TIED: A Steamy Small Town Romance (Reckless Falls Book 3)

by Vivian Lux

  Rett snorted and looked away, then looked down at Cal's hand. Then he looked at me. "You mean what you said there? You love these idiots?"

  "And these idiots love her," Gray piped up, grinning and then spitting again. He pressed his finger to his split lip. "Goddamn, dude, you could have aimed somewhere other than my pretty face."

  "Fuck you," Rett laughed, looking away again. But his eyes kept coming back to rest on my stomach. "A baby?" he whispered.

  I swallowed and nodded and looked down at my belly. "You're like the second to know." I looked back up at him. "Which is actually exactly how it should be."

  "Harp," he said, his voice choking up. "Are you seriously...?"

  I lifted my chin. "You don't have to be totally okay with it just yet, big brother," I said, reaching out to pat his arm. "But, you should know that I..." I looked back at Cal and Gray and corrected myself. "That we, are okay with it."

  "We love her," Cal said, moving to my side.

  "And we'll take care of her," Gray added, coming around to my other. "Always have, haven't we?"

  "Yeah," Rett choked, squeezing his fist and then pressing it to his mouth. "Okay, yeah. I need to go."

  "Rett?"

  "No, I'm gonna go...Actually," he cleared his throat. "I'm gonna go take back that bottle of Patron I brought over. I'm gonna drink the whole thing — by myself." He shot a significant look at Gray who in turn looked more chastened than he had this whole time. "And then I'll be ready to hear more in detail about how my best friends and my baby sister plan on raising my niece or nephew, together...I..." He shook his head and sort of staggered to the side. "But first I'm getting shitfaced. Cool?"

  "Cool," I nodded. Then grinned a little. "Drink my share too, kay?"

  Rett looked at me startled and then narrowed his eyes. "Not cool yet, Harp. Not cool." But the corner of his mouth was twitching as he walked back in the house.

  "You think he's gonna be okay?" Cal asked me.

  I moved to him, brushing my hand up his stomach. "Are you gonna be okay?" I wondered.

  Cal winced but shrugged it off. "I'm fine." Then he raised a significant eyebrow at me. "But don't think I've forgotten what we were about to do."

  I tried to wrack my brain but had no idea what he was talking about. "Okay, I'm lost."

  "You're not leaving."

  "Oh!" I blurted just as my brother reemerged from Cal's house, his hand clenching the bag in a death grip. He ducked away from our gaze as he slid back into the cab of his truck and turned on the engine. As I watched my big brother pull away, he watched us in return, the three of us, and I knew something all at once that I didn't know until just then. "You're right," I laughed. "I'm not going anywhere without you."

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Callum

  The earliest the OB/GYN could see us was three agonizing weeks away. And by the time all three of us were together again, sitting in the waiting room, there was no mistaking the small rise in her tummy. Seeing that rising swell did something to me. Something that was so old and primal I wasn't sure it had a name.

  She was swinging her feet. Around and around in these hypnotizing little figure eights. I figured it was better to stare at them, rather than think about what we were doing here in this office.

  Gray cleared his throat and closed his hand over her knee. "You okay?" he asked her.

  I heard her inhale sharply through her nose. He'd been asking her that pretty much nonstop since she'd told us. It had to be getting irritating.

  But she took a deep breath. "I'm okay," she said and the level grit in her voice was much more convincing than the expression on her face. She looked wide-eyed, absolutely freaked out. I slid my hand over her knee. "Do you want..." I cleared my throat. "Want us to come in there with you?"

  She leaned back and sort of stared at the ceiling and I got the feeling she was trying not to look me in the eyes. "No," she said. "I need to do this alone."

  "Why?" asked Gray.

  I nodded. "Yeah. You're not alone."

  A faint ghost of a smile twitched at the corner of her lips, and she finally, finally stopped staring off into space and looked at me. She looked at both of us, then looked over her shoulder. Then, in the quickest, sweetest little motion in the world she kissed our cheeks, first Gray's, then mine.

  At that moment the door opened. "Harper McCabe?" called the nurse, not even looking up from her chart.

  She took a deep breath, nodded once and then slung her legs out, pointing her toes like a dancer before landing on them. "I'll be right back." She told us both.

  We both nodded and sat back. Gray started bouncing his leg up and down, up and down, up and down. So fast that it was almost a vibration. I could feel it through the floor. He was rattling the entire row of chairs, sending out a faint metallic clinking sound. I looked at him, significantly, but he kept bouncing that leg, up and down, up and down, then leaned over and rested his elbow on his knee, so that his whole body was vibrating now and it was driving me absolutely up a wall and...

  "Stop it," I hissed.

  Gray looked up sharply, then down at his leg. He placed his hand deliberately on his knee, like he was trying to stop it, like he couldn't stop it on its own. "Sorry," he sing-songed.

  I leaned back, feeling tense. Feeling pissed off, feeling like I wanted to stand up and start knocking things over. All the stupid posters of happy families, happy couples, and all of them, all of them there was only one guy. One guy. This was so fucked up. That might be my baby in there, or it might not be, but I had a hand in its existence, no matter what. Regardless of the outcome, I was still involved.

  Could I walk away? I leaned over and put my head into my hands and Gray started vibrating his knee again. But this time I didn't even bother to chastise him. I almost found the vibrations to be soothing, at least it made me think of something other than the fact that I had a hand in making that baby in there. But what if it wasn't mine? What if it was Gray's?

  I looked over at Gray. By the rapidity of his vibrating, I knew he was probably thinking the same thing. What if the baby was mine? If it was mine, would he be angry? Hurt? How did I feel? About all this?

  If it were any other girl, any other girl in the world and Gray was suddenly a father? Hell, I'd be in that baby's life so fast it would get annoying. I'd teach the kid all the stupid shit that Gray was terrible at. Like how to pick up your fucking towel off bathroom floor, and how to organize your life. But Gray would be a great father too, teaching his kid how to be random and fun and whatever baking skills he chose to pass on. If it were any other girl, I'd be the uncle that remembered every birthday, went to every baseball game, or every gymnastics meet. I’d fucking be there.

  And if I had a baby, Gray would be the same way.

  I leaned back in my chair. But it wasn't any other girl. It was Harper. And if the baby was Gray's... well I'd be in that child's life no matter what. And since it was Harper's baby... What would be the difference?

  I looked up at Gray. He had stopped vibrating. He looked up at me and I willed him, for once in his life, to just get it without needing it spelled out for him. I closed my eyes and hoped like hell he'd just know that I was in this. For real. That the baby inside Harper's belly wasn't his or mine. It was...ours.

  Just like Harper herself.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Grayson

  The door opened. All the nervous energy that I'd focused into trying not to lose my shit suddenly flooded out of me, and I jumped to my feet, not even worrying about how this looked. ""How to go? How is it?" I said.

  Harper looked up and around, then ducked and nodded in the direction of the hallway. I looked at Cal and we both followed her over to a more private corner, shutting the door to the office behind us. She leaned against the wall, blinking for a second. Then she took a deep breath. "Well? The first thing is, the baby is healthy."

  I felt a flush of something warm run through my veins and heard Cal's sharp exhale. Harper's fingers were already play
ing across her stomach. "They also said I missed the window for the CVS."

  "The pharmacy store?" Cal asked, at the same time I said, "The what?"

  She looked at both of us. "It's a test for paternity," she sighed, leaning forward and burying her head in her hands. "But it has to be administered before you get too pregnant and..." She smoothed her hand over her tiny little belly. It was just the prettiest thing I'd ever seen, the way it was so perfectly round and taut. I wanted so badly to go to my knees right there in the hallway and kiss that tiny little bump. "So if I want a paternity test, I have to have an amnio," she was saying.

  I wrenched my thoughts away from kissing her belly and looked up at her. "An amnio is what exactly?"

  "Where they take some of the fluid out of the amniotic sac. They can use that to do the paternity test."

  Cal was nodding. "Okay, then we have to do that than right?"

  She nodded but very slowly. I looked at her sharply. "You seem weird about this," I said cautiously.

  She looked down and closed her eyes. For a second, it was like we weren't even there, her hands rubbing over her belly, and a small private smile playing around her lips. It was just her and that kid in there right now, and she took a deep breath. "There's a chance it could cause a miscarriage..." she exhaled.

  That silence hung in the air for a moment. I looked at Cal. He looked like he wanted to throw up, just like me. I'd been suspecting his feelings on the matter all along and this just confirmed it. If figuring out whose kid this was put the baby — our baby — at risk in any way, then...

  Well really, did it matter?

  I nodded and then went to my knees and took her hands. I kissed her fingers, not caring who saw. "Okay," I said. I had to keep talking, because I was afraid I was going to vomit on her shoes. "We have time to think about that. If you want to." I looked at Cal. He sort of swallowed, and I saw the shadow of his Adam's apple bob up and down and I knew he was ready to spew. "Come on," I said sharply. "Honey, we're taking you home so we can take care of you."

  At that, Cal’s color came back, and he nodded and stretched out his hand.

  Harper walked in a daze, letting us lead her around the hallway corner and straight into...

  "Ma?" Cal said.

  I stared down the long hallway, blinking like I could somehow reset the image, but Mrs. McCabe just kept on barreling towards us. Somewhere far behind her, I saw Rett loping slowly, his head down and in the far distance was Vern leaning against the wall and looking towards the ceiling, and if the ground could have opened up and swallowed me right then and there, I would have been eternally grateful.

  I took a deep breath and waited for Mrs. McCabe to strike. But she blew right past me and right into the arms of her daughter.

  "How are you?" she cried, clutching her daughter in a chokehold. Harper made a helpless little sound and her eyes went wide as Mrs. McCabe squeezed all the breath from her lungs. "Is my grandchild okay?"

  "Ma?" Cal repeated, sounding for all the world like a frightened parrot. "Ma?"

  Mrs. McCabe whirled on him. "Were you in there?" she demanded. "Is she eating right? You have to make sure she remembers to eat. I never knew how in the world someone could just forget to eat, that's a problem I've obviously never had." She patted her rounded hips and then clutched Harper tighter. "Are you feeling okay? Do you need some Saltines?"

  "Mom?" Harper croaked, finally able to pull back. "How did you?" Then she spotted Rett lurking in the background. "Oh. Never mind." She craned her neck. "And Dad's here too? Oh Lord."

  "He said he's going to hold his tongue about this whole...thing," Mrs. McCabe whispered conspiratorially. As if Vern would ever say something unless absolutely necessary. "But that doesn't mean I need to."

  "Mom," Harper started, and the green fire in her eyes blazed up. But Mrs. McCabe wasn't even looking at her.

  She was looking at me.

  "You all got her in this mess. I know you and what kind of man you've become. I always told everyone exactly what I thought you were worth, Grayson Abbott. Don't prove me wrong."

  I was about to profess my undying love for her daughter and her grandchild, when she whirled on a startled looking Cal. "And you, Callum Reese. I always said your father did the best job he could in making a good man out of you. You do him proud and do right by my girl."

  "I would never think of..." Cal started to say, but Mrs. McCabe was already talking to Harper.

  "And my little girl." She brushed a piece of Harper's hair from her face and it was only then that I saw my girl was crying. "My little adventurer with her legs sticking out of the chimney. I know you're going to find your own way no matter what, so I'm not worried. I know these two guys here will worry enough for all of us."

  "This is true," Cal said, running his hand over Harper's back.

  It was the first time either one of us had dared touch her in front of her family. I reached out and tentatively tucked her hair behind her ears. She looked up and smiled at me. "So true," I echoed Cal.

  Harper's mother caught her up in a flutter of questions and double-checking doctor's orders, and I reluctantly let go of her hand as Mrs. McCabe led her down the hall, leaving me, Cal and Rett all standing there in a three-way staring contest.

  Rett finally took a deep breath. "And as far as I'm concerned," he announced. "You're all sitting around with your hands folded. Maybe occasionally playing Monopoly."

  "That's exactly it," I deadpanned. Then I grinned at my friend. "You wanna take a raincheck on that Patron?"

  Rett glared at me. "I don't want to hear that word ever again," he declared, looking a little green around the gills. "But I'd be fine drinking something else with you." He narrowed his eyes. "Your treat."

  I nodded. "My treat." I looked at Cal. "Our treat?"

  Cal rolled his eyes at me. "Fuck you dude, you're treating us both."

  "Fine," I sighed dramatically. "But you're driving to the liquor store."

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Harper

  I lowered the phone back down again and let it rest on the table as I waited to feel something. Sadness, anger, confusion? Which emotion was the right one to feel at the moment your career was over?

  "Harp?" Cal was right there. He was always right there these days, hovering, ready at a moment's notice to drop everything and wait on me hand and foot. I kept telling him to pace himself. That we were only twenty weeks in, and not to exhaust himself before I was even halfway there. "What's going on? You're standing weird."

  I had to grin in spite of what had just happen. Turning slowly, I looked at him there looming in his kitchen. My work was all spread out on the kitchen table, leaving no room for meals or for Grayson to make his elaborately messy dinners. It amazed me that the addition of one more person to this house could make it seem exponentially smaller, but then again, I guessed I counted as two people these days. "I'm standing weird?" I repeated, smiling. "How exactly am I standing weird?"

  Cal started to shrug, but Gray was suddenly behind him, adding his two cents. "You are though," he piped up, running a towel through his thick, dark curls. He was showering off after another long day at the demolition site, and the smell of his body wash was making me weak at the knees.

  "Okay," I shrugged. "I'm standing weird," I relented. "Probably because I'm completely fucked?" I tried like hell to make the words match my feelings on the matter, but all I could feel was numb acceptance.

  "How are you fucked?" Cal prompted.

  I sighed and ran my hand over my belly, feeling the little fluttery shifting motions popping under my fingers. "Well, you know how I've been hanging out here for the past few months and doing everything via teleconference?" I reminded him. "And your internet is shit, by the way, you'd said you'd upgrade for me."

  "I did," Cal reminded me gently. "It's just Reckless Falls," he sighed.

  "Yeah, I know. It's not like it even matters anymore. Pretty sure I just lost my job."

  "What?" Gray said, stepping into the kitche
n. "How?"

  I chuckled and ran my hand over my belly again. "I had a Skype call with Cecily today and, well…" I pressed the heel of my hand to my forehead. "I guess I wasn't thinking about it, because I stood up to grab something from the counter and she saw."

  "Saw?"

  "This." I pressed my hand into the bump that seemed to expand by the hour. "Our little peanut is refusing to be discreet."

  "So she knows now?" Cal said softly, sounding a little deflated and also a little...excited? Why would that be?"

  I shrugged and laughed. It all seemed so absurd now. "I don't know exactly what my plan was. It's not like I could hide out forever and just...give birth without someone finding out." I spread my hands. "But yeah. She tried to find out for me, and actually she did go to bat for me much more than I expected but..." I looked up into the two pairs of eyes watching me. "That's it. They're going to invoke the morality clause in my contract and let me go."

  "Oh honey..." Gray said, moving to me at once. I rested my head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat for a moment as he stroked my hair.

  But Cal stayed still, something strange working over his face. "What exactly are you breaking?"

  I looked at him and narrowed my eyes. "Uh, pregnancy outside of marriage." And all at once I started laughing and sat down heavily on the kitchen chair. Gray looked alarmed but I waved him off. "It's okay. I'm fine, actually. I'm actually really fine about it. I guess I knew it was coming and I've started working on some commercial illustration stuff I could use to keep going in the meantime but..." I trailed off and looked at them. "Um, you guys are being really scary silent." I glared at Cal. "I would at least expect you to tell Cecily to go fuck herself."

  "Well she can for sure do that," Cal said slowly...significantly. Gray stepped back and I felt something pass between them. "But what if she's got it all wrong?"

  Then suddenly both of them lost their minds. Or at least that's what it seemed like as I watched Gray do this weird curtsying bob, then look at Cal who bobbed and then Gray ducked his head and then they both bobbed and then both burst out laughing.