I’d had no illusions that our baby news would remain our secret—as long as Holden was happy about it. Keeping good news to himself was almost impossible for him. He’d nearly burst from waiting to tell Kemp about my investment when Kemp was out of town. The one thing that had kept him from spilling it in that case was that he wanted to celebrate with his partner in person. So I’d been certain, if I told Holden our baby news on the dance floor, that anyone who was still at the party would leave knowing it too. I’d gone into this completely okay with it, even though it was early—around six weeks.

He reined himself in for a moment, sobered up, lowered me to the ground, and looked into my eyes as if to verify that I meant it about keeping it private.

Which made me laugh. I loved this man with all of my heart, and I couldn’t wait to watch him share the news. Could not wait to watch him be a dad.

Ignoring all the attention from our guests, he inhaled, looking as if he was going to try to play it off, as I’d requested. Which only made me love him more.

“You’re serious though?” he asked, as if it was still sinking in. Without waiting for me to answer, he asked, “When are we due?”

Though he was holding me closer than before, he was almost—almost—managing to pull of the nonchalance I’d asked for now, swaying to the slow beat, nuzzling his nose into my hair.

“Early January, based on an online calculator. We’ll know more when we go to a doctor.”

“Are… are you okay with this? You’ve always been all about work.”

“And then I married you,” I said, “and I found out there’s so much more to life. I love our work, but I love our life together even more. I can’t wait to have your baby, Holden Henry.”

He pressed a kiss to my forehead. “But we can’t tell anyone?”

I pulled back just enough to meet his eyes again. “Do you want to tell someone?”

“Chloe, darlin’, I want to tell the whole fucking world.” He leaned down and kissed my lips, and he put every bit of his excitement and love and over-the-top joy into that kiss. I liked to think I gave him the same.

He ended the kiss abruptly and said, “I love you like crazy, Chlo.”

“I love you like crazy right back. And I knew—well, I hoped—that you’d be bursting with the news. I knew you’d want to let it out. So”—smiling, I nodded, my eyes damp—“let’s tell everyone our news.”