I had Selena now, and that was what mattered. I didn’t need them anymore.
I kissed her hard and hoped she understood that.
33
Selena
One Year Later
I looked down at the ring on my finger and smiled.
It was funny how things could start to mean something else. One second it has all these bad feelings, this negativity, and the next it feels completely fresh.
Once upon a time, my engagement ring had made me sad. When I looked at it, I knew that it was just a lie. Maybe I felt something for the man that had given it to me, but that wasn’t reality. We were lying to the world, all because I needed money and he wanted a better job.
Then, things happened. Lots of things happened. Lots of dirty, sweaty, incredible things happened. And the ring began to mean something very, very different.
When I looked at my ring over a year after he had first given it to me, it stood for love. It wasn’t a lie, not anymore.
I leaned back in my chair, smiling up at the little bungalow. The sun was bright in the late afternoon, and I felt a bead of sweat roll down my back. The glass of iced tea next to me was sweating, just like I was.
What a lovely day. The garden was coming in nicely, especially since I had so much time to work on it. Ever since we’d gotten the news all those months ago, Nash had been adamant that I never worked again. I missed my little part-time job, but I had a bigger full-time job coming up, growing inside me.
I looked up and saw him standing in the doorway to our little house in the hills, smiling at me.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, walking toward me. He was wearing a pair of cutoff jean shorts and nothing else, his muscles tanned and tensed, incredibly sexy.
“Do you ever wear a shirt?” I asked.
“You know the answer to that.”
I laughed as he kissed me on the cheek and crouched down next to me. He kissed my stomach next and smiled. “How’s Chris doing today?”
“He’s good,” I said.
“And how are you?”
“Fine,” I said. “Bored. Ready to give birth already.”
He laughed. “We have a long way to go before that happens.” He paused and looked back at the house. “Your mom said she’s going to move out here,” he said quietly.
“I know,” I admitted. “Ever since Dad died, well, she doesn’t want to be alone out there anymore. You know?”
He sighed. “Does she have to live with us?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Fine,” he grunted. “But we’re getting a bigger house.”
“Fine with me.”
He kissed me again and stood up.
“Look at you, my pregnant wife. How’s it feel to know that we never have to lie to the media again?”
“Speak for yourself,” I said. “I love lying to them. Makes me feel alive.”
He laughed. “Do what you want, babe. Just don’t tank this movie.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
He shrugged. “Part of me thinks it’s going to fail. But part of me doesn’t give a fuck.”
“General Prick will give a fuck.”
He smiled at my little nickname for his commanding officer. “Yeah, well.”
After our first month together, he told me everything. He told me about how the media tour was a propaganda thing set up by the government, how the book was ghostwritten by some guy working for them, and how it was technically his mission to go through all the media shit he went through.
Including the movie, which was actually getting a lot of good press. They were showing it to small festivals before the big release, and everyone was reacting really favorably to it. Still, Nash worried, but he was just like that. My husband, Nash the perfectionist.
“It’s like an endless summer here,” he said.
“Yeah. It’s nice. I hated shoveling snow.”
“Makes people soft.”
I laughed. “We don’t have to stay, you know?”
“Yeah, I know. But you like it here, and I guess I don’t give a fuck where we are, so long as you’re there.”
I laughed and stood up. He want to help me, but I pushed him away. “I’m barely pregnant. Relax,” I said.
“Look at you,” he said, laughing. “You’re six months pregnant.”
I looked down at my belly and frowned. “I’m fat.”
“You’re pregnant.” He kissed my lips. “And fucking sexy.”
“Oh yeah?” I smiled. “You still want me?”
“God, if your mother weren’t inside, I’d fuck your sexy pregnant pussy right here on the lawn.”
I laughed and kissed him softly. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me,” he said. “Just let me have my way with you. That’s all I ask.”