You just have to put up a wall between you two, she told herself, sipping her coffee. But how?
“So, how’s this going to work exactly?” Norah asked. She leaned forward and whispered, “I mean, once you’re married, will you...?”
Shelby tilted her head. “What?” Three pairs of Ingalls green eyes stared at her with various glints of curiosity, amusement and wonder.
Ah.
They were talking about sex. About the bedroom.
“We haven’t exactly talked about any of that stuff,” Shelby said. “Guess we’d better.”
“You two should square away on everything before the wedding,” her mother said, getting up as a man could be heard muttering that the waitresses were sitting down on the job. “Everything. Make a list.”
“What should be on it?” Shelby asked. “Besides the bedroom question.”
“Well, that’s number one,” Norah said, sliding out of the booth and holding up a “gimme a minute” finger at a customer. “The rest you two need to come up with together.”
As her family hugged her and got back to work, Shelby tried to think of what else they should get clear on, but everything was jumbled around in her head.
All she could really think about was that she was going to marry Liam Mercer. The handsome, kind man she’d been unable to stop thinking about last night as she lay in bed, her cat snuggled in a ball beside her. She knew what he slept in, just a pair of low-slung sweats, and it had been difficult to get his incredible body off her mind. And then she’d gotten out of bed to have some herbal tea and he’d come into the kitchen and she’d lost it.
She’d sobbed in his arms and he’d held her so close, making her believe what he was saying, that everything really would be okay. When they’d finally left the kitchen and gone back to their rooms, she’d wanted to slip inside his room with him, curl up beside him in bed, just to have his strong arms around her. But there would be no curling and cuddling in this union. Her dear cat would have to continue in that role.
A romance-free marriage, given the circumstances, was entirely appropriate. It was the way to go.
After what had happened with Shane’s father, the way he’d become Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Shelby hadn’t been planning on falling for anyone for a good long time. Her plan had been to be a good mother, build her business and spend time with her family—people she knew she could trust no matter what.
Now here she was, about to marry a man she barely knew but had to trust and—God help her—did.
She just couldn’t afford to love him. As if putting the brakes on love was possible. It might be for Liam Mercer, who seemed to have amazing powers of self-control. But a little part of her held out hope that even he wouldn’t be able to stop love at full speed if what was blossoming between them grew into more.
Unless she was mistaking his kindness and concern for something else. She’d mistaken her ex’s lying personality for sincerity. So maybe Shelby had better take a big step backward and focus on the family. The family unit, she amended.
Feeling stronger, more grounded and comfortable with moving forward, she took another bite of pie.
* * *
When Liam arrived back at Shelby’s apartment from the Chinese restaurant with their take-out order, he froze and panicked with an Oh, my God, I forgot Alexander at China Taste! Then he remembered he wasn’t on his own anymore; he lived with someone, someone who was watching Alexander while he picked up dinner.
Someone he was going to marry.
The whole thing had been his idea but he still couldn’t quite get used to it. He’d been solely responsible for his son and now Shelby would be equally responsible. As would he for Shane. That was the one absolute they’d discussed so far in terms of how their marriage would work. Shelby had brought up the idea of setting parameters when she’d come up from Treasures an hour ago, and since they both needed to think about what their must-haves and deal-breakers were, they’d agreed that Liam would go pick up dinner and they’d work it all out over lo mein and fried dumplings and General Tso’s chicken.
As he set the bag on the big coffee table, Shelby hopped up and headed to the kitchen, and he could barely take his eyes off her. She’d changed into faded jeans that hugged her curves and long legs and wore a V-neck dark blue ruffly shirt that made her eyes even more emerald-like. She returned with a tray of plates, silverware, glasses and a pitcher of iced tea. Both babies were fast asleep in the nursery, so the timing was good for chowing down and having a very serious, important discussion.
They dug in before getting to the nitty gritty of the impending conversation. Liam tried to cut a dumpling in half and it went flying across the coffee table, immediately inspected by her cat, Luna, who’d finally warmed up to Liam. Luna wrinkled her nose at the dumpling and walked away.
They shared a good laugh over that, the tension abating somewhat.
“Ooh, vegetable fried rice—my favorite,” she said, heaping some on her plate.
“Mine, too.”
“Well, ordering Chinese as a married couple will be a snap,” she said. “Except there may be arguments over leftovers.”
“I’d always leave you the last dumpling,” he said.
She tilted her head and looked at him. “You would, wouldn’t you?”
He nodded. “I told you I’d never do anything to hurt you. That includes matters of the stomach.”
She laughed. “Good to know.” She ate a few more forkfuls. “So I guess we’d better start figuring out what we both expect from this marriage-to-be.”
“Well, we have our first thing, that we are both equally responsible for both babies. That Shane is no more yours than mine. That Alexander is no more mine than yours. They are our children.”
“Right. That’s number one. It may take a little time, though, and we both need to be okay with it. I already love Alexander and I’ve known him for a weekend. I’ve loved Shane for his entire six months on earth and of course our bond is very strong. Both of us just need to catch up.”
Liam nodded and twirled a forkful of lo mein. “Exactly. And we will.”
“Number two,” Shelby began, pushing around her fried rice as though stalling for time. “The marriage is legal, yes, but we’ll have separate bedrooms.”
The emphasis on the word separate told him she was talking about sex—the lack of, actually.
“Separate bedrooms, like now,” he agreed. But the thought had been put in his head, about sharing a bedroom and lying next to soft, sweet, smart Shelby. She was so lovely, so sexy, without a shred of makeup and in jeans. He could so easily imagine lifting that ruffly shirt off her, seeing what was underneath. A lace bra. Underwear sexy just by virtue of it being on her luscious body.
His mind was going places it had no business wandering. Especially because he’d just agreed that their marriage would be platonic—which he’d always known would be the case. Separate bedrooms. No sex. No making out.
“Separate bedrooms,” he agreed.
“Good,” she said, forking a dumpling and dipping it in soy sauce.
“Right, good.”
Good for the marriage, bad for him on a personal level because the control and restraint he’d have to put forth would zap all his energy.
Get back to the marriage—the reason for the marriage, he told himself. Forget sex. You’ll have to, anyway.
“I have a condition, as well,” he said, “One that goes in tandem with number one. Neither of us can make a decision about either baby without the other’s agreement. I’m used to being the boss, so this won’t be easy for me, but I know I don’t want you to make decisions without my approval so I won’t make any without yours.”
“Agreed. I trust that we both have the babies’ best interests at heart. After all, that’s why we’re getting married in the first place. So they both have the two of us. So we have the two of
them.”
Liam nodded. “So far, we make a great team. We see eye to eye.”
“I know,” she said. “It does make things easier.”
They saw eye to eye because they were just plain compatible. They had the same values. They found the same things funny. And sad. They cared about the same things: two six-month-old boys. And those boys were the most important things in the world to both of them.
The marriage would work out fine. He was sure of it. If he could keep his attraction to Shelby at bay, the marriage would be a real success. There would be no hurt glances, no disappointments, no arguments over perceived romantic slights.
But keeping his emotional distance from her would be easier on his own turf. Here, everything was Shelby. It was all Shelby, all the time. At his ranch, there would be so much more space for the two of them. The four of them. It would be a hell of a lot easier to keep an emotional distance if he had a physical one.
And he’d need that, too. She was too close here, all the time.
He glanced around at her crowded apartment, then back at Shelby. “Is it important to you that we live here? I mean, it’s cozy and I like being here, Shelby, but it’s pretty small. I’d prefer we move out to my ranch. We can keep the boys together in the nursery, and you’ll have a big bedroom. Plus, there’s a family room and a lot of space for two boys to grow up.”
“I’ll make you a deal. We live here until they start walking. Then we’ll move to the ranch since they’ll need the space. But right now I need to be on my turf. Is that selfish? I know you probably feel the same way.”
“I can understand, Shelby. You feel safe here. And your livelihood is downstairs. You’re connected to your life here. We’ll stay until they start walking.”
He’d just deal with it. Power through. Try not to accidentally brush up against her in the small kitchen. Not imagine her naked in the shower in the one tiny bathroom.
Her smile lit up her entire face. But then it faded. “I’ve thought about the ceremony and all that. I decided on the Wedlock Creek Chapel, but maybe we should just go to the town hall and have Mayor Franklin marry us. After, we could throw a dinner party—at your ranch since this place couldn’t hold one side of our families let alone both. Though my family will probably want to hold a part at the Pie Diner.”
“Town hall? You sure that’s what you want? Money is no object, Shelby. If you want a big wedding, I’m happy to give you the shindig of your dreams.”
She put her fork down. “My dreams? Liam, the wedding of my dreams doesn’t involve marrying a man I don’t love. A man who doesn’t love me. All the Mercer money can’t change that.”
“Understood,” he said. “I just want this to be as... I don’t even know. I’m asking a lot of you, Shelby. To—as you said, marry a man you don’t love. I guess I just want to make it as easy as possible, to give you everything you want. Does that make sense?”
She smiled again. “Yes. And I appreciate it. But I come from a family of bakers, Liam, and we’ve known since birth that icing can’t make a lopsided cake less lopsided.”
“Well, then, let me tell you this. As your husband in this venture, Shelby, I’ll always respect you in every way. You can count on me. Just know that. Maybe not in all the ways you used to think about. But you can count on me.”
“It might take me a while to believe that, really believe it. So don’t take it personally if I don’t seem to trust you right away. Given my past...” Her cheeks pinkened and she pushed more rice around on her plate.
“Shane’s father hurt you pretty bad,” he said gently, hating the idea of anyone hurting Shelby.
“Oh, just the usual case of saying one thing and then doing the complete opposite. He said all the right things, all the right romantic things, and I fell big-time. We got married after a whirlwind relationship. But just when I discovered I was pregnant, I found out he had two girlfriends. I confronted him and he said he was young and a free spirit and ‘wasn’t that why I fell for him?’ Uh, no. He filed for divorce and left town with the one girlfriend he said he was his true love. When I was around six months along, I heard he died in a car accident.”
“Sorry,” he said. “It couldn’t have been an easy time to be pregnant and treated that way.”
“I never felt so alone. Or scared. I just kept thinking, what about the baby? He won’t have a father? It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
“Life can be like that, huh?”
She gave him something of a smile. “Don’t we know it.”
He reached for her hand and held it for a second. “I’ll never betray you, Shelby. I can promise you that.”
“Well, this isn’t a love marriage, so betrayal really isn’t an issue.”
“There are lots of ways to betray someone.”
She looked at him, her expression serious. “Yeah. You’re right.”
“But it’s true that we’re not in this for love or romance. This is about both of us having our children, becoming a family. It’s about family.”
She nodded.
He could keep telling himself this wasn’t about romance all he wanted. But he couldn’t take his eyes off Shelby. Couldn’t stop picturing her naked. Couldn’t stop imagining his hands gliding up her shirt, exploring every inch of her skin.
He wanted her, but he’d control himself, of course; control was Liam Mercer’s middle name.
He took a sip of his beer. “Tomorrow, let’s apply for our marriage license and find out what we need to do there, then we can start the ball rolling on formally adopting the boys. I’m not even sure if we each need to adopt the babies we took home. We’ll need to get all our questions answered.”
“This could have gone so differently if we were different people. Or if one of us or even both of us were married or involved with significant others. I think I should be grateful to have this opportunity to have both boys.”
“That’s how I look at it.” He was grateful. And marrying to make it all happen wasn’t taking anything away from him since he hadn’t planned on marrying anyone. Loving anyone.
“After everything you went through with Shane’s father, you still believe in love and happily-ever-after?” he asked.
“That’s moot now,” she said.
He wondered if she didn’t answer because she did still believe in love or because she didn’t. But she was right. The topic was moot. They’d marry to have their family unit.
This was a business partnership, really, with family as the business and the partnership. He was good at business. He’d be good at this marriage.
“So we each know what to expect, what this marriage will involve, and we’ll be off to a great start,” he said.
“My sister, Norah, texted me earlier. If we choose to get married at the Wedlock Creek Chapel, Annie and Abe Potterowski, the caretakers and officiants, can marry us on Wednesday at noon. There are no waiting periods or blood tests required in Wyoming.”
“I hate the words blood test,” Liam said.
She smiled. “Me, too. I hate it more than any words in the English language.” She bit her lip. “You know what I also hate? The idea of marrying at the town hall. I love the Wedlock Creek Chapel, and since our marriage is going to be legal and binding, then we might as well have the ceremony in a beautiful, old chapel where I once—”
“Once what?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. I’m set on the chapel.”
He nodded. “Wednesday at noon, it is. Will you have your family there? I’m not sure about inviting my parents. My father and I are still on the outs. But I can’t imagine getting married without my brother being there, no matter what kind of marriage it is.”
“Let’s have our families. Maybe it’ll help your dad to understand why we’re doing it, why it’s so important.”
“I don’t even want to look at him,” Li
am said, turning away. He’d suddenly lost his appetite for the extra serving of General Tso’s chicken he’d put on his plate. “I’m not going to think about him. I’m not going to let him get to me again. He can feel how he wants. I’m my own man.”
“You are. But he’s your father and that word is powerful, as you know. He’ll come to see why he’s on the wrong side of this, Liam. But you may have to be patient with him.”
“He doesn’t deserve my patience. He deserves a kick. He deserves to never see me or Alexander—or Shane—again.”
“Well, that’ll hurt him, yes. But it’ll hurt Alexander and Shane, too. And you.”
“Can we change the subject?” he asked, handing her a fortune cookie.
“We can change the subject,” she said, taking the cookie from the wrapper and snapping it in half. “My fortune says, learn by going where you have to go.” She raised an eyebrow. “Uh, what?”
“I guess that’s what you’re doing. What we’re both doing. We have to get married. We’ll learn en route.”
“Yes, but learn what?”
“How to make it work?” he suggested. “How to live with each other? How to be parents to children we’ve just met?”
“I’m putting this fortune in my wallet. I like it.”
He smiled and cracked open his fortune cookie, pulling out the small slip of white paper. “Mine says, the best year-round temperature is a warm heart and a cool head. I’ve got the cool head, I think. Except when it comes to my father. Warm heart for my children. So I’m good, right?”
“I think it means to be passionate but practical. I like that one, too.”
“Passionate and practical cancel each other out, though. Like our marriage. It’s practical. It can’t be passionate. Can you imagine what might happen if we let attraction into the picture?” He shook his head. “Whoa, boy.”
“What would happen?” she asked, leaning forward.
The Baby Switch! Page 10
