“Oh, no,” Shelby said. David Dirk had been very good to Shelby during one of the most difficult days of her life. “You okay? Here I’ve been hogging the conversation and you have your own big news.”
“Big schmig. And it’s not big at all. I’m totally fine. He told me he met the woman of his dreams at the Wedlock Creek Bar and Grill. She was shooting darts and almost hit him in the chest. Bull’s-eye to the heart and that was that. We weren’t a love match, anyway and only made out a few times—and badly. Zero chemistry. Oh, well.”
“What about Liam’s brother, Drake? He’s gorgeous.”
Norah nodded. “He is, but he’s got it bad for someone.”
“What? Liam never said a word! Who?”
Norah took another sip of coffee. “Oh, I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I’ve seen the way he looks at a certain someone. Mark my words, there’s something brewing. Anyway, like I said, I’ve seen the way Liam looks at you. The man loves you. No doubt. Am I ever wrong? About anything? Wait—don’t answer that. Just trust me.”
“I love you,” Shelby said, reaching to hug her younger sister.
“Ditto.” She popped up from her chair, taking her coffee with her. “Time to open up Treasures. Can’t keep the Minnow sisters waiting.”
Shelby smiled. Suddenly, a fussy wail came from the nursery. “Thank you for everything, Norah. I’ll see you later.” She saw her sister out, then headed to get Alexander. He looked a hundred percent better, his color great and he was clearly hungry.
At least she had one third of her heart right here with her.
* * *
Shane had just finished his applesauce, half of which seemed to end up on the baby’s chin, when the doorbell rang.
Please be Shelby, he thought. He hated the way they’d left things. Hated the way he’d hurt her when that was the last thing he wanted to do—in fact, the very thing their marriage was supposed to protect them from.
But of course it wouldn’t be Shelby. She had Alexander, freshly discharged from the clinic, and wasn’t supposed to bring him over for a few days. At least the doctor had amended it from a week. And as Liam had said, he could use a few days apart from her, though it killed him to be separated from Alexander for even a day. He needed the time away from Shelby to reinforce his original plan for their marriage. Once he had all that as solid and settled in his head as it had been when he’d first proposed to her, he’d be good to go. Onward for the future for the good of their family.
It was looking at her that started problems.
Seeing her when she first woke up with those sleepy eyes and her sexy bed head and the way her long T-shirts and yoga pants clung to her curves.
Watching her scoop up the babies and smother them in morning kisses, her love for them shining in her eyes and in her every gesture.
And catching the way she’d look at him sometimes when she wasn’t guarding herself.
Except he wasn’t supposed to want her to look at him like that.
He shook his head to clear it, as if that ever worked, then plopped Shane in the playpen in the living room and headed to the door, sure it was yet another delicious delivery from the Pie Diner. The Ingalls women had stocked his fridge full of quiche, pot pies and fruit pies.
But it was his mother standing on the doorstep. “Just thought I’d pop by to see how you are. Lovely evening.” She seemed to be trying to muster a smile but couldn’t make it happen.
Larissa Mercer was a very private person and hid her emotions well, but Liam could plainly see she was a nervous wreck.
“You okay, Mom?” Liam held the door open wide, and his mother stepped inside, her heels clicking on the tile.
“Dad told me about your conversation,” she said, taking off her jacket and folding it over her arm. She sat down on a tall-backed chair facing the fireplace. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so emotional and lost for words at the same time.”
Hmm. That was unexpected. Liam sat down across from her. “Did you know he was adopted?”
Larissa waited a beat. Talking about family secrets, talking about anything other than the weather or last night’s dinner or their feelings in the most superficial manner, wasn’t the Mercer way and he knew this had to be hard for his mom. “I’ve known since the day he proposed marriage to me. He broke down about it a couple of hours after I said yes. He told me he couldn’t accept my hand in marriage unless I knew the whole truth about him—which was that he ‘wasn’t a real Mercer.’”
Once again, Liam was struck by the image of his father as a younger man, a man on one knee, proposing to the woman he loved—and refusing to lie to her. Refusing to go forward in life when she didn’t know something he deemed fundamental about him.
That was character. And it gave him hope for his dad.
“I told him he absolutely was a real Mercer,” his mother continued, “and that I’d love him the same no matter to whom he was born. I’ll never forget his expression—he was so touched. But once I knew and he felt comfortable moving forward, he put the whole thing out of his mind. He never brought it up again.”
His parents had been married for thirty-one years. They’d never talked about it again? Jeez. Talk about repression.
“That’s no way to live,” Liam said. “Blocking out the truth, pretending something isn’t so.”
Like his feelings for Shelby. How much he wanted her.
How much he loved her.
There it was. What he’d refused to admit to himself. He loved Shelby. So much. His love for her had come bursting out of every cell of his body without his control. Because like Shelby said, that was how love worked. You couldn’t control it.
But you could control yourself. You could pretend. You could deny.
Like his father had.
Like Liam had to. To make sure all he cared about was protected.
Arrrgh! Why was this so hard? He’d had it all figured out. And then wham, blast to the center of his theory and the practice.
“No, it’s no way to live,” his mother said. “But it’s what he needed to do. It was his business, so I never pressed him to talk about it. Maybe I should have.”
“I understand why you didn’t bring it up. He wanted it forgotten. And Dad can be difficult to talk to sometimes.”
“No kidding,” she said, finally smiling.
“I’m not sure I can forgive him for not visiting Alexander in the clinic. He was really sick. And Dad didn’t come. That was the true test of his feelings for his grandson and he failed miserably.”
“I know. And trust me, your father was tormented about it and still is. Right now your father is very wrapped up in how he feels, how he thinks things have to be. But there are consequences to his actions and we’ll just have to see what happens.”
How he thinks things have to be. Like Liam and his insistence that he and Shelby have a platonic marriage?
Consequences. Like losing Shelby, anyway?
He felt his heart sink along with his stomach. Arrgh again! Focus on your dad and not yourself.
“I’m not sure I want to watch,” Liam said. “Family train wreck coming up next. Stay tuned.”
“Well, whatever happens with your father, know that you and Shelby and Alexander and Shane have my full support. They are my grandsons. Both of them. They’re my treasures. I’ve just known one a bit longer than the other.”
Treasures. Like the name of Shelby’s shop. Like Shelby. Pure treasure.
His mother stood and went over to say hello to Shane, scooping up the baby and giving him a cuddle. “I can’t wait to get to know you more and more.” She kissed his cheek, then put him back down. “I’ll see you soon, Liam.”
He walked his mother to the door, so damned twisted up about his marriage. How it was supposed to work. How it was supposed to last. Shouldn’t he keep up the emotional and physical distance
from his wife?
If so, why did that sound so incredibly stupid and impossible to his own ears?
Liam walked over to the wall of windows, looking out at the dark night, the woods dimly illuminated by the yard lights. A chill ran up the nape of his neck as a terrible thought came over him.
Maybe the answer was no marriage instead of a farce. All this time he’d thought they had to be married, legally wed, to have what they needed and wanted—both babies. But maybe it was better to live separate lives and share custody. Splitting the week. Splitting the babies. Not that that sounded like a good idea.
He didn’t want Shane only half the week. He didn’t want to give up Alexander half the time. He wanted them to grow up as brothers.
Which brought him back to being married to Shelby. Their mother.
Except living a lie was no longer acceptable. His father had proven that. Harrington Mercer could live with his head stuck in the sand all he wanted. But Liam wouldn’t. He and Shelby weren’t a real husband and wife. And pretending to be a family under a lie like that was wrong. But living together as a real husband and wife in every sense of the word? No. Liam knew that led to nothing but heartache down the road, and would pit him and Shelby against each other. Love didn’t last. As least for him. And two little boys’ lives would be affected. Again.
He needed to sit down with Shelby and talk this through, how they were going to deal with the situation.
Because he couldn’t live like this.
* * *
Liam dropped off Shane with the Ingallses, who doted over him and tried to push more pie on Liam. At this rate, he’d be a thousand pounds in a month. He thanked them for watching Shane for an hour or two—however long it would take him and Shelby to reach some kind of new arrangement—and headed over to her apartment.
He rang the bell and when he heard her footsteps coming down the stairs, his heart sped up.
He couldn’t wait for her to open the door. He couldn’t wait to see her face. He couldn’t wait to pull her in his arms.
Because he loved her. So damned much he felt it in his blood and veins and every beat of his heart.
What the hell? He’d come over here determined to change things between them, to live truthfully.
And the truth is that you love Shelby Ingalls Mercer, your wife.
That is the truth, the whole truth, so help you, God.
The door opened.
Shelby stood there, looking beautiful as always in her faded jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt, her wedding ring sparkling in the dim lighting of the vestibule on Alexander’s back as she held him.
“Liam, is everything okay? Is Shane okay?”
“Shane is fine. I left him with your family for a bit. To come see you.”
Her expression went from worried to alarmed.
Because she loves you, too, moron. It hit him like a ton of the old bricks. That was what she’d been trying to say earlier. She loved him. And always had.
He reached for her hands. “You were right about everything, Shelby.”
“I was?” she said tentatively, putting her hands in his.
“About how love works. You can’t control it. Try and you’ll only end up with an ulcer.”
She smiled. “I know. I’ve been popping antacids left and right.”
“If we love each other, and it’s clear as day that we do, we need to have a real marriage. Full of love and passion and give and take. Support. Loving, honoring, cherishing. In sickness and in health. For richer and for poorer, for as long as we both shall live.”
“Oh, God, Liam. I do. I do!”
He laughed and pulled her into a hug. “And if we argue, and I’m sure we will, if we stomp off all angry at each other, we’re strong enough to withstand it.”
“You’re right,” said a deep voice from behind him. “Because we’re Mercers. And that’s what Mercers do.”
Liam whirled around. His father stood inches away on the sidewalk.
“I’d like to see my grandson, if that’s all right,” Harrington said. He was holding a small bag in his hands. “I have something for him.”
My grandson. Finally.
“Sure,” Shelby said. “Come on up.”
Liam walked up the stairs to Shelby’s apartment and realized the usual hundred-pound weight was gone from each shoulder.
The moment his father entered the apartment he rushed toward Alexander in his playpen and lifted him up, tears in his eyes. “My grandson. My precious grandson. I’ll never let you down again. I promise you that. I have something for you. Something that’s yours.” He reached into the bag and pulled the little brown cowboy hat he’d given Alexander the Friday that all their lives had changed.
“I’ve been looking all over for that,” Liam said. “Glad you found it.”
Harrington looked away for a moment, then square at Liam. He kissed Alexander on the cheek and then put him back down in the playpen. “I didn’t find it. I took it back. The night you and Shelby told us about Alexander and Shane and the baby switch.”
Oh, God. Dad.
“After you left the other day I sat looking at that tiny Stetson for hours,” Harrington said. “Your mother tried to talk sense into me but I wouldn’t listen. And finally I just kept thinking about lines from the letter. From my mother, Alexandra. From my father, Wilton. And from what Pearl said.”
Shelby practically gasped. “You went to see Pearl?”
“Damned right, I did. I adopted two of her dogs, too.”
Shelby laughed. “Really?”
Harrington nodded. “I named one Clint. Your mother gets naming rights for the second one. Young German shepherds mixed with God knows what.”
“Good for you, Dad. You always wanted a dog. Now you’ll have two.”
“Two sons, two grandsons, two dogs,” Harrington said. He looked from Liam to Shelby and back to Liam. “Son, I’m sorry I couldn’t see my way through this until now. It took some serious soul-searching, I’ll tell you that. But no matter how I feel about myself, Alexander is my grandson. I love the stuffing out of him.”
“I know you do, Dad. It must have hurt like hell to withdraw from him.”
“It did. And it’ll never happen again.”
Shelby hugged Harrington and he hugged her back tight.
“We’re Mercers,” Harrington said. “And we’re Ingallses. And we’re McCords.”
“McCords?” Liam repeated.
“My birth mother,” Harrington said. “Her name was Jeannie McCord.”
Shelby smiled. “Well, hopefully we’ll be blessed with more children. I want five, did I mention that, Liam?” She grinned at her husband then turned to Harrington. “How about we give our next born McCord as a middle name. In Jeannie’s honor.”
Tears shone in Harrington’s eyes. “I’d like that.”
“Me, too,” Liam said, holding his wife’s hand.
* * *
That night, Shelby lay in bed, Liam spooned against her back, his arms wrapped around her. A breeze fluttered through the bedroom windows and ruffled the sheet covering them, goose bumps covering Shelby’s very naked body.
Making love with Liam was everything she’d dreamed it would be, everything she’d fantasized about.
She hadn’t felt this happy since she’d held Shane for the first time in the Wedlock Creek Clinic. Since she’d held Alexander for the first time and felt in her heart—long before her head caught up—that she was his mother, too.
Liam stirred, his hand moving up to her hair, then down to her shoulder. “I could get used to this,” he murmured.
“Oh, me, too,” she said, turning over.
“I love you, Shelby Mercer.”
“I love you back, Liam Mercer.”
“And I love our family.” He sat up and reached for the glass of champagne they’d had
to celebrate their new status as a “real” husband and wife, every wonderful, messy moment life had to offer. He held the glass up. “To us and our family.”
She sat up and clinked her glass with his. “To us and our family. Forever.”
“Forever,” she repeated and kissed him.
They put down their glasses and lay facing each other, Liam caressing her hair, Shelby trailing a finger across his sexy chest.
“Waaah!” came a little cry from the direction of the nursery.
“Waah!” came another. “Waah!”
“I think the first was the multiple known as Shane,” Liam said.
“And the second was the multiple known as Alexander.”
“Waaah!” the cry came louder. One of those come get me this minute kind of cries.
“I’ve got it,” Shelby said, getting out of bed.
“We’ve got it,” he said, scooping her up in his arms and carrying her to the nursery, kissing her along the way.
Epilogue
Some months later Liam, Shelby, Alexander and Shane sat in the county courthouse, listening to the family court judge talk about how nicely this whole baby switch thing had turned out. A family had been brought together.
Shelby heard sniffles behind her and turned around. The entire Ingalls crew was dabbing tissues under their eyes, Norah full out ugly-crying.
Shelby grinned at her very emotional younger sister. Norah was half-crying tears of joy and half-crying from being very hormonal.
Her single sister had just discovered she was pregnant...with triplets. According to Aunt Cheyenne, maybe just stepping foot into the Wedlock Creek Chapel could bring multiples into your life.
Shelby’s attention was taken by Harrington Mercer, who sat in the row across the aisle from the Ingallses, a giant stuffed kangaroo, complete with a baby kangaroo in its pouch, on the seat next to him. His wife and son and his cousin Clara sat on the other side of Harrington.
Finally, Shelby and Liam stood, each holding a baby, Alexander and Shane in matching little brown Stetsons.
“It’s official,” Liam said. “We’re all Mercers.”
The Baby Switch! Page 17
