“Only in times of crisis.”
He laughed.
“And I don’t have too many calamities in any given day.” She invited him in, and he glanced at her tree and then the box of opened decorations next to it.
“Pretty lights. Need any help decorating?”
She took the flowers from him and wandered toward the kitchen, ignoring his question. She didn’t want any opportunities to pop up that made him stay longer than necessary. She was already feeling an incessant amount of energy running between them, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to put a lid on it.
“This was so sweet of your grandma. She really didn’t have to do this. I feel so bad that your entire family had to hear that debacle.” Dina glanced at Sam as she added water to the vase. “I think I’ll be mortified for months, if not years, to come. I’m so sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” Sam shook his head. “You’re the poor soul who got sick again. We were just worried about you.”
“It was nice of your brother, Kyle, to drop off the turkey for me. I’m still making sandwiches out of it.”
“It was the least we could do. Autumn got you out of there so fast, my mom didn’t have time to fix a plate.” He smiled. “We just felt awful. Do you have any idea what’s causing it? You certainly can’t blame alcohol because you didn’t have any.”
Dina shifted and brought in a deep breath. Did he know? Was this his way of providing an opening? Now would be the perfect time to tell him. He cleared the way and now she could just offer the explanation, but as she looked into his eyes, she completely clammed up.
She liked Sam.
A lot.
And she knew the moment she told him that she was expecting his child, everything in their world would change. She didn’t know in what direction things would shift, but she knew for sure they would, and she liked how things were now.
Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as she scolded herself.
“I was thinking it could be some sort of weird allergy,” he offered.
And maybe now he was trying to provide an out so she didn’t have to tell him.
“I’m going to talk to my doctor about it.” She felt bad for lying, and in a way, she wasn’t. After all, she was going back to her doctor right before Christmas for a checkup on the baby and some blood tests, and she was certainly going to bring up the avocado events. “But let’s just put it out of our minds. I want to hide under a rock every time I think about it.”
“Deal, but you ignored my question, though, about wanting help on the tree.” He walked over to Dina who was standing frozen in the kitchen.
“I suppose it would go faster.”
He looped his arms around her waist, and her mind flew to her belly. Would he notice she was getting bigger?
“Is that all you’re worried about is speed or would you like a little company?” His voice lowered. “I sure know I would.”
His blue eyes darkened a shade, and her entire body heated with a desire she shouldn’t be feeling. She should be burdened with the thought of telling him about his unborn child, but instead her hormones were taking over yet again.
“I like your company quite a lot,” Dina whispered, running her hands along his arms.
“Is that so? I was starting to wonder,” he teased. “First, you used to run in the opposite direction, and then you just kind of ignored me all together, and now you just get sick in front of me.”
Dina whipped her finger up to his mouth and shook her head. “You promised you wouldn’t bring that up.”
He nipped at her finger and she let out a little giggle as she thought about those very lips elsewhere on her body.
“I’m worried with you around, I might not get much of my tree decorated,” she whispered, glancing at her naked tree.
“Would that be a bad thing?” He brought her attention back to him and ran his hands up her spine, sending a flurry of chills through her.
She brought in a deep breath and looked into his eyes, and it was in that very moment, she knew she had to tell him.
Before she had a chance, Sam brought his lips to hers and every cell in her body crackled with longing as her round belly rubbed against his hardness. She loved that she had the power to make Sam want her as badly as she wanted him, but now there was something even more raw about the desire running between them.
She parted her lips and his kisses deepened, eagerly sweeping and tasting her as if they’d never kissed before. His hands stroked the back of her neck, moving to her hair as a little moan escaped her lips from the heat rolling between them.
She knew from his kiss that he was willing.
Dina’s entire world was spinning with desire as the ache to make love to Sam North grew stronger by the second. He slowly moved her toward the counter, lifting her body onto the granite as his hands slid underneath her shirt. The gentleness of his fingers as they skated along Dina’s skin sent a wave of shivers through her as their kisses intensified and desire strengthened.
But Dina knew she had to tell him. With every sweep of his tongue, images of when they had sex swirled through her mind, and she realized she couldn’t keep it from him any longer. She pulled back only slightly, ending the kiss they’d so eagerly shared. As his eyes found hers, confusion set in and the fear she’d felt about telling him that appeared so many times burned a hole in her resolve.
“What’s wrong?” his voice hoarse with desire as his hands still stroked her back.
“I need to tell you something.” Her gaze dropped to the counter and she pulled her hands away from his waist.
“You can tell me anything.”
Dina nodded, feeling her pulse pounding harder by the second as she stared at the speckled granite.
“I hope that’s the case.” Dina looked up at Sam and her stomach twisted into knots, not because she was about to tell him, but because she hadn’t told him before.
He gently touched her lips, and her breath caught as his gaze stayed locked on hers.
“I haven’t known how to tell you or even when, but—”
Just as the words almost left Dina’s mouth her phone began ringing on the counter next to her and Sam’s gaze dropped to the screen.
“It says Jenny Romano,” Sam said, watching Dina’s entire expression fall.
“That’s my sister.” With the moment between Sam and her lost, she debated whether or not to pick up the phone. She didn’t want to tell him over a ringing phone and being that her sister rarely called, she was tempted to pick up.
“You can tell me what you have to tell me later.” He stepped back and smiled. “Go ahead and pick up. I somehow think this call is a rarity.”
“You know me better than I realized.”
Sam laughed and shook his head. “You’re not all that hard to figure out.”
Dina chuckled and reached for her phone. “That’s not what my ex-fiancés say.”
“Well, then they’re not very astute.”
“Touché.” Dina grinned and then answered her phone to hear her sister sobbing in the background. “Jen, what’s wrong?”
Dina’s entire world went into slow motion as her sister’s cries echoed through the phone.
“It’s mom.” She sniffed. “She’s had a stroke.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Dina’s sister wasn’t the kind of person who wanted to bathe in the suds of human kindness and neither was her mother. As Dina sat in the hospital room seeing her mother hooked up to more machines than Dina cared to think about, she wondered where they went wrong. Thankfully, her mother wasn’t up to answer her question. She’d been lightly sedated, and the doctors were slowly pulling her off the meds.
A vase of yellow roses attempted to brighten up the dreary hospital room and a plate of uneaten scrambled eggs sat next to them. Her father had tried to eat the once powdered eggs, but declared them garbage and went out to find fast food.
The irony wasn’t lost on Dina.
“I’m surprised you came,” Jen sat
down next to her and opened a package of candied nuts from the vending machine.
Dina turned in the squeaky chair and frowned at her as the words settled around her. “Why wouldn’t I come?”
Her sister shrugged and poured some nuts into her palm.
“No, you can’t say something like that and not give a reason.” Dina let out a deep breath and hoped the sound of the heart monitor covered the tremor. Now wasn’t the time to start arguing with her sister.
“Well, it’s not like you and mom are all that…close.” Jen tossed a few of the nuts in her mouth and sat back in the chair, turning her attention back to their mother.
“Not because of anything I did,” Dina whispered, worried her mother would hear them.
“True.” Jen nodded in agreement.
“True?” Dina repeated in shock.
Jen sucked on her bottom lip and stared at their mother and continued, “But now’s not the time to discuss it.”
Dina’s hand ran over her belly and she suddenly felt calm. It was like having this little constant companion made everything in her once complicated world simple and right.
There had been so many times over the years where Dina felt like she was all by herself in the world. Her brother and sister loved being in their parents’ good graces and she couldn’t blame them. Who would want to be the black sheep of the family, even if she didn’t understand why?
Jen turned her attention back to Dina and offered her some nuts, but all Dina could do was think about what Jen said. Why did she suddenly admit that Dina didn’t deserve to be the outcast that she’d always been?
Okay, maybe she didn’t exactly admit that, but she acknowledged that Dina hadn’t done anything to deserve her parents’ treatment over the years and that was a first.
“In other news, where is Josh again?” Dina asked.
“In New Orleans on a work trip. He should be back tomorrow.” Jen stood up and tossed the empty pouch in the garbage can.
Dina was surprised her brother hadn’t dropped everything to be by his mother’s side, but she was sure he’d rush into the hospital room tomorrow dazzling his parents with some fish story, and for some reason, his stories always worked on them.
Jen walked over to her mother and leaned down, placing a kiss on her cheek. “It was so scary, Dina. I thought we were going to lose her.”
“I can’t even imagine finding mom like that.” Dina’s chest tightened at the thought. Even with how her mother had treated her over the years, she was still her mother, and the thought of her leaving this world was frightening.
“She seemed fine the night before when we were all at dinner.” Jen let out a deep sigh. “But I guess things can change in an instant.” Jen’s gaze fell to Dina’s stomach before her eyes met her sister’s. “So what have you been up to?”
Jen returned to the chair and sat down with a near thud as if walking over to their mother was the most exhausting event of the day.
“Besides opening a retail store and expanding my online business? Not much.” Dina laughed, and her sister rolled her eyes.
“You like the town?”
“I do. It’s a special place. I hope you come visit soon.”
Jen nodded but didn’t acknowledge Dina’s invitation as her eyes skimmed Dina’s stomach again. “Are you dating?”
“Only casually.” Dina sucked in a nervous breath. “And only one guy.”
“For how long?”
“Just about since I moved in.”
Jen laughed. “You never let any grass grow under your feet.”
“What do you mean?” Dina crossed her legs and realized the move pushed into her stomach slightly.
“You like to be attached. That’s all.”
Dina chuckled. “I guess there is no denying that, but this time, I’m not attached. He’s a notorious bachelor and it’s only casual.” Saying the words nearly lodged a lump in Dina’s throat. “We’re just friends with benefits.”
“And how’s that going to work?” Jen’s brow lifted as her eyes went directly to Dina’s stomach.
“Work with what?”
“I can tell.” She bit her lip and Dina’s cheeks flushed. “And I’m sure mom will be able to when she wakes up.”
Dina cleared her throat and glanced at her mother, Lois. She swore she saw a quiver of her lips. She hated to say it, but her mother was probably fully awake but pretending to be out so she could eavesdrop just a little longer.
“So how far along are you?” Jen whispered as if that would keep the conversation private.
Of all the people Dina knew she needed to be telling, her family wasn’t actually that high on the list. She’d feel awful if she told her estranged family she was expecting before the father of her child.
“I just had a really big breakfast,” Dina muttered, standing up to get a glass of water.
“Really? You’re not going to tell me?” Jen’s voice trembled slightly, but Dina spotted the familiar smirk plastered on her sister’s face. The trembling had nothing to do with sincerity and everything to do with wanting to be the first to know.
Ugh.
Things were slowly coming back to her as to why she left town and started her life somewhere else, but in her mother’s hospital room wasn’t where she should be contemplating her family’s dysfunction. None of it mattered anyway.
“You know, it wouldn’t surprise me,” their mother’s voice echoed through the room, shocking them both.
Dina spun around to see her mother’s eyes wide open, the oxygen tube shoved up her forehead like a misbehaving headband, and her sheets thrown off her legs, exposing the catheter tubing.
“What wouldn’t surprise you?” Dina asked, walking over to the hospital bed, praying she could change the subject.
“That you got pregnant.” Her mother cynically grinned and eyed Dina suspiciously. “If you can’t trap ‘em at the altar, I guess this is the next best thing.”
“Mom,” Jen hissed, but Dina knew she secretly loved the jab in Dina’s direction.
That was how it always had been. Why would it change now?
Sucking in a deep breath, Dina let the insult roll off her as she found an inch to sit down or at the end of the bed.
“How are you feeling?” Dina asked, reaching for her mother’s hand.
“What kind of question is that?” Her mother rolled her eyes. “I almost died. How do you think I’m feeling?”
Dina held in a sigh, knowing there wasn’t any right question she could ask her mother.
Yes. Her mother had experienced a stroke, but the doctor was pleased with the lack of damage this stroke had caused. From what the neurologist and cardiologist could surmise, she had very little lasting damage. Her speech and memory weren’t affected, and her tongue was as sharp as ever. Her mother dodged a bullet, a very deadly bullet.
Maybe secretly Dina thought the health scare would make her mother kinder. Yet here she was experiencing her mother’s first words to her and they were anything but kind.
And Dina was okay with that because she expected nothing less.
“So are you knocked up?” her mother asked, adjusting the bed with the push of a button.
Dina’s gaze whipped to her sister who was eagerly awaiting her reply and all Dina could do was bring her attention back to her mother and…
Lie.
“No. I’m sorry to prove your theory wrong, but I’m not pregnant.” Dina brought her hand back to her lap.
“That’s a shame.” Her mother feigned a cough. “It would be the first real accomplishment I could be proud of.”
Dina’s eyes narrowed on her mother’s, but she refused to let the words scorch her as deeply as her mother intended. She knew it was a trick. If Dina had confessed that she was pregnant, she would have been belittled, and if she denied it, well then this was her mother’s reaction. It was just another way to sling an insult and Dina would never understand what the discrepancy between all three children was about.
“Where
’s Josh?” Dina’s mother asked, turning her attention to Jen.
“He’s on a work trip, but he’ll be here tomorrow.”
“I might not even be at the hospital tomorrow,” she grumbled.
“You’ll be here for several days,” Jen said, scowling.
“Not if I can help it.” Dina’s mother yanked on the sheets, nearly tipping Dina off the bed and onto the floor when her father came back into the hospital room with a bag full of fast food.
“Breakfast is served.” He smiled, holding up the greasy paper bag, and Dina’s stomach sloshed around, but she refused to give in.
Dina stood up and glanced at her mother before bringing her gaze back to her father’s.
“Are you sure mom should really be eating a sausage or bacon breakfast sandwich with what she just went through?” Dina asked as he placed the bag on her mother’s tray.
“I’ll live my life how I damn well please,” her mother barked and sat up taller in the bed.
“It’s not that you can’t, but—” Dina bit her lip as her mother stared at her with the dirtiest look she’d ever experienced.
Over a breakfast sandwich.
Dina sat back down next to Jen and watched her father dig out a sandwich and hash browns while the smell of the foods sat heavy in the air.
“Want one, honey?” her dad asked Jen, who shook her head.
“What about you?” Her father’s gaze locked on Dina’s before gliding down to her stomach where he noticed her subconsciously gripping her tummy.
“I’m good. Thank you, though.”
Dina’s father scooted a metal chair close to his wife and Dina felt the air in the room shift to an even more uncomfortable state.
“We think Dina’s pregnant, but she won’t admit it.” Her mother took a bite of her hash browns and Dina held in a sigh.
“Nothing would surprise me.” Dina’s father stared at her and waited for a response.
“I think it would be great to be an aunt.” Jen grinned and slapped Dina’s back.
There was a part of Dina that just wanted to tell her family she was expecting, but it was a joyous thing, and she didn’t want anything to tarnish the gift she felt she was given.
A Little Secret About Love Page 17