by Gina Wilkins
“I’ve really enjoyed having you here,” he said, not exactly answering her question.
She smiled a bit mistily. “I’ve really enjoyed staying here,” she said softly. “You’ve been wonderful to me. I guess you never dreamed when you left for your club on New Year’s Eve that you’d be bringing home an unexpected houseguest.”
“No,” he admitted.
Two weeks and two days ago, he hadn’t even met her. And now he found himself wondering how he would ever get by without her.
“Poor Andrew. It was certainly an eventful New Year’s Eve for you, wasn’t it? Everything that could go wrong did.”
He shook his head. “Not quite.”
As far as Andrew was concerned, none of the bad things that had happened had overshadowed the wonder of having Nicole come into his life. “I’ll always remember that night, Nicole.”
She glanced down at her drying toenails, almost as though she wanted to evade his eyes. “So will I,” she said, so softly he hardly heard her.
“Nicole, I—”
She snatched up the telephone, fingers poised for dialing.
Andrew exhaled gustily. Why were country songs so damned short? “I’ll give you a thousand dollars if you’ll stop doing that!” he snapped, his nerves shredding his patience.
Her eyes widening, Nicole hung up the phone. “I’m sorry. Was there something you wanted to say?”
Hell. He sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just that I...”
“That you what?” she prodded when he hesitated.
He opened his mouth to tell her that he didn’t want her to go. How could he be satisfied to see her only occasionally when he’d grown accustomed to having her sleep in his arms, to seeing her smile first thing every morning? And if their schedules remained as they were now, he knew their time together would be limited and frustrating, at least as far as he was concerned.
And then he swallowed the words as he wondered bleakly what he had to offer that she wouldn’t find for herself in her new apartment. They’d known each other only two weeks, he reminded himself brutally. She would think he’d lost his mind if he proposed marriage now. She would probably be right. Because that was exactly what he wanted to do.
He didn’t want to date Nicole. He wanted to marry her. He wanted to have a family with her.
He’d known those staggering facts since the moment he’d first laid eyes on her. And she would probably think him insane if he said so.
A streak of cowardice he didn’t want to examine too closely kept the impulsive words locked inside him. He knew of only one way to let her know how much she had come to mean to him in such an incredibly short time.
“When do you have to leave for work?” he asked abruptly.
She glanced at the clock. “I’ve got another half hour or son.”
“Then we’ll have to hurry, won’t we?” He was already unbuttoning his shirt as he rose from the chair and stepped toward the bed.
Her eyes widened, then twinkled. “Yes, I suppose we will,” she murmured, setting the nail polish aside and opening her arms.
He was lowering her to the bed when they both heard the sound of a foghorn. Andrew covered Nicole’s lips with his own and reached out to turn off the radio.
Nicole smiled against his mouth and pulled him eagerly closer.
ANDREW HELPED Nicole carry her bags to her car the next morning. Appropriately enough—at least in his mind—it was a gloomy day. Heavy gray clouds hovered low overhead. A cold wind moaned around corners and cut through layers of clothing. The air was heavy and damp, warning that the predictions of snow had a good chance of coming true.
Nicole slammed the lid down on the overloaded trunk of her little car and turned to Andrew. She shivered in a leather bomber jacket that was too thin for the frosty temperature. It bothered him that she never dressed warmly enough. It would be a wonder if she didn’t come down with pneumonia or something, he fretted. And who would take care of her when she was all alone in a tiny apartment?
Biting his tongue to keep from voicing the comment, he reminded himself that Nicole didn’t need anyone to take care of her. She was as capable of taking care of herself as anyone he’d ever known. Damn it.
“Well,” she said, her smile a shade too bright, her eyes not quite meeting his. “I guess I’m ready.”
“You’re sure you have everything?” You’re sure you want to do this?
“Yes, I’m sure,” she replied airily, and he almost fancied she was answering both the spoken and unspoken questions.
He nodded and shoved his hands into the pockets of his warm, down-filled jacket. His face felt frozen into an expressionless mask, though he wouldn’t have wanted to say whether it was from the cold or his determined efforts to hide his feelings from her.
Don’t leave me, Nicole. I don’t want to go back to being a robot.
“Drive carefully,” was all he said.
“I will.” She took a step closer to him, rising up on tiptoe to brush a kiss against his unsmiling mouth. “Thank you for all you’ve done for me, Andrew. I’ll call you when my phone’s installed, okay?”
He nodded, his voice lodged behind a lump in his throat. He was aware that he was showing little emotion, that he probably looked as though he weren’t at all affected by her leaving. He knew an outside observer would think him detached, unfeeling. Ashley, for example, had never understood that his inability to express his emotions hadn’t meant that he had none to express.
He and Nicole weren’t saying goodbye. Maybe, with time, he could persuade her to return. He would be patient, undemanding, give her all the room she needed until he thought the time was right to approach the subject. He would court her—patiently, logically, conventionally. How long should he wait before it would be appropriate to propose to her? Six months? A year? Two? Assuming, of course, that she didn’t drift away from him long before that much time had passed.
He shivered, but it had more to do with the cold, gray bleakness inside him than the frigid January weather.
Nicole had her hand on the handle of her car door. “I’d better go. It looks as though it could start snowing at any minute.”
His fists clenched in his pockets. He took a step backward, putting more space between them.
Nicole searched his face one more time, her own expression hard to read, and then she drew a deep breath and opened her door. “See you, Andrew.”
He watched without moving as she climbed behind her wheel, snapped her seat belt, started the engine and drove away from him.
She was gone. She’d departed his life as quickly as she’d entered it. And she’d taken with her all the warmth and color and joy that she’d brought him for such a brief time.
He turned toward his house. Back to his quiet, lonely life of tediously predictable routines. His house wasn’t exactly empty, he reminded himself, climbing the steps with heavy feet. His housekeeper and his cat waited inside for him. Both had been watching him all morning with rather disapproving looks that seemed to ask him if he was really just going to allow Nicole to leave.
Hadn’t she known that he hadn’t wanted her to leave? Would it have made any difference if he’d actually asked her to stay?
He had his hand on the doorknob. All he had to do was open the door and step inside. And he couldn’t do it.
He didn’t want to go inside. Nicole wouldn’t be there.
For the second time in as many weeks, Andrew acted entirely on impulse. He turned on one heel and bolted down the stairs, digging in his pocket for the key to his Range Rover.
DRIVING MORE SEDATELY than Andrew, Nicole had just passed the security gate when he caught up with her. With her turn signal blinking, she was sitting at the busy intersection on the other side of the gate, waiting for an opening to pull onto the street that would take her away from Andrew’s neighborhood.
He rammed the heel of his hand against his steering wheel, blowing his horn to catch her attention before she drove away. He saw her
look into the rearview mirror just as he shoved his vehicle into park and jumped out of it, leaving it parked in the entranceway to the security gate.
Nicole opened her car door and slid out, her expression questioning. “What’s wrong?” she asked as he approached her in long, no-nonsense strides. “Did I forget something?”
“No,” he said, reaching out to take her shoulders in his hands. “I did.”
“You? But what—?”
He smothered the question beneath his mouth.
Oblivious to their surroundings, to the curious eyes of the security guard, to the traffic speeding by, Andrew kissed her until he ran out of oxygen. And then he lifted his head, studying her dazed expression with a fierceness he made no effort to mitigate. “I don’t want you to go,” he said flatly. “I want you to stay. Here. With me.”
“Here?” Her voice had risen half an octave as she parroted his words. “With you?”
He nodded. “That’s what I said.”
“For...for how long?” She seemed to hold her breath.
“Forever,” he said simply. “This is where you belong. I’ve known it since that first night. My life wasn’t complete until you entered it. I wasn’t complete. I don’t want to go back to the way I was before I met you.”
“Andrew,” she said, exhaling, creating a steamy cloud that hung between them. She blinked rapidly, as though overwhelmed by emotion.
Surprise? Shock? Dismay? He couldn’t quite read her expression.
His stomach tightened in apprehension. If she said no, he wasn’t sure what he would do. He hoped he would have the dignity to accept her answer with grace, rather than throwing her over his shoulder, carrying her back to his house and locking her in his room, which would most likely be his first instinct.
Then she smiled, and even he could identify the emotion. Joy.
“Andrew!” She threw herself at him, her feet leaving the ground as her arms locked around his neck.
With a startled whoosh of breath, he staggered, then righted himself, his arms dosing tightly around her. “This had better be a yes.”
“Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.” She planted kisses haphazardly on his face with each repetition.
“I need you, Nicole.” The words were difficult for him to admit, but they had to be said. He’d never been more honest with anyone.
“Yes, I know you do,” she said fervently. “I just didn’t know if you knew it.”
He frowned as an uncomfortable suspicion occurred to him. Nicole had such a tender heart. “You aren’t feeling sorry for me or anything, are you? Because if you are—”
Her laughter interrupted him. “Heavens, Andrew, how could anyone feel sorry for you? You’re practically perfect. You just need someone to love you for yourself and not for all that money and prestige.”
He caught his breath at her words. “L—love?” he repeated, almost afraid he’d misunderstood.
“Don’t you start getting cold feet on me now,” she chided, still clinging to his neck. A gust of wind caught her hair, tossing it around her flushed face, tickling Andrew’s cheek. A car horn blew from somewhere behind them, but she happily ignored it. “You’ve said you need me, and I know you wouldn’t have said that—”
“—If I didn’t love you,” he finished for her, beginning to smile. “You’re right. I do love you.”
She hugged him more tightly. “And I love you.”
“You love me?” He was having trouble believing it was really true. “It has been such a short time—”
“It took me all of two hours to fall in love with you.”
“It took me less than two minutes to fall in love with you,” he replied, shaking his head in remembered amazement. “I loved you before I even knew your name. I thought I’d lost my mind.”
She laughed. “Thanks a lot.”
He grimaced wryly. “Nothing like that had ever happened to me before. I didn’t know what to do.”
“You never let on,” she said with a shake of her head. “I couldn’t tell if you wanted me to stay or go, or if you didn’t really care one way or another—”
“I’ve always wanted you to stay. I just didn’t know how to tell you. I’m...I’m not very good at expressing my emotions,” he explained, feeling almost as though he should apologize. “I never really learned how. But with you, I’ll try. I want you to know me in a way no one’s ever bothered to know me before.”
Her smile turned tremulous. Her dark eyes gleamed softly. “I want that, too,” she whispered.
“Mr. Tyler? Hey, Mr. Tyler?” The security guard approached them quickly, sounding harried and amused all at the same time. “You’re, er, going to have to move your vehicles, sir. You’re blocking traffic.”
Andrew nodded, unable to look away from Nicole’s beaming smile. “Nicole? Let’s go home.”
She slid out of his arms just as the first flakes of snow drifted down around them. She seemed wholly unaffected by the cold. “Yes,” she said happily. “Let’s go home.”
It was the first time that he could remember that the word “home” had ever sounded so utterly right to him.
Epilogue
“FIVE...FOUR...Three...Two...One. Midnight! Happy New Year, everyone!”
“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler. It’s a boy.” His grin crinkling his eyes above his paper mask, the doctor spoke moments after a nurse gaily announced the time. His words were followed immediately by the lusty wail of an indignant newborn.
Nicky fell exhausted against the pillows of the birthing bed, tears mingling with the perspiration on her cheeks. Her hand was gripped tightly in Andrew’s. He, too, had tears in his eyes.
He’d come a long way in learning to share his emotions during the past year, she thought happily.
“A New Year’s baby,” the nurse exclaimed, laying the hastily swaddled child in Nicky’s arms as the doctor finished his job. “Born at twelve-oh-one. Bet he’s the first baby of the year in Memphis.”
Nicky and Andrew were both huddled over their son. “He’s beautiful,” Nicky whispered. “Oh, Andrew, he looks like you.”
Andrew’s voice was husky. “He looks like both of us.”
She liked that even better.
Marcus Daniel Tyler squirmed in his mother’s arms for a moment, then drifted into a restless sleep. Against his father’s initial disapproval, Andrew had insisted that his son have a name of his own.
It was time, he had said, to break with some traditions. His child would be raised differently than Andrew had been, encouraged to be himself and not just a clone of his male predecessors. There would be plenty of love in their home, and laughter and honest emotions. And Santa Claus.
Nicky had heartily approved Andrew’s plans.
“You have a lot of family waiting out there to meet you, Marcus,” she murmured to her dozing son.
One by one, she named them. “Grandma Jane...”
Andrew had been startled to discover that Nicky’s mother was a beautiful brunette of only forty-five, who looked at least five years younger than that. It had taken Jane only minutes to win Andrew over with her infectious laughter and generous affection. Though he admitted that his mother-in-law made his head swim at times with her unconventional ways, he had quickly grown fond of her, as Nicky had known he would.
“Grandfather Andrew...”
Andrew Colton Tyler, Jr., had met his son’s mother-in-law last Easter at a family gathering. To Andrew’s barely concealed dismay, Andrew, Jr., and Jane had been carrying on a volatile affair ever since. Jane was confident that it would lead to her third, and final, marriage. Nicky expected an announcement at any time.
“Grandma Lucy and Grandpa Lowell...”
Andrew’s mother had accepted her ex-husband’s new love interest with an equanimity that was a relief to everyone, since the family connections were now so entangled. Delighted that she was finally going to have a grandchild to show off for her bridge dub, she’d made peace with her ex, assuring him and the others that they
would be able to mingle cordially at family gatherings. After all, she had finally admitted, she was much too happy with her Lowell to harbor old grudges.
“Aunt Amy and Cousin Nate. And Great-great-uncle Timbo.”
The entire Holiday family had accepted Andrew among them. All were self-supporting these days, but Andrew had promised Nicky that he would always be available for them if financial difficulties cropped up. Nicky had been pleased, though she knew her family wasn’t a bunch of spongers. But it was nice to know that she could continue to help them out when it was necessary.
“They’re an odd group,” Nicky murmured to her new son with a tremulously affectionate smile. “But you’re going to love them all.”
His face very close to hers, Andrew smiled. “It’s been a long night,” he murmured, stroking her damp, weary face.
She nodded and kissed her baby’s head. “It was worth it.”
Andrew’s eyes gleamed with pride as he looked down at his son. “Another night to remember.”
Nicky laughed softly, ignoring the medical professionals bustling around them. This night was the culmination of the best year of her life. She and Andrew had been married for ten months, having taken all their friends and family by surprise with their impulsive elopement.
Nicole had quit her waitressing job and devoted her time to beginning her new career as a wife and mother. Someday, when little Marcus—and maybe another little Tyler—had started school, she would try her hand at professional decorating.
Andrew had encouraged her to do whatever she wanted, promising to give her all the help and moral support she needed. He’d already cut back his own hours at his office, freeing more of his weekends to be with her. But for now, it was her choice to concentrate on her family.
It was what she had always enjoyed most—taking care of the ones she loved.
