Page 118 of Hired Husband

He slipped an arm around my waist. “I sure hope so. He really does love her, but it remains to be seen whether her father will let him do it officially.”

“I’ll talk to my dad,” I said. “Maybe he can help.”

Isaac grinned at me. “You can try. I do think your dad is going to be pretty preoccupied with something else soon, though.”

My eyes widened as I stared up at him. “You know something I don’t! What is it?”

“I know several things you don’t. Whole textbooks full, in fact,” he joked and laughed when I widened my eyes even more. “Fine, we’re not supposed to know yet, but the family gossip grapevine says Colin and Deja are having a baby.”

I blinked hard. “What?”

“Yep.”

I slapped a hand over my mouth. “Oh my God. How long have you been sitting on this?”

“Only about six hours.”

“Six hours?”

“Do you have any idea how difficult that was, keeping it from you for that long?” he asked. “They didn’t want to steal our thunder on the big day, but I almost died when I couldn’t run to you right away.”

I burst out laughing. “You’re terrible at keeping secrets.”

“Only from you, wife.”

I grinned, sliding my arms around his neck and taking a step closer. “I like the sound of that, husband.”

I pressed up onto my toes and kissed him under a sky so dusted with stars that it looked like silver glitter had been spilled across the cosmos. “I love you, Isaac Thayer.”

“I still can’t really believe I’m saying this, but I love you too, Jasmine Thayer.”

CHAPTER 49

ISAAC

Chicago at Christmas was beautiful, snow covering the sidewalks in a thin white blanket and turning the city into a picturesque landscape that almost made me miss living here. On the other hand, I did sometimes miss the place but not as much as I’d thought I might.

In fact, I was already looking forward to being back in the warmth and sunshine of my new home and we’d only been here a few days.

Ryan walked beside me through the streets of my old stomping grounds in downtown Chicago. “So, how’s the project going?”

“We finally broke ground,” I said, breath misting in front of my face. “It’s still a little surreal to think that our design is actually going to be standing there one day, but it’s going well.”

“How does Jasmine feel about your return to economic productivity?” he asked. “It must be pretty hard on her, considering that you spent the last few months before that in Thailand.”

“Don’t forget Vietnam, Bali, and Singapore.” I pumped my eyebrows at him. “Haven’t you heard? I’m a jetsetter now.”

He groaned. “I don’t know who’s more smug right now, you or Colin.”

“Definitely Colin,” I said without hesitating. “Between the fact that he helped smooth things over with Basel and that their baby is due any day now, he’s insufferable.”

“So are you,” Ryan shot back, grinning. “Seriously, though. How is married life treating you?”

“It’s been awesome. Why, are you considering it?”

He scoffed. “Never. I’m perfectly happy staying up to my old tricks, thank you very much.”

“And by that, you mean creeping through Chicago, New York, Jersey, and Miami, dating people you see no future with and then moving on?”