Outwardly, she rolled her eyes. Inwardly, her heart flopped gleefully.
They checked in, Joel asking for the thousandth time if she was sure she didn’t want to share a room that night.
“It’s the night before her wedding, buster. She’s bunking with me for a hen night,” Vanessa told him. “Besides, you get her for the rest of your life. She’s with me tonight, you tomorrow night, and Zeus over there gets his own room since I wouldn’t wish it on anyone to share with him.”
“Zeus?” Lucy raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah, Jordan reminds me of a broody thundercloud and unfortunately he’s built like a God, so Zeus seemed fitting.”
“He’s not that bad, you know,” Lucy told her sister. “He’s just…” She watched Jordan as he loaded everyone’s luggage onto a trolley. “Quiet.”
“Oh really? Because he seems pretty chatty when he’s bossing me around.”
“Trying to save you from yourself isn’t bossing you around, Princess,” Jordan replied evenly as he came back into hearing distance.
“Whatever.” Vanessa’s tone dripped with attitude. “Come on, sis, we have a spa appointment in thirty minutes. Lots to do before we go to the chapel tomorrow morning!” She skipped ahead to the elevators.
“You know, she presents like an airhead, but she’s actually extraordinarily impressive,” Lucy informed Joel and Jordan as they trailed behind Vanessa. “Only she could convince my parents that us eloping was their idea.”
Over the last five months, the wedding planning facade had become too ridiculous to bear. Between the Portland and San Francisco crew, plans were out of control, mostly because they were completely out of Lucy and Joel’s hands. And the longer it went on, the less desirable a massive Italian wedding became, not even for the sake of appeasing family. That and the lingering worry she had over her sister were the only dark spots on what had otherwise been a very lovely and healing time.
So one night, after one particularly loud blow up in the Barone family kitchen over which cathedral would be most suitable, Vanessa had somehow convinced Maria and Luciano that the stress was going to cause a breakup that Lucy would never recover from. The next thing Lucy knew, her mother was at the penthouse with a Tupperware of gnocchi and the suggestion that maybe she and Joel should just slip away for a quick wedding and have it done with.
Jordan snorted as they continued trailing after Vanessa. “Yeah, I bet she could sell sin to the devil as well.” He stalked off, increasing his pace to reach Vanessa who was now at the elevator.
Joel caught Lucy’s hand, stopping her. With a single tug, he drew her against his chest. “I love you,” he murmured before kissing her soundly on the lips. Then passionately, his tongue sweeping inside her mouth, tasting her in that all-consuming way she loved.
Wedding planning meltdowns aside, a lot of good change had happened in the five months since she told Joel they needed space.
Over the last month, she’d spent many hours packing up her condo, gradually moving into his penthouse. The quiet evenings alone in her own space reminded her how ready she was to share her life with him, but she also savored the time, knowing that once she moved in with him and they started their life together, those long nights alone would cease to exist.
Occasionally she traveled back to Portland with him when he had meetings he needed to attend in person, and she used those days to catch up with her sister. Vanessa had remained in the city, stating she needed the space from their parents. The arrangement worked out well for Lucy, because she now got to see her sister more frequently than she hadin years. They’d formed a new bond over books and had recently started buddy reading together, which kept them in touch, daily even.
And that reminded her—digging through her oversized tote, she pulled out a worn paperback and handed it to Joel.
“What is this?” he asked, scanning the cover.
“Homework,” she reminded him.
“There is a cartoon drawing of a hockey player and a Disney princess on the cover.”
Lucy rolled her eyes theatrically. “She’s in the medical profession, Joel. Women in S.T.E.M. are a thing, you know.”
He nodded raptly. “And thank God for that. But why am I reading this book as homework?”
“Because Kelsey said so, remember?”
Kelsey was the couple’s counselor they’d been seeing bi-weekly for the last five months. They never left her office without a homework assignment.
“She told us to swap books.” He flipped the book to read the back-cover blurb.
Heat rushed to her face because she knew what he was reading. “Yeah. Remember, she said it would help us convey important messages to each other about who we are and what we value in a partner.” She swallowed nervously.
Kelsey had warned them that this would be a very personal and possibly scary exercise, but Lucy hadn’t thought much about it until just now. She did feel oddly vulnerable.
Joel’s gaze lifted from the book to her. “It doesn’t look like what’s usually on your bedside table.”
“I usually read books with discreet covers, but this was my latest buddy read with Vanessa, and she bought the copies. I just finished it, and it was excellent.”
