Now it was Monica’s turn to look pleased. “Thank you.” She paused. “Now can we go and eat?”
“Absolutely.” And when they started to walk arm in arm toward the food, he said, “Of course, if I had handled this match, it wouldn’t have taken two years.”
Monica threw her head back and laughed even as she elbowed him in the ribs.
* * *
“Just think, in another six to eight weeks, we get to do it again,” Megan said later that night as they walked into Alex’s house.
“And there will be more of them, won’t there?” he asked.
Nodding, Megan tossed her purse on the table and went to the kitchen to grab something to drink. “From what Gabriella was saying today, it seems like Willow’s christening is going to be almost as big as the wedding.”
“That can’t be right.”
“Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration, but this time the entire family is coming—all the cousins, all their kids—which makes for a large crowd.”
He was aware.
Having known Zach for almost three years, Alex had met most of the Montgomery family, and for the most part, they were a great bunch of people—very personable. But this thing with Megan’s mom and her aunts was getting…strange. Although, if anything, now was the time he should be expecting it. After all, he and Megan were dating, and things were serious between them, so he guessed it was only fitting that her mother would start grilling him on his intentions.
Alex laughed to himself at the image of how Eliza and Monica Montgomery would react if he told them his intentions and how he was more than ready to make a commitment to Megan and move the relationship forward. He imagined their eyes going wide and how pleased they’d be.
“Do you want something to drink?” Megan called out.
Megan, on the other hand, would probably freak out if he announced to her family that he already envisioned them married with children.
And hell, he should probably talk to her about that before talking to her family.
“Alex?”
Oh, right. A drink.
“No, thanks,” he said as he walked into the kitchen. It hit him—and not for the first time—how she was at home here. In his house. Since the first night they made love, she hadn’t spent another night in Summer’s guesthouse. Part of him felt guilty about it because she had seemed excited to have a place of her own and to be spending time with her cousin, but the other part of him was so damn happy to have her there with him.
Now when he looked around his house, there was a little bit of her in every room. She had put her stamp on so much of his space, and he loved it. Her crocheting basket sat next to the end of the sofa in the living room, and the afghan she’d made for them was currently folded on the ottoman in the corner. For a woman who didn’t think of herself as soft or girly, she certainly had put a lot of feminine touches all around him. Just the thought of her not being here bothered him.
Would she want to move back to Summer’s once the whole family went back to North Carolina? Was he making assumptions about her wanting to be here with him all the time because she was afraid of hurting his feelings? They hadn’t talked about it since the night Willow was born.
One of the things he realized about the two of them was how they could talk for hours about a hundred different topics—like books or movies, his job, her job, her crocheting projects and techniques—but they never talked about them—as a couple.
“You’re looking pretty intense over there,” she said, closing the refrigerator door. “Everything okay?”
He nodded, reaching for her hand. “Did you have a good time today?”
She smiled. “I did. But then again, I usually have a good time with my family. I wish more of my cousins could have been there, but that will happen soon enough.”
“Six to eight weeks,” he said with a wink and led her into the living room. They sat on the sofa, and Megan reached for the TV remote.
“Anything good on tonight?”
Before she could turn it on, he gently took the remote from her hand and put it down. “Actually, I was kind of hoping we could talk.”
Something in his tone must have alarmed her because her eyes went a little wide. “Oh, God…my mom and my aunt totally freaked you out, didn’t they?” She muttered a curse. “Why didn’t you come and get me sooner? Or why didn’t you tell me how they’ve done this sort of thing before? If I had known, I would have put a stop to it!”
They were getting off track. He didn’t want to talk about her aunt or her mother or the rest of her family. Not really. What he wanted more than anything was to see if they were on the same page.
“How did you feel about living in the guesthouse?” he asked, hoping she’d accept his sudden change of subject.
“Um…what?”
“I mean, I know you liked it because it meant you had a space of your own and it kept you close to Summer, but…you didn’t bring all of your stuff with you when everyone arrived, and I guess I’m wondering if you’re going to want to go back there. You know…in between now and the next family invasion.”
“Why? Do you…do you want me to go back there?” He saw her swallow hard, and she went to pull her hand away, but he wouldn’t let her. “It’s all my stuff, right? I sort of moved in here and took over and…” She looked around the room a bit frantically. “I realize we sort of fell into this routine, but if I’m overstepping some bounds here, that’s totally fine. I get it. Really.”
“Megan,” he began, “that’s not what I’m saying.” He stopped and tried to find the right words to say. “What I meant is…I like how things are going. A lot. But I know we sort of just…‘fell into this routine.’” He smiled as he used her words to make a point. “It wouldn’t have happened like this if you lived in an apartment across town of your own, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t putting any pressure on you to stay here. With me. In the house.”
Shifting his position so he could face her, he went on. “I know it was presumptuous of me to think you would want to pick up where we left off, and maybe lending you a car and offering to show you around the city and stuff made you feel…obligated—”
“Oh my God…do you think I’m sleeping with you because you lent me your car?” she cried, and this time she pulled her hand free before putting more space between them. “Seriously, Alex, is that what you’re thinking? What kind of person do you think I am?”
Okay, he was screwing this up…
“That is not what I’m thinking, Megan. I swear! I’m honestly thinking I’m the one behaving questionably! I don’t want you to think I did all these things to…manipulate or orchestrate us getting together.”
Sighing, Megan stood and paced a few feet away from the sofa before turning around and facing him. “Alex, I’m not going to lie to you, it did feel a little…I’ll use your word, ‘orchestrated.’ And at first, I wanted to be annoyed with you about it. But the more time we spent together, the happier I was that you did it. If left to my own devices, I would have played hard to get because I thought it was what I was supposed to do.”
Alex stood and walked over to her, happy that she didn’t move away when he took her hands in his again. “And I’m not going to lie to you—I had a feeling you were going to do your best to blow me off. It didn’t matter how many time we got thrown together because of your cousins, you were a little…aloof with me.”
She blushed and looked at the floor.
“But,” he went on, gently tugging her hand to get her attention, “I think we would have ended up where we are right now no matter what. Why? Because this is good, Megan. Really good.”
She nodded but didn’t respond.
“I think we landed in this place together without talking about it, and that’s kind of what I was getting at. I’ll admit my presentation wasn’t the best, but that’s what I was trying to do.
I want us to talk about this. Us. Where we’re going.”
“Oh.”
He couldn’t tell if that was a good ‘oh’ or a bad ‘oh.’ It was kind of neutral.
Honestly, he was kind of hoping she’d say something first. He felt like he was the one putting it all out there—his feelings—while she was merely listening and commenting. Right now, he still wasn’t confident about where they stood.
Which was what he said to her.
“Alex, this is the healthiest relationship I’ve ever been in,” she began. “I spent a lot of years feeling inferior and not having a good self-image because of things the men I’d dated had said to me or made me feel.”
This is brand-new information, he thought. “You never mentioned that to me,” he said softly, leading her back to the sofa to sit down.
She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I guess I always had a bit of an inferiority complex because of my family. That part I told you. But…” She sighed. “It got worse for me after college. I dated this guy after I graduated, and we were together for a year. He used to tell me all the time how I needed to lose weight and that I looked frumpy and chubby, and…I don’t know. He got into my head. He was my first long-term relationship, and for some reason I accepted the things he said to me because I was afraid that if I broke up with him no one else would want me.”
With her hand still in his, he gently caressed her knuckles and wondered what he could possibly say that wouldn’t come off sounding trite.
“When I met you at the wedding, I was so out of my comfort zone. My mother talked me into buying that dress and those shoes, and…as much as I resented her for it at first, I also felt a little empowered by that outfit. And then to have someone like you find me attractive? That really boosted my confidence.”
He couldn’t help but smile at her words.
“That’s why I was so insecure when I moved here and we reconnected. I knew what you were remembering, and I knew I wasn’t that woman. Not really.”
“Megan, we’ve been over all of that. The woman you are right now is who I want. She’s the woman I’m drawn to.” He paused. “She’s the woman I’m falling for.”
Her big brown eyes went wide as she gasped at his words. “You’re…you’re…”
He nodded. “I think about us all the time. I wish things had been a little more conventional where we’re concerned, but…I kind of like that this is us too. We’re a little unconventional, but it works. And I want it to keep working. I don’t want you to be a temporary houseguest here. I want us to talk about life beyond Willow’s christening.”
“Oh, Alex—”
“I know it’s scary—you’re still finding your way with the job and Montgomerys, and I know how you like to have time to think things through, but…how am I supposed to know if you’re thinking about these things if we don’t talk about them?”
She laughed softly. “I think about it a lot too.”
Now it was his turn for his eyes to go wide. “Really?”
“Uh-huh. Actually, I think about it—us—all the time. I was afraid to jinx things by mentioning it. Everything has been going so well that I didn’t want to mess it up.”
“Baby, you never have to worry about that with me. I want us to talk—I want you to feel comfortable coming to me and talking about your fears and your hopes and…everything!” Relief washed over him as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
When she lifted her head a moment later, she smiled at him. “I really like when you do that.”
“Oh yeah?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Definitely.”
“Well, how do you like it when I offer to take you upstairs to our bedroom and make love to you in our bed?”
He hoped she caught on to the emphasis on the word our.
Her smile was slow and sweet. “I like it when you do that too. But you know what I like the most?”
He shook his head as he rubbed his thumb on her cheek.
“I really like it when we wake up in our bed all wrapped up in one another and make plans for how we’re going to spend the day together.” Then she gave him a shy smile. “And then we put those plans on hold to make love again.”
Alex carefully stood and pulled her to her feet. “Then brace yourself, because you are going to be one very happy woman starting right now.”
Chapter 9
If there was one thing Megan loved about Alex, it was how he was a man of his word. So when he said to brace herself, she did.
And she was very happy about it.
The sun was starting to come up, and they were tangled together, and even though they couldn’t have had more than a few hours of sleep, she felt perfectly content. Snuggling closer to Alex, she placed a kiss on his chest and felt his arms tighten around her.
“You can’t be awake already,” he said sleepily. “If you’re awake, that means I’ve overslept.”
Megan laughed softly and kissed him again. It was true that he was the early riser of the two of them. She was content to stay in bed and hit the snooze button on her alarm several times when she needed to get up, whereas Alex didn’t even need an alarm.
“It’s a Sunday,” she softly reminded him. “You can’t oversleep on a Sunday. It’s impossible.”
Placing a kiss on the top of her head, he said, “I disagree. What if we had plans to leave the house early and go…say…camping.”
That had her laughing a bit harder. “There are so many things wrong with that sentence that I don’t even know where to begin.”
Alex pulled back and looked at her with mild amusement. “What could possibly be wrong with that?”
“For starters, no one leaves on a Sunday morning to go camping. That’s just crazy. And secondly, I would never go camping. Like, ever. So…you never have to worry about saying I’ve overslept for that.”
“You should try it.”
She shook her head. “Nope. I enjoy sleeping in a bed, indoor plumbing, and having heat in the winter and air-conditioning in the summer. Oh, and electricity,” she added while fighting the urge to laugh again. “I’m a big fan of electricity.”
He shook his head. “Everyone should camp out at least once. I’m not saying it has to be a weeklong thing—”
She placed a finger over his lips and shook her head again. “The closest you will ever get me to camping is sitting on the back porch making s’mores over the fire pit. That’s it.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” he said casually.
“Bug bites, a bad night’s sleep, getting eaten by a bear…the list is endless, I’m sure.”
This time he laughed. “What if I promised to take you to a bear-free campsite? Would you try it?”
Megan held firm. “Sorry. No can do. I’ll go walking in the park and even do a little hiking, but beyond that, it’s a hard no.”
“And here I was thinking I had found the perfect woman,” he said as he rolled over.
“And someone who camps is your perfect woman?” she asked, maneuvering so she was now lying on top of him.
Nodding, he said, “Definitely.” Then he sighed. “Well, we gave it a try, and it didn’t work.” Another sigh. “I guess we’ll look back on this someday and laugh and…ow!” he cried out with a laugh when she smacked him on the arm.
“How would you like it if I told you my perfect man wasn’t outdoorsy? How would that make you feel?” she questioned.
Alex anchored a hand in her long hair and gripped it. “I wouldn’t like it because I’d know you were lying. Or teasing,” he added, guiding her closer. His voice went husky when her lips were almost to his. “Just like I’m teasing right now. I don’t care if you don’t want to camp, Megan. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to do that with you—to have that experience with you—but it’s not so important to me that I’d give this up.”
&
nbsp; Her smile was slow and sexy as she wiggled against him and felt how he was already aroused. “Good. Because I don’t want you to give this up.” Then she kissed him and hummed her approval as his free hand smoothed down her spine. He squeezed her bottom as he moved against her.
The kiss went from slow and languid to wet and untamed. When Megan moved to catch her breath, Alex gently nipped at her neck. “Is this what you were talking about last night?” he murmured against her skin. “This kind of tangled-up morning where we forget about everything else?”
With a moan of pleasure, she continued to move with him. “Yes…”
“Then you know this was all part of my plan when I told you to brace yourself last night,” he said, rolling them so she was beneath him. He took her hands in his and pinned them above her head on the pillows. “And there’s nothing I want more in this world than to make you happy.”
Alex was good with words.
But his actions were even better.
* * *
A week later, Megan was sitting in her office when her phone rang. Looking down, she saw her father’s name on the screen. Panic instantly filled her because her father never called her. Something had to be wrong.
“Dad?” she answered anxiously.
Joseph Montgomery chuckled. “Did I catch you at a bad time, Megan? You sound a little out of sorts.”
She instantly relaxed and let out a breath. “I…no…I’m fine. I guess I was a little surprised to see your name on my phone. I thought something was wrong.”
He laughed again. “I can see why you’d think that. Your mother is usually the one to call, and then I simply get on the phone and say a quick hello.”
At least he’s aware of it, she thought.
“So what’s up, Dad? Everything okay?”
“I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about you,” he began. “It sounds like the transition to the new programs and new system went more smoothly than anyone expected. As a matter of fact, you now hold the record of the fastest and most efficient installation in company history.”
Until There Was Us Page 23
