Well, that was damn good news. “I hear a ‘but’ coming.” I was happy to hear she was planning for us to have a baby, but I didn’t like the feeling that this was a compromise. A concession. I wanted a kid, but not under those circumstances.
“It’s not a but… exactly.” She sighed, searching her mind for the right words. “It’s not that I don’t want to have your babies, Derek, it’s that I’m worried. Scared.” The hand-wringing concerned me, and I ran my hands down her arms to calm her.
“About what? Talk to me, Maxine.” I had a feeling there was something I wasn’t seeing, and I suddenly felt very selfish.
“The last time I got pregnant, I ended up doing it all on my own. Everything. It was hard as hell, and some days I wasn’t sure either of us would make it to this point. But we did.” She let out a heavy sigh, as if even thinking about it exhausted her. “I know you’re nothing like my ex. You would never up and leave, or neglect to take care of your responsibility. But my fear, it doesn’t know that.”
“Maxine, I’m sorry. I should have realized.”
“No.” She shook her head and held her hands up. “It’s my issue and I’m working through it, I just wanted you to understand my hesitation. It’s not that I don’t love you, I do. I love you and I trust you. But those memories are hard to shake and, well, I think I might need your help.” Her smile, when it came, was almost bashful.
“I’m here, Maxine. I love you and I’m here, whatever you need.”
She flashed a satisfied smile and lifted a bag I hadn’t noticed until just then. “I’m glad you said that, Dr. Cahill, because this is my grand gesture. My response to the whole talk of growing our family was unacceptable. I know that, and I’m very sorry. But I can’t take it back, so I’m doing this, instead.” Again, she motioned to the bag.
“What’s in the bag?”
She nudged it across my desk with a smile. “Open it up and look.”
Her gaze was serious, but there was a hint of playfulness that I appreciated. “Max.”
Her eyes went wide. “Not Maxine? You must be serious.”
“I am serious and you’re right, we should wait a little longer.” There was no reason to rush things. We were already married, and things were perfect. “When things are more settled, we can revisit this discussion.”
“Derek. We have a little girl who is growing up faster every day, which means things like science fairs, driver’s education, and boys. There will very likely never be a ‘settled’ for us. You want kids, and with kids comes chaos.”
“All the more reason to have more time for us, right?” This was good news. Damn good news, and yet I was trying to talk her out of it. Why?
Maxine smiled, that soft feminine smile when she realized once again that she loved me. It was my favorite smile. “You know how well I know you, Derek? Let me tell you.” One hand rested over my heart. “I knew as soon as I shared with you why I was hesitant to have kids that you’d back off. Change course.” I opened my mouth to deny it, but she kept going. “You’re thinking that in a year or two, I’ll trust you more and be more confident in us. Right?”
Damn, she got me. “How… is that so wrong?”
“No, it’s not. I love you for it and for keeping your promise to me. Derek, I have not woken up one single day and not felt loved by you. Cherished by you. Cared for. By you.” Her free hand cupped my face and I could see how serious she was. “I want you to feel that way, too. So, look in the damn bag. Please.”
I opened the bag and frowned at the box inside. No, at the six smaller boxes inside the larger one. Birth control. My shoulders relaxed, because the fight was over. “So, we have six months to get ready to start getting ready to have a baby? That’s perfect.” The conversation had gone much smoother than I’d thought, and I was so happy that I leaned in and captured her lips with mine. It was a compromise I was more than happy with, and the joy in her eyes when she spoke told me all I needed to know. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. So much. But I should tell you that I made this decision a few days ago and sat on it while I waited for the right grand gesture to come to me.” I was lost and it must have shown on my face, because she groaned. “I stopped taking my pills four days ago, Doc.”
I blinked as her words sank in. “But last night?”
She nodded. “And this morning, too.”
Now the words rang in my head, clear as a bell. My smile spread wide, so wide I thought my face might crack. “I guess that means there’s no good reason not to christen the new office?”
She laughed, and the sound was beautiful. “It’s like you read my mind.”
Scott
Maxine and her crew had just pulled off the property and I stood on the terrace, a nervous wreck. Okay, maybe not a wreck, but I was so nervous that I couldn’t settle my pulse and I couldn’t get my palms dry no matter how many different breathing exercises I tried.
Tonight was the night.
I let out another long breath and looked around the terrace with a smile. The stage was set for romance, with gauzy white fabric and twinkle lights turning my functional outdoor space into a movie set. The food Max had prepared smelled so good on the breeze that my stomach growled lightly. Stevie was five minutes late, but I wasn’t worried—not yet, because I knew the past few days had been crazy for her with the cook-off taking place tomorrow.
She pulled into the driveway just shy of ten minutes late and my shoulders sank in relief, which only sped up my heart rate considerably. Her soft footfalls grew stronger the closer they came and then stopped abruptly with a gasp. “Scott. What’s all this?” Even though the sun was nearly completely gone, the streaks that remained were enough for me to see the slight blush on her cheeks.
“Dinner.”
“Looks great. Smells better.” She inhaled deeply and hit me with a smile that was as strong as a kick to the chest. “You look… hot. I should go get changed.”
She didn’t need to on my account, but I did love it when Stevie got dressed up and showed off her legs. “Into nothing?”
“That’s for later,” she said with a wink and hurried into the house. I wanted to follow her and make good on the promise in her eyes, but I also wanted to remove the knot of tension in my stomach.
And that could only be done by getting to the proposal—and getting the yes. It was the next logical step in our relationship, but that wasn’t why I wanted it. I wanted Stevie in my life for the long haul. She was everything I didn’t know I needed to be happy and I didn’t just crave her, I existed for her.
“Penny for your thoughts?” I didn’t know how much time passed before Stevie reappeared, but she was stunning in a light blue dress patterned with dark blue flowers. Her feet were bare and she’d plucked one of the violets from the vase into the side of her hair.
“You’re gorgeous, Stevie.”
Her lips pulled into a pleased smile even as she rolled her eyes, because my woman was terrible at taking a compliment. “Thank you, Scott.”
“My pleasure.” I handed her a champagne glass and watched as she tried not to frown at the sight of it. “Want to sit?”
She nodded and took a surreptitious sip, sighing in relief when she realized it wasn’t champagne. “Brat. You’re lucky that I love you and that you clearly have seduction planned tonight.”
“Seduction? Is that what you think this is?” She nodded, and I realized tonight might be an even bigger shock for her.
“Isn’t it?”
“I’ll never pass up a chance to get you alone and naked, but that’s not my goal tonight.” Though, hopefully it would end with Stevie wearing nothing but my ring.
“You say the sweetest things to me, Scotty Boy.” She laughed at my scowl. “It never gets old. You’re so adorable and sexy when you get mad about it.”
And that was another reason I loved this woman. “I wanted to talk to you tonight, Stevie.” She froze at my tone and leaned in at the same time my pager sounded. The damn thing had the worst
timing, but I was the big animal vet on call this week which meant I had to answer. I looked up at Stevie, who knew first-hand what it meant.
“Go find out what it is. I’ll enjoy my beer—which I love, by the way.”
I smiled. “I was hoping you would,” I told her and pressed a brief kiss to her lips before going inside to find out what the call was about. Five minutes later, I had my answer.
“What’s the problem?”
I turned, ready to see a pissed-off woman, but it was just Stevie with jeans on under her dress and a hoodie wrapped around her, sneakers on her feet.
“Pregnant cow hit by a car. Badgley farm, it’s new.”
She nodded and lifted my bag, as if that was still her job. “Then let’s go save a cow. Just tell me it’s not steak under those silver domes.”
I sent a silent thanks up to Max for warning me away from steak, my preferred meat. “We should be good. Sorry about the interruption.”
“I know the deal, Scott. Besides, it was nice to see you dressed up. I forget how hot you look when you get all pretty GQ man.”
“Pretty?” I practically choked on the word. “Did you just call me pretty?”
She snorted a laugh. “Have you seen yourself tonight? Clean shaven, with your thick hair slicked back? You could be a cover model for a romance novel.” She laughed again at the clear look of outrage on my face. “That’s not to say you don’t have your rugged masculine charms, you just also have a bit of a pretty boy thing going on. Accept it. Rock it. Move on.”
“I miss working with you.” It was probably best for our relationship that we didn’t spent quite that much time together, but I still missed her and her crazy stream-of-consciousness thoughts, weird stories, and even weirder questions.
She smiled on a sigh and flashed a loving look at me. “I miss working with you, too. Especially this part.”
“But not the next part, right?”
She rolled her eyes and jumped from the car with me, biting back her obvious retort that she’d grown up on a farm in Indiana.
“I like watching you treat and save animals, but I don’t miss the smell,” she said, yet she stayed by my side for more than three hours, nursing the mom back to health so that the calf could be born healthy, if a little bit early. “See, and that’s why it’s always worth it. Always.”
I smiled up at her, happy we still had the rest of the night together even if our plans had taken a slight detour. The ranch hand and owner thanked us profusely and sent us home with a big dish of blueberry cobbler.
“You stink,” Stevie said, breaking ten minutes of easy silence.
“Yeah, well, you don’t smell like a bed of roses, either.” Her eyes flashed surprise and then lit with the laughter that shook her whole body.
“I don’t?” I shook my head. “Then I suppose we’re both in need of a shower.”
“Seems so.”
“And we have to think about the environment and future generations, so we should conserve as much water as we can.” Her tone was playful, mocking seriousness.
“Of course. For the environment.”
Stevie’s smile grew as the truck came to a stop beside her sedan. “Last one to the shower stands in back!” Before I could get the key from the ignition, she was flying up the walkway and inside the house.
I stopped at the bathroom entrance and picked up her dirty clothes, dropping them three feet to the left. Inside the laundry basket. It was one of her weird quirks I had learned to deal with, because she dealt with mine. “Save some hot water for me.”
“I can guarantee lukewarm if you don’t hurry.”
Only hot water would scrub away hay and the scent of a barn, so I undressed quickly, dropping my dirty clothes in the hamper and closing the lid down tight. “Don’t be a water hog,” I told her and stepped inside.
Heat flared in her eyes when she looked at me and I felt the temperature rise in my body, but we were both too damn exhausted to do much of anything, especially shower sex. “Turn, and I’ll get your back,” she said with a playful smile, and I knew she was as tired as I was when she only washed my back, maybe enjoying a few gratuitous rubs in the process. “All the dirt and hay has been removed.”
After she let me wash away all traces of Badgley Farm from her hair, we both dressed in pajamas and made our way back downstairs. Toward the food. “Cold dinner all right with you?”
She turned at the oven with a card in her hand. “Maxine or one of her people left it warming in the oven.”
“Perfect,” I practically growled at the idea of having warm food after such a long day and an even longer night. “I’ll get the drinks.”
Fifteen minutes later, we were seated on the terrace with only all the stars in the sky for illumination, the delicious smell of the food invading our nostrils as soft music played inside the kitchen. “Are you ready to tell me what this special dinner is about?”
I nodded, not ready—but if I waited until I was ready, it might never happen. “Sure. Yeah. Absolutely.”
“Cool,” she said, not trying to hide her humor.
“I love you, Stevie. I enjoy sharing my life with you. Even my crazy family. But I’m ready for more. A lot more, and I’m ready for it with you.” It wasn’t what I planned on saying, but it was what came out of my mouth. “I love what we have, it’s better than I ever thought things could be. But I want you to be my wife, Stevie. Will you marry me?”
She looked back at me with a blank look on her face, frozen in shock.
Nate
A sleeveless damn shirt—that was what Eddy had requested I wear as her number two for the Not Your Mama’s Casserole cook-off. I thought I’d be clever and wear my Search & Rescue T-shirt a size too small, but the damn woman had proceeded to cut the sleeves off with a wicked smile. The humidity was already ridiculous so I didn’t mind much, but the spiked lemonade and her homemade malt vinegar potato chips made all the ogling worth it. “Smells good in here, Eddy. Did you remember to taste it?”
Her grin was full-on mischief as she shook her head. “Not yet.” She reached for one of the dozen or so tasting spoons she’d brought and dipped it into the four-cheese sauce she’d been whipping up for the past few minutes. “Needs more salt.”
“A little at a time,” I reminded her and ate my chips. “Want some lemonade?”
“Not yet. I need to get most of the cooking done before I start boozing it up. Makes my lips loose and my limbs looser, and definitely not in a good way.” She wiggled her eyebrows and I worked hard to stifle a groan. Hell, I hoped Mikki and I were as active as Eddy when we were her age.
“Your wife has that glow about her,” Eddy said, completely out of the blue. “Must be the horny trimester. That’s what all my friends called it,” she laughed. “The truth was, I was horny throughout both of my pregnancies.”
“Eddy,” I groaned and went to plug my ears, but my fingers were covered in salt and malt vinegar. “Please, woman.”
“No time to play coy now, young man. I’ve known you your entire life and I remember everything. Even a certain yellow hatchback.”
“Eddy, please.”
“Yes, Eddy, please do tell this story,” Mikki said when she strolled up with one hand on her belly and a wicked smile on her face. “And in payment, I bring you my mama’s secret ingredient.”
She looked at the small container of Old Bay and smiled, gathering Mikki into a tight but gentle hug. “Thanks, sweetheart. Damn, that glow is beautiful.” She looked for a second longer and then shook her head before she returned to her burners.
“How are thing going over here?”
“Oh, just great,” Eddy answered, even though my wife was talking to me. “Nate is the perfect eye candy mixed with chief chef advisor.”
“See, babe, you have a second career if you ever tire of rescuing people.”
I was instantly on alert when she rubbed her belly and then her lower back.
“How are you feeling?”
“Tired,” she admit
ted with a smile. “But in the best way. A little achy in my lower back, but it’s probably from all the baby I’m carrying in front. She gets it from her daddy.”
I leaned in kissed her, keeping it sweet because we were in public and I didn’t want to tempt fate now that Eddy had confirmed that the horny trimester was reality and not a myth.
“You look pretty today.”
She looked down at her outfit, a gauzy pink blouse with a sexy denim skirt that hugged her belly. “All the sexy lingerie I’ve worn the past few months, and this is what you comment on?”
I shrugged. “What can I say, you look perfectly corruptible in this. It’s a good thing I’m working.”
Heat flared in her eyes. “A good thing you’re working for charity.”
“Goodness grief, you two. I suppose you can’t get any more pregnant.”
“Doesn’t mean they won’t try,” Scott growled and stopped beside Mikki. “Shouldn’t that baby be here by now?”
She glared up at him and I laughed. “Didn’t you learn about the birds and the bees at vet school?”
He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “That was day one. Birds and bees. Day two was cows and horses.”
Mikki laughed and gave his arm a sympathetic rub. “What’s wrong, big guy?”
His gaze searched the grounds, landing on Stevie—who was still running around like a crazy person—before he shook his head. “Nothing at all, Mikki. Not one damn thing.”
“Well, when you’re ready to talk about that nothing, I could use an escort for the day and I’m an excellent listener.”
Scott rolled it over for half a second and nodded. “How about some barbecue meat sticks? Reese was grilling them when I passed her earlier.”
“Perfect. See you later, Nate. Be good for Eddy.”
“Don’t worry, he will,” she said with a laugh, waving her long wooden spoon in the air like a wild woman.
“Take care of my woman,” I barked at Scott, who gave a serious nod and placed a hand on her back, guiding her away.
Misters of Love: A Small Town Romance Boxset Page 50
