All the usual things wouldn’t have any effect on Raina. She probably received flowers all the time, and considering that she was a model, clothes and jewelry weren’t going to be much of a thrill, either. If he was going to give her a gift, it needed to be something she wouldn’t think to buy for herself. Something that showed her how committed to this marriage he really was.

Basically a miracle in a box.

He did an Internet search for “gifts” and browsed several pages of images. He considered a package for a luxury island vacation, then quickly moved on. Raina traveled all the time. Plus, the point was to keep her stress level low so she could get pregnant. Putting her through the rare torture of airport security and a long flight was probably counterproductive.

“This being in love stuff is harder than it looks,” Nick muttered.

The problem, he realized, was that he was trying to buy her something to convince her that he was a nice guy. But there was really no product in the world that could do that. She needed to see that his intentions were pure based on his actions, not something he bought.

His eyes went to his briefcase. The top of the pregnancy book he’d picked up at the bookstore on the way in stuck out of the top. It was a heavy tome, easily six hundred pages of tiny text and weird, black-and-white charts and diagrams. He’d tried to read a little of it in the bookstore but the pictures of tiny bloblike cells had creeped him out a little. He felt incredibly juvenile being squeamish about a book.

“I can do this. Let’s read about pregnancy.” He flipped it open and paged past the initial sections about conception. No grown man should need a primer on that part, he reasoned. He stopped at the section entitled The First Trimester. After several pages, he had to wonder if getting Raina pregnant was such a good idea. Nausea, mood swings, fatigue, and tender breasts sounded like the symptoms of a disease, not pregnancy.

By the time he’d finished the whole section, he was almost afraid to read any more. What the hell had he been thinking? He’d gone into this assuming it would just be having a whole lot of sex and then bringing Raina ice cream and pickles for nine months. But there were all these warnings and rules that he’d had no idea about. They weren’t supposed to have sex with her on her back. And then what if he penetrated her too deeply? They hadn’t even talked about a birth plan.

He had no idea what he was doing!

“Hello, anyone here?”

Nick looked up at the deep voice echoing from the reception area. “I’m in my office.” A few seconds later, Elliot walked in.

“You haven’t gotten a new assistant yet?”

Nick accepted his handshake and then they bumped shoulders. “She had to leave early. This one is actually working out. She’s a singer in Jackson’s new group.”

“You’re not banging her, are you? That could get sticky.”

Nick recoiled. “No.”

It wasn’t an unfair question, considering his past, but just the thought made him feel wrong. What a change. It wouldn’t have even registered a little while ago and he would have just shrugged it off. But now he had to wonder if this was what Raina thought of him. Did she think he just slept with anything that moved?

Was she worried about him being faithful?

“So what brings you by in the middle of the week? Mom will be excited to see you.” Elliot owned and operated a security firm a few hours north in Washington, D.C. They usually only saw him on the weekends.

“Oh, I think she’s already excited. You’ve just made her the happiest woman on the East Coast probably.”

Nick stared at him blankly. “What did I do? Not that I’m complaining. It’s better to be on her good side.”

“Did you really think you could get married and we wouldn’t find out? What is wrong with you?”

Nick lost his breath. “You know about that?”

“This is not the 1990s. Technology has ruined the ability for people to do stupid shit without anyone finding out. A fan of Raina’s saw the two of you entering a chapel in Vegas and posted the picture on Twitter. I’m sure you can imagine my surprise this weekend when someone asked me about your wedding.”

Elliot stopped talking suddenly. Nick followed his gaze to where the pregnancy book lay open on his desk. A large diagram of a fetus was clearly visible.

Elliot looked back at him, no longer joking. “Well, I didn’t see that one coming. You’ve been busy, little brother.”

Nick covered his mouth with his hand. “You have no idea.”

“When were you planning on filling us in?” Eli asked quietly. His brother wasn’t usually chatty and he was hardly the sensitive type, but if Nick didn’t know better, he’d think Eli’s feelings were hurt.

“I was going to tell you all today, I swear. It all happened so fast. I saw that Mom left me a message but I didn’t even listen to it. I was planning on stopping by later.”

Elliot popped him on the back of the head.

“Ouch! Damn, Eli. What was that for? I already apologized.”

Eli shook his head. “That was on behalf of your poor wife. Do you really think Mom is going to just sit back and wait for you to bring Raina to the house?”

Nick thought of Raina alone at her house, opening her front door to a crowd of Alexanders.

“Oh no.”

Elliot nodded. “That’s right.”

Nick whipped out his cell phone and dialed Raina’s number. It rang several times before voicemail picked up. “She’s not answering. This is about to be bad. Really bad.”