Looking at the weather, I abandon my jacket. It’s far warmer here than I thought it would be. Despite having little sleep over the past twenty-four hours, I am surprisingly alert without having had my morning coffee. If Sam hurries, we might have a moment to stop and find a decent coffee place before getting to our meeting. I glance at my watch; it’s going to be a tight squeeze even if he comes now.

I see Laura stirring, and I’m relieved because I want to talk to her before I leave. “Hey,” I say quietly. I don’t want to wake up Bella before she’s ready to get up.

“Hey,” Laura replies. She has a polite smile on her face, far different from the passionate look she had last night.

“We have an event we need to attend tonight. They just sent over the details earlier this morning, or I would have told you to pack something. I know you won’t have time to shop for anything, so I’m going to have Norma find a place over here that will bring you some dresses to try on.”

“Norma?” Laura rubs her eyes. “Isn’t it late over there?”

“She’s a pro,” I tell her with a grin. “She knows how to make magic happen, and I don’t question it.”

She smiles. “Okay.” She leans over to the nightstand to reach her phone but looks down to see that she’s still as naked as she was last night. Her clothes are in a heap on the floor next to the bed. I didn’t think I’d taken a long shower, but when I came out last night, I’d seen her passed out and didn’t have the heart to wake her.

“Daddy?” Bella comes bounding out of the room and leaps into my arms. “Where are you going? Can I come too?”

I look past her to see Laura straining to reach her pajamas. I keep Bella facing me and reach down quickly to scoop them up and toss them on the bed. She flashes me a grateful look before shimmying into them under the blankets, in time for Bella to crane her neck back.

“Laura, are you going too?” She looks worried.

“No, sweetie. You and I are going to spend the day together. We get to explore the city and find fun places to visit.”

Bella squirms and squeals in my arms. I let her down, and she leaps onto the bed. “I’m so excited! Can we find an ice cream store?”

“Yes.” Laura laughs. “But there’s so much more to see. Let’s make a plan after breakfast. For now, let’s get you bathed and dressed, and then I can shower while you play the vegetable game on my phone.”

“Yay!” Bella is already bouncing toward the bathroom when the hotel phone rings. It’s the staff downstairs telling me about a message they received for me last night. I’m trying to listen to them when there’s a knock at the door. It has to be Sam.

Laura hears the knock the second time, and she comes out of the bathroom to open the door. I watch Sam come in and greet her warmly. He’s brought three cups of steaming coffee with him, and I would hug him if I wasn’t scowling at him while he stares at Laura. I silently curse myself for dressing her in skimpy attire that had seemed like a good idea at the time.

They’re chatting with each other, and the man who called won’t let me get a word in edgewise. I don’t understand his English all that well, and I quickly grow agitated. Just as I’m about to interrupt him, Laura excuses herself.

“Well, let me know when you have time for it later. I did a little last night. But I have to go finish giving Bella her bath.”

I ask the man on the other line to speak slower, and he does. He tells me that my meeting has been delayed by an hour, and he was asked to inform me now because they didn’t want to disturb my sleep. They had no idea that I didn’t do much sleeping last night, I think wryly.

“Okay, thank you.” I hang up with him and turn to Sam.

“Have some coffee,” he says between sips. There is something reserved about him, and I know it’s not my imagination. Even during our ceremony last week, he was quiet. He did give me congratulations, but he didn’t ask me any questions about why I decided to go this route. His relationship with Laura has only seemed to deepen, though, I think sourly. I would rather it was the other way around.

“You’re a lifesaver,” I say with false cheer. “I was looking up how much time we had to spare for a coffee-related side excursion.”

Sam chuckles. “I’m glad I could be of help. Sorry, I’m late.” He gives me a half smile, and I give him one back. I know he’s picked up on my mood, and this is his way of apologizing. I clap him on the back without saying anything.

“Aren’t you two running late?” Laura has slipped on a robe and is drying her hands on a towel.

I’m about to tell them about the phone call saying that our meeting was rescheduled, but I don’t want to witness any more of Laura and Sam’s easy friendship. Too easy.

“We should get going,” I say quickly. “I’ll call Norma,” I tell Laura on the way out. “They should send someone over by noon. The event is late in the evening, and Norma gave me a list of quality nanny services for each city we’ll be in before we left. They’re in a gray binder. Call one and set one up to arrive by five this evening.” I’m pushing Sam out the door as I speak.

“Okay,” she calls out as I’m shutting the door.

Soon, Sam and I are sitting in the back of the car that was sent for us. He is responding to emails, and I take in the sights while I wonder what has me feeling off today.

I wanted to marry Laura. I did it. I wanted her to agree to my terms. She did. I wanted a healthy sex life. And if we can manage to do something on a plane and follow it up with an equally adventurous position within the same day—and while jet-lagged—I know we’ve got that box checked, too.

But I know something is missing. And until I pinpoint it, it’s going to eat away at me. I like Laura. I think if we met under different circumstances, we might have been good friends, if not lovers. She’s easygoing but serious when she needs to be. She’s excellent with kids, from what I can tell. She works hard, and her work shows that quality.

I wish I knew more about her than what the background check could pull up. I want to know things about her no one else does. Her favorite coffee, if she has a sweet tooth, or if she prefers savory foods.

Turning away from the window, I unlock my phone and flip through the photos until I get to the one from our court date. Riley insisted on taking a quick photo shoot, despite our protests. There are a few with all of us who attended the small ceremony, and then a few of Laura, Bella, and myself.

Then there are two with just Laura and me. In the first one, we look composed, and both of us are smiling for the camera. The second one, I didn’t see until later. It wasn’t planned, but Riley captured a picture of Laura looking up at me and laughing. I’m smiling at her, and I have my hand next to her ear, but with the camera angle, it appears as if I’m cupping her cheek. If someone didn’t know our story, they might think we were in love.

Laura had asked for all the photos from that day, and I sent them all to her. All of them except this one. I don’t know why I didn’t send this one along with the rest. I thought about deleting it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. There is something about the glint in her eye that makes this one special to me.

She looks so beautiful in this photo. Her hair is down but swept back in simple curls. Her makeup is simple, too, but she has a natural glow on her face. She wore a knee-length white lace dress with lace cap sleeves and a pair of heels that made her legs look exquisite. On her wrist, she wore a slim blue bracelet that Riley had lent her for the occasion.

The only other jewelry she wore was the 18k gold halo cut diamond ring. It was a square cut that suited her style. While we were waiting for our turn at the courthouse, I showed her the ring, and I knew I’d picked the right one when her eyes teared up. Riley, Sam, and Helen were all trying to keep Bella busy, so no one else saw her reaction. She blinked them away quickly. “This is beautiful. But it’s not necessary, is it? I mean, it must have cost quite a bit.”

“There were more expensive ones,” I admitted. “But this one seemed like the most tasteful of the options. We can have it exchanged if you decide you don’t like it. Or you can keep this and get another one.”

“No.” Laura shook her head firmly. “This is...perfect.” I heard a hitch in her voice, but when I looked at her, she was waving down Bella to come closer so she could fix her dress before we went in.

I was waiting for Laura to finish with Bella to ask her if she was alright but Riley picked that moment to pull me away. It was one moment out of a few that day that she was something else She’d yanked me aside and made sure I knew exactly how she felt about the whole agreement.

“You know I admire you so much, Mr. Brideau,” she’d started off carefully. “But if you mislead Laura in any way, you will regret it.”

“Really?” I’d chuckled. “I don’t know if I can take your threats seriously.”

“Remember how you got punched?” she’d demanded.

“As if I could forget,” I’d snorted.

“I can do worse,” she’d threatened. I bit back a smile. With the absence of any family from Laura’s side, it was nice to see Riley baring her claws on her behalf.

I backed off and held up my hands in mock surrender. “We have a basic agreement, and you can ask Laura—everything is carefully worded and spelled out. There’s no room for confusion.”

Riley wasn’t convinced, but she insisted on treating it like a real wedding. She’d brought flower petals for Bella to throw. She’d scooped up the rings I’d purchased for the occasion and let her two-year-old nephew stand next to us with them. It was all delightful for everyone present—except for Laura and me.

Laura had a strained smile and shifted uncomfortably. I thought she was going to back out of the entire thing at one point. “Are you okay?” I’d managed to ask at one point.

“Yes, fine.” She looked around at the small room crowded with chairs. “It’s a lot of fanfare for a courtroom, that’s all.”

She didn’t have to say it. I could hear it in her voice and see it on her face that she felt like she was deceiving everyone present. “It’s going to be fine,” I told her. I tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, and she tilted her head up, giving me a smile that made me think the room heated up several degrees.

“What are you thinking about?” Sam interrupts my wayward thoughts.

I slip the phone into my pocket. “We have some time to look over some of the talking points before we go in. They delayed our meeting by about an hour—but since we still have about twenty minutes until we get to the building, it doesn’t leave us a whole lot of time. Let’s review.”

I think Sam caught me looking at the photo, but I can’t be sure. I’m torn. I don’t need him thinking this is any more than it is, but I also don’t want him to think it’s nothing. Until I figure it out, we’ll just focus on work.