Ginger leaned back to look him in the eye. “And chocolate pudding?”
His smile was adoring. “And chocolate pudding.” So she handed over the laptop to him. He wanted to kiss her, she saw it in the way his eyes glittered, but their audience was close and as if to remind himself of that, Shane turned to his brother. “We need to buy shares in the chocolate pudding company.”
Murphy paused, his hands half in his pockets as his brow raised. “Say what? You mean, Cam’s chocolate pudding? Why would we—”
Shane pulled his phone from his back pocket. “ ‘Cause, brother, I’m about to place the largest order for stock that the company’s ever received.”
“We’re going in to retail?” Murphy asked.
“Nope, just satisfying the Warren family needs,” Shane said.
Laughing, Ginger pulled the phone down before he could put it to his ear. “Let’s go home.”
22
Dinner was great. Ginger actually managed to cook for everyone without burning the chalet down and because she was busy with dinner, she didn’t stress as much about what was going on around the table.
Everyone had stayed, either in support of her effort or because they didn’t want to be excluded.
Everyone except the doctor who had chosen to go to the lodge to eat alone. It wasn’t too much that he wanted a night off from their craziness, she was surprised he hadn’t requested more time away from the madness.
The empty, but dirty, plates were still on the table. Cam was banging his spoon on his highchair tray in time with the beat provided by his father, who was at his side as usual.
“Dinner was wonderful, thank you,” Calvin said and other noises of appreciation went around the table. Father and son stopped making music and she began to think about clearing the table. “While everyone is present, there is something I would like to do.”
Twisting toward him, Ginger wondered what he was talking about. “You want to do…” To her horror, Calvin slid off his seat onto one knee and held up her engagement ring.
“I want you to recommit to being my wife.”
She’d thought she’d got off the hook with him not bringing up the divorce papers, but as Calvin knelt next to her, she saw Boyd retrieve a stack of papers from beneath the unused placemat next to his. Only one thing those could be.
But she didn’t feel panicked or guilty, she lowered her gaze to the ring and tried to contain the burst of fury that exploded within her. “You’re doing this now?” she murmured.
“Yes, I—”
“You’re doing this in front of my child?” she asked, her volume spiking on the last word.
Calvin was stunned. “I… I…”
Her anger snapped, infusing her every cell, but she kept her voice to a crackling hiss so as not to scare her baby. “Cam doesn’t see this. He doesn’t get involved with any of our relationship issues. I would protect my child with my life… We do not do this in front of him.”
“But—”
“No!” she said.
Calvin wasn’t even accepting her rage, he had the gall to act offended.
Screw it! Julianna was leaving at 6 AM, that’s what Owen had told her when she was cooking, that was only a matter of hours away. They were close enough.
Ginger would never get through to Calvin with subtlety and she’d just come to the end of her rope. Her head snapped to the side to fixate on Shane who had a hand on Cam’s head as he observed the scene.
“Bit?” Shane asked, noticing her attention.
He was probably expecting her to tell him to take over or maybe to take Cam away. She did neither. Tilting her chin, her determination grew. “Call, raise, or fold.”
“Excuse me?” Shane asked.
Murphy hissed through his teeth as Owen “Ooo’d.”
But she kept her eyes on her husband. “Call his offer,” Ginger said, knowing he wouldn’t fold. “A ring for a ring.”
“You think Shane just happens to be packing a ring?” Murphy asked.
Shane’s brows rose in time with his smile, because they both knew something that no one else did. “You sure, Bit?” he asked. Ginger nodded, so Shane stood up to put his hand in his pocket.
Calvin sputtered. “He is not going to offer you—”
Shane slapped the velvet pouch on the table. “Raise. I see your ring and raise you another. Two for the price of one,” he said.
Calvin was speechless again and bounced into his chair to look at Boyd. “I… I…”
“What’s in there?” Owen asked.
“Where did you get that?” Calvin asked.
Ginger turned her focus to him. “In your drawer,” she said and he had the decency to pale now. This conversation was happening whether she wanted it to or not. “Shay, will you take Cam upstairs for his bath, please?”
“Uncle Owen will do it,” Shane said. “Murph, get the—”
“No,” she said. “I need to talk to Calvin alone.”
Shane was hesitant, but Cam squealed and began to bounce. He was only going to have this energy for a while, it would dwindle and he would get grumpy fast.
Shane unbuckled their son from the seat and lifted him up. “Shout if you need me,” Shane said and lingered over eye contact before side-nodding at Murphy and Owen.
They left, but Boyd stayed and she eyed him. “Can we have a minute alone?” she said. “Please?”
Boyd waited for Calvin’s approval before standing up to leave the room and he closed the door. “I can—”
“I don’t know what explanation there can be for this,” she said, staring into the man sitting beside her, unable to find a redeeming quality. “I was… devastated Calvin. I know Shane gave you a narrative, he told me about it in therapy and… I went nuts, I told him he was crazy.”
“Then you went snooping and—”
“I didn’t go snooping,” she argued. “I went to get cufflinks from your drawer to let Shane borrow them. It wasn’t meant to be a big deal. But you… I found the rings by mistake. Calvin… you can sit there sneering at me all you like, but this… it proves… I don’t even know what it proves. Is it true? Did you know…? Did you know the whole time?”
“This is what Warren wants,” Calvin asserted. “You’re letting him into your head! I don’t see what two little trinkets have to do with our future!”
“Goddamn it, Calvin,” she hollered, thrusting to her feet, she slammed the side of her fist onto the table, making some of the plates jump. “Just for once, show me a bit of respect and tell me the truth!”
He sealed his lips tight. It was odd that looking into his eyes gave her nothing. Reading Shane was innate, she didn’t know how she knew his mood, she just did. But with Calvin, she was at a loss. Was he going to keep avoiding the issue or be a man and face up to what he’d done? “I...”
“Please, Calvin,” she said, sinking into her chair, she picked up his hand. “Please, just be honest with me.”
It took him another minute, but when he spoke again, he wasn’t so defensive. “I hit you with my car,” he said and she straightened a fraction. “You came running out onto the road like a lunatic and I couldn’t stop, there was just no time!” She’d always believed he’d found her at the side of the road like a wounded animal, Ginger hadn’t thought for a second that Calvin had injured her in any way. “I panicked. When I got out, you were unconscious, white as a sheet.” Did he consider leaving her? Was that why he was getting frantic? “I took you to the hospital, I thought it was the right thing to do, they asked if you were my wife... I said yes.” He was quick to follow up. “I promise you, I hadn’t even seen the rings or put anything together, I just... was so worried about you.”
He touched her face but she pulled away. Searching the room, she was oblivious to its features, she couldn’t get over the shock. He’d known. All along. He’d know that she’d been married at least, even if he didn’t know who it was too.
“Calvin, I... why would you propose...? Spend all that money on a wedding
and—”
“Because I loved you and it had been so long... I just assumed that whoever he was, he didn’t love you, not really, or maybe he’d been the one to hurt you, how did I know who you were running from? You were so scared when you ran out onto that road. Terrified.”
Yeah, because there was a massive vehicle hurtling toward her at a great rate of speed. “I don’t... I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Think about it,” he said, squeezing her hand tight. “Even if I’d known that you’d been in an accident before I met you, how was I to know that the man who gave you those rings wasn’t dead already? By keeping you from investigating, all I was doing was saving you pain.”
Turning to look at the pouch over on Shane’s side of the table, how would she have felt if she’d known she’d been married? If Calvin had told her the truth about the rings. Except, if she’d known, she would have understood more about Cam’s parentage.
“You should’ve told me,” she said. “Why did you hide the rings from me?”
“The hospital gave them to me with your effects, I put them in my pocket and didn’t think more about it… I was worried for you. They couldn’t tell me if you’d wake up.”
Her perspective on their initial meeting changed. The picture he was building now was of something much different to that of the kind Samaritan doing another human a favor. Now she wondered if he paid for her treatment, not out of altruism, but fear that he could be convicted of hurting her if she didn’t make it.
“But I did wake up,” she said, realizing he must have known about Cam long before she did. And if Shane was right about Calvin’s want for child support, he must have figured out who she was early, while she was unconscious at the hospital.
If the hospital assumed he was her husband, he could’ve been making all kinds of medical decisions for her without her knowledge or consent. It made sense now why they allowed Calvin to transfer her to a private facility without follow-up. The hospital thought they were a married couple.
“Yes, and you were exhausted and dehydrated,” Calvin said. “Seeing you weak was very difficult for all of us and I… All I wanted was for you to get your strength back and as you got better… I started to care for you… I fell in love with you, Ginger.”
He sounded like he meant it and there was a tenderness in his eyes that actually made her want to believe it. This time when he cupped her face, she stayed put to accept the caress. “I’d never have known,” she said. “If Shane hadn’t come to find us, Cam would never have known his father.”
“I knew I could offer you a good life and given your medical condition I knew we couldn’t be faulted for assuming we were free to marry,” he said. “We fell in love, no one can blame us for that.”
And if Calvin had decided their relationship wouldn’t work before Shane found her, he could void the marriage and not pay a penny to her in the divorce. He could even have brought bigamy charges.
Ginger still didn’t understand his need to keep her from her past. How could a person do that to another person? Shane had said if they were secure in their relationship there was no need for one person to have all the control, but Calvin had all the control in their dynamic. Maybe that was something he liked and just the way he was with women, or maybe he was scared if she found out the truth she’d leave him for her original husband.
If he loved her, she couldn’t fault him for being afraid to lose her. But how could he love her and keep such a secret?
She was still thinking about this and about all the times she’d thought she had feelings for Calvin when he leaned in and touched his lips to hers. How could he think about kissing now? Calvin pushed and coiled his fingers around her upper arms to draw her closer to him, but she turned her face away and tried to pull away, but he kept hold of her.
“I love you,” he said, “think about the life we had together, the life we can have together… I know this has been confusing for you, but it’s time to stop with the games. Stop playing Warren and I off each other. We’re going to get married. That is your future.”
Her future. Standing at that altar with Calvin was supposed to be the beginning of a future she’d been so sure that she wanted. But since being here, she just couldn’t see it anymore. Ginger couldn’t imagine going back to Calvin’s house with Cam, eating dinner with Diane and being told what was expected of her over the course of the week.
Ginger wanted choice. She wanted to make her own decisions. She didn’t want every one of her wants to be questioned and scrutinized. “No,” she breathed out. Uttering the single word, lifted an invisible burden from her shoulders.
Calvin’s hands fell from her arms. “No?” he asked like he didn’t understand. “No, what?”
“That is not my future,” she said, meeting his eye. “I’m not going to marry you, Calvin.” And because she wasn’t completely heartless, she added, “I’m sorry.”
But her apology meant nothing to him, the rage that had subsided earlier came back with a vengeance. His jaw moved to the side and his eyes got dark as they filled with disgust. “It’s him, it’s because of him you’re saying this.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “This isn’t about making a choice between you and Shane. This is me making a decision about what’s best for me and my son, and I don’t believe that a future with you is what’s best.”
Calvin shot to his feet. “Have you been having sex with him? Have you?”
“No,” she said. “This isn’t about sex either.” Standing up, Ginger didn’t feel beholden to him anymore, she felt liberated. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with me and Shane. But I do know what will happen with you and me and it’s this… we’re over.”
Sucking in a breath, Calvin huffed and grumbled a bit before backing away from her and striding to the door. “This is not over, I won’t give up! I don’t lose!” he said, throwing open the dining room door. But his words weren’t desperate or filled with love, they were just… angry. “You’ll be sorry, you’ll all be sorry.”
Spinning around, he marched out and from her position, Ginger could see him cross the living room and storm out the front door.
It was a numbing experience to watch him leave like that, it felt wrong to be relieved and yet, she did feel lighter. Ginger stared at the closed front door for a while, but eventually exhaled. That was it. Over. The only man she’d known for months, the man she’d thought was her savior was gone. Out of her life.
But there was no time to reflect on her decision now and she was too emotionally tired to try and make sense on what she’d been told. Ginger had to be present, in the now, and as her eyes drifted to the side, the first thing conclusion she reached came fast. The table was still a mess, and they’d need to do dishes.
Her focus landed on the velvet pouch and without really thinking about it or shirking her numbness, she began to move toward it. Picking up the soft fabric from where Shane had slammed it down, she opened the drawstring and tipped the jewelry out.
They were beautiful, both of them, and probably expensive too, but she didn’t care about that. Sliding her wedding ring onto her ring finger, she followed it with her engagement ring, then looked at her hand.
That was it. They were back where they belonged.
But she still felt numb.
Dropping the pouch, she wondered if it would be wrong to burn that velvet prison that had kept her rings from her and hidden the truth.
Shane would be worried, but it was Cam she needed to see. If she could look into her baby’s eyes, she would start to feel again.
Migrating from the dining room, she was clutching her ring finger in her hand as she fixated on the front door. Was Calvin coming back? His things were here, Boyd was here, or maybe he wasn’t, she didn’t really know.
When Ginger reached the back of the couch, the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Instead of being fearful, another emotion began to trickle into her. “You’re supposed to be with Cam,” she said, projecting her vo
ice. Although she could feel him watching, she wasn’t exactly sure where he was.
“He’s giving his uncles a crash course in bath time,” Shane’s voice carried from the mezzanine above her. A smile curled her lips as her eyes closed. He’d been watching over her, without being too close to cause aggravation or eavesdrop, he’d just hung around in case. “I’m right outside the door, if he needed me I’d have been there for him in a second.”
So he was watching over both of them, standing just closer to their son but in shouting distance of both of them. And just like that, all the angst slid out of her. Leaving the couch, Ginger didn’t bother to look up, just walked to the stairs and began to ascend. She saw his shadow in her peripheral vision and just as she reached the top of the stairs, he emerged into the light to meet her.
Going straight into his arms, she exhaled and held herself close to him. “How did I ever survive without you, Shay?” she asked because it was like he’d given her the gift of clarity and of peace.
There were so many things they had to deal with, but she wasn’t afraid to make decisions. Shane made it ok for her to act. No matter what, he’d always have her back. Her tears warmed her cheeks before she realized they’d flooded her eyes and when she sniffed, he drew back, sliding his hands to her face.
“Hey,” he said, crouching to look into her eyes as he wiped the moisture away. “Why the tears? You’re sad that it’s over with Bishop?” Was that what he thought? That she was crying for the end of her relationship. “You did end it, didn’t you?”
She nodded and sniffed again as her nose was running. “I told him it was over.”
“Here,” Shane said. Offering her a shirt sleeve for her nose, he managed to make her smile again. “I’m sorry you’re hurting. Tell me how to make it better and I’ll make it better.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head and wiping her nose on her hand. “I’m not hurt.”
Putting her arms around him again, she clung to him, forcing him to hold her. Stroking her hair, he cupped her skull and kissed the top of her head. “I’d rather get kicked in the balls than see you cry, Bit. Please, baby, help me to help you. If you’re not hurt, why are you crying?”
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