anyone else as the mother to my child.”
Wren’s hands fly to her face and she sniffs before dabbing her eyes on the back of her hand.
“I’m sorry I left this morning,” he says. “But I needed to clear my head and really think about this. I don’t want you to think I was leaving you. That I was leaving because of this. I just needed a minute to breath, let this sink in.”
He rises, pulling her up and wrapping his arms around her.
“I love you so much,” he says.
“I love you too.” Wren rises on her toes, kissing him.
“My mother’s going to freak out. You know that, right?” he says with a chuckle. I’ve heard Wren talk about how much his mother’s been pressuring them to have a baby. She treats Enzo like one of her own, but she’s got baby fever something fierce. “She’s probably going to insist that I marry you right away, make things right. You know how she is.”
Wren nods. “I know exactly how she is.”
“What do you say we get married sooner? City Hall? Just like you wanted.” Chauncey wipes a tear from Wren’s cheek. “I don’t need a fancy wedding. I just need you.”
Wren nods, kissing him again. “Yeah. I think that sounds perfect.”
I’m happy for them.
I really am.
“Aidy, I totally forgot you were sitting there.” Wren laughs, drying her eyes. “I’m so sorry we just forced our telenovela on you.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I stand, grabbing my bags and wheeling them to my room. I stop and hug each of them on the way. “I do love a happy ending. Congrats. I love you guys, and I can’t wait to have a new niece or nephew to love on.”
It hits me as I leave the two of them, that if they’re getting married in a month, that gives me a lot less time to figure out what my next move is . . . where I’m going to live . . . whether I’m going to stay in New York or move to L.A.
I wasn’t expecting to have to make my final decision yet.
I thought I had more time.
Twenty-Nine
Ace
* * *
“Good to see you, Ace.” Lou meets me at a coffee shop Sunday afternoon. “Jesus, it’s wicked hot out here today. You staying cool, Ace? You doing all right?”
I take a seat across from him, feeling the stare from a group of women sitting at a table a few feet away. Ever since I shaved, I’ve been “spotted” more often. I’ve even signed a few autographs, mostly for kids, because I keep going back to that night when I made Aidy’s nephew cry, and I can’t have that on me again.
“You look really good,” Lou says, finally noticing the shaved look I’m sporting. “Glad you lost that furry animal on your face. Never been a fan of those things.”
I smirk, snorting through my nose, and sit down with my black coffee in a to-go cup.
“Well aware of that, Lou.”
“Seriously though, there’s something lighter about you, and it ain’t got nothing to do with your looks.” He pulls his cup of coffee closer. “What’ve you been up to? You getting out of the city much?”
I nod. “Just the other weekend. Hit up the lake house.”
“Good for you. You do some fishing, did you?”
“A little.” I take a sip of coffee and stare out the window to my left, watching a couple stroll by holding hands. They’re laughing. Completely blissful and carefree. And up until Aidy came into my life, I’d forgotten what that felt like.
Lou studies me, his bushy gray eyebrows rising and falling and his head tilting every angle.
“You . . . you, uh, meet someone, Ace?” he asks.
“What?” I glance away, brows meeting. “Nah.”
“Don’t you lie to me.”
It’s not that I’m ashamed of Aidy. Quite the opposite. I’m just not in the mood to be grilled by this big galoot.
“What’s her name?” Lou grills anyway.
I lift the Styrofoam cup to my lips to hide a smirk. “There’s no girl, Lou.”
“Ah, fine. I won’t bother you about this girl who supposedly doesn’t exist,” Lou says with a side wink, swatting his thick-knuckled hand at me. “That’s not why I wanted to meet you anyway. Just wanted to see how you were doing since I was in town, run some things by you.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“Well, I’ve got some buddies who have this satellite radio show, and they’re looking for a host. It’s seasonal, and it’s mostly major league talk, but I think you’d be