Mistletoe Magic (Paradise Place Book 6)

by Natalie Ann

  “Warned about what? That the woman I’m in love with wants kids someday? So do I. There’s no warning there. You’re grasping. You’re a spoiled rich kid that always got what he wanted and now the one thing you had that you didn’t even want isn’t yours and you’re trying to make problems. Take my advice and move on. Don’t contact Robin again. She’s done with you. She’s been done with you since the moment she pulled her phone out to video your lying cheating ass.”

  “If you say so. She was disgusted over it just like my parents.”

  “No. You’re wrong. If you’d been honest with her. If you’d told her how you felt, she’d have been upset. She would have been shocked, but she’s not disgusted by it like you think or like you say your parents are. All she ever wanted was someone to be honest with her and love her. You didn’t do either.”

  Alex turned and left and Brian walked over to his desk to sit down.

  He wasn’t so annoyed over Alex’s visit or the conversation as much as he was that Robin never told him her ex had contacted her.

  Or that Alex was trying to cause trouble between the two of them. Because that was exactly what the ass was trying to do.

  The spoiled adult who lost what he had and wanted to make sure no one else had it either.

  26

  Tossing You Anywhere

  Robin answered the door, not expecting any company. “Hey, Brian. What are you doing here and why didn’t you pull in the garage?”

  “Sorry,” he said. “I closed the office down because of the storm. I was going to work from home but found myself coming here.”

  “Is everything okay?” she asked. “You look troubled.”

  “Maybe because I am.”

  “Come in out of the weather,” she said. “I’ll get you some coffee.”

  “Thanks. Where are the dogs?”

  “In the backyard. I just let them out to go to the bathroom when the doorbell rang.”

  She liked how the dogs were fine to go do their business and then come back to the deck when they were ready to come in.

  “They look like they want to come in,” he said.

  She turned and saw both of them at the glass doors jumping up and down in the snow and barking. Figures they’d see Brian.

  And the minute she opened the door, they charged him just like she always felt like she wanted to do when she saw him.

  “What’s going on?” she asked him once she gave him his coffee.

  “I had a surprise visit from Alex about an hour ago.”

  “My ex-husband Alex?” she asked, knowing her face paled. “Why?”

  “My guess is to start trouble. He made an appointment under a false name.”

  She snorted. “Just like him to do that.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because looking back I realize his whole life was a lie. He acted all cocky and confident, but he was only that way because he could hide behind his parents’ money.”

  “I figured as much.”

  “What did he say?”

  “You are not as surprised as I thought you’d be.”

  “Not really. His parents probably told him we were dating.”

  “He said he contacted you.”

  “He did.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked.

  “Because it was similar to what he probably had to say to you. He called me on the one-year anniversary of when I caught him. It wasn’t lost on me that he’d do that. Maybe to have a bigger impact.”

  She’d thought about it more and realized that was just like Alex too. He would do anything to bring people down to his level, even if it meant hurting those he said he loved.

  “And you were upset over it, I’m sure. I remember how hurt you were a year ago when you came into my office. I remember how defeated you felt and heartbroken you were.”

  “I was all of those things,” she said. “I’m not that person anymore. He upset me and said something that tried to rile me.”

  “Like what?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “It matters to me. I want to know why you felt you couldn’t tell me about the call too.”

  She got up and started to pace. “I was embarrassed.”

  “Over what?”

  “That he still has the ability to hurt me. To upset me. To bring me down. I even started to feel lightheaded and nauseous after the call. Why? It’s like this reminder of how stupid I was.”

  “You weren’t stupid.”

  “I didn’t see it,” she argued.

  “No one was supposed to.”

  “Did he come to you because he wanted to make sure you wouldn’t tell anyone? That was part of the reason he called me.”

  “I told him I had no intention of saying a word to anyone and called him every kind of coward.”

  “You did?” she asked. “Why?”

  “Because he should own who he is. He shouldn’t hide. He shouldn’t lie. You were going to be hurt regardless, but the least he could have done was be a man and tell you. You would have understood rather than having to witness it.”

  She started to cry. What Brian said was the truth. She’d thought of that over the past year too. “You’re right. Everything you said is one hundred percent correct. And do you know when I told him I had him on video he tried to say it was the first time. That he was experimenting. That he wasn’t sure what he wanted and needed to try it.”

  “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  “I told him I didn’t believe it. He’s known his whole life he was gay. He was just trying to make up excuses. To this day he insisted that was the first time. What he fails to understand is I would have left him if it was a woman. Who he was with meant nothing to me. It’s that he cheated. He had a reputation with women and I knew that and he told me it was in his past. That he found what he wanted. I believed that. Cheating is cheating in my book.”

  “I saw that video, Robin. That was no first time virgin doing an act while he experimented. There was no remorse in his actions. He’s used to doing what he wants when he wants it with no consequences.”

  “Yeah, I know,” she said looking down. “It’s his life. What he doesn’t know was that his mother slipped one day. She was so upset over our marriage ending. She wanted me to stay with him.”

  “What? Why didn’t you tell me that?”

  “Because I had no intention of it. I think she felt horrible even suggesting it. The minute it was out of her mouth she was crying even harder and just babbling about all the things she remembered. There were a lot of guys’ names. There were a lot of affairs he’d had with women. He was whoring around for years and his parents were so happy he settled down with me.”

  “My guess was he was doing it to prove to him and others he wasn’t what he was hiding.”

  “I think that too. So many things. And you’re hurt I didn’t tell you he called. I know you are. I called Rick right after I was so upset.”

  “That isn’t making me feel any better that you could call your brother and not me.”

  Which made her realize she just put her foot in her mouth. “It’s not what you think.”

  “I’m not sure what to think right now.”

  “You came here because you’re hurt and want answers,” she said. “And I’m not doing a good job at giving them to you. The other thing Alex said was that he thought I was easy pickings and that you just wanted me for my money. It’d be hard to say that to you.”

  “He said the same to me. I was quick to put him in his place. And you shouldn’t feel like you can’t say that to me. Or that you need to run it by your brother over me either.”

  “He wanted to give me some dirt on you and I hung up on him. I don’t believe anything he has to say about anyone or anything. Even Rick defended you, saying that he might have thought you were looking at my wealth before he met you. Very few are aware of it.”

  He snorted. “I’m glad Rick defended me, but I’m still hurt you didn’t feel you could come to
me about this. And I’m sure the dirt he wanted to say was that I’ve dated clients before.”

  “But I approached you. You didn’t approach me,” she argued. She wasn’t letting her mind fall into any rabbit hole here.

  “Alex didn’t like to hear that. And the truth is, that is normally how it went down. I’ve never asked a client or ex-client out. They always asked me. We’ve had this talk.”

  He’d brought it up once before, months ago. That he’d sworn off of dating clients, or ex-clients and yet somehow ended up with her and he couldn’t be happier. “We did. You’re a great catch and many want you.”

  He laughed. “Yet I always get thrown back into the water. Or maybe I throw them back. Not sure. I don’t plan on tossing you anywhere.”

  “You can’t get rid of me,” she said, moving over to sit on his lap. “Are we good? I mean I know this wasn’t a fight, but it felt like one. I should have told you he called me, but I just wanted to put it behind me.”

  “I believe that. We’re good. And for full transparency, because I don’t like secrets, Alex made a comment to me about you doing anything to have a child. I put him in his place and said we’ve talked about kids and both want them. I don’t think he wanted to hear that either.”

  “Probably not. He always changed the subject when I talked about wanting a family. I was on the pill, but the minute I said I wanted to start thinking about kids, he put a condom on again. Kept saying he didn’t want to take any chances.”

  She’d never told anyone how devastating that was to her. That her husband didn’t trust her or didn’t want a kid so badly that he was going to make sure it didn’t happen. She wondered if he would have blamed her if she ever got pregnant by mistake.

  “Be glad there wasn’t a child between you two and you can truly move on from him.”

  “I am. You know that.”

  Even though the last year of their marriage they didn’t have sex often, Alex always protected himself. She was grateful for that after she found out about his affair. He’d told her he’d gotten tested before he stopped wearing one because he had a reputation. He volunteered to do it and show her the results. She’d never asked and thought it was sweet of him to do that.

  But since he wasn’t always covered while they were together she got tested right away. Then a few more times after. She’d even told Brian one day in his office she was terrified of catching a disease and went for the test again.

  “I’m glad I stopped over and we talked about this,” he said, giving her a kiss on the forehead and hugging her. “Don’t be afraid to come to me with things. Hiding or having secrets isn’t the type of relationship I want.”

  “Me neither,” she said.

  27

  Be Free

  Except two weeks later she realized she was still holding onto one big whopping secret.

  She was pregnant.

  How the hell had this happened?

  Brian was wearing a condom. He always did.

  She’d gone off the pill a few months after she left Alex. There was no reason to be on it and she hated to put any kind of hormone in her body if she didn’t need to.

  She was pretty regular and it’d never been an issue.

  But last week she noticed she was more than two weeks late with her period and hadn’t realized it at all. She wasn’t paying attention and time got away from her.

  Maybe it was just the emotions of Alex reaching out to Brian and then the two of them talking about it. Having it all be relived again and feeling like she could put it behind her.

  Or maybe it was more the fact that she finally felt like she could just be free of it all.

  But nope. She realized she was late and took a home pregnancy test.

  The first thing she should have done was tell Brian when she saw it was positive, but she couldn’t.

  Even after he said he didn’t want secrets. She needed a day to process it. Then one day turned to two, then three and now it was a week later.

  The longer this went on, the worse it was going to be. Only she had no idea how to tell him.

  Not only that, would he think she did it on purpose? Didn’t he say how Alex told him she’d do anything to have a child?

  Which wasn’t true.

  Sure, she wanted a baby. She’d made no secret of it. Brian made no secret that he wanted kids too. He was excited over his sister’s pregnancy.

  She’d like to think he’d be excited over hers.

  Instead she was worried he was going to say she trapped him.

  Like all those other ex-clients of his were trying to do.

  There was no way to get out of this in her eyes. She just had to be honest and tell him.

  But she needed some encouragement first. It was her day off so she was going to call her brother.

  This was another conversation she was dreading. “Robin,” he said. “We haven’t talked in a few days. How is all that snow doing there?”

  “Very funny,” she said back. Rick had always hated the snow and the cold.

  “I heard you’ve got some more coming tomorrow.”

  “We do. That’s not what I called for though.”

  “I didn’t think so. What’s up?”

  “You sound pretty cheerful. Like you’ve been getting more sleep?”

  “I have been. The project we’ve been working on is in the last phases. It’s being tested now so I’m not pulling as many hours.”

  “And you still aren’t going to tell me what it is?”

  “Nope. No reason to,” he said. “Now you’re stalling. You called me and I know that tone of voice. There is something you want to say.”

  There was no easy way to say this. No way to ease into it either. She found herself starting to sniffle and her eyes filling. When she finally accepted the fact she was pregnant, she was thrilled, but there was still that fear in the back of her mind. “I’m pregnant.” There was dead silence on the other end. “Rick?”

  “Why are you crying?”

  “Because I’m scared.”

  “What does Brian think?”

  “He doesn’t know.”

  More silence, then, “Do you plan on telling him?”

  “I need to.”

  “You think?”

  “Don’t be sarcastic. I told you what Alex said to him and then I find out I’m pregnant.”

  She’d called Rick right away because he’d always been there for her and she felt like she could say whatever she wanted and he’d listen and give her good advice.

  “If he thinks you did this on purpose then I am flying there and kicking his ass.”

  “I don’t think he will,” she sobbed out.

  “Then you wouldn’t be crying over this. So, what is going on?”

  “I don’t know. I’m so emotional. I wouldn’t have felt this way if Alex didn’t say that to him.”

  “And you said that Brian wasn’t even fazed by it so you are making more out of this. And if Brian is pissed off then too damn bad. You are pregnant and there isn’t much you can do about it. I know you, you want a child.”

  “See, even you know I do.”

  “There is nothing wrong with that. You’ve never hidden that fact from anyone. Not even Alex.”

  Which was another thing she realized. When she and Alex were dating she’d always said she wanted kids and he’d never once said he didn’t.

  “I know.”

  “Then pull yourself together and tell Brian rather than driving yourself insane and second guessing everything.”

  “I know. I need to. I just hate that whenever I think I’m strong, I find out I’m not.”

  “Stop it. You are strong and I’m getting sick and tired of you beating yourself up over things. Have you been to the doctor’s yet? Are you feeling okay? Wait. Does Mom know?”

  “She doesn’t. I know she’ll be excited and I just figured I should tell Brian first.”

  “Yet you called me,” he pointed out.

  “That’s different. You don’
t live here. You won’t see Brian or anything.”

  “It doesn’t change the fact that you should tell him right away. How far along are you?”

  “I’m not sure. I’m like three weeks late or so. I think maybe six weeks along.”

  “So you haven’t been to the doctor’s yet?” he asked.

  “No. I’ve got an appointment for next week.”

  “Then hang up this phone and go tell Brian.”

  “He’s getting out of work in a few minutes,” she said.

  “Is he coming there?”

  “For the weekend. Yes. I know I should tell him and I needed the confidence boost from you.”

  “You’ve got plenty of confidence, Robin. You know that.”

  “I know. I guess I’m scared.”

  “Because of Alex and his big mouth,” Rick growled. “If Alex never said that, would you still be nervous telling Brian?”

  “I don’t think so. I mean a little, but not like this.”

  “Then push it from your mind and tell Brian when he gets there.”

  “I will. I need to. Thanks, Rick, for always being there for me.”

  “You know I always will be.”

  She hung up the phone and went about trying to occupy herself. She and Brian had plans to stay in this weekend and relax with the storm coming tomorrow. It wasn’t even a major storm, just more an excuse for the two of them to watch movies in front of the fireplace, under a blanket, and act like an old married couple.

  All the things she’d always wanted. And now she wondered if she’d get them.

  By the time Brian showed up she was a nervous wreck, pacing so much the dogs were like her shadow and driving her insane.

  Brian walked into the house from the garage like he’d been doing lately. He had a bag with him of some clothes, but had some stuff in a drawer upstairs too. He set his laptop on the table, took his jacket off and hung it up and immediately started to pull his tie off. “I hate this thing.”

  “Why not take it off in the car?”

  “Because I came from court and then I’d have to reach under my jacket for it.”