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I shrugged. “Maybe, but maybe not. We’ll see. In the meantime, you could tell me what you’re really doing here.”

“What?” He raised an eyebrow at me. “I live here, remember? Jeez. Pregnancy brain is a real thing, huh?”

I gave his shoulder a playful smack. “You know what I mean. You’ve been hovering the entire time I was filling out the application, so what is it?”

He sighed. “Fine. I have a surprise for you.”

My eyes narrowed. “What have you done?”

“Nothing too radical.” He reached down and took both my hands in his. “We just never went on our honeymoon, is all.”

“So?”

“So after my midterms, we’re going somewhere. Just the two of us.”

My eyebrows inched up. “Okay. Where are we going?”

He shrugged. “Anywhere you want.”

“You mean you haven’t decided yet?”

“No.” He squeezed my hands. “I thought we should decide together. We never got to have the part where we were just married, and in love, and exploring someplace together where we’ve both always wanted to go.”

“Yeah.” I smiled. “At least that gave me time to discover that you’re secretly a good person.”

He smirked. “Don’t go spreading that around now, but yeah. I want to take you somewhere, just us, for a few weeks to unwind before we tell everyone our news.”

As I looked up at him, my brain suddenly started cycling through all the places I’d always wanted to go but had never thought I’d actually be able to visit. For so many years, to me, travel had existed only online or as pictures in magazines, but now?

“I want to go somewhere warm,” I said, unable to stop my grin. “With a beach and a room with a balcony.”

“Done,” he agreed immediately. “It should also have good food and require you to wear nothing but a bikini while we’re there.”

I groaned. “Holden⁠—”

I cut myself off when I felt the familiar twist in my stomach and I swallowed hard. Holden’s brow furrowed. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. Just feeling a little sick again.”

Immediately, he let go of me and was on the move. “Do you want some water? Tea? Oh, wait. I got it. Let’s get you some crackers.”

I chuckled. “God, you’re becoming unbearable.”

“You’ve been sick for weeks. I’m allowed to be unbearable.” As he winked at me, he turned and headed into the pantry anyway, coming back with a box of crackers.

I took one, smiling even as I shook my head at him. “Thank you.”

“That’s better.” He grinned, but I could still see the worry in his eyes. “You’re sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” I nibbled at the corner of the cracker, grateful for the dry blandness as it hit my tongue.

Pregnancy really wasn’t for the fainthearted. I wasn’t even really showing yet, but I’d already learned that there were many other ways in which my body was going to change. One of them was my sudden aversion to the scent of grilling meat. I couldn’t stand it. Unfortunately, I also couldn’t stand the sweet scent of my own shampoo anymore, which meant I’d started using Holden’s—and having the scent of him on me all day was not doing my hormones any favors.

And round and round we go. I’d been told it eased up in the second trimester, but I wasn’t quite there yet.

Holden kept telling me his mother had all sorts of home remedies that were supposed to work for the morning sickness, but we still hadn’t told her or the family our news. Despite how often Holden had told me we could speak to his mother if I wanted, even if only on the off chance one of those remedies actually worked, we wanted this secret to belong to us for just a little while longer.

Maggie was due in the new year, so there was enough excitement around babies in the family without us adding ours to the chaos just yet. So for now, this was ours.