William kept his arm around my waist or my hand clasped in his, as we wandered around the room and chatted with everyone. I wanted to tell him I was pregnant, but even with a small wedding, there seemed to be an endless stream of people to talk to.
So I kept the news to myself, a secret that was simultaneously tiny and so very, very big. It warmed me from the inside, making my eyes misty every time I looked at William.
The staff served dinner and I was grateful to my stomach for cooperating. The food was delicious. I declined the wine, but no one seemed to notice. Then we had cake, and Zoe let us know that Edgar was doing great with Cooper, whose parents owned the winery. Their house was nearby on the winery grounds, so Cooper was taking Edgar to go lie down.
After a while, the guests began leaving. Most were staying at one of the nearby hotels. I heard a few of my colleagues from work say they were going into town to sample more of the wine-tasting rooms. Jade, who often did William’s hair for photo shoots, had snuggled up with a physics professor from Woodward, and I saw them leave together.
I picked at the last of my cake as we sat with Jessica and Peter, and James and his girlfriend Danielle. William rested his hand on the back of my chair, his fingers absently caressing my shoulder.
“Are you excited about the baby?” Danielle asked.
I stared at her for a beat before realizing she was talking to Jessica and Peter.
“We are,” Jessica said, resting her hand on her belly. Her voice was a little dreamy. It always was when she talked about the baby. “We’ve been working on the nursery, and getting things ready.”
“How about you?” James asked, looking at Peter. “Ready to be a father?”
Peter smiled at Jessica, and my heart melted a little. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
“With you two as parents, he’s going to be a genius,” I said.
“Math genius,” Peter said.
Jessica’s eyebrow arched. “Not necessarily. Just because he’s a boy doesn’t mean he won’t be artistic.”
Peter shook his head. “Mark my words. Math or one of the sciences. Physics. Computer engineering maybe.”
“Well, I’m getting him in art classes as soon as he’s old enough to hold a paintbrush,” Jessica said.
“Feel free,” Peter said. “But you can’t fight nature.”
William glanced at me, a little smile playing on his lips. “Jess, I can teach him how to paint.”
Jessica smiled. “Perfect.”
“Traitor,” Peter said.
The rest of us decided to go our separate ways. James and Danielle headed into town to sample the nightlife. Jessica and Peter decided to go back to their room at the hotel. Jessica was tired from the long day.
Zoe brought Edgar back to us and we took him next door to the hotel. We were in the honeymoon suite on the top floor, so we took the elevator up and went into our room. Edgar immediately went to his dog bed to go back to sleep. It seemed Cooper had done a great job wearing him out.
William laid his suit jacket over the back of a chair, then stood behind me to help me extricate the circlet of flowers from my heavily hair-sprayed curls.
“Well, we did it,” I said as he set the flowers aside.
“Was our wedding everything you wanted it to be?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Everything and so much more.”
“I don’t think I can properly express how beautiful you look today,” he said, sliding his arms across my bare shoulders.
I turned toward him, and he slipped his hands around my waist. “You look wonderful, too.”
He leaned in and kissed me. His mouth was soft, but there was hunger in his kiss. He pulled me against him and slowly lowered the zipper on the back of my dress.
“William?” My heart beat faster as he trailed kisses down my neck.
“Yes, baby?” he asked. He ran his mouth up the side of my neck and kissed me again behind my ear.
“I have something to tell you.”
He pulled away and touched my face, concern in his eyes. “Yes?”
I nibbled on my bottom lip, feeling a sudden burst of excitement and nervousness. “I’m pregnant.”
His expression changed, from concern to surprise. His eyebrows lifted, and the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile.
“You’re… we’re… you mean a baby?”
I nodded. “A baby.”
He pulled me close, wrapping his arms around me. We stood there, holding each other, just breathing. Living in the moment and feeling the tender rush of emotions at what this news meant.
“I love you,” he said. He cupped my cheeks and kissed my lips, my nose, my forehead. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too.”
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked. Kissed my forehead again. “Do you need anything?”
“I feel fine,” I said. “I threw up earlier, but Zoe was there to help me get cleaned up afterward. But I’m okay now.”
“Are you sure?” He smoothed my hair back and looked me up and down, as if he was certain he’d find something wrong with me.
“I’m sure,” I said.
He placed his hand on my belly and leaned his forehead against mine. “I love you, Ivy Cole. And I’m going to love our baby just as much as I love you.”
My eyes misted over with tears and I ran my hand up the back of his neck. “I know you will.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“For what?”
“For this,” he said, rubbing my belly. “And for believing in me, and loving me. And becoming my wife.”
“Thank you,” I said, sniffing back more tears. “Thank you for finding me.”
“It was always you, Ivy,” he said. “It always will be.”
His lips found mine and I melted into his kiss. Relaxed in the feel of his strong arms around me, his warm body pressed against mine.
He was my William. My love. My husband, and now the father of my baby.
He was everything.
Would you like to read a family series that’s hot, hilarious, and romantic? Check out the Miles Family! Turn the page for a preview of book one, Broken Miles…
Broken Miles: Chapter One
Roland
All your shit’s gone, and I’m just trying to figure out what the hell happened.
~Text from Roland, four years ago
* * *
They wanted a damn miracle. I looked over the email again, already formulating a strategy. What my boss was asking for was tough. But, as the saying went, that was why they paid me the big bucks. I was the youngest CFO in Dimension, Inc.’s history for a reason.
I was a goddamn miracle worker.
Glancing at the time, I had to do a double take. It was already after nine. I hadn’t realized it was so late. But I worked late most nights, and it wasn’t like there was anyone around to bitch at me about it. I didn’t have plans with Farrah tonight; she was out of town. And even when we did have plans, she got it. She worked as much as I did, and she understood what it took to make it at this level. I never had to worry about that with her.
My cell buzzed, vibrating on the desk next to my laptop. Looking down, I winced. My parents’ number. Their business number, to be specific. Which meant it could be either one of them calling. I didn’t particularly want to take the call, but if I didn’t answer, I’d have to call them back. Better to get it over with.
I picked up the phone and answered. “Yeah.”
“Hey, it’s Leo.”
That was odd. My younger brother never called. An occasional text, maybe, but it wasn’t like we were close. This probably meant bad news.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“You need to come out here.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Mom and Dad are on the verge of losing the winery,” he said. “It’s a mess.”
I sat back in my chair and pinched the bridge of my nose. You’ve got to be kidding me. “What do you mean, lose the winer
y?”
“The business is in debt up to its eyeballs,” he said. “Dad’s been hiding shit. It’s bad.”
“What do you expect me to do about it?”
“Don’t be an asshole,” Leo said. “Do you think I would have called you if it wasn’t a big deal? This is serious. You need to come home.”
Fuck. Home? That was the last place I wanted to go.
“Now?” I asked. “I can’t just drop everything. I’m sure Dad will figure it out.”
“Roland,” Leo said, his tone sharp. “Dad’s the one who fucked everything up. He’s not going to fix it. We need you out here, man. If this is about Zoe…”
“It’s not about Zoe.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose again. Just thinking about Zoe gave me a headache. Why my mom had hired my ex-wife to work at the family winery was beyond me. Although, normally I didn’t give a shit. I was in San Francisco, almost a thousand miles from my hometown in central Washington. It’s not like it had any impact on my life if she worked there.
“Because we can, I don’t know, find ways to keep some distance between you two or whatever,” he said.
“I already said it isn’t about her. I’m an adult, I can be in the same room with Zoe.”
“Good,” he said. “Then get your ass home.”
“Leo—” I stopped because I heard the click of the call ending. I tossed my phone back onto my desk. “Fuck. Fuck you, Leo. And fuck you, Dad.”
I checked my calendar. Tomorrow was out, but if I flew out early on Thursday, I could get to the winery and finish up my day from there. I sent my assistant, Danielle, a text, telling her to book me a flight to Seattle and reserve a rental car.
My concentration was shot to shit. I wasn’t going to get any more work done tonight. But it was late anyway. I closed my laptop, grabbed my things, and went home.
I’d bought my condo for the view. During the day, I could see all the way to the water. At night, the lights of the city twinkled in the darkness. It had cost me a shit-ton of money, but every night when I stood looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows, I knew it had been worth it.
I went to the kitchen and took a bottle of Glenlivit out of the liquor cabinet. Poured a glass and took a long swallow. It burned going down, spreading warmth through my chest.
Danielle texted me back with my flight details for Thursday. I blew out a long breath and took another drink of Scotch.
Home. I’d grown up in Echo Creek, a small town in the Cascade Mountains. Growing up on a winery sounded idyllic, but I’d been glad to leave it behind.
How long had it been since I’d been there? Eighteen months? More? That didn’t sound right. But I hadn’t gone back for the holidays last year. It probably had been that long.
I felt a twinge of guilt at that. It wasn’t that I disliked my family. True, my dad and I butted heads, and my siblings liked to give me crap for having moved away. But I knew my mom would like it if I came home more often.
I was just so damn busy. It was hard to carve out the time for a trip that wasn’t business related. And I’d have to endure the inevitable guilt trips. Why don’t you visit more often? Can’t you stay longer? Don’t you want to come back and join your brothers in the family business?
No, I fucking didn’t. But none of them had ever understood why I hadn’t fallen in line. Why I hadn’t taken up my proper place at the winery.
I was made for bigger things than running a goddamn wine business in a small town out in central nowhere. There was no challenge to it. No risk. And the potential rewards—particularly financially—were much too low for me. Money wasn’t everything, but honestly, it was most things. And I was good at making money. Great, even. I’d made my company a hell of a lot of money in the last several years.
I was respected here. People deferred to me. Trusted me with millions of dollars. I had my own office, an assistant, a penthouse condo with a priceless view. Enough money that I could have more or less anything I wanted.
I was living my dream, and I didn’t understand why my family couldn’t just be fucking happy for me. Why they had to harp on the fact that I wasn’t there all the time. My brothers had stayed. My sister would probably wind up back home after college. They even had my ex-wife. What the hell did they need me for?
I took another sip of Scotch and wandered over to the window, wondering what my dad had done that had Leo so riled up. Leo and I rarely saw eye to eye. He wouldn’t have called me over nothing. The big question was, did my dad know he’d done it? Were they expecting me to ride in with my MBA and save the day? Or was Leo going behind their backs to drag me into their mess?
I guess I was about to find out.
Thinking of home brought my thoughts back to Zoe. I went into the bedroom and set my drink down. With a glance over my shoulder—as if half-afraid someone would catch me—I pulled a small box down off a shelf in the closet.
There was only one thing inside. Zoe’s wedding ring.
I’d found it sitting on the kitchen counter of our old apartment the day she’d left me. The rest of her things had been gone. Her side of the closet, empty. Her drawers in the bathroom, cleaned out. She hadn’t taken much that had been ours—the things we’d accumulated together. I’d brought some of it to her later—the things I’d thought she’d want to keep—and given away the rest. But not her ring.
Keeping it was the stupidest thing. I didn’t know why I still had it. It wasn’t even very nice. We’d eloped when we were twenty—just a couple of poor college students. I’d saved for months to get it, and at the time, I’d been pretty damn proud of myself. Looking at it now, it was rather pathetic. Just a plain gold band with a tiny excuse for a diamond. Zoe had loved it when I’d given it to her—said she hadn’t expected a ring at all.
But we’d been different people, then. Young. Rebellious and wild. Idiots, really. We’d thought teenage hormones had been the real thing. Maybe they had, in their own way. But that hadn’t been enough.
It hurt to look at it, and I wondered why I did this to myself. I didn’t pull it out very often. Once when I’d randomly remembered it was her birthday. Another time on what had been our anniversary. Occasionally, thoughts of her would creep into my mind and refuse to let go, and I’d find myself right here. Nursing a glass of Scotch and staring at the cheap piece of shit I couldn’t bring myself to throw away.
I closed the box and put it back on the shelf. Maybe I’d get rid of it for good someday. A colleague of mine had proudly flushed his ex-wife’s ring down a public toilet. Another guy I knew had taken his ring off and dropped it in a garbage can in a park near his office.
I didn’t have my ring anymore. I’d lost it a few years after we’d gotten married. Zoe and I had been visiting my family for Christmas, and it had snowed. We’d been outside, embroiled in an impromptu snowball fight with my brothers. None of us had been dressed for the cold—no coats, hats, or gloves. Just a bunch of dumbass kids tossing snow at each other until our bare hands hurt. Back inside, I’d realized my ring had come off. We’d looked, but never found it.
It had been prophetic, in a way.
But I was past that now. Zoe and I hadn’t worked out. She hadn’t been happy, so she’d left. Moved back to Echo Creek. Started working for my parents. She was fine, and so was I.
In fact, I was more than fine. I was at the top of my game. Whether or not my family could appreciate it, my life was pretty fucking good.
I would do what I had to do. Spend a few days at home, look at their books, probably find a few errors. Argue with my dad. Talk shit with my brothers. Let my mom fuss over me a little. Then I’d be right back here, where I belonged.
* * *
Continue reading Broken Miles…
Also by Claire Kingsley
For a full and up-to-date listing of Claire Kingsley books visit www.clairekingsleybooks.com
* * *
Dirty Martini Running Club
Sexy, fun stand-alone romantic comedies with huge… hearts.
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Everly Dalton’s Dating Disasters
Free Faking Ms. Right prequel
Faking Ms. Right
A hot fake relationship romantic comedy
Love According to Science
A hot enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy
The Miles Family Series
Sexy, sweet, funny, and heartfelt family series. Messy family. Epic bromance. Super romantic.
Broken Miles
Forbidden Miles
Reckless Miles
Hidden Miles
Gaining Miles: A Miles Family Novella
Bluewater Billionaires
Hot, stand-alone romantic comedies. Lady billionaire BFFs and the badass heroes who love them.
The Mogul and the Muscle
A billionaire and her bodyguard hot romantic comedy.
The Price of Scandal, Wild Open Hearts, and Crazy for Loving You
More Bluewater Billionaire shared-world stand-alone romantic comedies by Lucy Score, Kathryn Nolan, and Pippa Grant
Bootleg Springs
by Claire Kingsley and Lucy Score
Hot and hilarious small-town romcom series with a dash of mystery and suspense. Best read in order.
Whiskey Chaser
Sidecar Crush
Moonshine Kiss
Bourbon Bliss
Gin Fling
Highball Rush
Book Boyfriends
Hot romcoms that will make you laugh and make you swoon.
Book Boyfriend
Cocky Roommate
Hot Single Dad
Remembering Ivy
A unique contemporary romance with a hint of mystery.
His Heart
A poignant and emotionally intense story about grief, loss, and the transcendent power of love.
The Always Series
Remembering Ivy Bonus Epilogue Page 2