“Hello, everyone,” he said, his voice a bit shaky. “I’m Trent, and this is my son, Porter.”
“Lauren’s Trent?” her mother asked, partially rising from her place at the table. Her gaze darted to her daughter. “I thought you two broke up.”
“Yes, well, the man recognizes the error of his ways,” Mabel said, nudging Trent forward and out of the doorway. “Don’t you, Trent?”
“Yes,” he said, stumbling forward a few steps.
“Go on,” she said. “Get some food.”
Lauren flew into motion then, cleaning up her fallen plate and the food that had scattered. Trent stepped over to where she stood in the kitchen, his nerves almost paralyzing him. But he pushed past it and said, “Hey, Lauren.”
Her eyes flew to his, and the nervousness there made his heart ache. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m going to say that first.” He swallowed again, his stomach tight and his muscles tighter. “I’m really sorry for acting like such a jerk when Porter got hurt.”
She glanced at Porter, who’d come with Trent, really quite good with his crutch now. He didn’t even really need it anymore, but he still couldn’t wear a shoe without too much pain, so he brought the crutch just in case.
When she looked back at Trent, she said, “You really were a jerk.”
“I know,” he said. “And I’ve wanted to say thank you for a couple of weeks now too. You really took great care of Porter than night, and cleaned up the bathroom, and…thank you.”
Her expression softened, and Trent was very aware of her family sitting only feet away from where they stood.
The speech he’d prepared and practiced was nowhere to be found in his mind, and he realized he was going to have to wing it.
“I’m not great with words,” he said.
“Oh, you’re doing great,” someone said, and Trent looked over to the table as a few people chuckled. Lauren’s brothers were watching her, and he felt like he should be worried about impressing them. But they all wore a smile on their face, and Trent realized it was her mother he was going to have to win over.
He looked back to Lauren. “I’m really not great at saying how I feel.” He licked his lips and glanced at Porter.
“Just tell her, Dad.”
“I love you,” he blurted, his heart racing around inside his chest like it was trying to find the finish line. “I love you, and I’m hoping you’ll find some way to forgive me so we can try again.”
He took a deep breath, because he felt like he was about to pass out. “I think that’s all. I mean, obviously, I had it all rehearsed and it sounded so much better than that.”
“And that’s not all,” Mabel said.
Trent looked at her, almost wanting to tell her he’d had enough of her nudging. One could call it meddling.
“Yes, it is,” he said. “For now.” He faced Lauren again, and while he’d thought about this moment for several days now, it was much worse having to live it.
She stared back at him, and he had no idea what else to say.
“Lauren,” Porter said, and she bent down until she was eye-level with him.
“Yeah, bud?”
“I promise he’ll be nicer.”
She leaned her forehead against Porter’s, a smile touching her face and making her shine like gold. Trent wanted her to smile at him like that, and he watched the sweet moment between her and his son.
“And we don’t break our promises, do we?” she asked.
Porter shook his head, and Lauren straightened and met Trent’s eye again. “All right,” she said.
“All right?” Trent repeated. “All right what?”
She sighed like he was making her life difficult on purpose, and then she giggled. “I suppose we can try again, because I kinda like you too.”
“Is that so?” he asked, relief painting his insides.
“Yeah.” She stepped closer, her eyes dropping to his mouth. “In fact, I’m in love with you too.”
Trent had never heard better words, and he drew her into an embrace. She felt so good in his arms, and a sigh passed through his whole body. “Can I kiss you in front of your family?” he whispered in her ear. This public reconciliation wasn’t really his scene, and he’d never done it before.
“I think there might be a riot if you don’t.”
So Trent cradled her face in his hands and lowered his mouth to hers. Kissing her was just as wonderful as it always had been, and as her family clapped and whooped, Trent thanked his lucky stars that he’d listened to Mabel Magleby.
Lauren pulled away, giggling, sooner than Trent would’ve liked, but he reminded himself he wasn’t alone with her. Heat flamed in his face as she said, “So these are my brothers. Darrel, Eldon, and Byron.”
They stood and Trent shook hands with all of them. “And you’re all younger, right?”
“That’s right,” Eldon, the one with the big beard, said. “Lauren likes to lord her age over us.”
Trent laughed, though he didn’t know Lauren to lord anything over anyone.
“And my parents,” Lauren said, edging past her brothers. “Oh, this is Kimmy, Darrel’s girlfriend.”
“Nice to meet you,” Trent said, nodding at the blonde woman. He’d been planning to meet Lauren’s parents yesterday, and he told himself one day late wasn’t too bad.
“This is my dad, Paul.” Lauren stood beside him and faced Trent. She wore a bit of nervousness in her dark eyes. “And my mom, Megan.”
“Sir.” Trent shook her dad’s hand, hoping he’d made a good first impression. He was dressed nicely, and Porter was behaving. That had to count for something, right? “Ma’am.” He saw Lauren’s feminine features in her mom’s face, though her hair was lighter, shorter, and thinner. She also didn’t have quite the same eyes, but the slope of her nose was Lauren’s.
Lauren joined him at his side. “This is Trent Baker, the man I’ve been telling you about.”
“Police officer,” Paul said. “Right?”
“Right,” he said. “I train the K9 dogs, and other stuff.”
“He wants to be a full-time canine trainer,” Lauren said, slipping her hand through his arm, which grounded him.
“Well, that’s just a dream,” he said, cutting her a glance. “And with Lauren’s general contracting business and stuff her, I don’t know….” His voice trailed off, and he forced himself to swallow.
Megan gaped at him. “So you would consider Lauren’s—?”
“Mom,” Lauren said sharply, and her mom switched her gaze to her daughter’s.
“What?”
“He’s not Rick,” she said quietly, her chin dropping a little. Trent wanted to lift her up, support her, until she didn’t speak with such shame in her voice.
Megan looked at Trent again, but he kept his eyes on Lauren. “You okay?” he asked softly, his lips barely moving.
Lauren looked at him, and oh, how Trent wanted to be alone with her. Soon, he told himself. Soon.
She nodded and that fire that he loved so much re-entered her eyes. She faced her mom again. “Yes, Mom, Trent would consider my company, my feelings, my everything, before he made a decision that would impact us all.” She twisted a waved at Porter to come join them. “And Porter too. We have to consider him in everything we do.” She hugged him to her side, and if Trent had any doubts about loving her—which he didn’t—that simple action and those powerful words would’ve erased them.
Her mom pressed her lips together and nodded, brushing at her eyes quickly. She stepped up to Lauren and hugged her, saying, “I’m so happy for you.”
“Yes, yes,” Mabel said. “Everything is hunky dory. Can we eat before Eldon snitches all the ham?”
Trent started to chuckle, but the sound got stuck in his throat when Megan grabbed onto him too, and said, “Thank you for loving her for who she is.”
* * *
An hour later, while Mabel brewed coffee and put Megan to work whipping cream for the pies, Trent managed to sneak out the
front door with Lauren. He didn’t really sneak. He had to make sure Porter would be taken care of, but all that took was a look at Lauren’s dad, and he said, “Porter, want me to show you how I taught Lauren to build a flower box?”
“Your parents are wonderful,” he said, securing his hand in hers. “I like them.”
“They like you too.” She squeezed his fingers. “You really know how to make a scene, don’t you?”
“Is that what that was?” He laughed, the sound flying away into the huge sky above them. At least it wasn’t raining anymore, but it certainly was a gray day. He touched the engagement ring in his pocket, wondering if he should save it for another time.
“I think so,” she said. “But I appreciate the apology.”
“I…don’t know what happened that night,” he said. “There were a lot of confusing things happening in the days leading up to it, and I just think something snapped in my brain.” The part that knew how to reason.
“It’s okay,” she said. “I’ve lost my head a time or two in my life.”
“Well, from now on, we’ll have to keep each other in check.”
“Deal.” She danced in front of him as the crested the hill and the Mansion appeared before them. “So I have a Christmas present for you and Porter, but you’re not going to get it for a couple of weeks.” Her eyes sparkled like glimmering candles, and Trent wanted to wrap his arms around her and spin her around until they were both dizzy.
Trent’s eyebrows went up as he smiled. “Why’s that?”
“And you can’t go in your back yard until I say you can.”
“But the dogs are back there.”
“I’ll get them for you.”
“You’ll be at my house in the morning?”
Lauren’s excitement visibly dimmed. “Yeah, that’s not going to work, is it?” She glanced away, down the hill toward her house. “Do you think we have time to stop by my place?”
“I don’t have anything else to do today, and I think your parents will keep Porter for a while.” He hadn’t said anything to his son, but Porter was quite good at entertaining those he was with.
“Okay, then I’ll show you the gift.”
“You can show it to me?”
“Yeah.” She started down the hill, the brown grass crunching under her feet.
“But I thought it was going to be in my back yard.” Confusion pulled through him as he hurried to catch her.
When he strode alongside her, she said, “It is. You’ll see,” and steadfastly refused to answer any more of his questions. With every step, he wondered if he could show her his gift too, and his fingers tightened around the diamond one more time.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Lauren’s stomach vibrated with jitters. She’d felt this way a couple of times in her life, and nothing had ever worked out all the well afterward. But she didn’t want Trent to think she’d abandoned his deck, or that she hadn’t gotten him anything for Christmfas.
So she ignored his questions as they took the walk down to her house. It was farther than it looked, and by the time they arrived, Lauren knew she wouldn’t want to walk back up the hill. She could take the work truck up and get one of her brothers to drive it back down.
“Okay, so you wait here,” she said when they stood in her kitchen.
“Can I get a drink?”
“Sure, get me one too.” Lauren dashed down the hall to her office without another word. The plans for Trent’s deck sat beneath a stack of folders, and she pulled them out and smoothed them over the surface of the desk.
She’d bought enough wood to make the pergola, but she’d never mentioned it to him. She’d calculated her time, and she knew she’d be able to get the project done before Christmas, wrap a big red bow around the post, and say, “Ta-da!” before the big day.
Well, she’d had those plans before they’d broken up. Now, the deck wouldn’t even be finished in time for Christmas—and Trent had never said a word about it. He hadn’t texted her, asking when she’d finish the deck. Nothing.
Breathing deeply, she took the plans down the hall and into the kitchen. “So.” She laid them out on the table. “This is the deck you ordered.” She pointed to the lines, the width of it. “I only need a couple of half-days of work to get the railings done. But.” She pulled the top paper off the stack to reveal the drawing underneath.
“I want to give you this.”
Trent sucked in a breath and asked, “What is this?” He ran his fingertip down the diagonal line of the pergola’s roof. “Is this…what is this?”
Lauren looked at her design with fondness, imagining it in Trent’s back yard. It would be perfect. “It’s a pergola,” she said. “They’d normally meant as a type of patio cover, but they’re open. But I designed this one with clear panes in the top so the light comes through but the rain stays out.”
Trent stared at the drawings. “It does rain a lot in Washington.”
“So these pillars attach to the railing, and you can put in windows eventually, if you wanted to convert the deck to an outdoor room. Or we can tie curtains on the openings. You could put Christmas lights along the wood too, and it would be an fantastic place to sit in the evenings.”
Lauren herself wanted this pergola. “It’ll take another few weeks to build,” she said. “I already have all the wood. I’ve ordered the panels, but they got delayed out of British Columbia.”
He moved and put his arm around her, and she leaned into the strength of his body.
“The roof is slanted,” she said. “But it won’t ruin your view of the yard. And….” She reached for the corner of the paper. “The design includes two hammocks. One for you and one for Porter.”
“Lauren,” he whispered, her name full of emotion. “This is too much.”
“It’s what that back yard needs.”
Trent simply stared at the page for another few moments. “You’ll have to let me pay for it.”
“Then it wouldn’t be a gift.” Lauren turned into him and looked up at him. He gazed back at her with equal adoration as she felt moving through her. “I want you to have the perfect back yard.”
He bent down and touched his lips to hers quickly. “Okay, so I have something to show you, and it might influence these plans.” He nodded toward the table.
“Oh?” Lauren couldn’t think of a single thing that would make her not want to build this pergola for Trent and Porter.
He stepped back and dug his hand into his pocket. He withdrew it slowly to reveal a modest diamond pinched between his thumb and forefinger.
Lauren gasped and covered her mouth with both hands. “Trent,” she said, the sound muffled. She couldn’t look away from the sparkling gem.
“I was thinking you and I should get married,” he said. “Wait. Wait, wait, wait. That’s not how this is supposed to go.” He dropped to one knee and held the ring up as if she hadn’t seen it properly.
“I love you, Lauren Michaels, and I want you to be my wife and Porter’s mother. I will do my best to make you happy every day of my life. Will you marry me?”
Pure shock poured through her. How long had he had that ring? Had it been in his pocket for weeks?
“So you have a hard floor,” he said, and Lauren startled.
“Oh, I—”
“Too soon?” he asked, his face falling a little.
Lauren moved then, practically lunging at him and bypassing the ring. She took his face into her hands, and said, “Definitely not too soon.” She kissed him, wondering if this love flowing between them would always be so thrilling.
“So is that a yes?” he asked, his lips catching on hers and jumbling his question.
“Yes,” she said, kissing him again. “Yes, that’s a yes.”
He grinned, stood, and slipped the ring on her finger. “See how this affects your beautiful deck and pergola?”
“Not really,” she said.
“Well.” He touched the plans again. “I don’t see us living in my house. You
’re going to take over the Mansion one day, and your place here is bigger than mine, and actually a lot nicer, and I thought we’d live here.”
The way he ducked his head was adorable, and Lauren couldn’t wait to share her life with him. “And I don’t have a house payment,” she said.
He jerked his attention to her. “You own this place?”
“It’s been in the family for generations,” she said. “So yeah. I own it.”
“Well, we’re definitely living here then.” He laughed and tucked her against his chest. “Or wherever you want. I honestly don’t care, as long as we’re together.”
And those were the best words Lauren had ever heard.
* * *
A few days later, Lauren worked in Trent’s yard. She hadn’t given up on the pergola idea, but she saw his point about not investing the money and time into a deck he’d only enjoy for a few months.
Okay, almost a year, as she’d always wanted a fall wedding. She’d sat down with her mother on Christmas morning, before the big Magleby family dinner, and they’d put September tenth on the calendar.
Lauren had enjoyed exactly two days of her engagement secret, and then she’d told Gillian. After all, she’d need help with the dress, the shoes, the flowers, the decorations, all of it.
But Aunt Mabel would take care of a lot of that. After all, the wedding would be at the Mansion, and she’d already insisted on a full three-course meal as part of the ceremony.
Lauren wanted to give Trent and Porter the deck anyway. Plus, it would increase the resell value of his home. So she measured and cut, nailed and sanded.
By the new year, the hammocks were ready to go in, and she prohibited Porter and Trent from coming into the back yard until she had them installed. The wind blew, but even if it rained, she wouldn’t get wet, because the clear panels had come in and they were beautiful.
She finished and stood back, her back aching but the sight before her absolutely worth it. After stepping over to the door, she opened it and called, “You guys want to come see?”
Hawthorne Harbor Box Set Page 79
