“What a fitting costume,” Dixie exclaimed when she reached out and pushed her pillow belly aside to embrace Georgia. “You’re here to rescue Chance again? I love it!”
Georgia hadn’t given her costume much thought. She’d only remembered she needed a costume when she walked past her fireman’s coat on the way out the door. She donned the jacket and pants, and with her hat perched upon her strawberry blonde curls, she knew it wasn’t the most glamorous outfit here. Or especially what she wanted to wear to tell her lover that she accepts his proposal, she realized with a grimace. Especially since he hasn’t asked her yet.
Georgia straightened her shoulders and met Mac’s eyes. He hadn’t said a word. She hoped Chance’s family would one day forgive her for the pain she put him through, but she could tell nothing from his stern face.
“You don’t realize just how scared you look,” Mac said as he noted her shaking hands and pleading eyes. “Go to him. You’re the only one who can fix him. He’s in the pool room.” Mac nodded toward the back of the bar and steered Dixie over to a vacant table.
“Good luck!” Dixie yelled above the commotion.
Georgia took a deep breath and made her way slowly to the back room. With each step, her stomach knotted and her heart threatened to leap out of her chest. Her nausea had returned in spades, and she wondered if she should stop by the ladies room to get it under control. Could morning sickness happen in the evening? Apparently so, if the pregnant woman was also a nervous wreck.
She made it through the crowded main room. She could see the restrooms directly ahead of her. To her left was a room filled with video games that folks were playing. A bit further to her right, she guessed, was the pool room. As she neared, she heard the unmistakable crack of balls hitting the pockets.
“Well it’s now or never, Peaches,” she murmured to herself as she walked through the door. She came to a standstill.
The room was crowded, but she was able to pick Chance out immediately as he stood at the secondary bar in the corner. He was dressed as a pirate, with a sword at his hip and a patch over his eye. Rochelle Wilkins was plastered all over his chest, trying to kiss him greedily and it didn’t look like Chance was putting up much of a fight.
All of Georgia’s insecurities came to the forefront. With an anguished cry, she spun around to head back out the door.
“Georgia!” Chance called out to her while the redhead tried to keep him at her side. “Get off me, woman. What the hell is wrong with you?” Chance shoved her to the side. He ran to catch up with Georgia. Grabbing her arm, he twirled her around and she came face-to-face with the evidence of his passionate embrace with Rochelle. Big smears of red lipstick covered his cheek and mouth. She cringed away from him.
“Georgia, let me explain,” Chance begged.
She tried to pull out of his arms “There’s nothing to explain. I knew you couldn’t change.” She managed to get out of his grasp and started to walk away.
He called after her, “You said we were through, you said it was over. Were you lying to me or to yourself?” That damn Rochelle had tapped him on the shoulder then went in for the kill before he had even realized who she was.
Georgia heard his slurred words and realized he was more than a little drunk. But she was more than a little pissed. How dare he take up with the very bitch who had tormented her for so many years.
“And you said you loved me. You said we had a forever kind of love. I guess your version of forever is different than mine,” she spat out.
The tiny redhead came up behind Chance and grabbed him around the waist, hugging him to her. “Don’t listen to her, baby. You don’t need some firefighter freak. You and I can have a good time together. I’ll be here forever,” the drunken redhead slurred.
Chance extricated himself from her embrace. “You!” He looked at Rochelle in disgust. “You and your psycho friend are why we’re in this mess. I’ve never hit a woman in my life, but, by God if you don’t get the hell away from me, you’ll be the first,” he roared. Rochelle finally realized she was in danger and scampered out of his way.
“Everybody out!” Chance growled.
When the crowd just looked at him, he barked, “Now!”
There was a scuffle of feet as everyone tried to leave at once. As they begin to pass Georgia, she turned to go as well. Chance grabbed her arm. “No, Peaches. We are settling this here and now.”
Georgia was shaking with fear and heartache. “There’s nothing to settle, Chance. It’s just not going to work.” She didn’t know what she was going to do about the baby. She didn’t know where she was going to live. She didn’t know anything except the pain of this moment. If this was being brave, it sucked.
“Oh no, Georgia Haines. This is not settled, not by a long shot. I want to know why you are here tonight. And don’t give me some lame bullshit excuse. Are you here for me?”
Georgia looked away. She couldn’t allow him to see how much she wanted and needed him. Not after what she’d seen. “Dixie invited me.” That was pretty close to the truth. She thought of Dixie and her advice. Of Sam and Angel and their misunderstandings. All happy endings, but not for her, no happiness for her.
Chance hauled Georgia up against him, cupping her face in his big hands. “No, Georgia, you tell me why you came. Say it. You came for me.”
She looked up. She wanted to see the love in his eyes. She wanted to see the tenderness. She wanted to feel the love that she had felt in his arms and in his bed. But all she saw was the red splatter of lipstick on his face. And it sent her back into her shell of insecurity.
She struggled against him. “I just came to get out. I needed to get out.” She had to get away from him. She was beginning to hyperventilate.
Chance stepped back. “Then go, Georgia. Go back to your safe little life. You can make believe you have children, by playing with everyone else’s kids. You can go back to your lonely bed and your lovely pillows hugging them tonight, instead of me.”
He walked back to the bar and threw back a shot of whatever was in the glass. “You risk your life fighting fires, you risk your life for children at your daycare, you risk your life for everything, but love for yourself. You won’t open your heart. You built that damn wall so high nobody can get over it, not even the man who loves you.”
He turned away from her. “So you go on. But you know this - I will love you until the day I die. But I’m a man and I need a woman and I’ll find one. She won’t be you, she’ll never be you, but I want kids. I want a family and I am brave enough to go out and get what I want.”
Georgia choked back a sob. He was going to have a family. He was going to have kids, but after this, how could she believe him? Could she be brave enough to believe him, to reach for him? “You don’t understand, Chance. I don’t think I’m what you need.”
Chance looked at her with wide eyes “Are you kidding me Georgia? Are you fucking kidding me? I’ve told you over and over again how much I need you. I’ve told you every single day with my words and my actions. All you have to do is believe.”
Chance raked his hands through his hair. “Even when you didn’t say it back, I could see it in your eyes. I could feel it in your body when I made love to you. I was there, Georgia. I was in your room. I was in your bed and I took your virginity.”
He walked around the bar and poured himself another drink. “And I’ll remember. I will always remember the look in your eyes, the way your body smells, the way it curves into mine. I’ll remember everything about you, the weight of your breasts in my hands, the way your lips are so soft.” He smiled and tossed back the drink, “That little overbite that makes me crazy, the way I can smell your arousal when we kiss. I know how sweet you taste, Georgia.”
He advanced on her, ignoring her tears, his own pain consuming him. “I know all this, and I also know that because of the walls you’ve built up around you, and your fucking father leaving you, and all those stupid ass men who did horrible things to the children that entered you
r life through the foster care system with Missy Dee - you’ll never change. You’re never going to open up your heart and let me in.”
He contemplated her tear streaked face, like he was memorizing every nuance of her pain. “But I’ll remember you, Georgia. I’ll take every opportunity to be with you until you leave because my heart knows and my soul knows we are supposed to be together.
He stepped back. “You!” he pointed his finger at her, swaying slightly. “You’re the only one holding us up, Georgia Haines, and I could almost hate you for that.”
Georgia, sobbing, turned away from his condemnation. He was right. Everything he said was right. All she had to do was trust him.
She looked up and saw Rochelle standing outside the doorway with a hateful smirk on her face and she realized that she had heard every word. Chance might very well end up with someone like that instead of her, and she couldn’t stand it. She just couldn’t stand to see him with someone who wouldn’t appreciate him, someone who didn’t love him the way she does and suddenly, it hit her.
Something broke free and she knew she could be brave. She would fight for her love. She wasn’t going to let that bitch or anyone tell her she wasn’t good enough anymore. Chance had said she was and that’s all that mattered. He was all that mattered.
She turned back to find Chance swallowing another shot of whiskey. At this rate, he was going to pass out before she could tell him she loved him. “Chance, please.”
He didn’t even turn around, just looked over his shoulder, “What Georgia? Isn’t it enough to know that you have totally emasculated me? I don’t want anybody, but you. Never gonna fuckin’ want anybody but you.”
He raised his empty glass to her. “I may as well become a friggin’ priest, No, I may as well become a friggin’ eunuch for all the good it’s gonna do me.”
With a sob she ran across the room. He dropped the glass and caught her in his arms. But he was stiff and cold. He looked into her eyes as her tears poured forth, his face carved in stone. “Don’t, Georgia. Don’t you fuckin’ do this to me again. I can only accept forever from you. I can only accept your undying love and trust, forever.”
Georgia reached up and swiped the red lipstick off his face with a rough hand. She pulled his head down to hers. “You listen to me, and you listen real good, Chance Coalson,” she said, trying to stop her tears. “Red is not your color. Peach is your color and always will be - forever.”
His eyes misted over as he truly looked at her for the first time and realized that she was telling the truth. “You better spell it out, darlin’. I don’t think I can take anything less.”
“I love you, Chance Coalson. I want forever and always. Please don’t keep me waiting any longer. I have waited for you since I was fourteen years old and you held me at my mother’s funeral. Marry me, dammit,” Georgia demanded.
“Yes, ma’am.” Chance grinned and grabbed her tight.
He kissed her with all the passion that had built over the past few weeks. Georgia gasped as she was pulled up against his body. She could feel his erection. She wanted more than anything to continue kissing him and holding him and loving him, and she saw no reason to stop. Their kisses turned from sweet to full of passion as he slowly lowered her to the pool table, murmuring sexy love words, kissing every inch of her skin he exposed as he took off her jacket.
Chance’s hands roamed down her arms and then up under her shirt. He gave her breast a gentle squeeze and she winced. “Sorry, baby, too rough?” He peppered little kisses along her jawline and her throat as he undid the buttons of her shirt.
“Chance?” she panted. “Gotta tell you something.”
“No, No talking, darlin’. Just feeling…”
Georgia groaned. “It’s important, Chance.”
He pulled back and raked her with a hot gaze. “This is the most fucking important thing ever right now.”
He reached for her, but she evaded his arms. “Please, we need to talk.”
“Enough talk, Peaches,” he grabbed for her again. “We communicate so much better without words.”
He kissed her long and hard, easing her back down onto the pool table and Georgia gave in until a loud cough sounded from behind them followed by, “Excuse me, folks, but would you mind moving off the table. We’d like to play a game.” Georgia looked up into the twinkling eyes of a man dressed like a grizzly bear.
Laughter and guffaws greeted that last statement as Chance pulled Georgia up from the pool table, Georgia hastily buttoned up her shirt and blushed furiously.
“Sorry, folks. She agreed to marry me and things got a little out of hand.”
Amid the cheers and well wishes, they left to enter the main bar, but Georgia held Chance back as they walked into the hall. “Please stop, honey, I’ve got to tell you something right now.”
He sighed. “All right, if it’s important to you.” He fixed her with a wicked look. “But after that we’re going to tell everybody we’re getting married. Then I’m taking you home and making sweet love to you, no interruptions.”
Georgia smiled because he reached out to kiss her again. “It doesn’t have to be sweet love all the time. I liked it down and dirty, too, you know.”
Chance smiled against her mouth. “I knew you were lying. No way you could have been that smokin’ hot and not loved everything I did to you.” His mouth slanted over hers and she opened to let him in. Their tongues matched their furious feeling of restlessness.
This was it! This was her life now. Chance was her soul mate, and she basked in the glow of his love. Now, she just had to be brave enough to tell them one more thing. “Chance,” she said. “You said you wanted a life with family and marriage. Well, I’ll give you the life and the marriage and the family.”
“I know, Georgia. I know some day we can have a big, beautiful family and all the babies you want.”
She reached out to touch his face. Such a handsome, beautiful face. They will have beautiful babies together. “Chance, baby, I think it’s going to be sooner rather than later. I’m pregnant….we’re pregnant.”
Georgia watched as Chance’s eyes rolled in the back of his head. He started to slide down the wall. She grabbed at him but he snapped up and hugged her tight. “What? You were teasing me? You were teasing me?” Georgia yelled, then punched him in the shoulder.
Chance laughed. “I couldn’t help it, darlin’. You looked so damn serious. We’re going to have a baby. I’m going to be a daddy. You are going to be my wife. This is the happiest damn day of my life so far, but I know there’s going be a lot more.”
He kissed her tenderly and held her close as he whispered, “I’m so happy for the baby, Peaches, but tell me… would you have come to me if you weren’t pregnant?”
Georgia pulled back. She heard the vulnerability in his voice and saw it reflected in his eyes. She had to reassure him. “I thought about running, but I knew you would find me.”
Chance held her tighter. “You’re damn right, I would have.”
Georgia touched the small scar on his cheek from the fire. “I tried to picture my future alone, existing with only my memories of you, and I wanted so much more, for me, for you and our baby and mostly for us as a family.” She sighed. “You were my hero when my mother passed, and I knew then I would love you forever. I just needed to grow up and now I have. So yes, I would have come to you, even if I wasn’t pregnant.”
She pulled back and wiped a small tear from his face “You rescued me that day. You’ve rescued me again.”
She started to cry, “Oh, and Missy Dee took out a loan before she died, and the bank’s foreclosing and that’s why the relators sign is in the yard. I have no home and no daycare.”
Chance drew back in shock. She had been trying to do this all alone. God, he better never hear her say she wasn’t brave again. “Oh sweetheart. You’re home and your life is with me. So hush my sweet, Peaches. Every day now is going to be forever and always wonderful. I promise you.”
He allowe
d her a few moments to dry her tears while he held her. “I must look a mess.”
Chance took in the swollen lips from his kisses, the bright eyes from her tears of joy and her mussed hair from their lovemaking. “You are perfect, my Peaches. Just the way you are.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her along. “Come on, baby. We’ve got two announcements to make.” He led her into the main room.
The Coalsons were gathered around the bar talking and laughing, but when they saw Chance and Georgia, they grew quiet. The only noise came from the corner of the room where Rochelle stood with several of her friends. “Like Chance is ever going to go for some sugar sweet babysitter. That man needs fire, not sugar.” She smirked. Her friends’ eyes got wide just seconds before Rochelle was tugged by the roots of her hair by none other than Georgia.
“The thing about sugar, bitch, is that it was raised in a mean hard cane. And that’s exactly what I’m going to use on you if you ever come near my man again.”
Georgia yanked the screeching woman across the room and toward the front door.
“Georgia, what are you doing?” Chance’s shocked voice ricocheted across the silent room.
“I’m taking out the trash!” She snarled.
With that, Georgia pushed open the bar doors and flung the redhead out, sending her tumbling onto the dusty sidewalk. She turned to the others in the nasty group that had tormented her for years.
“Who’s next?” she roared.
Georgia took a threatening step toward them, and they screeched, tumbling on their high heels. They ran through the back room to the exit. Within seconds, the bar had cleared of every woman who had ever thought to give Chance a try.
Ginny Coalson started clapping. Dixie and Angel joined in. Seconds later the entire crowd was clapping and cheering. Chance hugged Georgia as she hid her face in the crook of his neck.
Chance chuckled. “Remind me to never get you mad, Peaches.”
Something's Gotta Give (Tempered Steel Book 3) Page 12
