Page 58 of Her Billion Dollar Groom

Eliza beams when I say this. She’s grown fond of that weird Scandinavian. I head out into the corridor and hit my speed dial for Oskar.

He’s already in the car when he picks up. “I’m meeting you both at the hospital, yes?”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“So that’s a yes?”

“Yes,” I grumble. “It’s a yes. Thank you.”

“I watch the news too, you know,” he says before he hangs up. I can just see his smug grin. Sometimes, I hate the way he’s always right.

He’s probably the greatest friend I’ve ever had, except for Eliza.

We sneak out using the back exit of the hospital. Eliza doesn’t want to be seen looking like this, and honestly, neither do I. The last thing we need right now is to be stopped. No doubt the press would leap on us and devour us.

All we need is to go home. Together.

When we get to the house, we both hesitate before we get out of the car. “I haven’t got all day,” says Oskar eventually, tired of our antics, and we giggle as we slide out of the car.

He does have all day. Literally, I pay him a full salary to drive me around whenever I need him. I pay him generously enough that he doesn’t need another job on top of that. As far as jobs go, he’s got a pretty good gig. But I can understand why he doesn’t want us in the car for longer than we have to be. If I were him, I wouldn’t want to deal with me and Eliza being mushy either.

We step into the front hall, and though my house is the same as it has always been, somehow now everything feels new, different. It’s like with one breath, everything has changed. Now that I have Eliza with me, nothing is going to be the same again.

“This is your home now,” I say, gesturing around like she’s never seen the place before. “It always was, but this time you don’t have to leave. Not ever.”

“Good,” she says, gently taking my hand. “I’m not going to.”

“You can keep your rooms, if you’d like.”

“I don’t mind that at all for office space, but I was really hoping I could sleep in your bed…”

She pouts. I take a steadying breath. Imagining waking up to her every morning makes me dizzy.

“I was hoping you would say that.” She beams at me and throws her arms around me. I squeeze her tight, then add, “Come with me.”

“Where are we going?” she says, gripping my hand and following me as I lead her carefully upstairs. I don’t answer the question. It’s a surprise I’ve been keeping to myself for years, just waiting for the right time, the right person.

We hold hands, moving along the corridor until finally, we reach the room I had in mind. “Jason. Where the hell are we going?” Eliza says.

I open the door and gesture for her to enter.

She does, then turns to look at me, confused.

“Jason, this is an empty room.” She giggles, despite her frown.

“But look at the view,” I say, pointing to the rolling hills beyond.

“It’s very beautiful, but I still don’t understand why we’re here.”

“I always wanted to make this room a nursery,” I confess. “I never did anything about it because, well, I’ve never had a reason to. But this is the room I want to make the nursery for our child.”

She spins in a slow circle around the room and nods, smiling. “Okay. I can see it.”

“You see, I always wanted to paint it, like a skyline or a farmyard, something like that. And byI wanted to, I mean get a painter to do it, obviously - someone who can really do a good job. I want the walls to be interesting and the ceiling to be a constellation of stars. Then I thought we’d put the crib by the window and commission a wooden chest for toys, you know, like in all those cartoons. And then?—”

Eliza cuts me off with a kiss. “Babe, I love that you’ve thought so much about this.”

“Only a little.” I rub the back of my head, my face glowing hot. “I always wanted a family.”

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