“Rebecca? Can I talk to you for a minute?”
I automatically covered what little I was wearing of the gown, and I heard Tatiana slap the back of his head as a warning.
“I’m not looking!” he insisted. “Please, Bex. Just for a second.”
I cast Amanda a worried look before wrapping myself in my coat and tripping down to meet him by the curtain. “Okay, you can open your eyes,” I said in a private undertone. “Now what’s going on? Is everything okay?”
He nodded quickly—a little too quickly—and pulled me out to the same Champagne room I’d just been in with Amanda a moment before.
“I just wanted to say…I’m going to miss the nursery setup today.”
My heart sank, but I kept a straight face. “Okay…why?”
“Takahari called. After my announcement to the press the other morning…he called an emergency meeting.”
Anyone else might have believed his casual demeanor, but I knew better. I reached for his hand in horror and squeezed it tightly in my own. “Honey…shit, I’m so sorry.”
He flashed me a tight, but genuine smile. “I don’t care either way. I have my family.” His eyes softened for a moment as he kissed first me, then my stomach. “That’s all that matters.”
I melted a little but shook my head. “But if the merger—”
“If it tanks, it tanks. Either way, we’ll know by this evening.” He checked his buzzing phone with a frown. “That’s Billings. I gotta go. But have fun today. Sorry I’m going to miss it.”
I held onto his hands as he tried to leave. “Marcus, I…”
“Hey,” he swooped in for another kiss, “I have what matters.”
Before he could say another word, he flashed me a wink and vanished outside, leaving me to stew in the endless repercussions of what might happen today.
Chapter 20
As tense as the day might have been, it was jam-packed so full, it didn’t leave much time for stewing. After finishing up with the dress fitting, Amanda and I met with the hair stylists, picked up our dresses for the party, finalized the seating arrangement, and settled on a cake. All that was before we stopped into a Home Depot to browse through paint colors for the nursery. In the end, we settled on a mild, sunshiny yellow. Good for a girl, or a boy.
“I can’t believe you want to be surprised,” Amanda said yet again. We had set up in a huge room next to my old guestroom and were spreading out the painting supplies. A flimsy looking ladder was propped up against a window, and she and I were slowly rolling out a drop cloth. “If it was me, I’d want to know immediately. You couldn’t tell me fast enough.”
“Well, I didn’t say I wanted to be surprised,” I said with a sly grin. “Marcus’s grandmother wants to be, and so do my parents.”
She cocked a brow. “Wait. Do you know what you’re having?”
Barry strode into the room with an armful of rollers and brushes. He dropped them in the middle of the cloth with a huge sigh. “I can’t believe with all of your resources, you don’t want to hire a decorator for the nursery.”
I popped a lid off one of the paint cans and swirled my brush inside. “Nope,” I said firmly, “this is my first act of motherhood. Other than the conception, that is. I’m decorating this room and no one’s going to stop me.”
Amanda and Barry cocked their heads and looked at me speculatively.
“And…it’s a perfect excuse to escape this endless wedding mania,” Barry said.
They burst out laughing. “There it is.” Amanda chuckled.
Barry set down his toolbox. “So, are you going to continue to act? Or just be one of those rich housewives, like on television?”
“I’m not giving up my career,” I said. “We’ve talked about it. Marcus wants me to keep pursuing my dreams once the baby is born. I didn’t decide to act so I could be rich and famous or become a household name. I did it because I was good at it. And I enjoy the theater arts. I wanted to do something that made me happy. And acting is something I really love and enjoy. I’m thinking about specializing in theater.”
“You’d be perfect.”
“Thank you, Barry.”
“Bex is very gifted. She was born with the creative gift to entertain. I know she’ll be a huge success,” Amanda said.