“She can and will forgive you. Dinner is at eight. Please don’t be late.” He kissed both my cheeks, giving Sam, who stood by my side, a firm handshake.
Belle was the next person to slide out of her pew.
“I can’t believe you.” She bristled in delight, clutching my arms, shaking me a little. “You actually went ahead with it.”
“A Vegas wedding.” Persephone slid from the same pew, Cillian standing right next to her. Persy held her tummy, in which my next nephew or niece was cooking quite nicely. “Who would have thought?”
“I would,” Sam cut harshly through everyone’s coos and murmurs. “Seeing as Aisling wasn’t the only person to get married today. Besides, it was a classy Vegas wedding.”
“That’s an oxymoron,” Cillian pointed out.
“No, he is right. It was totally classy.” Sailor’s face popped out of nowhere. Hunter stood close to her. “Nothing says elegance quite like being married by Elvis himself while a bunch of aging men dressed like *NSync sing a botched karaoke version of ‘It’s Gonna Be Me’ in the background. Isn’t that what Prince William and Kate did for their wedding?” Sailor frowned, curling her fingers under her chin thoughtfully.
“I do believe Wills and Kate had Take That wannabes singing ‘Relight my Fire’ at the reception,” Devon interrupted, clearing his throat. The British man seemed so out of place at the cheesy chapel, I let out a giggle.
“We couldn’t afford to wait.” I bit down on my lip. “My residency is starting in a couple of weeks, and I wouldn’t have time to plan my lunch breaks, let alone a wedding, not to mention—”
“I knocked her up.” Sam delivered the news flatly, no hint of emotions in his voice. I whipped my head toward him, shocked that he let our secret out and grateful that my parents weren’t in our vicinity anymore.
Sam kept his eyes on our friends, not me, while I very possibly blushed myself into an early grave inside my respectable white dress.
“Aisling wanted to wait until her residency was over, but my sperm had other ideas.”
“What do you mean?” Persy frowned, her hand moving in circles around her belly.
“Did the condom break?” Belle interfered, keeping it blunt. “Do you buy cheap-ass johnnies, Samuel? Or did you poke holes in it with a needle? I heard a rock star autobiography where something like that happened to him. Okay, fine, watched a movie.”
“Phew,” Hunter laughed, “for a second there I thought you started reading.”
“I’m sorry, isn’t the illiterate idiot convention next door?” Cillian inquired tersely. “I believe Samuel and Aisling are trying to break the news of a new pregnancy in the family.”
“Hell, bro,” Hunter snorted. “I’m just trying to take your mind off the fact that Brennan sexed our baby sister up.”
“Hunter!” Everyone shrieked in unison, other than Emmabelle, who laughed, enjoying herself, and Devon, who was too busy staring at Belle to care what everyone was saying.
“Anyway, no.” I shook my head. “I was on the pill and was very good about it. There’s always a very slight chance the pill won’t work. And I guess it happened to me.” I grinned, looking up at Sam while he pressed a proud kiss to my forehead.
Two months after Sam told Vasily Mikhailov he could have Brookline back, we went out to celebrate the fact I got accepted to a nearby hospital to begin my residency. It was my favorite Thai place, and even though we had a wonderful time, I went to bed feeling ill. When I woke up the next morning, I puked my guts out and figured something must have upset my stomach.
But then it happened the morning after.
And after.
And after.
“When’s the last time you had your period?” Sam had questioned when I closed in on a week of throwing up each morning and feeling miraculously better during the rest of the day. “Because we’ve been having sex every day for at least nine weeks in a row now.”
I’d scrunched my nose, thinking about it.
My cycles were pretty regular, and besides, I was on the pill.
“I can’t be pregnant,” I’d said finally.
“Can’t or don’t want to be?” Sam had raised an eyebrow.
“Both?” I’d winced, but deep down I knew there wouldn’t be one part of me that would be upset if I found out I was pregnant.
“I’ll go get us a pregnancy test right now.”
“Thank you.”
And here we were a week later, married in Vegas in front of our closest friends and family. I’d always imagined having a grand, fancy wedding, but as soon as I realized I was pregnant, I knew a massive wedding wasn’t what I wanted. It was simply what was expected of me. What I really wanted was to be married to the man of my dreams as soon as humanly possible.
The man who had given me a new ferret for my last birthday and didn’t even look surprised or put off by the fact I had named it Shelly, after my previous ferret.