Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199143 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 996(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Fair was fair.
“All right,” Andino said. “I know I said we would stay in bed all day, but—”
“Something came up?”
“Something with John’s side of things. I should head over so we can figure it out, and clean it up before it becomes a problem.”
“All right.”
“You don’t mind? I did make you cancel that lunch date with my mom, and all.”
Haven shrugged. “I’m sure I could get her to go out to lunch with me still.”
“Good.” He crossed the space between them, his hand landing on the curve at her waist before he dropped a lingering kiss to her lips that had Haven’s heart picking up speed. In their soft moments, and the silence, she always found happiness. “I better get dressed, and head out. I will see you tonight to finish what we started, huh?”
Heat shot through her body.
His promises ...
“Definitely,” she whispered.
Andino kissed her again.
Harder this time.
“Love you, Haven.”
More than he possibly knew.
*
“A little late for a lunch,” Kim said when Haven approached the private table, “but that’s okay, I am sure we can make—”
“I’m pregnant.”
Haven had not at all planned to just blurt that information out to her mother-in-law. In fact, she hadn’t planned on telling Kim at all during their late lunch. She fully intended on figuring out a way to tell Andino first—she hadn’t decided yet whether or not a surprise was the right way to go, or simply telling him the news.
Instead, she saw her mother-in-law, and as though she had been holding in some huge secret that she could no longer contain, it just came spilling out.
Wow.
Well done, Haven.
Kim had already been standing, her arms reaching to bring Haven in for a comforting, familiar hug—all normal—when she blurted out the news. In that second, her mother-in-law froze, eyes widening as her hands found Haven’s arms, and tightened. Not painfully, but just ... as though she were trying to rehear what she heard, and make sense of it.
Like she needed to convince herself it was true.
Kim’s gaze watered before she whispered, “What?”
“I’m pregnant.”
It took her a second.
And then two.
“Really?”
Haven nodded.
Kim’s hands squeezed her again. “Really, really?”
“Yeah, really.”
“Oh, my God!”
Kim’s scream was loud enough to break glass, Haven was sure of it. And yet, she didn’t even have the chance to consider how embarrassing that was because Kim might as well have launched herself around the table to take Haven in her embrace. Her mother-in-law decided to squeeze the life and love right out of her, and replace it with her own. Her muted screeching continued even as she pulled away, cupped Haven’s cheeks, and pressed a kiss against her forehead.
“I’m gonna have a grandbaby!”
Haven could only laugh.
She was well aware that for years, Kim hounded on her son for children. Andino had been an only child, and it was only later in life, when he didn’t settle down and produce grandchildren for Kim to love and spoil, that she started becoming vocal in her desires. She stopped when Andino married Haven, but she figured that was only because Kim assumed she was finally going to get what she wanted.
Well, she was.
Now.
“Have you told anyone?”
Haven shook her head. “I just found out before I called you to go out for lunch. We only decided today to work on having children, and then I got a phone call from my doctor saying—”
“Calm down.”
Okay, so maybe she was rambling a little.
Kim let out a exhale. “What about Andi?”
“Not yet.”
“You’re not serious?”
She shrugged.
What else could she do?
“I didn’t really ... plan to tell you, it just came out.”
Kim grinned. “Sometimes, we just need to tell someone else.”
“But how do I tell him?”
“Any way you want. That’s the beauty of it. It doesn’t matter how you do it, because he’s going to be happy.”
Yeah, she knew that was true.
Absolutely.
“But,” Kim said, “we can deal with Andino later ... it’s me who has waited forever for this, so let’s sit down, eat, and talk about my grandbaby.”
Haven laughed again. “That sounds perfect.”
Plus One
“How did you tell Giovanni you were pregnant?”
Walking through the park with her mother-in-law, Haven enjoyed the lush greenery of the trees that provided a canopy over the pathways. She still came here at least once a week to run like she used to every single morning, but mostly, she was able to enjoy the gym they had at home. Which you know, meant she didn’t have to worry about enforcers trying to keep up with her as she jogged.
“I didn’t.”
Haven gave Kim a look from the side. “Pardon?”
Kim shrugged, fixing her sweater that had just been draped over her shoulders. “We figured it out together ... a joke, sort of. It had been a bad week for me, I was in a mood I couldn’t shake, a headache that wouldn’t leave me alone, I was snapping at him every time he turned around.”