Page 124 of Tempted Hearts
“I’ll try not to be jealous of the fact that you know what my friend is doing before I do.”
She smiled, Juliette liking the fact that we had eight of us to lean into.
“Four couples. It’s hard to believe that all of us are committed. That we all broke the rules.”
“Is that really so surprising?”
I thought back to the day we made the pact. “Actually, it is.”
I looked down at her.
“But obviously, I was wrong.”
“And I’m glad you were.”
EPILOGUE
COLE
“By the way you just looked at Mini Mason, I’m wondering if later might become sooner than we talked about,” I said as Pia walked away just as I caught Juliette’s expression.
Heritage Hill was one of the stops at the Cedar Falls Annual Fall Festival.
“Come on. Let’s take a walk to the lake.”
To the left of the public docks used by Heritage Hill guests, hidden behind a thicket was another private dock that Parker and Mason had just finished rebuilding at the end of the summer. The boat was gone already, stored away at Cedar Falls Marina for the winter. But a wooden bench that bore an “In Memory of Papa Bennett” plaque, the bench and plaque a gift from the guys to Mason and Pia, sat under a tree that still bore its autumn leaves.
Before she sat, I pulled Juliette onto my lap. Her arms draped across my neck as I kissed her, slow and teasing, promising the night ahead.
She pulled back eventually, much to my dismay.
“What if I did get pregnant sooner?” she asked.
Her cheeks flushed from kissing, or wine, or maybe the nip in the air, Juliette’s eyes bright with possibility, she waited for my response.
And then it hit me. Such things were possible, even with her on the pill. “Are you?—”
“No, no. Nothing like that. I know we have a plan, and you’re in a brand new position. I just wondered what you thought about that? I’ll admit, when I look at Mini Mason, there’s a tug in my chest.” She shrugged, pretending it was no big deal, but I knew mymonellapretty well. It was a big deal, and my answer was everything.
“We have lots of plans,” I said. “Italy over the holidays. Napa next spring. And though Napa might not be as much fun for you—and Italy, for that matter—if you were pregnant, they could also be postponed. We have a lifetime of trips ahead of us. I want children with you, Jules. Now, a year from now. Doesn’t matter to me.”
She smiled, as if I’d given the right answer. Which was good, because it was true.
“Now would be hard, since I’m not currently pregnant.”
“Okay, so not now, in the strict sense of the word. But you know what I mean.” I pulled her close against me thinking back to another time we were at this lake. Had I ever explained my behavior to her?
“I was cranky that day,” I blurted.
The switch in topics jarred her.
“Which day?”
“At the wine festival over the summer. Parker, or maybe it was Mason, I forget. One of the guys accused me of being cranky, and I was. I thought you were beautiful, but off limits. I was the one who supposedly would never break the pact. Never get married.”
“A self-inflicted restraint that never really existed.”
We’d talked about this more than once these past months.
