Page 78 of His Hot Mess

I’d cried on Christmas morning. Even amidst the dreariness of our lives in that town with Stan, Mom knew how to have a little fun.

Lucy had cried too, but then again, she cried about everything, being pregnant.

With twins—a surprise but not unusual result of fertility treatment she’d started last summer after the wedding.

“Let me know when you’re ready,” I said to the customer by the mirror in the back of the store. “You look incredible, by the way.”

She really did. She was a stylish blonde in her twenties who had come in shivering from the whirling snow outside. She wore a heavy navy pea coat and pale blue jeans with ripped-out knees, and I guessed she was either from the university up in Ithaca, or New York City. After excitedly saying hello, she’d clapped her hands as she took in the shop, as if unsure where to dive in first. Almost an hour later, she was wrapping up trying her haul on one by one. She had on an adorable navy ‘90s babydoll dress now and was angling her body in front of the mirror in the back corner of the shop. I had actually tried on the dress myself the other day. Sal had kept it aside for me at the rag yard.

“This one looks like you,” she’d said.

But when I’d gotten it back here I’d found it didn’t fit me. Even though it was my size, I couldn’t get it to button up at the back. Between that and the low-lying headache I’d had for the past week, I’d decided to go into the clinic down the street for a check-up. The doctor said I seemed healthy, but sent me for blood work up in Millerville, which I’d done yesterday. The smallest wash of worry crept over me as I looked at the dress and the way it hung perfectly on the young woman.

“Yup,” she said. “I think this one’s a keeper.”

A thud sounded upstairs, knocking the ridiculous thoughts out of my mind.

It was so loud, the needle skipped on the record player. I held my breath for the half second until the muffled curse came on its heels.

The girl stopped in her twirling in front of the mirror. “Is everything okay up there?”

“Oh yeah,” I said. “My boyfriend’s just moving some furniture around.”

I wanted to add that he was doing more than that. Excitement spiked now, pushing away the last of the fleeting concern about whatever was going on with my body as I thought about what was actually happening upstairs.

Tonight, Chris was officially moving into my apartment.

It was only for a few months, until he finished the new place he was building for us over on Ruby Lake. Still, after six months of going back and forth between our two places, it felt like the beginning of the rest of our lives. And it was—Chris was moving in here because the commute to Ruby Lake, where he was building our new home to live in together, was getting ridiculous. Sapphire Lake, where he’d lived, was at the far end of the county.

I couldn’t wait for our new home to be finished. Chris and I had designed it together, and the plans showed a cozy wood-shingled cabin right on the water that somehow managed to fit five bedrooms and a full finished basement.

“We’ll have to work on filling those rooms,” Chris had said when he’d shown me the final design. We hadn’t talked all that much about kids before but I knew he was eager. So was I, in due time. For now, I was happy being in love. With the house, and with him.

Lucy came out from the back of the store. “Are you sure Chris is okay up there?”

Lucy had come over here to work, as she had for the past week since Graydon began renovations on their own place, adding a whole new addition in the back to make room for the twins.

“He’s fine,” I said.

She raised her eyebrows. “Don’t you think you should check on him? I can watch the store.”

“Lucy,” I said, a note of warning in my voice.

“Sorry,” she said, raising her hands up. She was actively working at not trying to take care of everything. And getting surprisingly better at it.

“I went up there before you got here,” I conceded. “He’s insisting that I don’t come up again until it’s done. He wants it to be a surprise.”

Chris was unpacking and rearranging everything upstairs the way I’d idly suggested would look good before he’d moved in. When I’d gone up to check on him before, I’d caught him in the middle of moving the couch.

His arms flexed as he lifted one end of it and began pivoting it around.

“You sure you don’t want to wait until I’m off so I can help you?” I’d asked, even as my insides went hot at the sight of him.

He’d scowled, lowering the couch to the floor and standing up again. “You’ve already ruined the surprise—the least you can do is get out of here and come back when you close,pretendingto be shocked.”

I’d gone over and grasped his cheeks, kissing him full-on on the lips. God, this man. Gorgeousandthoughtful.

He returned the kiss with a tenderness that made my skin tingle and my belly flutter.

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