The Mobster's Girl

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

It was nearly two weeks after the incident with O'Leary, and nearly everything had gone back to normal. Stella had ended up moving out of her apartment altogether, and was living full time in Jack's penthouse at the hotel. She knew that she was moving fast, but she felt more comfortable being around Jack. She had lasted a week in her own hotel room that he had put her in months prior, but she had had awful nightmares about her experience with O'Leary, and felt much safer near Jack.

She had her own room in Jack's penthouse, which she hardly used, but it was the thought that counted.

Stella and Jack had been inseparable since moving in with each other, and Stella kept telling herself that it was just the honeymoon phase, but she hated being apart from him, and he hated being apart from her. They spent nearly every waking minute with each other, hardly able to keep their hands off of each other, and were at the point where they were annoying their friends with their 'mushy gushiness' as Hazel put it.

"You're worse than Kate and Peter," she would say.

"And that's saying a lot," Kate would reply with a wry smile.

Jack and Stella would simply smile at each other and say nothing. They had spent too long denying their feelings for each other, and were making up for all of that lost time.

Now, it was the day of Kate and Peter's wedding, and Kate and Hazel were in their own hotel room, and were sitting in front of the bathroom mirror, doing their makeup.

Stella had already done hers and was helping Kate with hers, as well as with her hair, and she couldn't help but notice her friend's nervous expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" Stella looked back and forth between her friend's reflection, to one of the curls in Kate's hair that she was checking to see if it had set yet.

"It's nothing," Kate replied quickly with a forced smile on her face.

"Baloney," Hazel replied.

Kate reached for her mimosa and finished what was left in the glass, then glanced down at her lap.

"What if he decides that he doesn't want to marry me, and I'm left to raise this baby by myself?" Kate put her hands on her flat stomach, and refused to look up at her friends.

"You didn't see him when you were held hostage by O'Leary," Hazel stated, her voice firm. "You didn't see how worried he was. He thought he was going to lose you and the baby. You're his family, Kate. He loves you."

It didn't help calm Kate down much, and Stella didn't know what she could say to help her friend.

"What would make this better? Do you want me to go grab Peter and have him come down here and tell you himself that he loves you and wants to marry you?" Stella was joking, but Kate's face lit up.

"Yes," she replied quickly. "He can't see me before the wedding, but maybe if I stood on one side of the door, and him on the other so he couldn't see me..." she trailed off, thinking of the idea.

Stella looked at her in disbelief, thinking the whole thing would cause bad luck for the two of them.

"You're serious?"

Kate met her friend's gaze.

"Yeah. Go get him."

Stella rushed to the phone and was redirected to Jack's room, where Peter answered.

"It's Stella. Listen, I need you to come down here and do something for Kate. She wants to see you before you guys get married."

Peter was silent for a few seconds, trying to determine if what Stella was asking was a trick or not.