My head shook from side to side instinctively.
“That’s what I thought.” He flashed me a smug grin and patted my leg. “Sit tight while I run inside and grab something really quick.”
It was a good thing he didn’t expect me to go with him because my knees were like rubber. I wasn’t sure I would have been able to make it more than a few steps from the car without help. Between learning that Landon wanted us to have a real, forever marriage, and that I might be pregnant, my head was spinning. Digging my phone out of my purse, I called the one person I always ran to when the going got tough.
“Zoe-baby,” my mom’s voice came through the line, half-way through the first ring. “I was just thinking about you, baby girl.”
“Oh, mom. I—I—I—“ I stuttered.
“Zoe? Are you okay? What’s going on?” Her happy tone quickly turned panicked.
“I’m married, and I might be pregnant.”
“Married and pregnant?” she gasped. “It’s been barely more than a week since I last spoke with you and you didn’t mention a man in your life.”
“Landon and I went to Vegas, and I thought it was only supposed to be temporary, but now I might be pregnant and he never said anything about it being permanent,” I babbled.
“Ah, Landon. I should have known,” she sighed. “Slow down, baby girl, and start from the beginning.”
I filled her in on everything that had happened over the last week. To say she was upset to learn her youngest daughter had run off to Vegas and gotten married without saying a word was a major understatement, but she settled down a little when I told her about the online streaming of the ceremony. I heard it playing in the background while I finished my explanation, and once I was done there was complete silence on the other end of the line. My mom was never quiet, but it seemed I’d managed to accomplish the impossible and stunned her silent.
“Mom? Say something, please.”
“Oh, baby girl,” she sniffed. “You look so happy. I can’t wait to meet him, and our new grandbaby if you are pregnant.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked down at the screen for a moment to make sure it really had been my mom who I’d called. “I’m sorry, Mom. You’re going to have to repeat that because I could have sworn you just said you’re excited about meeting Landon and me possibly being pregnant.”
“At least one of the women in your family is happy about it,” Landon grumbled as he climbed into the car again.
“Is that Landon?” my mom asked excitedly. “Can I talk to him?”
Feeling like I’d somehow slipped into another dimension, I handed the phone over to Landon and listened to his side of the conversation with my head leaned back and my eyes closed. My mom must have peppered him with questions about the ceremony and honeymoon because he told her all about the flowers, my dress, the rings, the house in Malibu—pretty much everything we’d done when we hadn’t been in bed together over the last week. When I opened my eyes again, we’d pulled into the parking lot in front of Heath Construction.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Elliott, but I need to let you go. I promise to have Zoe call again soon. Maybe we can do a video call next time, when your husband is available too.” After hanging up, he tucked my phone into my purse and helped me out of the car. “C’mon, baby. We’ve got to hurry up.”
“We do? Why?”
“Because Stephanie called while I was in the store. There’s a USCIS officer waiting inside for us.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “What are they doing here? I thought they wanted me to go to a field office next week? This can’t be good.”
“Shh,” he hushed me, placing his lips over mine to stop the flow of words. “You don’t know about that, remember? Since we were out of town when that letter arrived, we have to act like the only possible reason he’s here is the petition for alien relative I filed on Monday.”
“You filed the form already?”
He opened the glass door and ushered me inside. “Of course I did.”
“From our honeymoon?”
“Yeah, dummy, you probably should have waited until you at least got home before filing the paperwork,” Stephanie muttered as we walked past the receptionist desk where she was sitting. “Or at the very least, until after you’d told our parents since Dad almost blew your cover when that pesky immigration officer showed up asking to speak to you.”
“Shit,” Landon groaned. “Dad’s here?”
“Yuppers,” she chirped. “Lucky for you, I made sure he’s busy going over a bid so you can sneak into your office before you have to face him.”