“You and Tristan—”
“Are introverts.”
“Bethan, you own three bars now.”
“Yeah, because…” She thought about it. “I like how everyone just blends into this mess of people. No one is really standing out. Just everyone trying to get drunk and have a good time. Tristan’s the quiet and reserved one. I think we have four friends between us.”
“Well, until our wedding, you can count me as your second friend,” I said to her.
“You are so totally family zoned. Look at you, baking cookies for my daughter, your niece, pregnant with my nephew. Marriage or no marriage, you’re family. I’m kinda shocked you guys haven’t even set a date yet.”
“Shh!” I put my hand on my stomach glanced at the door to the nursery. “Don’t get Levi started. He tried to walk me toward the marriage registrar when we were at the courthouse for a case.”
“Sounds like my brother.” She nodded, drumming her fingers on her stomach. “Is it only the baby holding you back from the wedding or…”
“It honestly is the baby.” I wanted to be with Levi. I was with Levi. “I never gave much thought about the wedding I wanted … mostly because I never thought I’d find the right guy. And now that I have him, I want everything to be like this storybook.”
“Totally like my mom.”
“Shut up!” I laughed.
LEVI
Tristan sat beside me, looking around the nursery as he drank one of juice boxes we’d stolen from the kitchen down stairs. “Somebody is definitely going to need to come and redo this shit.”
I lifted my phone to show him I was already way ahead of him. I was many things, but apparently not a painter.
“A-for-effort, though,” he replied, handing me a juice box. “You going to tell her you’re hiring people?”
“Hell no.” He had no idea what type of person Thea was. “She’d say it was a waste of money, and then try to do it herself just to prove it. She’d fought me on getting movers, telling me she’d pack herself. A week later, we had only three boxes done, and I’d learned my lesson.” Get her to agree, and then get it done as quickly as possible.
“I still can’t believe you moved out of the city, so quickly.”
“Weston isn’t that far.” It was thirty-minute drive at most back into the city and while I loved Boston, I didn’t want to raise my kid there. I wanted…something closer to what Thea told me about living in Maryland with her grandmother and sister. How she’d roll down the grass in the backyard, or they’d have BBQ and look up at the stars. I wanted the white picket fence.
“How much this place cost again?”
I groaned and looked at him. “Don’t ask. Between the main house, and the project out back, my wallet is hemorrhaging.”
He laughed. “My father used to tell me the American Dream comes with a hefty price tag, which is why they call it a dream … to make people feel better about not getting it.”
“Your father has a talent for making everything depressing.”
“Doesn’t he? ” He chuckled, shaking his head. “I have no idea how his wife has put up this long.”
“Third time’s the charm.”
“Fourth.”
“What?”
He held up four fingers. “She’s the fourth, and a year younger than Thea.”
I stared at him and he nodded.
“How did I miss that wedding…?” I paused, thinking. I’d been to the other two with him and Bethan… “You didn’t go.”
He nodded. “The only wedding I’m going to is yours. After that, I’m done.”