Raina turned around to see Nick eyeing the exploding cupcakes with barely concealed horror.
“Um, did your muffins get attacked by aliens?”
Raina’s shoulders sagged. “They’re supposed to be chocolate cupcakes. I don’t know what happened.” She sank down onto one of the bar stools next to the island and covered her face with her hands. “What kind of mother am I going to be? I can’t even follow a stupid recipe.”
Nick walked forward hesitantly. “It’s okay. Maybe they just need a little icing. Or something.”
Raina lifted her head and glared at him. “They look awful. It looks like the batter crawled into the oven and died.”
Nick pulled one of the cupcakes loose. The bottom was charred black. “See, I’m sure they’re fine. I’ll taste it.” He bit the top of the cupcake and then stilled. His face twisted before he shuddered. He looked like he was on the verge of throwing up.
Raina jumped up and grabbed a paper towel. She held it out to him. He spit the cupcake remains into it. “Um, it’s not that bad. Maybe you just left out an ingredient. Like the sugar, maybe?”
Raina stared at the remaining cupcakes. “You don’t have to be nice. You definitely don’t have to eat these to spare my feelings. Geez, we’ve only been married a month and I’m already poisoning you with my terrible cooking.”
It would have helped if she hadn’t decided to finally answer one of Steven’s calls while she was baking. He’d started calling a few weeks after she’d gotten married. She’d ignored him, hoping he’d go away, but he’d been calling intermittently since then.
The good news was she’d finally told him to stop calling her. The bad news was she’d been so distracted that she’d messed up the recipe. Not that she could tell Nick any of that.
Nick pulled her into his arms. “Hey, it’s not as bad as all that. I’m hardly poisoned. And I didn’t marry you for your baking skills.”
“Oh right, you married me for my DNA,” she mumbled.
“No, I married you because I adore you. I knew you didn’t feel the same way, but I didn’t care. I figured if this was the only way I could have you, it was still better than what I had before—watching and loving you from afar. “
Raina looked up at him, stunned at the tenderness in his eyes. “Oh, Nick.”
He covered her lips with his finger. “You don’t have to say anything. I’m not pressuring you to feel the same way, remember? I just want you to get used to me loving you. Because I plan on doing it for a very long time.”
Raina allowed him to pull her back into his arms and snuggled deeper into his embrace. Nick made her feel like she could tell him anything and he was always quick to defend her, even when she was criticizing herself. It was such an unexpectedly lovely feeling to have someone be her champion, but sometimes it felt like she was doing all the taking and not giving enough back.
Especially since every time he told her he loved her, it was getting harder and harder not to say it back.
* * * * *
OVER THE PAST few weeks, Nick and Raina had finally fallen into a comfortable rhythm. He rose at five a.m. so he could have an hour to work out before waking Raina briefly to give her a kiss goodbye.
She usually didn’t get up until after eight, then spent the day catching up on all the movies she hadn’t seen and books she hadn’t read.
“You know, this vacation thing is pretty nice. I wonder why I haven’t done this in so long,” Raina said to Sam one morning over eggs and toast.
Sam looked up from his protein shake. “Because you’re a workaholic, that’s why. You and Alexander have that in common.”
She’d been working nonstop since she was fifteen and had assumed that she’d be bored with so much time on her hands. She was surprised by how much she was enjoying herself. But the biggest surprise of all in the past few weeks had been Nick.
He returned home around six and changed out of his suit and tie. She’d only seen him in casual clothes a few times prior to their marriage. Even though they’d spent a fair amount of time together at Jackson and Ridley’s house, he was always coming straight from work. It was strange to see him wandering around in gym shorts with bare feet. It was like seeing him go from Superman to Clark Kent. It didn’t diminish her attraction for him at all. Rather, it felt like she was seeing a side of him that few people did.
After he’d changed clothes, he’d cook them dinner. Sometimes it was complicated and fancy like salmon-stuffed crab cakes with herbed dressing. Other days it was refreshingly simple like a tossed salad with grilled chicken.
But no matter what, they always ate together. She’d tell him about her day buying baby clothes and decorating the nursery and he’d share funny stories about his clients. They talked about everything from politics to popular music. He’d walked in on her one night jamming in her pajamas to the latest boy band and hadn’t stopped teasing her about it since.
She’d come to look forward to those conversations each night.
“Don’t you think it’s time you stopped calling him by his last name? I mean, we’re all living together now. One big happy family,” she teased.
Sam slurped up the last of his shake. “This is the happiest I’ve ever seen you.”
Suddenly self-conscious, Raina shrugged. “Well, I’ve got no reason to complain. I’m on vacation and I’m living with two sexy men. I’d say I’m doing all right.”