Chapter Twenty
Harrison
Ever since we found out Luca was coming into our life, I wouldn’t help but buy all the things I thought a little girl might like. As a rule, I wasn’t into gender stereotyping and planned to let her decide what she did or didn’t like, but that far from stopped me from buying every adorable unicorn dress and frilly headband I saw.
I could still see Lucas’s eyes when I said I wanted us to name her Luca after him. I think that was the first time he allowed himself to believe what we had was real on both sides, and ever since that moment, I made it my mission to have him knowing it on a daily basis.
We weren’t two guys being married so we could make our child’s start better, we were two guys married because we wanted to be—in all ways.
I wasn’t upset we rushed the nuptials, because it did two things. It forced us to face our feelings, and it did give us a best-case scenario media-wise. According to the stupid television shows all about celebrities, which I found myself watching more and more, and needed to stop because there was nothing healthy about that, we were in a whirlwind romance filled with love and a beautiful baby on the way. They actually got it right. Go figure.
“Hey, boss, what else do you need?” Jaxon called into my workroom where I was doing pretty much no work.
“A hand?” I asked, and he laughed. He thought it freaking hilarious that I was the size of a house and getting off my bench required assistance from time to time.
It kind of was.
“Isn’t this your mate’s job?” He helped me stand, amusement dancing around his face.
“He’s out of town for the show.” Which sucked. How I could go from living alone just fine to being miserable because my husband was out of town for a few days was beyond me.
“I thought they wrapped up the season and were taking a break until the baby came.”
True. They had taped the entire season. I still didn’t fully grasp the concept of the show. It was a cross between reality television, with Lucas starting a new restaurant in a small town, and a scripted cooking show with recipes and such. Not that I ever thought reality television wasn’t scripted to an extent, but these segments didn’t pretend not to be, which was the weird thing to me.
The restaurant, by all accounts, was doing well. There were the locals who went for fancy meals, most of whom refused to sign contracts and were therefore cut from the show, but there were also out-of-towners. Generally, they were the people who wanted their five minutes of fame on television or to meet Lucas. At first, the town wasn’t in love with that crowd, but they brought a lot of money into an otherwise stagnant town, and we’d even seen housing prices going up a tad.
In the beginning, I had helped around the “set,” but the producers thought my work was too good and wanted props, not quality woodworking, for I had no idea what reason. Lucas thought it was because they planned to strip the entire thing down before moving on when the show’s ratings faltered.
“I did, too,” I answered in reply to Jaxon’s asking about the season being over. “But I guess ‘wrapping up’ is a fancy way of saying everyone needs to have a thousand meetings halfway across the country while your omega is about to pop.” I might’ve been a bit bitter about them taking my alpha away from me this close to the end of my pregnancy.
“You have another month, Papa.” He patted my head, laughing at what I was sure he thought was funny. “No need to rush things.”
“Says the man without a baby in his belly.”
“Says the man who doesn’t want to end up being the one coaching you while you push her out.” Yeah that most definitely went outside his role as assistant.
“Fair enough.”
I waddled out of the workshop and into the house, Jaxon close behind me. He hadn’t been so puppy dog-like since he first started working for me under his father’s warning that if he fucked up he was going to be homeless. Not that Henry would have followed through.
“So, does he know?” Jaxon took a seat at the breakfast bar as I put the kettle on the stove. Only a month and I could go back to my coffee. Not that I was counting.
“Know?” He’d lost me somewhere.
“Do you really think my mom can keep a secret?” Jaxon arched his eyebrows, and understanding slammed into me.
Vivian told him about my surprise wedding. I’d known from the first week of our marriage that Lucas wanted the real thing. And, in most ways, we acted real from that first day, and over the course of the past few months, we’d not only found a way to sync our very different lives, but fell deeper and deeper in love with each other as we did so.
It was time to make a gesture. One that wasn’t about babies or the media. One that was just me telling showing him that he was my everything. And I couldn’t think of any better way to do that than a surprise wedding.
“I only asked her for a quote, and I thought it was like a client confidentiality thing or something.”
“You asked her about decorating the church with flowers, not where to hide the body. That’s hardly confidential.” He tapped the side of his head as if he’d just cracked a case, not logicked out Vivian’s brand of nosey.
“Then, no.” I let out a sigh as I grabbed two cups, to which Jaxon shook his head and I put one back. No tea for him. “He doesn’t know, and I’m not sure I can even make it work.”
“What still needs doing?” He grabbed the cookie jar, scooching it closer before peering inside, finding something to his liking, helping himself to one of the last of what I called my wooing cookies.
Wooing because Lucas had made them to woo me, and because it made him crack up every time I referred to them as such. I was sad when I pulled the last package out of the freezer. Not that he wouldn’t make more if I asked. He’d made plenty since then, but these were special.
“Everything,” I confessed. I’d barely started planning it when I got overwhelmed and gave up. “I was just putting out feelers. I just know it would mean a lot to Lucas to have a bigger wedding.”
“And you, too?” he asked around a mouthful of cookie.
“And maybe me, too.” I couldn’t help myself and rolled my eyes.
“When does he come back?”
“Two days.” Eternity.
“Leave it to me.” He pulled out his phone and began typing away. I didn’t even bother to try and stop him. Once he got like this, he was going full steam ahead.
“You do not need to plan my wedding,” I said for good measure, not even trying to add any ounce of persuasion in. I just needed it to be said.
“I won’t do it alone, and you are growing a human.” He pointed to my belly just as the kettle whistled. I turned off the stove and poured my tea, grabbing one of the cookies for myself.
“Nothing over the top?” I’d heard about his parties back in New Orleans, or at least the ones that happened at his place while he was I didn’t even know where. Jaxon could over the top, of that I was sure.
“Everything over the top.” He tapped into his phone again. I tried to get a glance, and he held it at just the correct angle to thwart my efforts. “Do you have a suit?”
“A few, but none that will fit around Luca.” I was down to two pairs of pants, some ginormous T-shirts, and that was pretty much that.
“I’ll take care of that, too.” Tap. Tap. Tap. “Warren and I were planning to go to the city tomorrow, anyway.”
“Warren?” I made a kissy face because I was pregnant and bored and riling Jaxon up was fun.
“Do not even say it like that.” Jaxon protested just a little too much. “He needs Henry’s truck is all.”
“If that’s your story.”
“That’s the truth.” He put the lid back on the cookie jar and climbed off of his perch before slipping his phone in his pocket. “Now go—sleep—grow a human. Vivian is bringing dinner tonight. Her famous lasagna.”
“She doesn’t have to take care of me.” Not that anyone stopped Vivian once she got a notion in her head.
“She kind of does.” He squished his face before schooling it. “Lucas made her promise.”
Of. Course. He. Did. Overprotective alpha. Mine.
“Go—make wedding magic happen, and thanks.”
“You took me in when no one else would have thought to. No need to thank me for trying to pay you back.”
“It’s been good for both of us.” I gave his shoulder a squeeze.
“That it has.” He smiled back before heading out the door.
I grabbed my tea and waddled into the bedroom before climbing into bed. I’d probably read a little bit, but the rest would do me good.
My phone blew up. How I ever convinced Lucas to give me a phone that could do more than my computer, I’d never figure out. I grabbed it, intending to turn it off when another notification binged:
Season two of Cooking Live location selected: Bar Harbor, Maine
Fuck. Lucas was moving to Maine which meant I was moving with him or I was alone again.
Neither sounded ideal to me.