Dev glanced at her, which she knew was her cue. Noelle drew in a deep breath.
“Mom, Dad, I didn’t spend the night at Crissy’s last night. Dev and I flew to Las Vegas and got married.”
Both her parents stared at her in open-mouthed shock. She cleared her throat, then added, “I’m sorry I lied.”
Dev stepped into the uncomfortable silence. “It was all my idea,” he said quickly. “Please don’t blame your daughter. I was doing my best to sweep her off her feet and all the time she kept talking about how she didn’t want to disappoint you. I hope you’ll understand and lay the blame where it belongs.”
Noelle appreciated the support and the fact that Dev wasn’t technically lying about anything.
Her mother surfaced first. “Married?” she asked in a shaky voice. “One of my babies is married?”
Noelle held out the ring. Her mother glanced at it, then at Dev. “Okay, yeah, for that I might have married you, too.” She gave a laugh, then pulled Noelle close. “Is this what you want? Are you happy?”
Noelle was grateful that the tight hug meant her only response could be a nod.
Her father glared at Dev. “You’re sure about this? You’re prepared to take on the responsibility for my daughter?”
“Of course,” Dev said confidently. “Mr. Stevenson, I know how much your daughter means to you. I would never hurt her in any way. She will be taken care of and safe for as long as I draw breath.”
Noelle waited for her father’s response. Once again Dev had managed to speak the truth. She wondered if anyone would notice that he hadn’t promised to love her.
Her father continued to study Dev for a few more seconds, then held out his hand again. “Then welcome to the family.”
“Thank you, sir.”
The next few minutes passed in a blur. Her parents ushered them into the family room. Her mother produced lemonade and cookies, then wished they had champagne in the house.
“I didn’t think we’d need it so soon,” she said, touching Noelle’s hand. “Tell me everything about the wedding. I wish we could have been there. Oh, my. There are so many people to tell. We’ll have to have a party, won’t we, Bob? Maybe something in the garden.”
Dev listened to Jane Stevenson talk about the wedding. There were tears in her eyes as she realized all she’d missed of her oldest daughter’s big day. He felt bad for having to deceive her and her husband, but it was better this way. Better that they not know the truth about the baby. They were the sort of people who would insist on helping and he didn’t want to have to argue against their pride and love for their daughter.
Noelle was holding up better than he’d expected. She answered lots of questions about the Bellagio and even surprised him by admitting she’d already packed most of her things.
When they were finally ready to leave, he braced himself for a one-on-one with Noelle’s father. He figured he owed the man, so he wouldn’t try to duck out of the conversation. But instead it was Jane who cornered him as Noelle’s father loaded her luggage in the car.
“Please take care of my little girl,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “I know she’s the oldest, but I still think of her as my baby. My firstborn. Oh, Dev, I know you’re a good man, but this is difficult.”
He touched her arm. “I promise I’ll take care of her.”
She smiled through her tears. “I know she’ll never want for anything, which is lovely, but there’s so much more to a marriage than not worrying about bills. Noelle is special. I guess I don’t have to tell you that, but I’m going to, anyway. She’s smart and responsible and caring. And that’s what I worry about the most. Her heart.”
She paused and wiped away the single tear that had escaped. “She thinks she’s tough, but she bruises so easily. She leads with her heart. Be careful of that. Be tender.”
“I will,” he said, knowing it was a safe promise. Noelle’s heart didn’t enter into their agreement.
“As long as you love each other fully, you can get through anything,” Jane said. “That’s my best advice. Love each other.”
He nodded without speaking, then walked toward the car.
Love. Romantic love. He didn’t believe in it. Not anymore. He’d tried it once, while he’d been raising Jimmy, only the woman in question had refused to deal with a difficult teenager. He’d let her walk away because he hadn’t known how to keep her. The loss had devastated him.
Since then, he’d avoided the emotion and found he got along quite fine. Love was for the weak. He’d always been strong. Nothing about that was going to change.
Since Dev was able to carry about five times as much luggage as Noelle, they carried everything inside in two trips.
“I told you about the two bedrooms down here,” he said as he showed her a large, airy bedroom decorated in pale blue and beige. A queen-size bed sat against one wall, with a big armoire opposite. A long desk filled the space under the window.
“I ordered the desk last week and had it put here,” he said. “I thought you might like to look out while you studied.”
He’d done that for her? “Thank you,” she said as she glanced out at the beautiful yard. She could see flowers, a tree and one end of the pool. Talk about a great way to take a break. “It was very thoughtful.”
“You’re welcome. Bookcases,” he said, pointing to the ends of the desk.
She bent down and saw there was a good-sized bookcase at each end. On both sides of the comfy looking leather chair were deep file drawers.
The closet was equally impressive. A big walk-in had been finished by some expert who had put in angled shelves for shoes, straight shelves for folded items, pockets for purses, three sets of drawers and plenty of multilevel hanging space. The fixtures were a gleaming silver that looked great against the light wood.
She walked into the bathroom. There were two sinks and lots more storage space. The far door led into another nice bedroom with a queen-size bed and simple furniture.
“You’ll want to make changes,” he said. “To make this into a baby’s room. I’ll give you the name of my decorator. If you’d rather design it yourself, I have a handyman who will move furniture, paint, hang curtains, whatever. All that information is in my study.”
He left, apparently wanting to give her that stuff now. Noelle lingered for a second. A baby’s room. She tried to imagine the space filled with a crib and changing table, but nothing about this situation seemed real.
She found Dev in his study. He offered her a list of phone numbers, including his personal cell, work cell, private line, the decorator and anyone else he thought she might want to get in touch with.
There was also a leather box filled with an assortment of items. He went through them quickly.
“ATM card, checkbook. Extra key to my car. House key, alarm code. Everything
