He shot her a mock scowl. “I’m convinced you cheated.”
“I did no such thing.” Her mischievous smile lit up her face, and he couldn’t get over the fact that this beautiful, smart, amazing woman was his. How did he get so lucky? “I practiced. A lot. But I did it.”
“Yeah, after four years.”
“You didn’t give me a time frame.” She nudged his leg. “C’mon. How’d you get the recipe?”
That morning, before Sammy started prepping for tonight’s party, Olivia had unveiled her surprise: shrimp dumplings she’d made from scratch. They’d tasted fresh and Wah Sing hadn’t been open that early, so it couldn’t have been takeout. Plus, they didn’t tasteexactlylike Wah Sing’s—but they were close.
“Fine, I’ll tell you. But you can’t get mad.”
Olivia’s eyes narrowed. “What did you do?”
“I played the my-wife-is-pregnant card. And I, uh, told Wah Sing’s owner we’d name our daughter after her—if we had a daughter. Turns out the owner is quite susceptible to flattery.”
“What?Lily—”
“Was already on your list of names you liked,” Sammy said quickly. “That was a top-secret recipe, okay? And you wouldn’t stop talking about it.”
“What if her name hadn’t been on my list?” Olivia demanded. “What if her name was, I dunno, Helgarda or something?”
“No oneis named Helgarda.”
“I bet a Google search would prove you wrong.”
He laughed. “Hey, it all worked out. I wouldn’t have made that offer if the owner’s name had been hideous. Plus, I doubt she would’ve held us to it.”
“No wonder she always gives Lily an extra egg tart,” Olivia muttered. She shoved his chest. “Just for that, you’re doing laundry tomorrow.”
“Fine.” Sammy slid a palm up her thigh, smiling when he heard her breath hitch. “Look on the bright side—you learned how to make your favorite dumplings, our daughter has a beautiful name, and I’ll have to work extra hard to make it up to you...”
Which he did, for hours, on an “apology” tour that took them from the living room to the kitchen to the bedroom, where they finally collapsed, exhausted and content, on the bed.
“We have to wake up early tomorrow.” Olivia sighed, snuggling closer to him. “We still have to finish cleaning up the backyard. I bet there’s stuff we missed tonight—it was so dark by the time everyone left.”
“I’ll help.” Tomorrow was a workday, but Sammy had taken the week off. Jude ran a tight ship as Crumble & Bake’s CEO, and Liam had taken on increasingly more responsibilities while Sammy stepped back to spend more time with his family. He still loved the bakery, but it was no longer dependent on him, and that was the way it should be.
Crumble & Bake had only become more successful over the years after it opened its East Coast locations—which were huge hits—and added a full drinks menu to its offerings, much to Cordelia’s delight. A rising star on San Francisco’s theater scene, she was no longer with the company, but she visited often. They’d even named a latte after her.
“We might have to clean this up tomorrow, too.” Sammy glanced around his and Olivia’s room, wincing at the sight of the clothes strewn everywhere, the bottles they’d knocked over while they’d gone at it against the dressing table, and the dirt they’d tracked onto the floors. “This is a mess.”
Olivia had relaxed over the years when it came to cleaning and organization—they had kids, after all—but Sammy still tried his best to keep everything neat when possible.
Olivia rolled them over until she hovered over him. “No,” she said, drawing him in for a deep, luscious kiss that had him primed and ready to go for round four. Her eyes were warm and sparkled with love as she stared down at him. “This isn’t a mess. This is perfect.”
***