by Rebel Hart
A smile fell across my face and I could feel my lower half reacting already. More than that though, my heart was exploding with just how much love I’d developed for this woman. She’d come into my life and turned it totally upside down, and I was so glad she did.
“I love you,” I said.
Her blush deepened, and she bent down, bringing her face to just centimeters above mine. “I love you too.”
She kissed me and I let the feeling of it drag away all the unpleasantness that had existed between us, and usher in the new age of this terrifying, exciting love.
26
Mari
I watched in shock and confusion as Nique and Gina Misterro floated around the room. They both had whole armfuls of stuff and were chattering like they were old school friends, stopping in different parts of the room to discuss what would go where. Watching them was actually making me dizzy, as trying to keep eyes on Nique often made me lose track of Gina and vice versa. It would almost be maddening if it wasn’t the most humorous thing I’d ever seen. Gina Misterro, a developer of weapons of mass destruction and technology that was slowly but surely monetizing the world and lining her pockets with cash, was carrying wallpaper and throw pillows around and talking design with my cousin.
If someone had asked me a year ago what I’d be doing in a year, this most certainly was not what I would have said.
“What do you think, Nique? Should we paint the walls? I think we should paint the walls,” Gina said. “I bought orange blankets, and the furniture is a light peach color. I suppose we could go with a nice, calming maroon in here, or… OH! We should paint a beautiful sunset over the Serengeti!”
“Yeah!” Nique screeched. “Okay, hear me out. I know that it’s a little extra, but I’ve already bought like… I don’t know, a thousand stuffed animals. We could hang shelves. Here…” She motioned her hands around the wall. “All over here, and then put the animals on top and it could be like the different animals on the savannah.”
“Oh, I love that,” Gina moaned. “Our little lion cub, and the animal kingdom!”
“The king of the jungle!” Nique said.
Gina frowned. “No, no. It’s not a jungle. We’re gonna paint a savannah, I thought? The Serengeti.”
“Well, I know, it’s just that lions are known as the king of the jungle, you know…” Then she started singing, “In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight.”
Crossing her arms, Gina looked at the still bare walls disapprovingly. “Well, do you suppose we should paint a jungle then?”
“A jungle could be better,” Nique said. “Although a lot of the stuffed animals I’ve purchased are savannah animals. Then again, I could just buy more stuffed animals. We can only hang the monkeys and stuff.” Then she yelped, “Oh my god! You know what we should do?”
Gina was all too excited. “What?”
Nique pointed up. “We’ll hang those cool, green mesh nets from the ceiling like a jungle canopy and then we can pop the monkeys inside. It’ll be like they’re actually in the trees!”
There was a moment of silence as Gina stared back at Nique like she was the absolute smartest person she’d ever met in her entire life. “Okay. It’s decided. You have to move in.”
Nique clapped her hands against her cheeks. “Move in? Here? To a mafia household?” She looked over at me. “Can I?”
I shook my head. “No.”
Gina waved a hand at me. “It’s not up to her. It’s my house. You clearly need to be here for this entire process. I don’t know how we’ll do this without you.”
“Finally,” Nique said. “At least someone recognizes my genius.”
I crossed my arms. “I know you’re trying to make me feel guilty, but I’m perfectly fine letting her be the one who recognizes it.”
Just as Nique was starting to pout at me, I felt a tug on my arm. I looked over my shoulder and Bryce was standing there. He nodded to the side, and I slipped out of the room and followed him down the hallway. His arms were full of boxes, which he then brought into his room and dropped on the bed before turning around and wrapping his arms around me.
“Hey,” he said before ducking down to kiss me. “How are you?”
“I’m good. Regretting letting your mother and Nique work together on the baby’s room. Did you know there will be a Serengeti or maybe a jungle in there?”
He furrowed his brow. “What? They can’t be that bad.”
“Come with me.”
I led him back out of his room and down the hallway to where the baby’s room would be and stood aside so Bryce could look in.
“No,” Gina said, shaking her head and staring at the corner of the wall. “I don’t think it would be ridiculous to get an actual tree. I mean, if we’re going to go for it, we should really go for it, right? We don’t want our little cub to have fake trees. It needs real trees. What kind of grandmother would I be if I got my grandchild fake trees?”
“Mom?” Bryce snapped.
Gina looked over like she was doing nothing wrong. “What, honey? I just want your baby to have the best. It needs real trees.”
Bryce just rolled his eyes and walked back down the hallway, and I followed him, closing the door to the bedroom behind us. “See?”
Bryce turned and looked at me, confused. “You know, she’s like the most unemotional person I know. I did not see the doting grandmother thing coming from a mile away.”
I laughed, walking over to him and pulling him down onto the bed with me. He curled my hairs that were hanging in my face behind my ear, and then continued the path down to rest a hand on my stomach. I was officially sporting an adorable little baby bump. It was crazy to think in about six months, I’d be giving birth to a child.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Not bad today. Some back stuff, but good other than that. We both missed you today,” I said.
Bryce smiled. “I missed you both.”
“You all moved out?” I asked.
A twisted expression of sadness and frustration found Bryce’s face. “Yes. I’ve moved out of my incredible penthouse on the strip.”
“I told you we could have lived there,” I said. “You’re obviously upset to have given it up.”
“It’s more of a bachelor pad, and I’m pretty sure it’s one-hundred percent impossible to baby proof that place. Even the walls are dangerous. We’ll find something better, and in the meantime—”
“Waterfall!” We both looked over at the closed door and Gina and Nique’s combined voices split the calm.
“If they keep going like that, there isn’t going to be any room for the actual baby,” I said.
He just shook his head and closed his eyes, sweetly rubbing my stomach. “Don’t worry. We’re out of this place no more than six months after the baby is born, then we can design a practical place for our child to live.” He kissed me on the forehead, something he knew I loved and asked, “Did you have a chance to speak to my mom and dad about getting everything transferred?”
I nodded. “Yep. Every company I’ve ever worked with or served now serves your family. I spent some time doing the math; it cost my old family ten and a half billion dollars, but don’t worry, my work never benefitted them anyway.”
“I’m surprised we haven’t heard from your brothers yet,” Bryce said.
“Yeah, about that.” I sat up a little straighter on the bed. “I’m worried about that. With my mom running things now, I’m concerned that their retaliation is going to be severe. I’m worried about you, your family, and the baby.”
Bryce wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back down, squeezing me tight to him. “You do not have to worry. I’d sooner die before I let anything happen to my family. Whatever the Westuns have planned, we’ll face it together. I won’t let anything happen to you. Okay?”
The sincerity in his voice made it impossible not to believe him when he said it. “Okay.”
A gentle knock on the door preceded Baylor fi
rst poking his head into the room and then walking in fully. He had an armful of boxes as well, which he set on the desk in the corner and then sunk down into the office chair. “Why do you only own heavy shit?”
Bryce laughed as we sat up. “Because I’m an adult.”
“If you say so,” he grumbled, then pointed over his shoulder. “Hey, did you guys know that those two are planning on installing an actual waterfall in there? Have you discussed at all where the actual kid is gonna go?”
“We don’t wanna talk about it,” Bryce and I said in unison.
“What about you?” Bryce said. “How did smoothing things over with the police go?”
In a flash, Baylor’s entire expression got angry like he was about to blow steam from his ears. “You know who’s a fucking bitch? That Sam woman. It is appalling for such a beautiful package to have nothing but fire and roaches inside.”
I snorted. “Not her number one fan, huh?”
“She’s so fucking… persistent! Seriously. Her whole goddamn team wants to let shit go, but she’s on this great crusade to take down everyone who has stolen so much as a piece of gum in the city of Las Vegas like…” He scoffed and shook his head. “Who has that strong a sense of justice? Does she not realize where she is?”
“I assume you have to have some crazy commitment to justice to end up heading the organized crime unit in a place like Las Vegas,” Bryce said.
Baylor crossed his arms. “Yeah, or being a fucking… psycho.”
“Are you gonna have a problem dealing with her?” Bryce asked.
“Of course not. Who do you think you’re talking to?” Baylor said. “It’s just taking a lot more effort than I want to deal with. She’s fighting like there’s still a chance she can win the game. She doesn’t realize she’s already lost.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” I said. “Worst case, we dump her in the lake.”
“Believe me, I’m considering it,” he said. “Blackmail at the very least.” Then he clapped his hands, his mood flipping in an instant. “Hey! Maybe that’s what we can do for your bachelor party!”
“Bachelor party?” I looked over at Bryce. “Did you not tell him?”
“Tell me what?” Baylor whimpered.
“We’re still… actively discussing the whole marriage thing.”
“No,” I said. “We’re not getting married. Not right now anyway.”
“Why?” Baylor whined. “I was so excited to do my best man stuff.”
“You’ll get to one day, just not right now,” I said.
Bryce shook his head. “We’re having a baby together. We should be married.”
“I’m not that old fashioned,” I said. “I love you and you love me, right?”
“Well yeah…”
“And you said you were gonna take care of me regardless, didn’t you?”
Bryce nodded. “Yes, but—”
“And you’re going to take care of our baby. You just swore you’d never let anything happen to us.”
“I wouldn’t!”
“Then that’s fine for now!” I said. Bryce frowned and I put a hand on his face. “It’s not like I never want to marry you, I just don’t want to buy a dress large enough to cover my baby bump and force you down the aisle just because you knocked me up. We have everything we need already. I’d like to get married someday, but I don’t have to do that right now. I’m happy with the way things are. I’m just… I’m not that traditional.”
Bryce grabbed my hands from his face and brought them to his lips to kiss. “Well, I’m marrying you someday, so you had better gear up for it.”
I giggled at him. “Noted.”
“Rude,” Baylor said. “I wanted to throw my brother a bachelor party. Live it up on the boat. Maybe engage in some light murder. Why are you taking it away from me?”
I looked at Bryce. “Can I tell him the other thing to make him feel better?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I think that’ll help.”
Looking back towards Baylor, I smiled at him. “We picked a name for the baby.”
“Is it more fun than getting rid of this cop bitch?” he asked.
“Maybe? Depends on how you look at it,” I said. “We’ve decided that regardless of if the baby is a boy or girl, we’re going to name it Bayley. After its uncle and godfather.”
He sat up rod straight in his chair. “No you are not.”
Bryce nodded. “I couldn’t think of a better namesake for my first child.”
Baylor jumped up from his chair, bolted over to us and gave us a hug, then went charging from the room screaming, “They’re naming the baby after me!”
I laughed as Bryce shook his head. “I guess everyone knows now.”
“Yeah,” he said, then wrapped his arms around me and pulled me down again.
“This is going to be quite the adventure, isn’t it?” I asked.
Rubbing my back, Bryce placed another sweet kiss on my forehead. “It sure is.”
“I’m still gonna kill you one of these days, you know,” I joked.
He laughed and hugged me even tighter. “I anxiously await the day.”
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