Marriage Under the Mistletoe

by Helen Lacey

  “Can I come in?”

  She took a second, thought about all the reasons why she shouldn’t let him inside and couldn’t come up with a single one. “Of course.”

  He grabbed his bag and walked across the threshold. Evie headed for the living room and sat down on the sofa. She gripped her hands together and waited. Scott stood by the doorway and dropped his duffel. A few seconds past and he moved toward her. Evie got a good look at him and noticed he’d lost weight. There was a ranginess about his lean frame and she wondered if perhaps she was responsible for it. His eyes were dark, like the color of an indigo sky. And his mouth was pressed into a thin line. He looked so tired. She touched her stomach and saw his gaze immediately follow the movement of her hands.

  “Scott, I—”

  “How could you do it?” he demanded, running a hand through his hair. “How could you tell me like that?”

  Evie choked back a gasp. He wasn’t tired, she realized. He was angry. “I can—”

  “Two words,” he said, throwing his hands up. “Two words to announce the most important thing that’s ever been said to me.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said quickly, feeling the bite of shame snap at her heels. She was in the wrong, and they both knew it. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have told you like that. I should have called you and told you about the baby.”

  Scott let out a breath and turned, then paced across the room until he reached the window. His back was straight and Evie knew him well enough to recognize the tension searing through his body. He took a few long breaths and stared out the window for a moment before finally twisting around to look at her.

  “So, how are you?” he asked, clearly back in control now. “I mean...how’s the... How are you feeling?”

  Evie patted her stomach. “I’m good,” she replied softly. “We’re good.”

  “You’ve been ill?”

  She shook her head. “Just the normal pregnancy things.”

  He expelled an exasperated breath. “Well, considering this is my first experience with pregnancy, you might consider being a bit more specific.”

  “Nausea,” she explained a little stiffly. “And fatigue. And my doctor is keeping an eye on my blood sugar, considering my age. Other than that I feel fine. The baby is healthy and growing normally. I had my first scan last week—I have a picture if you like.”

  He looked as if she’d slapped him in the face and she knew immediately how exclusive and selfish it sounded. She wanted to explain to him how she’d felt seeing their baby on the screen for the first time, how her heart had constricted so tight with love and joy and how she’d longed to share the moment with him but had thought it impossible.

  “A picture?” he echoed softly. “And do you know...” He paused and swallowed hard. Evie watched his throat move up and down. “Do you know the baby’s sex?”

  She shook her head. “I wanted it to be a surprise. If you’re keen to find out, I can schedule another ultrasound.”

  “I’m happy to wait. But I would like to come with you next time.”

  “Of course,” she whispered. “So, you’re staying for a while?”

  He nodded. “I’m staying. Have you told anyone?” he asked. “Your family?”

  “No. Although I don’t imagine I’ll be able to keep it a secret for too much longer. I think they’re all suspicious about why I’ve been avoiding them for the past few weeks.”

  He looked at her stomach. “You’re already showing.”

  Evie spread the cotton smock across her abdomen. “Yes. I’d like to tell Trevor—and my parents.”

  “We’ll do it together.”

  Evie wasn’t sure what to think. He looked so far away, still angry but fighting it. She felt like caving in and crawling into his arms. But she had to keep her head. “That’s not necessary. I can do it alone.”

  “Yeah,” he said quickly. “I’m sure you can. But you’re not alone, Evie,” he said, and pointed to her belly. “You’re not alone in this.”

  But she’d felt alone. For weeks she’d felt like the only person on the planet. “But you didn’t respond to my message,” she said on a shallow breath. “I thought...I thought you didn’t...”

  “You thought I didn’t what?”

  Emotion clogged her throat. “I thought you didn’t want... I didn’t hear from you, so I assumed you—”

  “It’s hardly the thing to be discussed in an email,” he said, cutting her off. “Or over the telephone.”

  “But for the past two weeks—”

  “For the past two weeks I’ve been organizing extended leave from my job and subletting my apartment.”

  She stilled. What did that mean? He was here, but for how long? And what kind of role did he want to play during her pregnancy? And afterward? What then? Would he expect shared custody of the child they had made together?

  “Why have you done that?”

  He gave her an odd look. “You can’t be serious?” He shook his head. “You’re having a baby, Evie...my baby... What did you expect me to do, hang out in L.A. until the kid was born and then send you flowers?”

  “I’m not sure what I expected,” she said frankly. “Nothing really. Only for you to know. I haven’t really thought that far ahead.”

  “Well, you need to think about it. We need to think about it.”

  He came across the room and sat beside her and took her hands in his. Evie didn’t move. She couldn’t feel anything other than the strong clasp of his fingers against her own. “I want...I want this baby, Scott,” she said in a shaky voice.

  His grip tightened. “So do I.”

  Hot tears burned behind her eyes. “I’m glad. And you can see as much of the baby as you like for as long as you’re here.”

  He shook her hands. “Evie,” he said rawly. “You don’t understand. I don’t want to be a part-time parent.” He turned on the seat and dropped to his knees onto the floor in front of her. “I said I was staying and I meant it. I want...I want to make this right. I want us to raise our child together.”

  Dazed, Evie shook her head. “Together? What do you—”

  “Marry me?”

  The room tilted and she swayed, leaning forward. Scott grasped her shoulders and set her upright. She still spun, she still felt as if the carpet beneath her feet were moving from side to side, pulling her with it. Marry me? Evie sucked in a breath as the fingers of temptation entwined around her heart. Marry the man she was in love with? The man whose child she carried? It seemed like a dream come true.

  Yes...a dream. A fantasy. Evie knew better than to rely on dreams. She had to rely on her good sense. On what was best for her baby. Marrying a much younger man who was a firefighter made no sense at all.

  “No,” she whispered.

  He paled. “No?”

  Evie shook her head. “You don’t have to marry me, Scott. You can see the baby. I won’t deny you the right to be a father.”

  “What about my right to be your husband and lover?”

  She pulled her hands from his and straightened. “Look, I appreciate that you want to do the honorable thing. But you’re too young for me, Scott. We’re like...we’re from two completely different generations.”

  “It’s nine years, Evie—not twenty. And even if it were, I wouldn’t care.” He reached up and held her face against his palms. “I love you.”

  Evie’s heart skipped a beat, and then another. He loves me? Could he? Or was he simply saying that to get what he wanted? Part of her longed to believe it...longed to say yes. But Sensible Evie stuck out her neck. “We hardly know each other.”

  He touched her stomach, and her whole body shook. “We do know each other, Evie. Intimately. And I know that I’m in love with you.”

  Rocked to the core by his revelation, Evie placed her hand on his. “It’s lust, Scott—desire. And maybe some sense of obligation because of the baby.”

  He jumped to his feet. “You’re telling me what I feel?”

  Evie shrugged, fee
ling the loss of his hands on her. “I’m just trying to let you off the hook.”

  “And what if I don’t want to be let off?” he asked. “What if I want to be joined to you for the rest of my life?”

  “Because of the baby?”

  “Because I’m head over heels in love with you, that’s why.” He took her hands and gently eased her to her feet. “Evie...give us a chance?”

  Doubt swirled through her. She couldn’t do it. “There’s too much against it working. The age difference...your job...”

  “I’ll quit,” he announced, and wrapped his arms around her.

  Evie moved against him. “You can’t do that,” she protested. “I wouldn’t allow it.”

  He shrugged. “It’s not your decision. I’ll quit and find another job—here. Because wherever you are, Evie, is where I want to be.”

  She pulled back. “You’re a firefighter. That’s what you do. It’s who you are.”

  “It’s a job.”

  She shook her head and stepped away, determined to keep him at an arm’s length. “I saw you, Scott—I saw you with the volunteers that day. I saw the way you were with those people, the way they responded to you. I knew then that your job was more than merely a job to you. It’s part of you...it’s part of the man you are. You love it.”

  “I love you more,” he said simply.

  Evie touched her belly. “Maybe right now, right here, when you see me carrying your child and look into my eyes and know I’m just as...that my feelings for you are just as strong.”

  His eyes widened. “Are they, Evie? Do you love me?”

  Evie took a step back. “Loving you isn’t the issue. The issue is marrying you...and I won’t do it.” She crossed her arms and inhaled deeply. “I’m tired. I need to rest for a bit. You can sleep in your old room or down here if you prefer, as I have no guests at the moment. You can stay until we sort something out.”

  “There’s nothing to sort out,” he said. “I’ve told you what I want...and in this, Evie, there can be no compromise.”

  She nodded. “I agree. I won’t marry you. The sooner you accept that, the better.”

  And then Evie pulled on all her strength and walked out of the room.

  * * *

  As rejections went, Scott thought, this was pretty well up there. Back in his old room, he could barely look at the bed without imagining Evie in it.

  Nice going, dude...nothing like a marriage proposal that sounded more like an ultimatum.

  Did she love him? Had her roundabout admission actually been real? If she’d refused him because she didn’t care enough, how did he get through that? He wanted to marry Evie. He wanted to be her husband and lover and protector. He wanted her love. And she hadn’t exactly said she did. There were feelings there, he was sure of it. Evie was an honest, sincere woman, and not the kind of person to fake what she felt. And he felt love from her when they were together. And she made love to him as though she loved him.

  He looked out the window. A car pulled up outside and he watched a pretty redhead get out. Evie’s friend—again he couldn’t remember her name—locked her car and waited by the curb. Seconds later another vehicle pulled up. He recognized his sister and brother-in-law immediately.

  Great. Annoyance waved up his spine. He wondered for a moment if Callie had sniffed out his arrival with her sister-radar—but he’d only told his cousin Gabe and his mother his plans and had sworn Eleanor to secrecy. This horde was obviously about Evie. He remembered how weary she’d looked and knew visitors would be the last thing she wanted. The trio came down the path and Scott watched them disappear beneath the eaves. He heard voices downstairs, heard feet walking across the threshold.

  He didn’t waste a second more and left the room. When he got downstairs and entered the kitchen, he felt as if he’d walked into the middle of a gunslinger’s stand-off. Callie was frowning, the redhead was staring with wide eyes and hopping on her feet and Noah looked like a man who wanted answers. Only Evie appeared calm. She stood by the sink, hands on hips.

  “I’m not sick,” Scott heard her say as he rounded the doorway. “So stop worrying.”

  “We are worried,” Noah said gravely. “You’ve been hiding out here for weeks now. You won’t talk to anyone, you won’t see anyone, you won’t admit that something serious is going on with you. Our mother is convinced you’ve—”

  “I’m not sick,” she said again, and quickly spotted Scott as he framed the entry. Three sets of eyes snapped toward him instantly. “I’m pregnant.”

  The trio all did a good impression of a rabbit stuck in headlights.

  Callie stared at him, her surprise obvious. He probably should have called his sister and told her he was coming. But right now his priority was Evie.

  Callie said his name and then quickly clammed up. She looked at Evie, and then back to Scott, then Evie again. It took only seconds for his sister to figure it out. The other two responded a little slower, but when they did emotion charged through the room.

  “Pregnant?” Noah echoed incredulously.

  “Well!” the redhead exclaimed. “Aren’t you one for secrets?”

  “It’s not a secret, Fiona,” Evie said evenly. “We chose to maintain our privacy, that’s all.”

  We? Scott almost laughed. But now was not the time to challenge Evie. They needed a united front. “So I guess the interrogation’s over?”

  Callie moved across the room and grabbed his arm. “Not by a long shot. You’ve got some serious explaining to do.”

  Scott smiled at his feisty sister. “That’s hardly appropriate,” he said, and saw Noah glaring at him. “Besides, we’re not teenagers. And we’re not trying to hide anything. We’re having a baby together and as long as we’re okay with that it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks.”

  He looked at Evie and saw the barest traces of relief on her face. Whatever he had to do to prove to her he was determined to make it work he would do. He’d beg and plead if he had to, to make her see sense, to make her realize what they had...what they could have together if only she’d let him into her life. He wanted to be a father to their baby...but he wanted Evie, too. He wanted her love. And he’d do whatever was necessary to get it.

  “So, while you’re all here for this intervention,” he said, and chucked his hands into his pockets, “maybe you can all use your influence and convince Evie to marry me.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was a low act. A despicable, humiliating thing to do. And Evie was so mad she seethed. She banged things around the house for the next hour, after quietly asking her family to leave. They hadn’t wanted to leave at first and Callie looked as if she was ready to kill her brother.

  Noah and Fiona had been a little less disapproving, with Noah saying he thought marriage was a great idea. A great idea? Evie had burned her brother with a red-hot glare for being so agreeable. She’d looked at Scott and he’d just shrugged and smiled and showed off that dimple.

  Well, she wasn’t falling for that sexy dimple and gorgeous smile anymore.

  He was outside shooting hoops with Trevor—who’d been so pleased to see him when he’d arrived home from school that Evie had swallowed a lump the size of a tennis ball as her son had embraced Scott. Considering Evie had made it abundantly clear she wanted to be alone, they’d left her immediately.

  So she had thinking time while she rearranged the pot drawer in the downstairs kitchen. She wouldn’t be maneuvered into a corner, that was for sure. And she wouldn’t marry Scott because it was what everyone else wanted.

  But when a pair of skinny hands landed on her shoulders a short while later, Evie felt her resistance crumble fractionally.

  “Scott told me,” Trevor said quietly. “About everything.”

  Evie turned around and saw her son look at her stomach. “He did?”

  Trevor shrugged. “I’m okay about the baby. And Scott said he’s hanging around—which is good, too.” Her son squeezed her arm and shuffled back on his
feet. “And I reckon it’ll be cool to have a stepfather.”

  Evie’s temper surged and she wondered if Scott would be so duplicitous to use her hero-worshipping son to get her to change her mind. He wouldn’t, surely? “I’m glad you and Scott get along so well.”

  “Families are supposed to, aren’t they?”

  “Yes,” she replied, but didn’t point out that Scott wasn’t exactly family.

  “And having a new baby might get you to stop treating me like a little kid?”

  He was grinning, but Evie saw through his smile. “Do I? I don’t mean to.”

  He shrugged lightly. “I know. But sometimes, when you want to know where I am every second and try to handpick my friends, it gets hard to take.”

  She took a step back and leaned against the counter. “Is that what I do?” Evie considered her son’s words. “I didn’t realize I was being so overprotective.”

  Trevor shrugged again. “It’s okay. I get why you do it. But you know, when I might want to hang out with some of my friends, even the ones you don’t like all that much, I reckon you should let me make my own decision.”

  It seemed like a huge leap for Evie. Her son was no longer a little boy. He was growing up so fast and she didn’t want to let him go.

  “You know,” Trevor said as he grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, “I like Scott. I vote we keep him.”

  She stared after him as he left the room and was about to return to her chore of banging pots when Scott came through the doorway. She scowled at him. “Being underhanded won’t get you anywhere.”

  He rested one shoulder against the jamb. “What does that mean?”

  Eve straightened. “My son, who obviously believes you can do no wrong, told me he thinks we should keep you.”

  “He’s a smart kid,” Scott said, straight-faced.

  Evie raised her brows dramatically. “He is smart. But he’s easily influenced. I’d prefer it if you kept our relationship private.”

  “I didn’t say anything about our relationship, Evie,” he said. “I only told him about the baby.”