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Vivienne

"This is very sneaky. I'm proud of you," Tenley says when she lets me in the front door of Xavier's house. He's in Cleveland and doesn't know I'm here today. After everything that went down with Kristy, I wanted to do something for him. He's always taking care of me and doing something for him is overdue.

"It's just a little redecorating. It's not like I'm burglarizing the place," I say, lifting the bag of picture frames. After I found the pictures in a drawer last week, I got an idea that I haven't been able to put to rest.

Tenley arches a brow. "A little redecorating, my ass. You're peeing all over him and this baby."

"Ew. Am not."

"You so freaking are. This is you making your mark, in her nursery no less, and a week after Kristy showed up. You love him."

The rush of heat is unmistakable. Tenley takes the flush crawling up my chest as confirmation. "Oh my god. I'm right, and my plans worked."

"You're really going to take credit for this for the rest of your life, aren't you?"

"Heck, yes I am."

"I added some of my own. Is that creepy?" I admit sheepishly. "Pictures he doesn't know I took of him and Holland."

"No, it's adorable, and he's going to love it," she says with a laugh. "Just like he loves you."

"Stop," I beg, slipping past her toward the nursery. She's pushing buttons that she knows make me uncomfy. The words have been right there, swirling around inside my brain all week, but Xavier's not home, leaving me with nothing to do but overthink if it's too soon to tell him.

The smell of Holland's baby wash and Xavier blend as I step into the room, settling around me.

Home.

I kneel on the carpet, pulling the frames from the bag and laying them out. A starry print that I ordered that night with Harlowe on the swing. Candid photos of Holland and Xavier. One of me--that one feels like the biggest risk, but for them I'll take the chance that I could end up looking like a fool. Because ready or not, I'm the fool who fell for the guy I was only supposed to be getting orgasms from.

Starting with the art print--a navy and teal swirl of ink depicting the star alignment from the day Holland was born, with Holland áine Kingsley and her birth date beneath it--I arrange the rest of the pictures around it, hanging them above her changing table. When it's all done, I ball up the painter's tape and gather the small level and hammer I brought with me, admiring my work.

"Xavier's gonna love this," Tenley says softly from the doorway, her eyes lingering on the art. "Going to Spain, knowing you're here with them, happy and fulfilled, is going to be so much easier now."

"Let me put her down and we can have a glass of wine and watch the game."

"I'm not going to have a job to come back to, am I?"

"Oh no, you will. I love her, but I've got a job that I love. And Xavier's got baseball. We'll need the help."