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“Wait.” She lifted her head and gazed into his eyes. She inhaled deeply, intriguing him with her sudden intensity. “I’m not opposed to having your baby, Jude. In fact, I was even contemplating—” She gave a slight shak
e of her head, further piquing his interest. And sending a rush of adrenaline through his veins. “It’s not out of the question, by any stretch.”
His gaze narrowed on her. “You’re being serious?”
“One-hundred percent,” she insisted. “We just need to plan a little better. Yes, I’ve been uncharacteristically spontaneous. I don’t regret any decisions I’ve made or the direction in which we’re going,” she pointedly said. “In the future, however, it might behoove us to plot our course a bit more systemically.”
He grinned. Kissed her. And said, “I hear you, and I concur.”
“I don’t want to be so swept away by wedded bliss—ours or Denny and Charlotte’s— that we act illogically or insensibly or—”
“Kate.” He rolled to the side, so she was on her back. As Jude gazed down at her, he whisked away strands of hair from her temple. “I’m happy with all of this. So damn happy. And as soon as we can escape tomorrow’s brunch, we’ll be on a plane back to Mexico City. Back to Sophie. And you can be damn certain I will do whatever it takes for us to become her legal guardians.”
“I know,” she said with a smile. “I trust in you, Jude. I believe in you. And we’ll continue to do really great work in whatever capacity we can. All the adjustments we have to make in order to accommodate having Sophie in our lives will be worth it. I believe in that, too.”
“As do I,” he asserted. “And she can travel with us, with tutors when the time comes.”
“You’d make that concession?” Kate asked, eyeing him curiously. “Over a traditional school environment? Or…private school?”
“It ultimately depends on what’s in Sophie’s best interests. And I’m not saying I wouldn’t want us to pop back here at decent intervals and consider my apartment our home base. But let’s face it. We put a hell of a lot of effort into our training, Kate. And there’s a tremendous amount of good we can do with our skills. I’m not ready to end it all just yet. Though…I do want you to be really, really careful from here on out.” He gave her a firm look.
“I promise.” She gnawed her lip a moment, then added, “I don’t want Sophie to be in any danger, either. In fact, I hadn’t thought of this before, but our current operational model might be a disadvantage in this scenario…a judicial consideration that works against us when it comes to gaining custody.”
“Then we’ll figure out what we can do, how we can help Nik and her team, from a safer distance.”
“You’re really incredible,” Kate murmured, her eyes misting. “I hope you know that. I truly am amazed by you. And I’m just…so thrilled to be your wife, Jude. So proud.”
He kissed her. Then whispered against her lips, “We make a hell of a team, Kate. We’ll make one hell of a family.”
“I have no doubt.”
“I can’t believe the dinner service started so late last evening,” Betsy Stockman mumbled over Bellini’s the next morning.
“It was only five minutes past the hour, Mother,” Kate discreetly said across the table from her, not wanting Charlotte to overhear and think for even a second that her wedding was anything less than sheer perfection.
“It’s not polite to keep guests waiting, is all I’m saying,” her mother added.
“Well, everyone was still enjoying the hors d’ oeuvres and cocktails, so I’m fairly certain no one other than you noticed where the minute hand on the clock was.” Kate gazed intently at her mother, willing her to drop the subject. Before the conversation a few seats down ended and Charlotte tuned into this one.
“I just expected more, is all.”
“More, what?” Charlotte suddenly, delicately inquired as she actually did catch wind of Betsy’s complaint.
Kate resisted the urge to grit her teeth over anything potentially spoiling her new sister-in-law’s “morning after” bliss and instead said, “Mother likes her Bellini’s topped off. The one she was just served is a tad below the rim.” Kate winked.
Charlotte laughed. “I’ll have one of our servers rectify that immediately.”
“Not at all,” Betsy quickly interjected, plastering a smile on her face, though Kate knew she inwardly seethed at the particular cover-up Kate had concocted. “I’m perfectly fine, dear.”
Beside Kate, Jude chuckled under his breath. “Way to make your mother look like a lush, sweetheart.”
“Perhaps she’ll be a bit kinder in the future.” Though Kate knew that was wishful thinking.
The brunch was a long, drawn-out affair at the Kensington mansion. At least, it felt ridiculously long and absurdly drawn out, because Kate desperately wanted to be on the plane back to Mexico City. Nikki had been texting frequently and there was an undercurrent of urgency to her comments about Sophie being so distraught. And there was something else…even Nikki seemed abnormally tense.
She sent a curious missive that stated: Nico demonstrated signs of responsiveness again this morning. They took him for a CT scan. Two hours ago.
Kate could practically envision Nikki pacing the hallway outside his room, wondering when he’d return. But that really wasn’t like Nikki, when she had other responsibilities, such as patients to counsel and Sophie to check in on.
