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Luke nodded. A thought struck him, and though he fought hard to keep it in, he couldn’t stop it from working its way up his throat. “Are you ashamed of me?”
“No,” his mother said, though he thought the answer was a little too quick. “No, honey. I’m just trying to protect you.”
He stared at the half-burned logs in the dark fireplace.
***
In her dream, Rose was running hand-in-hand with Luke through Chicago’s streets, and no matter how hard they pushed themselves onward, they couldn’t shake the paparazzi tailing them. Her high heel caught in a crack in the sidewalk, and she woke before her dream-self could hit the ground.
She was overcome immediately by a wave of nausea. She sat up quickly and threw off the covers, inwardly shouting at herself as she realized her carelessness might wake Luke, who was shirtless and passed out beside her. She ran for the bathroom adjoined to his bedroom, and she threw up what little she’d eaten the day before into the toilet. When she’d finished, she pulled herself off the cold tile floor and washed her hands, and then she splashed her face with cool water, trying to pull herself together.
If this was what pregnancy was going to be like for the next several months, she needed to get used to it.
At a gentle touch on her shoulder, she turned to find Luke watching her, worry in his eyes.
“I’m okay,” she said. “Just morning sickness.”
“Is there anything I can get you?”
She shook her head. “I’ll eat something after my stomach settles, but for right now, I just want to lie down.”
He nodded and led her back to bed, and she rested her cheek against the warmth of his chest. She focused on the steady rise and fall of his breath and his heartbeat in her ear, and in a few minutes, the nausea receded.
“Thank you,” she said softly.
“For what?”
“All of it.”
After a moment, she felt the light brush of his fingers trailing through her hair. “My mom thinks we should take a vacation.”
At this, Rose looked up, raising a brow as she met his green eyes. “Why does she think that?”
“Those idiots followed us home last night.”
A blend of emotions swept over her—anger and fear at the thought that they couldn’t even consider themselves untouchable here; elation that he’d called the house “home,” like it was hers now, too.
“She thinks Stein sent them,” Luke continued.
“The guy who’s running against her?”
He nodded. “I’m sure she’s right. He’s not the first of her rivals to try to use me to make her look bad. He’s just the most persistent.”
“So where are we supposed to go? I’m scheduled to work today.”
“Do you have any time off saved?”
She shrugged noncommittally. She knew she was going to need time off when the baby was born, so the idea of taking any now seemed like too much of a risk. But the notion that these people were so determined to pry into her personal life and Luke’s that they would follow them out of the city and to his house in Winnetka was so unsettling that she was tempted.
“I guess I can call the office,” she said. “Talk with my boss.”
“Okay.” He leaned down and kissed her softly, and her stomach fluttered at the touch of his lips.
***
Goosebumps rose all over her body as her bare feet paced the bathroom tile. She held her phone to her ear, and her boss picked up after the first ring.
“Essence Designs, this es Beatrice. How may I help ye?” Her voice was high and clear, and though her tone was polite, it was also firm. Rose had called her boss’s direct line, and she knew Beatrice didn’t enjoy being bothered if a problem could be solved by anyone else.
