“I’m going to have to quit my job!” I hissed. “I love my job!”
“Women in the CIA get pregnant all the time, Tess. You don’t have to quit your job.”
“But I can’t be in the field.”
“No, not until after you have the baby, but you can do a desk job.”
“But I don’t want to do a desk job.”
“Okay, honey, we’ll figure it out.”
“But it’s not fair,” I cried. “You get to go off and be all adventurous and stuff, and I’ll be stuck—”
“Baby, if you’re at a desk, I’m at a desk.”
I leaned back and met his eyes. “What?”
“There’s no way in hell I’m goin’ on missions if my partner’s not with me.”
I bit my lip. “Really?”
“Really.” He smiled gently. “And if the Company doesn’t like it, we’ll quit.”
“But what will we do for work? We’ll still need money to survive.”
He grinned. “I’ll go back to work with my brothers. They’ll love it.”
“Willyou?”
“Hell, yeah,” he said. “They’re drowning without me. Cricket keeps me updated on how overwhelmed they are with all the new business they have coming in, so I think it’ll be fun to string them along for a little while. But yes, I love working with them, and I’ll be able to actually be there when I say I’ll bethere, so there won’t be any issues.”
I bit my lip. “What will I do?”
“If we quit?”
I nodded.
“Anything you want to do. Write a book. Be a mom, fuck, start a company, hell, start a revolution. Whatever the hell you want to do. Stay home and eat bon-bons. We have a shit ton of savings, so you have time to figure it out.”
“I think I want to pop out six babies.”
He raised an eyebrow. “No shit?”
I nodded. “I mean, let’s start with one, but yes, I’d like a lot of kids.”
“Then, let’s have lots of kids.” He cocked his head. “I’m gonna need to build us a bigger house.”
This was true. We were currently living in one side of the duplex Cade and Cullen owned while we figured out where we wanted to land. Cullen and Helena lived in the other side since Cade had moved in with Navy when they got married.
“Really? You’re that chill about it?” I asked.
“We’ve been together for just over three years, married for over two, and we work well together professionally and personally. You love my family, I love yours. We’ve figured out how to balance work and life, and we’ve also figured out how to placate your parents, despite living here full-time. You don’t think we’re going to master the art of parenthood, too?”
He had a point.
We’d gotten married about seven months into our sped-up relationship, right after our successfulmission in Turkey and just before our next assignment in Prague. We’d had less than two months to plan the wedding, and my mother had nearly had a coronary, but she made it happen with the help of one very bossy and incredibly resourceful Cricket Wallace.
My new sister-in-law had quickly cemented herself as one of my very best friends, and I adored her. As did the rest of my family.
