by Taryn Quinn
His words skated over my skin, creating little frissons of heat in their wake. “A knot can only form if both sides are pulled with equal intensity.”
“You need proof,” he murmured, his breath puffing over my lips and making them tremble. “The actions that go with the words. The words themselves. And the belief that I’m the man to stand at your side, not in front of you or behind you. Equal, one hundred percent.”
I nodded. “No matter who’s watching or what they see.”
Rather than respond with words, he cupped his hand over my belly and placed his lips tenderly on mine. He didn’t push for more, just tormented me with the soft, lingering weight of his mouth.
All too soon, he eased back, removing the warmth of his palm on my belly. “Have a good night.”
I was still shivering after he’d gone.
What new angle was this he was playing? Part of why I’d raced away from the table was my certainty he would probably go into some kind of caveman routine about Moose. Oliver was so concerned about appearances, but he was also insanely jealous. Drunk Oliver had to be even worse. But he’d barely spared the other man a glance.
The entirety of his attention had been on me. And my belly. As if Moose’s exuberant greeting held no bearing on our lives.
It didn’t.
If Oliver had asked me to go home with him, to talk or otherwise, I would’ve said yes. How could I not? He preyed on my heart—and the rest of me—with a skill no other man ever had. I didn’t want this rift to continue between us. All I wanted was for him to tell me he cared. Not just to insinuate it, but to say the actual words.
Yet he was showing me in his own way. The origami. His speech about the knot. The way he so carefully touched my stomach. He wasn’t indifferent, and he wasn’t just suggesting marriage for propriety’s sake. There was more there—on both sides.
I just didn’t know if I would live long enough for him to fully acknowledge it.
By the time I made it back out to the table, Oliver and Seth were squabbling about something involving point spreads—proof Oliver had to be drunk, because he wasn’t interested in sports most of the time—and Kelsey was holding court with both Moose and the man Seth and Oliver had come with.
“There you are,” Kelsey said, smiling broadly. “I’ve been setting up dates for us. Well, not date-dates,” she amended when Oliver seemed to take an interest in the conversation.
I smiled to myself. I didn’t want him to act like a jealous jerk, but it was nice to know he cared. That he was paying attention even while he was engaged in a friendly battle with his brother.
Nothing was nicer than that.
“Hi, I’m Dare.” The attractive, shaggy blond-haired guy with Oliver and Seth leaned forward to shake my hand. “You’re Sage?”
“I am. You work at the car place. I knew you looked familiar. I’m pretty sure my spark plugs are dirty.” Someone growled, though I couldn’t say if it was Kelsey or Oliver.
Perhaps both.
“Sure. C’mon in whenever is good for you. I’ll fit you in.”
“I just bet,” Oliver said darkly.
Drunk or not, some things never changed. And thank God for that.
“So, dates, huh?” I asked brightly. “I mean, not sex-related dates, but what exactly?” I only barely resisted slapping myself in the face.
Sweet mercy, would I ever stop talking while I was ahead? At least when I was with Kelsey, it was a competition which of us would say the more inappropriate thing.
Kelsey smiled as she plucked a peanut from the bowl. “Just friendly get-togethers. All of us. Who doesn’t need friends, right?”
“Sure.” I exchanged a look with Oliver, and Lord, if my nipples didn’t poke right through my sweater, it wasn’t from lack of impetus.
That man was going to set my damn panties on fire.
“Not that you need any more male friends, since you’re already knocked up. Oh shoot, Sage, I’m sorry!” Kelsey glanced around as if just realizing where she was—and exactly how many people could hear her—and shoved the bowl of peanuts at Dare. “Nuts?”
A giggle escaped me. My life might be screwed up right now—so screwed up—but I’d made a new friend. We probably shouldn’t go out in public together though.
“Oh, congratulations are in order then.” Moose went to give me another hug, and I danced away from him into Seth’s arms before he could. Moose’s hugs had always been awesome, but no need to wave a large pregnant woman in front of a bull.
The bull being Oliver. Which wasn’t entirely wrong, because even with my lack of experience, the dude was built. And I knew this because I’d looked online.
Hey, adult movies were vital parts of a woman’s sexual education. Especially if she wasn’t getting any. Like right now.
“Thank you, Moose,” I said brightly, clinging to Seth as he drew me in for a hug. “Just had to hug my new brother-in-law—I mean, not because of Oliver, but he’s married to my bestie, and she’s like my sister. Dear God, get me out of here,” I mumbled into Seth’s shirt as I buried my face.
Seth laughed. “It’s really true? Oliver confirmed it, but holy shit.”
“He’s telling people?”
That was big. We weren’t married and he was sharing it anyway.
Of course, drunk. But still. I’d take victories in whatever shape they arrived in.
“He just told us.” Seth squeezed me in a quick embrace then eased back to look down between us as if he expected me to have popped a belly within the time span of our conversation. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” I might have cut off his circulation when I gripped his hand. “Can you make everyone in the bar stop staring at me now?”
“Big announcement. But I don’t think everyone heard.”
“Really?”
“No. But unfortunately, everyone who didn’t will probably hear within the hour thanks to the gossip network.”
“Not making me feel better,” I said out of the side of my mouth as Dare touched my shoulder.
“Oliver is one lucky guy.” Dare grinned. “I’ll clean those spark plugs on the house.”
I waited to hear that telltale sound of disgust from Oliver’s camp, but when I glanced his way, he was just observing us, hands in his pockets, his expression pensive. Almost sad. “Oliver is a very lucky guy,” he murmured, loud enough that only I could hear.
Or maybe I could read his lips because he was finally saying exactly what I’d wished for all along.
Twenty
Oliver
I was never drinking to excess again. Nor would I wear ripped jeans and a T-shirt that said, “hold my beer—or is that my gun?” My fault for not reading the front of the shirt I grabbed at the store. Also, my fault for pouring my woes into alcohol.
After that night at The Spinning Wheel, I figured everyone on earth would know Sage was pregnant. The thought didn’t bother me as much as I would have expected, considering I hadn’t finished getting my ducks in a row.
Stupid saying, by the way.
Anyway, even without them being precisely in place yet, I didn’t mind people knowing she was pregnant, and that some of the townspeople might find out it was by me. We weren’t married, and no one even knew we were dating. We never had. Not in any traditional sense. But I’d asked her to go out with me via origami, and though we’d had some contact since I’d posed that question, she hadn’t addressed it. At least not yet.
It had been nearly two weeks. Two weeks of staring at that photo of us in the throne at the Elvis chapel, sent to us by the receptionist. I had looked at the picture so much I could recreate every detail down to the kind of strap on Sage’s shoes.
Every day without her around seemed like a damn eternity. I almost had everything in place. Almost.
I knocked on the door to my father’s office. This conversation was another important part.
“Come on in, son.”
I stepped inside and shut the door behind me. “Thank you for maki
ng time to see me this afternoon.”
“Of course. I figured you had something weighty on your mind if you cleaned your slate of meetings in order to discuss it. You’ve been burning the midnight oil, working night and day. Spring is always our busiest season, but you seem to be getting a jump.”
“I am. But not just for the usual reasons.” I faced my father from the opposite side of his desk without taking a seat. For this, I needed to remain on my feet. “I’m going to be reducing my hours for a while. I considered taking a leave of absence, but I’m hopeful I can do both.”
My father steepled his hands over his blotter. His hair was streaked with more white than it had been just a few months ago, his eyes more heavily lined. But there was a lightness to him I couldn’t remember.
He also didn’t react the way he would have a year ago. He just nodded and laced his fingers together. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“I got Sage pregnant.”
Okay, that wasn’t what I’d planned to say. I also didn’t expect him to merely raise a brow. Perhaps he’d already heard the news. “So, you’re going to do the right thing and marry the girl.”
I nodded, then blew out a breath. “Well, maybe. Eventually. If she’ll have me.”
“Eventually? And what do you mean, if she’ll have you?”
“The timing isn’t right. I don’t want to strong-arm her into a wedding she isn’t ready for, and perhaps I’m not either. Not because I don’t care about her. I do, so much. And not because it wouldn’t mean something now.”
“But,” my father prompted.
“If we wait and take our time, it will mean even more later. And then she will know.”
He rubbed his forehead as if I’d pained him. I probably had. Lord knows I’d pained myself plenty since that night at the bar.
I hadn’t gone completely radio silent. I couldn’t. Not seeing her or smelling her summery scent or feeling the softness of her skin was almost more than I could bear. I couldn’t not communicate with her as well, even if that communication was mostly one-sided. But it still felt like a conversation, because for every other origami frog or lizard or bird I delivered to her, she would send something back. Sometimes a few words if I asked her a question. Sometimes a trinket from her day. A fresh tea bag from the box that matched the drink she’d made while reading a novel, a clip of something from the paper.
Yesterday, I’d sent her flowers, and she’d returned a few of the petals with little smiley faces and hearts written on them. I had saved those petals and placed them in a shallow dish of water at home. The ink was half smeared off, but I didn’t care. It was the thought that counted.
What we were doing was completely old-fashioned and no one would understand it. I wasn’t sure I even did myself. All I knew was that it seemed as if by taking this time and being absolutely sure of what we wanted, we wouldn’t have to go through this again.
Or maybe that was just wishful mailing.
We’d seen each other a couple of times at my brother’s while visiting the new baby, but those times were few and far between. I eagerly sucked up every glimpse of her, trying to catalog the minute changes in her body. What I wouldn’t give to be at her side day and night.
Hopefully, one day soon that would be part of my reality.
“Know what, son?” my father asked, obviously realizing I wasn’t going to offer an explanation without his nudge.
“She’ll know what she means to me, because everything I’ve done has been against my nature. All I want to do is charge in and claim her and my kid. Tell the whole world that she’s mine.”
“So why haven’t you?”
I frowned. “I had to set things up the right way. And she didn’t want me to take over, she even said so.”
“So, what’s your plan then? Just to sit back and let her come to you? How’s that working out for you?”
“No. Not exactly. There are pieces to put in order, parts of this that I need to slip into place before I—” I groaned. “Jesus, I’ve gotta stop with the damn pieces. She doesn’t want all that. Or just that. I need to go with emotion. That means a big, over-the-top production that has a high likelihood of failure, like Seth did for Ally.”
“Well, that’s one way of putting it,” my father said drily.
“I intended to do the Vegas thing in a few months. Seth gave me that idea, so I owe him for that. But by asking her to marry me now, it seems as if I’m just doing it so everyone in town won’t talk about how I got her pregnant.”
“Son, everyone in town will not be talking about that. Look around you. It’s 2018. Most people do not notice or care about such things any longer.”
I stopped pacing and sank into a chair across from my father. Actually, I think my legs gave out. “Pardon me?”
He waved a hand. “Come on now. Crescent Cove is a small town, and we do have our gossips, but we aren’t rooted that far in the past.”
“What about you? You just insisted I was going to marry her as soon as I told you I’d gotten her pregnant.”
“Yes, but not for the sake of looks. You’re in love with that girl, and you have been for some time now. The obvious mating dance you two have been engaging in for years gets far more attention than her having your baby.”
I searched for my voice and discovered it had given out just like my damn legs.
“About time you start a family,” my father went on. “I’m just relieved you didn’t find yourself in a Seth and Marjorie situation, though who can fault the result.” My father smiled while I tried to find my balls where they’d been crushed under his wingtips. “Sweetest little girl to ever be born, our Laurie.”
I grunted in agreement. Mating dance? Us? Okay, yes, probably. But even my father had noticed it when I had not.
God help me, I was daft. We were daft.
I didn’t want to waste another second on trying to set up the perfect way to fix this. Life was messy. The woman I loved didn’t want perfection. She just wanted to know her opinions were valued and that we were a team. Figuring things out together.
Oh, and that I loved her. She’d said that was a vital part of marriage, and she was right. She just didn’t realize I was already right there.
She might not be. But she felt something strong for me. I could see it in her eyes and every time she touched me. I could work with that.
“I bought back the bed-and-breakfast,” I blurted while my brain raced with ideas.
I needed a big gesture. Well, a companion one to go with the bed-and-breakfast purchase, since that was pretty big in itself. Something that proved to her without a doubt I loved her and would do whatever it took to make a real go of this.
My father frowned. “Sage’s parents’ bed-and-breakfast?”
“Yes.”
“But it was sold for condominiums. How did you—”
“I made them an offer they couldn’t refuse.” I raked a hand through my hair and gripped the back of my neck. “If she wants to run it, I’m going to help her. Not that I have any idea how. But it’s her dream, and I want to help her realize it.”
“And that’s why you’re going part time here for a while.”
“Yes. Assuming she still wants to run it. If not, I’m going to own a bed-and-breakfast I don’t have the foggiest clue what to do with.”
“You’re starting a whole new family business.” He smiled and rose, coming around the desk to cup my cheeks in a way he hadn’t since I was probably ten. Possibly even younger. “I’m proud of you, Oliver. You’re much more of a man than you learned to be from me. Both of my boys are.”
“Uh, thanks.”
He laughed and stepped back, leaning against his desk. “She’ll make a fine wife and mother. And a businesswoman to boot.”
“You always loved her.”
“She’s sweet. Always a little uncertain, but she holds her own.” His eyes narrowed. “As do you. So, go out there and take care of business, son.”
I nodded and got to my feet. “Thanks,
Dad.”
He blinked and for a second, I would’ve sworn his eyes were damp. “It’s been a long time since you called me that. I’m most often ‘Father’ or something unfit to print.”
I dipped my hands in my pockets. “Let’s just say I’m learning some things are a lot harder to navigate in life than I realized when I was a kid. Or twenty-eight.”
He didn’t laugh this time. “I’ve made my share of mistakes.”
“Who hasn’t? But you’re still here, and you’re trying. That’s all anyone can ask for. At least I hope so, because I’m guaranteed to mess up with my own child more times than I can count.”
He pulled me in for a hard hug then smiled and moved back behind his desk. “Little piece of advice?”
“Sure.”
“Go ask your brother how to reel her in. It’ll make his year.”
I had to chuckle. “Reel her in, hmm?”
“You’ll see. Marriage is about using all kinds of different hooks and lures at different times. Not that I got my first one right, but luckily, sometimes a man gets second chances.”
My brows lifted. “Is that right?”
“Go on now.” He waved his hand at me and moved his mouse to wake up his computer. “Let me know when to look for the invitation to the wedding.”
I was already halfway to the door. “You’ll need a plane ticket.”
“You’re really doing the Vegas thing?”
“Yeah. Elvis chapel to be exact.” I grinned and pulled the door shut behind me, blocking out his astonished face as I stepped into the hallway.
Even Oliver Hamilton could learn some new tricks. And I was about to prove it, assuming my brother’s planning skills were on point.
I pushed the first number on my phone’s speed dial as I walked down the hall.
Seth answered on the fourth ring, sounding harried. Alexander was crying in the background and Laurie was screaming or singing or God only knows what. “If you have a work emergency, sod off. I have my own problems, so handle it.”
