CHAPTER THREE
“I’ve never seen a pregnant woman look so good.” Valentina gave Lori a big hug. “You’re positively glowing.”
Valentina was married to Lori’s movie-star brother, Smith. During the past year, Valentina and Smith had married at Summer Lake in upstate New York, honeymooned in Maine, where they adopted their dog Magoo, then opened Sullivan Studios in San Francisco to produce movies and TV shows. Lori was thrilled that Valentina and Smith had decided to settle full time in the Bay Area. She’d missed her brother so much over the years when he’d been on sets all over the world filming his iconic movie roles.
“I’ve never felt better.” As Lori said it, she couldn’t keep from turning to moon over her husband, whose very sexy moves and loving words were wholly responsible for the current exceptional state of her glow.
Grayson was across the room chatting with Lori’s brother Zach and his pregnant wife, Heather. Zach and Heather were due to have their first child in six weeks. The two couples had discussed having a double baby shower, but given that Zach and Heather had already shared their wedding day, Lori didn’t think it was fair for them to share their baby shower too. The Sullivans would all be getting together again next month to fête them.
Valentina elbowed Smith in the ribs when he remained silent and somewhat scowly. “Doesn’t your sister look great?”
“You really do.” Smith brushed her hair away from her face and kissed her forehead, the same big-brother kiss he’d been giving her since she was two years old. When she was a little girl, he would always watch over her while she played in the backyard to make sure she didn’t hurt herself as she constantly tested her own limits. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that your pregnancy is going so well.”
Though Smith was considered to be one of the best actors of his generation, and should have been able to school his features, he couldn’t quite prevent himself from shooting another scowl in her husband’s direction.
Lori knew how much her brother liked Grayson. Still, Smith had never been particularly good at controlling his protective urges, especially when his little sister had just been drooling over her husband.
She loved few things more than razzing her brother. “In case you missed the day they did sex education in high school,” Lori said in her sweetest tones, “the way a girl and a boy make a baby is—”
When Smith’s hand shot out to cover her mouth, she burst out laughing. She also couldn’t resist pretending to bite his fingers, which had him dropping his hand with alacrity.
“I don’t know why all of my brothers have to be so predictable,” she said to her cousin Cassie, who had just joined the group. “I’m clearly not a virgin anymore.” Lori rubbed her belly to further emphasize her statement.
“Honestly,” Cassie said, picking up the thread of the conversation, “I find it’s easier if my four brothers still think I’m a virgin, even though that ship sailed a long, long time ago.”
All of them laughed, except for Smith, who was still looking a little grumpy, probably because he had guessed why Lori and Grayson had been late to their own party. They’d emerged breathless from her bedroom down the hall with their hair and clothes slightly askew.
“Trust me, Cassie. Even your male cousins want to think that.” Valentina gave Smith a little nudge. “In fact, if we’re going to get any good girl talk in, maybe you should go check that Magoo isn’t tearing up your mom’s backyard.” Almost completely blind, Smith and Valentina’s dog was as handsome and lovable a fellow as they came.
As soon as Smith was out of hearing, Valentina turned back to Lori. “From the gleam in your eyes whenever you look at Grayson, I take it everything I’ve heard about pregnancy hormones and increased libido is true?”
“And then some,” Lori confirmed with a quintessentially naughty grin. “Take it from me, every baby shower should start with a hot quickie.”
“You had sex with Grayson before the party began?” Cassie looked partly shocked. But mostly intrigued. And possibly a tiny bit envious. “Where?”
“My old bedroom.”
Cassie’s eyes grew even bigger. “Have I mentioned recently how much I adore you just for being you, Lori?”
“A girl can never hear it enough.” Lori gave her cousin a big hug. “Just like I can never thank you enough for that ridiculously cool cake. My Instagram feed has been lighting up like the Fourth of July ever since I posted a picture of it—even now I can hear my phone in my purse, dinging away with notifications.”
For their shower, Cassie had made a cake in the shape of a dancing baby girl in a cowboy hat, with cute little pigs and sheep and horses all around her. It was positively brilliant. For the millionth time, Lori wished her cousin didn’t live all the way over on the other coast. Thankfully, over the years Lori had been in so many dance shows along the Eastern Seaboard that she’d been able to visit with Cassie, her other six Maine cousins, and Uncle Ethan and Aunt Beth, quite a lot.
Both Ethan and Beth were here today—they were currently chatting with Lori’s mom, Uncle Max and Aunt Claudia from Seattle, and Uncle William from New York. Her cousin Hudson, a landscape architect, and Brandon, a luxury hotel mogul, hadn’t been able to make it, however. Neither had Ashley, who had stayed in Maine with her son to keep watch over the family business. Lori loved the Irish cafés and gift stores that Ethan and Beth had opened throughout Maine. Time and time again, she had told them that she thought their business would do just as well on the West Coast, in the hopes that they’d expand the family business this way soon.
Fortunately, Cassie’s other siblings were here. Turner was a brilliant animator who had worked on several fantastic movies and TV shows. Rory was an incredibly talented furniture maker who had made the driftwood coffee table in Lori and Grayson’s living room. And Lola not only designed knockout textiles, she was also a knockout bombshell. Thankfully, she was also one of the nicest women on the planet.
Lori was endlessly proud of her cousins. Grayson liked to joke about how many there were. Truth be told, even Lori tended to lose count once she started adding in her second and third cousins in Europe and Australia and Asia. No matter where she went in the world, family was never far away.
Lori put her hand over the spot on her belly where the baby was kicking up a storm, safe in the knowledge that her daughter would always be surrounded by people who loved her.
Realizing she must have drifted off inside her head for a few moments—something that never used to happen before she became pregnant—Lori turned back to Cassie. “When I first saw your cake, I thought it looked too good to eat. But we pregnant women are always hungry. And your cake is so good.” So delicious that she couldn’t resist snagging another bite from Cassie’s own plate.
“I had a lot of fun coming up with the ideas for it,” Cassie said with smile.
“Anything else—or anyone—you’re having fun with recently?”
“Candy and pastry, yes. Men?” She shook her head. “Nope, not a one.”
Lori raised an eyebrow. “You’re not holding out on any dirty details, are you?”
“Trust me, if I had dirty details to share, you’d be one of the first people I’d tell them to. After all, no one appreciates TMI more than you.”
“I’m going to hold you to that promise. In fact, there are a couple of cowboys Grayson and I know that we could—”
“No!” Cassie held up her hands, clearly horrified by what Lori was about to suggest. “I can’t do setups. They always go terribly, embarrassingly wrong. Besides, you’ve already snagged the best cowboy around.”
“I really have,” Lori agreed, going all dreamy again as she looked over at her husband.
“How has Grayson been holding up during your pregnancy?” Chloe asked, joining the conversation. Married to Lori’s brother Chase and mother to four-year-old Emma and two-year-old Julia, Chloe was a masterful fiber artist who had been the perfect addition to the Sullivan family from day one.
“Fortunately, my pregnancy has been perfect,” Lori replied. “I haven’t been sick. I haven’t had any red flags. I’ve taken my prenatal vitamins and eaten all the right food. Apart from wearing these five-inch spikes—” She lifted up one heeled foot. “—I’m doing everything by the book. Still…” She hadn’t forgotten how tense Grayson had seemed earlier. Nor had she forgotten the look of panic on his face after the dog nearly knocked her over in the kitchen. “Right after we got here, while we were saying hi to Mom, he seemed worried.”
“Though sweet and wonderful, husbands aren’t always rational,” Chloe noted. “In fact, even though they don’t mean to be, sometimes they’re downright out of their minds.”
“Out of their minds?” Vicki, an award-winning sculptor who was married to Lori’s baseball-playing brother, Ryan, joined the group. With her was Nicola, a world-famous musician who was married to Lori’s vintner brother, Marcus. “I’m assuming we’re talking about your brothers, Lori?”
“Of course we are, along with my husband.”
“I know they can act like cavemen,” Nicola said, “but honestly—” She was blushing as she admitted, “I kind of like it when Marcus goes all Neanderthal on me.”
Though there were plenty more eye rolls, Lori knew that all of them felt the same. Not one of them would trade their man for anything.
“But enough about our caveman husbands,” Nicola said in an obvious bid to spin the conversation in a less blush-worthy direction. “The big question everyone wants to know is whether you and Grayson have picked a name yet.”
Lori shook her head. She and Grayson had been going round and round about names ever since her pregnancy test had come back positive. But they’d yet to agree on a name. “We’re probably going to be one of those couples who leave a blank space on the birth certificate for the first two weeks,” she joked, even though the truth was that it did bother her. Why couldn’t they decide on a name? Shouldn’t there be at least one that felt right?
“Hi, beautiful!” Lori’s cousin Mia found her way right into the center of the group to give Lori a smacking kiss on the cheek. “You look amazing, so I won’t ask how you’re feeling. All I want to know is, do you have a babymoon planned yet? If not, I’m going to drop everything to find you a killer vacation rental so that you and your drop-dead-gorgeous husband can get away before the little ankle-biter comes along.”
“A babymoon?” Lori looked at the other women. “Is that something people actually do?”
Chloe nodded. “Chase planned a special getaway for us a couple of months before Emma was born.” Lori followed Chloe’s gaze across the room to where Chase was pressing a kiss to their oldest daughter’s cheek and drying her tears after a game with her cousins in the backyard had likely gone a bit off the rails, as backyard games tended to do. A few moments later, Emma was smiling again and dashing off to play with her cousins.
“Jake and I could only get away for a short babymoon before we had Smith and Jackie,” Sophie put in, “but it was wonderful.”
For years and years, Sophie and her Irish-pub-owning husband, Jake, had been secretly in love with each other. Unfortunately, Jake hadn’t thought he was good enough for Sophie, so their love had been unrequited. That is, until the night of Chase and Chloe’s wedding, when neither of them could continue to ignore the attraction between them…and their one-night stand resulted in Sophie’s pregnancy with their own set of twins. Now, Sophie and Jake were one of the happiest couples on the planet, and their kids were an adorable handful.
“Obviously,” Grace said when Lori looked at her in question, “I didn’t have a babymoon with Mason.”
Grace’s ex had been the scum of the earth, so this wasn’t a surprise to anyone. “But before Dylan and I had Aaron, we made sure to plan a long weekend for just the two of us before the sleepless nights with a newborn began.” Grace and Dylan had met when Grace had been tasked with writing a major magazine story about Lori’s boat-building cousin. Mason had been only a year old when Dylan met Grace—and he had instantly fallen in love with both of them.
“I didn’t have a babymoon before I had Summer either,” Megan said. Her toddler son, Logan, who was the spitting image of Lori’s firefighting brother, Gabe, was currently fast asleep on Megan’s shoulder. “But we definitely had one before Logan made his appearance. It’s a really good idea to fill the well a bit before being awash in spit-up and diapers and—” She laughed at the look on Lori’s face. “Don’t worry, all the hard, stinky parts are totally worth it.”
“I can deal just fine with stinky pigs, so I’m not worried about diapers or spit-up.” Lori came from tough stock. If her mother could wrangle eight kids, she and Grayson could surely deal with one. “But back to this whole babymoon thing. I’m still not sure why it’s such a big deal.”
It wasn’t until Chloe and Grace both blushed that Lori finally had her answer.
“Ahhh…so a babymoon is code for a few days of hot sex with your husband in a fancy hotel with no interruptions.” She glanced over at Grayson again. No one wore a pair of jeans and cowboy boots better. “In that case, sign me up. After all, there are few things I love more than hot sex with my cowboy.”
Lori’s brothers Zach and Ryan had been heading toward the group of women, but after hearing the words hot sex, they promptly changed course for a table that was groaning with food.
“Excuse me while I go have a word with your husband to make sure this plan doesn’t fall through the cracks,” Mia said. “You don’t mind if I drool on him while I’m over there, do you?”
Lori laughed. Few people were more outrageous than she was, but Mia came pretty darn close. “I’m pretty sure I drooled all over Ford when he pulled out his guitar and played his new song for us at our last family get-together, so this will make us even.” Though Lori would never want anyone but Grayson, that didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate the appeal of her cousin’s rock-star husband like any other red-blooded woman.
But before Mia could get to Grayson, he rang the bell that they normally used at home to round up the farm animals at feeding time to get everyone’s attention. Though she didn’t know what he was planning, when he held out his hand to her, she wound her way through the crowd to join him at his side.
“Where the heck were you keeping that cowbell?” she asked in a low voice. Her hands had been all over every inch of him before the party, so he couldn’t have been storing it in his back pocket. Rather than answer, he simply kissed her, which was a more than good enough reply.
Though the adults had all come to attention, the kids were still running wild together under the watchful eyes of their close-knit family. Lori couldn’t wait for her daughter to be part of the play-pack with her cousins, getting dirt in her hair and scrapes on her knees, just like Lori had while she was growing up.
“Thank you for coming here today to celebrate with us,” Grayson said, his tone deep and strong as he addressed their family and friends. “And thank you, Mary, for throwing us this wonderful baby shower.” His voice sent a ripple of awareness up Lori’s spine, as did the hand he used to stroke the top of her hip as he pulled her close. “Lori and I know how lucky we are to have such a great family.”
While she knew that he loved spending time with her family, she also understood how overwhelming being surrounded by this many Sullivans could be. Everyone in her family had a rather strong personality, with movie stars, rock stars, pro athletes, brilliant artists, and CEOs among them. No one felt the need to brag, or lord their success over their family members. Nonetheless, a Sullivan get-together could be a lot to handle for one of their partners, and she was extremely glad that he felt so comfortable with everyone.
What’s more, Grayson’s parents, Gina and Brent Tyler, had flown in from New York to attend the party. The early years after he had left the East Coast to start over in California had been difficult for the three of them—not only had he left his home behind after his late wife’s car accident, he’d also tried to leave everyone associated with his old home. Fortunately, when Grayson was finally ready to mend fences, his parents had welcomed him back into their lives with open arms.
Lori honestly wasn’t sure they knew quite what to think of her, given that she was the polar opposite of his late wife and the society women his mother and father normally socialized with. Fortunately, as soon as they’d seen how good Lori was for their son, they had gone out of their way to be kind to her, making sure she knew how grateful they were to her for bringing their son back to them.
Grayson turned to face Lori, his heart in his eyes. “You’re going to be an amazing mother.” Gently, he laid his hand over her belly, and she immediately covered it with hers. “Our daughter is already so lucky to have you.”
She threw her arms around him. He might be a man of few words most of the time, especially when they were in a big group, but when he did make a speech, he always brought her to tears. “I love you.”
He drew her as close as he could with her belly between them. “I love you too.” When they finally drew apart—to more than one teasing call to get a room—there was mischief in his eyes.
After everyone had clinked glasses of bubbly and called out their congratulations, Lori turned back to Grayson. “You look like you’re going to burst. You haven’t cooked up another surprise for me, have you?”
The first time Grayson had stunned her speechless had been on their wedding day. She’d thought they were hosting a family reunion—while everyone else was in on Grayson’s real plan to marry her right then and there in the middle of their farm. Lori had said her vows to Grayson wearing her mother’s wedding dress with her own cowboy boots underneath. It had been the perfect surprise. Just as the dance studio, which he’d built on their property while she’d been away with a production, had been a wonderful, unexpected gift.
Before he could reply, their mothers came over. Lori took each of their hands in hers. “It’s been a fantastic baby shower, Mom. And I’m so glad you were able to be here, Gina.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it,” Grayson’s mother said, folding Lori into a hug. “And I wouldn’t have believed a woman in her eighth month could look so good if I hadn’t seen it for myself. I’m still marveling at how you were dancing in the backyard with the kids a short while ago, despite the fact that you’ve already been standing in those impossibly high heels for hours.”
Now that the party had gone on long into the afternoon, Lori’s feet were starting to hurt a little, along with her lower back. But it was nothing compared to the pain she’d often experienced while rehearsing for twelve hours at a stretch for a show. “Thank you for the compliment, but I’ve never been good at being still.”
“That’s for sure,” Mary and Grayson said at the same moment, making all of them laugh.
“Your brothers have already helped pack away the shower gifts in the back of your SUV for you to open at home, but we have one more gift that we’d like you to open now.” Gina reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope. The words Lori and Grayson’s Babymoon were written across the front.
Lori looked up, stunned. “You’re giving us a babymoon?” How was it that everyone but her was in on this fabulous idea?
“Your mother, Grayson, and I thought a few nights by the beach in Carmel would be the perfect way for you to relax before you have the baby. I know how busy you’ve been, not only with your choreography, but also taking care of your farm chores, when any other woman would have seized the opportunity to put her feet up. I know I did my fair share of resting when I was pregnant with Grayson.” Gina’s smile widened as she added, “Brent and I are going to head back to the farm after the party to take care of the animals, so you two don’t have to worry about a thing while you’re in Carmel. I’ll even make sure to call the pigs by name when it’s feeding time.” Grayson’s parents had been out to visit the farm in Pescadero enough times—and inevitably been put to work, as did anyone with idle hands—that they knew the ropes quite well by now.
“I love it!” Lori hugged all three of them at once. Her pregnancy had been great so far, and she had no doubt that this surprise babymoon was going to be the icing on the cake.
A few minutes later, Grayson went to say his thank-yous to her family, and his mother moved away to rejoin her husband by the barbecue, where Brent was doing a darned good job of grilling hot dogs and hamburgers just the way her picky little nieces and nephews wanted them. He was particularly good at slathering them in ketchup and mustard before handing them into the adorable little devils’ mud-smeared hands.
Lori put her arms around her mother. “I know I say it all the time, but you really are the best mom in the whole wide world.”
“You make it easy.”
“I most definitely do not,” Lori said on a laugh, “but I appreciate the fib. And I also appreciate that while I had never heard of a babymoon until today, I’m suddenly the lucky recipient of one! How long have you and Gina and Grayson had your heads together on this?”
“He called us a while back saying he wanted to do something special for you before the baby came—something where you would be sure to get some rest and relaxation—and hoped we might have ideas.”
“Nailed it.” They were going to have an amazing time at the cottage in Carmel. “I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with something special for him too. Got any ideas for me?”
“All he wants is for you and the baby to be safe and sound.”
Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a strange thing for her mother to say. And if Mary had been speaking about someone else, Lori wouldn’t have stopped to chew on it. But this was Grayson they were talking about. A man who had lost his wife in a horrible car crash three years before Lori had met him. He’d healed, but that didn’t mean the scars—and the fears—from that tragedy wouldn’t always be with him.
“We are safe and sound. Better than that, we’re both thriving. I feel it with every tap dance this kid does inside of me.”
“I know that,” Mary said in a soft voice, “and you know that. We women have the advantage of knowing exactly how we’re feeling from moment to moment during our pregnancies. But our partners have to guess from a look, or something we do or don’t say.”
“Do you think I need to reassure him more often that everything is okay?” Lori didn’t often ask people for advice. Her mother was the rare exception. Mary Sullivan had lived such a full and amazing life. Though she never pushed her opinion on others, her hard-won wisdom was undeniable. “I know that even though he’s in a much better place now than when we met,” Lori continued, “sometimes his past history with his late wife comes back to haunt him and causes him to worry. But I thought, with how easy my pregnancy has been and how good I feel, that he would know everything was perfect. Have I been wrong this whole time?”
“Honey—” Her mother put her hand on her arm. “The last thing Grayson would want is for you to worry about him worrying about you. Trust me on this. What he needs most from you are your smiles and laughter and love. All the things you’ve always given him. All the things he’s going to get twice over once your daughter is born.”
Mary Sullivan was rarely—try never—wrong when it came to giving advice. How could she be when she’d been through it all with eight kids and a growing horde of grandkids? But Lori suddenly couldn’t shake the fear that while she’d been skipping through her pregnancy, Grayson had been having a different experience entirely.
One colored by a past that she worried he might never fully be able to put to rest.