Keeping You

by Jessie Evans

  Rachael’s wide mouth hung open and her big blue eyes were the size of silver dollars, but it was the way her gaze flicked between Aria and Nash with increasing speed that gave Aria her first hint that Rachael Wertz was the Rachael, the woman who had broken Nash’s heart.

  By the time the pudgy, balding man with Rachael said—

  “Well, Captain Geary, imagine running into you again.”

  —in a tone that made it clear running into Nash was comparable to being stabbed with poisonous darts, Aria was sure of it.

  Sure of it, and certain she was going to enjoy helping Nash get his revenge even more than she had anticipated.

  Rachael Wertz had been a spider since elementary school—when she broke all Aria’s crayons in half. Through junior high—when she spread the rumor that Aria was a lesbian. Into high school—when she realized Aria didn’t care if people called her a lesbian anymore, and resorted to telling everyone who would listen that Aria was a slut with some kind of exotic crotch disease.

  Rachael was a very nasty piece of work, indeed.

  And Aria was going to enjoy the next few moments very, very much.

  “Rachael, how are you?” Aria asked. “I haven’t seen you in years. Hi,” she said, shifting her attention to Rachael’s fiancé, not waiting for Rachael to recover enough to speak before reaching a hand out to him with her most fetching grin. “I’m Aria, Nash’s wife.”

  Rachael made a strangled yipping sound; Aria’s smiled widened.

  “Lee Otter, Rachael’s fiancé,” Lee said, gaze flicking up and down Aria’s body, clearly finding nothing to complain about.

  Aria was glad she had worn her tight, sleeveless green cocktail dress instead of the long, black halter dress she had tried on first. She never looked better than she did in this dress, and for Nash’s sake, she was glad of it. He deserved so much better than Rachael Wertz, and Rachael deserved to have her mean, weasel-face rubbed in Nash’s happiness.

  “Nice to meet you,” Aria said, releasing Lee’s hand and leaning back into Nash, wrapping her arms around his waist and glancing up at him with an adoring look.

  He draped one arm around her and smiled, the gleam in his eyes leaving no doubt how pleased he was with her performance.

  “And this is our daughter, Felicity,” Nash said, hugging Aria closer as he nodded in Felicity’s direction.

  “Your daughter?” Rachael repeated, a harsh note in her voice that made her fiancé bring his hand to her back. But Lee’s touch only made Rachael stiffen more, and Aria’s happy sigh come even easier.

  “Nash is an amazing stepfather,” Aria said as she laid her cheek on Nash’s chest.

  “It’s easy with a kid like Skeeter,” Nash said, real affection in his voice. “Sweet as pie, and as funny and beautiful as her mama. Impossible to keep from loving either one of them.”

  Aria looked up at him again, pleasure coursing through her when she met his eyes. If she didn’t know better, she would believe that Nash meant every word, that he adored her, treasured her, maybe even…loved her.

  In that moment, the world and Rachael and everyone else in it, disappeared. For a second, it was only her and Nash, holding each other’s gaze, each of them wondering what was real and what was pretend, and if it even really mattered when being together felt so right.

  “Divorced and remarried already, with a baby so young?” Rachael asked, shattering the moment. “That must have been so hard on you, Aria.”

  Aria turned back to Rachael, smiling in the face of her false concern. “I’m back with Nash. Nothing seems too hard as long as that’s true.”

  “Aria and I met when she was fifteen,” Nash said. “We were young, but a part of me knew there would never be another woman for me. Even way back then.” His arm tightened around Aria’s waist. “I just feel blessed that we found our way back to each other before I settled for something less than the real thing.”

  Nash’s drawl was as honeyed as always, but there was no doubt Rachael felt the barb lurking beneath his words. Aria would have sworn she could actually see steam coming out of the other woman’s ears as Rachael snatched her fiancé by the arm.

  “Well, you two certainly deserve each other,” Rachael snapped, dragging Lee past them, and down the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

  Aria heard Lee call out, “Nice meeting you,” but she didn’t turn to wave. She was too busy squeezing Nash’s arm, trying not to laugh.

  She waited until they started walking again until she giggled and whispered, “Rachael Wertz? You have to be kidding me, Nash. She’s a snake.”

  “I take it you two know each other,” Nash said, chuckling.

  “I have no idea what I did to get on her bad side, but she made my life hell in junior high,” Aria said. “And tried her best to ruin my reputation in high school, but by then everyone knew better than to listen to a word out of her poisonous mouth. What did you ever see in that witch?”

  “Well, she wasn’t a witch when we started dating,” Nash said, sounding a little defensive. “I didn’t see that part of her until we’d been living together for almost two months. It took me awhile to realize the ‘new’ Rachael was the real Rachael and the sweet stuff had only been an act.”

  “Ugh.” Aria shuddered. Living with Rachael was the stuff nightmares were made of. “Thank god you got away from her before it was too late. You deserve so much better.”

  Nash paused at the corner, waiting for the crosswalk sign to change. Aria felt his attention on her face and looked up, meeting his warm eyes.

  “Thank you,” he said in a voice that made her insides feel like mush all over again. “That’s sweet.”

  Aria shrugged, shy all of a sudden. “No need to thank me. You’re a good man, and I really appreciate everything you’ve done to help me. And Felicity. And how kind you’ve been and…everything.”

  Nash reached down, brushing a stray hair from her face with a gentleness that was almost enough to break a girl’s heart. “Why did we spend so much time hating each other?” he asked, surprising her.

  Aria swallowed, her heart waging silent war with her head. Her head said to protect herself with a lie, but her heart…

  Well, her heart was of a very different opinion. Despite her and Nash’s painful history, despite her disastrous relationship with Liam, her heart wanted to believe it was possible to find happiness with a man again. It wanted to believe in love.

  It wanted to believe in Nash Geary.

  Chapter Nine

  “I was hurt,” Aria said, pulse racing as she forced out the truth. “I cared about you. A lot.”

  She swallowed the lump rising in her throat. “I’d never felt like that about anyone before. But when I saw you again…it just…it seemed like you couldn’t stand the sight of me. So I did my best to act like I felt the same way.”

  Nash frowned as they started across the street, dividing his attention between maneuvering the stroller and Aria. “I hadn’t heard from you since the night everything happened,” he said. “So when I saw you again, I assumed your Daddy had talked you around to his way of thinking. I figured the best defense was a good offense.”

  Aria shook her head. “I told Dad the way I felt about you. The same night we were caught,” she said, joining Nash when he pulled over to the edge of the sidewalk, near a store window displaying stacks of brightly colored mixing bowls that made Felicity coo and kick her legs.

  “That’s how I convinced him not to press charges,” Aria continued, glancing back at Nash. “I told him I’d testify that I was not only willing, but the instigator of the entire thing.”

  Nash’s frown deepened. “Then why…”

  “Why what?” she whispered.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked in an equally soft voice, as if he, too, were afraid to speak too loudly for fear they’d shatter this moment, and put one of them on the defensive. “Why didn’t you call?”

  “I tried to call you half a dozen times after I got home,” Aria said. “But th
e answering machine always picked up and I was too nervous to leave a message. I should have called you while I was still at camp, but I…”

  She shrugged, bringing one hand to the back of her neck to rub at the stress knot forming there. “I was a dumb kid, you know? I kept putting it off, thinking it would be better if I waited until I was home so we could arrange to meet in person, but I think I was just afraid.”

  “Of me?” Nash asked, moving two fingers beneath her chin.

  Aria sighed, letting her arm drop to her side as she met Nash’s eyes. His confused eyes. Confused, yet hopeful at the same time.

  And why would he be hopeful right now? Unless…

  Unless…

  “No,” Aria breathed, the thought that Nash might feel the same way she did making her chest so tight her ribs began to ache. “I think I was afraid of feeling so much for someone. I had all these dreams of big adventures and far away places and you…”

  “What?” Nash prompted, his fingers sliding along her jaw in a caress that made her shiver.

  “It was only a few weeks, when we were kids,” she said, afraid all over again. “You’ll think I’m crazy.”

  “I already think you’re crazy.” A smile flickered at the edges of his lips, but vanished almost immediately. “Maybe I’m crazy too, ever think about that?”

  He brought his other hand to her face, holding her captive with a gentle intensity that took her breath away. “Tell me what you were going to say. Please.”

  Aria’s tongue slipped out to wet her lips as she gathered her courage. “You made me think about what it would be like to have a different kind of adventure. I was starting to think…”

  She glanced down at his chest to steady herself before meeting his searching gaze again. “I was starting to think you and I might be something special. Like, the real thing. I was thinking you might be it, you know. The One.”

  She finished with a shaky laugh, unable to believe she’d put herself out there that way. She’d made an easy target of herself to a man who had hated her for most of their acquaintance. Still, she refused to pull away from Nash or duck her face to hide her nerves. Nash was different now. They were both were. Besides, the words were already out. She couldn’t take them back, and she didn’t want to.

  What she wanted was a second chance, a real second chance. With Nash.

  Nash stood there for what felt like forever, his attention shifting from her eyes to her lips and back again, making Aria’s pulse race with ever increasing amounts of panic, until finally he said, “Aria?”

  “Yes?”

  “I have a crazy idea.”

  The huskiness in his voice sent another shiver racing across her skin. “What kind of crazy?” Aria asked, struggling to breathe normally as Nash’s mouth moved closer to her own.

  If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was about to— Oh my god, he was. He was going to kiss her. Their first real, honest kiss since they were barely more than kids.

  “The kind of crazy where we give this a real chance,” he said, so close that his chocolate-y breath warmed her lips, making them tingle.

  “You mean you and me?” she asked, refusing to acknowledge the surge of excitement and fear building inside of her until she was certain.

  “You and me. And Skeeter, too. I meant what I said back there. I love her, and I…I could love you, too,” he said, thumb caressing her cheek. “If you’d let me.”

  Aria’s breath rushed out fast enough to make her dizzy.

  “Is that too much?” Nash asked, watching her with careful, half-hopeful, half-sad eyes.

  Aria shook her head. “No. I think…I’d like to let you, and…”

  “And?” Nash drawled, leaning so close that less than an inch of space remained between their lips.

  “I could love you, too,” Aria said. “I think part of me already does.”

  “I like that part,” Nash mumbled as he closed the distance between them.

  Aria’s eyes slid shut with a sigh as Nash’s lips slanted across her own. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him with all the hope blooming in her heart, moaning as he pulled her into his arms, crushing her against his chest as his tongue slipped between her lips.

  This kiss was a far cry from the teasing kisses at dinner, a far cry even from their kisses at the fair or after their wedding ceremony. This kiss was pure need, pure hunger. It was all of her, and all of him, with no walls between them and nothing left to hide.

  This kiss was on fire.

  Desire rushed through Aria like flames jumping from one cell to another. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d transferred her arms from Nash’s neck to his waist, slipping her clawed hands around to dig into the thick muscles of his ass through his pants, pulling him closer to where she ached for—

  A high-pitched squeal of laughter pierced the air, making Aria and Nash jump apart with twin sounds of surprise.

  Aria spun to find Felicity laughing her head off, kicking her legs and pumping her fists with excitement as she gazed up at Aria and Nash.

  “Apparently she thinks watching us kiss is pretty funny,” Nash said, with a shaky laugh.

  Aria glanced back at him, heart skipping a beat when she met his eyes, and saw her own hunger reflected in their depths.

  “Better than scarring her for life, I guess,” she said, fighting the urge to pull Nash’s kiss-swollen lips back down to her own. They’d already made a spectacle of themselves. Thank goodness Felicity appeared to be the only one who had caught them in the act.

  “Oh, I’m sure we’ll get around to scarring her for life, sooner or later,” Nash said with a crooked grin. “She’ll be a teenager before we know it.”

  Aria’s breath caught, a sliver of fear cutting through the haze of desire, clearing her head.

  Giving this thing between them a chance was one thing, but thinking about forever was another thing entirely. She had been so determined for forever with Liam, and look how that had turned out. Years of pain and heartache, struggling to make something work long after it should have been dead, buried, mourned, and done with.

  She wasn’t ready to dream about forever yet. She couldn’t let herself lose her head that way again, not over anyone, not even the only other man who had ever captured her heart. But before she could take a step back, or figure out how to respond, Nash took her hand—

  “Don’t be afraid.” He squeezed her fingers, and she sucked in a breath, even that casual touch enough to make her body start to ache all over again.

  “I meant what I said to Rachael,” Nash continued. “Part of me really does feel like it’s been waiting for you. Ever since we were kids. Hell, it’s been harder trying to keep myself from falling for you than anything else.”

  He paused, eyes searching hers. “There’s nothing to stop us from making this work, Aria. We can do this. We can make this the kind of marriage we both really want.”

  “And what kind of marriage do I want?” Aria asked softly. “We barely even know each other anymore, Nash, we can’t—”

  “You want a man who will love Felicity like she’s his own daughter,” Nash said with a conviction that made Aria’s protests die on her lips. “I already do. You want a man who will respect you, and keep his promises; I don’t know how to be any other kind of man.”

  He took a step closer before continuing, “And you want a man who will love you so goddamned much that it borders on worship, a man who will make you feel like a goddess every single day.”

  Aria blinked. “I don’t want to be worshiped,” she protested, though maybe a part of her did, the tiny part that hadn’t been crushed by Liam’s infidelity. The part that still dreamed of romance and happily ever after.

  “Yes, you do,” Nash said. “Because that’s the way a man loves the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. Anything less isn’t going to last through fifty years and thousands of dirty diapers.”

  “There won’t be thousands,” Aria mumbled, tackling the least t
errifying thing he’d said. “I’m determined to have Felicity potty-trained before she’s two.”

  Nash smiled. “Assuming she’s on board with that, that’s fine, but that might not be the end of the dirty diapers. What if we decide to have five or ten more?”

  Aria’s eyes widened in what must have been a comically alarmed expression because Nash’s smile turned to laughter.

  “Relax,” he said, teeth still flashing with amusement. “I’m kidding. I come from a ridiculously big family. That much crazy isn’t for me. Two or three kids would suit me just fine.”

  “That wasn’t the part that was freaking me out,” Aria said, brows knitting tightly together.

  Nash’s smile faded. “What part was freaking you out?”

  “I don’t know. All of it?” She paused. “None of it? The fact that none of it sounds as crazy as it should. I mean, it really is crazy, Nash. We’ve barely been together a week and we haven’t really been together and—” She cut off with a sigh as Felicity let out a squawk of annoyance and threw her bunny to the concrete. “The whole thing is kind of making my head feel like it’s going to explode,” she added, fetching the toy and putting it back in Felicity’s hands.

  Nash nodded, reaching for the stroller handles. Felicity was starting to fuss in earnest now, which meant it was time to start moving. “Then I think the best thing we can do is stop thinking about it. Let’s head home, put Felicity to bed, and just…mull it over for awhile.”

  “Sleep on it?” Aria asked, following Nash as he turned back toward the truck, pushing Felicity in front of him.

  “I don’t know about that. Sleeping doesn’t sound like much fun to me.” Nash cast her a look that would have been enough to make her panties wet if they weren’t damp already. “Don’t you think we could find something better to do?”

  “What do you suggest?” Aria asked, though she had a pretty good idea what Nash was going to propose.

  “I think we should finish what we started twelve years ago,” Nash said beneath his breath, soft enough that only Aria could hear. “But this time we’ll have a bed and a door to lock to make sure we aren’t interrupted until we’re good and finished.”