Chapter 21
MIA
Mia reached for the door handle at the same time as the phone in her room rang.
Jumping, she put a hand to her chest, calming her suddenly racing heartbeat, and went back to answer.
As she lifted the old-fashioned phone on the bedside table, she worried that answering was a mistake; maybe someone in Evan’s family was trying to contact her.
It was the receptionist.
“Ms. Newton?” he asked.
“Speaking.” Mia shifted the phone to pinch it between her shoulder and ear as she adjusted her grip on her suitcase. “Is the cab ready?”
“Actually, I’m sorry to say it’s delayed,” the receptionist said.
“Do you know when it’ll be here?” Mia asked.
“I’m sorry, I don’t. I’ll let you know as soon as possible.”
Mia breathed down the annoyance that surged in her. It wasn’t this man’s fault that the cab was late, and he had no way of knowing how badly Mia wanted to leave the wedding.
“Thank you,” she managed. “Grazie.”
“Ciao,” he said brightly, and the line went dead.
Mia set her bag on the floor and sank onto the bed.
She’d been so close to leaving, but now everything was delayed.
That increased the chances that she’d run into one of the Hirsts or even Evan himself, and she couldn’t handle that right now.
Worse, it was already starting to get dark outside.
She was hungry, tired, and stressed, and it would be night soon.
She couldn’t be here when night properly fell. She couldn’t stay another day.
All Mia wanted was to be home, in her familiar apartment, surrounded by her own things and near her own friends and family.
There was so much she had to figure out, and being stuck here made her feel itchy and impatient.
She knitted and unknitted her hands, half-wondering if she should take a bicycle and see how far she made it.
Don’t be ridiculous, she thought, but it was still tempting.
Deciding to make the best of this waiting time, Mia got out her phone and googled flights back to San Francisco.
Her mouth dropped open at the prices. Having never flown internationally before, she was shocked by the high prices for same-day flights.
“There’s no way I can afford this,” Mia muttered to herself, scrolling through the list of flights. “No way at all.”
At the very bottom of the list, there was one flight she could possibly afford, but it had a twenty-eight-hour layover in Heathrow and a thirty-minute one in Charles De Gaulle, neither of which seemed good at all.
Mia sank her head into her hands, discouraged.
It had seemed so simple to call a cab and flee, and she’d been ready to dip into her savings, but bankrupting herself right before having a child seemed like a terrible idea.
Still. She didn’t have any other option. There was no way she could keep pretending to be Evan’s girlfriend after he’d walked away from her when she’d needed him most.
Mia straightened up, took a breath, and tapped on the terrible but relatively inexpensive flight.
She was about to fill in her information when she heard something that made her tilt her head and furrow her brow.
It was very faint, but it sounded like music.
Was it coming from the wedding? It seemed to be coming from the other side of the building from where the venue was, though.
She stood and went to the window, cracking it slightly.
She was able to make out the words to the song now.
It was “On This Starry Night,” the first song she and Evan had danced to.
Tears sprang to her eyes as she remembered how it had felt to sway in his arms, grinning and flirting and feeling free and happy.
Then she remembered how he’d said he didn’t like the song.
He’d been upfront with her right from the beginning that he didn’t like love or sappy things, so what had she expected?
Mia was about to close the window and drown out the sound of the song that was making her heart ache. Before she could, though, she glanced outside and saw a familiar figure standing beside the pool. She did a double-take. It couldn’t be… could it?
But that was Evan. He was standing next to the pool, holding a speaker over his head, from which the song was playing.
And he was surrounded by fairy lights and flowers.
He still wore his best-man suit, but he’d loosened the collar and undone the tuxedo jacket buttons.
His hair was messy, as though he’d been running a hand through it, and he was looking up at the building a little to Mia’s right, his expression hopeful.
Mia’s hand flew to her mouth. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
Forgetting her bag, her phone, everything, she ran out of the room, closing the door behind her.
She took the stairs two at a time, skidding through the lobby, and raced out into the pool area.
There, she came to a stop right in front of Evan, who slowly lowered the speaker as the last strains of “On This Starry Night” rang out.
“Hi there,” he said, his voice full of warmth, and Mia’s knees went weak. She crossed her arms over her stomach.
“What are you doing?” she asked in a soft voice.
“I thought it was obvious.” Evan gestured to the speaker, the fairy lights, and the flowers. “I’m doing all that romantic stuff that I always thought was pointless.”
“And why?” Mia prompted. She couldn’t let herself believe that this was really happening.
“Because I don’t think it’s pointless anymore.
” Evan set the speaker down and crossed to her, his intense blue eyes never leaving hers.
“Mia, I messed up when I left you alone on the bench. I should have stayed to talk to you. I should have reassured you that we were going to figure things out. But I was scared, because a baby was never part of my plan.”
“I’m aware of that.” Mia stepped closer and they met in the middle. The sweet scent of flowers filled the air around them as the fairy lights twinkled in the growing dusk. “I wasn’t asking you to change your whole life. I wasn’t even asking you to be a dad. I was telling you what was happening.”
“I realize that now,” Evan said. He reached out and took her hands. “You were never in my plans, either. I had a whole vision of what my future would be like, and that’s gone out the window because of you.”
“What do you mean?” Mia let him hold her hands, her heart racing. She could barely meet his eyes as a mixture of hope and worry swirled in her stomach.
“Well, I thought I’d always be alone,” Evan admitted. “I thought that relationships ruined careers, but I realize now that I was wrong. I don’t care about my work as much anymore, now that I met you.”
He hesitated. “What I’m trying to say, Mia, is that you turned my life upside down in the best possible way.
You showed me that there’s more to life than work.
You showed me that I can have fun and enjoy myself and put my computer aside.
When I’m with you, I feel like the best possible version of myself, and that’s thanks to you. ”
Evan squeezed her hands. “My initial reaction was wrong, and I’m sorry for that. But I know what I want now: I want you. I want our baby.”
At that, a wall of emotion slammed into Mia, bringing tears to her eyes even as her heart sang. She felt weak and full of boisterous joy all in the same instant, and Evan’s eyes widened. He reached out and used his thumb to wipe away a stray tear that had escaped her eyes. His touch was gentle.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he said.
“I’m not.” Mia laughed softly. “I mean, I am, but not because I’m sad. I … I never expected to hear that, not from you. Do you mean it?”
“I do. I want a future together, Mia. I want a future with you and our baby. I want to go on vacations and dance under the stars and hold up a speaker to play music for you. I want to fight and make up, plan a future together, wash dishes at night in our pajamas — all that relationship stuff. And I want to learn how to be parents together, change diapers and pick out onesies and all that. If that’s what you want. ”
Mia nodded. “It is, Evan. It really is.”
“There’s just one thing, though.” His face grew serious. “I’m ready to cut back on work. I’ve already handed a lot of things over this week, and I think I don’t need to take much of it back. But I don’t want to give up work entirely.”
Mia frowned. “Did someone ask you to?”
Evan chuckled. “I guess not. But I always thought that being in love meant giving up everything else.”
“Not at all.” Mia squeezed his hands. “You wouldn’t expect me to give up my job, would you? I mean, I’ll take maternity leave, but I’ll always want to go back to teaching.” She paused. “You said ‘love’…”
“Have I not told you yet?” He smiled, but there was a hint of worry behind his clear blue eyes. “I do love you, Mia Newton. I never want you to be as far away as the stars, like the song says.”
Tears filled Mia’s eyes as she answered. “I love you, too.”
And then they were kissing. Evan pulled her into his arms, and Mia melted against his chest as their lips brushed, tentatively at first, then with a wave of feeling.
They’d kissed before, but this felt like a first kiss, somehow.
It was full of passion and comfort in equal parts and a promise of a future together.
Like with their other kisses, the rest of the world fell away, leaving only the two of them.
When they separated, they were both smiling. Evan kissed her once more on the tip of her nose, making Mia smile, then put his arm around her and led her to a small stone bench where he’d set the speaker.
“I got you a few things,” he said.
“You did?” Mia grinned. “Let’s see them.”
“Well, here’s some chocolate, because I always want our life together to be sweet.” He handed her a small, foil-wrapped square of chocolate. “And here’s a flower, because you’re more gorgeous than any flower.” He handed her a single rose.
“Two things,” Mia said, trying to hold back her smile. “First, I admit that I love love stories. Even the cheesy ones. But I think you have to admit that this is a little over the top.”
Evan burst into laughter. “Hey, it’s my first time in love, and I’m still finding my feet here. What’s the second thing?”
“Is this a rose from the wedding?” Mia asked. “And the chocolate… that’s the one they put on our pillows.” Frowning, she looked around. “And the fairy lights… those are from the wedding too.”
“Yes, and this is Luka’s Bluetooth speaker,” Evan finished. “Look, I didn’t have a lot of time to put this together.”
Laughing, Mia scooted closer and slid into his arms. Kissing his cheek, she said, “It’s perfect. Thank you.”
“I wanted to do something bigger, but I was worried you were going to leave, so I moved quickly.”
“This was plenty big.” Mia sat up straight, her eyes widening. “I was going to leave, though, and I called a cab. It’s probably here!”
“I think it’s been here for a while,” Evan admitted. “I asked them to delay it.”
“That was you?”
“I needed time for this.” He kissed her softly. “Let me go cancel the cab. As long as you’re planning to stay…”
“Of course, I am.” Mia smiled at him. “Cancel the cab, and I’ll go get changed.” She glanced down at her sweatpants and T-shirt. “I can’t go back to the wedding looking like this.”
“You want to go back?”
“Of course. Our first fake date was at a wedding. Don’t you think our first real one should be, too? And anyway, Luka and Sarah will be sad if we don’t make an appearance.”
“All right, then.” Evan stood. “Let’s go.”
Ten minutes later, they met at the bottom of the stairs.
Mia had hurriedly changed back into her dress and taken her hair out of its bun, while Evan had canceled the cab.
Arm in arm, they walked back out to the yard where the wedding was taking place.
Evan led her to the dance floor, where he held out a hand.
Mia stepped into his arms, and they began to dance as a new song played over the speakers: “On This Starry Night.”
“I had a little extra time after I canceled the cab,” Evan whispered, his breath beside her ear making her shiver with warmth. “So, I put in a request.”
Together, they swayed and whirled across the dance floor, smiling at each other, as dusk settled and stars came out overhead.
Occasionally, as Evan spun her, Mia caught sight of members of the Hirst family smiling at them, and she smiled back.
But most of the time, she had eyes only for Evan, the man she loved, the father of her child, and her future.