Page 10 of Where Sea Meets Sky

Alexis burst out laughing and started to rummage in the paper bag he’d brought home. Inside it was a bottle of Cabernet that she’d asked him to get for dinner, even though she herself couldn’t partake because of the baby, and a container of green tea ice cream. It was her current craving, and when Grayson had heard her ask him for it, his eyes had widened in pretend alarm. He’d kept teasing her that it was a disgusting flavor for ice cream, but she’d told him that he simply didn’t have a refined palate. He’d told her the hormones were making her delusional.

“Yay, thank you, sweetheart!” She gazed at the container of ice cream with satisfaction, considering grabbing herself a scoop before her family arrived. “This will just hit the spot.”

“I’m glad, crazy lady,” he said, and gave her a kiss.

“Hey, at least it’s not an ungodly amount of peanut butter anymore.”

He shook his head. “At least the peanut butter I could understand.”

Laughing, they went into the kitchen together, holding hands. Grayson sniffed the air eagerly as he set the brown paper bag down on the counter.

“It smells glorious in here. We’ve never had this recipe before, right?”

She shook her head. “It’s a new one. I was on Pinterest this morning looking for recipes. You know, with all the free time I have on my hands now.”

He glanced at her knowingly, clearly realizing that she was setting up another statement.

“You don’t have that much free time,” he reminded her. “You’ve been getting extra sleep and you’re still doing a lot of work on your jewelry business.”

“Yeah, but that still leaves me so much time. I mean, honestly, I’ve been getting really bored.”

Grayson cleared his throat. Alexis smiled at him innocently.

“Okay, what is it?” he asked. “What project are you wanting to undertake now?”

She clasped her hands together eagerly. “What do you think about me painting the living room?”

“Now?” he protested.

“Not right now! We have people coming over for dinner.”

He shook his head. “I don’t mean now as in right this second, I mean now when you’re pregnant and you’re supposed to be resting. Painting the living room would be a really big undertaking.”

“Oh, not really,” she protested. “The walls are already so nice and clean, it wouldn’t take me long to prep them. And the room isn’t all that huge so it wouldn’t take me too long to paint it—especially if I decide to do a couple of accent walls in a darker color instead of paint the whole thing.”

He chewed on his lip. “What color are you thinking?”

“I don’t know,” she said contemplatively, taking his question for an agreement and starting to waltz with him across the kitchen. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Grayson started to laugh. “I still don’t know that it’s the best idea?—”

At that moment, the front doorbell rang, and they stopped waltzing.

“We can discuss it later,” Alexis said cheerfully, and hurried with her husband over to the front door. She opened it grandly and grinned when she saw her whole family standing there.

“Hi, Aunt Alexis!” Samantha said, hurrying forward to hug her. “We brought a salad. It’s got fancy croutons and strawberries in it.”

“Sounds amazing,” Alexis said, hugging her niece back. “Thanks for bringing that, Hazel.”

“You got it.” Hazel gave her a hug as well. “I know how hard it is to feed all of these hungry people at one time.”

“So do I,” said Julia, “so Mom and I brought lemon lavender sugar cookies.”

Talking and hugging and laughing, the family took off their coats and winter boots and made their way into the dining room. Vivian and Hazel helped Alexis and Grayson get the pies out of the oven and cut into slices while Samantha, Dean, and Julia set the table.

“Sorry I wasn’t ready,” Alexis said. “I got an idea and time kind of got away from me.”

“What idea was that?” Dean asked curiously.

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