Page 91 of My Turkish Fling
“I’ll tell you later,” I whispered, rushing Cem down the hallway.
I considered just shoving the movie star into my son’s bedroom, but when I caught Aria’s panicked expression, I decided to escort him all the way in.
“Wow,” Cem said, looking at Aria’s dress. “Am I supposed to see you before—”
“It’s not a wedding, Cem.”
“Fine. Okay. What’s wrong?”
“I… I…” Aria gaped at me, her eyes begging for help.
“She’s pregnant,” I said. “And if you want to turn this thing into a wedding, I’ll contact Len to see if he’s free.”
I’d never seen Cem’s face quite like that. He whipped his head to stare at me, then back at Aria. “Allah, Allah!You serious?”
Aria nodded. “I think so. I’ve been testing all week, and I got a positive this morning.”
“You’ve been testing, and you didn’t tell me?”
Aria nibbled at her thumbnail, looking up with a pained expression. “I thought if it’s false alarm I’d just freak you out for no reason.”
Cem rescued the nail from his fiancée’s mouth and secured her hands in his. “You should have told me.”
She hung her head. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. But the timing is awful.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s our baby. We’ll just have to… get ready.”
His voice was soft and tender. I backed through the doorway, still holding my breath but also relieved by his reaction. When I was about to slip away, Cem turned around. “What did you say about the wedding?”
“She can call someone to marry us if we want to turn this into a wedding,” Aria said.
I had a big mouth. A big, big mouth.
‘Do it!” Cem’s voice was bright and decisive. He turned back to Aria. “Please? We can have another wedding back home. I mean, Istanbul. But doing it right here, under the radar, it’s so perfect.”
Aria’s eyes filled with tears. “What about your parents? Are we going to give them heart attacks, for real?”
Cem shrugged. “It might not be that bad. Whatever we do here won’t be a proper wedding for my mom. But if she gets to throwanother one back home, she’d be happy. And she loves babies!”
“We can’t tell her yet, it’s too early. Right?” She turned to me for confirmation, eyes wide with terror.
I adopted my most impartial news anchor tone. “Some people wait to share the news since the risk of miscarriage is higher in the beginning. But it’s up to you.”
“So, if you wouldn’t tell them about a miscarriage, don’t tell them about the pregnancy?” Aria gestured with her hands while Cem stared at her with gooey-eyed devotion.
“I don’t think there’s a hard and fast rule.”
“What do you think?” Aria asked Cem. “Should we just play it by ear? If they freak out about the wedding plan, we distract them with the baby news? Like having extra lighter fluid in case of a fire.” Her smile was a little manic.
“Sounds good to me.” Cem smirked.
They turned to me. Two expectant faces. Four glistening eyes.
“I’ll… make the call. It may not work out, but I’ll try.”
My heart hammering somewhere in my throat, I fetched my phone from the busy and scent-filled kitchen, and rushed down the hall to my bedroom.
I heard footsteps behind me. Emir. He glanced over his shoulder at the empty hallway. Satisfied that no one had seen us, he followed me into the bedroom and closed the door, leaning on it. “What’s going on?”
