The Right Reason to Marry

by Christine Rimmer

  Chapter Eleven

  After the night she wouldn’t let him say the L word, Liam tried to keep his focus on the good things.

  Like how Karin couldn’t stay away from him. She appeared at his door five or six nights out of seven and she stayed for an hour or two, at least—sometimes much longer.

  But she always returned home before the kids woke up. And she continued to insist that they keep their relationship just between the two of them. He hated her restrictions, like she was keeping him in his place, not letting him get too close.

  Most Sundays, he went to dinner at Daniel’s. It was a Bravo family tradition. He’d tried several times to get her to come with him, to bring the kids and Otto, too. She always had some reason why it just wouldn’t work. He asked her again the second Friday in December. Riley was asleep in the crib at the cottage and they were sitting by the fire in the main room.

  She sipped the last of her raspberry tea and answered regretfully, “Thanks, but I don’t think so, Liam.”

  “Just one time,” he coaxed. “This Sunday.”

  “Your brother and his wife do not need a bunch of extra people descending on them.”

  “Yeah, Karin. They do. Especially if it’s you and the kids and Otto. You were there at Thanksgiving. They loved having you. You’re welcome there anytime.”

  She set her empty mug down, leaned in and kissed him. “Thanks, but no.”

  “Then how about Christmas? Come to Daniel’s for dinner Christmas Day.”

  “Liam...”

  He pulled her close and kissed the tip of her nose. “Don’t answer now. Think about.”

  “I just don’t...”

  He covered her lips with his before she could dish out another denial. She seemed only too happy for the distraction. He gathered her closer and deepened the kiss. Then, pulling her up with him, he led her down the hall to his bedroom. As he dragged her down on the bed with him, he reminded himself that he was focusing on the positive, looking for the good things in what he had with her.

  Kissing her. Holding her. Having her in his bed...

  These were very good things.

  And the sex was by no means all of the goodness.

  He loved the way she trusted him with Coco and Ben—and seemed to count on him, too. She didn’t hesitate to ask him to ferry them around or keep an eye on them when Otto was at the Boatworks and she needed to run over to the store. Who knew he’d ever be the kind of guy who couldn’t wait to drive the kids to play dates and sleepovers, to take Coco to her Hip-Hoppin’ Dance Class and Ben to Science Club?

  The next week, he even managed to get himself an invite to the Valentine Bay Elementary School Christmas show wherein Coco played a singing, dancing snowflake and Ben wore a beard, a yellow robe and a crown as one of the Three Wise Men. Liam was so proud of them, he was first on his feet to lead the standing ovation when they all came out and took their bows.

  Every morning, he showed up at the main house with Otto for breakfast. And every morning, Karin smiled at him like she was glad to see him. He kept waiting for the day when she’d move in close, maybe offer her sweet mouth for a quick kiss, the day when she’d say something soft and low and welcoming, just between the two of them.

  But the mornings went by, one by one, and a more intimate breakfast greeting didn’t happen. He told himself that it would happen. Someday very soon. He just needed to stay positive. She would get over her fear of giving her heart to him.

  They would be together. Really together. Live in the same house, sleep in the same bed—and not just for a few stolen hours, either. Uh-uh. Same bed.

  All. Night. Long.

  Negativity crept in, though. Sometimes he couldn’t help thinking that all he’d ever had of Karin Killigan were stolen moments. From last Christmas to now, she fit him in when she could manage it—and yeah, she fit him in just about every night as of now. That was progress, definitely.

  But she wouldn’t simply let it be known that she was with him.

  Even if she wouldn’t marry him, she could let him be more. More than her baby daddy. More than her coparent. More than the helpful guy next door. More than the man who made her cry out his name two or three times a night.

  Be patient, he kept telling himself.

  And he tried, he really did. But his patience was fraying. No matter how often he reminded himself that he and Karin really hadn’t been together all that long and that he needed to chill, back off, let her find her way to him in her own time, he couldn’t help feeling frustrated.

  He’d finally figured out what he wanted out of life and he didn’t want to waste a moment going forward. But he was stuck at the threshold of his own happiness, waiting for Karin to open the damn door and let him in.

  * * *

  The kids had the usual two-week holiday break from school. It started the Friday before Christmas.

  Karin needed to wrangle them childcare for when she had to be at the Boatworks. They didn’t want to spend their Christmas vacation at a winter break camp and they didn’t want to hang around the office at the Boatworks with her, either. Usually, her dad and Sten helped her out. But Sten was in LA. And Otto had a couple of big refitting jobs. He couldn’t look after them as much as he usually did.

  Liam said he would stay home and watch them a couple of days a week, but she turned him down. He already took Riley every Wednesday and Friday till noon. And he had a business—a busy, successful, demanding one. He needed to spend his workdays running it. He couldn’t be hanging around her house looking after the kids.

  She had a couple of trusted sitters she’d always used, but both of them were well into their teens now. One had a job flipping burgers and the other was spending her Christmas break at her dad’s house in Telluride.

  She was kind of at her wit’s end with the situation and gearing up to tell Ben and Coco that they were going to have to go to day camp.

  And then, Sten and Madison came home.

  Sten called on Saturday morning during breakfast to say that Madison had two weeks off from filming the science fiction epic she’d been working on since May. They’d chartered a private jet and would be arriving at Valentine Bay Executive Airport at noon.

  At a quarter of one, they showed up at the house in a Lincoln Navigator with Madison’s bodyguards, Sergei and Dirk. Everyone was home, including Liam, who’d driven up to Bravo Trucking for a couple of hours that morning, but returned in time to be there to greet the newlyweds.

  When Madison emerged from the back seat, her streaky blond hair piled up in a sloppy bun, wearing old jeans and a giant sweater that hung off one shoulder, Coco shouted, “Madison! Merry Christmas!” and ran straight for her. Madison opened her arms and the two of them hugged it out like the best buddies they’d become back in March when the movie star first came to Sweetheart Cove.

  Ben went right to Sten for a slightly more restrained greeting. And then there were hugs all around.

  Karin grabbed her brother and whispered mock desperately, “Thank God you’re here. I need a kidsitter.”

  He laughed. “Little sister, whatever you need for the next two weeks, you’re gonna get it.”

  * * *

  They got the car unloaded and Sten, Madison and the bodyguards settled upstairs in Sten’s half of the house. That day, they all mostly just hung out in the downstairs great room around the tree, catching up, taking turns holding Riley and playing board games. Karin kept the Christmas tunes playing in the background. She also cooked a big dinner and they all sat down to eat together.

  Once the kids were in bed, Otto headed down to Sten’s workshop under the house. He had a few Christmas projects he was working on. Liam invited Madison and Sten over to the cottage for a drink.

  “You, too, Karin.” He turned those baby blues on her and gave her one of those smiles that melted her midsection. “Bring RG. You can put him to be
d over there.”

  She almost said no, because she didn’t want her brother or Madison figuring out how close she and Liam had become—which was a ridiculous excuse, and she knew it. There really was some sense in not letting her kids start to see her and Liam as a couple until they were certain their relationship would last. But Madison and Sten would be fine no matter what happened in the end between Karin and her baby’s father.

  Karin put on her coat and bundled up the baby and they all five went next door. One of the bodyguards trailed after them to the cottage but didn’t follow them inside.

  It was nice, really. Riley went right to sleep in his crib. Liam got everyone something to drink and they sat around the fire. It had started snowing, a light snow, one that wouldn’t stick on the ground, but they could see it drifting down beyond the windows, lit by the Christmas lights strung in the eaves and along the deck railing, the white flakes spinning in the cold wind.

  Madison was all about getting to know Liam better. “It’s another of the many crappy things about being switched at birth,” she said. “I feel like I have twenty-seven years to make up for. Liam, we should have grown up together. I should know all your quirks and irritating habits and be constantly ragging on you about them.” She snuggled up against Sten, who sat beside her on the sofa. “We should be like Sten and Karin.”

  “Yeah.” Sten gave a wry chuckle. “Karin always knows what’s best for me. It’s really annoying.”

  No way Karin could let that remark pass. “I’m very wise, actually. I give excellent advice.”

  “Oh, really?” Liam had taken the seat beside her in front of the fire. She found herself wishing he would put his arm around her—at the same time as she told herself she appreciated his restraint.

  Yeah. No doubt about it. She was kind of a mess over him, longing for it to be the real thing with him and simultaneously terrified that it would all blow up in her face—and what were they talking about?

  Right. Her willingness to give her big brother advice. “You’d better believe I’ve given Sten advice. I’ve made it my mission to set him straight whenever he needs it.”

  Sten groaned. “Yeah. Whether I want to be set straight or not.”

  Karin admitted, “Now and then it’s just possible that I’ve been a tiny bit in your face.”

  “A tiny bit?”

  “Come on, Sten. Don’t give me attitude. You know I was right about you two.” Karin raised her ginger beer in a salute to Madison.

  Madison asked eagerly, “What did you say to him?”

  “Sorry. I can’t give you specifics. It was a private conversation between a thickheaded brother and his brilliant, emotionally sensitive and extremely perceptive sister. Let’s just say he was scared to take a chance on what he had with you and I helped him to see that he was all wrong.”

  Now Madison was grinning at Sten. “You were scared.” She kissed his cheek.

  “But I got over it.”

  “Oh, yes you did.” Her voice was soft and she leaned into him. “And magnificently, too.”

  “Magnificent. That’s me, all right.” Sten kissed her.

  Karin glanced away from the private moment between her brother and his wife—and into Liam’s waiting eyes. At least he didn’t get on her for her own reluctance to take a chance on love.

  Not right then, anyway.

  * * *

  Later, after Sten and Madison had gone back to the other house, Liam locked the door, turned off the lights and led her down the hall to his room.

  “I was afraid you’d run right out the door after them,” he teased as he took her red sweater by the hem and pulled it off over her head.

  She kissed his beard-scruffy, sculpted jaw. “The baby’s still sleeping and I want to be here with you—and my brother and Madison are grown-ups. They can think what they want about me and you.” She got to work unbuttoning his flannel shirt.

  He interrupted her busy fingers long enough to get rid of her bra. Then he tipped up her chin and kissed her, the sweetest kind of kiss, slow and teasing, as she continued to work her way from one button to the next down the front of his shirt.

  She slipped the shirt off his fine, broad shoulders. It dropped to the rug.

  He asked, “So you challenged your brother to take a chance on love, huh?”

  She was just about to kiss him, but defensiveness curled through her as she met his eyes. “Really, it was a completely different situation with Madison and Sten.”

  Liam dipped his head and whispered in her ear. “Different than what?”

  “You know very well what.”

  He pulled back enough to look at her again. “You mean, different than you and me.”

  “That’s right.”

  He traced the line of her jaw with a slow pass of his index finger, making her shiver a little, causing that lovely, hollowed-out feeling low in her belly. And he asked, “Specifically, how are Madison and Sten different from you and me?”

  “They were both single, no kids involved. It was simpler for them. Less baggage, you know?”

  “Kids or not, everybody’s got baggage, Karin.”

  “You’re not hearing me.”

  “Yes, I am.” His fingers eased under the fall of her hair and he cupped the back of her neck, rubbing it a little, easing tension she hadn’t even realized was there. “When I took Coco to Bravo Trucking, she said you and I should get married and we’d all live happily ever after like in a Disney movie. And as you already know, Ben only wanted me to promise I wasn’t going to go away. RG is just a baby, but I have a really strong feeling he’s not going to mind if his parents end up married to each other. So I would say the baggage we’re talking about isn’t really to do with the kids, is it?”

  “Of course it’s to do with the kids. They’re the top priority—and about Coco saying we ought to get married. How did you answer her?”

  He pulled her closer and pressed his lips to the center of her forehead. “Before I could figure out a good answer, she changed her mind and suggested that I just think about it. I said I would. We left it at that.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”

  He tipped up her chin so she had to look at him. “Please don’t freeze up on me.”

  “I’m not, I just...” She had no idea what to say next and ended up murmuring weakly, “They’re my kids. I don’t want them hurt.”

  “I would never hurt them.” He said it sincerely.

  And she believed him. “I know.” Not on purpose, anyway. “And you’re right. I do have baggage. Way too much of it.”

  “You could...let me help you carry it.” He gazed down at her so steadily.

  She wanted to grab on to him—grab on tight and never let him go.

  Because he was so good to her and to her children. Because who did she think she was kidding?

  Her heart was already his. And she didn’t want to think about that, about how it would all work out in the end, about where they were going and if they would ever actually get there. She just wanted to hold him close and feel his heartbeat next to hers and pretend there was no tomorrow.

  Hold him close and lose herself in the glory of right now.

  She undid another button. “Liam?”

  “Hmm?”

  “Kiss me. Now.”

  His lips touched hers and she slid her hands up to link behind his neck. All her worries flew away. It was just Liam and Karin, holding on tight, keeping each other warm on a cold winter’s night.

  * * *

  “Come with us for Sunday dinner at Daniel’s,” Madison said the next morning at breakfast. “Let’s have the whole family together.”

  “Yeah.” Sten put in his two cents. “Please come.”

  Coco literally bounced in her chair. “I know I’m not s’posed to interrupt when the grown-ups are deciding things, but just
in case you want to know what I think, I think yes! We should go!”

  Ben was nodding. “I think so, too,” he solemnly intoned.

  “I like the Bravos,” Coco proclaimed. “And I bet they have a big Christmas tree.”

  Karin slid a glance at Liam. He was looking down, but she knew he was barely hiding a grin. “So Liam. What do you think?”

  He glanced up at last and she took the full force of his sky blue gaze. “I’ll say it again. I want you all to come to Sunday dinner at Daniel’s.”

  How could she keep saying no when he looked at her that way?

  She couldn’t. And she didn’t.

  That afternoon, she packed up plenty of cookies and Christmas candy and the leftover ham from the night before and off they went to the Bravo house on Rhinehart Hill. They took two cars, Liam’s F-150 and the Navigator, with one of the bodyguards behind the wheel.

  Once they got there, Karin wondered why she’d ever said no. Everyone really did seem happy to see them. She’d always enjoyed hanging out with Liam’s sisters, and the giant Christmas tree in the family room was a beautiful sight to behold.

  She got to touch base with Connor and Aly Bravo, who’d just returned from New York, where Aly had finished up at her longtime job there, sublet her apartment—and married Connor for the second time.

  Aly asked to hold Riley. She sighed when Karin laid him in her arms. “He is just perfect.” Connor’s bride glanced up with a glowing smile. “Connor and I are expecting in May.”

  “Wow. Congratulations.”

  “What can I say? It was unexpected, but we aren’t complaining. We both always wanted kids.”

  Aly had five brothers, one of whom had been born just a couple of months ago. Of her older brothers, two were married with children and Dante, the oldest, was divorced with twin daughters. Aly said that she and Connor would be spending Christmas Day at her parents’ house and Christmas Eve right here on Rinehart Hill with the Bravos.

  “It’s good to be home.” Aly smiled dreamily down at Riley. “I love New York. But for me, there’s nothing like Christmas in Valentine Bay.”