Chapter Twenty-Three
Another year older, another year wiser? Shannon slathered frosting on the last cupcake and stood back to assess her work. Shaking her head, she licked the extra frosting from the knife, deciding she wasn’t quite done. Sprinkles—pink ones! It was her birthday, after all. She found the pink sugar crystals on her spice rack and gave each cupcake a little facelift.
The kids had been hounding her to invite Dean to her birthday barbeque the following afternoon. It was getting harder and harder to say no. “Mean Mommy” was no longer a way to stick it to her—it had become her permanent new name. Shannon was sick of being punished for keeping them apart. Maybe it was time to stop running away and give him a chance to explain himself. If he finally would.
Besides, if she were being completely honest with herself, she missed him. It chafed to have to admit that. It had been a long two weeks since she’d stormed out of Dean’s house after discovering that sickening lawsuit.
She wasn’t excusing his choice to deny his poor child in that awful paternity suit. She’d never excuse that. But everyone made bad choices at some point in their lives, right? Ugh. Having Vince pop back into her life in as positive a manner as could ever be hoped for had turned Shannon into a big softie.
For old times’ sake she had even invited him to her birthday. This time last year she would have never conceived of reconciling with Vince on any level. Or falling in love with another man. Okay, so she was a long way from ironing out her issues with Dean, but she was also worlds away from the woman who had sworn off men forever.
Throwing all the dirty bowls and utensils into a sudsy dish pan, Shannon turned her back on the mess. It could wait a few minutes. She’d jot a quick note to Dean, invite him to the party, and slip it under his door. It was up to him whether he joined them for the celebration. She could extend an olive branch . . . from a safe distance.
She checked on the kids one last time, each one snuggled up with a favorite stuffed animal, fast asleep. She scribbled an invite to Dean and slipped out the front door, locking it behind her. Then she headed for the part in the hedge.
Dean’s house was all lit up, music coming from the big deck along the side. Curious, she crossed the dew-covered lawn in bare feet, the cool condensation tickling her toes. She stood in shadow, the lights on the side of the house cozily encircling the deck.
A group of people were talking and hanging out up there. Beer bottles clinked and potato chip bags rustled. Shannon detected the spicy tang of Polly’s Pizzeria pizza. She’d recognize that scent anywhere. Oh, Dean. You entertain a house full of people and still order pizza? Had she taught him nothing about cooking?
“Hey there, big guy. You are growing up so fast.”
Shannon narrowed her gaze on Dean, who was holding a baby in his arms, nuzzling him and tickling his little belly. Her heart squeezed as she took in the sight. He was a natural. Clearly, he knew the little cherub and doted on him like a favorite uncle. She frowned in consternation. Why was he so loving and generous of his affection for other people’s kids, but not his own? What was she missing here?
Frustrated, confused, and more than a little jealous to be left out of this impromptu party, Shannon skulked back the way she’d come. The note she’d intended to slip under Dean’s front door was forgotten, crushed in her fist. She felt another sweet pang when his laughter rang out across the lawn. She hurried as fast as her unshod feet would take her back to the cottage.
• • •
“Dude, there is some kind of party going on over there. Should we wait until it’s over?” Jax had wandered into the kitchen, hands shoved into the back pockets of his cut off denims.
“I’ve waited too long as it is. I say we crash it.”
“Rock on!”
Dean went to the counter and lifted the heavy crystal vase containing a dozen red roses. Women were suckers for roses, right? If she took the news of his previous life well, these would be the icing on the cake. Or maybe they’d be the consolation prize? He set the vase back down, wiped his sweaty palms on his khaki shorts, took a deep breath, and picked the flowers back up.
“You’ll do fine. She’s not going to throw a scene in front of a yard full of guests.” Toby patted him on the back.
“Okay, but what if she sees my bringing you guys into it as cashing in on my celebrity status?”
“The Shannon you described to us would see it as you bringing your closest friends, those who understand you and the decisions you’ve made that brought you out here, to help explain your unique situation.”
Dean started to speak and abruptly shut his mouth. Toby made a very good point—it was time to put his faith in Shannon. He looked around the kitchen at the considerably large group of people who had traveled all the way across the country just to lend moral support so he could spill his guts to the woman who held his heart.
“Hey, I just want to thank all of you.”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s go crash the party, Mush Man.” Jax threw a wicked grin over his shoulder as he loped out of the kitchen and down the hall to the front door.
Given the social gathering taking place next door, and the size of the group about to drop in, Dean led them down the driveway and around to Shannon’s cottage—not through the space in the hedge and onto the middle of her lawn. There were pink balloons tied to weights and sitting in bunches around the yard. People milled around, balancing paper plates and plastic cups.
Shannon stood supervising the blow up kiddie pool. A tall, lean man with auburn hair and laughing eyes stood beside her, his gaze intent on the three redheads screeching in the water. He leaned in close when she started to tell him something. Dean’s breath caught in his throat, the sucker punch to his gut causing his head to reel. He knew who that guy was without being introduced.
No wonder he hadn’t been invited to this shindig. Her ex was back in town. Maybe that’s what this party was all about. A “happy to have you back in our lives” party. He wrinkled his brow. That just didn’t jive. But since he hadn’t been so great at opening up, he had no right to expect that she’d laid all her cards out. Could be she’d secretly hoped for this reunion ever since Vince left.
“Oh, my gosh! Five of Hearts! Shannon, it’s Five of Hearts!” Shannon’s friend, Talia, had spotted the group and was running toward them, while gesturing for Shannon to do the same.
“Showtime.” Dean took a deep breath and put on his biggest smile.
“It was killing me—I knew I knew you from somewhere. But you weren’t exactly forthcoming. Dino Valentine of Five of Hearts.” She continued babbling but Dean picked up on one sentence in particular: “What a great birthday present!”
“Ah, crap, it’s her birthday?”
“You didn’t know? What are the roses for then?” Talia shook her head, obviously disgusted with herself for not having figured it out earlier. “You’re here to get her to talk to you again.”
“Looks like she’s got another visitor too.”
“Yeah, her ex. How weird is that?” Talia scrunched up her nose, shrugging her shoulders.
Shannon finally made her way across the lawn. She studied the group suspiciously, her eyes coming to rest on the vase of roses. She looked up at Dean. Her smile was hesitant. She looked nervous.
“Happy birthday,” he said as he handed over the heavy vase.
“You didn’t really know it was my birthday.” It wasn’t a question.
“Incredible timing?” She chose to ignore this.
“Who are your friends?”
Dean watched her expression. She was either a very good actress, or she honestly had no clue who they were.
Talia vibrated with latent teeny-bopper excitement. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet. She whipped her head around and gave her friend an incredulous look. “Are you serious? Five of Hearts? Hottest boy band in the country for a good five years?”
“Actually, we were even more popular in Japan, Australia, and the UK.” Gage bowed deeply.
<
br /> “Sorry, guys. No offense, but I didn’t do boy bands. I was too busy working every spare chance I got from the time I was twelve, just to help my mom put food on the table.”
Dean wanted to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. All this time, he had been trying to hide his identity from someone who wouldn’t have known who he was if he’d jumped up on stage with the group and sung a ballad in her honor. Belatedly, he realized the fact that he’d had everyone fly out here to help explain the truth was a colossal waste of time and money. She wasn’t going to understand.
“Hey, so before I get all fan girl on you guys, why don’t I take you around and introduce you to the folks of our humble town.” Talia pushed Dean toward Shannon, effectively separating him from the rest of the group.
“If everyone is as pretty as you, this is going to be a rockin’ good time.” Jax winked.
“Yeah. Let me start by introducing you to my husband and twin boys.” She shot him a “don’t even go there” look. The rest of the guys were howling at Jax’s faux-pas.
Dean couldn’t look at Shannon. His eyes traveled the crowd, landing on Vince, who was tossing marshmallows in the air and catching them in his mouth. The kids were following suit, but the lawn was littered with their failed attempts.
“More than one surprise guest today? Or did he get an invite?” Dean immediately felt like a heel when he saw her wince.
“I tried. But you were busy with your own party last night and I didn’t want to intrude.”
She was jealous! Maybe this meant he had a chance after all. Dean took her hand and led her away from the party. When they caught Vince’s eye, Shannon tugged her hand away. Or maybe he was getting his hopes up for nothing.
“I’ve missed you. I called you. When you didn’t answer . . . or call me back, I figured stopping by would pretty much be considered stalking.”
“The kids would have liked that. They have not been very happy with me lately.”
Not “I’ve missed you too.” The kids missed him. Well, that was okay, because he’d missed the heck out of them as well.
“So this was your big secret. You’re in a boy band.” She spoke slowly, like she was still trying to wrap her mind around it.
“Was—I was in a boy band. We went our separate ways about ten years ago. Toby is married. That’s Vanessa with their son. Cute kid. Linc is married, with a baby on the way. Gage is getting married next month, on the Queen Mary. That’s Tilly, his fiancée, in the green dress.”
“And the one coming on to every woman here?”
“Yeah, that’d be Jax. He’s still single. He gives us pop stars a bad name.” Dean felt himself blushing.
“He was here before.” She spoke the words so softly he almost missed them.
“I had a feeling you’d seen us that day at the beach.”
“You didn’t introduce me. I figured I just didn’t rank up there.”
“That wasn’t it at all! I didn’t want to introduce him to you. I was afraid once you saw the two of us together that you’d figure out who I really was.”
“So Dean Patterson, the man who moved in next door last May, is just a façade? The ‘real’ you is someone else?” She tilted her head and gave him a probing stare.
“Well, no. I guess they’re both me. I didn’t change by moving out here.” Dean stopped talking abruptly and blinked. “Wait. I’m not being honest here. I guess I really did change when I moved out here. I became this sneaky guy who was constantly trying to hide his past. I was so worried about you finding out who I was and turning into the type of woman I’d dated in the past, all greedy and fixated on fame, that I ended up someone that I don’t even like.” His voice trailed off and he met her sad gaze, his own apologetic.
“So when you said that you knew, one hundred percent, that you couldn’t be that child’s father . . . ?”
“It’s part of the celebrity package. More money than you know what to do with. Girls hanging off your arm. Houses in Malibu. And people trying to figure out how to get themselves a piece of it.”
“Was she a jealous ex-girlfriend?”
“I don’t even know her—we’ve never met. My lawyer did some digging. Turns out she was in the background of a photo that made it to all the trashy rags out there. She was angled just well enough that it looked like we might have been together, a couple.”
“And she was going to cash in on that? Take your money to raise her child?”
“Hey, at least this one actually had a child to pimp out. I was involved in a paternity suit once where the girl used photos and a birth certificate of a baby cousin. She’d never even given birth.” He took the look of incredulous shock on her face as a good sign.
“I guess I shouldn’t have judged you so quickly. I don’t blame you for wanting to hide such . . . nastiness.” She slipped her hand into his, squeezing lightly. “Nail her to the wall, Dino!” Her eyes blazed as she grinned up at him.
Dean shook his head, cracking a smile at the possessive determination on Shannon’s face. “Actually, when she realized we weren’t going to settle easily, that we were going to take it all the way to trial, she dropped the suit.”
They were quiet for a moment, staring into each other’s eyes. His little world was finally getting back on track. He started to lean in for a stolen kiss.
“Hey, so this is the guy who has my kids wrapped around his little pinkie.” Dean stood back in surprise as Vince loped forward and stuck his hand out for a shake.
“Dean, this is my ex-husband, Vince. Vince, this is Dean.” A tense smile pasted to her face, Shannon looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there.
“How about those triplets? Aren’t they the cutest dang things? It’s like God took the best parts of Shannon and me and mixed them up into those little angels. They’ve got some great things to say about you. Why don’t you go on over and say hi?” So I can have Shannon all to myself again, was what Dean heard.
He nodded, smiled sadly at Shannon, and walked away. He watched the kids playing with their friends. Brenna was even holding Toby’s baby on her lap, Vanessa watching closely. If he had only realized their lives would have blended so seamlessly, he wouldn’t have hesitated to tell Shannon the truth.
But now it was too late. Vince was staking his claim. He had come back to Scallop Shores, back to his family. Dean may not agree that Vince was the best father for those kids—in his heart, he knew the best man for that job was him—but Vince had him beat with a biological tie that he could never top.
He ducked through the hedge before the triplets could see him. It would just be too painful for him to spend time with them, hold them, and laugh with them, when he knew their dad was back in the picture. The sounds of the party diminished as he walked across his own lawn, pausing to glance at the flowers growing riotously under the tree Brady had fallen from shortly after he had moved in. God, that seemed like a lifetime ago now.
He wondered how much longer they would live next door. Surely, Vince would be getting a place in town. He was going to miss the hell out of those kids. But missing Shannon just might kill him.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bright sunshine spilled through the parted bedroom curtains, a happy start to a happy day. Shannon rolled over and smiled at the roses she’d placed on the bedside table before turning in last night. She wanted them to be the first thing she saw, the first thing she smelled in the morning. The buds were just starting to open. So beautiful.
Sliding her legs out from under the sheets, she sat up and stretched. All was right with the world, her world. For the first time in her children’s lives, she could envision a future that involved a complete family. Dean wasn’t a deadbeat dad. He was a loving, compassionate man who cared for her children just as she did.
She couldn’t wait to tell the kids that they had worked things out yesterday. They’d finally be done with “Mean Mommy.” Maybe they could ask Dean and his friends, band mates (now that was going to take some getting used to), to the beach
. It was perfect weather for it. Wait. Would they get mobbed by fans? Maybe they should pick someplace quieter? It didn’t matter. She just wanted to spend time with him and get to know his friends.
Whistling, Shannon practically skipped down the hallway to the kitchen. When the triplets finally began stumbling from their rooms, she’d almost finished their happy face pancakes. She was confused when they didn’t seem more enthused with the special breakfast treat.
“What’s with the sour pusses this morning?”
“He didn’t even say hi.” Brian pouted.
“Why’d he leave so fast? You made him leave.” Brady was downright mutinous.
“I don’t understand. Mr. Dean and I had a nice talk.”
“He doesn’t love us anymore. You messed things up, Mommy.” Brenna shoved her plate away and folded her tiny arms across her chest.
“I’m sure you all are just misunderstanding things. I made things all better at the party. Well, he did. It doesn’t matter.” Shannon wrinkled her brow, shaking her head. “I don’t know why he didn’t come over to say hi to you guys, but maybe he was just distracted.”
“Call him. Call him and tell him we want to see him.”
“I was planning on it.” Shannon stopped just short of sticking her tongue out at her cheeky son’s bossiness.
Snatching up the phone, she punched in Dean’s cell number. She turned to see that three expectant faces were watching her closely. She smiled big, to make up for their dubious frowns. Dean answered on the second ring.
“Hey there. It’s Shannon . . . and the kids. We were hoping you and your friends could join us for something fun today. It’s so beautiful out.”
“Thanks, that’s nice of you. But I don’t think it’s a good idea. I was just going to take everyone around for a little sightseeing.”
“Um, yeah, of course. But who better to show them around than a native, right?”
Hearts Are Wild Page 40