"I'm doing it myself," I snap. "I don't want my kid to grow up helpless."
"It's not helpless to have help, Caulter," Ella says, her voice dismissive. "Why shouldn't you have people to do things for you? You tried. There's no harm in admitting defeat."
"I'm not defeated," I say, feeling triumphant as I assemble the base of the crib…and then realize I put part of it together backwards.
"Should I send Bill up there to help you?" she asks.
"You're going to send your handyman from New York to Boston to assemble this shit?"
"You say that like it's excessive."
"It is excessive, Ella."
Ella grunts under her breath. "You're not a regular person, Caulter," she says. "Remember that."
"Kate and I are regular people, Ella," I insist.
My upbringing was as far as regular as you could get, as the child of a major celebrity. When I met Kate, Ella was considered a former celebrity, aging out of the industry. But two years ago, she landed a part in a huge movie that won an Oscar. Since then, she's been in high demand, playing parts for "women of a certain age," as she puts it. Now she's on set in New York, filming a television series.
That's put the spotlight back on Kate and I a little bit more lately.
I wanted a regular life. When I backpacked around Asia for a year, after Kate and I were discovered at her father and Ella's wedding reception, that's what I had. And for a couple of years after that, Kate and I stayed very far out of the limelight, living as far under the radar as possible.
"You're not regular people, Caulter," Ella says. "That's not how you were raised."
I laugh. "That's for sure."
"Oh, as if you would have wanted a normal childhood anyway," Ella says. "My makeup artist is here. When are you heading up to New Hampshire? That's what I called for. I was distracted by your handyman nonsense."
"Next week," I tell her. "And you'd better make it for the wedding, Ella. No excuses because something more important came up."
"Caulter Sterling, if I were there, I'd slap you," Ella says. "There is nothing more important that will prevent me from attending your wedding."
I don't bother to stifle my grunt. "Hey, are you sure that you and the Senator can put aside your differences and get along?"
Senator Harrison, Kate's father and Ella's ex-fiancé, were barely on speaking terms, the last time I checked. The thought of the two of them being forced to spend even a few hours together, let alone the several days before the wedding, is insane. They'll probably kill each other.
That makes it sound like our wedding potentially is the setting for a horror film, although with the Senator and Ella there together, that may not be too far removed from reality.
Ella makes a strangled sound. "I have to run," she says. "Makeup artist. Oh, and Caulter?"
"Yeah?"
"Get a fucking handyman."
Instead, I go get another beer. Apparently, assembling furniture requires beer, because an hour later, I have the entire nursery put together.
When Kate returns from the wedding dress fitting, she stands in the doorway to the nursery, her hands covering her mouth. "You did this?"
"I did," I say.
"You put all of this together yourself?"
I shrug. "It was no big deal."
Whatever. I'm proud of that shit. And also a little buzzed from the beer.
Kate stands there looking at me for a long moment, and I think that she might hate it. Then her lower lip quivers, and she starts to cry.
I cross the room, sliding my arms around her. "If you hate it, we'll change it," I say. "Or rearrange it."
"No," she sniffs. "It's just so…beautiful."
I wipe a tear from her cheek and kiss her on the forehead. My gorgeous, pregnant, hormonal fiancé. "So you're crying because it's beautiful?"
"I wish my mom were here to see it."
Now I feel like a jerk for chalking her tears up to pregnancy hormones. Drawing her against me, I stand there with her for a long time, just holding her.
CHAPTER FIVE
Kate
"Are you nervous?" Caulter covers his palm with mine as we near the road to my father's lake house, where we're holding the wedding. We're driving back to New Hampshire to spend the next ten days relaxing before the wedding.
Yeah, right.
The next ten days are going to be less than relaxing. They're going to be filled with last-minute wedding preparations and a rehearsal dinner and keeping the Senator and Ella at a safe distance from each other, and did I mention I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet?
There were a million suitable venues for the wedding around Boston – we also considered eloping, back to Bali, where Caulter proposed – but I was drawn to the house on Lake Winnipesaukee where I spent much of my childhood.