Married to the Mom-to-Be

by Helen Lacey

  “No.”

  Kayla dropped a loaf of sourdough bread on the counter. “God, you can be so stubborn about some things.”

  He came around the counter and stood beside her, reaching out to push a lock of hair back from her face. He wore a strained expression, almost as though he was touching her against his will. “I know.”

  “He’s still your brother,” she reminded him. “Half or otherwise. I’m sure you would have had a chance since he’s staying at the hotel.”

  “The hotel doesn’t run itself,” he said roughly. “And I’m not about to start babysitting that surly—”

  “How’s your mom?” she asked quickly, cutting him off. “Any more talk about the...you know?”

  He dropped his hand. “The divorce? No. But I don’t think it’s up for negotiation. She seems determined to go through with it.”

  Kayla resisted the urge to touch him. “She still might change her mind. She’s hurting and people do and say things they don’t mean when they’re in pain. Like Jonah,” she added.

  “Are you his number one fan all of a sudden?”

  He actually sounded jealous! Kayla scowled. “You could make more of an effort with him, for your dad’s sake.”

  “So could he. I’m certain he did all he could to avoid me yesterday. And Kieran.”

  She sighed heavily. “Maybe he’s scared to try. You can be a bit intimidating at times.”

  “Actually, I’m pretty sure my half brother isn’t intimidated by anything or anyone. He’s a sullen, bad-tempered brat who’s probably been overindulged by his mother all his life and is now skulking around my hotel snarling at anyone who looks in his direction.” He shrugged lightly, indicating that the conversation about his brother was over.

  But Kayla wasn’t done. “Maybe he just needs a hug or something?”

  Liam’s brows shot up immediately. “Yeah...right. More like a punch in those perfectly straight teeth.”

  Kayla propped her hands on her hips. “Are you jealous that’s he’s here? Is that it?”

  “Jealous?” he echoed. “Of what?”

  “Of his relationship with your father.”

  “He doesn’t have a relationship with my father,” Liam shot back. “And I’m not ten years old. I stopped looking for my dad’s attention and approval a long time ago. Some of us grow up, you know.”

  It was a low blow. And deliberately aimed at her and what he considered her codependent relationship with her parents. “Did you get out on the mean side of the bed this morning?” she said, defiant, and then backtracked a little when she saw the gleam in his eye. In dark trousers and pale blue shirt matched with an even bluer tie, he looked effortlessly sexy. “Not that I’d know. Because...well...I have been sleeping alone this week.”

  Because Liam had taken to sleeping in the downstairs bedroom. It wasn’t that she’d kicked him out of their bed. It was all his doing. When she asked him why, he’d muttered something about how restless she was while she slept and he was giving her room to get a better night’s sleep. Which he insisted she needed because she was pregnant. Of course, she wasn’t buying into his excuse. Not one iota.

  He was angry. Plain and simple.

  There was a black cloud of rage around him that seemed to be getting darker every day. But he was also doing his best to disguise the fact because he was honorable and thoughtful and didn’t want to upset her. In fact, he was so thoughtful he was driving her crazy. Nothing was too much trouble...her favorite food, her favorite television shows; he’d even offered to run a scented bath and rub her feet. There were flowers sitting in a vase in the hallway and an uneaten box of chocolates in the refrigerator.

  “You need your rest, doctor’s orders,” he said and unexpectedly laid a hand on her belly.

  “You’re fussing like an old woman.”

  “You’re having my baby, so I’m allowed,” he said quietly. “I wonder when you’ll start showing.”

  “Soon enough,” she said and ignored the heat traveling over her skin. It was the closest they’d been in days and she missed his touch. “I’m only about eight weeks along. But other than the relentless fatigue, I feel good. Not much morning sickness. I still have a few cravings and I do always seem to be hungry these days.”

  “Sometimes,” he said and gently palmed her abdomen. “Sometimes, amid all the craziness with our families, I think we can forget that in seven months’ time we’re going to be parents. Which means we should probably start thinking about turning one of the bedrooms into a nursery. If we know the baby’s sex you can decorate to your heart’s content.”

  “We can find out the sex when I have my first ultrasound. Unless you’d rather be surprised?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t need to know. I just want us to have a healthy baby. But if you want to find out I’ll—”

  “I think I do want to know,” she said and covered his hand with hers. “That way we can start picking names.”

  “Jack,” he suggested and half smiled. “For a boy.”

  Kayla liked that. Jack was her grandfather’s name. She stroked his fingertips. “And for a girl, Beth,” she said and swallowed the inexplicable lump in the throat. “After your sister.”

  His eyes suddenly glittered and looked bluer than she’d ever seen them. “My mom would like that, I’m sure. It’s a sweet gesture. Thank you.”

  “Jack O’Sullivan. Beth O’Sullivan. Both have a nice feel to them.”

  His gaze narrowed. “O’Sullivan?”

  The query in his voice was unmistakable. “Of course.”

  “It’s hard to know what your plans are,” he said and grabbed her left hand, gently caressing her bare finger. “Considering you still don’t wear the ring I bought you.”

  She winced and did her utmost to ignore the controlled resentment in his voice. “Um... I’m going to go and see my parents again after work today.”

  “Okay,” he said easily. “I’ll pick you up and we’ll—”

  “It’s better if I go alone,” she said quickly. “And maybe stay for dinner. With my aunt and possibly Jonah being there...I don’t want to upset my father and Grams hasn’t been feeling well and—”

  “I get it, Kayla,” he said quietly, dropping his hand. “You want to spend some time with your family. Alone. So, go.” Liam walked around the counter and grabbed his coffee mug, drinking the contents before placing it back on the counter. He grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair, picked up his keys and gave her a cursory nod. “I’ll be at the office late. Don’t wait up.”

  He was out the room and the house before she had a chance to respond. Every conversation they had was fraught with bitterness and misunderstanding. They lived together, but lived apart. His words still echoed in her head.

  You still don’t wear the ring I bought you...

  She’d thought about slipping the beautiful platinum-and-diamond band onto her finger countless times over the past week. But every time she considered it, something held her back. She wasn’t sure what. Thinking about it made her head hurt.

  Kayla left not long after and arrived at the museum a little before eight thirty. She had a full day planned. With the benefit only a few days away there were several last-minute details she needed to see to, including meeting with two of the guest artists. Plus, she had to go and pick up her gown and shoes from the boutique down the street.

  Ash dropped by around lunchtime with a roasted pepper and cream cheese bagel and she spent half an hour chatting with her friend.

  “I think I am seriously starting to eat for two,” she said and patted her belly once she’d eaten the last of the sandwich. “I’ll be sniffing around the vending machine in the staffroom by three o’clock.”

  Ash grinned. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but being pregnant makes you look even more beautiful. As
if that were really possible.”

  “Except for the bags under my eyes from lack of sleep,” she said ruefully. “Although, that’s got less to do with my pregnancy and more to do with everything else.”

  “So...how are things?”

  “Complicated,” she replied. “I’m a lousy wife and a terrible daughter.”

  “Well, in the daughter department, I can tell you from experience that sometimes you simply have to do what’s best for you.”

  “And in the wife department?”

  Ash shrugged. “No idea. I’ve never been a wife. Nor am I likely to be at this rate. I seem to fit into the friends-only category with every man in this town and I don’t go anywhere to meet anyone else because I’m too busy working, running the ranch or raising my son.”

  “And the volunteering at the hospital and with the foster kids you take in at your ranch and the little league that you coach,” Kayla reminded her friend. “No wonder you don’t have time to date.”

  “Who said anything about dating,” Ash said and grinned. “I’m just talking about plain old no-frills, no-strings sex.”

  Kayla laughed loudly. She’d missed her friends the past few months. She’d spent so much time avoiding everyone in case they worked out she was in a serious relationship with Liam that she’d forgotten how important Ash and Brooke and Lucy were to her. Which meant she had the lousy-friend option covered as well.

  “You’re not a no-strings kind of girl,” Kayla said. “What about Kieran? He’s single now and has all the O’Sullivan looks and charm. Plus, he’s a doctor.”

  Ash smiled. “It’s the friends thing. We’re buddies, that’s all. Anyway, I’ve got too much going on. I have a new kid arriving in two weeks and this one, according to my lawyer cousin in Phoenix—who rang me three days ago begging me to take them for a few weeks—this one is a real doozy.”

  “Them?” Kayla said and raised a brow.

  “Wayward teenage girl with a truckload of abandonment issues and her hopeless, clueless dad.”

  Kayla’s admiration for her friend tripled. “I don’t know how you do it. You’re the most switched-on person I know and you manage to make it look easy.”

  “It’s a facade,” Ash said, grinning. “I’m nowhere near as capable as you think.”

  “I think you are. I just wish I had an ounce of your gumption.”

  “You do,” Ash assured her. “You’re just too considerate to let it show. You’ve always been too thoughtful for your own good. You always think of everyone else, Kayla. You always put the needs of others before your own. You’ve always been the good daughter, and you’ve always done the right thing. That’s why your parents have taken this whole situation between you and Liam so hard. They didn’t expect it. No one did,” she added.

  “God, that makes me sound so dull and boring.”

  “You’re beautiful and smart and generous and a wonderful friend. That’s not boring...that’s you.”

  Kayla almost cried and might have if not for Shirley coming to her office to tell her she had a telephone call. Thinking it was Liam or one of the artists being showcased at the benefit, she excused herself and then Ash left with a quick hug and the promise to see her on Friday to help set up. She was surprised to discover that Gwen O’Sullivan was on the line.

  “Mrs. O’Sullivan, what can I—”

  “Call me Gwen,” her mother-in-law said. “I’d like your help with something.”

  “Oh...sure,” Kayla said a little uncertainly.

  “I know that your aunt is in town,” Gwen said quietly. “Liam told me you visited her in Oregon. And I believe she is staying with your parents?”

  “That’s right.”

  “I would like to meet with her...alone. Oh, I’m not going to scratch her eyes out or anything that dramatic,” she said when she caught Kayla’s surprised gasp. “But there are some things we need cleared up and I’d like to do it without the entire world watching. I was hoping you could facilitate that without anyone knowing. Including my son.”

  “Why the secrecy?”

  “Pride,” Gwen admitted. “I’ve been made a fool of...my life has been made to look foolish. I don’t want to add fuel to that by looking like a woman scorned. I understand your loyalty is to your family...but I would truly appreciate your support with this.”

  Kayla was dumbfounded. “Oh...of course. I’ll see what I can do. But Liam—”

  “Will think it’s a crazy idea and try to talk me out of it,” Gwen said. “I know my son. He’ll want to be there, he’ll want to stand by and protect me in his way. But I need to do this alone. Please, Kayla, promise me you’ll say nothing to him?”

  We barely talk these days anyhow...even though we live in the same house.

  “I promise. I’ll call you and let you know.”

  Kayla was thinking about the other woman’s request long after she hung up the phone. She thought about the way she had left things with Liam that morning and decided to ditch her plans on going to her parents for dinner. Right then it seemed more important for her to go home and talk with her husband. She was about to place a call to Kathleen around three o’clock when her aunt unexpectedly arrived at the museum.

  “I thought I would come and see where you work,” her aunt said and looked around. “My brother said you were a dedicated and accomplished curator.” She nodded approvingly. “I can see that he is right about that.”

  “Thank you,” Kayla said and offered her aunt some tea. “Or would you like a tour of the gallery and museum first?”

  Kathleen was quick to take the tour and as she showed her aunt around, Kayla acted as an envoy for Gwen and was startled that her aunt readily agreed to meet with the other woman. She made arrangements for the women to meet at her old apartment the following evening.

  “I think it’s inevitable,” Kathleen said quietly. “We have a lot to discuss,” she said and sighed. “So, I imagine things are still pretty tense between your father and your husband?”

  “Tense?” Kayla echoed. “You could say that.”

  Kathleen smiled. “Derek always was a hardhead...even before I fell for J.D. I think the age gap between us made him think of me as a daughter rather than a sister. And since our father died when I was so young, Derek sort of filled the role. But he was always overprotective and tried to run my life, if you know what I mean.”

  Oh, yeah...she knew. “Dad takes his responsibilities seriously.”

  Kathleen nodded. “He loves his family. And he’s a good man. But he’s also very unforgiving and stubborn at times. He blamed J.D. for everything that happened and that was unfair. We both fell in love. Sure, J.D. was married...but I knew that. It was as much my doing as J.D.’s. But I could never get Derek to see that. In my brother’s eyes, J.D. was the guilty one and I was taken advantage of by an older man.” She sighed again. “But it wasn’t like that at all. Back then I loved J.D. with all my heart. It didn’t matter that he was the one man I shouldn’t have wanted.”

  Kayla almost laughed at the familiar sound of her aunt’s words.

  You could have had any man you wanted. Why him? Why O’Sullivan’s son? When you knew what it would do to us.

  The pain in her father’s voice still haunted her. And she suspected it always would. She swallowed hard and looked at her aunt. “Do you still love him?”

  Her aunt took a moment to answer. “I’ve been torn between loving him and hating him for three decades. Loving that he didn’t abandon me and wanted to be a father to our son. And also hating that he didn’t abandon me—because that didn’t allow me to find love with another man. He’s been on the edge of my life for thirty years, but married to another woman. A fine woman who deserved better. And he has tried to be part of Jonah’s life. But mostly, that’s been a disaster.”

  “Because Jonah won’t accept him as h
is father?”

  “I told my son the truth,” she explained. “He’s always known about J.D.’s other family. His father’s real family, as he likes to put it. Sometimes I think I should have run away and changed my name and started a life on my own. But I was young and scared and shamefully can admit that I welcomed J.D.’s presence in my life in those first few years after my son was born. It made me feel safe, somehow, knowing he was there, even if he did live in another state. But Jonah...” Her words trailed off and she let out a painful, angst-ridden sigh. “My son is filled with so much rage and resentment that sometimes I could weep for how angry he is at his father, just for being his father.”

  Kayla’s eyes heated and she blinked her tears away. “Well, maybe being here will help ease some of that anger. I mean, he’s got brothers and three little nieces and another niece or nephew on the way,” she said and touched her belly. “That’s family. And that means something.”

  “You know what, that means everything. And I’m sure my brother will figure that out, too.”

  “I hope so,” Kayla said quietly. “Dad seems to want to hang on to his resentment.”

  “Because he doesn’t want to get hurt,” Kathleen said. “And he doesn’t want to see you hurt, either. He’s spent so many years convincing himself that the O’Sullivans are the bad guys he can’t see them as anything else. And certainly not his son-in-law. Do you really love Liam?” Kathleen asked bluntly.

  “Yes.”

  “Then that’s all that matters.”

  “I wish it was,” Kayla said with an aching heart. By the time her aunt left it was near closing time, and when she arrived home it was after six, but the house was empty and only Peanuts came to greet her. She fed the cat, then headed upstairs to shower and change her clothes. By eight she was pacing the floorboards, resisting temptation to text Liam and ask when he was coming home. He’d told her he would be home late. She just didn’t know how late that was going to be. By eight thirty she was in bed, trying to read. By nine she was staring at the ceiling and waiting to hear Liam’s Silverado pull up in driveway. It was after nine thirty when she spotted lights beaming briefly through the window. She waited until she heard the front door open and then slipped out of bed, ignored her robe and slippers and headed downstairs. There was a light on in the kitchen and she followed the glow from the hallway. Liam stood by the window, dressed in jeans, a white polo and runners.