45
Killian
A year later
"Hurry, Killian!" Chloe whispers. "I heard her car! Hide it, hide it!"
I squeeze red frosting out of the bag that Lily always uses to get the frosting on the cupcakes in these perfect little swirls. This doesn't remotely look like her handiwork. Glancing through the cabin window that overlooks the driveway, I see Lily opening her car door. "How does it look?"
Chloe looks back and forth between me and the cupcakes, her face screwed up into a grimace. "Not so good."
"Oh, yeah? We'll tell her you decorated them, then."
"No, way, Killian!"
"You're telling me these are so bad that you don't even want to take credit for them?" I ask, sliding the tray into the fridge to hide them.
"Mine wouldn't be red. They'd have glitter on them, too."
"Red velvet is her favorite. The red frosting goes with them."
Chloe cocks her head to the side when she looks at me. "The ones at the bakery have white frosting. Cream cheese."
"Hey now, I was trying something different!" I protest, just as Lily comes to the door. "Okay, look innocent."
Chloe adopts an expression that looks guiltier than sin, crossing her arms over her chest and humming while looking around the room as she stands on her stepstool by the kitchen island. I have to stifle a laugh.
The front door closes and Lily pauses inside the entrance to the kitchen, sighing loudly. "What a week. I'm so glad it's Saturday. Can we Why are you two standing there like that?"
"Like what?" I ask innocently.
"Staring at me like you just broke my favorite dish and glued the pieces back together."
"I didn't break anything!" Chloe squeals.
Lily narrows her eyes. "I told you, no birthday surprises."
"But it's your birthday!" Chloe yells, running up to her mother and wrapping her arms around her waist. The kid has gotten so damn tall over the past year, I swear that by the time she's ten, she's going to be as tall as Lily. She's also the spitting image of her mother, especially when they're standing side by side.
Lily kisses the top of Chloe's head. "I know. And if I have no birthday parties, I'll stay my very young age of twenty-nine forever. Just like I have every other year."
"You have to have a birthday cake!" Chloe squeals. "Or cupcakes."
I give Chloe my best don’t-spill-the-secret glare.
"Have you been eating cupcakes? You're bouncing off the walls."
"Nope, nope, nope!"
"Don't look at me," I protest, my hands raised. "You know I took her to soccer practice this morning. I wish I had her energy."
Chloe bounces – literally, she hops across the room – to the island and grabs an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter. "Don't forget what else we did!"
"Chloe…" I warn.
"We went fishing. And I caught two trout! Killian only caught one and it was small."
"Yeah?" Lily asks. "You're getting good."
"I know. Are we going to eat soon? I'm starving!" Chloe munches on her apple.
"Out of the kitchen, kid. Both of you." I wave them out. "Go bug your mom for a while so I can make dinner."
I listen to their voices from the living room as Chloe tells her mother about soccer practice this morning and how Jordan doesn't like Celia because Celia scored a goal and told Jordan to "suck it – can you believe that? She actually said that. That's really bad, mom!" I already got the full play-by-play of the soccer drama on the way back to the cabin after practice.
Holy shit, I had no idea the drama that having an eight-year-old girl in my life would entail. The kids go from best friends to enemies and then back to best friends in a matter of an afternoon, and Lily and I get the full rundown from Chloe every day. Sometimes when Chloe is relaying it to us over dinner, I look across the table at Lily and I have to hide my smile with my hand because some of it is truly the most ridiculous stuff I've ever heard.
It's also the best. For the past year, this cabin (where we stay on weekends, except during winters when we can't get up the mountain) has been filled with noise and laughter and total chaos. It's the exact opposite of the quiet life I thought I'd have when I came back to West Bend, determined to hide out here by myself.
Instead, my life is a whirlwind of nonstop soccer practice and swim lessons and camp and "I don't want to go school today!" and "She said she hates me!" and science projects and pointing out constellations in the sky and building our own rocket and laughter. A lot of laughter. And kid's movies so many kid's movies that I can't remember the last time I watched a movie that didn't involve a plucky girl and her pet horse. Or a plucky girl and her pet deer. Or a plucky girl solving mysteries.
Now my life involves sitting out on the back deck of the cabin after Chloe is asleep with Lily on my lap while she drinks a glass of wine and talks about plans for the store. It involves carrying Lily into her bedroom in our house in town – without the ten thousand fluffy pillows on the bed anymore, because they were so damn annoying – and throwing her down on the bed and burying my face between her legs. It involves waking up beside her and hearing her breathe deeply – okay, it's more like a little snore, but I keep that part to myself – while she snuggles up next to me and hits the snooze button on the alarm for the sixth time.
Lily has been mine since the moment I spilled coffee on her shirt in the general store. Tonight, I'm going to make that official.
Lily
"Killian! Let me get it! Let me get it!" Chloe pushes her chair back from the table on the cabin deck and stands up, racing to the door and into the house.
"She's excited," I note.
"She's not the only one." Killian grins at me.
"What are you up to?" I ask. "You're really trying to get in my pants tonight, aren't you?" Killian has gone above and beyond already, recreating our first date for my birthday dinner – the exact meal he cooked me then, and the deck all lit up with lights just like he did before.
"God, I hope I get in your pants." Killian grins.
Chloe bursts back through the open door with a pan of cupcakes. "Happy birthday!" she screams, setting them down on the table.
"Did you make these?" I ask.
"No way, mom. I know how to do frosting right. Killian did!"
"You're going to really sell me out like that when I took you fishing this morning?" Killian asks.
"I can't lie!" Chloe squeals, clasping her hands together. "Take a cupcake! Wait, no. I'll do it. I can do it, right, Killian?"
"Sure."
Chloe puts a cupcake on my plate and looks at me expectantly. "Eat it."
I look back and forth between the two of them. "What did you guys do to this? Is this a jalapeño cupcake or something?"
"No, but you know, that's a good cupcake flavor idea," Killian points out.
I narrow my eyes at them as I bring the cupcake to my mouth.
"No, WAIT!" Chloe yells loudly, and I nearly have a heart attack, dropping the cupcake on the plate.
"What?"
"I just don't want you to choke on the ring!"
"What?"
Killian groans. "Chloe!"
"If she bites it, she's going to swallow the ring!"
"There's a ring?" I ask, laughing. "What are you guys talking about?"
Chloe sticks her finger in the middle of the cupcake before I register what she's doing and pulls out a glob of red velvet cake with something shiny glinting in it. "Here, Killian!" she squeals, handing it to him. "Do it, do it!"
"You guys are insane," I note as Killian takes the cupcake-covered ring in his hand and puts it in his mouth, cleaning off the cupcake before pulling it back out. He gets down on his knee and turns my chair to the side to face him as my heart beats a million times a minute.
"Well, get on over here and help me, Chloe," Killian orders. "You can't leave me in the lurch now."
Chloe whoops and climbs down from her chair, squealing as she kneels down beside Killian. "Can I say it
, Killian?"
Killian grins as he looks up at me. "Do it, kid."
"Marry him, mom! Marry him!" Chloe turns to Killian.
I'm giddy and excited and I can't stop laughing. "Using my child to propose is a clever move."
"This way, I'm guaranteed that you'll say yes." Killian holds up the ring between his fingers. "You're going to say yes, right? I mean, look at the expression on her little face. You can't disappoint her."
"Stop, stop," I say, laughing until tears roll down my cheeks. I don't know if I'm laughing or crying as Killian slides the engagement ring on my finger.
"Lily Marie Grant, I love you. And I love Chloe. And I want both of you in my life forever. Will you do me the honor of making me iced coffee for the rest of my life?"
"Fine," I say as he brings his lips to mine. "But only because you bought me a bakery."
Epilogue
KILLIAN
Eight years later
"Dad, do not embarrass me," Chloe warns as we drive up to Luke's place. Dad, she calls me. It's the best word ever.
"I would never embarrass you. Not in a million years."
"Da-ad," she groans. "Seriously. My friends are going to be here. Everyone's going to be here." She brings the car to a stop and puts it in park.
"Don't forget the emergency brake out here so my car doesn't go rolling down the hill."
"Ugh." Chloe sighs exasperatedly. "I know that. You don't have to remind me. We literally just got out of the DMV, where, I'll remind you in case you forgot, that they just gave me a license to drive. By myself."
"I don't need to be reminded about how old you're getting, kid."
"Is mom here?" Chloe jumps out of the car. "I'm going to show her my license. My photo is so stupid-looking, though. The guy didn't even let me fix my hair first."
I look around, my eyes searching the crowd of people gathered – my brothers and their wives and holy hell, fourteen kids between the four of us, and a bunch of Chloe's friends and Lily and her parents somewhere in the sprawling crowd of people on Luke's front lawn. "There she is, right down there."
Chloe takes off faster than I do. Lily walks toward us, but Chloe gets diverted by a group of her friends, who squeal as Chloe shows her the brand new license. When Lily reaches me, she rolls her eyes. "I see her friends trump me," she notes. "and that's after she picked you to do the driver's test with her instead of me."
"It's not my fault that you screamed and freaked her out when she was practicing driving with you."
"There was a deer in the road!"
"I can't help it if I'm the chill dad. I'm relaxed. So chillaxed."
Lily groans. "That's good, because you're obviously not the cool dad."
"That's not what you said last night." I pull her against me, my hand on her lower back.
She laughs. "I did not call you cool."
I talk low in her ear. "If I recall correctly, you said I was hot. So, so hot. There was a lot of moaning involved."
She slaps me on the arm, and I bring my lips down to hers. Her lips are the most familiar thing in the world now, but kissing her gets me every time. When I pull away, she looks at me the way she used to look at me when we first met – the lusty way, not the way she'd look at me when she wanted to kill me, although I'm definitely accustomed to that look now, too. "Don't worry about it. I got a lot of eye rolling and dramatic sighing on the way back from the test."
"Tell me she won't be like this forever," Lily whispers.
"Oh, hell, I hope not." I laugh. The truth is, aside from the eye rolling and sighing – and the occasional slammed door – Chloe is a damn good kid. We still get the play-by-play about all of the school and friend drama - at least, I think so and she's got a pretty good head on her shoulders. She's class president this year, and this week anyway, she says she wants to go pre-med when she graduates in a couple of years. A few months ago, she wanted to play professional soccer, so we take the career declarations with a grain of salt.
"Mom! There you are!" Chloe yells, pulling Lily away from me to hug her. "I passed my driver's test! I can totally drive us home, right?"
"Yes, you can drive us home."
"Seriously, you guys. Can you please stop making out at my birthday party? Everyone thinks it's so gross."
"Sorry, kid, no can do," I tell her. "Making out with your mom is my favorite pastime."
"Mo-om! Tell him it's totally humiliating when you guys kiss. I just saw tongue. Seriously. You're too old."
"Did she just call us too old?" Lily asks.
"I think she did." I grin at Lily before pulling her toward me again dramatically bending her down in a dip so I can plant a kiss on her lips.
Chloe groans in frustration. "I am so going to send you my therapy bills when I'm older."
"Mom! Dad!" Dylan, our seven-year-old, comes running up to us and I groan.
"Can't I make out with my wife in peace?" I joke.
"No, dad!" Chloe scolds.
"Whatever you're about to say, if it involves tattling on your brother, I don't want to hear it," Lily says.
"But Will says he's going to put his tongue on Chloe's cake and take a photo of it!"
"What?" Chloe yells. "Where is he? I'm going to kill him!"
"Don't kill your brother. He's only six. He's still cute. Wait until he becomes a teenager!" I say.
"How does he even have a camera?" Lily asks.
"He has your phone," Dylan tells her.
"Get my phone back while you're down there," Lily advises.
"He knows not to put his tongue on my cake!" Chloe says. "Honestly, you guys let him get away with everything. It's so not fair. Nana would totally agree with me!" The two of them race toward one of the tables on the lawn where Chloe's cake – all four layers of glittered extravagance because Lily went way overboard but I'd never in a million years tell her that – is perched.
"I think he pickpocketed that phone right off of me," Lily notes. "He's been spending too much time with Tempest."
"He's going to be hustling people at cards by the time he's ten," I tell her.
"I know! She's your brother's wife. Tell her to stop corrupting him."
"He'll be a professional poker player."
"That cake is going to melt the longer it's out here in the sun, you know." Opal walks up to us, her gait less steady than it used to be, and I take her arm.
"You're going to melt in the sun, too, Opal. I put a few chairs in the shade."
"Oh, stop fussing over me like I'm going to fall apart, Killian. You're worse than Bert." Opal finally married Bert, her former "booty call" two years ago – in Vegas, of course. She wore a Marilyn Monroe dress and Bert wore a lavender leisure suit.
"Man, it's warm today," Luke interrupts, walking up to us with little Steve on his hip. Stevie is almost two now, their youngest. Allison and Olivia, the older kids, are running around this place somewhere. "We should have done this at the restaurant."
"Oh, it's fine," Autumn says. "It's sunny and you know Chloe loves being outside. She wouldn't have wanted her birthday party in the restaurant anyhow."
Cupcakes and Cappuccinos no longer exists. Lily and I went into business with Luke and Autumn a few years ago and knocked down the walls between the bakery and the two other stores on the ground floor of the building – now, we're running a full-service restaurant (lunch and dinner, but we do weekend brunch) and bakery. Autumn is still making cider and she's supposed to start distributing nationally next year. The four of us argued for weeks about the name of the restaurant, but in the end we just wound up calling it West Bend Saints. It seemed fitting, a way of redeeming our family name somehow.
River walks up to us, hand in hand with Elias. "Lily, I saw Will streaking across the lawn in his underwear with a phone."
"He's really a fast runner," Elias notes. "You should get him doing track."
"Shit." Lily kisses me on the cheek and takes off through the crowd of people. "William Elijah Saint!"
"Where's Silas?" I ask. "
I haven't seen him."
"Probably somewhere trying to knock up Tempest again," Elias says, and River smacks him on the arm. "What? We were all thinking it!"
"We probably should cut the cake before Will puts his face in it and Chloe decides we've embarrassed her enough that she disowns all of us."
"I don't know what's embarrassing about us," Elias says.
River rolls her eyes. "Yeah, there's totally nothing embarrassing about this family."
"Luke, make sure you wait until I wave to roll the gift up the lawn." I toss him the keys.
"Got it, man."
I make my way into the crowd until I reach the table with the birthday cake. From the side, I see Lily wrestling Will back into his shirt. Perfect timing. At least he has clothes on now. Most of them, anyway.
Whistling loudly, I call for everyone's attention. "Lily and Chloe, would you come up here, please?"
When Chloe gets to the front, she groans. "Dad, this is my sixteenth birthday party. If you do anything embarrassing, I'm totally going to kill you."
"If you kill me, you don't get your birthday present and trust me, you're going to want your present."
Chloe sighs loudly. "Mom would give it to me anyway."
"Mom doesn't know what I got you. This one's a surprise."
"What?" she squeals, suddenly giddy like she used to be when she was younger and not an angsty teen. "What did you get me?"
I whistle again as people finally start to quiet down. "Lily, get up here!"
Lily walks up the lawn, laughing as she heads toward us. "Killian, what the hell are you doing?"
"Probably embarrassing me, mom," Chloe says. "Tell him not to."
"Quiet down. I've got something to say!" I yell, pausing for a second. "Now, ten years ago, if you'd have told me I'd be married to the hottest girl in West Bend –"
Chloe groans. "Dad, gross."
"And that I'd have three awesome kids, I would have laughed. But nine years ago, this woman walked into my life, and she brought a kid with her. This kid was as funny and smart and smart-mouthed as her mother, and I fell head-over-heels for both of them."
Killian: A West Bend Saints Romance Page 25
