“You should be his favorite child,” I said. This was a very nice way to sit on the beach, and I found I enjoyed it a lot. I needed a little cuddle after what had just gone down at lunch. “You’re, you’re…”
“Perfect? Is that the word you’re looking for?”
“No, that’s not the right word at all.” He pinched my butt lightly and I squealed. “But you’re great. And compared to your charming sister, you definitely come out ahead in my book.”
“I’ll talk to her. But there is something you should know.” He hesitated. “I didn’t tell you before, because it’s a very personal issue for Valeria and her husband, but they’ve been trying to have a baby for about five years now. It hasn’t happened for them and they’ve been through a lot, a lot of failed treatments and a lot of heartache.”
“Oh.” Now I started feeling guilty for wishing that a seal or some other kind of ocean-dwelling creature would bite her when she went swimming.
“It isn’t just being protective of her little brother. It’s also probably very hard to watch it happen so easily for us. And to see you, so gorgeous with this.” His hand went back to my stomach. He couldn’t seem to stop touching me there. He stroked his fingers over my skin. “Camdyn, before, on the beach when I kissed you, I got carried away.”
“It was emotional,” I agreed. “That was all. Emotion.” I squirmed a little, pressing up into his hand. Pressing all of myself against his hard body.
“Right.” I felt him sigh. “This has been a long day.”
“Yes, because some people woke up at dawn,” I told him. “Meaning you.”
“And some people didn’t, meaning you, so we almost missed our flight,” he answered. “You can sleep now if you want to. I won’t let my family attack while your guard is down.”
“Mmm.” I pressed more into him, and his arms held me closer.
“We’ll go somewhere just the two of us for dinner. Or we’ll eat in, at my house. Give everyone a chance to settle a bit.”
“That sounds perfect,” I told him.
“Perfect, like me?”
“No, not at all,” I answered. I liked to hear his laughter rumble in his chest. I hadn’t gotten to cuddle with César very many times, just the once after our party, and maybe a few brief hugs. I thought that I had never felt as safe and content as I did when I heard his heartbeat and felt his arms around me, holding me.
I slept away most of the afternoon, and woke up groggy, stiff, and alone in the chair, wrapped up in a towel instead of César’s arms. That made me cranky, too, and I felt bad enough that even Ana thought it would be best for the two of us to go back to César’s house for a quiet evening in instead of dinner with the whole family. But I convinced him to go hang with them after we ate so that they could have some time together without me. That time alone worked—César came home in a more optimistic mood about his dad, feeling like they would be able to work this out between them.
And the next day was much, much better for both of us. Valeria’s husband Kent was there and she was definitely happier with him around. I made a huge effort to get to know her, to be sweet when I felt like slapping her. I channeled my own sister and thought about how a genuinely nice, caring woman like Ellie would act, and I imitated that. Then I missed my sister terribly.
I was tired again when we got back to César’s house after another day on the beach, swimming, sailing, and playing in the sand, but it had been wonderful. I stood and looked at myself in the mirror before I stripped off my bikini to take a shower. I had been hiding the bump for a while now, but everyone in his family loved it. Even Valeria had gotten kind of excited by the end of the day today, teasing César about being a dad when he had always been such a dumb little brother. She had lots of good stories, and fortunately, none of them were about him and other women. I didn’t want to hear—
What was that? What was that—
“César!” I yelled. “César, come here!”
Thudding footsteps raced along the hall and the bathroom door flew open. “What’s wrong?” he demanded, reaching for me.
“Feel! Can you feel it?” I grabbed his hand and put it on my stomach. “I can feel her. She moved!”
His brown eyes widened. “The baby?” His eyebrows knit as he concentrated. “What did it feel like? Like kicks?”
“No, like…like little wings fluttering. Or tiny bubbles, I think. Can you feel? She’s doing it again.”
Suddenly he gasped. “Was that it?” A huge grin covered his face. “She’s there!”
I put my hands on his cheeks, so overcome with emotion that I couldn’t speak. That was our baby, moving inside me. Oh, Jesus and Mary. I started to sob.
“Honey, why are you crying like that?”
I didn’t even know, so I just let him hold me, and I held him right back as hard as I could.
We were late for the dinner at Valeria’s house, the one that his dad and grandma had spent hours cooking. But the moment we walked into the kitchen, César announced, “We felt the baby move. We felt her!”
Even his dad got emotional, hugging him and then me as well. I cried all over again, and I let his mom and grandma feel my stomach, and then they cried, and I did again, too. “This is a blessing,” his dad said, and everyone nodded. Even Valeria, and she even hugged me stiffly.
“I wish you two lived closer,” Ana lamented as
