Chapter 243

Helen’s POV

When I got to the door, sure enough, Randy stood outside. I opened the door, and I held her finger to my lips.

“The babies are napping?” he whispered.

I nodded. “Like angels.”

“Sweet,” he said, stepping inside. “Now, what did you need to see me for that was so urgent?”

“I need your help with something,” I explained. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Justin hasn’t been as affectionate with me as he was before all of this went down. He’s done a pretty good job of coping with the fact that one of the twins isn’t his, worse, that he’s a part demon. But it’s kind of left a quiet wedge between us, and I wanna get over that.”

Randy nodded. “I did notice. He hasn’t said anything to me. Though, I know he’s trying.”

“I realize he’s trying,” I agreed, “but that doesn’t mean that he needs to try all on his own. So . . . I have an idea.”

A wide grin spread across my face just thinking about it. “Before we found out that one of the twins belonged to the Huntsman, Justin was planning on taking me on a proper honeymoon. He said he wanted to go somewhere exotic like we should have when we first got married. So, I think that I should book the trip for him as a surprise.”

“What do you need my help with if you know what you want?”

“Well, it’s not very romantic if we take the babies, so here’s what I was thinking.”

“All right. Lay your plans on me,” he agreed.

I showed him into the living room, and we took a seat on the sofa. “I thought that he and I could go in late winter or very early spring. It’ll be cold out here at home, so we won’t be missing any of the nice weather. And if we go, then we will have been home for all of the winter holidays.”

“Okay, I’m following,” he said.

“But we’ll need to leave the babies at home. They’ll be a few months old by then, and they should be in a routine and much easier to watch over. That’s what I need you for. I was hoping that you and Lisa might be willing to watch the twins for us while we’re on vacation.”

The color drained from Randy’s face. “Babysit twins?” he said slowly.

“If it makes a difference, I’ve already started researching some nannies. I was thinking about having one part-time to help me around the house.”

I smiled shyly at him. “If I’m going to do this, I want to look good. I figured the nanny could come in now and kind of get used to everything, and that way, in a couple of months, when I’m ready to start getting back into shape, whoever I hire will be used to the babies already. Then I can go without a guilty conscience. That’ll still leave me a couple of months to get swimsuit ready before Justin, and I would leave for our honeymoon.”

“Where were you thinking of going?” Randy asked.

“I said I wanted overwater bungalows in the South Pacific when Justin and I talked before. I’m still thinking that’s where I wanna go. That’s why I need to be ready for a swimsuit. Anyway, what I meant was if I have a nanny, it won’t be just you and Lisa looking after the babies. You’ll have the nanny to help you. We won’t need to bring her on the honeymoon if we don’t have the babies with us.”

“It makes sense,” he said. “Well, I can see why you wanted to enlist my and Lisa’s help. Off the top of my head, especially if you make sure that there’s a nanny who knows the twins and the twins know her, I don’t think there should be any problem with us watching them for you. But I’d have to check with Lisa first. How long did you wanna go for?”

“One or two weeks, no more than that. Maybe like nine days. That way, we won’t eat up too much time flying to and from our destination and end up with no time to enjoy ourselves while we’re there. If we have to take a full day to travel on either side, we’ll still have a week to relax.”

Randy nodded slowly. “I don’t know that I like the idea of two weeks, but I think we can definitely do nine days. I think that sounds like a good plan. I’ll ask Lisa when she gets home from work tonight.”

“When are you two going to start a family?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I would have already started trying if she’d let me. I thought it would be fun to have a baby close to the same time as you guys so that they could all be the same age together, especially since Russo and Lisa are having one. But Lisa says she’s got more she wants to do with her career first. She’s a little younger than me, anyway. She’s only in her early 20s. She could put another five or even ten years into her practice and still be young enough to start a family. I don’t wanna cut her dreams short, after all.”

“You’re such an understanding husband, or you will be.” I reached over and squeezed Randy’s hand. “I really like Emily. I’m glad you ended up with her. You both deserve someone nice like each other.”

“Can I tell Justin about this?” Randy asked.

I shook my head. “No. I want it to be a surprise.”

“We can do that,” Randy agreed. “Is that everything you need before I go?”

“Yes.”

Randy stood. “Then, I will give you a call tonight after I’ve had a chance to talk to Emily. That way, you can get on planning.”

I stood and walked with him to the door. “Thank you for taking time out of the middle of the business day to come to see me,” I said. “It was the only time of day that I could think of when Justin wouldn’t be around because I didn’t want him to overhear.”

With Randy gone, I took my phone and curled up on the couch, ready to use the rest of the time while the twins were napping to figure out exactly where I wanted to take Justin on our real honeymoon. I settled in to happily search travel websites for ideas on where to go on our proper honeymoon. I knew I wanted to stay in some of those overwater bungalows, but there were lots of places where we could stay in those.

Obviously, there was Tahiti which is where I saw the first ones. But as I got into searching, I found places in the Seychelles and in Bali. Some of the resorts had virtual tours where you could wander the grounds, and I tried to immerse myself in the situation as fully as possible.

So I closed my eyes and pictured Justin and me dining in one of the restaurants, lounging in the hammocks, and snorkeling above the reefs in the clear waters. Then my thoughts wandered to dirtier things, and I started picturing Justin and me fucking in the swimming pool and making love under the stars or on the porch over the water.

I noticed that there were all sorts of little secluded beaches and cabanas where one might run off and do such things outside of your own bungalow. At that point, I snapped the laptop shut. I was too sore from the C-section still to turn myself on like that.

I couldn’t take care of business on my own or call Justin in to play, so I would have to come back to those imaginings in a few weeks when things were healed.

I did take it as a good sign that I still wanted to play with him like that. I wasn’t so exhausted from being a mother of twins that I wasn’t still attracted to my husband. Such thoughts just made the idea of leaving the twins with Randy and taking a real honeymoon all the more appealing. When we got to our tropical escape, the fun was going to be so freaking good.