Page 17 of Boundless Love
“Hold your horses,” she whispered with a soft giggle, teasing, backing away until she was out of my reach.“I’m not talking about you putting another baby in me tomorrow or anything like that.But yes, definitely.”
We would have to come back to this discussion sometime very soon.For now, I settled for heading over to the adjoining event room, where the table was being set for dinner.Everything was set using the wedding’s color scheme of silver and black.When I’d expressed surprise at Eleanor’s choice, she had only laughed it off.“My first wedding was a pastel nightmare forced on me by my mother-in-law,” she’d explained.“Look how that marriage turned out.I want something different.”
As for Dante, he was happy if she was happy.Then again, men didn’t normally care about things like that unless they were hosting the event, the way I was.
Rowan had returned by the time we took our seats around the table.“You’re looking a little pale,” Dante’s mother observed, offering a gentle smile.“Maybe you should go lie down.”
“I agree,” Spencer chimed in despite Rowan’s gentle protests.
“See?”Mrs.West nodded to Spencer.“Listen to the baby’s daddy.Sometimes, men are worth listening to at times like this.”
Oh no.
The table fell completely silent.Even Dante’s friends, who I would assume didn’t have women spilling secrets to them, sat with their mouths hanging open and their eyes wide.I wasn’t sure if anybody took a breath for a beat or two.
“I’m sorry.What did you just say?”Spencer went from staring at Dante’s mom to staring at his wife instead.“What did she just say?”
“This is not how I wanted to tell you,” Rowan whispered, pale-faced.
“Oh no.”Mrs.West covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes bulging from over the top of them.“I’m so sorry!I thought he knew by now!”
“So, wait a second.”Looking around the table, Spencer asked, “Am I the last to know?Who else heard about this?”
One by one we sheepishly raised our hands, Eleanor’s parents included.Rowan sat back in her chair, groaning.“So much for keeping secrets,” she whispered with a head shake.
“You know how it is,” Penny offered while Summer’s had bobbed in agreement.“Significant others don’t count when it comes to things like this.”
“You’re pregnant?”Spencer took her face in his hands, then placed one of those hands over her stomach.“Why didn’t you tell me?Is this what you’ve been keeping to yourself?”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be having this conversation here,” Rowan murmured, glancing guiltily around the table.“We’re stealing focus.”
“Well, hell, it seems like everybody knew besides me now.It’s everybody’s business, right?”he countered.
“For the record, we didn’t know,” Grayson offered from his end of the table.“But congratulations?”
That was all it took to break the tension, and the laughter couldn’t have come at a better time.“It’s just that you’ve already been worried about me with the firm expansion and everything,” Rowan explained to Spencer.“I knew you would just worry more, and I guess maybe I felt a little sheepish.Like maybe you’ve been right, and I can’t handle everything.”
“If there’s one thing I’ll never doubt, it’s how much you can handle.”Spencer mimed wiping sweat from his forehead, chuckling.“There I was, thinking you were ill and didn’t want to tell me.”
“You’re happy?”she asked.
“Fucking ecstatic!”He pulled her in for a tight hug while the rest of us offered faint applause.Mira dabbed the corners of her eyes with her napkin, and tears rolled freely down Penny’s cheeks.
The hug quickly ended, though, with Rowan waving her hands and shaking her head.“Okay, enough of our drama.Let’s get back to the reason we are actually here.”
Dante cleared his throat.“I’m not sure I know how to follow that,” he admitted, and we all laughed again.Spencer looked downright stunned but in a good way—a man who didn’t know what to do with all his good fortune.I could certainly relate.
Standing, Dante picked up the champagne flute in front of his plate the way the others had.I was pleased when one of our servers smoothly and discreetly replaced Rowan’s champagne with a glass of what she quietly announced was ginger ale.We trained our people well.
“We wanted to let you know it means the world to have all of you here with us.”Dante smiled down the length of the long table, acknowledging everyone as his gaze landed on them for a beat at a time.“This wedding represents the continuation of something we started a long time ago.”
His words made me think of Spencer and Rowan, who exchanged a loving look.The timeline of their relationship was a lot like Dante and Eleanor’s, both separating for years before finding each other purely through fate.
“The past year together has been everything I could ever have dreamed of,” he continued with a loving smile down at his fiancée.“And I consider myself the luckiest man in the world, knowing I got a second chance at loving the woman who was meant for me.I was far from perfect in the past,” he concluded with a frown.“But I am going to devote every day of the rest of my life to being exactly who you need, Lenny.You deserve nothing less.Thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to love you.”
Before we had the chance to toast, he held up a finger.“Also, Lenny, thank you for not telling me about Rowan’s baby because I don’t think I could’ve kept that to myself for long.”
“See?”Rowan called out with an exasperated sigh.“At least somebody knows how to keep a secret around here.”We were all laughing as we lifted our glasses and toasted the happy couple.The mothers of the bride and groom wiped away happy tears, and Eleanor did the same, kissing Dante when he returned to his chair.
