by Amy Brent
“I meant for it to last longer,” he said, gasping. “I really didn’t mean for this to go too fast tonight.”
I squeezed his hand that rested on my belly with a smile. “Don’t worry about that. We will have much more time.”
“I didn’t hurt you, right? Or the baby?” His fingers flexed protectively against the curve of my stomach.
“No,” I said, rolling out from beneath his arm to sit up. “Plenty of cushion down there. I was cleared for sex a long time ago.”
“Thank goodness for that,” he murmured, nuzzling his cheek against my back. “I’d be going crazy right now if you told me we couldn’t have sex.”
“There’s other ways to relieve the tension.”
He chuckled at that. “Good point, I suppose.”
We fell into comfortable silence as I floated in and out of consciousness under Gage’s fingers, tracing errant patterns on my back.
“Amber?”
I blinked back awake at the sound of his rumbling voice. “Hmm?”
“It’s getting late,” Gage said. “I don’t want to stay here all night because the security team will say something to your father. Unless you want me to stay.”
“Right,” I said, disappointment swelling in me. “It would probably be a good idea for you to go until we figure out what we want to do.”
“What is there to figure out?”
Gage sat up alongside me on the bed. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to him. I let my head rest on his bare shoulder while gazing through the darkness of my room.
“Where do we go from here?” I asked. “That’s a good question to answer for starters.”
“It is,” he agreed, stroking my arm. “Well, I’m not planning to leave you. I hope you aren’t planning to leave me again.”
“I’m not. I can promise you that.”
“Then, you come back to my cabin with me. I’ll tell your father that after doing some talking, you feel comfortable coming back with me. Does that sound feasible?”
“It could work,” I said slowly. “He’d probably like the idea better because he wants to know who the father is.”
My stomach twisted guiltily for lying. Again. It was hard sometimes to pick apart the sincerity and genuine moments with Gage when everything else outside of our relationship felt like a double life. I knew that my father was going to be beyond angry. Devastated. Disappointed. The scandal of it was going to be huge.
And yet, I didn’t want to live alone with this secret. At least I could share it with Gage along the way.
“How about it, then?” Gage asked. “That way we can deal with this together. I’ll be able to keep an eye out on you, too.”
“Scott has been trying to find me,” I pointed out, a shiver going up my spine. “If he sees me with you—”
“Let’s just deal with it if that day does come,” Gage interrupted. “For now, come back with me to the cabin. Lily misses you and Ethan both. We can tell the both of them we are going to have a baby together.”
I looked at Gage with arched eyebrows. “You told Lily about us?”
“Not really,” he said, grimacing. “She’s smarter than I gave her credit for. She figured out that something happened between us a long time ago. So, she knows that I am moving on with my life.”
“And she’s okay with that?” I asked cautiously. The last thing I wanted to do was intrude on Lily’s memories of her mother. I knew the two of them were close to one another.
Gage gave me a long and intense look. “She misses you, period. Does that help make you feel a bit better?”
“A little,” I said. “Ethan misses you, too. Our baby deserves to have two parents together.”
“Very much agreed, darling. It’s a deal then?”
“Yes. I want to come back to the cabin with you.”
Thanksgiving arrived with a snowstorm a few weeks later. After spending the past few days preparing for dinner, I was more than ready to stuff myself with turkey and mashed potatoes. The sound of Lily and Ethan playing happily upstairs, along with Gage’s voice, brought a smile to my face as I checked the turkey’s temperature again.
The smell of turkey and stuffing filled the entire house. I peeled the last of the potatoes while listening to three of them upstairs set up the nursey for Mollie’s arrival in a month. Gage had insisted on getting the room ready the second that Ethan and I had officially unpacked our things. So, we spent the previous week shopping in Bozeman after attending my ultrasound appointment.
My heart wanted to burst from joy and happiness. Our tiny little family was perfect, and about to expand. I didn’t want to come out of it. I just wanted to stay in the kitchen, cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for my family to enjoy in a few hours.
The phone rang right as I set the pot of chopped potatoes and water onto the stove. I quickly turned the burner on and grabbed the landline before it went to the answering machine.
“Hello?”
“Ah, I’m glad you answered, sweetheart. I didn’t know if I would be able to get ahold of you both with this storm coming in.”
I smiled at the sound of my father’s cheerful voice on the other end of the phone. I could hear the familiar sound of voices in the background as well. He had remained in D.C. for Thanksgiving because of a major snowstorm lingering over Colorado and Montana. My mother was set to fly into D.C. later tonight, from what I remembered about her email to me.
“How is the weather in D.C.?” I asked, wiping my hands dry on a towel. “No snow for you there?”
“No snow here, but I don’t mind a break from it. I just wanted to remind you that I’m hosting a joint Christmas party this year with Montana’s congressmen.”
I tensed at that. The last thing I wanted to do was to go to a Christmas party to overhear a million questions. My father had dropped the topic for now, but I knew the party would be an invitation for him to ask questions.
“I don’t know if that would be a good idea, Dad, for me to go,” I said. “That’s close to my due date. What if Scott arrives there, too?”
“He isn’t invited to the party, Amber. I’m not taking no for answer. You can’t hide in the shadows forever.”
“I can certainly try.”
He sighed into the phone. “Just please do me a favor and show up. That’s all I’m asking you to do. I won’t press you for information, if that’s what you’re worried about. Even if it would be nice to know who the father of my grandchild is.”
“I told you that I’m not going to talk to you about that right now,” I said, irritation sweeping through me. “I’ll go if you promise not to pester me about it. Nobody else can pester me, either.”
“That’s fine. Scout’s honor, dear. I’ll see you in a few weeks, then.”
“See you in a few weeks. Happy Thanksgiving, Dad.”
“Make a nice big turkey for Gage. This is his favorite holiday because it gives him an excuse to get fat.”
He hung up before I could reply to that. I set the phone back down in the cradle with a sense of dread growing inside of me. A pair of strong arms encircled my waist, resting on top of my baby belly. I leaned back against Gage’s strong chest without hesitation.
“Who was that?” he asked.
“My father,” I said. “He wanted to remind me that he is having a Christmas party here in Bozeman. He wants me to go.”
“Might be something fun to go to before Mollie arrives,” Gage said. “Why are you hesitating?”
“I just have a bad feeling about it, is all. I can’t explain it.”
Gage’s arms loosened from around me. He pressed a kiss to the side of my head with a smile.
“Try not to worry so much,” he said. “Nothing bad is going to happen. We will figure everything out like we have been. Okay?”
I forced a smile on my face, despite a little voice inside my head saying that shit was about to hit the fan. I could feel it. Something was bound to happen at the Christmas Party.
Chapter 27
Gage
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Amber asked again.
I sighed in exasperation at the question. I turned around to look at Amber as she readied herself for the Christmas Party. Her skin was a ghostly, pale white from anxiety, but she still looked beautiful in my eyes. Her nine-month belly poked out from beneath the black maternity dress she wore over a pair of thick leggings and knee-high boots. Her blonde tresses were pulled up in a messy bun.
“Yes,” I said, rolling my eyes as I tightened the knot on my black tie. “Everything will be fine, Amber. I don’t know how many times I have to keep telling you that.”
Amber looked back into the mirror on her vanity. “All the way until we get there. I can’t shake it, Gage. Something isn’t right about this party.”
“It’s just your nerves. It doesn’t help that you’re nine months pregnant, either.”
“This is the first time that I’ll be seeing my father since I found out that I was pregnant,” Amber said. “My mother isn’t here to protect me from his questions like she has been over the past few months. I’m surprised he hasn’t tried to pry information out of you, yet.”
I fastened the cuff links on my sleeves. “That’s because I don’t let the subject come up. I told him that it was better for you to stay here where I could keep an eye on you. That’s all we’ve talked about.”
Amber studied my face intently through the mirror of her vanity. “That doesn’t bother you anymore?”
“What doesn’t bother me anymore?” I asked, confused.
“Lying to my father,” she answered primly. “Not telling him that you really do know who the father is?”
“Bubble, remember? We talked about enjoying our bubble for as long as we could.”
“I don’t know how much longer that will be,” Amber said sadly. “If Scott goes forward with leaking the pictures, all of this will come crashing down on our shoulders.”
“Which the both of us are prepared for,” I reminded her, leaning in to press a kiss against her lips. “Don’t worry about it, Amber. This is a Christmas party filled with important people. Your father won’t be bothering us tonight. Trust me.”
“I hope so,” she said, sighing. “I really can’t take the secrecy any longer. I’m ready to have this baby.”
I rubbed the swell of her belly with a smile. “I am, too. If you’re that worried about showing up in the same car—”
“I am worried about that,” she interjected.
“Then, you tell your father that I drove you because of the roads being icy. I don’t trust your driving skills around the mountain roads.”
“I can drive!”
I laughed at her indignant protest.
“Come on now,” I said. “Let’s get the kids to Raychelle’s house before it gets too late.”
We gathered up Lily and Ethan from the living room to buckle them into the truck. Amber was quiet on the drive down to Raychelle’s house. I could feel the apprehension radiating off her in waves. She was worried about her father’s questions, and what he would think once we told him the truth. The topic had come up quite a bit recently, since our baby girl’s arrival to the world was approaching fast.
I reached up to touch the small box in the inner pocket of my suit jacket. She had no idea. No idea that I planned on taking that nervous plunge to let everyone know that Amber Roselynn was mine, and that she was carrying our baby. By the end of the night, it wasn’t going to be a surprise when Amber left in my truck to come back home.
I didn’t let Amber see my own nerves, though. I was sick of lying to Beau every time he brought up the topic of wondering who the father was. The baby wasn’t Scott’s. That much, Beau had learned, but he was relentless in trying to figure out who it was. That was why he had never once questioned why Amber wanted to come out of hiding to live with me. He had hoped that I would be the one to figure out who the father was. Some nights, I stayed up late, feeling our baby move underneath the palm of my hand while guilt threatened to eat me alive. Still, I refused to let that threaten our joy and future together.
I took Lily and Ethan down the dark pathway to the front porch of Raychelle’s house after they bid Amber goodbye. Ray welcomed the both of them in, with a wide smile, before waving to Amber in the passenger seat of the truck.
“Thank you for watching them,” I said and gave her a quick hug. “I really appreciate it.”
Raychelle waved me away. “Go on, now. The kids will be fine with me. I rented several Christmas movies to keep them occupied throughout the night.”
“Make sure to play the old Frosty movie,” I said. “Lily is in love with that movie. I promised to play it for her, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.”
I hopped back into the driver’s seat of my truck to back down the driveway. I started down the quiet road in the direction of the city lights piercing through the cold winter night.
Amber chewed on the pad of her thumb nervously as she watched the city lights blur around her. She sensed a change coming like I did. I didn’t care how upset Beau got, or how anyone would perceive our relationship. We were going to move forward with our life together. If no one else wanted to be a part of it, then that was going to be their problem. Not ours.
I reached through the darkness and lights from the dashboard to rest a hand on Amber’s bouncing knee.
“It’s going to be fine, honey,” I said. “Trust me when I say that it’s going to be okay. The sun will still rise tomorrow. Our daughter will still be arriving sometime in the next week or so.”
“I do trust you,” she replied, dropping her hand to grasp mine. “I’m just nervous about it. I can’t get over this feeling that I have, that everything will be different by the end of the night.”
“It will be,” I said. “I can promise you that it will be very different. In a good way, though. I promise.”
City Hall was decorated elaborately with Christmas decorations when I managed to find a parking spot close by. A giant Christmas tree shimmered with silver tinsel and Christmas balls in the middle of the marble lobby when I led a hesitant Amber inside. The sound of Christmas jingles, along with loud and happy voices, filled my ears when we entered the main conference room where at least a hundred people were gathered around various tables of food and drinks.
I took in the sight with an impressed whistle. I looked over at Amber as she unbuttoned her coat.
“Your father sure knows how to throw a party,” I said.
“You’ve never been to one of my father’s parties?” Amber asked, handing her coat over to one of the staff members checking in coats. “I’m surprised you haven’t been to a Christmas one.”
“Just barbecues,” I replied, handing over my coat as well. It took all my strength to not reach forward to grab Amber’s hand, to lead her through the crowd of people. “All right. Let’s find a table.”
“There you are, Amber!”
Beau appeared alongside Amber with a frown. “I have been trying to call you for the past hour. Do you not answer your phone anymore?”
“I just got here,” Amber said defensively. “I left my purse in Gage’s truck, so I don’t have my phone.”
“Your purse is in Gage’s truck?” he asked.
Amber’s eyes widened when she realized the slip. She looked up at me, desperate for help. For a wild moment, I was tempted to tell Beau everything right there. I had hoped the party wasn’t crowded, but everyone with money and status crowded the conference room. There was no private place to talk that I could see.
“I drove her here because of the roads,” I said. “They’re icy up on the mountains this late at night. I didn’t want her driving in the dark on her own.”
Beau’s eyes flicked between us, with that same scrutinizing manner of trying to read our emotions. If he didn’t believe me, he didn’t voice it. He wrapped an arm around Amber to give her a big hug.
“I’m glad you came,” he said. He glanced down at her belly with a strained, bu
t small smile. “Only two weeks left, right? You’re about to pop.”
Irritation filled Amber’s eyes.
“That’s how I feel,” she said. “I didn’t want to come tonight because I’m sure that my water is about to burst.”
“At least you’re in the city close to the hospital,” Beau said. “Now, I know that I promised to leave you alone.”
“Please don’t bring this up here,” Amber cut in, shaking her head. “You did promise me to keep quiet.”