“Mina,” came the soft reply. She shook hands. “I’m very happy to meet you. I’m Cort’s wife.”

“Wife!” Chaca gaped at him. “You got married? I am so happy! I never thought you would give up those horrible women and bring me somebody so nice!”

“Obviously, you underestimated my ability to attract somebody so nice,” he chuckled.

“This is obviously true.” Chaca sighed again and shook her head. “Bienvenidos,” she said to Mina. “I will bring coffee and cake at once, for you and Cort.”

“And why not for me, too?” Vic demanded.

“Because you broke my best crystal serving dish this morning and I am not speaking to you,” she huffed, and went off into the kitchen.

“I sat on it,” Vic muttered, aware of amused glances. “Well, she had it in a chair cleaning it and didn’t tell me and I sort of sat down hard. Damned thing. Could have ruined my new pants.”

Cort just shook his head.

“So you got married.” Vic smiled at Mina. “You remind me of Cort’s mother,” he added softly. “She had hair like yours, and a sweet, gentle nature.”

“Mina likes to knit, too,” Cort added, smiling at her. “She’s a homebody. Oh, there’s one other thing. We’re going to make you a grandfather in a few months.”

“A grandfather.” Vic had to fight tears. “And this one will be where I can get to know him,” he said quietly. “I’ve missed seeing my other grandkids. They live so far away. And they don’t visit much.”

“You’re never home, much,” Cort drawled.

“Well, I will be, when this one comes.” He frowned at Mina. “He married you because of the baby?”

Mina laughed. “He didn’t know about the baby until after he proposed.”

“Well!”

“It’s been the happiest two days of my life,” Cort confessed. “I wasn’t sure she’d have me.”

“Silly man,” Mina said softly. “I loved you the minute I met you.”

“She stomped on my foot and dared me to have her arrested,” Cort chuckled, telling on her.

She flushed. “He made fun of me because I was talking about how much I liked to knit.”

“I swear that I’ll never make fun of you again,” Cort said, hand over his heart.

“You’re only saying that because you don’t want your foot stomped on again,” she teased. But in the back of her mind was her profession and his misconception that she’d spend their married life knitting and raising children. Well, she could do both, of course. But she might have to depend more on her commando group to sit and tell her about adventures, rather than go with them. She had a feeling that Cort wasn’t going to be understanding if he knew what she’d been doing with her life since she started writing books. And there would be the inevitable tours when she’d have to travel to sign books at the various venues, including independent bookstores where she already had readers who loved her work. In fact, there was a tour scheduled the following month. How was she going to tell him?