“Oh, I think she’s already excited. You’ve just made her the happiest woman on the East Coast probably.”
Nick stared at him blankly. “What did I do? Not that I’m complaining. It’s better to be on her good side.”
“Did you really think you could get married and we wouldn’t find out? What is wrong with you?”
Nick lost his breath. “You know about that?”
“This is not the 1990s. Technology has ruined the ability for people to do stupid shit without anyone finding out. A fan of Raina’s saw the two of you entering a chapel in Vegas and posted the picture on Twitter. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise this weekend when someon
e asked me about your wedding.”
Elliot stopped talking suddenly. Nick followed his gaze to where the pregnancy book lay open on his desk. A large diagram of a fetus was clearly visible.
Elliot looked back at him, no longer joking. “Well, I didn’t see that one coming. You’ve been busy, little brother.”
Nick covered his mouth with his hand. “You have no idea.”
“When were you planning on filling us in?” Eli asked quietly. His brother wasn’t usually chatty and he was hardly the sensitive type, but if Nick didn’t know better, he’d think Eli’s feelings were hurt.
“I was going to tell you all today, I swear. It all happened so fast. I saw that Mom left me a message but I didn’t even listen to it. I was planning on stopping by later.”
Elliot popped him on the back of the head.
“Ouch! Damn, Eli. What was that for? I already apologized.”
Eli shook his head. “That was on behalf of your poor wife. Do you really think Mom is going to just sit back and wait for you to bring Raina to the house?”
Nick thought of Raina alone at her house, opening her front door to a crowd of Alexanders.
“Oh no.”
Elliot nodded. “That’s right.”
Nick whipped out his cell phone and dialed Raina’s number. It rang several times before voicemail picked up. “She’s not answering. This is about to be bad. Really bad.”
Elliot snorted. “You haven’t seen bad. I hope your bride is ready for the invasion. Let’s go rescue her.”
* * * * *
“Harder. Harder!” Sam grunted when Raina punched the heavy bag three times in quick succession. “Just because you disappeared for three days doesn’t mean you get to ignore your workouts. Vacation time is over.” He patted the bag and waited until she punched again, this time with enough force to knock it back against him.
“That’s more like it.”
Rock music blared from the speakers behind her as Raina channeled every bit of her rage at the face she was imagining on the bag in front of her.
Thwack. That was for being so convincing. Thwack. That was for invading so much of her mental space. Thwack. That was for being so damn good-looking.
She stopped in mid-punch at the thought. God, she was supposed to be using this time to catch up on things and gain some perspective. Instead, she was just daydreaming about him. How was she supposed to think of anything but him when he looked at her like that, like their marriage was real? Like she was his whole world.
The man was pure evil.
“Any other man would take offense to that.” Sam raised an eyebrow when her eyes met his.
“Oh. I wasn’t actually talking about you.” Raina stopped punching and blew out her breath.
Sam slapped the bag. “If you’ve got enough energy to daydream, clearly I’m not working you hard enough. Come on. Go again.”
Raina groaned. “I take it back. I was talking about you. You are evil.”