by Sandy James
“I’m Matka,” Beth said. “Her way of saying mom. Robert is Bobber.”
Darren nodded. “That’s kinda what I thought. Anyway, according to my lawyer, she’s happy with you two. I can’t turn her life upside down when I don’t even want her to be with me full-time. I want to know her, though.”
“We totally understand that,” Beth said, her whole face lighting up. “We’d never cut you out of her life. Ever. You’re her father and—”
“No, I’m not. Not really. But I want to see her from time to time. Okay?”
Robert nodded, squeezing Beth a little tighter. “Absolutely. We’ll work something out, I promise.”
His heart was singing in happiness. He’d done nothing but worry about Emma, about how the change might cause psychological scars, about whether Darren could be a true father to her. He had to give credit to the man. He was wise enough to know when he’d made a mistake. Now everything could be put back to rights.
Darren stood. “I’ll call my lawyer and tell him to drop the custody suit. I won’t block your adoption petition, either.”
“We can call her Emma Brown, if you’d like,” Beth offered.
“Nah. If you’re adopting her, let her have the same name as you guys.” Darren actually grinned. “If I come see her from time to time, I imagine that’ll be confusing enough for her. Some strange man who pops in and out of her life. Give her your name.”
They walked Darren to the door, the three of them now quiet in a rather melancholy way. What he was doing took a lot of courage, and Robert was afraid to say anything that might make the man change his mind. Better to stay silent than to accidentally say something stupid.
Beth waved good-bye as Darren backed out of the driveway before shutting the door. Then she turned to stare up at Robert. “We need to talk.”
Robert couldn’t stop himself from snorting. “B, that is the biggest understatement of the century.”
She rose on tiptoes, looped her arms around his neck, and pressed her lips to his. A quick kiss before she eased back, her eyes locked with his. “I love you, Robert Ashford. With all my heart. And I’m never going to let you go.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Beth was ready to open up to her husband in a way she’d never done before. She was ready to let him in, to stop trying to hold everything together all by herself. And she was ready to explore exactly how he felt about her. Unfortunately, she needed a shower first since she still felt as though she were caked with mud.
As she tried to move away, Robert caught her and pulled her back against him. He tunneled his fingers through her hair and held her head while he ravaged her mouth. Responding in kind, she wrapped her arms around his waist and smoothed her hands down so she could palm his tight backside.
She would’ve been content to stay that way forever, but his cell phone rang. They eased apart, both sighing as he popped it off his belt and checked the caller ID. “It’s Alexis. I was supposed to call her when we found you. She’s probably worried sick.”
“Then you should answer.”
It was difficult being in on only half the conversation. Whatever Alexis was telling him infected Robert until he was practically bouncing on his feet. He’d taken her hand in his and was squeezing it tight enough to cut off the circulation. After telling Alexis he’d found Beth and that she was fine, he said “yes” and “we know” too many times for Beth to count.
Then he said, “There won’t be an annulment.” He leveled a hard stare at Beth. “My wife’s not going anywhere.”
Beth couldn’t stop smiling. Robert was right. She wasn’t going anywhere. For the first time since she’d moved into this house, it felt like home.
After he ended the call, he kept a tight grip on her hand and dragged her to the couch. He sat before tugging her onto his lap.
“I’m a mess,” she protested, trying to stand.
“I don’t give a shit.” He held her firmly in place. “Damn, I want to make love to you. But we need to talk first.”
Since he wasn’t disturbed by the dirt, she nuzzled his neck. “I want you, too.” Tugging his earlobe with her teeth, she waited for him to tell her whatever it was he thought they needed to discuss. “Well?”
“Well what?”
She traced the edges of his ear with her tongue. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Talk?”
How easy it was to distract him. “Yeah, honey. You said you wanted to talk before we head upstairs and I rip your clothes off.” Figuring nothing would get said if she kept teasing him, Beth laid her head against his shoulder.
“Oh yeah. Talk.” Wrapping his arms around her, Robert kissed her forehead. “We need to clear the air.”
“About?”
“About where we stand. You know, as a couple. Why would you think I’d even consider something as stupid as an annulment?”
Things were so much clearer to her now, as though a thick fog had permeated her thoughts and had now lifted. “I wanted to set you free.”
“B…”
She eased back and put her fingertips gently against his lips. “Let me finish. Please.”
He nodded as he captured her hand again.
“You told me you loved me, but I couldn’t believe you,” Beth admitted. “I’d convinced myself you wanted to be Emma’s father more than you wanted to be my husband. I thought you were going through, I don’t know, some midlife crisis or something.”
“Nonsense.”
“I realize that now.”
He cocked his head. “Do you really?”
“I do.” Her teeth tugged on her bottom lip. “At least I think I do.”
A frustrated growl rose from his chest. He gripped her chin and stared intently into her eyes. “Listen, B, and listen good. I. Love. You. Sure, I love our daughter, too, but I didn’t jump into this marriage as a way to be Emma’s dad. I let Emma be my excuse.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There’s always been a spark between us, even when you first started working at Douglas. I was just a dumbass back then.” He shrugged hard enough to jostle her. “I needed to play the field for a while, I guess.”
Beth gave his hand a squeeze. “Most guys do.”
“Well, then I finally grew up and realized how much I wanted you. I just never found the courage to act on it.” Robert gave her a heart-stopping smile. “Then Emma came into your life, and she became a really good reason to hang around you all the time.”
“Are you saying you’ve loved me since I started teaching at Douglas?”
“Not loved,” he replied. “It took me spending a lot more time with you to make it grow into love. But I felt something for you, something strong. And now it is love, B. Even if we didn’t have Emma, I’d still want you. I’d still need you. I’d still want us to have our own child, to have a family.”
After pressing a quick kiss to his cheek, Beth grinned at him. “I believe you, Robert. I do. And I love you, too.”
“So it’s settled, then? No more ridiculous talk about annulments?”
She traced an X over her chest. “Cross my heart.”
“Good,” he said with a decisive nod. “So what do you say we toss out those birth control pills of yours and have one of our own?”
“You want to have a baby? But Emma’s home now.”
“And she’ll make a great older sister.”
A smile bloomed on Beth’s beautiful face. “A baby…”
Robert gave her a quick, hard kiss. “Yeah, B. A baby. Yours and mine. What do you say?”
“Wow. I just hadn’t thought we’d have more kids.”
“Of course we will! I was thinking—”
“Seems you’ve done a lot of that lately. Could become a habit.”
He ignored the sarcasm. “Ashford Homes is making really good money. If you want to leave teaching for a while—or forever—to spend time with Emma, and with any babies we have, you could.”
After giving her head a small shake, Beth
said, “That’s enough for now. Please. My head is spinning. You’ve given me so much to think about.”
“Good. So now we need to go see Alexis. She wants to meet with us after lunch so we can tell her what Darren told us and help plot our next move.” His gaze searched hers. “Why are you grinning like the Cheshire cat?”
“Do you realize you haven’t stuttered once since Darren left?”
“Really?”
She nodded. “You’re not worried anymore, so the stutter disappeared.”
“What exactly was I worried about?”
“Me. You thought I might leave you, didn’t you? That’s why you started stuttering again. You weren’t sure I loved you, and you were afraid we’d lose Emma.”
He thought it over before he grinned. “I think you’re right.”
“Well, then… I need a shower if we’re going to go see Alexis.”
Robert helped her stand, but when she tried to take a step away, he tugged her back into his arms. After a long, lazy, very thorough kiss, he said, “Since we’ve got plenty of time, how about I join you in the shower?”
Beth laughed, crooked her finger, and ran all the way up the stairs as he chased her.
* * *
When Alexis opened the door to her office and motioned for them to enter, Robert got to his feet, still holding tight to Beth’s hand. He couldn’t seem to make himself stop touching her.
They’d made love in the shower, fast and furious. After the release that had torn through him, he should’ve been relaxed and sated. But if his wife so much as batted her eyelashes at him, he’d drag her to someplace private and make love to her all over again. It was as though he couldn’t get enough of her, probably because he finally believed deep in his heart that she loved him. Damn good thing, because she held his heart firmly in her hands.
They sat in their customary chairs as Alexis took her seat at her desk. For the first time that Robert could remember, the lawyer had a smile on her face—a genuine, heartfelt smile.
She plucked a paper from the file on her right. “I just received some interesting paperwork that I wanted to share with both of you. Darren Brown is dropping his custody suit and surrendering parental rights to Emma to you two.”
“That was fast,” Robert said, grinning back at Alexis.
“What do you mean?”
“We only saw him a couple of hours ago.”
Her stern frown made him feel bad he hadn’t mentioned the visit when Alexis had called. At the time, all Robert could think of was settling things between him and Beth. “I owe you an apology. I should have called when Darren came to visit us.”
“He was at your place?”
Robert nodded and told her all they’d discussed.
Beth finished the story. “Between learning about Emma and dealing with Kelly’s pregnancy, the poor guy probably felt like the whole world was closing in on him.”
Alexis leaned back in her chair. “That explains a lot. Our investigator had discovered he’d had a vasectomy.”
“How?” Beth asked. “I mean, shouldn’t medical records be private?”
“He told a reporter,” Alexis replied. “Last year, the local paper did a story about him starting the new restaurant. When she asked him how he had the time to devote to the place, he told her he wasn’t going to have children and admitted to just having had the vasectomy. I was waiting to depose him about it so we could use his reticence to be a father at the custody trial. Seems as if there won’t be a trial now.”
“Thank God,” Beth said, her tone full of relief.
The turn of events still shocked Robert, but he knew better than to question a good thing.
Alexis slapped her palms against her desktop. “Well, then… there’s only one thing left to do.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Get that adoption petition to the judge so you can both put all this behind you and focus on the future.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“The gang’s all here!” Beth sang out, feeling more like herself than she had in months. The optimism. The positivity. The joy of life. They were all back. “Finally!”
Dani dropped her purse next to a deck chair. “Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m late. Again.” She handed Beth the large bowl she carried. “Here’s the potato salad, as promised.”
“Dandi!” Emma shouted, using her baby talk name for Dani, one they’d all quickly adopted. She kicked her chubby legs and started bouncing against Robert’s hip hard enough he had trouble holding on to her.
With a chuckle, Dani went to them. Since she was one of the few people who could coax Emma away from her father, Dani gathered Emma into her arms. “Aunt Dandi’s here. Where’s my kiss?”
Emma put her hands on either side of Dani’s face and gave her a rather sloppy kiss.
Dani shot Robert a conspiratorial smile. “It’s ready, Robert.”
“Ready? What’s ready?” Beth asked as she shifted her gaze between her husband and her best friend. She knew them both well enough to see right through them.
“The game, as Sherlock Holmes would say, is afoot,” Dani teased.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Robert replied. “After we eat. Not about to let all this great food go to waste.”
Having grown accustomed to his penchant for surprises, she let out a rather fake-sounding resigned sigh. “Which means you’ll tell me when you’re darn good and ready, right?”
“Exactly.” With a chuckle, he pulled her into his arms and planted a kiss on her lips. “You know me too well, B.”
Considering the Ladies and their guys were all staring at them, Beth could feel heat bloom on her cheeks. Would she ever become accustomed to showing affection to her husband in front of others?
She’d have to since Robert had a fondness for holding her hand, draping an arm over her shoulder, or giving her a kiss whenever the mood struck.
“Let’s eat!” Ben announced from where he stood at Robert’s grill, which had been surrendered by Robert because he’d acknowledged Ben’s superior chef abilities.
The rest of the crew had supplied the side dishes for the adoption celebration pot luck. Emma was now officially Beth and Robert’s daughter. A visitation schedule had been approved by the court so Darren would be a part of Emma’s life, but her day-to-day care now rested in the Ashfords’ hands.
Everything was finally as it should be.
“Matka!” Emma twisted in Dani’s arms, reaching for Beth.
Beth wondered if her heart would ever stop reacting with a surge of happiness whenever her daughter called her. Her gratitude to Darren for putting aside his parental rights and doing the right thing for Emma was boundless. “C’mere, Em.”
“I said let’s eat,” Ben grumbled.
“In a minute, honey,” Mallory said as she and Jules joined Beth, Robert, and Dani.
“Did you decide anything about your job yet?” Dani asked Beth.
“Yeah,” Mallory said. “I’m dying of curiosity, too. Will you be heading back to school with us in a few weeks, or will Dani and I be the only Ladies who still teach?”
“I’ll be back,” Beth announced.
Robert jumped into the conversation. “At least for now. Once she’s pregnant—”
“Pregnant?” Jules gaped at them. “You’re trying to have a baby?”
Beth nodded and smiled as she leaned against her husband. “We are.”
Hands on her hips, Jules tried to look angry. The smile belied the body language. “How did I not know this?”
“You missed Ladies’ Night Out last week,” Mallory teased. “Drama always ensues.”
“Flushed the rest of the birth control pills last week,” Beth announced.
“We’re free, free falling,” Robert sang to the tune of the Tom Petty song.
“Let’s. Eat!” Ben said through a clenched jaw. “Or I’m not going to be held responsible for hamburgers that taste like hockey pucks.”
* * *
The sound of a
car horn repeatedly honking in a slow, steady rhythm caught Beth’s ear.
“Did you hear that?” she asked the Ladies as she put the last plate in the dishwasher and shut the door.
“You mean that annoying neighbor with the stuck car alarm?” Jules asked.
Beth nodded.
“Oh yeah. I hear it.”
“Sounds kinda close.” Dani went to the back door and opened it. “Like it’s coming from the front of your house.” She shut the door. “You should really go check, Beth.”
Since she’d just finished rinsing the sink, Beth dried her hands and set aside the dishcloth. She knit her brows at Mallory and Jules, who’d begun laughing after Dani made her suggestion. They were up to something—something that obviously included Robert. Perhaps Beth could finally find out what they’d all been up to. “Okay… spill.”
“Spill?” Dani tossed Beth her faux innocent look, one that had never worked before. “Spill what?”
Rolling her eyes, Beth said, “Fine. I’ll play along. How about we all go see whatever it is my husband wants me to see?”
She led the procession to the front door. As she stepped over the threshold and onto the porch, she stopped so abruptly that Dani ran right into her back. “What in the devil…?”
A dark blue Honda CRV sat in the middle of Beth’s front lawn, so close she could’ve stood on the edge of the porch and crawled right into the passenger seat.
Dani gave her a playful push between the shoulder blades. “Go on, silly. Go see for yourself.”
Tears stung her eyes as her gaze caught Robert’s from where he sat in the driver’s seat. “You told me the Beetle was getting new brakes.”
A grin lit his handsome face. “I lied.”
“I can see that.”
“Admit it,” Dani said, coming to stand at Beth’s side. “You needed something bigger.”
“Especially if you’re thinking of having another munchkin,” Jules added as she and Mallory moved to Beth’s other side.
“It’s wonderful.” Beth would never stop feeling as though she was truly blessed to have such a generous and loving man in her life. “Thank you so much.”
Robert kept on grinning. “You like it?”