“He’s adorable.” Rachel paused for a moment, as if deciding whether to say something. “I’m so happy she had her baby now…because he’s going to be the perfect playmate for ours.”
Nick looked at his wife with eyes huge as saucers. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
Rachel nodded, with a smile.
Nick hugged her excitedly. “When? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was waiting for the right moment. I took the test a couple of days ago—I’m about six weeks along.”
“Six weeks!” Nick sank down on a carved stone bench outside the villa. “Jesus, my head is spinning!”
“Are you going to be okay?” Rachel asked.
“Totally! I’m just overwhelmed with joy!” Nick said. Suddenly he looked up at Rachel with a jolt. “Listen, we cannot mention this to my mother.”
“Oh, hell no!”
Nick got up and took Rachel by the hand as they strolled down the pathway back to the wedding festivities. “Maybe if Mum behaves herself, she can meet our baby at age eighteen.”
Rachel thought about it for a moment. “We should probably wait till twenty-one.”
Nick escorted Rachel onto the dance floor just as the band struck up a ballad. As he held her body tight against his, he closed his eyes for a moment, thinking he could almost feel the heartbeat of his child. He opened his eyes again, gazing at his beautiful wife, gazing across the dance floor at Astrid and Charlie in their blissful embrace, and gazing at last toward the great house with all the lights in its windows ablaze, alive, reborn.