Caroselli's Christmas Baby

by Michelle Celmer

  “There’s only one problem with that,” he said.

  She knew exactly what he was going to say. “Your family would have a fit.” If there was one thing that the Carosellis loved, it was a party. They would never pass up the opportunity to gather together, overeat and drink too much.

  “Exactly,” he said.

  “So, how big are you thinking?”

  “Immediate family only, maybe a few people from work.”

  “Two weeks would be the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I can guarantee most places will be booked.”

  Nick considered that for a moment, then his face lit up. “Hey, how about Nonno’s house? It would definitely be big enough. We could have the ceremony in the great room, in front of the fireplace.”

  “He wouldn’t mind?”

  “Are you kidding? He would be thrilled. The whole point of this is to get the three of us married off and making babies as soon as possible.”

  It seemed like a logical choice to her, too. “Call him and make sure it’s okay. On such short notice, I’m thinking we should keep it as simple as possible. Drinks and appetizers will be the best way to go.”

  “My cousin Joe on my mom’s side can get us a good deal on the liquor. Make a list of what you think we’ll need, then remember that it’s my family and whatever you plan to order, double it. And we should call the caterer we use for business events. The food is great, and their prices are reasonable.”

  “Email me the number and I’ll call them.” There was so much to do, and so little time. But she was sure they could pull it off. She knew that as soon as his mom and his sisters heard the news, they would be gunning to help.

  “You understand that my family has to believe this marriage is real, that we have to look like two people madly in love?”

  “I know.”

  “That means we’ll have to appear comfortable kissing and touching each other.”

  The thought of kissing and touching Nick, especially in front of his family, made her heart skip a beat.

  “Can you do that?” he asked.

  Did she have a choice? “I can do it.”

  “Are you sure? Last night when I touched you, you jumped a mile.”

  “I was just nervous. And confused.”

  “And you aren’t now?”

  “I’m trying to look at it logically. Like we’re just two people…conducting a science experiment.”

  Nick laughed. “That sounds fun. And correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you almost blow up the science lab in middle school?”

  Which had taught her the invaluable lesson that when a teacher said chemicals aren’t to be mixed, she actually meant it. That, plus a week of suspension, and a month of summer school to make up the failing grade she’d more than earned in the class, drove the message home.

  But what Nick seemed to be forgetting was she’d only done it because he’d dared her.

  “I didn’t think it was supposed to be fun,” she said.

  He frowned. “You don’t think sex should be fun?”

  “Not all sex. I guess I just thought, because we’re friends, we would just sort of…go through the motions.”

  “There’s no reason why we can’t enjoy it,” Nick said.

  “What if we’re not compatible?”

  “As far as I’m aware, we both have the right parts,” he said with a grin. “Unless there’s something you haven’t told me.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I don’t mean biologically compatible. What if we get started and we don’t get, you know…turned-on?”

  “Are you saying you find me unattractive?”

  “No, but in twenty years, I’ve never looked at you and had the uncontrollable urge to jump your bones. I just don’t think of you that way.”

  “Come here,” he said, summoning her around the island with a crooked finger.

  “Why?”

  “I’m going to kiss you.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. “Now?”

  “Why not now? Before we go through the trouble of getting married, shouldn’t we know for sure? Besides, what if we wait until our wedding day, and it all goes horribly wrong? Suppose we bump noses, or we both tilt our head the same way. And what about our honeymoon? Are we just going to hop into bed without ever having touched each other? Doesn’t it make more sense for us to ease into it gradually?”

  He definitely had a point. The problem here was that she was trying to play by a set of rules that didn’t exist. They were making it up as they went along. “I guess that does make sense.”

  “So, what are you waiting for?” He tapped his lips with his index finger. “Lay one on me.”

  The idea that they were really going to do it, that he was going to kiss her for real, and not his usual peck on the cheek, gave her a funny feeling in her head. Her hands went all warm and tingly, as if all the blood in her body was pooling somewhere south of her heart.

  It’s just Nick. She had no reason to be nervous or scared or whatever it was she was feeling. But as her feet carried her around the island to where he stood, her heart was racing.

  “Ready?” he asked, and she nodded.

  Nick leaned in, but before their lips could meet, a giggle burst up from her chest. Nick drew back, looking exasperated.

  “Sorry, I guess I’m a little nervous.” She took a deep breath and blew it out, shaking the feeling back into her fingers. “I’m okay now. I promise not to laugh again.”

  “Good, because you’re bruising my fragile ego.”

  Somehow she doubted that. She’d never met a man more secure in his prowess with women.

  “Okay,” he said. “Are you ready?”

  “Ready.”

  “Really ready?”

  She nodded. “Really ready.”

  Nick leaned in, and she met him halfway, and their lips just barely touched.

  She couldn’t help it, she giggled again.

  Backing away, Nick sighed loudly. “This is not working.”

  “I am so sorry,” she said. “I’m really trying.”

  Maybe this wasn’t going to work. If she couldn’t feel comfortable kissing him, what would it be like trying to have sex?

  “Close your eyes,” he said.

  She narrowed them at him instead. “Why?”

  “Just close them. And keep them closed.”

  Even though she felt stupid, she did as he asked, and for what felt like a full minute he did nothing, and she started to feel impatient. “Any day now.”

  “Shush.”

  Another thirty seconds or so passed and finally she felt him move closer, felt the whisper of his breath on her cheek, then his lips brushed over hers. This time she didn’t giggle, and she wasn’t so nervous anymore. His lips were soft and his evening stubble felt rough against her chin, but in a sexy way. And though it wasn’t exactly passionate, it wasn’t merely friendly, either.

  This is nice, she thought. Nice enough that she wanted to see what came next, and when Nick started to pull away, before he could get too far, she fisted her hands in the front of his shirt and pulled him back in.

  He made a sound, somewhere between surprise and pleasure, and he must have forgotten all about their ease-into-it-gradually plan, because it went from nice to holy-cow-can-this-guy-kiss in two seconds flat. He must have been sampling the cake batter earlier, because he tasted sweet, like chocolate.

  Oh, my gosh, she was kissing Nick, her best friend. It was Nick’s arms circling her, Nick’s hand cupping her cheek, sliding under the root of her ponytail and cocking her head to just the right angle.

  Her internal thermometer shot into the red zone and her bones began a slow melt, dripping away like icicles in the hot sun. And only when she heard Nick moan, when she felt her fingers sink through the softness of his hair, did she realize that her arms were around his shoulders, that her body was pressed against him, her breasts crushed against the hard wall of his chest. It was thrilling and arousing, and scary as hell, and a couple dozen other emotions all ju
mbled up together. But more than anything, it just felt…right. In a way that no other kiss had before. And all she could think was more.

  For the second time Nick was the one to pull away, and she had to fight the urge to tighten her arms around his neck and pull him to her again. But instead of letting go completely, he hooked his fingers in the belt loop of her jeans.

  “Wow,” he said, searching her face, almost as if he were seeing her for the first time. “That was…”

  “Wow,” she agreed. If she had known kissing Nick would be like that, she might have tried it a long time ago.

  “Are you still worried about us being incompatible?” he asked.

  “Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be a problem.”

  “Do you feel weird?”

  “Weird?”

  “You said before that you were afraid things might get weird between us.”

  The only thing she felt right now was turned-on, and ready to kiss him again. “It’s difficult to say after one kiss.”

  “Oh, really?” he said, tugging her closer. “Then I guess we’ll just have to do it again.”

  Four

  Their second kiss was even better than the first, and this time when Nick stopped and asked, “Feeling weird yet?” instead of answering, Terri just pulled him in for number three. And she was so wowed by the fact that it was Nick kissing her, Nick touching her, that she didn’t really think about where he was touching her. Not until his hand slid down over the back pocket of her jeans, then everything came to a screeching halt.

  She backed away and looked at him. “Your hand is on my butt.”

  “I know. I put it there.” He paused, then said, “Am I moving too fast?”

  Was he? Was it too much too soon? Was there some sort of schedule they were supposed to follow? A handbook for friends who become lovers to have a baby? As long as it felt good, as long as they both wanted it, why stop?

  And boy, did it feel good.

  “No,” she said. “You’re not moving too fast. If you were, would I be thinking how much better it would feel if my jeans were off?”

  He made a growly noise deep in his chest and kissed her hard, but despite that shameless invitation into her pants, he kept his hands on the outside of her clothes. And no matter where she touched him, how she rubbed up against him, or encouraged him with little moans of pleasure, he didn’t seem to be getting the hint that she was ready to proceed.

  When he did finally slide his hand under her shirt, she felt like pumping her fist in the air, and shouting, “Yes!” But then he just kept it there. It wasn’t that it didn’t feel good resting just above the waist of her jeans, but she was sure it would feel a whole lot better eight inches or so higher and slightly to the left.

  She pulled back and said, “If you felt the need to touch my breast, or pretty much any other part of my anatomy, I wouldn’t stop you.”

  Looking amused, he said, “It’s not often a woman tells me I’m moving too slow.”

  “I could play coy, but what’s the point? We both know we’re going to end up in bed tonight.”

  His brows rose. “We do?”

  “Can you think of a reason we shouldn’t?”

  When most men would have jumped at the offer, he actually took several seconds to think about it. Which for some strange reason made her want it even more. It was crazy to think that on Wednesday she wouldn’t have even considered a physical relationship with him, but two days and a couple kisses later, she couldn’t wait to get him out of his clothes. And if he turned her down, she was going to be seriously unhappy.

  After a brief pause he shrugged and said, “Nothing is coming to mind.”

  The way she figured it, their friendship had been leading up to this, even if they hadn’t realized it. That equated to about twenty years of foreplay. Technically, no one could say they were rushing things. “So why are we still standing in the kitchen?”

  He opened his mouth to answer her, when they heard the apartment door open. Terri’s first thought was that it was another woman. Someone he was dating that he’d given a key to. Then she heard Nick’s mom call, “Yoo-hoo! Nicky, I’m here!”

  * * *

  Nick muttered a curse. And here he thought the days of his mom interrupting while he was with a girl had ended when he moved away from home.

  “In the kitchen,” he called, then turned to Terri to apologize. But he never got the words out. Her hair was a mess, her clothes disheveled and she had beard burn all over her chin. Unless his mom had forgotten to put her contacts in that morning, it would be obvious that they’d been fooling around. He could hope that she wouldn’t notice, but she noticed everything, and typically had an opinion she always felt compelled to share. Terri was a lot like her in that way.

  Terri’s eyes went wide, and she glanced at his crotch, but she didn’t have to worry. He’d lost his erection the second he heard the door and remembered that his mom was stopping by.

  “I can’t believe this weather,” his mom said, her voice growing louder as she walked toward the kitchen. “Two days ago we get a blizzard—” she appeared in the kitchen doorway, a five-foot-three-inch, one-hundred-and-two-pound ball of energy dressed in the yoga gear she wore ninety-nine percent of the time “—and today it feels like spring.” She stopped short when she saw Terri standing there beside him. Then she smiled and said, “Well, hello there! I didn’t know you were—”

  Whatever she was going to say never made it out. Instead, she looked from him, to Terri, then back to him again. “Oh, my, it looks as if I’ve interrupted something.”

  He could see the wheels in her head spinning, and he knew exactly what she was thinking—that all the while they were posing as friends, he and Terri had been hitting the sheets together. Friends with benefits. And while he didn’t care what she thought of him, he didn’t want her to think Terri was like that. And he was pretty sure, by the crimson blossoming in Terri’s cheeks, she was worried about the same thing.

  Terri always said that his mom was the mom she should have had, and his mom said Terri was the third daughter she’d never had. Sometimes Nick could swear that if forced to ever choose, she might actually pick Terri over him.

  “It’s not what you think,” he told his mom.

  “Sweetheart, what you do in the privacy of your own home is none of my business.”

  “But we’re not…I mean, we haven’t been—”

  His mom held up a hand. “No need to explain,” she said, but underneath her blasé facade, he could see disappointment lurking there. And he was sure that it was directed as much at him as it was at Terri.

  He turned to Terri and said, “So, should we tell her now?”

  Terri looked over to his mom. “I don’t know, what do you think?”

  “Tell me what?” his mom asked.

  “Well,” Nick said. “She’s going to find out eventually.”

  Terri grinned, enjoying this game as much as he was. There was no better way to drive his mom nuts than to make her think someone had a juicy secret and she’d been left out of the loop.

  “I guess that’s true,” Terri said. “But are we ready to let the news out?”

  “What news?” Though she was trying to sound nonchalant, he could see she was practically busting with curiosity.

  “Because you know that as soon as we tell her, everyone will know.”

  “Nicky!” his mom scolded, even though they all knew it was true. She couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. And oftentimes she told him things about family, or her “man-friends” as she called them, that he wished he could permanently wipe from his memory.

  His mom folded her arms and pouted. “I know someone who’s getting a big fat lump of coal in his stocking this year.”

  “Terri and I are getting married,” Nick said.

  “Married?”

  “Yep.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not just say
ing that because I caught you fooling around?”

  He laughed. “We’re really getting married.”

  His mom shrieked so loud he was sure the apartment below heard her through the industrial soundproofing. She scurried around the island to pull Terri—not him, but Terri—into a hug.

  “Oh, honey! I’m so happy for you. I always hoped. You know I would never interfere, but I did hope.”

  Curiously, her idea of not interfering was telling him, after meeting whatever girl he happened to be dating at the time, that “She was nice, but she wasn’t Terri.”

  His mom held Terri at arm’s length, tears shimmering in her eyes, looking as if it was the happiest moment of her entire life. Then she turned to Nick, the tears miraculously dried, and said, “It’s about damn time.”

  Yep, she would definitely choose Terri over him.

  “Have you set a date? And please don’t tell me that this is going to be one of those ten-year engagements so that you can live together and not feel guilty. You know that you’ll never hear the end of it from Nonno. He put your poor cousin Chrissy through hell when she moved in with David.”

  “We’re getting married in two weeks.”

  She blinked. “Did you just say two weeks?”

  “Yep.”

  She sucked in a breath and turned to Terri, asking in a hushed voice, even though there was no one around but them, “Are you pregnant?”

  “No,” Terri said, sounding incredibly patient under the circumstances. “I’m not pregnant.”

  Looking baffled, she shrugged and said, “Then what’s the rush?”

  “Neither of us sees any point in waiting,” Terri said, shooting him a quick sideways glance filled with innuendo. “My plan has always been to be pregnant by the time I’m thirty, and I’m almost there.”

  “You want kids, Nicky?” his mom asked, beaming with joy.

  “We want to try for a baby right away,” he told her. “And we figured it would be best to get married first. We both prefer a small wedding, with a ceremony that’s short and sweet. Immediate family and close friends only.”

  “You know that your father’s family will have something to say about that.”