♥♥♥
Monday, March 5—London
The moment Sharon walks out of the building, I call Amelia and ask her to have lunch with me. We do a complete post-mortem of my meeting with Sharon and she agrees I need to tell Jake immediately. So that night I walk home a bit wary. When I get there, I find Jake already home. He’s passed out on the couch and Lucky’s nestling on top of his chest. My two boys. I brush the hair off Jake’s forehead and kiss him there. Then I scratch Lucky’s head. They both look at me from under the lid of one eye.
“Hi.” Jake smiles, stretching his arms.
“Hello, sleepyhead. How was your day?” I give him another kiss.
“Exhausting, yours?”
“Mmm, interesting.” Why am I so nervous about telling him I met Sharon and that she’s married? I have an irrational fear he’s going to get jealous or something.
“Interesting, how?”
“I saw Sharon.”
“Sharon as in…?” Jake furrows his brows.
“Your ex wife-to-be? Yes.” I sit on the couch next to them, level with Jake’s chest. “I had a settlement case with a California-based company; she was on the opposing counseling team. I never knew she was a lawyer.”
Jake sits up moving Lucky onto his lap and shifts to sit by my side.
“Did you talk?”
“Yes, I finally apologized.”
“What did she say?”
“She-she sort of forgave me.”
“She did?”
“You seem surprised.”
“I am a little. So, was she okay?”
“Yeah, she’s married. Eloped to Vegas with a colleague a month ago. She said she didn’t want any more crazy-ex-girlfriends hazards.”
“Sharon was making jokes about you crashing the wedding?”
“She was. She said not marrying you was the best thing that ever happened to her. No offense.”
“None taken.”
“She said my little stunt probably saved you two from a painful divorce. She also told me how humiliated and heartbroken she was, and how much she used to hate me. But apparently, I’m her husband’s hero for breaking you two apart.” I smirk a little. “He’d been secretly in love with her for a long while.”
“I think I know the dude.”
Is he jealous?
“So how does this make you feel?” I ask.
“Is this a trick question where I can’t possibly give a right answer?”
I laugh. “No, no tricks. I swear. I just want to know how you feel about Sharon being married.”
“Glad, I suppose.”
“No sting?”
“No, definitely not. Sharon’s a good person. I’m glad she found her happiness with someone else. I can only wish for them to be as happy as we are.”
“That’s such a perfect answer you should write a boyfriend manual.”
“Hem-hem. Fiancé manual, if I’m not mistaken.”
“You most definitely aren’t.” I kiss him.
He pulls me closer and Lucky protests at being disturbed during his nap.
“Speaking of weddings,” Jake says when we finally pull apart, “my mom’s pestering me for us to set a date.”
“I should keep the mother-in-law happy.” I get up to detach a calendar from the kitchen wall. “After all, I owe her a wedding. Did you have any preferences?”
“For the date? No. End of summer?”
I sit back on the couch and leaf through the calendar’s pages. “The first of September’s a Saturday. It’s in six months so we would have enough time to sort everything. How does that sound?”
“First of September. It sounds great!”
“We have a date,” I squeal, throwing my arms around his neck, much to Lucky’s displeasure. He jumps off the couch, throwing us a resentful evil-kitty glare, and settles himself on the empty armchair in the corner. “Aw, don’t be such a sourpuss,” I call after him. “We have to celebrate.”
“Let me text Mom so she can get off my back.”
Jake taps away in his phone and sets it on the coffee table where it starts vibrating at once.
“Does Mrs. Wilder have any other requests?”
“Apparently she wants to know if we’ve any idea whether we’re having the wedding here or at home.”
“Okay, this is just an idea, and if you don’t like it you can say no. But I was talking to Amelia the other day…”
“Is this where I should get worried?”
“No, don’t worry. I’m not going Bridezilla on you. But we were talking, and she suggested we did the wedding at home where it all started, and I immediately knew where I wanted it to be…”
“Well?”
“How’d you feel if we got married at your parents’ cabin?”
“I couldn’t think of a better place,” Jake says in a low voice. His eyes pierce deep within my soul. We’re both thinking about our first night together. And in the dark of his irises, I can see the reflection of all my love for him and his for me. It’s so intense I’m overwhelmed for a second.
I break the eye contact. “Do you think it’ll be a problem for your parents?”
“We can find out.”
He taps a reply on his phone, which again vibrates back as soon as Jake drops it on the coffee table.
“What does she say?”
“Here, read for yourself.”
I couldn’t be happier. I always knew that girl had some sense in her. Please tell Gemma I can help her as much as she wants with the planning. With her being there and me being here… but not in a pushy way, of course.
“Be careful here,” Jake says. “If you give her an inch of control on the ceremony, she’s going to take over completely.”
“Can I confess something?”
“Sure.”
“I sort of hoped she’d offer to help. I don’t care that much for wedding planning. Does that make me a horrible bride-to-be?”
“It makes you the daughter-in-law of the year. She loves throwing parties.”
“And she has impeccable taste.”
“She does. Do you think your mom will get offended if we do it at our house and my mom does all the planning?”
“No. She hates planning parties but adores going to them. And she’s going to be thrilled we’re going to be at home. Our families are a match made in heaven.”
“We’re a match made in heaven.” Jake lifts my chin with a finger to kiss me.
“You’re totally right and impossibly cheesy.”
“And you’re an insolent little minx who needs a good seeing to.”
He manhandles me from the couch, throwing my limp body over one of his broad shoulders, and gets both of us up. I punch him playfully in the back and scream in delight as he drags me toward the bedroom.