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It all makes us who we are and makes us stronger than when we thought we were all alone in the world.
“I love you, future Mrs. Condor,” I remind my soon-to-be wife after we’ve eaten our fill and finally managed to escape the lines of people wanting to congratulate us again and again.
“I love you too, Xander, more than any money or title,” she adds, blushing.
“Title?” I ask. “You’re making me sound like some regency character,” I exclaim.
“I mean heir to the Condor fortune,” she adds. “That’s a lot for a girl to get used to,” she says, looking down at her feet.
I stop her from walking ahead, taking her hands in mine.
“You need to know this, Chloe,” I tell her. “If I’m the Condor fortune heir, you’re my queen. Side by side. My total equal… Got it?” I tell her rather than ask her, only adding that I don’t think I want to hear that title ever again, which makes her laugh.
“Alright. How about… How about I just call you darling?” she asks, and I kiss her in reply.
“I love you, Chloe… Darling,” I remind her.
“And I love you too.”
The sun’s setting over the lake by the time we turn around to head back, but something bigger is pulling us in another direction as the sky burns a brilliant orange, its dying rays seeming to shine just for us.
The life we’ve yet to live.
Each of us knows we can only face its ups and downs if we have each other.
“We’re gonna be okay, aren’t we?” Chloe asks, and I take her hand in mine, pressing it to my lips.
“More than okay,” I remind her.
“We’re gonna be perfect, just like you. Darling…My Chloe. My everything”
THREE MONTHS LATER
Chloe
I tried keeping the news from him as long as I could, but like my dress sizes, once the engagement band wouldn’t even fit, I had to start keeping it in the safe.
At first, I thought Xander wouldn’t notice, but a rock that size?
“I only ask because I was worried something had happened to it,” Xander explains.
Meaning he’d have to explain it to his dad if something ever did happen to it.
I didn’t realize it, but it’s a diamond that’s listed as a national treasure.
Not exactly the sort of thing I should be wearing around the house in the first place.
But Xander overlooks my childish outburst when he brings it up.
“Just say it, tell me I’m as big as a house, and I’ll never be the same again,” I nearly sob. Trying to stay mad while Xander grabs me tenderly, squeezing me and tickling me until I can’t do anything but squeal with laughter.
“You’re as perfect as the day I met you, and I’m the one who’ll never be the same again,” he replies, playfully kissing and nibbling my neck until it becomes a real kiss.
Until it becomes me in his arms once again. His mouth on mine, his hands running over my body in reply to my stupid insecurities.
Showing me rather than telling me just how much he still finds me attractive.
If his record hardness is anything to go by, I’d say the man still likes what he sees.
Still likes what he can have handfuls of now that I’m way past showing just a baby ‘bump.’
“It’s a shame there’s already a baby in there,” Xander murmurs, making me raise my eyebrow in question.
“Because all I wanna do is put another one in you every time I look at you,” he growls, making my heart leap in my chest.
He always knows just what to say and when to say it to make his woman feel special.
More special than every day is already, that is.
“I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way,” I remind him. “I mean, you can’t just park another baby next to the one already growing in there…Can you?” I ask.
Suddenly not so sure because he sounds so convincing.
Everything Xander says or does is so convincing because he’s so damned perfect.
Lately, I’ve been feeling less than perfect, though.
Health wise I’m doing great, and the doctors all agree that both mom and baby are doing better than ever.
But it’s the stress of the wedding looming over me.
A society wedding, with thousands of strangers?
I can’t even, and if I’m totally honest, I don’t want to even deal with it.
“Is it the wedding?” Xander asks, rolling onto his back, ready to listen to anything I have to say, day or night.
I nod, and he grips my hand, running his fingertip over the space where my engagement ring should be.
“It’s in a few weeks,” he reminds me, and the mere mention of it sees a ripple of nausea running across my belly, making me sit up on the edge of the bed.
Xander rubs my back, sitting beside me, his big arm around my sagging shoulders.
“Then it’s decided. The wedding’s off.”
