“So he finally wore her down, after all,” he said, pulling her against his side.
“Well, maybe they finally figured out what everyone else already knew,” she looked up at his face, “they were meant to be together.”
He laughed, and kissed her forehead.
“Hey, Mama.”
“Hey, yourself, Mama,” Layla said back to Natalie. “And how’s my little guy?”
She reached out to take Alex out of Natalie’s arms. He was now 18 months old. His hair was slightly darker than his older sister’s, but he had the same eyes taken straight from daddy, perhaps more hazel than green.
“Look at you,” Natalie observed, “You’re glowing!”
“Thank you,” Layla said, smiling at her friend as she bounced Alex on her hip. “Tell that to Patrick. All he can do is talk about how much he loves my new curves. Which we all know is code for ‘fat.’”
“Who’s calling you fat?” Blaire asked coming over. She and Natalie air kissed one another. Natalie, with her more laid back nature, enjoyed the being sarcastically sophisticated with Blaire, who towered above them both in a pair of Louboutins.
“My darling husband.”
“He’s not!” Natalie retorted laughing. “He’s just appreciating you and the family you are about to give him.”
“What is it, six months now?” Blaire asked, smiling down at Layla’s showing bump.
“Five and a half,” Layla corrected, glaring at her.
Blaire and Natalie laughed.
“So be honest, what do you really want?” Blaire asked confidentially.
“Healthy,” Layla responded firmly.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Patrick on the other hand….” She turned to look at him with Amber, who he was swigging around by the arms as she laughed loudly. “I predict a nest full of daddy’s girls.”
“Thanks for coming up by the way,” Layla said to Natalie.
“Yes, we just hate coming up to the wine country,” she responded sarcastically.
“On the other hand, with these little ones in tow…,” she said, tickling Alex. He laughed happily in response. “I think you should make Patrick drive 7 hours with a toddler and an almost 4-year-old before he gets you to do this three more times,” she laughed, nodding at Layla’s baby bump.
“Exactly why I’ve never indulged myself,” Blaire said. “Well, that and this,” she added, taking a sip from her champagne.
“Speaking of which,” Natalie grabbed a flute from a passing waiter.
“Oh sure, rub it in,” Layla said as she watched them. They looked at each other then began giggling.
“Oh, if only all my weddings could be this simple,” Blaire said looking out over the crowd. “Easy going bride and groom. Best friends with the Matron of Honor. Zero prima donnas. Just two people who love each other and want to seal the deal.”
“I wish mine had been so simple,” Layla mused, thinking back to the over-the-top affair she’d had with Patrick in New York.
With such a huge extended family, it had made far more sense for the wedding to take place in his hometown, rather than Olla. Then with four future sisters-in-law and friends from California she wanted to share the day with, the wedding party had expanded and expanded until, it was practically a royal affair.
The end result was an event that had impressed everyone, none less than Marjorie Fitzgerald…even if it wasn’t held in a Catholic church.
“Don’t you dare dis your wedding,” Blaire chided. “First of all, it was spectacular. Second of all, the East Coast connections you helped me create, I should be paying you a commission.”
“Well, considering what it cost, maybe you should.”
Actually, most of it was paid for with the stock options Patrick was finally able to cash in from Lion Studios, which always gave both of them a chuckle at the irony of it. It was especially fortuitous timing since Jake Cavanaugh had decided to go with another studio for all future Nick Zane films, pointing to “creative differences” as the reason why.
“Oh my God!” Bree said, bounding over to them. “Can you even believe it? They finally did it!”
“I could say the same about you,” Layla said, nodding toward the engagement ring on Bree’s finger.
Bree brought her hand out in front of her to admire it, again…ad nauseum. “I know,” she sighed. “Isn’t it perfect. He’s just…he gets me so well!”
Actually, Mario—now in his third year of law school, with a firm offer from one of the top law firms in San Francisco, thanks to a little help from Olla’s top two lawyers—had fretted for days over a ring to get Bree. She was finally selling art at a studio in Berkeley and teaching art class to kids after school and on weekends.
His first choice of a simple—huge—round diamond had gotten the nix from everyone. The black onyx and opal yin-yang symbol that was on her finger right now, bought from an Etsy shop at literally a tenth of the price, was probably the most fitting thing he could have proposed with.
“Mario, is just so perfect. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.”
Layla just smiled into her orange juice. She knew better than anyone that sometimes people needed a little outside help to see the light.
Good things might come to those who wait Not for those who wait too late We gotta go for all we know
Just the two of us We can make it if we try Just the two of us
Saul and Di-Anne were doing their bride and groom dance while everyone watched.
Patrick was behind Layla, his hands around her front lying against her round stomach.
“Just the two of us…” he sang down toward her as she leaned back against his chest.
“Not for long,” she pointed out, patting the hand that was lying on her stomach.
“Well, we should probably take advantage while we still can tonight.”
She laughed, shaking her head. “You never stop do you.”
“Um, I’m not the one with raging hormones these days. Now that I know how horny you get when you’re knocked up, I think maybe four is too few.”
“Says the guy that doesn’t have to carry them around for nine months!”
He laughed as he rocked her along to the music. “This really is a lovely day isn’t it.”
“With you, every day is a lovely day,” Layla responded turning her head up to kiss him.
“Congratulations!”
Everyone cheered as Saul and Di-Anne pulled out the sliver of cake they had just sliced and placed it on a plate to serve each other from.
It was a simple creation, white with tiny bunches of grapes and grape leaves trailing a path up to the top tier.
Afterward Saul motioned for Layla and Patrick to make their way to the front to join them. When they reached the front, he encouraged everyone to raise their glasses.
“A wedding is about family coming together. Both those related by blood,” Saul raised his glass toward his son and his wife and their two children standing near the front. His son smiled and raised his own glass toward his father. “And those related through kinship.” This time he looked around at the crowd before him, ending with Layla and Patrick standing next to him.
“The good people of Olla, California have been my family for almost seven years now. Pretty soon, that family is going to increase by one.
“And since my lovely bride refused to let me take her on this month-long European tour, without being there to find out the good news about Olla’s soon-to-be newest resident, I had no choice but to yield to her demands that they be a part of this ceremony.”
There was a small ripple of laughter in the crowd.
Patrick and Layla had been in for a check-up on her pregnancy two weeks ago. In the waiting room, another couple had detailed their plans to have a gender reveal party. Patrick and Layla had instantly dismissed their plans to be surprised and opted for that instead.
Layla had been appalled when Di-Anne suggested that the big reveal take place during her wedding. She had g
ently reminded Layla that it was her day and she could do what she wanted…and she had no intention of leaving without knowing at the same time as everyone else.
So Layla had given Di-Anne and Bree the information from the doctor’s office and been banned from Di-vine Delectables for a full day while they baked the little cake with perfectly neutral lavender frosting now sitting in front of Patrick and her.
“I’ve got the laptop up and running,” Mario said, placing it before them. “I just dialed.”
She waited, smiling up at Patrick, as her in-laws were patched through via Skype.
“Is this thing working? Ah, there they are,” said Marjorie.
“Hey you two!” Kathleen said over her shoulder.
The Fitzgerald living room was in full view with all of Patrick’s relatives, minus most of the children who couldn’t have cared less.
“Can you all see okay?” Patrick asked, leaning in.
“Yeah, yeah,” Marjorie said. “Now move so I can see my grandbaby.”
He chuckled and moved back. As much as she hated being on display, Layla accepted any chance to make her mother-in-law happy. She moved away from the table to show her the bump rising out of her dress. Somewhere between the engagement and her wedding, Marjorie had thawed to her. She was no longer “that Layla,” she was simply, “Layla.” The pregnancy had earned her the final five minutes of Patrick’s weekly phone conversation with his mother.
“Ready, everybody?” Patrick yelled out.
There was a general cheer that rose up from the crowd and from the speakers of the laptop.
As Patrick’s hand came over Layla’s to slice the cake, she looked out over the crowd full of familiar faces…full of family.
Together, Patrick and she pressed the knife down into the cake. She saw the tiny crumbs before the slice even separated from the main part of the cake, and laughed.
They were pink.
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Camilla Stevens is a New York transplant from Los Angeles. At night you can find her typing away, usually with a glass of wine, getting all the steamy, humorous, Happily Ever After stories out of her head and down on the page. You can usually find tulips, her favorite flower, making an appearance in most of her novels.
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