Page 178 of The Puck Stops Here

‘Blake…’ It came out in a rush as she met him halfway and he emptied his hands to fill them with her. Her warm body, warm lips, warm soul the balm to his own.

‘I love you,’ she brushed against his mouth.

‘I love you too.’

‘Always.’

‘Forever.’

EPILOGUE

TWO MONTHS LATER…

Astrid twisted the diamond ring on her finger and held her breath. She wasn’t sure when she’d been more nervous. The day she’d told Blake they were pregnant, that the emergency pill she’d taken in Springfield hadn’t worked. The day they’d waited with bated breath for the baby’s heartbeat to appear. Or today, waiting for her ride-or-die besties to respond to the news that she, Astrid Sinclair, was pregnant!

They’d all come together in her uncle’s NYC pad to celebrate her engagement to Blake. Only Sissi knew the bonus news. Astrid had been careful to tell her alone, knowing the painful secret of her friend’s miscarriage, she’d wanted to handle the news with all the love and care Sissi deserved. Bad enough that someday soon Sissi would have to come face to face with Aiden at their wedding, but to do so with her friend pregnant too… it was a lot. A lot, a lot.

But as Sissi took her hand now, her smile was all warmth and encouragement.

‘Iknewit!’ Paige declared, slapping down her untouched glass of champagne. ‘It’s a freaking shotgun wedding!’

Astrid gave a choked laugh. ‘It’s really not.’

‘No?’

‘Sounds like a shotgun wedding to me,’ Bella agreed. ‘You know, you don’tneedto get marriedjust because you’re having a baby.’

‘It is the twenty-first century,’ Paige stressed, ‘you do have a choice.’

‘I know that, my loves, I do.’

‘And you’re sure about this?’ Bella pressed.

She couldn’t blame her friend for being overly cautious. After being jilted at the altar the idea of walking up it again had to fill Bella with the heebie-jeebies and not even Chase’s love and Olly’s reasoning could rid her ofthathorror.

‘None of us can know for sure what the future holds,’ Astrid said calmly. ‘But I know what I want right now, and that is to be married to the man I love.’

‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Sissi.

‘But three months?’ Paige murmured, her VA head doing the math. ‘That means…’

Astrid nodded. ‘Karma days.’

‘Oh my God, love, why didn’t you tell us sooner?’ Bella asked, her brow creasing with concern. ‘You must have been going out of your mind? You kept Blake to yourself long enough but this… I thought we’d made it clear that we’re here for you. No matter what’s going on in our world, you can tell us anything.’

‘I know I can. I just wanted to wait for the scans and for us to be sure, and then I wanted to do it in person. And I know how it looks, believe me. The idea that I’ve trapped him into marriage. The press will have a field day over the headlines. The Hoe of a Hack has a particularly good ring to it.’

‘Don’t!’ Sissi squeezed her hand. ‘It’s pointless thinking about any of that, they’ll soon find something else to talk about.’

‘True enough. Blake and his PR crew met withSports Illustratedthis morning to look at how best to manage the news.’

‘Shouldn’t you have gone?’ Bella said. ‘It’s your area so to speak.’

‘Blake thinks it would only incense me further and he’s not wrong. He’s taking this whole protective father, protective husband role to a whole other level. Besides, he has it handled. He’s become something of a media pro with his revamped image.’

‘Something he has you to thank for.’

She smiled. ‘I only told the world the truth.’

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