Letters to the Baumgarters

Epilogue

Dear Carrie and Doc,

We did it. I walked down the aisle wearing the dress Mama Dorotea made for me. (She finally forgave us, although she still doesn’t quite understand our “arrangement!”) Picture (and I’m enclosing many of them!) me walking down the aisle, Mason dressed in a tux, and Nico right beside him, his best man.

They’re both my best men.

I’m so sorry Janie got so sick and you couldn’t make it! We were all looking forward to seeing you. My mother didn’t make it either, if it makes you feel any better, and she didn’t have anywhere near as good an excuse. She never wanted me to come to Italy in the first place, and I’m sure she isn’t happy that I’m staying. But I’m happy. So very happy. I’m wearing two rings now, one on each hand.

I don’t have to tell you how amazing the honeymoon was. We decided not to go anywhere at all. What’s better than Venice in the summer?

Gianni Bonaccorsi catered the wedding for us for free. He was so thrilled when we opened Bella’s, said he welcomed the competition from anyone as talented as Nico. So now Mason is handling the business side of our new restaurant venture, Nico is cooking, and I’m running the front of the restaurant. It’s perfection.

And if that wasn’t enough, I have even more amazing news…

I fantasized planning some amazing, romantic way to tell them, but when it came right down to it, the minute I found out, I just couldn’t wait.

I was out of breath already, but I ran into Bella’s, past the hostess we’d hired to give me a little break once in a while, winding my way through the maze of tables to the back of the restaurant.

Nico was in the middle of poaching eggs and I dragged him into Mason’s office while he called to his sous chef, “Watch the salmon!”

“Well, hi there.” Mason glanced up at the two of us, Nico’s chef hat askew, my face flushed. “What’s up?”

I just blurted it out. “I’m pregnant.”

Both men stared at me in disbelief. Nico turned to me, jaw dropped. Mason stood, holding onto the edge of his desk.

“Whose…?” Nico looked at me, then at Mason.

“Whose is it?” Mason echoed.

I laughed, my hands on my hips. “Does it really matter?”

Then they were both pulling me into their arms, and we laughed and cried and hugged.

It didn’t matter. We were together. We were going to be a real family.

And that was all that really mattered.