AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She mutters under her breath, observing the way I’ve got Nadia all cuddled up against my side. “That baby’s coming. It won’t be long now…”
37
NADIA
After the meal is over, Mrs. Westbrook wanders off for a nap. The guys hang around the dinner table and the conversation quickly drifts to football.
Nicky leans in by my ear. “I like sports and all, but if I have to hear any more stats about football players who are already dead, I’m going to sneak out the window.” She grabs my elbow. “Come with me.”
Laughing under my breath, I’m expecting to make a quick getaway. But when I scoot my chair back, Harry notices my movement immediately. He pauses his discussion, squeezes my hand and then pulls me in for a hot, little kiss before letting me wander off.
“Relax, you protective bear. Let the girl have some fun!” Nicky chides.
“Don’t get her into any trouble,” he shoots after his sister.
“You know I will.” She waggles her eyebrows at her untrusting brother.
We find Emma and Meghan hiding away in the kitchen, doing more drinking and chatting than actual cleaning.
They both start cheering when Nicky drags me in.
“Nadia! There you are!” Meghan squeals, her eyes beaming with eagerness.
“We were getting ready to come and kidnap you,” Emma informs me conspiratorially.
“Harry didn’t want to let her out of his grasp for a second.” Nicky shakes her head. “I don’t know what you’ve been doing to my brother but that boy’s going to need an intervention soon.”
I laugh. “Please don’t intervene. I’m about as obsessed with him as he is with me.” I look around the place and roll up my sleeves. “What can I help with?”
Nicky sweeps her arm, indicating the four or five half-empty bottles of wine. “We have a really important job to do. I’ll help!”
I frown, confused.
Emma shakes her head. “Nicky accidentally threw away all the wine corks earlier, so we can’t save the leftover wine. Our only solution is to drink it up. All of it. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it.”
“I like your thinking,” I tell Nicky with a laugh. “Got any merlot?”
Meghan scoots two bottles my way. “All yours.”
We spend the next twenty minutes drinking and chatting. Emma and Meghan take care of the food cleanup, packing everything in plastic containers and stocking Mrs. Westbrook’s fridge for the week to come, While Nicky and I are on dish duty.
“So, Nadia. You and Harry…Married!” Emma says eventually. “How crazy is that?”
“I’m still pinching myself,” I say with a laugh, a sudden feeling of overwhelm comes over me when I think about the events of the past week.
“Tell us how it happened,” Meghan demands. “We’ve been trying to piece it all together but we just got the second-hand story from our guys, and they’re no good at gossiping. I always feel like Cash is forgetting to tell the juiciest parts.”
I sponge down the same plate for way too long as I tell the story of how Harry accompanied me to the gala as my fake date, only for us to wake up married to each other the next morning. The tale sounds insane to my ears even as I tell it.
Emma pauses with her hand on her chest, watching me with her jaw hanging open. “I would have lost my shit if that had happened to me.”
“Oh, trust me, Ididlose my shit.” I chuckle. “I know how it sounds, but I swear I’m not a crazy lady. In fact, I’m a very logical person. But…”
“But when you know, you know…” Meghan finishes for me.
I smile softly. “Yeah—when you know you know. Logically, there are so many reasons why Harry and I shouldn’t even try to be together. In fact, he had been asking me to go on a date with him for months and I wouldn’t even consider it. I was insanely attracted to him. Intrigued and curious. But on paper, we just didn’t fit. But once we started talking and getting to know each other that night, everything just hit me like a freight train. And I…knew.I’m totally a logical person. But Harry has this way of commanding me to listen to my heart for the first time in my life.”
Nicky and Megan sag against each other and sigh.
