All I wanted was Jude. Whether he was a janitor, a nursing assistant, or one of the richest men in the country, he would always be the man who had snuck into my room with a chocolate pudding cup in his hand.
“What if,” Jude said, his smirk growing wider, “I said that this particular personal shopper was flying in especially for you?”
“That, in fact, makes it worse,” I said, making a sour face.
“All the way from Santa Monica?”
My eyes widened. “Grace?”
He answered with an enthusiastic nod.
I jumped out of bed and threw myself into his arms. “Are you serious? When? Where? How?”
We fell back into bed, laughing. “Yes, I’m serious. She’s flying in today. In fact, her flight landed a while ago. So, you’d better get your ass in the shower because she’ll be arriving at our door in a few minutes. Oh, and she’s bringing the baby. You’re welcome.”
I squealed, hugging him and scattering kisses across his adorable face. “You are amazing!” I exclaimed.
Grabbing my face between his hands, our eyes locked, and I felt him sober slightly. The buzz of our happiness zinging between us reduced to a hum as he pulled me toward him.
“No, it is you who amazes me—constantly, daily, every minute. I love you, Lailah, and I can’t wait to make you my wife.”
As his lips touched mine, I was the one who was truly dazzled.
“So, you’re sticking with green for my dress?” Grace asked as we wandered down the streets of Manhattan.
“Yes.” I laughed. “You asked me that last week, you know.”
“I know.” She sighed, bundling up baby Zander and bringing him a little closer to her chest.
Grace had stumbled into motherhood with little mishap. It had shaken her perfectly planned world slightly—having a creature who cried and slept whenever and wherever he chose—but she and her husband, Brian, had adapted well, and Zander was flourishing. I’d always seen Grace with a girl. She was so feminine and dainty, earning the nickname Snow White at the hospital where she worked as a nurse, but seeing her now, with her charming little boy, made perfect sense. He was the calming blue yin to her bedazzled pink yang.
“But I thought that, maybe after my constant whining, you might have changed your mind,” she added, making a goofy face in Zander’s direction.
He laughed in glee at his mother’s silliness.
“You mean, your constant badgering to change the color to pink?” I asked, looking across the street to a rare cluster of trees.
They had begun to change color, fading from green to a fiery orange, which contrasted starkly against the dark grays of the buildings in the background.
“It wasn’t pink exactly. More of a pale blush color. Think of it as a winter pink.” She smiled.
“Winter pink? Now, you’re stretching it, Grace.” I laughed. “You know why I love green.”
“Yes, it matches Jude’s eyes, which is romantic and beautiful and goes great with the wedding’s Christmas theme, but you can’t blame a girl for trying.”
“I’ll give you extra points for persistence,” I added, pointing toward the store we had talked about at lunch.
“Yes! That’s the one! We should find lots of honeymoon stuff there, huh?” she exclaimed. She was doing that strange thing parents sometimes did where they were simultaneously speaking to an adult and their child at the same time. The conversation was geared toward the adult, but the octave of the voice and the overly expressive facial features suggested otherwise.
It was both weird and adorable at the same time.
The three of us entered the large store and began browsing. It was exactly the type of store I was comfortable in. No one came rushing over to judge how much money I was about to spend. I was left alone to roam through the racks with Grace as we carried on a casual conversation, catching up on our lives.
“So, how is life in the cardiac unit?” I asked.
She held up a long-sleeved sweater with fur trim. I shook my head and laughed as Zander reached out from his BabyBj?rn for the fuzzy brown collar.
“Well, we haven’t had a prom in a while,” she said with a toothy grin. “But it’s good,” she answered. “A little lonely without my favorite patient, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
“At least you still have Marcus,” I said.
“Yes, I do. Having your mother and him around is like having an extra set of grandparents. They are really wonderful, Lailah.”
“Well, I didn’t expect otherwise.”
The next item she held up for my inspection was a ruby-red bikini. My eyes bugged as they fell on the two barely there scraps of fabric.
“First, a sweater built for arctic weather, and now, a bikini? Where exactly is he taking me?”
Her grin widened. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”