Page 21 of One Last Time

Giovanni chuckled as he took a seat on the opposite side of the desk. “No, actually, it looks like she’s probably going to stay right there.”

Lynn grinned. “Hey, Grandpapa.”

“Hey, sweetheart.”

“Watch your show while I talk to Grandpapa,” Andino told Lynn. “And when the episode is over, you go back to bed. Deal?”

Lynn thought about it for all of five seconds before settled back against her father under the blanket and muttering, “Deal.”

“Ah, compromise,” Giovanni said, laughing under his breath. “The only way I found to keep your ass under control for years.”

Andino smirked.

His father wasn’t wrong.

The office quieted while Lynn’s show continued playing in the background. Giovanni tipped up a glass for Andino to see—one he must have gotten from downstairs. Like his own on the desk, it seemed filled with the twenty-year cognac he kept downstairs.

“Haven grabbed me a drink,” his father said. “She seems … quiet.”

That had Andino sighing.

“Not surprising. She’s been quiet for a couple of weeks.”

“Oh?”

“Since the last IVF round—we go for the blood test tomorrow.”

Giovanni nodded. “So, tomorrow is the day, hmm?”

“Tomorrow’s the day.”

“How do you feel?”

That was not an easy question.

And he didn’t have an easy answer.

Andino simply settled on saying, “Ready. I’m ready.”

Regardless of the outcome.

No matter the rest.

He was ready for it.

It’s who he was.

TWELVE

Sitting in a chair beside her husband, Haven rubbed at the spot on her inner elbow where the clinic had drawn blood for the pregnancy test. She hadn’t said much leading up to this day—she wanted to be grateful no matter the outcome of their choices regarding this journey—but she was still terrified all the same.

And a part of her hoped this didn’t end in sadness.

Andino’s hand snagged her arm into his grasp, stopping her fidgeting. She glanced up at the same time he tugged her forward until she sat on the very edge of the chair. Without a word, his thumb found the spot she’d been rubbing for the last ten minutes—now a bluish bruised mess—and he pressed gently before sweeping his digit soothingly over her skin.

“We don’t know—don’t overthink it yet, Haven.”

She let out a shaky sigh.