I gripped Holden’s hand and tried to suppress the need to hurl. I was so nervous and just wanted to hurry up and get this over with.

“I don’t get it…you’ve said you were the life of the party when you were away at college. So what’s the difference now? Why do you all of a sudden not want the attention set on you?” He held my gaze in an attempt to calm me down.

“That’s different. This is my family. Around my peers is one thing…but these are people I can’t escape. They have the ability to hurt me more than anyone else.”

“You have nothing to worry about, babe. Yes, they are your family, which means they aren’t going anywhere.” He kissed me on my cheek and then opened his car door, leaving me to follow him.

The nausea only worsened when I glanced through the window along the front of the office, and I saw that my entire family had already arrived. Holden met me around the front of the car and laced my fingers with his, shoving his left hand into his front pocket. Ever since coming back from New York, we always wore our bands—except Sunday afternoons at my parents’ house. Rather than take them off now, we hid it. Which only made my stomach flip and flop even more.

Everyone knew we had started to date, but that was as far as we let it go. Anytime Mom would start talking about weddings, I told her I would never walk down the aisle, so she needed to give up on the dream. I could easily tell her the one thing that would get her to shut up, but I just wasn’t ready to offer that up yet. And honestly, walking into the office, facing the entire lot of my family members, I didn’t want to tell them now, either. I wasn’t ready to let the cat out of the bag just yet.

“Are you ready for the grand opening?” Christine met us by the door, just outside The Newest York Events office. Balloons clung to the handle, along with streamers, all colored blue and pink.

“This is your gender reveal—not my grand opening.”

We had been back for four weeks, and almost every second of that time had been spent working on getting my business up and running. Luckily, I had Holden to help, considering he’d basically done this same thing—he hated it when I said that and had to point out how a certified public accountant firm wasn’t at all the same as my event planning. I simply rolled my eyes and waved him off, telling him he could believe what he wanted.

Matt and Christine obviously knew about us, but we had sworn them to secrecy. We explained how we wanted to tell everyone at once, but I personally didn’t want to do that until we had the business far enough along to share it all with them at once. They agreed, and somehow, I’d convinced them to use their gender reveal “party” to kick-start the opening. Apparently, neither Christine nor Matt thought there needed to be some big to-do when revealing the sex of their baby. I convinced them otherwise, under the stipulation that we share the event—half baby surprise and half grand opening for the family. They also made me swear to tell everyone about Holden and me being married. I begrudgingly agreed—not because I didn’t want to share my news, but because I would’ve been happy keeping it our happy little secret for just a little bit longer.

“I already told you, Janelle…” Christine lowered her chin to pin me with her serious stare. “This isn’t about us. It’s not about the baby. This is about you and your store and your big news with Holden. I understand that you didn’t want it to be all about you, but honestly, I don’t want this to be a big deal.”

“I figured you were just trying to be nice. Christine, this is a big deal. You and Matt have suffered for so long, been through so many heartbreaks…you guys deserve to celebrate. This is your rainbow baby—”

“Don’t, Janelle.” Her eyes turned glassy. “My baby isn’t in my arms yet. I will celebrate then. When I hold my child and know everything’s okay.”

I could only nod, fully understanding her fear, and pray to God it was unwarranted. After a quick hug in an attempt to clear her tears, we all walked inside—Christine and Matt, and Holden and me.

We got the standard greetings, the hugs and handshakes, the well wishes and congratulations. I smiled and clung to Holden, ready to run and hold our secret safe. We hadn’t been there for five full minutes before Mom started in on me.

“Why’s it called The Newest York? Are you and Holden getting married?” Her eyes lit up.

And I’m sure mine did too when I said, “No. I already told you, Ma…I’m not walking down the aisle with Holden. I will never change my last name, and I will never file for a marriage license. I need you to accept that and be okay with it.”

Christine stood next to me and snickered. I glared at her, hoping she’d stop before she gave everything away. Rather than stop, she muttered to me, “I don’t think I can ever trust another word that comes out of your mouth.”

I made sure to keep my voice low when I argued, “Technically, I didn’t lie.”

“I know. That’s the scary part. Now I have to pick apart every single one of your sentences just to know what you mean.”

I huffed a giggle beneath my breath and shook my head, turning my attention back to my mom just in time to hear more of her grumbling complaints. “You just have to be the only one, don’t you? Living in sin, shacking up with your beau, never planning to get married. You wanna see your mother in an early grave? Is that it?”

“Christine and Matt would like to share with everyone what they’re having—aside from a baby.” I winked at Christine, hoping to move the party along and away from me.

She nodded to Matt, who crossed the room and quickly stuck a pin into the giant black balloon, letting the pink confetti fall to cover the floor. “We’re having a girl!”

The entire family started to crowd in around her, making the small group feel like an arena full of excited partygoers. In an instant, her face paled and her hands began to shake by her sides. But before I could say anything to derail the frenzy, Matt stuck his pinkies in his mouth and whistled, causing everyone to immediately stop.

“Jelly is having a baby!”

Gasps rang out all around, soft murmurs and quiet questions. My head became light, and I started to feel dizzy. Not in a bad way, but in an out-of-body kind of way. It was like I had floated above myself and watched everything happen. I was completely cognizant of what was happening, but it was as though I had no control over any of it.

“You’re what?” My mother’s eyes couldn’t have gotten any bigger, shining with utter excitement.

“I’m, uh…I’m having a baby,” I repeated, turning my inquisitive stare to my brother.

He shrugged, and with giddy laughter, he said, “Holden isn’t allowed to keep secrets from me anymore.”

I whipped my head to stare at Holden, who stood next to me, shaking in uncontrollable laughter. As soon as his eyes fell on me, his mirth settled long enough to beam at me with pride and unadulterated love.

We’d found out shortly after coming home from New York. Turns out, antibiotics affect birth control, and Christine hadn’t felt the need to inform me of that when I’d gotten sick because she didn’t think there was a reason to. Holden was ecstatic, but I wasn’t sure how much of that was because of the baby and how much was because he now had a reason to say I had a Jelly Bean in my Jelly Belly.

“And you’re still refusing to get married?” Of course, that’d be my mother’s one and only concern.

I held up my left hand, proudly showing off the plain gold band Holden had purchased to match his in a small, cheap chapel in Las Vegas. But I treasured it as if it were priceless. “I can’t walk down an aisle because I already did. I refuse to change my last name because it’s York, and I will forever be a York. I will never apply for a marriage license because I’ll never have another reason to. Holden and I are married.”

Mom gasped and covered her gaping mouth. Everyone else just stood in place with wide eyes, observing the comedy show before them. “When did you do that? Did you run off and get married when you found out about the baby? You know we would’ve been involved.”

I glanced over at Holden and grinned. When he nodded, I knew that was his way of supporting me as I ran with it. “Actually, we got married over five years ago.” As expected, the entire room broke out in a flurry, everyone talking over each other, questions being tossed around, not caring who answered.

The noise level grew even louder, but abruptly stopped when mom shouted, “I’m getting breast implants!”

“What?” I’m pretty sure we all asked at the exact same time.

“Everyone else was sharing their news. Thought I’d share mine, too.”

All I could do was stare at her. And blink. And stare some more. Then, Holden came over and stole me away, saving me from dealing with that.

“Look at you, my Prince Charming, my knight in shining armor, coming to rescue me from the evil queen talking about filling her flabby boobies with silicone.”

His laughter shook his body when he covered my lips with his. “No, babe. I’m not your Prince Charming, and I’m not in shining armor.”

“But you’re not a dark knight, either.”

“Then what am I?”

“Just a regular man who chose to come sweep me off my feet and save the day.”

“So I’m not a superhero?” He cocked his head to the side and pinched his brows in question.

“You’re my hero. Isn’t that enough?”

“That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.” And then he sealed our words with his lips.