Page 71 of Who’s Playing You (In The Nick of Time #1)

M uch like her daddy, Freyja Joy Soba, did things on her own terms and timeline. She burst into the world two weeks early, right after my spring semester ended. A head full of blonde hair, just like mom, and steely grey eyes, just like dad. She was beautiful.

A gift.

Nick and I were absolutely living our very best lives as we took in every minute with Freyja in our home - our sanctuary.

After the Super Bowl, it had taken some time to come down from it all: the build-up, the game, the outcome. To say that it had been a busy time in our lives was an understatement. But once all of that had died down, Nicholas had been home most of the time and made me his entire focus.

Well, me and baby bean.

Nik and Nic along with Valentina and Noelle had come up to visit us in New Hope a few times. We’d all also taken a trip and met up in Philly. It was in Philly that we learned that Nicholas and I weren’t the only ones who were expecting.

It was after that Philly trip when Nicholas and I were laying together on the couch, watching a movie. I lay half on top of him as he alternated between rubbing my back and playing with my hair when he said, “What do you think about Freyja for baby bean’s name?”

“Freyja? Like from Norse mythology?”

“Well yeah, but also, Freyja was the goddess of love, beauty, fertility and war. Somehow that feels perfect for us, and for her. If it weren’t for our love we wouldn’t be here. Plus, you’re beautiful,” he said and I felt his chest rumble with laughter underneath me.

I picked my head up to look at him. “Funny,” I deadpanned. “What about fertility and war?”

“Fertility because she’s just the beginning of our brood. Baby bean will be the start of our very own football team. She’s a symbol of our love and fertility.” He said that and looked so proud of himself.

“Slow your roll, mister. I do not plan on giving birth to a dozen kids!”

“Honey, you are a fertile Myrtle and I’ll keep knocking you up for as long as you allow me.”

“Knowing you, you would too. If you had your way, we’d probably get our own TV show on TLC or something, it’d be called something ridiculous like Touchdowns and Toddlers .”

“I’ll call my agent and have him reach out to TLC.”

I swatted his chest. “Don’t you dare. But back to the name. What about war? How does that factor in?”

“War because I had to wage a war to get us here.”

I leaned my chin on my folded hands on his chest and looked deep in his eyes. “I think it’s perfect.”

Nicholas smiled like I’d never seen him smile before. I quickly broke our moment because laying on my side like I was, with my top half draped over his chest was really uncomfortable with my big baby belly.

Once I managed to sit up I looked at him once more, “What about Joy for her middle name?”

“Freyja Joy. Honey, I love that. It’s perfect. Joy because she’s the biggest joy of our lives.”

And just like that, we had our daughter’s name picked out.

Since Freyja was born, we’d kept ourselves busy and hadn’t left our house too much. It had truly become our private sanctuary.

Nicholas had indeed bought his parents a house here in New Hope, and after Freyja was born, they spent a lot of time with us.

Unlike some parents or inlaws, Nicholas and I loved having them around.

There was an open door policy at our house, and both Natasha and Nathan would usually stop by once a day to help with Freyja and give us a little break, or they’d run to the grocery store for us, or whatever they wanted to do.

We were one big, happy family. I finally had the family that I had always desperately desired.

Freyja was a lucky little girl because she had the best daddy in the world, one who was totally enamored and obsessed with her.

She also had two aunties who adored her and vowed to spoil her rotten.

Meanwhile she had a grandma and grandpa who were so over the moon about her, and were absolutely living their best lives in their grandparent era.

Freyja was showered with so much love and attention from Natasha and Nathan that my adoptive parents’ absence would never be a factor.

For Freyja, or for me. Natasha and Nathan had welcomed me into their family with open arms. Natasha even told me that I completed the Soba family, and that she was so overjoyed to be able to call me her daughter.

Freyja was also the luckiest little girl because she had a whole horde of honorary aunts and uncles who were already spoiling the crap out of her.

Her two uncle Nicks were so smitten by her.

Nicholas couldn’t believe that his two best friends were actually baby-obsessed and when they held Freyja for the first time, they didn’t want to put her down.

We were one big happy family.

Nicholas came into the living room, where I had been resting on the couch. He was humming a lullaby as he gently rocked Freyja in his arms.

“ Daddy’s going to buy you a Super Bowl ring …” he sang and I let out a snort-laugh.

Hearing me, he looked at me and that’s when I took him in.

My man was a hot DILF. Looking at him now, I wanted to say “fuck it” to the six weeks no-sex-after-birth rule and let the man knock me up again.

He was barefoot in grey sweat pants, bare chested, with his signature backwards baseball cap on as he swaddled Freyja to his chest.

“See something you like?” he teased me.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “Was thinking how maybe we should just give Freyja a sibling.”

His face dropped. “Don’t even joke with me. You know I’m dying to.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at his earnestness.

Nicholas settled himself next to me on the couch with Freyja sound asleep against his chest. “So babe?”

I looked from Freyja’s perfect little face to him. “Yeah?” I hummed in response.

“I have a secret I’ve been keeping from you and a question to ask you.”

“Nicholas,” I admonished him. “You promised me, no more secrets.”

“I know. And this is a good one. Or I hope you’ll think so.”

I gave him a side eye and let out a heavy sigh, because my head was spinning with the possibilities of what the hell he had now done.

“Can you grab my laptop right there?” He asked and gestured to his laptop on the coffee table.

I grabbed it and flipped it open then looked at him. “Do you want to put her down while you confess your latest round of secrets?”

“Nope,” he quickly responded. “You won’t inflict bodily harm if this doesn’t go my way if I’m holding baby bean.” And then the fucker grinned at me.

I just rolled my eyes.

“Open the last tab there,” he said and gestured to one of the tabs in his web browser.

It opened to the website I’d visited last summer, after my workshop filled up right away.

The organization that booked all the spots was Raven’s Whisper.

When Nicholas had explained to me all those months ago about how and when he had booked all the available workshop spots, he had told me that Raven’s Whisper was one of his LLCs.

And that had been the end of that conversation.

A throw-away of sorts, because it was just a company he had and so he’d used it so I wouldn’t see his name and connect the dots.

We had already discussed this and it was a non-issue.

One of the websites I’d found last summer when I Googled Raven’s Whisper was this website that I was now looking at.

But when I made that Google search, I wasn’t sure if any of the pages that Google presented me with were for the Raven’s Whisper that I was searching for. So it had all been forgotten.

Until now.

The site was just as I remembered it. A black screen with a logo for “Raven’s Whisper” was there along with the words “Once she’s ready, all will be revealed.”

I looked to Nicholas, “Umm, what’s this?”

“Hit refresh, baby.”

With a shaky hand, I hit the refresh button. The website re-loaded and this time a pop-up came up with a question. “Will you give me forever?”

I looked at Nicholas again, who very carefully unveiled Freyja’s hand from underneath her blanket. Glimmering from her little perfect finger was a beautiful, sparkling diamond ring.

The most beautiful I’d ever seen.

“Freyja and I were wondering if we could make it official? If her mommy would marry her daddy?”

Tears were racing down my cheeks.

“Aww, honey. Don’t cry,” he said as he swiped my escaping tears with his free hand.

Nicholas then leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss to my lips. “I love you so much Scottie. I want this, us, and forever with you. Will you, please , marry me and make me the absolute lovesick bastard in the world?”

I cry-laughed, because how could I not? This beautiful, thoughtful man just asked me to marry him. He wanted to be my forever. And unlike every experience before him, I knew that he meant it.

“Yes!” I said a little too loudly and excitedly because it made Freyja jump in Nicholas’ arms.

“Shh, shh, little bean. It’s okay. Mommy can’t contain her excitement because she just said yes.

You can go back to sleep now,” he lulled her as he slipped the ring from her finger.

“Now let’s put this where it belongs,” he said as he slipped the ring on my finger and followed it up with another kiss.

“I love you,” he said as he looked at me with reverence, his head laying back on the back of the couch.

“I love you too,” I said and smiled back at him. After a moment I looked at the laptop that was still perched on my lap. “So what’s this then? This website?”

“Oh. Yeah,” he said as if he’d forgotten about it too. “Click ‘yes’ since you said yes.”

Once I clicked yes, the website reloaded again.

This time it populated with my art work. Like… it was all of my work.

I gasped. “Nicholas, how… how did you do this?”

“So, here’s my last secret that I’ll ever have to reveal to you.

For years I’ve been working to help you and your amazing talent.

I did a few things here and there to promote your work like send info to galleries and collectors, grow your Instagram.

Small stuff. I even bought some pieces,” he admitted and looked at me expectantly.

“You did?” I asked in shock.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “I love your work Scottie, and I wanted to support you. But I also couldn’t fathom my favorite pieces belonging to strangers. So whenever I was able, I’d buy my favorite paintings and drawings that you’d offer for sale. I have quite a few,” he admitted.

“Oh my gosh, Nicholas. That’s just… wow.”

“Then I kind of took it a step further. Raven’s Whisper is yours.

It’s an organization, a gallery - but more.

If you want it, that is. What I’ve set up is primarily focused on you right now, but through the years I’ve had a lot of artists and galleries reach out to me.

They want in on this, they want for them what’s been done for Scottie Anderson, the artist.”

He let that all sink in before continuing, “Your focus is obviously going to be on Freyja and all the babies that are coming in the very near future. And if you allow my mom, or possibly a nanny, to help us watch her and the other babies, then of course you can focus more on creating as much art as you want. That being said, Trina would actually love to work with you, and handle the day-to-day operations.”

“Trina wants to be involved?”

“Are you kidding me? She’s been hounding me about when I was going to tell you about all of this. She’s basically salivating to be a part of all of this with you.”

My heart was literally overflowing. I finally had the family that I never could have imagined having. A beautiful, talented and thoughtful husband along with the most perfect baby that there ever was - a true gift. On top of that, the family we’d built around us was incredible.

And now my professional life was about to blow up - as long as I wanted it. The sky truly was the limit.

“Yes,” I stated as a blanketed statement.

“Yes?” Nicholas questioned.

“Yes! Yes to all of it. Yes to us getting married. Yes to us having a ton more babies like this sweet angel. Yes to making art. Yes to helping other artists. Yes to happiness. Yes to our love growing. Yes to… everything!”

“Oh honey,” Nicholas said as the biggest smile I’d ever seen grace his face looked back at me. “The world better watch out because the Sobas are about to set a new standard. Love you.”

“I love you too.”