Page 64 of The Undercover Billionaire's Baby

“Wait. Three wishes?”

Sam smiled a sad smile, faint and faraway. “The bell, then the blossom, then the firefly on my finger. When I rang that bell, I wished for my dad to be proud of me. With the blossom, I wished you success with your shop. And the firefly, I wished the dream wouldn’t end. But wish number one was never going to come true. Wish number two, you did that yourself. And wish number three, I could’ve done that. If I didn’t want to leave Haverford, I should just not have left.”

I pulled his hands to my chest. “And if you had one more wish?”

Sam let out a sigh. “I’m asking you, Lana, for one more chance. I want to come home and prove I deserve you. To be the man you thought I was, for you, for our child. If I had one more wish, I’d wish you’d say yes.”

I wanted to give him that, grant his wish on the spot. But I had to know he was serious. “You want to start over?”

“From square one, if that’s what you need. To get to know you again, as fully myself. To take you on dates and walks on the beach. I want to be there for your doctor’s appointments, your Lamaze classes — are those still a thing? Whatever you need from me, I promise?—”

“Then, yes.”

Sam went tense. “Yes?”

“Yes. And not just because I need a ride home.” I smiled up at him. “I loved the man I thought you were. So if that’s really you, and you’re ready to prove it?—”

“It is. I swear it is. And that man loves you too.”

I couldn’t hold back one second more. I dropped Sam’s hands and flung my arms around him, and tilted my head up to steal a kiss. Sam kissed me back, and it felt like home, the way our lips fit together, his body with mine. I sank into his warmth and his safe embrace, and I knew in my heart I’d made the right choice. We both had our wish, and we wouldn’t waste it.

EPILOGUE

TWO YEARS LATER: LANA

“Never again,” I said.

Beside me, Sam laughed. His hand found mine. We twined our fingers together and both sighed, relieved. Above us, the stars twinkled bright in the sky. Our first night in our new house, on our new deck, looking out on the span of our new private beach. Tomorrow, that beach would be teeming with people, the whole town come out to celebrate our next chapter. But tonight it stretched empty, white, and serene.

“What were we thinking?” I chuckled again. “A move and a wedding in the same week? Never, never, never again.”

Sam elbowed me gently. “What, were you planning on getting married again?”

“No way. You’re it for me.”

“You’re it for me, too.”

“The only way I’d ever do this again would be in a hundred years, in our next lives. I’d find you again, and we’d get married. But not in the same week we upend our whole lives.”

Sam leaned over and kissed me, and my stress drained away. His touch had the same power it had always had, to calm me and center me. To make me feel loved. I couldn’t wait for the morning, to tell him I do.

We hadn’t meant to get married the same week we moved in, but with delays in construction and one ill-timed storm, all our new starts had converged on this week. Last night, for the last time, we’d slept above the store. This morning, we’d come down not to open up, but to load our last boxes into Sam’s car. Wiener had come out to sniff for treats, and Sam had fed him one while I got Joe in his car seat.

“Good boy,” Sam said. “Who’s a good boy?”

Wiener had woofed, happy. Joe had cooed as well. He was also a good boy, learning to talk. His first word had been Gumpa, his name for Sam’s dad.

Speaking of Gumpa, the back door slid open, and he stepped out to join us in the warm night.

“Still sleeping,” he said. “He’s conked out pretty good.”

I craned around to peer past him, into the house. “I should go up and check on him. What if he’s scared? If he wakes up in a strange room and forgets where he is?”

“It’s not a strange room,” said Sam. “He picked the colors himself. And his toys are all there, and he’s got his night light. Quit hovering, Dad. If you’re going to sit, sit.”

Paul did as Sam said, pulled up a deckchair. He leaned all the way back and kicked up his feet. I hadn’t expected to see much of him after the first night we met, at a party at the Elkins Tower for the new CEO. Not Sam — he’d stepped into a part-ownership position, working mostly behind the scenes on big-picture decisions. His life was out here, and his furniture business. Paul had been short that night, at the CEO’s party, giving Sam the cold shoulder as he bid me welcome. He’d left us to chat with a knot of investors, and we’d barely seen him the rest of the night.

The change had come slowly, and it had started with Joe. I’d gone into labor three weeks early, with Sam out of town sourcing wood for a client. When he couldn’t get back in time, he’d demanded Paul go, and he’d ended up being third in line to hold Joe. I was first, of course, and then Mrs. Schneiderman, and then Paul took little Joe in his arms.

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