Page 35 of The Wedding Planner's Manny

Or maybe I should just forget our earlier kiss ever happened in the first place. Or maybe I should quit my job and leave the country. That also sounded like a good idea. Or it would have, if I wasn’t pregnant. I couldn’t ignore that little fact anymore. Just the month before, Nick had taken me to my first doctor’s appointment, and up in my room, in my desk’s drawer, I kept a print-out of my very first ultrasound picture of my baby.

I made a point of looking at it every night before bed to remind myself of the reality of my situation.

I needed to keep it together—and I needed to talk to someone. To Nick. He would know what to do.

Mind made up, I made my way to my room and called my brother. He knew how to handle situations like this much better than me.

It took Nick a long time to answer his phone, and when he did, he sounded just the tiniest bit stressed.

In the background, I could hear his son crying.

“I'm sorry,” I said. “Is this a bad time?”

“No, it's fine. Zander is taking care of it.” He paused. “Is something wrong?”

“Don't make it sound like I only call when something's wrong.”

“Okay, my bad. Let me start over. Hello, dearest brother. I hope you had a wonderful day. I had a wonderful day too.”

I huffed. Did Nickalwayshave to exaggerate? “I had an extraordinary day,” I told him. “Maybe a little too extraordinary.”

“So somethingiswrong,” Nick latched on to what I'd said.

“Maybe a little wrong,” I admitted, sitting down on my bed and rubbing the bridge of my nose. All banter aside, thinking about today's events was giving me a headache.

“What happened? Spill.” There was some rustling on the other end of the line, and I figured Nick was looking for someplace to sit too.

I took a deep breath, and then I made myself speak. “I kissed Ethan.”

“Dude, you did what?”

“There was a mistletoe,” I said, as if that would explain everything. To me it did. “Nathan hung it. But that's not what's important. The important point is that I kissed my boss.”

“Oh wow. You know that's not what I had in mind when I told you about this job, but way to go!”

Way to go?“Is that really what you think? That this is a good thing?”

“I'm always rooting for you, bro, and I know Ethan is way better than the scumbag you left behind.”

That much was true. Ethan wasn't anything like my ex, even if I still had a hard time reminding myself of this fact some days.

“I still don't think it's a good thing to just kiss your boss like that.” Everything I'd ever been taught about how to handle social situations told me that much.

“So why did you do it?” I could just sohearthe grin that had to be on my brother's face right now.

“Don't act like you don't know why I did it.”

“Doesheknow?”

“No, I don't think so... I just pointed at the mistletoe when he asked and then Caleb interrupted us. I'm not really sure what to do now.”

“Well...” Nick seemed to give this some thought. “I guess that all depends on two things.”

“What things?”

“First, how did he react to the kiss?”

“Um... I got the feeling he liked it,” I said, fidgeting with a corner of the bed's blanket. “He opened his mouth and all.”