Page 1 of Almost Christmas in Paradise

Chapter 1

Drake

I kiss my sleeping wife’s cheek and slide out of bed. The comforter slips off, so I lift it to cover her, but before I do, I put my hand on her stomach. It’s still flat, and there would be no way to know that she’s eight weeks pregnant. Only the two of us know as we are waiting for the end of the first trimester before we announce it to our family. I bend down and kiss her belly too.

“Daddy loves you,” I whisper.

After covering her, I tiptoe out of the room and go through the connecting door to the nursery. When we built this house, we decided on a connecting door so that we could be only a few feet away. We knew we wanted more children, and though we have nannies, we are very hands-on parents.

When I get to the crib and look down at my sleeping fourteen-month-old. She’s practically a replica of her mother,only with lighter skin and my nose. Her mouth, eyes, and attitude are all Nia. She has her thumb in her mouth and she sucks it rather aggressively.

I stroke her perfect little cheek and walk away. She’s like me in that she’s a light sleeper, and once she’s awake, it’s hard for her to go back to sleep.

Tonight might be different though. Tonight was Halloween, and we went all out as a family. In fact, we’ve been celebrating all week, including a party in the homemade pumpkin patch my wife had in installed in our backyard. She invited our son’s entire class, along with kids in the neighborhood. Our nephews were also there. We roasted marshmallows, had a costume contest, a petting zoo and face painting stations. Tonight, our son and I wore matching Spiderman costumes for the third year in a row, and Nia and Priya wore matching Superwoman costumes.

I leave Priya and go across the hall to Carter’s room. He’s out cold. He’s on his back with the covers bunched around him. He’s in his favorite Spiderman pajamas, and I lift the matching blanket to cover him. Unlike his sister, he sleeps like the dead. Since there’s no school tomorrow, he’ll probably sleep until nine o’clock in the morning, only to wake up complaining about how hungry he is. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I kiss his forehead before I leave the room, and on my way, I make sure to grab the stash of candy he has hidden under his pillow. My son will wake up and eat his weight in chocolate before demanding breakfast.

Our home, designed and built by my family company, Paradise Construction, can only be described as what it is. It’s a mansion, over thirty thousand square feet, has ten bedrooms, and fifteen bathrooms. There’s an indoor and two outdoor pools, one of which is a kiddie pool with a waterslide for our children.

My wife called me ridiculous and over the top when I showed her the plans the architect had drawn up. When I told her it was a draft and that the architect was waiting on her input, she told me I was crazy and that the house was perfect. It only took a little coaxing to get her input. It was her idea to have the connecting door to the nursery. She also asked that the house have a rooftop deck with a firepit. The rooftop deck is my favorite thing about the house. When the weather permits, the two of us sit on the roof at night and enjoy a glass of wine and talk. Some nights, we’ll feed the kids, and I’ll grill her dinner on the roof after they go to bed. Other times, we’ll roast s’mores over the firepit and destroy the evidence so Carter doesn’t find out. He seems to always know when we have fun without him.

With the house being as large as it is, it takes me a few minutes to walk downstairs and through the first floor to get to my office. For the past few weeks, sleep hasn’t been my friend.

I’ll fall asleep but wake up a couple of hours later as if I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. That can’t be further from the truth. I’m the CEO of the country’s largest construction company at the age of thirty-six. I have a beautiful wife, two healthy children, and another one on the way. I have the love of my family. I have money, wealth, and power. There’s nothing that I want that I can’t have, but the only thing I need is the love of my wife and children.

That’s what leads me to my office tonight. I need to relive one of the greatest days of my life. I need to see my bride and the expression on her face on the day of our wedding. She had just given birth to our second baby nine months before we said I do for the second time. Our first wedding wasn’t a wedding at all. It was the two of us and my driver as a witness in a courthouse. She cried for most of it, but they weren’t tears of joy. It hurt my heart when she cried, but instead of taking her in my arms likeI wanted to, I stood there, cold as ice, and waited until she got herself together to say the vows.

I loved her on our first wedding day. I had loved her for years, but circumstances beyond our control ripped us apart. When I found her again and realized she had my son, I knew I could not let her go a second time. If blackmailing her into marriage was the only way to get her to commit to me, then that’s what I was going to do. And I did.

I’ve never regretted marrying her. I regret how I went about it. I regret all the time we lost. I regret all the angst and arguments we had during those early days of our marriage, but I could never regret her.

I turn on my laptop and find the file. It’s always just a few clicks away. No one knows this, but sometimes in the middle of the day, while I’m supposed to be working, I’ll watch the video of our wedding. I have it set so that her face is the first one I see when it starts. That first shot is classic Nia Paradise. She’s glowing. She’s smiling and talking happily to someone off-camera. Then her mother and mine put the veil on her head and she goes quiet. I pause it so I can look at her. I’ve already committed every moment to memory, but I love seeing this shot of her in her wedding dress.

She said she wanted something sexy, and she got it. Her body is perfect in the dress. She had it custom-made and has said many times that it’s the most expensive thing she will ever wear. It’s a sleeveless ball gown with a V-neckline. The bottom is big and poufy and has THINGS embroidered throughout. Her veil has the same stitching and trails behind her dramatically.

I start the recording again. She fans her face to keep the tears at bay, and her maid of honor and cousin, Audrey, runs to her and gently dabs her eyes.

“Don’t ruin your makeup,” Audrey warns. “It’s almost time, and you’re perfect.” Audrey and I might not have started on a good note, but she has never been more right than she was in that moment. There’s only one word that describes my bride on our second wedding day, and that word is perfect.

Her father soon arrives and gushes over how beautiful she is before he tucks her arm in his and they walk out of the room.

Our wedding was a beautiful, warm fall day. The leaves were just starting to change. There was talk about us not getting married in a church and instead having the ceremony outside in a sea of changing leaves, but Nia’s parents would have none of it. In the end, we married in their church—a beautiful brick building, over a hundred years old, situated in the middle of the city with a garden of wildflowers in the front. The same one where they said their vows and christened their children.

I fast forward until Nia’s Rolls Royce gets to the church and the driver opens the door for her. We had the entire street blocked off for our wedding with extra security, not because of any danger, but because I wanted everything to be perfect. She’s helped out of the car and looks around with awe and nervousness.

Next is when she steps into the church, and when it’s her turn to walk to me on her father’s arm to the sound of the Wedding March, she’s given the surprise of her life.

She freezes when Mariah Carey starts to sing Until Forever. She looks up at the second story, and there she is, standing like a queen. Instead of ladies in waiting, her backup singers croon behind her.

Yes, I managed to get my wife’s favorite artist to sing at our wedding.

She looks from Mariah to me and back to Mariah. She bites her bottom lip and the tears fall. At that moment, I think sheunderstands exactly how much I love her and that I am willing to do anything to make her happy.

The rest of the video is a blur. She cries throughout our entire ceremony. When it’s time for her to recite the wedding vows, she can barely get the words out, but unlike the first time, this is pure joy and not dread.

When we’re finally pronounced man and wife, the entire church goes wild while I kiss my wife. I cradle her face and kiss her like it’s not only our first kiss but also our last. I pour all my love for her into that kiss, and like always, she gives it back to me tenfold.

I continue to watch the video with a smile on my face. She’s shy when meeting Mariah for the first time, but when they hug, I have to pull her away so Mariah can sing us another song.

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