Hannah’s heart leapt.
So she couldn’t choose the furniture. So what? This would be her contribution.
She rushed the mobile and all its attendant parts back to the bedroom and dug out a shoebox from their massive walk-in closet. Hannah laid all of it out on the bed and opened the lid.
There.
All her ornaments, collected from her—admittedly truncated—world tour. A miniature beer stein from Germany, and a model of a Venetian gondola. A whitewashed charm from Santorini. A gleaming ship’s wheel from the cruise ship. A model of the Eiffel Tower, from Paris.
She’d been longing for a DIY nursery like the kind she’d seen in the magazines, behind all the photos of the perfect ones. All the crafts.
She beamed down at the ornaments and picked up the gondola to attach first.
Hannah was satisfied. She could still have this.
* * *
On Saturday, Kyril woke Hannah up early, out of a dream in which she’d lost all the pieces of the mobile and had to start over. It was true—she hadn’t been satisfied with the arrangement yesterday and wanted to make sure all the pieces balanced each other—but the situation wasn’t nearly so desperate as the one in her dream. Plus, she’d branched out from the mobile and had some embroidery supplies sent in. It was a project she’d seen online—something framed and so adorable it squeezed Hannah’s heart.
“Wake up, darling.”
Hannah stretched, grumbling into her pillow. “Not yet.”
“Wake up,” Kyril insisted, laughing. “I have a surprise for you.”
Hannah pushed herself up on her elbows, then fell back dramatically against the pillow, her hair falling over her face. “What is it?” If it was another movie marathon, she could handle that. But otherwise…
“We’re leaving.”
She pushed her hair out of her face and sat up. “What? Where? I thought you were busy.”
Kyril took her hand. “I am busy. But you—” He nodded toward the craft supplies overtaking every inch of the desk over on the side wall. There was even embroidery thread tangled in the sheets with Hannah. “You’ve been busy, too. Too busy. All this planning and…” Kyril surveyed the knotted threads. “…crafting. We need a break together.”
It was music to Hannah’s ears. They could use a break together. Somewhere spontaneous. Her heart glowed at the memory of their first honeymoon—those long, lazy days on the yacht, the way Kyril’s body relaxed after a few hours in the sun. Maybe they could have more of that.
“I’ll hop online this morning to make plans…just as soon as I have a chance to pee.” She leaned forward and kissed him, then hopped out of bed, taking an extra moment to catch her balance. Kyril caught her by the arm, concern etching his face. “I’m just waking up,” Hannah chided. “It’s okay.”
“Everything’s planned,” Kyril said, stopping her on her way to the opu
lent bathroom in their suite.
That little phrase stopped her in her tracks, and she turned to face Kyril, suddenly aware of her rumpled sleep set. “All planned? Already? I thought—”
He got up from the bed and followed her, running his own hands through her hair. Kyril’s touch normally would have soothed Hannah, but in this moment she found it annoying.
“Let me do this for you.” Well, if his touch wasn’t going to calm her, his voice might. That smooth, rich tone…she couldn’t get enough of it. “I’ve booked the arrangements through a travel agent so you don’t have to worry about a thing.”
“I like worrying about things. I’m really good at planning trips, Kyril. I—” The words poured out one by one. She sounded so ungrateful. “I got the wrong impression. I thought it was going to be a more…spontaneous thing. I thought maybe we’d plan it together.”
His hands paused, and he looked into her eyes. “Think of it this way. You’ve been tired lately, and when we go on this vacation, everything will already be prepared for us. All we need to do is show up.”
“Still…”
“You need to get away from the palace,” Kyril said firmly.
It annoyed her. The declaration. The…arrogance. It woke her up.
“You know,” she said, looking him in the eye. “I can make that decision for myself.” She stood as tall as she could despite a tightness in her lower back. “And I can plan where I want to vacation, too.”