And she would have to know for certain it was over.
She just couldn’t face that. Not yet.
* * *
Liam planned to go up to the Warrenton terminal as soon as Karin came for RG. But the sight of her just kind of broke him. She was trying so hard to be civil, even kind. He’d expected her to give him dirty looks when he showed up for breakfast, to put up a fight about what to do for Christmas, to insist that really, the plans they’d made earlier needed to change.
Those things didn’t happen. She nodded when the rest of them agreed that the Christmas schedule would stay the same. And then, at noon, when she came to pick up RG, he’d been sure she would start in about the damn parenting plan.
Nope. She thanked him, forced a smile, took the baby and left.
If she’d only been a jerk to him, he would have found it at least a little easier to hold on to his anger with her. Instead, he missed her, ached for her, wished he could find a way to heal the breach between them.
Not thirty-six hours after he’d lost her, he was already trying to figure out how to find his way back to her.
Yesterday, he’d had some vague idea that he’d head down to Portland today after Karin came for RG, that he would check in at his offices there and take the ring back to Tiffany & Co.
But now he realized that what he really needed was someone he could trust to talk to.
He thought of Otto first. He really did trust Karin’s dad and the man was older, much wiser and good at heart, with that understanding way about him.
But Otto was Karin’s dad. And dragging Otto into this, putting him in a position where he might feel he had to take sides...
Uh-uh. That wouldn’t be right.
Liam called Daniel. It turned out his oldest brother was spending the day before Christmas Eve at home with his family.
At a little after one, Liam was sitting on the sofa in Daniel’s study at the house on Rinehart Hill.
“Scotch?” asked his older brother as he poured two fingers for himself. Daniel inevitably brought out the good Scotch for man-to-man talks.
“Thanks, but no.”
“So, what’s going on?” Daniel carried his drink over to the chair across from Liam.
And Liam laid it on him. “I’m in love with Karin—completely. It’s deep, Daniel, what I feel for her. And it’s real. I bought a ring and then night-before-last I asked her to marry me. She said she loves me, too, but she put the brakes on, turned me down.” He recounted in detail the story of the fight and the breakup that had occurred early yesterday morning.
When he finally fell silent, Daniel said, “And then you realized you were wrong and you don’t love her after all?”
Suddenly, Liam wished he’d taken that drink. “What the hell, Daniel? No. Uh-uh. I do love her. She’s everything to me.”
Daniel sipped his Scotch. “You still want to marry her, then?”
“You bet your ass I do. I just, well, what did I do wrong and how can I make it right?”
“Judging by what you’ve just told me, you didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I didn’t...? Daniel, if I didn’t do anything wrong, then there is no way for me to make it right.”
“Not by yourself. At some point, she’s going to need to meet you halfway.”
“I don’t know. It’s really hard for her. She had a bad experience with Bud Killigan.”
“Not your fault. But you said that she said she loves you, right?”
“She did, yeah.”
“So stay steady. Don’t let her fear scare you away.”
Easier said than done. “You know how I am. I get enthusiastic. And that makes me impatient. I knew I should’ve waited. I planned to wait until she was more sure of me, of us. But then she said she loved me and I completely lost my head. I grabbed the ring and got down on my knees.”
“That’s okay. You got a right to be you, man.”
“I just don’t know how you do it, Daniel. How you’ve done it for all these years, the way you’ve put up with all of us, been there for all of us, even with all the crap we’ve laid on you, all the challenges we’ve thrown at you.”
Daniel gave a slow, pensive shake of his head. “I’ve made some giant mistakes along the way.”
“Maybe, but you hung in. You always found a way to make it right. No matter how bad things got, you kept stepping up.”
Daniel set down his drink and leaned forward in his chair. “And that—what you just said. That’s how you do it. That’s how you make it work. You have to be there when you’re needed—you have to be there just in case you’re needed. And don’t even try to kid yourself, you will always wonder if you’re doing it right, if you’re messing something up that’s going to make it harder for someone you love down the line. No matter what, though, you do the best you can. And sometimes you screw it up. And then you scramble to try to make it right again. But you can never get it right if you don’t keep putting yourself out there in the first place.”
* * *
Bolstered by his big brother’s advice, Liam decided that he would reach out to Karin again.
This time though, he would be reasonable and careful. He would make it crystal clear to her that he didn’t want to push her, he just wanted to be with her—yeah, he wanted to marry her. He wanted her for today and tomorrow and the rest of their lives.
But if one day at a time was the only way she could do it, one day at a time was just fine with him.
And if she still needed to keep what they had together a secret from Ben and Coco, he would respect her wishes and make certain she got back to the main house every morning before dawn.
At first, he was thinking he couldn’t wait. That he needed to try to make things right with her immediately.
But that was just his impatient nature taking over again.
He ordered himself to slow down, to think it through more carefully. It was the day before Christmas Eve. He didn’t want to mess up the fragile peace between them. Coco and Ben were counting on their Christmas plans. He couldn’t take the chance that Karin would not only turn him down, but decide she just wasn’t comfortable having breakfast at the cottage Christmas morning or going to Daniel’s for Christmas Day.
No. He needed to wait at least until the day after Christmas to try to make things right with her.
Instead of heading back to the Cove and pounding on her door or blowing up her phone with calls and texts, he went into downtown Valentine Bay.
He loved his hometown at Christmas. All the shop windows had Christmas displays and the streetlamps were wrapped in garland and hung with lighted wreathes. He dropped some bills into a couple of Salvation Army pots and did some last-minute Christmas shopping, more gifts for Ben and Coco, Otto and Sten and his nieces and nephew.
At some point, he started thinking about all the families who couldn’t afford piles of presents under their trees. So he bought even more toys and made a quick run by Safeway and Walgreens to help fill the Toys for Tots donation boxes. Before he went home, he stopped at a diner he liked for a quick dinner.
Back at the cottage by seven, he turned on the Christmas lights inside and out, cued up the holiday tunes and spent a couple of hours wrapping the gifts he’d found on his impromptu shopping spree.
It was snowing at nine fifteen when he stuck a bow on the last package and got up to put it under the tree. He heard footsteps on the deck and glanced up to see Karin standing on the far side of the sliding door.
For a moment, he almost didn’t believe his own eyes.
But then she raised a hand and gave him a sheepish wave.
Real. She was real.
His blood racing through his veins and his breath all tangled and hot in his chest, he went to let her in.
Chapter Fourteen
Snowflakes glittered in her hair and her cheeks were pink
from the cold. She gave him a beautiful, wobbly little smile. “Dad’s got Riley. I was hoping we could talk.” The look in her eyes? It promised him everything.
He wanted to grab her, wrap her up tight in his arms and never, ever let go.
But then he reminded himself that she’d only said she wanted to talk. The thing not to do right now was make wild assumptions.
“Yes,” he said. “I would love to talk.”
“So then, may I come in?”
Feeling foolish for keeping her standing out in the cold, he stepped clear of the doorway. “Please.”
She entered the kitchen and he shut and locked the slider.
“Here. Give me your coat.” He moved behind her. She let him slip it off her shoulders. He laid it over the back of a kitchen chair. “Tea? Hot chocolate?”
“No. I just want to talk.”
He ushered her over to the fire. They sat on the hearth side by side.
“You’re busy,” she said nervously, gesturing at the coffee table, where he’d left the rolls of bright wrapping paper and the big bag of ready-made bows.
“Nope. I’m all done.” He turned and stared directly at her then—like a gift in itself, just looking at her. “I have wrapped the last present.” And damn it, he couldn’t wait another second to touch her. He reached for her hand.
And she gave it, her slim fingers sliding between his, weaving them together.
It was everything he’d ever wanted, her hand in his. He was so glad he’d waited, given her time to come back to him when she was ready—and was he jumping the gun again? Assuming more than she was offering?
“Talk to me,” he said.
Her eyes were dark with shadows. “If I talk about the past...is that okay?”
“Anything, Karin. Everything. I want to understand. I want to be the one you come to—for the good things. And for the tough things, too.”
“I, um...” She hesitated. He made himself be quiet, made himself simply wait as she blew out a slow breath and tried again. “I didn’t love Bud—I mean, I didn’t love him enough. Not the way a woman needs to love a man she builds a life with. I married him because he said he loved me, because I was pregnant and worried about the future. Saying yes to him seemed like the answer to a bunch of questions I didn’t even really know how to ask. It was not the best choice. It was, in the end, a pretty bad choice, to marry Bud. And when he died, I swear I felt like I had killed him.”
He couldn’t let that stand. “No. What happened to him wasn’t your fault.”
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “You’re right. I know that I didn’t really kill him. But for a long time, I blamed myself for his death.”
“But not anymore?”
“No. Bud really was like those songs you hear and those books you read about sailors. He was married to the sea. He loved the life on a fishing boat. And he died doing what he loved. I can’t say I take comfort from that, exactly, but it is what it is and at least I’m no longer telling myself it was all my fault. I’ve made a lot of progress with that.”
He kind of wanted to scold her for ever having blamed herself. But this was her story she was sharing. He had no right to tell her how to feel about her part in it.
She lifted her head from his shoulder and grinned at him. “Look at you. So restrained.”
“I’m trying.” He pressed their joined hands to his heart. “Go on.”
She drew in a slow breath. “So, I got over blaming myself for Bud’s death. However, I have remained absolutely determined never to make the same mistake I made with Bud. I have sworn to myself that I will never again marry a man for the wrong reason.” She gazed directly into his eyes. “But what is the wrong reason? That’s what I didn’t really understand—not until the last couple of days. Not until I felt I had lost you. Only since then have I started to see that the wrong reason wasn’t about the baby I was going to have. It had nothing to do with being pregnant. It was about the love. I didn’t love Bud enough. And for that reason and that reason alone, I had no right to marry him.” Her eyes gleamed so bright. A tear escaped and slid down her cheek.
“Don’t cry, sweetheart.” Liam leaned in and kissed the wetness away. “I love you. I want you. I want a life with you. I love you way more than enough.”
She touched his cheek with her free hand, a quick brush of a touch, too quickly gone. “When I put off telling you I was having your baby, it was because I knew you were a stand-up guy, and I was dreading that you might ask me to marry you for the same reason Bud had, because you felt obligated.”
His laugh sounded pained to his own ears. “Okay, yeah. In the beginning, that day I spotted you at Safeway and the truth came out, I honestly didn’t know my ass from up. I was only trying really hard to do the right thing.”
She sniffled a little, smiling at him through her tears. “And I knew that.”
“But doing the right thing isn’t the reason I want to marry you now. Not anymore. Everything’s changed now. Now I’ve figured out what I had no damn clue about for way too long. Not back in high school. Not last winter, in those amazing nights you gave me before you broke it off. And not that day in October when I finally found out I was going to be a dad.”
She searched his face. “What? Tell me.”
“I’ve figured out why I could never really get you out of my mind. I understand now why I was pissed off when I heard you’d married Bud, why, through all the years since high school, I’ve always felt this pinch in my chest whenever I thought of you. It’s because you’re the one. The one for me. I do love you, Karin. I will always love you. More than I’m ever going to know how to say.”
Karin just stared at him.
He squeezed her hand. “What did I do?”
“Liam, you said exactly what I needed to hear.”
“But are you okay?”
She drew a slow, shaky breath. “Never better. And I mean that sincerely.”
Holding hands was not enough. He pulled her into his arms. She lifted her beautiful face to him.
And he kissed her, deep and slow and infinitely sweet.
“I love you, Liam Bravo,” she said when he lifted his head. “So much. Way more than enough to last through the hard times. I love you enough to be with you forever.”
“So then, it’s good that I didn’t take the ring back?”
“Yes.” She kissed him again, hard and quick. “Yes, to everything. To that amazing, perfect ring you chose for me. To the future. To our wedding. To me staying right here with you all night long and then the two of us going to the other house together for breakfast tomorrow, where we will break the big news to the family that we’re getting married.”
Maybe his mouth was hanging open. A little. “You mean that?”
“I do. Every word.”
He pressed his lips to the velvety skin at her temple. “Well, all right then. Count me in.” He claimed her mouth again, a kiss that melted into another kiss and another after that.
A while later, they turned off the fire and switched off the lights. He led her down the hall to his room.
“I should probably be patient,” he said, “but I’m going for it anyway. I don’t want to wait. I want to get married right away. If that doesn’t work for you, just say so right now.”
“Yes.”
He blinked down at her. “Yes, you agree to getting married right away?”
Her grin was slow and full of equal parts joy and mischief. “Maybe at New Year’s?”
He couldn’t stop himself. He pushed his luck some more. “Matt and Sabra got married last New Year’s. It was just the family and close friends, at Daniel’s house.”
She didn’t balk, didn’t even ask for time to think it over. “I would love that.”
It was stacking up to be the best Christmas ever. “We can discuss the idea with Keely and Daniel on Christma
s Day.”
“Totally works for me.”
Had he ever been this happy? He couldn’t remember when. “Wait right here?”
“Yes.”
He was back with her in under thirty seconds. She gave him her hand and he slipped on the ring he’d chosen for her. It fit perfectly. The saleswoman at Tiffany & Co. had helped him guesstimate the size.
“I love it,” she said and reached up to frame his face in her two soft hands. “I love you.”
“I love you, Karin Killigan. And I will be loving you every single day for the rest of our lives.”
“We did it all backward,” she whispered. “This shouldn’t be possible. But somehow, it’s all come out absolutely right.”
* * *
They were married on New Year’s Day at the house on Rhinehart Hill. A trucker friend of Liam’s who also happened to be an ordained minister officiated. Karin had no bridesmaids and Liam skipped the groomsmen.
The bride and groom stood up together in a room full of family and friends, with Ben on Liam’s side and Coco next to Karin. Riley George slept through the brief ceremony, held close in his father’s loving arms.
They settled in together at the main house on Sweetheart Cove. Sten sold Liam the cottage for a bargain price and Liam had the cottage rebuilt to accommodate a growing family. By the time Sten and a very pregnant Madison returned to Valentine Bay to make their home in the main house, the cottage was ready for Liam, Karin, the kids and Otto.
A year later, Karin gave birth to another boy. They named him Aiden at Coco’s request.
* * *
Watch for Grace Bravo’s story,
coming in May 2020,
only from Harlequin Special Edition.
And be sure to catch up on the rest of
The Bravos of Valentine Bay miniseries
with these great romances by Christine Rimmer:
A Husband She Couldn’t Forget
Switched at Birth
Same Time, Next Christmas
Almost a Bravo
The Right Reason to Marry Page 18
