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Will You…
Nick
“Who’sreadytodrawstraws?” Leo’s voice booms from the kitchen, drawing our attention away from looking around the gorgeous—and massive—log cabin we’re staying in for our ski trip.
We’ve done Ardito-Barone vacations once a year since I was a kid. We always invited Braden’s family, but they only take time off from The Pit once a year, and that’s when they go to visit Hank’s brother. The only year we didn’t take one was last year because my dad and Leo were under so much pressure organizing everything for the huge mini-development project they were working on. With all the houses built and only interiors being worked on now, they were able to relax and take a vacation.
We’re a few hours from home, down in the Catskill Mountains, staying at a private home that has access trails to the adjacent ski resort. How did we swing this? Leo Barone. No man in history has as many connections as he does. If he were president, I’m convinced we’d have world peace. He probably knows a guy for that.
We gather around the kitchen to draw straws for bedrooms. There is a master suite on this floor, right near the kitchen, then four more bedrooms upstairs. There’s also an adjoining cottage with its own private entrance, bathroom, and kitchenette.
Leigh raises her hand. “I know we do the whole drawing straws thing, but I’m pregnant. I don’t want to have to walk up and down stairs or even down the hallway to pee, so Nick and I call the master.”
She’s crazy. I had no intention of even coming on the trip this year. She’s due in two weeks. But she insisted she wasn’t going to miss this. She even researched the best local hospital and found a doctor’s office willing to take her on if she needed anything last minute. My girl is headstrong when she wants something.
Leo smiles. “Fair enough. We’ll draw straws for the rest.”
“Longest straw gets the cottage? Or shortest?” Vince asks. My brother is cool as a cucumber. You’d never know this whole thing was rigged so he and Maia get the cottage. All part of the engagement plans. Everyone in this room knows he’s going to propose on this trip—except for Maia. She’s completely unaware, and I love it. I hope he manages to surprise her. She deserves to be swept off her feet. If I’m honest, that is probably the biggest reason Leigh didn’t want to miss this trip.
“Let’s do shortest for the cabin and then from there, next shortest gets first pick at the upstairs bedrooms and so on.”
“Sounds good to me,” Vince says.
“You go first, then,” Leo says, holding out his hand with all the straws. As soon as Vince’s hand is blocking the straws, Leo pushes up the shortest one for him to grab.
Vince steps back and holds it up to Maia. “Gotta be the shortest, right?”
Maia’s eyes light up, but of course, she says, “We’ll see when everyone else draws theirs.”
And as soon as everyone’s done, it’s clear Vince has the shortest straw.What a surprise!But we all act like it is. Maia is visibly excited and starts going on about where to put Harper’s travel crib. Of course, after Vince proposes, whenever that is—he says it’ll be when the time is just right—Veronica is going to steal Harper overnight.
Leigh snakes her arm around my back. “When do you think he’s going to do it?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’ll be perfect when he does.”
“What are you two whispering about?” Maia asks, strolling over to us.
“Mm, about how pregnancy helped us land the second-best room in the house,” Leigh says smoothly. She’s too good at lying. It scares me sometimes.
“And we got the best one,” Vince says, wrapping his arms around Maia from behind.
She leans back and slides her hand around his neck and into his hair before whispering something dirty that I wish I couldn’t hear into his ear.
Better get used to it. I have a feeling there’s going to be plenty more of that over the next few days.
