Taking a Chance

by Maggie McGinnis

  But the fact that she could do it was different from whether she wanted to.

  “No.” She shook her head. “No. I don’t. I know it doesn’t make sense, and this stuff only happens in romance novels, but for some crazy, world-is-upside-down reason, I think I’m in love with you. Like, kind of stupidly in love with you. Like, I’d give up alligators for you. I can’t believe I’m even saying it, but…it’s true.”

  Oh, jeez. The blurt-o-meter was seriously pegging.

  “Oh.” He looked away, and her stomach sank.

  “ ‘Oh’?” She clamped a hand on her mouth so she wouldn’t be sick right here. “ ‘Oh’?”

  But then he smiled. “You’re sure it’s not the hormones talking? Because I am not that easy to fall for.”

  “Pretty sure this started to be a problem before the hormones were.” She rolled her eyes. “And this is kind of a lousy time to be joking—just saying.”

  “I warned you about the water, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, this is a water problem. Definitely.”

  He shook his head, his smile growing. “You were warned.”

  “I know.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “And I also know that you’re a good, kind, decent man. I know you’ll want to do the right thing, and I know about your wife, and I don’t want you to do anything for the wrong reas— Jasper?”

  She broke off as his face went stone serious.

  “Who told you about Bridget?”

  “Someone—who thought it would help me to know.” She shrugged carefully. “After you…left.”

  His jaw relaxed. “Did it? Help?”

  Emma put the kitten back in its basket, then stood up slowly, crossing her arms. “I don’t know. Yes and no. It certainly helped me understand a little bit about your past, and it definitely helped me see why you’d be gun-shy to go all-in with anybody else. Like, ever.”

  “But?”

  “But…nothing, really. I got it. I get it. And if I hadn’t done six different pregnancy tests in hopes that they were defective, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation, because I would have forced myself to accept that you weren’t in a space to offer anything more than friendship. And I would have been grateful for that. I would have.”

  “So…” He stepped closer to her, and she tried to read his eyes—tried so, so hard—but she couldn’t.

  “So?” Her voice shook, dammit.

  “Come here,” he said, and took her hand, drawing her down to sit beside him on the couch. She sat, but knew her legs were poised to spring right out the door if he said something stupid right now.

  And how would she define stupid? She had no flipping idea.

  “My dad said something to me not long ago, and it’s been knocking around my brain ever since, because it makes more sense than pretty much anything else has lately.”

  “Oh?” she whispered, then cleared her throat carefully.

  “I don’t remember his exact words, but what it came down to was that maybe I needed to come to the realization that you and I had been placed in each other’s paths for a reason—for a lot of reasons, probably—and maybe I needed to stop overthinking things and just enjoy the moments for what they were.”

  “I—um—I think I like your dad.”

  “He would probably like me to clarify that he was very much in his right mind when he suggested this.”

  Emma laughed carefully. “Good to know.”

  “So…” Jasper slid down from his spot on the couch, landing on one knee on the patterned rug, and Emma felt her eyes go full-moon-shaped. “I have a question for you.”

  “No, you don’t. You really don’t.” She shook her head, panicking. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. This was not the way a proposal should happen. It was not the way she wanted it to happen.

  She wanted love, lust, the whole shebang. She wanted please-marry-me-because-I-can’t-live-without-you, not oh-crap-we’re-having-a-baby-so-I’d-better-be-a-stand-up-guy.

  All wrong. This was all wrong.

  “Emma?” He took her hand, a glint of amusement in his eyes.

  “No,” she breathed.

  “You haven’t heard the question.”

  “I already know what it is! And no! This isn’t—no! It’s not how it should go.”

  He smiled. “I’m trying not to be insulted here, since you’re refusing me before I even ask, but seriously. Hear me out, maybe?”

  She closed her eyes. “Okay. Sorry. Go.”

  “Thank you.” He took her other hand. “Emma?”

  “Yes?” She ground the word out through clenched teeth.

  “Will you have my baby?”

  She opened one eye. “I think we covered that part already.”

  “Oh. Right.” He winked, then sat back up on the couch. “We’re good, then.”

  “Seriously? That’s…it?” Suddenly, she didn’t know whether she was relieved or disappointed. What the ever-living hell?

  “Well, it’s pretty clear you don’t want to hear any other questions right now, and I have it on good authority that any other question I might ask would be—well, questioned. And analyzed. And doubted. And possibly discarded. So I’m making a command decision to hold off on other questions for now.”

  “Oh.” She swallowed, nodding slowly. “Okay.”

  “But just out of curiosity, I have a couple. Because—you know—people are asking.” He winked. “Would you give up gators? Would you actually consider living here in Carefree?”

  “Depends. It’d have to be a pretty good offer.”

  He was thoughtful for a long moment, staring out the big window. Then he turned to her, his face so, so serious.

  “I’ve lost my head twice in my life, Em. Once was for all the wrong reasons, and the other? All the right ones.”

  “Now would be a good time to reassure me that I’m the second one.”

  “You are.” He reached for her hand. “I lost my wife, and I lost the baby I didn’t know she was carrying, because I was doing everything wrong.”

  Emma felt her hand clamp to her mouth. Baby?

  “I had everything in the wrong order, and I paid the ultimate price. But I felt like I deserved it, and I’ve never doubted that. And I was willing to live out my days alone in a café, doing my best to make all of the right decisions going forward.”

  “I’m so sorry, Jasper. I didn’t know. Why—why didn’t you tell me the other day?”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t know how. But I felt your pain like it was my own, and it broke something inside me.” He squeezed her hand. “Broke it in a good way, because for the first time in five years, I felt something other than my own guilt and pain.”

  “I—don’t know what to say.”

  “You don’t need to say anything, sweetheart.” He pulled her against his chest, and she let him, the word sweetheart tickling her ribs deliciously, even as she felt tears behind her eyes as she thought about his loss.

  He tucked her head under his chin. “I found myself here, Emma. I came here broken and battered and my own worst enemy. I owe my life to this place and its people, and I wish I didn’t mean that as literally as I do.”

  “I…know.”

  “But this morning? When Daniel told me you’d left? I just about lost my mind. And that’s when I realized that while it would be my dream for you to fall in love with this place, too, I’d go anywhere with you, Em. I’d even risk gators around every corner.”

  She smiled, and seriously? Tears? Again? “Really? You would?”

  “I would. But I’d still vote for you falling in love with Carefree, instead.”

  “I’m working on it. Staying out at Whisper Creek certainly makes that a lot easier. It’s a little hard not to love a place—or a family—like theirs.”

  “They’ll happily call you family, too, if you stay.”

  Emma smiled under his chin. She knew he was right, and the thought warmed her more than she’d ever thought possible. She’d always longed for the big, happy
, loud family thing, and maybe here it was, hers for the taking.

  That, plus Jasper, made the decision look fairly no-brainer.

  She pulled away, letting her hand stroke the faint stubble on his jaw. “I think I’d like that. A lot, really.”

  “Seriously?”

  She laughed at the way his face lit up like he was ten. “Seriously.”

  “Really? Will you stay? If we both admit that we know strangers don’t fall in love this fast, and we’re completely nuts, and we didn’t mean for this to happen?”

  “That’s terribly romantic.”

  “Well, you’ve already said ‘no’ to a proposal I didn’t even offer yet, so I’m trying to be practical.”

  She smiled. “Gotcha.”

  “Look—I know I’ve only known you for two months, Emma. But right now, I can’t imagine going through the rest of my life without you. I can’t. I want you here, in my life, in my house, in my b—” He stopped. “But that’s not a proposal, either, I swear. Don’t run.”

  She laughed. “Okay. Couple of questions, though.”

  “Name ’em.”

  She put up one finger. “Do I get as much coffee as I can drink? After the baby’s born, I mean?”

  “Obviously.”

  Another finger. “The chair on the right, in your living room? I like the view better.”

  He laughed. “Whichever chair you want.”

  “Can we always have kittens?” She put up a third finger. “Because that could be a deal-breaker right there.”

  “We can have as many kittens as Hayley and Daniel bring us.”

  “My sister? And her twenty-three kids? Can you put up with them visiting as often as I can get them here?”

  “Even if she has twenty-four. And I’ll insist that we visit her at least three times a year.”

  Emma smiled, then felt her face drop. Bette was due back at Shady Acres in a number of weeks, which left Emma—where, exactly? She couldn’t stay at the nursing home, and what else was she remotely qualified to do? Her dream job in Florida was just at her fingertips.

  Wasn’t it?

  She took a deep breath. Maybe…it wasn’t, and that was a startling, delicious sort of realization. She’d been so busy running Shady Acres that she hadn’t had time to think about how to impress any-damn-one, and it was exhilarating. She loved it there—loved the residents, loved the nurses, loved the changes she’d snuck in without telling the corporate office.

  But…it was ending, and there was no way she was going to sponge off Jasper, even if he presented it as an option.

  “You thinking about work?”

  “Well, it’s kind of a factor. You’re a little young to be a sugar daddy.”

  He laughed. “There might be something I know that I haven’t told you, for fear of making you feel a pressure I didn’t think you needed.”

  “Could you say that using half the number of words? And have it make sense?”

  “I never thought I’d see this day, but it looks like Bette’s had some revelations while she’s been laid up. And one of them is that ‘retirement’ might not be the worst word in the dictionary.”

  “Shut up. Everybody says she’ll die at Shady Acres—and not as a resident, to be clear.”

  He laughed. “Well, she’s not ready yet, but she did utter the words ‘half-time’ last week. Does Galway allow that? Think the two of you could work something out?”

  “Like a job share, you mean?” Emma’s stomach quivered with possibility. “I don’t know. I’ve never heard of them approving something like this, but—”

  “But it would be kind of ideal, wouldn’t it? Have you two share the load for a year as she transitions out and you transition in?”

  “Well, yes. It makes a lot of sense. I mean, how much more ideal could you get, really?” Then she sobered, thinking of Duncan and his proverbial rubber-stamp-of-doom.

  “I have an idea.”

  “I’m all ears.”

  Jasper raised his eyebrows. “Go above Duncan’s head. Present it to his manager. And while you’re at it, maybe present that entire binder of other ideas you have—the ones he never let get past his desk. I have a feeling you’d get a different response.”

  “Or it could be career hari-kari.” She shrugged. “One or the other.”

  “Would it be worth the risk? Maybe?”

  Emma pressed her lips together, taking a deep breath as she imagined her baby moving inside her. She was a long way out from feeling it for real—she remembered that—but if she thought about it hard enough, she could almost feel it. And here she was, sitting with the man who was ready, willing, and excited to take on parenthood with her.

  She’d be insane not to give it a try.

  “Okay. I’ll do it. I don’t know exactly how I’ll do it, but you’re right. It’s definitely worth the risk. If they say no, then…I’ll figure something else out. Which doesn’t panic me at all.” She puffed out a dramatic breath. “Not even a little bit.”

  “We can figure it out, Em. We can figure it all out.” Jasper squeezed her hand. “And no matter what happens, we’ll have a perfect little baby to share it with. So maybe we just take it one step at a time, and see what happens?”

  “Maybe.” Emma felt a warm, light glow steal from her chest out to every nerve ending in her body, and in her entire life, had never felt like any moment was so…right.

  “Is that an actual answer yet? Will you stay?”

  “Almost. One last thing—can I keep driving the car? Because I really, really love the car.”

  He laughed. “She’s all yours.”

  “Okay.”

  “Yeah?” He looked like he wasn’t sure whether to believe her.

  “Yes. I’ll stay. And yes, we are nuts, and yes, this only happens in romance novels—which will please Ari to no end, by the way, except she’s still afraid we’ll elope to Vegas—and yes, we’re completely, utterly insane.”

  “You said that already.”

  “Do I get to see what’s in the box now?”

  “Oh!” He looked down like he’d forgotten he was even holding a box. Then he handed it to her. “I hope you like it.”

  “I’m sure I’ll love it.”

  She opened the box—which was too big to hold a ring, thank goodness—and put her hand to her mouth when she saw what was inside.

  “Oh, Jasper.”

  “I hope this is okay. I know we’re agreed on the insanity plea, and I definitely knew a diamond would send you running for the hills…so I tried to do something different.”

  She pulled the charm bracelet out of the box, watching the silver charms catch the sunlight, and she blinked hard to clear her vision.

  “This one right here”—he lifted a tiny cow—“reminds me of our first dinner together, along with this little oinker, because you were too afraid not to order vegetarian. And this teddy bear one? Reminds me of the day we sat in the grass looking at clouds, though I still say it looked more like the Mormon Tabernacle. The kitten reminds me of you texting Ari that you were headed home with a serial killer.”

  Emma laughed. “Well, that worked out terribly.”

  “And this one?” He lifted a baby rattle. “This one’s…our miracle.”

  “It is.” Emma bit her cheek so she wouldn’t cry as he slid the bracelet onto her wrist and hooked the clasp. “I love it, Jasper. I really, really love it.”

  He kissed her then, and it was a kiss so full of promise and hope and happily-ever-after, she felt her bones dissolve, one by glorious one.

  After a long, long moment, he pulled back, his fingers caressing her cheek. “Come on. Let’s go tell the crew that you’re staying.”

  “The crew?”

  He rolled his eyes. “How long have you been here? I will bet you a basket of kittens that right now, out in my café are at least five members of the Whisper Creek family who are doing their best to sit there and drink coffee like they just happened by, when really, they all drew straws an hour ago to see who g
ot to come down here and be the first to know whatever news we might have.”

  “No way.”

  “You doubt me?” He grinned as he pulled her gently to her feet, wrapping his arms around her. He kissed her on the forehead, then spun her around. “Do you want to tell them?”

  “I think you overestimate the level of them caring whether I stay or go, Jasper. Seriously.”

  “We’ll see.”

  He pushed open the door to the café, his arm tightly around her back, and when she saw the crowd gathered around the bar area, laughter sputtered out. Daniel and Hayley were there, along with Cole and Liam, and Kyla was pretending to write on a notepad up near the register while Jess sipped from one of Jasper’s mugs.

  “Oh. My. God.”

  He leaned close to her ear. “You owe me a basket of kittens.”

  Hayley was the first to speak. “Well? Do I get to use your ticket to San Diego? Because I could really use a vacation, and there’s still time for me to get to the airport.”

  Jasper laughed, turning to Emma. “What do you think, Em? Do we still need those tickets?”

  “Hm.” She scanned the little crowd, a sweet, peaceful glow settling right between her ribs as Jasper leaned down to kiss her. “No. I think—we’re already exactly where we belong.”

  Epilogue

  “Everybody dressed in here?” Jasper knocked on Emma’s office door one month later, looking like the proverbial cat-with-a-canary as he strode in.

  “One time. You caught me undressed one time.” Emma rolled her eyes.

  “Happy to catch you again. Just say when.”

  Emma laughed. “Go away. I’m busy.”

  “It’s your birthday, and you’ve been working all day, and as the father of your unborn baby, I’m insisting that you let me take you to dinner.”

  “Kind of imperious, don’t you think?” She pushed her chair away from her desk, rubbing her eyes as he came around behind her and massaged her shoulders. “I don’t know, Jasper. I’m so tired I could fall asleep right here. I don’t think I have the energy for a night out.”

  “How about just an hour out?” He leaned down to kiss her ear. “We have to do something special for your birthday. Especially since you can finally eat without turning green, right?”