Page 130 of The Wedding Engagement

“I love it,” she said, joy filling her soul to the brim.

Elise called from the hallway. “Can we come and see now?”

“Yep,” Arran said. “Come in.”

Elise and Nico entered the studio, taking in the painting and exclaiming how talented her boyfriend was.

“I know,” Liv said, bringing his head down from behind to kiss him.

“Ugh,” Nico said, smiling as he left the studio. “Get a room.”

Liv laughed as Arran pretended to aim a kick at Nico’s arse, and they all followed him back to the kitchen, where Jayce and Jack were drawing at Jayce’s low plastic table.

Elise smiled as she poured them some tea. “What do you think Maya and Sam are doing right now?”

Nico raised his eyebrows. “Rightnow? On their honeymoon? Shame on you for such dirty thoughts, Kowalski.”

Elise shot him a look that would have felled a bear. Though Nico was kind of built like one. “That’s not what I mean. Get your mind out of the gutter.” She sipped her tea, muttering, “Though I’m aware that’s where it permanently resides.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Nico’s mouth, and Liv couldn’t help her mind drifting to that enemies-to-lovers suspicion again.

Arran tugged her hand to bring her onto his knee. “I reckon they’ll be carving up the slopes in the Alps, then having a bit of après-ski.”

“I hope they’re having an amazing time,” Elise said, staring off wistfully.

“They will be,” Nico said, giving her a smile that was decidedly softer than the usual wry one he aimed at her.

Liv hadn’t been at all surprised when Maya and Sam had opted to find a resort at enough of an altitude that skiing in June was possible. The pair were ski obsessed.

Elise and Nico started debating the merits of skiing in the French Alps. Well, it was more of an argument than a debate.

Arran leaned in to brush his lips against her ear, sending a tingle down her spine. “I need you to do me a favor later,” he said in a low voice.

“What’s that?” she murmured.

He gave her a wicked grin. “Pin me to the bed and screw me senseless, karate kid.”

Smiling, she kissed him, the tingling sensation firing into every nerve ending in her body. “Your wish is my command.”

Chapter

Thirty-One

Liv rummaged around in thestore cupboard, wondering why Mrs. MacKay couldn’t find her own bloody stationery. The older teacher had come into Liv’s class when there were only twenty minutes of the school day left and asked her to go and find some colored card stock. Apparently, the cupboard was too dimly lit for Liv’s colleague to see the color she wanted.

After what seemed like half an hour, though a look at her watch confirmed it had only been five minutes, Liv located said card stock buried under some boxes of pens.Weird that someone moved it under there.

She lifted the pile of card stock and left the cupboard, turning off the light and closing the door behind her. As she made her way back to the classroom, she gave the teaching assistant in Mrs. MacKay’s class a wee wave. The assistant gave her a wave—plus a knowing smile—in return. That was a little odd.

Arran popped into her mind, and her heart lifted at the thought of seeing him in a mere few hours. They had been spending every night at his place over the last couple of months, and it was weird how everything had just fallen into place—as if they’d always beennot just a couple, but a little family with wee Jayce right at the center.

Her sense of comfort and grounding had been cemented by her mum and Angus funding her some private therapy, with Arran being there to support her every step of the way. Although her journey where that was concerned wasn’t over, it was well underway.

Turning to enter her classroom with a happy sigh, she found the main area unexpectedly empty. Shuffling noises and giggling came from the back room, which housed the painting corner.

Frowning, Liv moved toward the back, hoping that the kids weren’t running rings around Mrs. MacKay. Though surely not, because the woman certainly ruled her own class very firmly and was a stickler for the rules.

As she entered the space, the kids all froze, looking at her and then over to Mrs. MacKay with cheeky smiles on their faces.

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