by Lucy Gage
“Actually, I’m good. I have news of my own.”
“Do you? Did you finally tell Liam that he’s going to be a father? I assume you’ve seen him. He’s guarding Rob’s fiancée, right?”
“He is and I did tell him.”
“And? Is he going to make an honest woman out of you before my grandson makes his debut?”
Jenna sighed. Sometimes, it would be easier if her father wasn’t such a straightforward guy. “That’s the plan. As long as Mom has my birth certificate, we’re getting married on Monday. Can you fly out?”
“Of course, I’ll be there. And she has it, pumpkin. It’s in the Belmont safe. If she can’t find it, tell me. I’ll come early with the one in my safe. Otherwise, I’ll see you on Monday.”
“Wait, Daddy. Can you bring something from my apartment? I have a white dress I wore to Theresa Solomon’s baby shower. It’s in my closet. Send Victoria and she’ll find it easily. Tell her it’s the Yves St. Laurent and that I want the matching Louboutins. She’ll know which one.”
Victoria was his assistant and she was a clotheshorse. If anyone could get it right, she trusted that Victoria would.
“Will do. I’ll see you in a couple days, pumpkin. Love you.”
Jenna hung up and sighed. She loved her father but he was always distracted. By the time he had said he’d see her Monday, he’d begun to tune her out.
She’d text Victoria the details, just in case.
Now, the hard call. She dialed her mother’s house, knowing that the staff would tell her if her mother was out and if it was okay to call her on her cell phone. Her father was used to calls at all hours, but her mother insisted on appropriate protocol. Jenna was always chastised when she acted like a modern woman, ignoring proper etiquette, though they had long disagreed as to what proper etiquette still entailed.
“Andrews residence. How may I help you?”
“Hi, Molly. It’s Jenna.”
“Hi, Jen! How’s the baby?”
“He’s great. Kicking up a storm. Is my mom around?”
“She’s home tonight. You’re lucky you caught her. She had a charity function late this afternoon. I’ll get her.”
The maid left and when there was a person on the line again, it was her mother.
“Hello, darling! To what do I owe this unexpected call?”
They didn’t chat often, but Jenna called every week or so.
“Hello, Mom. I have news.”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense, dear. What is it?”
“I’m getting married.”
“Oh, really? Are you marrying Rob? Did he finally decide that he loves you as more than just his best friend?”
Jenna rolled her eyes. “No, mother. I’m not marrying Rob. He’s getting married tomorrow to the girl he met last Christmas.”
“Oh. Well, that’s…unfortunate, I suppose. I’ve always said that the two of you would make the perfect couple.”
“Yes, mother, I know. If only we were in love with each other. I’m marrying Liam.”
“Liam? He’s the boy who got you pregnant?”
Jenna sighed. “Yes, mother. He’s my baby’s father. He’s also the man I’ve been in love with for the last three and half years. I’ve told you this before.”
“Of course. Well, I suppose if you can’t marry Rob that it’s good for you to marry your baby’s father. Not that a man being the father of your child guarantees he’ll be a good husband.”
And there it was. Her mother couldn’t make it through one conversation without taking a swipe at her ex-husband.
“I’m in love with him, Mom. He makes my heart beat fast and makes me unsteady on my feet. With him, I feel like the smartest, most beautiful woman on the planet. He’s a good man. I should have told him about the baby sooner.”
“I did say that. It might have been nice for you to be married before you were showing, at least. Do you plan to wait to get married until after the baby so you can fit into a wedding dress?”
“No, mom. We’re hoping to get married on Monday and I’d like for you to be here. Do you have my birth certificate? If not, Daddy said he’d come early and bring the one that’s in his safe.”
“Where are you, Jenna?”
“I’m in Maine. We’re at Rob’s new house on the coast. Can you be here for the wedding?”
“Of course. You don’t need to ask your father for your birth certificate. I have one in the safe. Do you have a dress? Should I come get you so that we can shop tomorrow in Boston?”
“I can’t, Mom. Rob is getting married tomorrow, remember? I have to be here for that. I’m wearing the dress I wore to Theresa’s shower. I know it fits and Chris is here if I need alterations.”
“Oh, good. I’m glad Christopher will be there to help you. Is he there for Rob’s wedding?”
“Yes. Rob’s family came from Minnesota. I guess her family will be here tomorrow.”
“Do you like her, Jenna? Do you think she’ll make it difficult for you to remain friends with Rob?”
“I like her okay, I guess. She seemed nice enough when I met her before. I’m still upset about how she treated Rob, but he’s over it, so I guess I should be, too. I can’t see Rob letting her make a big deal of us being friends. I work for him, as does Liam. We’ll be living here at Rob’s house for a little while, at least.”
“Won’t that be cramped, dear?”
“The house was an inn. It’s not as big as Gran’s house on the Vineyard, but it’s close.”
“Well, I look forward to seeing it and to meeting Liam. I’ll arrive on Sunday. If it’s an inconvenience, I’ll stay nearby.”
“It’s not. Rob will be glad to have you here. You know he adores you. I’ll send Molly an email with the GPS coordinates and she can put them in your car. I’ll see you Sunday.”
“I love you, darling. I’m glad you finally told Liam about the baby. What is Rob’s fiancée’s name?”
Jenna shook her head. It would be poor etiquette to arrive at someone’s home without a gift, and her mother would bring a wedding gift, despite not being invited to the ceremony. Without asking, her mother knew that it was hush-hush because of Rob’s high-profile life. Rob did adore her parents. They’d have been invited if it was a big, splashy affair. Jenna knew the low-profile event was Emily’s doing.
“Her name is Emily. She’ll take Rob’s name, I’m sure. I don’t think she’s the kind of girl who insists on keeping her name.”
“And what about you? Will you take Liam’s name?”
“Yes. It’s Neely.”
“Oh? Gran would smile at you marrying an Irish Catholic. She always hated that I married outside the faith. She wanted me to marry a Kennedy cousin. Didn’t she hate that I fell in love with a nice Jewish boy from New Hampshire.”
“Yes, well, Liam isn’t a Kennedy cousin, mom. He’s not from money. And, no, he’s not marrying me because of mine. I’ve never told him about my trust fund, let alone what I’m set to inherit. He knows Daddy is a lawyer and that the two of you are divorced, but he doesn’t know I come from money. He’s been to my apartment, but doesn’t know that I own it and he’s never seen Daddy’s house. But don’t worry, he’s been around Rob’s money for years and it doesn’t faze him. Besides, he’s Catie’s brother. I’m sure he’s been around the Donatis.”
“He’s Catherine’s brother? How lovely! You know how much I adore her. I’m glad. You know how gauche it is when people fumble over themselves around money. As if it’s such a big deal.”
Jenna laughed to herself. To her mother, who had never once lived without copious amounts of money at her disposal, money was something you just had, like shoes or food. She never thought about what it was like without it or how it would be to struggle. Not that Jenna knew that, either, but she lived well below her means because there was little point in doing otherwise.
“I’ll see you on Sunday, Mom. I love you.”
Her mother hung up and Jenna sighed in relief. That could have been a
lot worse. Only a couple dings at her father and very minor snobbery implied.
Hopefully, the harassment about Rob would stop now that he was getting married. When they met at Jenna’s hooding ceremony, Pat Deacon had instantly charmed her mother. Ever since, she’d been enamored with the idea of Jenna marrying into the Deacon family. She adored Rob and his parents and thought they’d make perfect in-laws. Time and again, she’d express disappointment when Jenna told her that, while she and Rob were the best of friends, they were not in love and it wasn’t going to happen for them. Maybe she could put that to rest, finally.
Hopefully Liam had as much luck on his end.
Chapter 29
Two phone calls down, one to go. Liam loved all five of his sisters, he really did. But most of them were henpecking, pains in the ass. The only one he cared about actually showing up when he got married was his twin sister, Mary Cate. Before he called his sister, he sent Jenna a quick text.
Any luck getting your birth certificate?
Her response was immediate:
Now we’re in the same yard and you can text me? Teasing. Mom had mine. She’ll bring it Sunday. She wants to meet you first…
The fact that they’d never met each other’s families was not lost on Liam. He felt like he knew Jenna and she knew him better than anyone other than Rob or Mary Cate. It was weird that they’d never done normal couple things, like family barbeques, birthday parties or weddings, but he couldn’t imagine being without her.
With any luck, the family stuff would be a non-issue.
Hopefully.
Should I be worried?
She’ll love you. I love you.
I love you, too. Why didn’t we do this before?
No idea. I should have asked. I’m the tech geek. :)
He smiled at that. Yes, she was.
Need to make some more calls. You okay without me for a bit?
I spent 3.5 years w/o you 99% of the time. I’ll be okay.
That made him sad.
:( I’m a jackass.
No you aren’t. Should I come down there? I can see you’re by the steps…
Only if you want that. Might be easier to talk to my sister alone. Requires explanation…
Come find me when you’re done. I need to kiss you again…
I promise. Soon as I hang up the last call, my lips are yours.
Looking forward to it…
Liam smiled. What an idiot he was for not trying to keep in touch with her before. How different would things have been if he’d called her sometimes? Or asked her to come see him when he couldn’t make it back to L.A. for a while? Or even just sent her the occasional text. Or sext. God, he’d have loved sexy messages from her. Those videos showed him that.
**********
Jenna laughed as she received Liam’s last text and sent her reply. Why hadn’t she told him to keep in touch with her before? It wasn’t as if asking him to call or sending him the occasional text would have been requesting a marriage contract. She shook her head and sighed.
Kelly and Amy approached her then, both all smiles. “So? Is the wedding a go?” Amy asked.
“Everything is set. Rob said Emily’s mother can marry us.”
“Yay!” Kelly cheered. Then she lowered her voice. “Between Robbie hesitating to go after Emily, and you not telling Liam he was going to be a daddy, I was expecting a phone call saying that you and Robbie had finally eloped.”
“You knew, too?” Jenna asked. Of course. She shook her head. “Do Pat and Anja know?”
“God, no,” Amy said. “Like we’d tell them. You know they love you, especially Dad. He’d have hounded Robbie for the past six years if he knew that the two of you were all but married.”
“Oh, stop. We’re not all but married. We haven’t even slept together in four years.”
“Honey, there are couples who are married that can say the same,” Kelly noted.
“Oh? What about you? Can you say that?” Jenna prodded.
Kelly giggled. “I took my husband upstairs earlier and broke in the bed.”
“Lalalalala!” Amy said, plugging her ears. “You know how much I hate that!”
“Oh, get over it. As if you’re not planning to do all sorts of naughty things to that sexy husband of yours later.”
“Yes, but my sexy husband isn’t your brother. I don’t need to hear the details of what you two do to each other.”
“Fine. We can talk about Liam instead. He might be like a brother, but sex with him would be legal in all fifty states.”
“True. Plus, he’s adorable and has a great ass,” Amy said.
“He does have a great ass,” Kelly agreed.
“Good. We’ve established that my fiancé has a great ass. You two do know that Emily and Liam are both unaware of the history between me and Rob, right?”
“I got the impression that Emily didn’t know, given that he hasn’t technically known her that long and it is history, but I’d have thought you would’ve told Liam ages ago,” Amy said with confusion in her voice. “Why’d you keep it from him? He has always been part of the inner circle.”
“It wasn’t about that. Obviously, he can be trusted to keep it out of the press. We never talked about why we didn’t tell Liam before, but I think we both knew that he’d probably believe I was comparing him to Rob.”
“Oh. So, he’s not like Robbie and Rick, huh?” Kelly shook her head sympathetically.
“Lalalalala! God! Why do you always talk about my brothers as sex objects when I’m around?”
“Get. Over. It. As if you didn’t know they’re both well-endowed. So, Liam’s not big, huh?”
“He’s perfectly capable, thank you. Size isn’t everything.”
“Amen, sister. There’s more to sex than pelvic thrusts and depth of penetration,” Amy noted.
“I knew Raoul wasn’t hiding a big package in that Speedo,” Kelly said, sounding slightly disappointed.
Jenna had to laugh. “Amy’s right. There’s a lot more to it and bigger isn’t always better.”
“Emily says Robbie is pretty fantastic.” Amy rolled her eyes but said nothing this time.
Jenna tried to tamp down her jealousy. “Well, she’s right, but she doesn’t know I know that, and neither does Liam. Rob and I agreed to keep it that way. Capisce?”
Both women nodded. Rob didn’t need to deal with that fallout when the truth was that it didn’t matter and hadn’t since before Jenna met Liam. Better to ignore that bear than poke it.
Chapter 30
Liam sighed. Sooner or later, he’d have to come clean to Jenna about every dirty bit of his life. He hoped she’d still love him when it was all said and done. Even though she’d said before that she would, it scared the shit out of him that she might not.
He took a deep breath and made what would be the hardest and the easiest call of the three to his family. Dialing Mary Cate, he waited for her to yell at him. His mother would have called in between, despite the fact that he’d said he would call his twin.
“Joseph Liam Michael Neely! Are you a fucking idiot? What the hell are you thinking? You don’t want to marry a girl because you got her pregnant! Do you want to end up like dad? Married for twenty-five years to a woman you don’t love because you made a baby with her, when all along you were in love with someone else? Do you want to put your kids through what we went through? Didn’t you learn from Dad’s mistake?”
“You done?”
“No! And what about Nina? I thought you liked her? You said she was great, that you were happy, you thought maybe you’d finally grown up and could settle down? Were you lying?”
He said nothing because he knew she wasn’t done.
“You don’t have anything to say for yourself? Who is this girl? You got some random girl pregnant you haven’t even seen in months? Who does that? Who gets pregnant and doesn’t tell the guy? What were you doing? Did you forget to use a condom? You know better than that! Didn’t you learn from Mary Sarah getting pregna
nt on the pill?”
“You done yet? You think I could get a word in edgewise?”
“Fine. Spill.”
“I told you about her before, Mary Cate.”
“This is Jenna? The girl who works for Robbie?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. Well, you didn’t say that.”
“Hard to say anything with you running off at the mouth.”
“Sorry. So, Jenna? You’re marrying Jenna? I knew you were in love with her. You’ve been in love with her since you met her, haven’t you?”
He sighed. There were good and bad things about being a twin. He didn’t need to ask how she knew, she always did.
“Yes. I told her last winter. Finally got the balls to admit how I felt about her and was ready to make a real commitment to her, stop screwing around with other girls and treat her the way she deserved. But then all that shit went down with Rob and Emily…”
“Right. And being a dumbass, you probably never bothered to call her. Let me guess, you didn’t have that kind of relationship.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re a fucking moron.” Only his sister could talk to him like that and mean it in the nicest possible way.
He sighed. “Tell me about it. I’m lucky she’s even speaking to me, let alone agreed to marry me.”
“She must be due soon, then. You haven’t seen her since you left L.A., have you?”
“Nope, not until today. She showed up with a pretty big belly. Soon as I saw it, I knew the baby was mine.”
“What the fuck happened, Liam? I know you love her, but were you too stupid to use a condom?”
“No, it broke, and her pill failed, too. It wasn’t on purpose, Mary Cate, but I’m not sorry. I didn’t know I wanted to be a dad, but I do. I wish I’d been there for her through her pregnancy.”
“Well, you’re going to be there from now on, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. When we go back to L.A., I’ll stay until the baby is born and he can travel back here with us. We’ll move in with Rob and Emily after that.”
“It’s a boy?”
Liam’s voice grew thick again. He was still so in awe of it all. “Yeah. Jenna wants to name him Robert Cameron.”
