Unsung

by Shannon Richard

  “Until you and that man of yours figure out a name.”

  “That man of mine?” Those words sounded kind of perfect coming out of her mouth, and yes all evidence pointed to the fact that he was her man, but…but sometimes minds changed.

  Where the hell had that come from? Harper was more than slightly shocked by that last thought, and it caused a painful pang in her chest.

  She was just being ridiculous. It was just another small moment of insecurity. She shook it off and focused on her mother again.

  “Yes.” Delilah’s face came up and focused on her daughter. No joking in her gaze to be found. “That man of yours. Anyone who writes a song about you has to be your man. Right?”

  Right…the song. “I sure hope so,” Harper agreed. Actually those words were more like a prayer.

  “It’s a good song you know. And it’s doing pretty well from what I’ve gathered.”

  “It is.” She nodded still a little distracted, but then her mother’s words resonated. “Where are you gathering this?”

  “The Google,” Delilah said entirely straight faced.

  It took everything in Harper not to laugh. “The Google? Really?”

  “Yeah, I know how to look things up. You know, not only is he talented, but he’s very photogenic. Not very many people look as good in pictures as they do in real life. He’s got fantastic genes.”

  “He does. Good thing he’s the man I’m breeding with.” The smile that turned up her mouth was genuine…her small moment of crazy pushed to the back of her mind.

  “This is true. At least you have excellent taste in attractive men. That you get from me.” Delilah looked over and grinned.

  “I sure did. Can I go up and see what you pulled from the attic?”

  “Go for it.”

  “Thanks.” Harper leaned in and placed another kiss on her mother’s cheek before she turned and headed for the backstairs at the side of the kitchen.

  The “storage room” was actually Harper’s old bedroom. It was the very last room at the end of the hallway, right across from the bathroom. The door was shut and the fan was going. She wondered if Liam was still naked behind that door. Drying off after he got out of the shower. For just a second she was tempted to knock and walk in there.

  No. Stop it right this very second. You are in your parents’ house. Your. Parents’. House. No no no.

  Holy hell, five minutes ago she’d been contemplating the idea that Liam might leave her…and now she wanted to jump him. Sometimes she wondered if it was the pregnancy hormones that were making her crazy or if she was just crazy.

  It’s the pregnancy, she reassured herself as she veered off and headed to the left.

  The door was partially cracked and when she stepped inside her old bedroom her eyes landed on exactly what her parents had pulled from the attic. Her heart flew up into her throat and that flutter ran through her belly again.

  It was the antique cradle that she’d been rocked in as a baby, the very same cradle that her mother and aunt had been rocked in as well. The light brown wood was still in pristine condition even after fifty plus years.

  She took a step forward, reaching out and running her fingers across the side, tracing the detailed woodwork. Lilies had been carved into the wood, wrapping around the entirety of the piece of furniture.

  The corner of her eyes prickled, and when she blinked the tears fell down her cheeks.

  The bathroom door behind her opened and she turned, looking over her shoulder as Liam stepped out, steam making a haze behind him. His hair was wet, a slight curl in the strands that hung low across his forehead.

  “Hey,” she sniffed, reaching up and wiping her fingers across her cheek.

  “What’s wrong?” He was across the hall and reaching for her within seconds.

  “Nothing.” She shook her head, more tears falling with the motion.

  “Then why are you crying?” Now he was the one reaching up, his thumb wiping away the fresh tears that tracked down her face.

  “This.” She turned, her hand on the wood again as she traced the flowers. “My parents pulled it down from the attic. It was made in Italy, one of the few things my grandparents had shipped over when they moved to the States. Nonna Sofia loved lilies so Papa Jack had it made for her.”

  “Sofia,” Liam said slowly, rolling the name on his tongue. He reached out for the cradle, too, his fingers right next to her and tracing the flowers on the wood. “What about Sofia Lillian?”

  They looked at each other at the same time. A smile was turning up the corner of his mouth as his free hand went to her stomach, his palm flat on her belly.

  “That’s it.” She grinned back at him, her hand covering his. “That’s her name.”

  Liam leaned down, pressing his mouth to hers. “We just named our daughter,” he whispered against her lips. And then he was kneeling down in front of Harper, both of his hands on her belly as he leaned in. “We just named you. What do you think about Sofia Lillian?” he asked.

  It was at that moment that it happened, a small pop hit the side of her belly. Liam looked up at Harper, his eyes going huge. “Did that just happen? Did she just kick my hand?”

  Harper could only nod, the look of sheer joy on Liam’s face making her momentarily speechless.

  His gaze dropped down again. “You like your name, Sofia Lillian?” he asked as another kick hit his hand. “It’s amazing.” He shook his head before he leaned in and pressed his lips to the spot. “God, this is incredible.”

  And this time it was a sniff from the doorway that filled the room. Harper and Liam both looked over at the same time to see her mother standing there, tears falling from her eyes.

  “I’m sorry.” She took a deep breath like she was trying to compose herself. “I came up to see what you thought about the cradle. I…I didn’t mean to…to interrupt. You’re going to name her after my mother?”

  “Is that okay?” Harper asked.

  “It’s more than okay.” Delilah nodded, her bottom lip quivering.

  Liam got to his feet again. “You want to feel your granddaughter move?”

  The question was barely out of his mouth before Delilah was moving across the room. Liam grabbed her hand, placing it over the spot that Sofia had been kicking. It took a moment before another pop hit the side of Harper’s abdomen.

  Delilah looked up at Harper, the delight in her eyes exuberant. “Sofia Lillian. It’s a beautiful name.”

  “Liam figured it out.” Harper grinned at him.

  “I’m glad you like it, Mrs. Laurence.”

  Her eyes moved from Harper’s face to Liam’s, and she shook her head. “Delilah.” She reached out and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. “You should call me Delilah from here on out.”

  Well, apparently Harper was covering the full range of emotions today. And as she hadn’t been prepared for any of this, it took everything in her not to lose it right then and there.

  Chapter Twenty

  How to Burst a Bubble In Under a Minute

  As Harper was going to be heading up to Nashville with Liam for a few days, she was fitting in as many clients who wanted to schedule a massage before she left town. Her last one wasn’t going to finish up until after nine on Wednesday night, so Liam went to the Sleepy Sheep to grab a beer.

  Finn was working behind the bar that evening. The man might be a full-time veterinarian, but he still put in a few hours at his family’s bar every once in a while. Ever since Shep started brewing beer in mass quantities, his nights at the bar had been cut down. And it was still an important feature to have a Shepherd presence at the place as much as possible. According to Harper, the Sleepy Sheep was an institution in Mirabelle.

  Tripp and Bennett were at the bar, too, though the two of them were getting a drink as opposed to working it.

  “You flying solo tonight?” Bennett asked as Liam took a seat next to him.

  “Yup, Harper is working late. What about you? Where is your lady love?”

&
nbsp; “Over there.” Bennett pointed to a booth in the corner where Mel, Grace, and Beth were all giggling over their glasses of wine. “She’s having a girl’s night. Beth needed to get out, Mel is taking advantage of her last few late nights before school starts again, and Grace is enjoying an evening while Jax is on baby duty. I get to drive them all home when they’ve had enough. I think they are working on their second bottle now.”

  “Almost finished with it, too.” Finn nodded as he slid a beer down in front of Liam. “Should make for an interesting night when you get home with your wife.”

  “It should.” Bennett grinned hugely.

  Liam couldn’t wait for the day that he could say that: home to his wife.

  Soon and very soon, at least he hoped. Prayed. He’d gotten more than just Paul’s approval in regards to asking Harper to marry him. After dinner, he’d been helping Delilah dry the dishes at the sink when he’d asked her as well.

  She’d reached over and grabbed his hand, much like she had earlier in the evening. “Paul already told me about what the two of you discussed.” She’d grinned up at him. “You have my blessing, too, Liam.”

  Now he just needed to figure out how to ask Harper. He wanted it to be special…memorable.

  “What was your big gesture?” he blurted out, turning to Bennett next to him.

  “What?” Bennett’s eyebrows pulled together over his eyes.

  “With Mel. The big gesture to get her to marry you?”

  “Oh.” Dawning recognition overtook his face. “You’re going to ask Harper.”

  “Yeah, and it should go without saying that this conversation is embargoed.”

  “Obviously.” Bennett nodded.

  “Dammit.” Finn’s hand hit the counter, making Liam jump. “Shep is probably going to win the bet. He had his money on the end of August as to when you were going to propose.”

  “You guys made a bet?” Liam asked.

  “Yeah.” Tripp nodded. “I forget how many of us were in the pool, but the winner gets over four hundred dollars at this point. Your brother and sister are in on it. Abby too.”

  “Seriously? When did this happen?”

  “Fourth of July,” Bennett answered before he took a sip of his beer. “So you wanted to know about grand gestures?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I didn’t really have one in asking Mel to marry me. I kind of messed up a couple things at the end there, spectacularly so, and pushed her away. When I realized she was it for me? That she was the home I’d been looking for? Well, all I knew was I had to get her back. She was the future that I wanted, so I proposed and hoped to God that she forgave me.”

  “I see that she did.”

  “Yeah, I’m one lucky son-of-a-bitch.” Bennett’s eyes moved over to his wife again, and the undying adoration for her was beyond clear.

  “His grand gesture was before he even figured out that he was in love with her,” Tripp interjected.

  “How in the world does that work?”

  “I helped her with a project at the school. Building bookcases for the library with her students.”

  “Jax was the same way with Grace. He built her a house,” Tripp said. “A house that a lot of us helped out with in the making. Took months to do, too. A lot of planning. And for most of it Jax wasn’t even dating her.”

  Bennett laughed. “He was running in the opposite direction actually. The guy was a little stubborn in the beginning. Refused to accept reality.”

  “A little bit like you?” Liam looked at Bennett.

  “A little bit like me.”

  Well, that most definitely hadn’t been a problem for Liam. He knew exactly what he wanted.

  “What about Shep?” Liam asked.

  “He was going to give it all up. Move to New York to be with Hannah. Turned out she didn’t want to go back to New York as much as she wanted to stay here with him. The inn was the home she wanted.”

  “And Brendan?”

  “Ahh, Brendan is a special case.” Bennett shifted on the stool, resting his elbows on the bar. “He was pretty much all in the second he met Paige. It was more a bunch of little gestures like getting her a job and asking her to move in. She wasn’t set on staying here until Brendan made her feel like she’d found home again.”

  “I have a question.” Finn raised his eyebrows high over his thick black-framed glasses. “Where is home going to be for the two of you? You and Harper going to settle down here, or is she going to move up to Nashville?”

  “Nashville isn’t really home to me, and I wouldn’t want to take Harper out of hers. I think staying here is the better option. So as to where we are going to settle down? Well I hope it’s here.”

  “You hope?” Tripp was now raising his eyebrows, too.

  “We haven’t exactly talked about it in depth.”

  “Maybe you should.” Bennett frowned. “Time is ticking, my friend. That baby of yours is going to be here before you know it.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “I have a question, too.” Tripp leaned forward. Bennett was sitting in between them so he was trying to get a better view. “How is it that you are asking about big, grand gestures? Isn’t there a song currently on the radio that’s about Harper?”

  “Yeah. If that isn’t big and grand enough, then he and I are screwed when it comes to finally settling down.” Finn nodded at Tripp.

  “I think a case could already be made for us being screwed in settling down,” Tripp said as he finished the last of his beer. “Pretty sure it’s the bachelor life for me.”

  “At least you won’t be alone now,” Finn said, and grabbed the empty glass before he got a clean one and poured Tripp another beer. “You’ve got Duke to keep you company.”

  “Duke?”

  “As in The Duke. And that dog is a menace.” He glared at Finn. “A small bear is more like it. There is no way in hell I’m getting my deposit back when I move, either. He chewed through a door. A door.”

  Finn grinned as he passed Tripp the fresh beer. “Hey, I told you he needed space to move around. Frankie is doing just fine settling into my house. She hasn’t chewed through any doors.”

  “Yeah, well you got the puppy that wasn’t a neurotic basket case.”

  Finn turned to Liam in way of explanation. “Tripp found two puppies a couple of months ago. They were abandoned at the fire station. He adopted the male. I adopted the female. He’s having some difficulties.”

  “Apparently,” Liam agreed.

  “At least he’s doing better than he was.” Tripp took a sip of his beer before he set it back down on the bar. “When I brought him home he was scared of everything. Would run and hide at the drop of a hat. It’s a small wonder the thunderstorms didn’t give him a heart attack.”

  “Yeah, well give him a yard and he will be doing even better,” Finn said.

  “I’m working on it. House hunting isn’t going very well. I’m going again tomorrow.”

  “See, Tripp, you are capable of the big grand gesture. It’s just for a dog as opposed to a woman.”

  “Here’s a big grand gesture, asshole,” Tripp grumbled, and flipped Finn off.

  “Maybe you should go with him.” Bennett turned to Liam. “You want to settle down here. So show Harper that you’re all in. Show her what you want. Show her that you’re ready for this.”

  “I am.” He had been from the start.

  “Okay.” Bennett nodded. “Then prove it.”

  * * *

  Liam spent the majority of the next day going from house to house with Tripp and Tammy, the real estate agent he’d hired. They looked all over town at more properties than he could even remember. Some out in the middle of nowhere that were surrounded by acres of land and cattle, with the closest neighbor miles away. Others were more centrally located, some nicer neighborhoods that were slowly growing and had more of a family feel. And there were a number of homes on the water, some scattered across the coast and others on Whiskey River.

  Ha
rper had made comments before about how much she loved living on the beach, so those were the ones that he paid especially close attention to. And when they walked into the last place he knew he’d found the one.

  It stood on the typical pylons that were the foundation for the majority of the houses on the water. The house itself was two stories high, five bedrooms, three and a half baths, a newly remodeled kitchen, and a massive sunk-in living room that looked out to the water. And it wasn’t the only room that had a spectacular view, because the master bedroom had floor-to-ceiling windows and French doors that led out to the wraparound porch. They’d be able to watch the sunrise from their bed if they placed it just so.

  He wanted it.

  The problem? Someone had already put an offer in on the house. So he did what he needed to do. He put in an offer as well…which was slightly stress inducing considering he hadn’t talked to Harper about it, nor had she seen it yet.

  But it was the one…and he really wanted it. Had to have it.

  There were certain perks to not being a struggling artist anymore. He had more than enough money in the bank that he didn’t need to worry about getting pre-approved for a loan. What he did need to worry about was if he got the house. It was an integral part of the plan.

  Another part of the plan was trying to keep it a surprise. But keeping anything from Harper had proved to be a failure for him. He just needed to figure out how to work around it if she asked him for a play-by-play of his day.

  She didn’t get home until after ten o’clock that night, and the second she walked in the door she collapsed on the sofa and put her feet in Liam’s lap.

  He started to rub her arches with his thumbs, applying just the right amount of pressure to make her moan long and loud.

  “Yessss. God. Right there. Please don’t stop.” Her head was thrown back against a pillow, her eyes closed as she melted into the sofa cushions.

  “Honey, you keep talking like that and you are going to be getting an entirely different sort of massage.” Obviously sex would be a more than fun way to distract her from conversations.