Love You, Baby

by Stacey Joy Netzel

  He swiped up his shirt and then braced a hand on the bed to lean over her. “I’ll call you, okay?”

  “Sure. You do that.”

  He dropped a kiss on her unresponsive lips and then left before the guilt had him confessing everything.

  Two miles away from her house, he pulled over and grabbed his phone. Mae answered on the third ring. “What?”

  His fingers tightened on the phone at her cool tone. “Am I still invited over tomorrow?”

  Silence stretched longer than he expected before she replied, “Sure. You can help me start packing.”

  He leaned his head back against the seat rest and blew out a silent breath. “I didn’t mean to ruin your birthday, Mae.”

  “You didn’t.” Her voice softened with a sigh. “I’m choosing to focus on only the good parts.”

  “And those are?”

  “Beating you at the short sticks. Ian being okay with you being the baby’s father. A bigger house. Great…food.”

  He laughed at the last bit. He’d been certain she was going to say great sex. In fact he was certain she meant great sex, and the teasing was her way of letting him know everything was okay between them.

  “I agree, the food was phenomenal,” he said. “But it’s just short sticks, not the short sticks.”

  “Whatever it is, you were the loser.”

  He laughed again, even though her last word pricked at his ego on a scale much larger than losing at mini-golf. Doing his best to ignore it, he switched the call to speaker and they discussed when would be the best time to move her and Ian to the new house while he drove home. They decided on Labor Day weekend, and by the time he said goodbye, the last of the tension had eased from his shoulders and he was more sure than ever that he loved her—and he didn’t deserve her.

  Yet.

  Chapter 26

  Two weeks after Labor Day, Mae tied the sash on her robe and walked Merit to the door without turning on the porch light. She hugged herself to ward off the chilly night air as she snuck a glance across the street at her neighbor’s house. Not Henry’s, but Honor and Asher’s. As expected, their front porch was as dark as hers at three-thirty in the morning.

  Merit turned once he stepped outside and bent down to palm her protruding belly with both hands while placing a kiss above her navel to whisper his now customary, “Love you, baby.”

  The first time he’d said that…she was pretty sure that’s when she fell for him. Well, the rest of the way anyway. He’d already dragged her halfway down before that night, but that right there had pushed her all the way over the edge. Not that she’d told him yet. She didn’t want to freak him out.

  Some days—or pre-dawn mornings—it was still surreal how much everything had changed since the beginning of May. She was happier than she’d ever been, with Merit, and living across from the street from her best friend in this beautiful new house that would have room when the baby came in four months.

  Ian loved his new room, as well as being able to run across to visit Auntie H and Uncle A whenever he wanted. He’d also become friends with a girl his age down the block named Georgie. Mae loved that he had someone to play with that lived close, and had grown comfortable enough with the neighborhood to let him ride his bike to her house just last week.

  Merit had sold his mansion and was getting set to move into her old house over the upcoming weekend. Only lately, when he gave her lingering kisses goodbye on the front porch around about midnight—or at three-thirty a.m. because they both fell asleep—she’d been considering asking him to move in with her and Ian instead.

  It was a big step. Huge step, but after the past seven weeks together, she felt confident the time was right. Despite the idea freaking her out the night of her birthday, everything had been so good between them since then. He’d more than earned her trust by being there for her in everything and anything.

  They’d decided not to find out the baby’s sex, which meant they’d have to come up with both boy and girls’ names, but they were having fun discussing the options with Ian. And instead of meeting her at the doctor’s office for her second appointment, he’d picked her up at the job site so they could go together. He’d been in awe of the ultrasound, and even got a little misty-eyed when they heard and saw the baby’s heartbeat. His emotion triggered hers, and they’d ended up laughing with each other through their tears.

  He’d helped her and Ian move, came over most nights after she got home from work, and every weekend he jumped right into whatever family activity she planned to spend extra time with Ian before the baby came. He and Ian were even working on a tree house plan to build in the spring. He was a ratio of adult and big kid when it came to her son, and she was excited to see the kind of dad he would be with the baby.

  The only thing bothering her was that he hadn’t been back to family brunch, which meant she and Ian hadn’t been to see his family, either. She’d tried bringing it up again, but he’d clammed up fast and once again insisted she leave it alone. So, she was biding her time on the subject and enjoying everything else in the meantime.

  Merit straightened from kissing her belly and threaded his fingers into her hair at the nape of her neck to lean forward and capture her lips. She clutched the open sides of his unbuttoned flannel shirt, hanging on and pulling him closer at the same time.

  Finally, he eased back a couple inches. “I’ll see you later.”

  “I have a meeting at four to sign a new client, but I should make it home before six.”

  “Ian and I will have dinner waiting for you.”

  Trust fund bachelor Merit hadn’t done much cooking for himself. And by hadn’t done much she meant none at all. Regular working man on a budget Merit had been taking lessons from her and proved to be an adept learner—mostly by learning from his mistakes. Merit and her seven year old son making dinner together? That could be quite the adventure.

  “Or I could grab take-n-bake pizza.”

  He laughed as he turned to go.

  He’d only taken two steps when she impulsively called him back with her pulse skipping like crazy. When he turned around, she stepped out onto the porch and flattened her hands against his chest as she pressed close. “It seems silly for you to be going home at this time of the night. You can’t be getting much sleep once you get home.”

  “I got a few hours with you.”

  She took a deep breath. “What if you get all your hours with me?”

  His eyebrows rose in surprise. “You mean stay the rest of the night?”

  “I mean…why don’t you move in here with us instead of into my old house?”

  Surprise turned to astonishment. “Move in here?”

  She shrugged, trying to appear casual as she reached to pick some non-existent lint off his T-shirt. “Yeah.”

  “What about Ian?”

  “Ian will be fine. You’re already here almost every night anyway. Now you’ll be here in the mornings, too.” Plus, they had let him know they were dating, and even shared chaste kisses in front of him. She gripped the sides of Merit’s shirt again. “I like having you next to me in bed, and with us here at the house, and I miss you when you leave.”

  “I miss you when I leave, too.”

  “It’s more than that, though.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I miss you because…”

  “Because?” He tilted his head slightly, eyes questioning.

  Because I love you.

  She hesitated, the words right there on the tip of her tongue. Then again, if she was asking him to move in, wasn’t it about time she admitted the true depth of her feelings?

  Another deep breath gave her the courage to finally raise her gaze to his and say what was in her heart. “I love you. I know it’s fast, and moving in together might be fast, too, but we’ve done everything fast, so this seems normal for us, you know?”

  She forced herself to stop babbling. Her heart thudded hard as she waited for his response. Then she second-guessed hersel
f and wished she’d waited for him to say it first.

  But he didn’t look panicked, and after a couple of seconds that felt like a lifetime, he reached to cup her face in his hands and leaned to rest his forehead against hers. “I love you, too, Mae.”

  Tears pricked her eyelids, and she smiled through the water gathering in her eyes. He grinned back before giving her a slow, tender kiss that grew heated as the seconds ticked by. All of a sudden, he dragged his mouth from hers and crushed her against his chest, his face buried against the crook of her neck.

  On her tiptoes, she hung on with her arms around his neck, their hearts racing together. “So, is that a yes to moving in?”

  His breath whooshed out against her skin. “Before I can say yes, we have to talk.”

  Her stomach fell out from under her in a second flat. She loosened her hold on his neck and lowered so her sock-clad feet were flat on the porch. “That’s never a good thing to hear.”

  He avoided her gaze in the dim light barely reaching them from out by the street. “Maybe you could see if Honor and Asher could take Ian for a couple hours after school, and I could meet you after work?”

  “Seriously?” She pushed out of his arms.

  “What?”

  “You want me to wait to hear whatever it is you have to say until after work?”

  He shifted uncomfortably. “It’s past three in the morning. I don’t want to keep you up.”

  “Then you should’ve just said yes and then told me whatever it is later. Because if you don’t tell me now, I’m not going to get a minute more of sleep the rest of the night. And that’s really going to suck for a whole day at work.” Not to mention the stress of worrying all day about what he had to tell her.

  It could be as simple as he liked chocolate chip cookies instead of peanut butter, but her paranoid pregnancy brain would take her to the worst-case scenario and have her convinced he was a serial killer by the time quitting time rolled around.

  “I don’t want to lie anymore.”

  She arched her brows high and crossed her arms. “Anymore?”

  His gaze met hers, then bounced away as he clenched his jaw while reaching up to rub the back of his neck with a grimace. “I lied when I told my dad I had a job.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. “Which means you lied to me when you didn’t tell me you didn’t have a job.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry.”

  At least he looked guilty. She hugged her arms tighter as the chilled air started to really penetrate her robe. Inside her blue fuzzy socks, her toes were turning to ice cubes.

  “I kept looking, but none of my interviews panned out. No one would hire me without experience. The longer it took, and the more people kept saying no, the harder it was to admit to you that I lied. I didn’t want you to think I was like Ian’s father.”

  She frowned. “You’re nothing like him. You should already know that.”

  “My family calls me Mooch, Mae.”

  “I would’ve hired you—I will hire you.”

  “Grayson told me to ask you, but I needed to do this on my own, not take a pity job from my pregnant girlfriend.”

  “It wouldn’t be a pity job.”

  “Close enough.”

  Recalling his embarrassment after the scene with his dad and him not wanting her to think less of him, she could understand. She didn’t like the lying, but she understood. Then something else dawned on her, and she tilted her head slightly. “You keep using past tense. Is it need to, or needed to?”

  “I finally got a job a couple of weeks ago doing construction cleanup.”

  Which meant Senator Diamond’s son was doing menial labor washing windows and walls, vacuuming and mopping, and dusting counters and appliances. “What about your degree?”

  “I told you, they don’t want me without experience.” He shrugged. “I’m paying my dues and I’m fine with that for now. My boss said if I made it through the probation period, he’d move me to a design team as an assistant after the ninety days.”

  “That can’t pay much.” The moment the words were out, she wished for them back. “I don’t care how much you make for me, but can you afford this house? You should’ve said something sooner.”

  “This place is paid for,” he assured her.

  “It is?” Her voice rose with her astonishment.

  “Why do you think I sold my other house?”

  “Because you couldn’t make the payments.”

  “I couldn’t afford the bills,” he corrected. “I bought that place outright, so, after I paid Asher cash for this place, the rest went in the bank.”

  “Oh.” And wow. She didn’t even have to see exact numbers to know the price difference between the two properties was substantial. With that much left over… “Do you even need to work?”

  “Not for the money.”

  The low tone of his voice and his expression told her all she needed to know. He needed to work for himself. Her heart swelled in her chest. That was the difference between him and Ian’s father. He wasn’t an irresponsible, lazy jerk who took whatever he could get from others. Like he’d sheepishly admitted the night he’d gotten down on one knee to apologize, he’d just needed to grow up a little.

  Lying aside, she was proud of him for not taking the easy road, especially if it meant taking a very entry level job to pay his dues. Merit grown up was pretty damn impressive.

  She held out one hand. “Come on. Let’s go back to bed.”

  He clasped her fingers with his, but hesitated when she pulled him toward the door. “You still want me to stay? Shouldn’t you be pissed off at me right now?”

  “Yeah, I should be, but I get why you didn’t say anything.” She faced him squarely. “Now, should you lie to me again, there will be hell to pay. Serious hell.”

  “Got it,” he promised solemnly. A little tug on her hand brought her baby bump up against his hips, and he leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too, but can we please go inside now?” She didn’t even have to fake the shiver that shook her shoulders. “I’m freezing my butt off.”

  “Definitely can’t have that.” He slid his hands down to palm her butt, then dipped at the knees to lift her up against him and carry her back inside to bed.

  Chapter 27

  Merit finished setting the island counter for breakfast, then sat in one of the high stools, one hand wrapped around his mug, to watch Mae pour pancake batter onto the griddle. He shot a glance over his shoulder as he lifted his cup for a sip of cappuccino. He couldn’t believe he was nervous to see Ian this morning, but this was the first time he’d be here when the kid woke up. The sound of the bathroom door a minute ago told him it wouldn’t be long.

  He and Mae hadn’t slept much when he carried her back to bed, and it wasn’t because of sex. Mostly, they’d talked about him moving in and what they wanted going forward to make sure they were on the same page. He’d warded off a discussion about their families—namely about his dad—and when she dozed off in his arms, he’d contemplated her determination to get him to go talk to him.

  He loved the hell out of her, but it was frustrating she couldn’t get it through her stubborn head to just let it go. He got it that her relationship with her parents was strained, and she didn’t want him to go though that either, but it was something he had to take care of in his own time—once he had a job worth telling them about and didn’t have to face his dad with his lie between them.

  After Mae had questioned his low level job, he wanted to be employed in a position that put his degree to use so the Senator couldn’t complain he was wasting the money they’d spent to put him through college.

  He frowned into the creamy depths of his cup. Okay, so even though his dad could be a hard ass, he didn’t really think he’d complain about that. But he did want him to be proud of his choices. He wanted to be proud of his choices. And he was, mostly. Stepping up with Mae, and the baby, and even Ian, was one thin
g. Now he needed a little more time to work up to a better job so he could hold his head high when he faced his dad.

  Mae sidled up next to him, pancake flipper in hand. She ran the fingers of her free hand through his hair in a light caress. “It’s going to be fine.”

  He didn’t correct her about the object of his thoughts as he reached up to squeeze her fingers when she rested her hand on his shoulder. A sleepy-eyed Ian shuffled into the kitchen and deposited a couple of army men on the counter to climb up onto the chair next to Merit.

  Mae moved around the island back to the stove. “Morning, Scoob.”

  “Mornin’, Mom. Hi, Merit.”

  “Morning, Ian.”

  The kid reached to upright the infantry men lying on the counter while shooting him a sideways glance. “Why are you here for breakfast?”

  His pulse skipped, but Mae answered for him as she deposited the platter of pancakes on the counter in front of the three place settings. “Merit slept over.”

  “Oh. Cool.”

  She met his gaze for a brief moment, then looked back to her son. “Ian, what would you think if he moved in with us and slept over every night?”

  He grabbed two pancakes with his hand and put them on his plate. Merit saw her bite her lip to keep from chastising him, and he proactively passed the kid the syrup bottle. Then he and Mae filled their plates and shared the syrup while Ian ate one whole pancake without answering.

  Merit raised his eyebrows at Mae as he chewed his first bite. She offered a tense smile in return, but it faded fast and his stomach grew heavy.

  “Where would you sleep?” Ian suddenly asked. “Cuz daddies sleep with mommies, right?”

  “Uh, yes,” Mae said after a moment of surprised silence. “Daddies sleep with Mommies. Are you okay with that?”

  “Uh-huh.” He stuffed another bite in his mouth. Syrup dripped down his chin as he looked at Merit. “But will you sleep in the tree house with me sometimes?”