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After that, he got onto the topic of choosing baby names.

I felt like I was going to scream with how relentless he was.

Paloma noticed my increasing struggle with overstimulation and took charge. First, she preoccupied him with a new water toy. Then she suggested getting out to make a snack. What finally helped him settle down was a book that he wanted to start on. It was above his age range, but since he’d been reading proficiently—even advanced—at his young age, it was an appropriate challenge to keep him busy.

Later, after dinner, he swam again and then got ready for bed. He lasted two minutes of my reading to him before he was out.

I found Paloma in the lounge, and I joined her. Sitting with a deep huff of fatigue, I melted into the couch.

“He sure was worked up today,” she commented.

“Do you think it’s from all the excitement? About the baby?”

She nodded. “And that Nikolai will officially adopt him.”

“I wonder how to get started on that paperwork.”

She patted my knee. “All in due time. Maybe get married first, then he could fill out the forms.”

I laughed once. “He needs to propose in order for us to marry.” Thinking back to lunch, I furrowed my brow. “Wait. Did he propose?”

“I don’t think so.” She lifted my hand as if to emphasize I didn’t have a ring on my finger yet. I looked at it for a moment, recalling the day I had taken the slim wedding band off it. It was maybe a couple of weeks after Kaleb had died. Brady was sick with a respiratory infection and he had been throwing up. When I had to wash my hands, I took the ring off and set it on the windowsill. In true irony, I forgot to put the band on—or maybe I subconsciously didn’t plan to—and it fell into the sink. I’d been running the garbage disposal at the moment, and since it was an older model and in need of repair, the vibration of the sink must have rattled the windowsill enough to make the ring fall into the drain.

It was gone, but staring at the hole where it had vanished, I couldn’t help but see the symbolism of it.

The ring was gone, and Kaleb was too.

It struck me as the first realization that I was a widow. Single again, yet never alone because I had my son with me.

“I think he was only stating his intentions,” Paloma said, bringing me back to the present. “He didn’t actually ask you to marry him.”

I nodded, knowing that if and when he gave me a ring, I would never want to take it off. I wouldn’t need to, because we already had help on standby should we ever need it.

Still holding my hand, she squeezed it once and let go. “I cannot wait for another wedding.”

“There’s been a few lately, huh?”

“Oh, yes. Adrik and Elena married first, and it was a show of a wedding. I suppose it had to be, with him as the heir. Then Carina and Maksim, they weren’t too much longer after them. Their marriage started out as an arrangement, but it was still a nice affair.”

I raised my brows at her. “That’s not what I heard.”

She lifted one shoulder and let it drop. “Then Mila and Lev. They were a sweet couple. Wren and Viktor just went to the chapel.” She laughed lightly, shaking her head. “I think they thought they could go do their own thing and pop in and out, eloping, but no. All of them crammed into that small chapel to see the ceremony.”

I stared across the room. “So if Nikolai and I⁠—”

“Not if, when.” She winked at me. “You heard the man. He intends to marry you.”

“Then he has to ask.”

I imagined that he would, but there was no clue for when. We could both agree that things were moving quickly between us. It sounded like that was the Volkov way, though. Fast.

Maybe it really is a matter of once you know, you know.

“There will be so much to do,” she said. “Planning a wedding. Preparing for a baby.”

“And Brady,” I said. “He’ll need to start school.”

“About that.”