Page 67

Vivienne

One Year Later

Retirement looks good on Xavier.

Like, really good.

His red hair is styled in that intentionally messy way that always makes him look playful and sexy. The beard he was growing for luck during the postseason has been traded in for a five o'clock shadow that still makes my knees weak. And that body that's holding me close as he spins me around the dance floor is covered in the finest Italian silk money can buy.

Dean Harrison might have given up his inheritance, but he's still a rich boy from Boston and he's spared no expense to marry the love of his life. It's the pick-me-up we all need after the Bandits were eliminated in the League Championship series. There's no parade or trophy this year, but seeing all our friends together and celebrating Dean and Mia's wedding is its own sweet victory.

You know what else looks good? The ring on my finger. Just like he promised, the diamond he gave me a few weeks ago gleams brightly under the lights of the dance floor. Next to us, Cruz and Lilah dance together, and right next to them, Holland toddles around, attempting to force Jarrett to dance with her. At fourteen-months-old, he's still wobbly, but that doesn't stop her from trying to force her favorite person to keep up with her.

Another promise Xavier fulfilled--a secret no one knows about--is the sibling growing inside me. Not that we were trying. That one was a surprise.

Well, kind of. After watching Indie struggle through her egg retrievals last year, I took my IUD out. (Side-note, it should be illegal to do that to a woman without pain meds). So while we weren't trying, we weren't very careful.

"You've got that look on your face," Xavier whispers, his voice as smooth as the fabric under my fingers as I run my hands over his shoulders.

"And what look is that?"

"The one that makes me want to drag you out of here and up to our room to put another baby in you."

"We need to brush up on your biology. That's not how it works."

"Not going to stop me from trying."

"We can't leave early."

"Why not? Let's start a tradition."

I roll my eyes and he rolls his hips, letting me feel how serious he is. "My hormones are supposed to be the ones causing trouble, not yours."

Mia and Dean waltz over and he raises an eyebrow at Xavier. "I know what you're plotting over here."

"You can't possibly--"

"No one leaves early," he cuts him off.

"You would have thought he'd stop being such a groomzilla now that we're married, but here we are. He gave everyone the same warning." Mia laughs.

"Micah is finally over his colic. We survived the first six months as parents and you look stunning in this dress, wifey. Our friends can stick around until ten o'clock instead of running off to their hotel rooms to try to repopulate the world." Dean grumps.

My cheeks heat. We're not ready to share the news yet, and we both agreed that the wedding was not the place to do it.

"There goes that idea. We could always sneak into a coat closet. We still haven't crossed off sex in public."

"And we're not going to tonight." Just then Holland and Jarrett bump into our legs.

Xavier has the same idea I do, each of us bending to scoop up a baby.

"Momma, cake," Holland says, her two tiny hands grabbing my face and turning my head towards the table of cupcakes.

"You already had one, Estrela," I remind her.

"More."

"How about we go find your water?"

"Milk," Jarret squawks from Xavier's arm.

"Did all that dancing make you thirsty, little man?" Xavier asks, brushing a dark curl off Jarrett's forehead as he follows me off the dance floor to the stash of diaper bags behind the head table.

We set them down and they race, stumbling and falling into the bags before they fish their cups out and roll to their backs, side-by-side, on the floor.

I lean into Xavier's embrace, watching the two of them giggle. "I love this life."

"There's no one else I'd rather do it with. And someday very, very soon, when you're my wife and Holland's adoption is finalized, everything will be the way it was always meant to be."

I sigh, letting him hold me and kiss my temple. "How would you feel about a California wedding?"

"At your parents?"

"Yeah." A lot of healing has happened over the last year and when Harlowe suggested it the other day it just felt right. "It's what I always imagined. It's beautiful, and it's where I feel closest to Erica. I'll marry you anywhere, but my heart is leading me home on this one."

"California it is," he says.

There's a loud squeal from the floor and Holland pushes up, dropping her sippy cup, narrowly missing Jarrett's head and takes off in a run.

"Tenny!" she screams, darting towards the doors.

Xavier spins me around to see my niece standing behind me. His lips brush my favorite spot, the one below my ear that always takes my breath away. "Surprise."

The tears flow freely as she walks over with Holland in her arms.

"You smell like an airplane," I tell her, burying my nose in her strawberry hair as I wrap my arms around both of my girls.

She scoffs like she's offended, but I know she's not. "Has that baby stolen your filter?"

"Shhh . . ." I hiss, still holding her close.

"They're going to figure it out. Your boobs are huge."

"They've always been big."

"True," she admits.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, stunned to see her. Spain captured her heart during her study abroad and she came home for one semester before she transferred to school there to finish out her degree. I miss her every single day, but knowing she's living her life the way she wants to more than make up for it.

She shrugs. "I just wanted to see you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I'm here for a week and then going back home to see Dad for a week," she says. "Ginger Daddy." She releases me, wrapping her arms around my fiancé's waist.

"Don't call me that," he groans.

"But you paid for my flights."

He rolls his eyes. "It's an advance for the babysitting you're going to do while you're here, so I can take little momma out on a proper date."

"Damn, a date night sounds perfect." I light up at the suggestion. I love Holland. Like really, truly, with all my heart, but chasing around a toddler in my first trimester while Xavier played baseball and I worked was exhausting. A night alone sounds blissful.

His voice is low, so only I can hear. "You're really going to like this one. I got us a hotel room and I'm going to do that thing you've been begging me for."

I clench everywhere because I know exactly what thing he's talking about and now that I'm in the second trimester and feeling better, I've been craving it.

"So glad to have you here," I say, extra thankful for her now that I know what Xavier has planned for me.