Now Eric was starting to understand why everyone had been worried about Emma and how she’d accept the news.
“Do you not understand how many STIs there are out there? You guys lectured me and Grace about this stuff, but you turn around and have unprotected sex with a guy you haven’t even seen, what, in over twenty years?”
She had a valid point—another reason Eric kept his mouth shut.
Brandon was doing a remarkable job of staying calm. “No one’s denying mistakes were made and judgment was…fuzzy. However. The bottom line is, they’re together, they’re going to have a baby together, and he wants to be a part of our lives and a member of this family.”
Her glare pivoted, focused on him, but her words were for her father. “You expect me to believe she just happened to realize today he was working for you?”
“That’s exactly how it happened,” Brandon said. “He received the job offer a few days after returning from California.”
Now she addressed Tracey. “How come you never said anything about him?”
Tracey’s grip on his hand tightened even more. “Because I didn’t contact him after I got home. It’s…complicated. I was worried about making a mistake.”
Emma’s jaw dropped. “So you think getting pregnant isn’t a mistake?”
“Emma,” Brandon said, “we know this is a shock, and it’ll be an adjustment. All we’re asking is for you to keep an open mind and—”
“Open mind? Are you kidding me?”
“Emma.” Eric knew Dom tone when he heard it. “He’s been working for me for a month. He’s a good guy. Even before all this came out, I liked him. Jeff met him that weekend, and—”
“What the hell?” Now Emma aimed for Jeff. “You were supposed to take care of her and protect her that weekend!”
Jeff held up his hands in supplication. “Honey, he’s a nice guy. Give him a chance.”
“He got her pregnant!”
Brandon tried to rein her in. “Em, we’re going to sit down and have dinner, all of us, and I want you to keep an open mind.”
“Last time I kept an open mind, the jerk tried to frame me for theft and excused his son trying to perv on me. Or is everyone conveniently forgetting that little factoid?”
“No one’s saying you don’t have a right to be suspicious or cautious. We’re not asking you to do anything other than get to know him.”
She glared at Tracey. “You told me I’d have right of refusal on anyone you date.”
“I did.”
“That still stand, or was that a lie?”
“It stands,” Eric said, drawing everyone’s attention. “Your mom told me some of what that guy did, and he sounds like a massive jerk. I don’t expect you to trust or even like me right now. I’m sorry we made a mistake, but I love your mom and I always have.”
“How can you even say that? You hadn’t seen her in, what, over twenty freaking years? Or were there more lies I don’t know about and you’ve been seeing each other?” Emma’s pain radiated off her in nearly visible waves.
“I’m widowed. I’ve been widowed for five years. When I ran into your mom that weekend, I’m not going to lie, it was like a dream come true. I’ve always regretted that I let your mom break up with me. I’d always loved her, never stopped loving her. And I didn’t expect to be having a baby, but I’ve always wanted to be a dad. I’m here, for her and for you, and I’m going to do whatever you need me to do to earn your trust.”
“You want to earn my trust, then go away and get out of her life and take it back so she’s not pregnant!” She stormed out of the kitchen, slamming a door behind her somewhere down the hallway.
Grace winced, then stepped forward, smiling, hand extended. Reflexively, he shook with her. “Hi. Grace Moller, nice to meet you. I’m going to go try to talk to her. She’s a little upset.” She headed out of the kitchen.
Brandon scrubbed his face with his hands. “Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.”
Eric’s eyes widened. “Wasn’t as bad? Are you serious?”
Stuart stepped forward, hand extended. “She took down my older brother with a dip net to the back of his knees so Grace could stab him with a barbecue fork. I’d say this was pretty good. Stuart Ziegler, welcome to the family.”
Eric shook with him. “I think Emma gets the final say on that.”
“She’ll come around,” Brandon said.
“I should go talk to her,” Tracey said.
Brandon arched an eyebrow at her. “You sure you want to do that right now?”
“No, but I need to do it.”
* * * *
Tracey made her way down to Emma’s bedroom and tapped on the door. “Honey, please let me talk to you.”
When the door opened, it was Grace standing there, waving her in.
Emma sat on the far side of her bed, staring at the window, where the blinds were drawn.
Grace closed the door behind her and hovered there.
Pulling together strength she didn’t know she had, she walked over to sit next to Emma. “I’m sorry, honey. I know this is disappointing.”
“You let him get you pregnant.” Her words were filled with shards of ice. “That’s not ‘disappointing,’ Mom. That’s stupid.”
“It was an accident. The pill isn’t perfect.”
“Obviously.”
“I do love him, and he loves me. We want to be together and raise this baby.”
“Then do it. I don’t care what you do.”
The words stung her deep, but Tracey knew she couldn’t retreat. “Please give him a chance. Get to know him.”
“You said those exact words to me about Pat and look what happened.”
“I know.”
“So that was more bull, about me getting to sign off on a guy?”
She took a deep breath. “No, it wasn’t bull.”
Emma finally looked at her. “So if I tell him to go away, he will?”
“Honey, we’re going to have a baby.”
“So it is bull.”
“I can’t—won’t tell him he can’t be my baby’s father.”
“We don’t need him! We have Dad, and Jeff, and Stu. The baby will have three fathers.”
Okay, this was going to be harder than she thought. “Em, honey, I will not keep him away from his baby. Would you please at least come out and talk to him?”
“He got you pregnant. Fuck all your plans now, huh? Good luck trying to raise a baby alone and on an office manager salary, much less going to school.”
“How can I convince you this is different?”
“Mean what you said about me signing off on someone.”
“I think the deal was all of you guys signing off on him.”
“I’m still withholding judgment,” Grace said. “But he’s here. I hated Pat on sight. This guy I don’t feel like that about.”
Emma glared at her. “You don’t even know the guy!”
“I’m not saying I’m signing off on him tonight. But he’s widowed. It’s romantic that high school sweethearts got back together. Bad life choices or not, I vote for an open mind unless he gives us a reason to hate his guts.”
It looked like Emma wanted to start screaming, but she swallowed it back. “Fine,” she whispered. “I’ll give him a chance, even though I can already see that was all bullshit about me getting to sign off on someone.”
Tracey tried to stroke Emma’s hand, but she jerked it away. “Honey, your dad and I told him what an ass Pat was. He knows he needs to earn your trust, and he’s willing to do anything to do that.”
“Then he should go away if he means it. We don’t need him! You don’t need him!”
Emma was contradicting herself and her excuses, but Tracey finally glimpsed the true depths of her daughter’s pain.
And she hated herself knowing she was, ultimately, the cause of it, for her bad decision to marry Pat.
“But I want him, sweetheart. If you really decide you don’t want me to be w
ith him…then I guess I won’t be. Please, get to know him first.”
She snorted but didn’t reply.
Tracey stood. “Come eat with us. Please?”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I’ll be out in a minute.”
Grace sent her a look that read I’ll keep working on her for you. All Tracey could do was hope that Grace could help her see reason.
Tracey stood and returned to the dining room, where the men were quietly talking. She headed for Eric, letting him envelop her in his arms.
Peace settled over her.
This was right in a way Pat had never been right.
In the way Brandon had been right.
In the way the two of them had been right in high school.
How to make Emma see that was the question.
“We’ll all work on her,” Jeff said. “Don’t worry. Once the shock wears off and she calms down, she’ll see reason.”
“I hope so,” she whispered, struggling not to cry.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Grace finally coaxed Emma out of her bedroom, but Eric was almost wishing she hadn’t. Emma didn’t talk. She sat there the entire dinner and glared at Eric.
He suspected if she could use Darth Vader’s Force choke on him, he’d be dead several times over already.
I find your lack of contraception disturbing.
Brandon, Jeff, and Stuart did their best to draw Eric out, get him talking about himself. He could tell Tracey felt like she’d let Emma down, and he hated that he was the cause of that.
If one thing had come through crystal clear that weekend in California, it was how much Tracey loved Emma and how lucky she felt to have a second chance with her.
He refused to come between them.
He wasn’t sure what the alternative would be if Emma couldn’t come to accept him, and he didn’t want to contemplate that yet, either.
They didn’t hang around long once dinner ended. Tracey obviously wanted to leave, and as uncomfortable as Eric felt due to Emma’s arctic-shoulder act, he wasn’t going to argue. Tonight was not the night to try to force himself on Emma in terms of making her like him. She needed time to wrap her head around this, work it out, get to know him.
As they rode back to his hotel, they held hands and he had to say it. “You were right.” The words tasted as bitter as they felt.
Tracey sighed. “It’s my fault, too. I don’t have anyone to blame but myself.”
“No, it sounds like Pat’s to blame.”
“I brought Pat into her life. I guess I’m lucky he didn’t abuse her physically or sexually. I was scared and stupid and once I saw what he was like with her, I should have kicked him out.”
“We’ll have to take it slow around her. Maybe I shouldn’t move into Ruth’s yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because if we do it before Emma’s ready, it could make her permanently hate me.”
“I don’t want to spend nights away from you. I just got you back. Especially now.”
“You can come here. Once I get my own place, you can spend time there.”
“Aren’t we going to get a place together?”
He was screwing this up badly. “Eventually, yeah. But…I don’t want to make you break your promise to Emma. I won’t come between you.”
“Which is exactly why I know you’re nothing like Pat. I know she’ll see that once she has time to work through it. Grace liked you. I could tell from the way she was talking to you.”
He had to admit he really liked Grace. He wanted to like Emma, too, except he felt guilty about adding to her emotional pain, rightly or not.
Then there were the discussions that had to happen about collaring and marrying Tracey, which couldn’t happen until he knew Emma was on board.
They undressed and climbed into bed. He wasn’t sure she’d want to make love, but before he could stop her she’d shimmied down the bed and engulfed his cock with her mouth.
Okay, then.
He was beyond being able to resist her, because he needed her too much. Especially after today’s emotional rollercoaster.
She was so good, too, eagerly sucking him, tracing the ridge around his head with her tongue, playing with his balls and taking her time driving him crazy with need.
Smiling up at him, she lifted her head from his cock. “There is something Sir’s never done with me that he should do.”
His heart twisted even more tightly around her. He couldn’t help it—it just felt natural with her.
Completely right.
“What’s that, sweetheart?”
“Sir’s never fucked my ass.”
He nearly came all over her face from that thought. “I guess that’s something we can save for our wedding night then, can’t we?”
She grinned. “Promise?”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “Absolutely, sweetheart.” He sat up and pulled her into his lap. “I think someone wants a spanking, though.”
She squirmed against him. “Yes, Sir, please!”
He was still having a difficult time believing this was his new life. That he wasn’t dreaming and it’d all be cruelly ripped from him upon awakening in his New Jersey apartment.
But as she stretched out over his thighs and his hand smacked her ass…it was hard to deny how real this was.
And how perfect it felt.
He spanked her until her ass was hot and red, his hand stung, and she was begging him to fuck her. He put her on her hands and knees and his aching cock felt damn good sinking into her wet pussy.
So fucking good.
He reached around her and found her clit. “Better come fast, sweetheart.”
A low, guttural moan escaped her as she came almost instantly, practically milking his cock the way his pussy squeezed him.
“That’s my good girl.” He waited until he knew she was done to start fucking her, driving his cock deep into her, never wanting to lose her and trying to wipe the doubts from his mind about Emma accepting him.
His balls ached to come as they slapped against her ass at the bottom of every thrust. Finally, he let loose, moaning as he came and trying to remember the last time he’d felt this good.
He couldn’t.
They collapsed onto the bed and he curled around her, nibbling kisses along the top of her shoulder. “I love you so much, baby,” he whispered. “Never letting you go again.”
She snuggled more tightly against him. “Thank god, because I don’t want to lose you.”
* * * *
Eric startled when Tracey bolted for the bathroom the next morning. He followed a step behind her, kneeling next to her and holding her hair out of her face as she puked.
She shakily laughed. “Welcome to fatherhood.”
“I held Paige’s hair for her when I was home. I’m here, as much as you’ll let me be. Good and bad.”
He left off the statement about he’d be there as much as Emma would let him be.
They took a shower together before heading off in separate directions for work. They’d meet up there after work—he’d given her his room key and stopped by the front desk to get another one before leaving—and decide what to do next. It would depend on what Brandon reported about Emma that morning.
At the very least, they’d spend the night together at Eric’s.
Brandon arrived a few minutes after Eric did, and he didn’t look…happy.
“Everything okay?” Eric asked.
Brandon sighed. “It’s not you. Keep remembering that. Emma will come around, I’m sure of it. Just a matter of time.”
“That bad?”
“Yeah. Are you guys coming over for dinner tonight?”
“Are you sure that’s wise?”
“Yeah. The more you’re around, the more she can get to know you.”
“Then we’ll be there after work. Any advice?”
“I guess winning Grace over needs to top the list. She’ll help with Emma.” He scrubbed at his face. “Emma’s being unreasonable, I kno
w, but I cannot emphasize how much emotional pain she went through with Pat. Please, try to be patient with her.”
“I will. I swear.”
“Thanks. She’s a good kid, really, and I’m not just saying that as her father. But as smart as she is—”
“She’s still a kid.”
“Exactly. It’s honorable you want to abide by Tracey’s promise to her, but we might hit a point where you two need to move forward even without her blessings.”
“I really don’t want to do that. I don’t want to drive a wedge between them.”
“I don’t mean tomorrow. And if Emma refuses to see reason, she’s the one doing the wedging, not you. I’m hoping a couple of days will help her calm down. And that Grace will help her calm down. Try not to stress. Just be yourself around her.”
Eric spent the rest of the day immersed in his work, unable to think about anything but that.
Except…
Every so often, the sound of Tracey saying, “We’re going to have a baby,” floated through his head, and then he couldn’t stop grinning.
Whatever had to happen to smooth things over with Emma, Eric would fully commit to it.
Anything.
That’s why when they arrived at Brandon’s that evening for dinner, Eric was full of optimism.
Until he got a look at Jeff’s tight smile when he greeted them at the door.
“She’s a hurricane,” he whispered to them before retreating to the kitchen.
It didn’t help that now Tracey looked nervous as hell.
Emma didn’t come out at first, even though Grace did. To Grace’s credit, she seemed to be making a concerted effort to get to know him, asking him questions, even apologizing when she realized how much talking about Paige hurt him.
She was a good kid.
Emma didn’t make an appearance until Brandon called for her once Stuart had dinner ready.
It was like an ice storm descended upon them, chilling the air to sub-arctic temps.
An uncomfortable silence settled over the table until Brandon finally broke it. “So how was school today, honey?” he asked Emma.
“Fine.” She didn’t look up from where she was quickly shoveling food off her plate and into her mouth so quickly Eric wasn’t even sure she was tasting it.
Blues Beach [Suncoast Society] Page 18
