip against the counter and nibbled on a chip. “Which is why I hope you’re also going to be understanding of my next news—which I wanted you to hear first.”
A trickle of foreboding ran down my spine. “Okay. That sounds ominous. What’s up?”
She sucked in a deep breath. “This proposal wasn’t as out of the blue as I made it seem. Nico and I have been talking about it for a while—about getting married, I mean. I was surprised in the how and the when of the asking, though.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Em, Nico’s been offered a position as head chef of a restaurant in Washington, DC. It’s a huge honor—a really big deal. The first time they asked, he turned them down because it was when Deacon was still away, and he knew there was no way I’d leave St. Agnes when we were so short-handed. But the chef they hired in place of Nico then left for a gig in Barcelona, and so they asked Nico again.” Jenny paused. “I can’t ask him to say no again, Emma. And I won’t do long-distance. It’s been hard enough with us living over an hour apart from each other, but we’ve made that work. I can’t do twelve hours by car or two by airplane.”
“And you shouldn’t.” I stepped closer and wrapped one arm around her shoulders. “Jenny, you have to follow your heart, and if Nico needs to be in DC, then I understand you need to be with him.” I swallowed over the lump that was rising in my throat. “I won’t pretend that I’m not really, really sad at the idea of you leaving, but I would never ask you to sacrifice your happiness for a job.”
