Yours To Keep

by Shannon Stacey

  That was the easy part? He didn’t think so. “What do you mean?”

  “What are you going to do about the five kids who know that not only were you not engaged last week, but that they haven’t been writing letters for Lisa to send to you at Emma’s house for the last year and a half.”

  “Shit.” Every time he thought he had his eye on the ball and could smack it out of the park, it curved on him again. “I didn’t even think of them. Dammit.”

  Joe laughed and slapped him on the back. “We’ll take care of the kids. Don’t worry.”

  “Thanks, man.” He started to climb into his truck, then stopped. “Look, I know this is funny to you guys but don’t forget it’s not a joke to Emma and Cat. If we blow this, her grandmother’s going to be really upset.”

  Joe grinned and slapped the side of the truck. “Come on, cousin. You know we’ve always got your back.”

  “Yeah, that’s where you usually stick the Kick Me sign.” His cousin was still laughing when he backed out of the driveway.

  “I never would have guessed something with orange juice and soy sauce in it could taste so good,” Emma said, leaning back in the lawn chair with a sigh. They’d demolished Gram’s honey-ginger grilled salmon in record time and she had no desire to move.

  “I’ll write the recipe down for you.”

  “I’ll just screw it up anyway.”

  Gram laughed. “All you do is mix the ingredients together, pour it in a bag with the salmon and half an hour later, give it to Sean to throw on the grill. He cooked the salmon to perfection tonight.”

  Of course he did. As he’d told her earlier, she had nothing to worry about because the Y chromosome came with an innate ability to master the barbeque grill.

  “The salad was good, too,” Sean said.

  “Thanks,” Emma muttered. “Even I can’t screw up shredding lettuce.”

  The man looked incredibly relaxed for somebody who’d been raked over the coals by his aunt and was now relaxing with two women he barely knew. She, on the other hand, felt like she was detoxing. Jumpy. Twitching. A trickle of sweat at the small of her back.

  Sean stood and started gathering dishes, but held out a hand when Emma started to get up. “You ladies sit and visit. I’ll take care of the clean-up.”

  Once he was inside, Gram smiled and raised her eyebrows. “He does dishes, too? No wonder you snapped him up.”

  It was tempting to point out a few of his less-attractive traits, like the fact he was a sexist baboon who wouldn’t let her drive. But he was doing a good job of convincing Gram he was Emma’s Prince Charming, which was the whole point, so she bit back her annoyance with the Saint Sean routine. “He’s a keeper.”

  “Something’s bothering you. Tell me what it is and you’ll feel better.”

  Emma really doubted that. She made a conscious effort to relax her face. “It’s nothing, really. Work stuff.”

  “Really, Emma, I won’t be bothered if you and Sean have to work tomorrow. I understand you’re very busy. And I’m proud of the fact your business is doing so well.”

  “It is going well.” Emma gave her grandmother a genuine smile. “The summer people love to show off my work and then all the other summer people just have to have me, too.”

  “That’s wonderful, dear.” Gram took a sip of her iced tea, then set the glass on the patio table. “But I want to hear more about Sean.”

  “Um…like what?” She knew he didn’t like broccoli or peas.

  “Oh, I don’t know. How does he like working for you? Since you’re the owner, will he be a stay-at-home dad once you have children?”

  Emma was pretty sure Sean’s ideal wife would be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen with a baby on one hip and a laundry basket on the other, but she didn’t say so. “Him working for me isn’t really long-term. He’s just not sure what he wants to do yet. And we’ll figure out the baby thing when the time comes.”

  In other words, she had no clue, but she hoped Gram wouldn’t figure that out. Maybe if she was vague enough, whatever Sean would say about the subject wouldn’t contradict her. She sipped at her iced tea and concentrated on not looking stressed out.

  Gram reached over and touched her hand. “Are you happy?”

  And there it was—the million-dollar question. Everything she and Sean were going through was meant to convince Gram the answer to that question was a resounding yes.

  “I’m happy, Gram. I really am. My company’s thriving and I…have Sean. And, even though I miss you, I love knowing you’re having a great time in Florida with your friends.”

  “You should see us down there. That warm sunshine does wonders for the body and we feel ten years younger, at least. You should see Martha line dance! That woman can shake and shimmy like a twenty-year-old.”

  Emma laughed, trying very hard not to visualize Martha—who could only be described as stout—shaking and shimmying. “I loved the pictures of you swimming with the dolphins.”

  “That was amazing! You wouldn’t believe how friendly they are.” And, as Gram started telling her the story, Emma felt the tension easing out of her body.

  At some point Sean joined them, bringing a fresh pitcher of iced tea with him, and they sat on the deck listening to Gram talk about frolicking in sunny Florida until long after the sun had set. And then, once Gram had gone up to bed, Emma and Sean faced each other across the patio table.

  “I like Cat,” he said, once her grandmother was safely out of earshot. “This isn’t quite as hard as I thought it would be.”

  “It’s going better than I thought,” she agreed. “I’m still having a hard time believing it might actually work.”

  “She sure does love Florida.”

  “I could tell that even over the phone. When she started talking about moving back, I knew I had to do something.”

  He smiled, his eyes warm. “Even if it was crazy.”

  “I think the words you used were batshit crazy.” She watched his brow furrow for a moment, as though he was trying to remember saying it. “But Lisa also told me the tall and hot part of it, so I didn’t take it personally.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about the hot part right before we go to bed.”

  Good point. “You think you can stick this out for a month?”

  “Told you I would.”

  “And you’ve got Gram wrapped around your little finger already. I’ll have to start complaining about you once in a while or when it comes time to tell her I broke up with you, she’ll never believe it.”

  “True. Maybe you should tell her I broke up with you.”

  Emma tossed a balled-up napkin at him. “Funny.”

  “You can worry about that later. For now, your grandmother believes you’re madly in love with me and that’s all that matters.”

  “So you’re telling me Emma’s grandmother actually fell for it?” Kevin dredged a fry through a puddle of ketchup and popped it in his mouth. “I don’t believe it.”

  Sean shrugged. “I’m tellin’ you. She doesn’t give us funny looks or anything.”

  He’d taken off midmorning to give Emma and her grandmother some time alone since he and Emma would be working the next day and because, after three days of pretending, he needed a break. He’d done some errands and then showed up at Jasper’s Bar & Grille to see what was going on. He’d gotten there just as Kevin’s wife and daughter had arrived to visit him during his lunch break and they’d invited Sean to join them.

  Beth slid Lily’s high chair closer to her seat and farther from Kevin’s. The tot was trying to trade her cut-up banana for her daddy’s fries, not that Sean blamed her. “I have to admit, I didn’t think it would work.”

  “Neither did we,” Sean told her and they all laughed.

  “Isn’t it weird?” Beth gave Kevin one of those wifely looks when he slipped Lily a fry, then looked back at Kevin. “I can’t imagine living with somebody I don’t know.”

  “Yeah, it’s weird. Maybe being in the army help
ed. I’m used to living with whoever came along. And it’s not so bad. Cat’s a wicked good cook.”

  “Takes so little to make a Kowalski man happy,” Beth mused.

  Her husband smiled and leaned across the high chair to kiss her cheek, slipping the kid another fry. “I seem to recall winning your heart with my Jasper burgers.”

  “Among other things. And when Lily has a bellyache later, you’re dealing with it.”

  Sean turned his attention from the domestic bliss to his fish-and-chips basket. He was happy for his cousins—all paired off and doing the parent thing—but it wasn’t for him. Maybe in a few years when he’d found a place he wanted to stay in and a woman he wanted to stay there with. But for now, he wasn’t even looking.

  When Lily decided she’d had enough of her high chair and started making her displeasure known rather loudly, Beth packed up all her baby debris and kissed her husband goodbye. “Good luck, Sean. I’ll see you Saturday.”

  “So,” Kevin said when they were alone, “how are those sleeping arrangements going?”

  “She’s still on the couch.”

  “I think Josh took two nights for the pool. He’s out.”

  Sean shook his head, a little disgusted by his youngest brother’s lack of faith in his self-control. “You’ll all be out when the month’s over. Out money, that is.”

  He said it like he believed it, but it was shaky ground. Three nights of sleeping in the same room as Emma was playing hell on his sleep cycle. And when he’d dreamed of her last night—naked and hot for him, with her dark cloud of hair tickling his chest—and woken sweaty and hard and aching, not crossing that ten feet of bedroom had almost killed him.

  Going to work tomorrow would be a good thing, he thought. Even though he’d be alone with her, a little physical labor would do his body good. Maybe if he tired himself out, he could sleep through the night without his dick trying to lead the way to her like some kind of damn dowsing rod.

  “I’ve gotta get back to work,” Kevin said, breaking into thoughts he was better off not having anyway. “Your lunch is on the house today.”

  “Thanks, man.” He stood and shook his cousin’s hand before polishing off the rest of his lunch.

  On a whim, he took the scenic route to Joe and Keri’s house and, since both their vehicles were in the driveway, he pulled in and got out.

  Keri answered the door, looking frazzled and not having the best hair day he’d ever seen. “Hi, Sean. I was just thinking, gee, I need more Kowalskis in my life right now.”

  He laughed and stepped into the big foyer. “Baby acting up?”

  “I thought the Kowalski men were royal pains in the ass, no offense, but you guys have nothing on the girls.”

  “Joe writing?”

  She blew out a sharp breath and put her hands on her hips. “No. Joe is pretending to write so I won’t dump Brianna in his lap, but he’s probably playing some stupid game.”

  From the other room came a pissed-off howl that Sean hoped was their daughter and not a wild animal foraging for table scraps. “So he’s in his office?”

  Keri nodded and waved a hand in that direction before making a growling sound and heading off to appease her daughter. Welcome to the jungle, he mused before heading to Joe’s office. He rapped twice on the door, then let himself in.

  Joe looked up with a guilty start and Sean knew his wife had him all figured out. “She knows you’re only pretending to write so you don’t have to deal with the kid.”

  “You know what really sucks? Everybody keeps saying to just wait ’til she’s older. Like it gets worse. How can it get worse?” Sean lifted his hands in a don’t ask me gesture. “For years I’ve been writing about boogeymen and the evil that lurks in the hearts of men. I had no idea there’s nothing scarier than a baby girl.”

  Sean laughed. “She can’t be that bad. What does she weigh? Ten pounds?”

  “Fifteen. But it’s fifteen pounds of foul temper and fouler smells. Trust me.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  Joe leaned back in his leather office chair and sighed. “Let’s talk about your life. She still on the couch?”

  “Yes, she is.”

  “Good. I said you’d last three weeks.”

  Maybe, but Sean wouldn’t bet on it. Or he shouldn’t have bet on it, anyway. Especially a whole month. His balls ached just thinking about it. “You guys come up with a plan for the kids for Saturday yet?”

  “Yeah, but it’s going to cost you.”

  “Not a problem. I’ll just take it out of all the money I’m going to collect from you idiots at the end of the month.”

  Joe grinned. “You keep telling yourself that, buddy.”

  He was. With as much oomph as he could muster. And he’d probably keep telling himself that right up to the minute he got Emma naked.

  Chapter Seven

  “If I’d known we were just going to sit around and watch the plants grow today, I would have brought my book.”

  Emma jerked her attention from the Columbine plants she’d been checking on and back to Sean. “Sorry. Zoned out for a minute. Did you get the weed blocker done?”

  “Yeah. I don’t get why they want the pathway to the beach done in white stone. Don’t you usually walk back from the water barefoot?”

  “Not this couple. It doesn’t matter how practical it is. All that matters is how it looks.”

  “Whatever. It’s going to take the rest of the day to get all that stone down, so stop mentally tiptoeing through the tulips and let’s go.”

  Emma wanted to tell him to shove his attitude up his ass because she was the boss, or at least flip him the bird behind his back, but she didn’t have the energy. Living a fake life was a lot more exhausting than she’d anticipated.

  She didn’t even want to think about what it was like trying to sleep every night with her boxer-brief-clad roommate sprawled across the bed only ten feet away, so she thought about Gram instead. Gram who was, at that very moment, on her way into town. The town which had heard the rumors of her engagement, but never actually seen her fiancé.

  If Gram returned from town still believing Emma and Sean were headed to the altar, it would be a miracle.

  “You look beat,” Sean said, and she barely managed to restrain from whacking him with the shovel. He, of course, looked delicious with his muscles rippling and a light sheen of sweat making his tanned arms gleam as he shoveled stone.

  “The couch is shorter than I thought. But I’m getting used to it.”

  “There’s room in the bed.”

  She forced herself to keep shoveling stone into the wheelbarrow. If she didn’t look at him, she didn’t have to see on his face whether or not he was serious. If he wasn’t, she might whack him with the shovel after all. If he was…

  “That’s a bad idea.”

  He laughed. “So is filling your wheelbarrow so full you can’t move it, but you did it anyway.”

  “Crap.” She’d mounded the stone so high she’d have to dump half of it out to budge the damn thing.

  “I’ll wheel it down for you.” He winked at her. “This time.”

  Her mouth went a little dry when he stepped between the handles and hefted the wheelbarrow as though it was a sack of groceries, but she followed him down to the area he’d already prepped with weed-blocking fabric where she’d be spreading the first batch of white stone chips. And she managed to make most of the walk without ogling his backside.

  “How have you managed to do this on your own for so long?” he asked once he’d set the wheelbarrow in place for her.

  “I don’t usually fill the wheelbarrow all the way to the top.”

  He pulled off his leather work gloves and shoved them into his back pocket. “I’m serious. This is…”

  He let the sentence trail away and Emma rolled her eyes. “Not women’s work?”

  “I was going to say it’s pretty demanding, physically.”

  “It takes me a little longer than it would a
man, but I chip away at it. And sometimes I’ll pay Joey and Danny to give me a hand.”

  “So Mike and Lisa’s kids know you pretty well, then?”

  “Yeah. If I didn’t have you today, I probably would have brought all four boys. Brian and Bobby can spread mulch and stone and they make a few bucks under the table. It usually takes me longer to fix what they did than to do it myself, but they get jealous if it’s only the older two all the time.”

  “Do you think they can really handle a secret like this?”

  Emma sighed and leaned on her shovel. “I don’t know. I hope so.”

  It was a two-part plan, though shaky at best. Part one was to keep the kids away from Cat Shaw as much as possible. Part two of the plan was to make it a game. With prizes. Terry’s daughter, Stephanie, and Lisa’s four boys had been given the backstory and issued the challenge. All children who didn’t blow the secret would earn cash and video-game time at the end of the month, with hefty bonuses going to teens who helped coach the younger kids.

  From what Sean said, it was surprising Mrs. Kowalski’s head hadn’t exploded, but she seemed reluctantly willing to comply. For now.

  “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate what your family’s doing for me,” she said, pulling her gloves back on. “I know they must think I’m crazy.”

  “A little.” But he smiled, which kept her from focusing too much on his words. “But they’re trying.”

  Because he’d asked them to, she thought. And she knew it wasn’t just a matter of asking them to. He’d probably had to fight for their cooperation, trying to convince them to go along with something he himself wasn’t sure about. Or hadn’t been sure about.

  There had been another sticky note on her bathroom mirror that morning. I think you’re doing the right thing.

  It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to get her through one more day. And, assuming Gram didn’t come home from town demanding answers, another after that.

  Cat took her time wandering down the main street of town, enjoying a perfect New England early summer day.

  She had some old friends to look up and a few groceries and other things to buy, but for now she just walked. Walking helped clear her mind, a state she hadn’t achieved since arriving back in New Hampshire.