Lahat ng Kabanata ng I Hired My Neighbor to Be My Girlfriend, Then Fell in Love: Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 60

Three days before the wedding, the small vineyard venue hosted its first real test run, the rehearsal itself unfolding with considerably less drama than Everly had braced herself for after a year of unpredictable complications."This is almost suspiciously calm," she murmured to Nathaniel as they walked through the ceremony's blocking with the officiant, an old family friend who'd known Nathaniel since childhood. "I keep waiting for something to go wrong.""Don't jinx it," Nathaniel warned, though his own smile suggested he shared her cautious optimism rather than genuine worry. "We've earned a little bit of uneventful planning, I think, after everything this year."The rehearsal proceeded smoothly, the small wedding party working through the ceremony's flow under the golden light of early evening, rows of vines stretching out around them exactly as they'd envisioned when they'd first chosen this venue months earlier. Diane hovered nearby, offering gentle suggestions rather than the o

The vineyard looked exactly as beautiful as Everly had imagined during those early planning sessions months earlier, rows of grapevines stretching toward the horizon, string lights already glowing softly against the late afternoon sky, a small cluster of white chairs arranged beneath an arbor woven through with flowers she'd chosen herself, no compromise or hasty concession diminishing the vision she and Nathaniel had carefully built together."You're shaking," Marissa observed, adjusting the final pin in Everly's veil with practiced precision. "Good shaking or bad shaking?""Good," Everly said, though her voice wavered slightly on the word, emotion threatening to overwhelm her composure before she'd even taken her first step down the aisle. "I keep thinking about how impossible this would have sounded a year ago. Marrying the man who once paid me to pretend to be his girlfriend.""You keep saying that like it's the scandal of the century," Marissa said, echoing words she'd used once

The honeymoon took them to a quiet coastal town two hours outside the city, deliberately chosen for its lack of any connection to either family's business circles or press contacts, and Everly found herself luxuriating in an entire week free from wedding logistics, board meetings, or any lingering complications from their tumultuous year."I don't think I've ever gone this long without checking my phone obsessively," she admitted, stretched out on a beach chair beside Nathaniel, the device in question buried somewhere at the bottom of her bag, powered off entirely for the first three days of their trip. "It's almost unsettling, how peaceful this feels. I keep expecting my hands to itch for it out of pure habit.""We've earned a little peace, I think," Nathaniel said, reaching over to lace his fingers with hers, the sun warm against both their skin. "Though I have to admit, part of me keeps waiting for some disaster to interrupt this idyllic scene, a reporter tracking us down at breakf

The fertility specialist's office occupied a quiet, unassuming suite two floors above a bustling medical building, and Everly found herself unexpectedly nervous as they waited to be called back, an anxiety that felt entirely different from the crisis-driven tension that had once characterized so much of their year together, softer somehow, though no less real for its gentler edges."This is a good kind of nervous," she said, mostly to reassure herself, watching Nathaniel flip through a magazine without actually reading it, his eyes scanning the same page for several minutes without turning it. "Not the kind we're used to.""Definitely a different flavor," he agreed, setting the magazine aside entirely. "Though I have to admit, waiting rooms still make me somewhat anxious after everything we survived in boardrooms and legal offices this past year. I think my body's developed a permanent association between waiting and impending disaster.""We'll have to work on retraining that instinct

The months that followed passed in a gentle, expanding rhythm, doctor's appointments marking steady progress, Everly's growing belly becoming an increasingly visible reminder of the new life taking shape within their carefully rebuilt world, each ultrasound another small, precious confirmation of how far they'd come from that first desperate arrangement."I think we should paint the nursery this weekend," Everly said one evening, seven months into her pregnancy, scrolling through paint swatches on her tablet while Nathaniel prepared dinner in their kitchen, the smell of garlic and roasting vegetables filling the apartment. "Diane's been asking for weeks when she can start helping with the details, and I think if we don't give her a project soon, she'll simply show up with a truckload of furniture unannounced.""Are you ready to let her fully loose on nursery planning?" Nathaniel asked, glancing over with amused concern, the wooden spoon paused mid-stir. "I remember what happened with