Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (Eight Fun, Romantic Novels by Eight Bestselling Authors)

by Violet Duke

  With a quick look of concern, Connor stepped forward. “Careful, man. Easy with the incredible hulk hugs.”

  Plopping a kiss on Abby’s forehead before turning to his brother and yanking him up into a big bro-hug, Brian chortled, “Dude, it’s not like I can shake the baby out of her.”

  “He’s been like this for months,” complained Abby, with an adoring head tilt in Connor’s direction.

  “Months?” bellowed Brian then. “How far along are you?”

  “About four and a half months.”

  The timeline immediately made him think of Abby’s first pregnancy. Looking over at his brother, Brian asked quietly, “Is everything…”

  “Great so far,” confirmed Connor. “The baby is growing like crazy. Abby’s HCG levels and everything have been great so her doctor is optimistic so far about the viability. Plus, we have specialists who’ve talked us through the different ways we can help the pregnancy along. There’s so much more technology now that wasn’t available when Abby was a teen, so we’re doing everything we can to monitor her and the baby.”

  “And Connor has, of course, been treating me like I’m made out of glass the entire time. I can’t even lift a finger without him having a fit.”

  Relieved over the reassuring news, Brian eased back into his teasing and gave his brother a horrified expression. “Bad idea, man. Abby and pampering do not mix. I made that mistake once when she got the flu in college. It was diva city for the next month,” he lied, chuckling at Abby’s indignant scowl, which was no doubt because the exact opposite had been the case.

  “Connor, honey. Can you come over and lift my middle finger for me please?” asked Abby prettily.

  Brian burst out laughing and gave the happy parents-to-be another round of hugs before letting everyone else get in their hugs and congrats in as well.

  It didn’t register for Brian until a short while later that the SilverHawks theme song had been ringing in the air during the loud merriment that had followed Abby’s announcement.

  And that Tessa was no longer in the yard with them.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CONNOR WINCED as he looked out his office door and saw Brian storming down the hallway. He immediately hit his intercom button. “It’s fine, Laura. You can let him in.”

  Brian barged into Connor’s office and slammed his hands down on his desk. “Where the hell is she?”

  “For the last time, I still don’t know, man. Honest to God.”

  “Why aren’t you worried? If it were Abby that was missing, you’d have had Jay and your firm’s entire investigative team on it from the second you noticed her gone.”

  True.

  “Brian, Tessa isn’t missing. She’s been contacting you. Hell, she’s been in contact with all of us.”

  “She hasn’t been at her apartment in days!” Brian roared. “It makes no friggin’ sense. She’s getting all her work done online but no one knows where she’s staying. And the only thing she keeps telling everyone, me included, is that she needs a little time to take care of a few important things. I swear to God, that woman is a walking flight risk. When I find her, I’m going to chain her to my damn bed for good.”

  Holy shit. This was not the calm, easygoing brother he’d known all his life. “What the hell has gotten into you?”

  “She has! Not that I can say the reverse is true. The woman refuses to let me in, to let me help her.”

  “Brian, maybe she doesn’t need your help.”

  Suddenly, the anger just fizzled right out of Brian like hot air out of a balloon. “Then what good am I to her?”

  “What?”

  “Beth and Abby, they had always needed me. Tessa just plain doesn’t. She’s proven it to me time and time again. She’s been doing everything on her own for more years than I’ve even been responsible enough to take care of myself. She’s survived more loss than I have, overcome more hardships, and achieved more feats—all without a family, without a home, without even friends, really. So what good am I to her? I may as well just be a casual fling for all the effect I have on her life.”

  Connor sighed. The nonsensical ramblings of a man blinded by a woman were always hard to listen to. “Do you love her?”

  “I love her past sanity. It defies reason or caution. It trumps…everything. She thinks, and I know you do a little bit too, Connor, that she’s everything I should avoid. Just because she has HD. Because of my past and her future. But what everyone fails to understand is that Tessa is everything I can’t live without. Everything I refuse to live without.”

  Surprised—or stunned, more like—Connor sat there and studied his brother’s turbulent expression. Brian looked positively savage, like a man willing to go into battle. Hell, he looked ready to wage a war if need be.

  For Tessa.

  “Well then…go get her, man.”

  *

  “I HAVE A SURPRISE for you!” cried Jilly, clapping excitedly.

  Grinning, Tessa went over to sit next to Jilly’s bed. Since her flight back had been delayed four hours, she’d only had a quick minute to shower off the travel grime before booking it over to make sure she could get over to see Jilly before dinnertime—she’d already missed her normal half-day visit earlier in the week.

  Helping to sort through the pile of things on Jilly’s activity tray, she ventured a guess. “Did you draw another picture of me in the circus? Because I don’t know if you’re going to be able to outdo the one of me as a lion tamer—”

  “Nope!” Jilly interrupted excitedly. “It’s this!” She used her thumb to slide open her nightstand drawer and did a flamboyant ta-dah motion.

  Tessa peered inside and found what looked to be a little cosmetic compact, except instead of a translucent powder within the normal human skintone range, it was bright, neon green.

  “There’s a note, too! Openit, openit!” buzzed Jilly in one long excited breath.

  Puzzled, Tessa flipped open the note taped to the back. The note was in Brian’s handwriting—or at least it looked like his handwriting, but it was actually legible.

  It’s hair dye chalk. Skylar told me about it. I went searching for the safest one on the market and checked with the nurses. They said this one is perfectly safe for Jilly to use. This way, both of you can color your hair neon green for the day.

  I also included a disposable camera. Just in case you want to start collecting memories again. Figured a photo of you and Jilly w/ your green hair might go great with the one of you and your sister w/ your pink hair.

  I really hope you do want to start collecting memories again, sweetheart, because I want to start collecting a lifetime of them with you.

  I miss you.

  “Do you like the surprise?” asked Jilly.

  Tessa wiped a wayward tear from her eye. “More than you can possibly imagine, Jilly.”

  “Yaay! Then you’ll LOVE all the others!” she squealed, pointing over at the window seat behind the TV cabinet. Her voice dropped to a reverent whisper. “Can we play with them later?”

  Tessa turned around and just stared in shock at the sight before her. It looked like a convention of ‘80s cartoon characters. An Inspector Gadget lunchbox, a whole bunch of stuffed Care Bears and Smurfs, a Jem and the Holograms dvd set, a Rainbow Bright coloring book, and the complete SilverHawks and ThunderCats action figure sets.

  Good lord, she was hopelessly in love with that man.

  “Brian brought all that for me?”

  Jilly nodded vigorously. “Uh-huh! He came every day this week with a present for you.” Then a scolding look passed over her face. “He was not happy when you weren’
t here. I think you made him sad, Tessa.”

  Ouch. Leave it to a six-year-old to put her in her place. “Yes, I think I did, too. Do you think he’ll forgive me?”

  Jilly sat and thought about that seriously for a moment. “I think if you go over there and apologize nicely, and give him a big hug maybe he’ll forgive you.”

  Sometimes the classics really were the best.

  The ‘maybe’ did have her a little worried though.

  She leaned over and gave Jilly a loving peck on the forehead. “You are a genius. We’ll color our hair green this weekend, okay? And take some pictures?”

  “Okay,” agreed Jilly cheerfully. “Remember now,” she reemphasized as Tessa was leaving, “a BIG hug.”

  As she rushed out of the care home, Tessa pulled out her phone and dialed Brian’s house number.

  Answering machine.

  Damn it.

  His cell phone seemed to be ringing through though.

  “Where the hell have you been, woman?”

  Tears sprang into her eyes. Happy tears. For all of it—the protective alpha growl, the way he never said her name with a question mark when she called, and the love in his voice that had only grown since they’d last talked. Definitely happy tears.

  “Hello to you, too.”

  “So does this phone call mean you’re done running?” he asked gruffly.

  “I didn’t run!” she argued back hotly.

  Really, she didn’t.

  “Where are you now?”

  “I was headed over to see you, actually.”

  “Good,” came the rough reply. “Then I won’t have to let the air out of your tires.”

  Doing a double take, Tessa looked up and saw Brian leaning against her car, staring at her like a man possessed. Or at least a man in love with a woman who made him feel possessed.

  She shoved her phone in her bag and launched herself into his arms. “I’ve missed you.”

  His arms snapped shut around her like steel bands. “Then you shouldn’t have run,” he grumbled against her hair, a low ragged exhale of relief following soon after.

  “I didn’t run!” she maintained pushing back to stand her ground. “I…hid.”

  A world of difference.

  “You shouldn’t have been hiding from me either, Tessa. When are you going to get it into your stubborn little head that I want you? All of you—quirky habits, too-independent-for-your-own-good tendencies, HD gene and all. I’ve been giving you time, waiting for you to come to me. But you know what? Screw that. You’re coming home with me. Home. With me. That’s where your home is. Not that apartment. Not wherever the hell you’ve been for the last few days.”

  He took in a deep, jagged breath and cupped her cheek. “I know you’re scared and I am too, sweetheart. But if Huntington’s is going to steal your memories one day years and years from now, well then we’ll just make its job that much harder and longer by filling our lives with more memories than it can take, fill that busy little head of yours so it takes years, decades to wipe out. Green hair, ATV trips, you name it, we’ll collect an endless string of memories. Together.”

  She stared at him, her heart hammering, legs barely holding her up. “That could be the most romantic thing you’ve ever said to me.”

  “Really?” His voice graveled even more. “How about I do one better…” Dragging her back into his arms, he said gruffly, “Marry me. Be by my side to watch Skylar graduate from high school, go to college, and whatever else she decides to do. Be by my side so she’ll be inspired to go out and fall in love. But mostly, be by my side so I can be by yours too. Marry me, Tessa Daniels.”

  Heart swelling to double capacity, words were failing her completely. Oxygen too, for that matter.

  “You don’t have to rush on answering, sweetheart,” he continued gently. “I’m not going anywhere. But one thing I do want to give you a heads-up on is that your mother knows already because I called her this week—not to ask for your hand, but to tell her I was damn well taking your hand in marriage.”

  Later, she’d process this all much more carefully but for now, all she could do was parrot back the most shocking of all the verbal grenades he’d just launched her way. “You called my mother?”

  Funny, in her head, she was sure her mouth was going to ask the much more burning question: You really want to marry me?

  “Yes. I had Jay find her phone number for me soon after you left. I was worried out of my mind and I decided to tell her off, basically. To tell her exactly what I thought about her. About how horrible she’d been to you. But instead, I ended up telling her exactly what I thought about you instead. How much I love you. How incredible you are and how happy you’ve made me. How happy I want to make you in return for the rest of our lives.”

  Every ounce of love she had for the man lodged in her throat. “H-how did it go?” she finally managed.

  “I think her voicemail was very moved,” he replied roughly, looking thoroughly disgruntled. “I must have called her a hundred times and she never once answered her phone.”

  A soft laugh somehow found its way out of her. “My mom screens all her calls on her cell phone. That’s why I usually call her on her landline.”

  “I tried that, but her landline was disconnected.”

  “Right. That’s because she moved. Or so I discovered when I flew out there this past week.”

  This time it was Brian’s turn to be stunned. “You went to go see your mother?”

  “Yes. That’s the other thing I’ve been doing—and also why I was gone for those extra few days. I just…needed to. She wasn’t at the address I had. Surprise, surprise, she sort of forgot to tell me she’d moved again. So I had to stay an extra few days to find her. I had no intention of leaving without seeing her.” She shrugged. “And of course when I did manage to find her, it wasn’t one of those movie endings. She was on her way to work and literally had only five minutes for me.”

  She felt her heart do a double-thump when Brian bristled and growled over that.

  “It was okay though because five minutes was all I needed. I told her that I wanted her to see me in person. See that the daughter who’d begun dying in her mind the day the gene tests came back grew up to be a strong, happy woman. A woman who is living with HD and helping others with it. A woman not afraid to love and be loved. A woman who deserves to have a happily ever after with the man of her dreams, and look forward to the future instead of spending her life dreading it.”

  Blinding pride took over Brian’s expression.

  “I gave her two photos—the one of me with my dad and Willow, along with the photo of you, me, and Skylar from our ATV trip. And I also gave her my phone number, laminated, and on a magnet…which I stuck on her fridge. So if she doesn’t call, it’s not because she doesn’t have my number anymore.”

  Despite his obvious disgust with the woman, his expression held hope…for her.

  Tessa shook her head. “She ushered me out of her apartment a minute later saying she’d be late for work. And that was the end of that reunion.”

  “Honey, I’m so sorry.”

  “I’m not. She is who she is, and I became who I am despite that.”

  He nodded and pulled her into his arms. “And despite her, you’re going to become something she never was.”

  She tilted her face up to his. “What’s that?”

  He untucked a small gift bag from the cargo pocket of his jeans. “I’ve had this as your homecoming gift from the day I figured it all out.” With a soft smile, he whispered, “Open it.”

  Something about t
he way he was looking at her… She looked in the bag and gasped when she saw the baby onesies in it. “How?”

  “I guessed. I thought of the one thing that would make you run—”

  “I didn’t run!” she growled. “The day of the picnic, I’d stopped at the doctor’s to make sure I didn’t have a contagious bug. With Jilly and everyone else in the care home, we always need to be careful of that. He called me during the picnic to tell me the results of my blood test.”

  “And then you—”

  She poked him viciously in the stomach. “I didn’t run! I told you, I was hiding!”

  “Meaning you were trying to hide the pregnancy from me?”

  “What?! No! I spent the time setting up a trust with my father’s life insurance money and then seeing prenatal genetic specialists to find out about the prenatal HD gene test. This way, when I told you, there wouldn’t be any financial obligations for you to worry about, and I’d have all the info on the HD gene testing for you as well. That way, if you didn’t…”

  She couldn’t finish the sentence.

  And it was probably a good thing because something akin to shocked, violent outrage crossed his face.

  “You thought I wouldn’t want our child?!” he roared.

  “No! I just… I have the HD gene—that means our child will have the same fifty-fifty chance too. I just wanted to do everything I could so you could walk away if you wanted to, and have all the gene info ready for you if you only wanted to walk away…in certain conditions,” she finished lamely.

  With him just glaring at her, likely counting to ten silently, she rambled on, “You can find out for sure before agreeing to be a part of the pregnancy. There are two prenatal genetic tests; the one that’s later in the pregnancy is a little safer but—”

  “Don’t do the testing.” His voice had finally calmed and his eyes had warmed first with quiet, uncontainable excitement, and then with affectionate empathy.

  The combination, along with his quiet statement had her shaking like crazy—sheer and naked hope being as potent as adrenaline when it was rushing through your veins.