A Sweet Life-kindle

by Andre, Bella

  “Who was that?”

  Sophie still had her hand over her mouth, which was tingling and warm from Jake’s furious onslaught, as she turned to her coworker with surprise. She’d forgotten she and Jake had been out in public.

  He always made her forget everything but him.

  Janice didn’t wait for her to reply before saying, “I didn’t think there were any men out there better-looking than your brothers.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Is that your boyfriend?”

  No, Sophie thought with an edge of silent hysteria, he’s just the father of my baby.

  Oh, God. Not baby.

  Babies.

  Digging deep, Sophie faked a smile for the biggest gossip in the San Francisco library system. “I’ve known him forever. He’s a close friend of the family.”

  Janice looked at her like she was nuts. “Friends? That’s all you are?” She frowned. “None of my friends have ever kissed me like that.”

  Sophie shrugged, as if a kiss like that from a male friend was perfectly normal, then looked at her watch. “I’d better get inside.”

  Well, she thought as she walked up to the large front doors, perhaps there was an upside to Janice having seen Jake. At least that way, when she started showing, maybe she wouldn’t have to explain as much. Her coworker would spread the word for her.

  Fifteen

  Jake screeched to a stop in his parking space behind McCann’s.

  Sophie was right. He was an idiot.

  What if their kids could barely read because of him?

  A cold sweat broke out across his skin, thinking of his kids going through what he’d been through. School had been hell. He could still remember sitting with the other kids in first, second, third grade, watching them learn to read all around him. But no matter how hard he’d tried, he couldn’t get the letters to make sense.

  It was one more way he was worse than everyone else. He wasn’t just the poor kid whose clothes stank like his father’s booze and cigarettes.

  He was stupid, too.

  Sure, numbers always added up easily for him, but words were a different story. They were part of everything. Throughout his years at school he’d cut more classes than he’d attended. And he figured they’d only let him graduate because the teachers didn’t want to see his ugly mug for another school year.

  How many times in those teenage years had he told himself it didn’t matter? That he didn’t need to know how to read in order to be a bartender?

  It had been his lifelong dream to have a pub of his own, but running a pub was a whole different ball game from merely working in one. And that was when he’d had to face the truth: If he didn’t learn to read, there wouldn’t be a chance in hell that he could keep the business afloat.

  Man, he’d been an asshole with those first tutors he’d hired in secret, enough of a belligerent, angry twenty-one-year-old that they’d quit one after the other. Finally, he’d found one who seemed more amused by his antics than anything. Mrs. Springs had been in her sixties and had been tough on him in a way no one had ever been before, almost as if she cared about whether or not he learned to read.

  He still remembered the day things finally started to click. He’d planted a kiss straight on Helen’s lips, but she hadn’t been angry with him. She’d hugged him instead…then told him the road was still going to be long and difficult, but hopefully worth it.

  She’d been right about the first part, anyway. He’d continued to sweat it out with her, and then with other tutors after she’d retired. The bigger his business grew, the more contracts and the more correspondence he needed to deal with. People often commented on the way he did nearly all of his business on the phone or in person, rather than using e-mail. They called it his “personal touch.” He didn’t care what they called it, just as long as no one ever guessed why he rarely used his computer for anything but spreadsheets and financials.

  So, yeah, he could read. But it was still difficult to get through a book, and he couldn’t see himself ever doing it for fun.

  Whereas Sophie lived and breathed books.

  Please, God, he found himself praying silently, let our kids get Sophie’s brain, not mine.

  One of his waitresses saw him sitting in his car gripping the steering wheel for dear life and gave him a nervous little wave before turning away quickly as she clearly realized her boss was losing it.

  Not little by little, but in big, huge chunks.

  Hearing that he was going to be the father of twins by autumn had thrown him for the biggest loop of his life. Big enough that he hadn’t been able to think of anything but chaining Sophie to him, and doing whatever he needed to do to make sure she didn’t leave him, to ensure that she and his children would be healthy and cared for.

  Jake started to get out of the car when his eye caught the corner of the thick book the pregnancy doctor had given them. He needed to read it, needed to know everything that could go wrong with Sophie’s pregnancy, so that he could make sure nothing bad ever happened to her.

  Of course, when he flipped through it, hundreds of tiny little words laughed up at him. Just try to read me now, each of those words challenged him. Best of luck, loser.

  If Sophie ever found out that he could barely read—

  He shoved the book off his lap onto the floor mat. He didn’t have time to read it right now, anyway. His executive assistant had already called him repeatedly with reminders for the half-dozen conference calls he had scheduled for today. They were important meetings he would normally have given his entire attention to, budding emergencies at his newer sites that should have had him on the next plane out of San Francisco…rather than just trying to figure out a way to manage them so he didn’t have to leave Sophie.

  8:00 p.m.

  If Jake thought she was going to pack up her things and be waiting for him like a good little girl, he was very much mistaken. As soon as he got to her apartment, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

  Just because they were having twins didn’t mean he could treat her like she was his possession.

  Sophie paced in her living room and stared daggers at the door.

  9:00 p.m.

  Seriously? He couldn’t even get here on time to cart her away like a barbarian over to his place? That was how little she meant to him? Did anything hurt more than being forgotten? All her life she’d been invisible. Not just to Jake, but to everyone. How could a bookworm like her even begin to compete with her larger-than-life siblings? She’d never be a movie star, would never throw the winning pitch in the World Series, would never be the sparkling, stunning Sullivan twin.

  Once Jake finally deigned to show up at her door, she swore that nothing was going to stop her from giving him a piece of her mind about what he could do with his six remaining days.

  Okay, so maybe she was careening from one extreme to the other like a madwoman, but he could at least give her the respect of showing up less than an hour late to ruin her life.

  10:00 p.m.

  Sophie’s righteous anger grew bigger, stronger with every passing minute until her cuckoo clock chimed 10:00 p.m. That was when it finally hit her—something had to be wrong. Jake had been too intent on controlling her life this morning to give up just a few hours later. Especially since he wasn’t a man who ever gave up.

  What if he’d been hurt? What if he needed her help and she’d been wasting precious time in her apartment thinking horrible things about him? She grabbed her phone and called him on his cell, but it went straight to voice mail.

  No one would know to call her if something happened to Jake. No one would know he was important to her, that she was pregnant with his children.

  She didn’t own a car since it was easy enough to rent one from the car-share company when she needed one. But they were all out of vehicles for the night, and since Sophie didn’t know the evening bus schedule very well, it took her far longer than she wanted to get to his house. All the lights were off, and he didn’t answer the door. She call
ed the pub. The bartender told her Jake was there but was in the middle of dealing with an emergency and couldn’t get to the phone.

  Twenty-five minutes and two bus changes later, she practically ran inside McCann’s, pushing through a crowd of college kids and not caring that they clearly thought she’d lost her mind.

  “Where is Jake?” She nearly grabbed the bartender’s shirt to get his attention.

  The scruffy man gave her the same look the college kids had. Like she should be on her living room clock with the rest of the cuckoo birds.

  “He’s in the back.”

  The last thing she expected was to see Jake in his office, handing a tissue to a young woman with pink and blue hair. The girl blew her nose loudly just as Sophie saw that there were two other people in the room. The couple was older than Jake. Old enough, she realized, to be the girl’s parents.

  She skidded to a stop, but not fast enough for Jake not to see her.

  “Sophie!” He said something to the couple, then got up and headed for her. He brushed his fingertips against her skin as he slid a lock of hair back from her face. “It’s late. You know what the doctor said about rest. You should be sleeping.”

  “I couldn’t sleep. I was worried when you didn’t show up.” She gave him a little half smile. “And I was mad at you for standing me up,” she admitted. This time she was the one reaching for his face. How many times had she wanted to touch him like this over the years? Warmth flooded her as she realized she could do it now. “Now that I know you are okay, tell me what I can do to help while you—” she looked over his shoulder at the group gathered in his office “—deal with things.”

  “All I want is for you to get some rest.” She was about to tell him she wasn’t tired, that his day had to be a hundred times more difficult than hers, when he frowned at her. “How did you get here?”

  “The bus.” She didn’t think it would be wise to mention the few dark blocks between the final bus stop and his pub.

  He swore. “You should have stayed home.”

  Didn’t he see? “I needed to make sure you were okay.”

  Jake still looked upset about her late-night jaunt through San Francisco’s public transportation system, but rather than continue to rail at her, he threaded his fingers into her hair and tugged her closer so that her head was tucked in beneath his chin. “God, you’re sweet.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead.

  Just then, the bartender burst through the door. “Customers are about to riot out here if they don’t get some service soon. Betty is already way past what she can handle.”

  Sophie plopped her hand over Jake’s mouth before he could reply. “I’ve got this.” She didn’t wait for Jake to agree before she grabbed a black apron from a peg on the wall and wrapped it around her waist. “Do you have a pad and pencil?” she asked the bartender.

  He gladly shoved them into her hands, and thirty seconds later she was in the middle of a steep learning curve on how to be a good waitress in an Irish pub as customers all but growled their orders at her and demanded endless refills.

  Sophie had never been a part of something so noisy, so full of constant motion. No, she realized as she loaded a tray with frothy beers, that wasn’t true. Growing up the youngest of eight had been just as noisy, just as full of motion.

  No wonder she found herself loving every single second of it.

  ***

  By the time Jake got a chance to pull Sophie from the pub floor, it was nearly 2:00 a.m. and they were on the verge of shutting down for the night. His bartender had popped his head in at one point to say, “You should hire that girl full time,” but Jake had still been focused on trying to get his young employee to agree to see a counselor. A full-on treatment program would be better, but he had enough experience with alcoholics to know that pushing them in the right direction usually made them do the exact opposite.

  He’d always been careful to monitor his employees for substance abuse and to make sure all of his managers did the same, but Samantha had hidden it well. Well enough that it had taken her parents coming in and begging him to fire her for him to see what had been right beneath his nose.

  He blamed himself, knew if he hadn’t been so obsessed with Sophie these past months he might have seen the changes in Samantha’s behavior.

  The subject of his obsession was wiping down tables with a rag. She’d pulled her long hair back into a ponytail, and wisps of hair curled around her flushed face. Her beauty took his breath away just as it always had, making it impossible for him to do anything but stare at her…until she went to lift one of the chairs onto the table.

  “You shouldn’t be lifting things.” He took the chair from her and put it up. “I’ll get the rest. Go lie down in my office.”

  He knew he should be thanking her for getting him out of a rough spot, that he should have already apologized for acting like a jerk that morning when he’d dropped her off at the library. Instead, he was barking orders at her.

  But instead of railing back at him, she simply said, “Is everything all right?”

  God, she really was sweet. And far more forgiving than he deserved. No one had ever worried about him before. She was going to be the perfect mother…and wife.

  Lord knew, she didn’t deserve a life stuck with an idiot like him.

  But there was no way he would ever give her up. Because he was exactly the selfish bastard she’d accused him of being.

  He continued putting chairs onto the tables. “Not right now. But, hopefully, it will be. I’m really sorry I didn’t come pick you up tonight or call to explain, and that you were worried about me.”

  When was the last time someone had worried about him? His chest squeezed tight again as he thought about meaning enough to someone that they would come looking for him when he didn’t show up somewhere he’d said he’d be.

  “I was just heading out to your place when…” He shook his head, thinking about Samantha. She was a nice girl, and he wanted to believe she’d overcome her addiction. But after living with an alcoholic, Jake knew just how hard that battle could be. And that you really had to want to stop drinking.

  When he didn’t say anything more, Sophie didn’t push him for further explanations. Instead, she simply said, “Your employees all speak really highly of you.”

  “Owning a pub,” he said, running a hand through his hair, “you’ve got to be really careful about things. Right from the start I always had strict rules for my employees.”

  “You mean all the easy access to alcohol?”

  He nodded. “People can get hooked on it. Far too easily.” And he couldn’t live with himself if someone got hooked on drinking because they worked at one of his pubs. In fact, many of his key employees didn’t drink at all. Just like him.

  “I realized the other day that I’ve never seen you drunk before.” Her eyes looked too deep into him as she said, “That’s on purpose, isn’t it?” He nodded, and she put her hand on his arm. “I’m sure you’ve done everything you can to help that young woman. The rest is up to her.”

  He hadn’t thought anything would help him feel better about tonight…but he hadn’t counted on Sophie. The question was, he thought as she yawned, whether or not he could ever figure out how to become the kind of man she could count on, too.

  “It’s way past your bedtime.” He reached out a hand to her and finally said what he should have long before now. “Thank you, Sophie.”

  She put her hand in his. “You’re welcome.” She smiled as she threaded her fingers through his. “I had fun.”

  He couldn’t get a handle on what he was feeling as they walked out to his car in silence. And as she fell asleep almost the instant he pulled out of his parking spot, shifting in the seat so that her hand was on his lap, Jake was thankful for so much more than Sophie filling in for the night at his pub.

  What, he wondered silently, had he ever done right to deserve even this one week with her?

  ***

  Jake carried Sophie inside hi
s house, loving the way she nestled in closer to him. He swore all he was going to do was tuck her in and make himself walk away, even though she was so soft, so warm.

  But after he stripped her clothes and shoes off and laid her on his bed, before he could pull the covers up over her beautiful naked curves, she reached up and put her arms around his neck.

  “Stay.” She’d barely made her request when her tongue flicked out to lick his earlobe, just as he’d teased her when they were in the doctor’s waiting room. Their morning together felt as if it had been a thousand years ago.

  God, he’d never wanted anything more than to stay with her, but he couldn’t forget what the doctor had said about getting enough food and rest. He’d already kept her up way too late, made her spend too much time on her feet, probably without nearly enough food for the energy she’d expended waiting tables at his pub.

  “You need rest.”

  She finally opened her eyes, and there was just enough light coming into the room from the moonlight to see the desire, the longing, in them.

  “I need you more.”

  Jake did the only thing he could. He gave in to the urge to kiss her.

  She moaned into his mouth as their tongues found each other. He wanted to be gentle, wanted to go slow, but with her curves already naked beneath him, Jake didn’t have a prayer of doing anything other than filling his hands with her sensitive breasts, and then filling his mouth with them, one after the other as she arched into him.

  Her breasts were so perfect they killed him, so soft and full, with nipples that simply begged for him to taste them. He couldn’t imagine how he’d have a prayer of keeping his hands and mouth off them as her pregnancy progressed and they grew even bigger.

  Maybe she was right, he thought as he kissed his way down past her breasts to her stomach. Maybe he did have a pregnancy fetish.