Divided Interests

by Kelly Elliott

  Resting my chin on the back of my hand, I gazed at him for a few moments. “Talk to me.”

  Lucas sighed. “I’m pissed at myself for letting them bully me into sitting with her tonight. I think in a way, Pete actually wanted me to sleep with her. He’s so worried about securing her investment. But Harper probably told you that.”

  “No, she didn’t say anything like that. She told me you looked like you wanted to be sick the entire time you were sitting there. She also wanted to tell you she was sorry she didn’t trust you. She’d only ever heard about you after you broke my heart in two.”

  Lucas rolled me over so fast I let out a small scream. He was on top of me, his body between my legs, his hard length against my instantly throbbing core.

  “Did you tell her I’ve changed? That I do things slow?” he asked, kissing me softly on the neck and along my collarbone.

  “Mmm,” I whispered, wrapping my legs around him and lifting my hips to get better contact. He was naked, but I had on a pair of cotton sleeping pants. “I didn’t have to. She figured you’d changed since we were engaged, which she told me you announced to everyone.”

  He gazed down at me. “I’d rent a plane and write it across the sky if I could.”

  I smiled. “You didn’t have to come home tonight. I wasn’t mad.”

  Lucas rubbed his nose against mine. “I know, but the moment I realized what an ass I had been, I needed to be here. Needed to tell you how much you mean to me and how much I love you.”

  My heart filled with love as Lucas placed gentle kisses over my face and finally pressed his mouth to mine.

  Before I knew what was happening, Lucas had pulled my sleeping pants down, and I was kicking them off my body.

  The moment he slipped inside me, I let out a long moan of pleasure. Lucas moved slowly, filling me completely, then withdrawing painstakingly slow before entering me again.

  “Lucas, faster,” I whispered, wrapping my legs around him.

  “I want to make love to you slowly. Feel every single movement.”

  My fingertips moved lazily over his back.

  “Do you have your dress?” he asked.

  Between the pounding of my heart in my ears, the thrumming of my body, and the way his whispered voice left me dizzy, I managed, “Yes.”

  “Then marry me…now.”

  I froze, but he kept moving.

  “What?” I asked, thinking I hadn’t heard him right, or maybe had misunderstood.

  “I want to make you mine, now.”

  Pressing my hand to his chest, I pushed him back until his eyes met mine. “I am yours, Lucas. No marriage certificate will ever change that or make it more believable. I’ve always been yours and I will be forever.”

  “I know everything is changing for you, and you’re finally making your dreams come true, but I want you to be my wife and I want… I want…”

  He sounded so unsure, as if he was worried to tell me. I placed my hand on the side of his face and smiled. “Tell me what you want. This isn’t only about my wishes and dreams. It’s about yours, as well.”

  The way his eyes glistened made my heart feel like it dropped in my chest.

  “I want a baby. I want to marry you and try for a baby and fill this house with as many little ones as you want. If you only want one, I’m fine with that. If you want ten, I’ll gladly keep you knocked up or die trying.”

  A mix between a sob and a laugh slipped between my lips. “Have you lost your mind? Lucas, we’ve only been back together for a few months. Everything in our world is upside down. I’m starting a new business...”

  “And you will kick ass at it. You can work. You don’t have to give that up. Once you go back to the flower shop, I’ll take care of the baby. It will be easier for me since I’ll be working for Dad.”

  “You’re serious?” I asked, searching his face and feeling my heart nearly explode with love for this man. “You want to try for a baby right away?”

  “If you want to. If you don’t, I understand.”

  My head should have been swimming with confusion. I had to be crazy thinking of getting pregnant while opening up a new business. But, something deep inside knew I wanted this as much as Lucas did. We had wasted so many years, I didn’t want to waste another single moment.

  “I can probably move the wedding up. It’s really just family and friends, and it’s not a big affair. I’ll call the florist tomorrow and ask the earliest we can get all the arrangements finished.”

  “Your dress?”

  “It was nearly a perfect fit. I did want to lose maybe ten pounds or so.”

  Lucas frowned. “Why the fuck would you want to do that?”

  I laughed. “I’m carrying a good extra ten pounds, at least.”

  Lucas was still inside of me. Now he withdrew completely, leaving me instantly feeling empty.

  He stared intently. So much so that I felt heat move up from my neck to my cheeks.

  “What are you doing? Why did you pull out?”

  Lucas slowly shook his head, stood, and reached for my hands, pulling me out of the bed.

  “Lift your arms,” he whispered as he pulled my tank top off my head. He tossed it to the side and then let his eyes move ever so slowly over my body.

  “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on. Every single thing about you is perfect. Everything.”

  I could feel my blush grow hotter.

  “Lucas, I—”

  He pressed his finger to my lips. “I don’t want you to change and I never want to hear you say you have weight to drop. When I look at you, Paige… God, when I look at you, my breath is stolen from my lungs. You have no idea how you make my body feel so alive. The way I want you is unlike anything. If I could spend the rest of my life exploring your body like it was the first time, I’d do it day in and day out. Don’t ever try to change. Not for me, not anyone.”

  I felt one tear, then another, trail down my cheeks. Lucas cupped my face in his hands and swept his thumbs over my skin.

  “You are the most precious thing. You are rare, and beautiful, and perfect. I knew the moment I walked away from you that it was the biggest mistake of my life. Never again will I go a day without telling you how fucking lucky I am that you’re mine.”

  I tried with all my might not to cry. After rubbing my lips back and forth in an attempt to settle my emotions, I looked up and met his gaze.

  “I’m not perfect, by any means, but to know that’s what you see when you look at me makes me almost the happiest woman on Earth.”

  He smiled, then frowned. “Almost?”

  I nodded. “If you let me paint your office the color I picked out, I’ll be beyond crazy happy.”

  Lucas stared in utter disbelief. A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth before he lost control and started to laugh.

  “You are impossible. How about this. I’ll let you paint it pink—”

  “Light peach.”

  “Whatever you want to call it,” he said with an eye roll. “If you marry me this weekend.”

  “This weekend!” I gasped.

  “Take it or leave it.”

  “You know, I learned the art of negotiation from some of the best. I could attempt to sweeten the deal.”

  His brow lifted.

  “Fine. I’ll marry you this weekend.”

  I screamed when Lucas picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. He dropped me onto the bed and we both laughed. The moment he slipped inside me, everything felt exactly as it should. And I was indeed, the happiest woman on Earth.

  Lucas

  I CAUGHT SIGHT of my father as I rode up on Ranger. It was a beautiful, cool fall day, something Texas didn’t have a whole lot of. It was always either damn hot or damn cold.

  Ranger came to a stop, and I jumped off the side of him, adjusted my hat and made my way over to the fence.

  “I told you I would fix this, Dad.”

  He looked up at me and smiled. I knew it still meant a
lot to him to have me back home, working alongside him, both here on the ranch and with Foster construction company.

  “It was such a cool morning, I wanted to get it taken care of. What are you doing here?”

  “Wanted to talk to you about a few things.”

  He nodded. “Grab those pullers. We’ll talk and work.”

  Smiling, I picked up the fence pullers. My father had always been the type of person who didn’t believe in wasting a single moment. If he could do something more efficiently, he did. I couldn’t help but wonder if he got that from his English father. I pushed the thought away and spoke.

  “First, I wanted to talk to you about bringing Ranger to Granddad’s place. I’ve been working on the barn, not that it needed much work. Granddad made sure it stayed in good condition, even though he stopped keeping animals there years ago.”

  My father twisted the wire and looked at me. “You need to start calling it your place, son. It’s your property. Your ranch. And yes, Ranger is your horse. As a matter of fact, if you want to take more of these beasts off of my hands, I’m more than happy to let you.”

  With a chuckle, I said, “I’m sure Paige would love a horse, as well. We’ve both missed riding like we used to.”

  “The two of you used to ride every day, pretty much. She always did like Princess.”

  “You don’t think Mom would mind? She adores Princess.”

  “She adores Paige more. Trust me, your mother hasn’t ridden in six months. She’s been keeping herself busy with other things. I think that fall she had last year might have scared her.”

  I nodded as the memory of last year came back. My father had called me in a state of utter panic. Mom had been out riding and had been thrown from a horse. She broke her arm and had to have surgery to get it back in place. She had climbed up onto a horse a few times after, purely to prove to herself that she wasn’t afraid. After that, she had stopped riding altogether. I couldn’t blame her. The few times I’d been thrown from a horse, it had scared me, too. Horses were both so damn powerful and so damn gentle.

  Glancing over to me, my dad smiled. “You don’t know how good it is to see you in real clothes.”

  With a frown, I looked down at my clothes. “Real clothes? When have I not worn real clothes?”

  He huffed. “Those damn collared shirts and khaki pants that woman always had you in. Let’s not even talk about the preppy shoes.”

  I laughed. “I used to wear that to work, Dad. Not everyone wears jeans, cowboy boots, and Stetson hats to their jobs.”

  “I do. My daddy did before me.”

  I wanted to point out that his biological father had probably never slid a cowboy boot on in his entire life. I didn’t, though; I let that one go.

  “I missed the ranch. The smell of it out here makes me happy.”

  “Manure and grass.” He took in a deep breath and let it out. “Ahh, nothing like it. I could roll in it.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” I said, snarling.

  “What else did you want to talk about?”

  “Do you have plans this weekend?”

  Already knowing the answer, I watched as he seemed to go through the internal calendar he kept in his head. He was the only person I knew who never wrote a damn thing down. Something I had not been gifted with.

  I smiled. “Dad, you don’t ever work on the weekend. It’s always been your golden rule. Why are you thinking so hard about this?”

  He huffed again. “How do you know I don’t have plans? I was going to play golf with Lou this Sunday after church. Then your momma talked about going into Fredericksburg for the Octoberfest on Saturday.”

  I gave him a thoughtful look as I rubbed the back of my neck. “Damn shame you’ve got such amazing plans. I was sort of hoping you might be free Saturday night, around six.”

  “Six? I’m sure your mother and I will be back by then. You thinking dinner with you and Paige?”

  “Something like that. More along the lines of a wedding, then a small dinner after.”

  He twisted the last tie around the repaired fence. “I think we can make that…”

  I laughed when his head whipped around, and he stared at me, his mouth damn near to the ground.

  “Did you say a wedding? This Saturday? That’s in three days, Lucas.”

  “Yes, sir, I know. My bride-to-be is in a bit of a panic. You see, we negotiated last night. I said I’d let her paint my office pink in exchange for a wedding this weekend.”

  He rubbed the stubble on his chin. “Why in the hell would you agree to let her paint your office pink?”

  I loved that that was what he wondered about. “I believe it was you who told me once, after Paige and I had an argument, to pick my battles.”

  He grinned and pointed to me. “That is why you’re my favorite son.”

  “I’m your only son.”

  “Minor thing. So, care to tell me why the rush?”

  We started to gather up the tools and walked them over to the ranch truck.

  “I’m tired of waiting. I’ve wasted too much time being an ass. I want to start a family.”

  That caused him to pause. “How does Paige feel about that? She’s starting her shop… Does she want to start a family this soon?”

  I smiled. “Yes. I told her I’d stay home with the baby. I figured I could work something out with a nanny.”

  A roar of laughter came from his mouth. “A nanny. Your mother would smack you upside your head if she heard you say that. Just yesterday she had me clearing out your old room. It’s going to be the nursery, she said.”

  “Huh?” I said, not believing what I heard.

  “Lucas, women have a way of knowing things before we do. Your mother is the best in the world with this little gift. She probably already knows the wedding is Saturday at six. I learned, as will you, that often you will say two words to your wife followed up most times by four more words.”

  I could feel myself grinning. “What words would those be?”

  My father looked me dead in the eyes. “‘Yes, dear.’ And ‘whatever you want, sweetheart.’”

  After spending the morning with my father on the ranch, we drove to the courthouse and checked on the renovations. Then we swung by and checked on Paige’s shop. It was moving along faster than either of us could have hoped. The outside was nearly complete, and I couldn’t wait to see the sign I had made hung up.

  I parted ways with my dad, but not before making arrangements to pick up Ranger, Princess, and two other horses my father insisted would be happier with me and Paige. I then swung by the grocery store and picked up a bouquet of flowers for Paige. As I drove down the driveway, I frowned at the number of cars and trucks parked outside the house. I saw Milo’s truck, Jen’s car, Gene’s truck, as well as my folks’ car. I pulled off to the side and got out, flowers in hand as I made my way to the house. I could hear everyone outside.

  When I rounded the house, I stopped.

  “Holy shit,” I said, looking around the backyard at the sight before me. Paige turned and waved, standing on top of a ladder. She was hanging up Edison lights.

  “It’s about time you showed up. I need your help in the greenhouse,” Milo said, motioning for me to follow him. I walked over to Paige and looked up at her.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  She laughed as if I had just asked her the most insane question.

  “We are getting married in three days! I had a ton of things to do to get ready. The ceremony will be in the greenhouse, then we will have the reception here in the backyard. I already looked at three different news stations for the weather. It’s going to be a beautiful day!”

  The way she was smiling made me feel like I was floating on a cloud. “Baby, why didn’t you tell me you were doing all of this? I would have been here to help.”

  Paige took a few steps down on the ladder, then leaned over to kiss me. “You wanted to talk to your dad. I called your mom and invited her over for breakfast. The mome
nt she found out the wedding was this weekend, plans were put in motion.”

  I laughed. “Sounds like my mom. Your dad?”

  She looked past me, and I followed her gaze. Phillip was sitting at a table doing something with Jen.

  “He’s making decorations for the greenhouse with Jen. He did ask if I was pregnant, and if that was why we were rushing.”

  “God, I wish I had been there because I would have loved to have said yes, just to see what he would do.”

  Paige frowned. “Was one black eye not enough? Or you feeling spry enough to do another 5k running away from him?”

  “Now that I know the old man can run, he won’t be able to catch me next time.”

  With another peek over my shoulder, Paige pressed her mouth shut and looked back at me.

  “He heard me, didn’t he?”

  She nodded. “You might want to run.”

  Paige

  I STOOD ON the front porch and took in a deep breath. It was the morning of my wedding. The day I had dreamed about since I was twelve years old, when I realized I liked Lucas as more than a friend. It was the first time he held his hand out for me when I was getting off a horse. He hadn’t even realized he’d winked at me when I jumped down and stumbled. He had caught me, asked if I was okay, then winked at me. At twelve, I vowed to marry him someday.

  At fourteen, I realized I had more than a crush: I had fallen in love with him. At sixteen, I gave him not only my heart, but my body. At eighteen, he crushed my heart. Now, at twenty-nine he promised me the moon and stars, and I was madly in love with him.

  I sat down in one of the white iron chairs I had found in the storage shed, along with a beautiful white iron table. From pictures I had found in Millie’s photo album, I knew this table set had once adorned this front porch. And it was back in its original spot. The large white columns that went across the porch had to be one of my favorite things about the house. It gave it a grand appearance, while still leaving it to look like a country house. I looked up at the chandeliers that my father and Lucas had hung last night. The two of them, spending the night before our wedding hanging light fixtures and drinking beer. Lucas had said it was probably the best bachelor party he’d ever had. I loved that my father secretly made Lucas think he was teetering on the edge of liking and hating him. In truth, my father had always adored Lucas. He had been angry with him, like I had, but he loved him like a son. Last night, when I heard the two of them laughing, it warmed my heart, filling me with so much happiness that I had broken down and cried.