Page 122 of Keep Him Like Secrets

“Our step plan.”

“Good. You’re here. Convince this woman of yours to take a nap, will you?”

“Youwererestless last night.”

“You try having someone use your bladder as a trampoline and see how well you sleep.”

“All the more reason for a nap,” Gina insisted.

“I have to agree.”

“Ugh. You guys teaming up against me is annoying.”

“See? She’s grouchy because she’s tired,” Gina said, nodding.

“It’s just my personality.”

“Come on. Let’s get you off those feet,” he said, glancing down at the slippers I was wearing because my feet had started swelling enough that I couldn’t fit in my old shoes anymore.

“Fine,” I grumbled.

I wouldn’t admit it to the two of them, but I was actually pretty tired. Which was nothing new. I’d been bone-deep tired my entire pregnancy. But I’d decided that it was a fair price to pay for the fact that I didn’t have my head in a toilet for three months like a lot of the other women in the family I knew who’d gotten pregnant around the same time.

“She switched me to decaf,” I told Soren, kicking off my slippers.

“She’s been slowly transitioning you to decaf for weeks,” he told me.

“You’ve been complicit in hertamperingwith my food?” He sat down on the sectional, avoiding eye contact. “Oh, my God. You’ve been doing it too.”

“I have,” he admitted, reaching for me. “And until today, you didn’t even notice.”

“Is there anything else you’ve been doing behind my back?” I asked as I settled against him.

“I’ve been setting up a trust for this little one,” he said, placing a hand on my belly. “And sending outThank Youcards for all that stuff clogging up the library.”

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Getting the wedding ones out just in time for a bunch of baby stuff to come rolling in,” I said as his free hand hit that spot in my lower back he knew had been killing me since my belly went from bump to basketball.

“You know, Gina and T would be all too happy to help with all that sorting and such. They’re really excited to be aunties.”

They were.

It was sweet, actually.

The two of them were working on my baby shower with personal input from Lore, Cinna, Elizabeth, and all the other girls from the family.

“We’re going to be overflowing with help when the baby comes,” he said.

“Thank God. Because we have no idea what we are getting into.”

“You opened two businesses in a year, darlin’, you can do anything.”

“Well, that’s true.”

I was surprised how easily I hung up one hat and put on another. Especially when this particular hat didn’t allow for a lot of brass knuckles and kicking guys in the balls.

I guess that part was easily enough explained.

I no longer needed to hold onto my anger. I didn’t have to physically fight for respect.

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