CHAPTER ELEVEN
AT LAST IT was done.
The cradle hadn’t turned out too bad, if he did say so himself.
Four days later, Xander waited until Lea headed off to the office where he knew that she would be busy all-day meeting with various members of the staff as they prepared for one of the biggest weddings of the year. This time a member of royalty was saying “I do.” A prince from some small country that Xander had to admit he hadn’t heard of before.
Lea was all excited about the event. From what Xander could gather, the marriage had been frowned upon by the royal family and so the couple had decided to run off to get married and had settled upon Infinity Island for their nuptials.
When Xander had asked if Lea was nervous about going against the royal family and hosting the wedding, she hadn’t hesitated a bit when she said no. The couple had passed their compatibility test. When he asked if she would have turned down the prince if he’d have failed the test, he noticed how Lea avoided answering by changing the subject. It left him wondering what she really would have done. Did people really say no to a prince?
But then he’d had the thought that if the royal family had rejected the union , would anyone come to such a wedding? Xander recalled the look of amazement that had come over Lea’s face, like he’d asked the dumbest question ever. It would appear that everyone but the immediate royal family wanted to be in attendance, including an army of paparazzi. It showed how little he knew about these matters.
So while Lea was off dealing with the last-minute details for the big event, he had the bungalow to himself. He’d retrieved the now finished cradle from Joseph’s workshop and carried it to the room he’d been staying in. However, when he placed it in the room, he found it didn’t fit in with the decor.
The room was done up in yellow and teal. It was an okay room, but not for a baby. And then the next step of his plan to win over Lea came to him. He would create a nursery for the baby. It would be his gift to his son or daughter. Even if he couldn’t be the loving, doting parent his child deserved, he could do this for the wee one.
He grabbed his laptop and set to work. There was paint to be ordered. Curtains. Furniture. And toys. Definitely lots of toys. And he needed all of it shipped to the island ASAP.
This was going to be the best nursery. It would have all of the latest techno gadgets to make Lea’s life easier and the child’s life safer. And it would be a fun room—someplace that his child would want to spend time.
And then he looked at the corner of the room and the image of him with the baby in his arms came to mind. It was such a foreign concept as he’d never held a baby. And yet excitement and longing filled him at the thought of sitting in a rocker and holding his daughter or son.
That was what he needed, a rocker. The perfect rocker.
His gaze returned to the computer monitor, straying across the date at the bottom of the screen. Somewhere along the way, June had become July. In the course of the two weeks that he’d been on the island, he’d gone from multi-million-dollar real estate deals to buying building blocks and teddy bears. Xander spent the afternoon researching baby products and ordering everything with expedited shipping. He hadn’t been this excited in a very, very long time.
Now what color would Lea prefer? Hmm...
* * *
Life passed in a blur.
Lea had so much on her plate. It was taking both her and Popi to pull off this royal wedding. The budget was endless and the wants were continuous. To say the wedding was over the top was no exaggeration.
The theme colors were white and purple. The garden was resplendent with large white trees strategically placed throughout. Purple floodlights highlighted them. No area was left undecorated, including the brick walkway to the garden. Arches of twinkle lights and flowers adorned the guests’ path.
Lea had to admit she liked the part the bride had insisted on: when the couple were pronounced husband and wife, an army of cannons would shoot white rose petals that would rain down upon the guests. For that reason, Lea had insisted the vows be separate from the reception. She didn’t even want to think what it would be like cleaning up thousands of petals while guests were milling about.