The Project

EPILOGUE

One Year Later…

Emerald Castle Hotels Executive Building

“It is my great pleasure to announce that as of this morning, Emerald Castle Hotels finally closed on the Hillshire Hotels deal thanks to MacGregor Project Development,” Nicholas Mitchell announced with a warm smile that would have normally had her returning that smile, but at the moment, she was having a difficult time not screaming in pain.

Really hoping that the pain would stop long enough so that she could give her presentation, Andi moved to stand up and-

Quickly decided that was a bad idea when more pain tore through her body, forcing her to sit back down and grab hold of the freshly polished mahogany table as she tried to breathe through the pain. She could do this, Andi told herself as she sat there, struggling to hold it together as every set of eyes locked on her. She opened her mouth, thought better of it, tightened her hold on the table and slowly exhaled.

“Are you okay?” the man sitting next to her asked, looking concerned, which was understandable given the fact that she was nine months pregnant and struggling to sit up straight.

“I’m fine,” Andi said, for some reason sounding a tad out of breath.

She could pull this off, Andi told herself as she slowly exhaled and couldn’t help but notice that Devyn was watching her with a knowing look. Clearing her throat, she forced herself to release her hold on the table and sit back only to go still when she felt it. Really hoping that she was wrong, Andi looked down and-

Oh, that couldn’t be good, she thought when she saw the puddle forming on the floor around her. Swallowing hard, she looked up and found Devyn narrowing his eyes on her. Giving him a hopeful smile, she cleared her throat and grabbed her iPad with trembling hands, telling herself that everything was fine. She just needed to get through her presentation, not pass out or scream in pain, and she would be fine.

“I’m fine,” Andi managed to get out between clenched teeth as she grabbed hold of the table with her free hand, waiting for the pain to subside. When it didn’t, she asked, “You know what would be fun? If we all took turns reading the slides? Doesn’t that sound like fun?” as she shoved her iPad into the hands of the man sitting next to her when the next contraction hit.

Sighing heavily, Nicholas reached over and pressed the intercom as he kept his gaze locked on her. “The stubborn little pain in the ass has gone into labor,” came the words that had her opening her mouth, only to close it with a grumble since she really couldn’t argue with that.

He’d offered to put this deal on hold until after she had the twins, but she’d been determined to see this thing through to the end and-

She really wished that Devyn would stop glaring at her as though he was imagining spanking her ass.

“Already called for an ambulance, Mr. Mitchell. They’re entering the building even as we speak. Is there anything else that I can help you with?” came the efficient response through the intercom as Andi opened her mouth to tell him that she was okay, only to rethink that plan and settled for gasping in pain instead.

“No, I believe that will be all, Danni. Thank you,” Nicholas said, never taking his eyes off her.

“Maybe we should move on to the next slide?” Andi suggested as her grip tightened around the table and-

She decided that perhaps it would be for the best if she stopped talking when the next contraction robbed her of the ability to breathe.

“I’m afraid that we’re going to have to reschedule this meeting,” Devyn murmured absently, pushing his chair back as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and-

“Who are you texting?” Andi managed to get out through clenched teeth, really hoping that he wasn’t texting who she thought he was.

“Your brother and uncle,” Devyn said, making her wince.

“Please don’t do that,” she said, moving to stand up, but since that was no longer an option, she settled for pressing her head against the table and really hoping that they gave her the good drugs.

“Why are you so damn stubborn?” Devyn asked as he took one of her hands in his.

“I changed my mind about natural birth. I want drugs. A lot of them and I’d really like them now,” Andi said, nodding frantically as she decided that sitting no longer worked for her and gestured with her other hand for her husband, whom she loved more than anything, to do something about the pain.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you were in labor?” Devyn asked as he carefully picked her up and pulled her onto his lap so that she could bury her face against his neck.

“Because I wanted it to be a surprise?” she said, only to glare when Nicholas said, “Because she’s a pain in the ass.”

“You really are,” the man that she was really hoping was going to make sure that they gave her enough drugs to knock her out said.

“I didn’t want to delay the project,” she mumbled sadly only to open her eyes and glare at the man who’d quickly become like a big brother to her over the past year and seemed to really enjoy tormenting her when he muttered, “Pain in the ass.”

“It could have waited,” Devyn said, but they both knew that wasn’t true.

With Hillshire Hotels reorganizing and ready to sell off some of its properties to save itself, they didn’t have a lot of time to waste. They’d been working on this deal for the past year, figuring out which Hillshire Hotels were worth buying and what they could do to fix them. After they’d completed their project for Carta Hotels’ new CEO, which they were paid an obscene amount of money to finish, they’d decided to turn their attention to the Hillshire Hotels project.

Carta Hotels made them a very generous offer for the project, as well as about two dozen hotels, but Nicholas had offered her unlimited bacon and office supplies, leaving her with no choice but to accept his very generous offer.

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