Fortunately, instead of digging for more info, Sophie nodded her head. “Boy, do I know what you’re talking about.” She looked at Mia. “Jake had to be one of the biggest players on the planet when I finally decided to seduce him. Talk about bad news.”

“Fortunately,” Mia said, “he was smart enough to appreciate that you were the best thing that ever happened to him.”

Megan raised her wine glass in a toast. “To our men appreciating us.”

As Mia shifted Jackie’s weight slightly in her left arm so that she could lift her glass and clink it with everyone else’s, she noticed that every one of the women she was sitting with had the same happy smile. Wanting to drown the stupid sense of jealousy that they’d all found love when she was as far from it as she could possibly be, Mia took a long drink from her glass.

“I’ve never seen Marcus like this, Nicola,” Sophie said. “He’s always been so calm and steady, but today he was practically bouncing off the walls, he’s so excited about finally getting to marry you.”

Nicola’s skin hadn’t yet lost the flush from her latest secret assignation with Marcus, and now that they were talking about him, the pretty rose color flooded even more deeply into her cheeks. “I’m crazy excited, too. Sometimes—” She stopped and shook her head as if she didn’t quite know how to put everything she was feeling into words. “Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky. I mean, if I hadn’t met him that night at the club, and then if Lori hadn’t been choreographing my video and invited him to watch rehearsals the next day, I would have missed out on the best thing in my life.”

“If not at the club that night, you and Marcus would have met another place, another way,” Valentina said softly, which surprised Mia, because she would have said Valentina was more practical than dreamy. “Smith and I always talk about how the two of us circled each other in the film and TV business for years without ever actually meeting, until my sister was offered the part in Gravity. But I think the reason we didn’t meet until last year is because the timing wasn’t right, and neither of us would have been ready for the other.”

“Or you all could have just followed my example and thrown yourself naked at the guy you’d been wanting your entire life so that you ended up knocked up with twins,” Sophie said with a grin.

The group’s laughter was accompanied by more wine and snacks being passed around. As each fell naturally into conversation with the person next to her, Nicola shifted to turn her pretty gaze to Mia.

“It’s really great to see you. I wish Marcus and I had had more time in Seattle after the last show to spend some time with you.”

“And what a show it was,” Mia said. “You were amazing. And you have to know how cute Marcus was out in the audience with me. He’s so proud of you.”

“Poor guy has heard these songs a thousand times already, at least.”

“And he’d gladly sign up for another thousand,” Mia said with utter certainty. “But can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” the other woman said. “Anything. Especially if you’ll pass the baby over to me first.”

“Nope, I’m not done getting my cuddles in yet. Besides, Valentina already called dibs on the next lap session.”

“But I’m the one getting married,” Nicola protested. “That should push me up to the top of the dibs list.”

“Nice try,” Mia said as she snuggled Jackie a little closer, “but you’re still going to have to get in line for baby love.”

Nothing could make a person feel better about the world than a soft, warm bundle on her lap breathing evenly in sleep. Unlike her friends, Mia had loved to babysit the little ones when she was a teenager. Sure, sometimes they were fussy, but they were also so darned cute. Kids were yet another thing she and Ford hadn’t talked about during their week together. Yes, she’d fallen in love with him, but clearly there hadn’t been any real foundation to it. Not like yesterday, when he’d talked about kids running through the house she’d showed him.

Darn it, why was she thinking of him again?

“So what’s up?” Nicola asked, bringing Mia back to the question she’d been wanting to ask.

“How do you and Marcus make things work so well? Not just that,” she added before Nicola could respond, “but you make it look so easy. And I know it can’t possibly be, with your busy touring and recording schedule and the demands of this vineyard.”

“No,” Nicola agreed with a small smile, “it definitely isn’t easy. And I don’t know how much you know about our relationship, but we were a mess at first. A total mess, actually. I was so adamant that he couldn’t handle the circus of my life that I literally kicked him out of it, even when it was the very last thing I really wanted because I was already head over heels in love with him. But you know Marcus.” Nicola’s face softened even further with a look of pure love. “When he made up his mind that he could most definitely deal with the circus, he was suddenly showing up at all of my shows all over the country. How was I supposed to resist focus and determination like that? Especially when it proved how much he was willing to change his own life for me. I’m not going to lie and say that figuring out how to make our two schedules work together is always a perfectly smooth ride, but I’ll take a few bumps in the road over being without him, anytime.” With that, she popped a grape into her mouth, then asked Mia a question of her own. “Does this question have anything to do with this bad news man of yours, who I’m going to assume is super hot, too?”

“Not just bad news. Old news,” Mia said with a careless wave of her free hand. But obviously feeling her tense at the blatant lie, Jackie made a face in her sleep and shifted in Mia’s arms. “Sorry, baby girl,” she whispered before turning her gaze back up to Nicola. “I did meet a cute guy on the flight out here, though.”

Nicola raised an eyebrow, clearly not about to fall for the diversion Mia was trying to throw at her. “If it takes me all weekend, I’ll get you to spill the details on your secret hot guy. Although, speaking of hot guys, I just got some great news about a guest who told me he can come to the wedding tomorrow, after all. I’ll give you a hint—he’s one of the most amazing rockers on the planet.”

Even as Mia tried to be rational and think about the odds against his name coming out of Nicola’s mouth, she couldn’t stop a heavy feeling from coming over her. Her mouth felt dry, and it took every ounce of self-control to keep from fidgeting so that she didn’t wake up the baby in her arms.