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)
“I don’t harp.”
Haven pursed her lips before glancing back down at the notepad in her hands. How many pages had she filled with lists after lists after lists of names for him? None of them seemed to fit, and he wished this was easier. Not just for himself, but for her, too.
Everything else about this pregnancy had been rather easy. All things considered. Her morning sickness went away after the second trimester. They didn’t have any problems. All the checkups went well.
Picking a name?
Not so much.
“Andino ...”
“Maybe we’ll just know when she’s here,” he said.
Haven peeked back up, smiling a little. “You think? Because you are seriously driving me crazy. You are the most stressful part of this pregnancy, Andino, and even though I love you ... if you don’t pick a name for this kid ... just pick a goddamn name.”
He knew this whole process was difficult for Haven, if only because she was a planner. As soon as they knew the baby was a girl, the room she picked for a nursery across the hall from their master bedroom was turned into a pastel wonderland. And that huge canopy crowning a circular crib that cost more than the four-poster bed in his room?
Yeah.
Silk and chiffon.
The baby’s closet was full of clothes, dresses, and shoes. More than he had, and God knew he liked to spend money. That child was going to need and want for nothing for the first three or so years of her life because between Haven getting everything ready, and his family constantly buying shit they would probably never use, their house was full.
Ready for the baby.
She just had to make her appearance.
Without a name.
He could wait until the baby was here, and go through those lists again, but a name lingered on the back of his mind, and occasionally, he kept coming back to it. It was one of the first Haven had suggested because she thought it was nice to match her mother’s name with his for their baby girl. He’d only veto’d it back then because, well ... he felt like it was too early.
“I do like Lynn,” he said.
Haven raised a brow. “Oh, now you like it?”
“No, I liked it then, too. I just thought ... what if we settled on Lynn, and something else came up? Nothing’s come up, and it seems kind of perfect.”
“Your mom would love that.”
Yeah, even though his mother had always gone by Kim, she loved the Lynn to the end of her name. And he liked the idea of carrying it on, too.
“So, is that firm on Lynn?” Haven asked.
Andino grinned. “Well ... maybe, we’ll just keep looking—”
“Oh, my God, Andino. Stop it.”
His laughter colored up the office.
“It’s firm, if you like it, too.”
“I loved it. That’s why it was first on my list.”
“So, Lynn?”
Haven nodded. “Lynn Marcello.”
Girls, Girls, Girls
“How,” Haven asked as the two women sat down at the table, “did I manage to get here before the two of you, and I’m three days over my due date?”
Siena laughed. “Come on, you know traffic sucks. And you pick the worst time of day for us to have to meet up.”
“Lies. I can’t help it that I never run into traffic like you do.”
“And,” Catherine added, “some of us—me—just got back in from Cali last night, so ...”
Haven rolled her eyes playfully. “Excuses, excuses.”
Their laughter drew the attention of the other patrons at the restaurant, but Haven didn’t really care. Let them look, she hoped they enjoyed their gawking.
The one thing she worried about the most after marrying Andino? That she wouldn’t be able to make friends. In his family, mostly. She felt like an outsider coming in, not that anyone had gone out of their way to make her feel as such, but she still did. The Marcellos had lived an entire life within the mafia, and keeping people out ... Haven had been normal up until the day she met Andino, and she worried that might make it a little difficult to fit in.
And then there was these two.
Siena and Catherine.
Close to her age, also newly married, fun ... and just her kind of people. They didn’t care about the details, or rules.
They just liked her.
And she liked them.
“When are they going to induce you so I can meet my cousin?” Catherine asked. “But she’s calling me Auntie C, and that’s decided.”
Haven sighed, and rubbed a hand over her swell, remembering how Andino had taken the time to do the exact same thing that morning before he headed out to work. In fact, he did that very thing every morning for her entire pregnancy, taking the time to stop and say hello to his unborn daughter, not to mention, tell her how much he loved her and couldn’t wait to meet her. It was sweet, really ... a moment of his loving nature underneath his calm, controlled exterior. Nobody else but her was able to see those parts of him, and she loved it.