Blush Duo - Marriage Under the Mistletoe & The Christmas Inn

by Helen Lacey

He didn’t waste a second more and left the room. When he got downstairs and entered the kitchen, he felt as if he’d walked into the middle of a gunslinger’s stand-off. Callie was frowning, the redhead was staring with wide eyes and hopping on her feet and Noah looked like a man who wanted answers. Only Evie appeared calm. She stood by the sink, hands on hips.

  “I’m not sick,” Scott heard her say as he rounded the doorway. “So stop worrying.”

  “We are worried,” Noah said gravely. “You’ve been hiding out here for weeks now. You won’t talk to anyone, you won’t see anyone, you won’t admit that something serious is going on with you. Our mother is convinced you’ve—”

  “I’m not sick,” she said again, and quickly spotted Scott as he framed the entry. Three sets of eyes snapped toward him instantly. “I’m pregnant.”

  The trio all did a good impression of a rabbit stuck in headlights.

  Callie stared at him, her surprise obvious. He probably should have called his sister and told her he was coming. But right now his priority was Evie.

  Callie said his name and then quickly clammed up. She looked at Evie, and then back to Scott, then Evie again. It took only seconds for his sister to figure it out. The other two responded a little slower, but when they did emotion charged through the room.

  “Pregnant?” Noah echoed incredulously.

  “Well!” the redhead exclaimed. “Aren’t you one for secrets?”

  “It’s not a secret, Fiona,” Evie said evenly. “We chose to maintain our privacy, that’s all.”

  We? Scott almost laughed. But now was not the time to challenge Evie. They needed a united front. “So I guess the interrogation’s over?”

  Callie moved across the room and grabbed his arm. “Not by a long shot. You’ve got some serious explaining to do.”

  Scott smiled at his feisty sister. “That’s hardly appropriate,” he said, and saw Noah glaring at him. “Besides, we’re not teenagers. And we’re not trying to hide anything. We’re having a baby together and as long as we’re okay with that it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks.”

  He looked at Evie and saw the barest traces of relief on her face. Whatever he had to do to prove to her he was determined to make it work he would do. He’d beg and plead if he had to, to make her see sense, to make her realize what they had...what they could have together if only she’d let him into her life. He wanted to be a father to their baby...but he wanted Evie, too. He wanted her love. And he’d do whatever was necessary to get it.

  “So, while you’re all here for this intervention,” he said, and chucked his hands into his pockets, “maybe you can all use your influence and convince Evie to marry me.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  It was a low act. A despicable, humiliating thing to do. And Evie was so mad she seethed. She banged things around the house for the next hour, after quietly asking her family to leave. They hadn’t wanted to leave at first and Callie looked as if she was ready to kill her brother.

  Noah and Fiona had been a little less disapproving, with Noah saying he thought marriage was a great idea. A great idea? Evie had burned her brother with a red-hot glare for being so agreeable. She’d looked at Scott and he’d just shrugged and smiled and showed off that dimple.

  Well, she wasn’t falling for that sexy dimple and gorgeous smile anymore.

  He was outside shooting hoops with Trevor—who’d been so pleased to see him when he’d arrived home from school that Evie had swallowed a lump the size of a tennis ball as her son had embraced Scott. Considering Evie had made it abundantly clear she wanted to be alone, they’d left her immediately.

  So she had thinking time while she rearranged the pot drawer in the downstairs kitchen. She wouldn’t be maneuvered into a corner, that was for sure. And she wouldn’t marry Scott because it was what everyone else wanted.

  But when a pair of skinny hands landed on her shoulders a short while later, Evie felt her resistance crumble fractionally.

  “Scott told me,” Trevor said quietly. “About everything.”

  Evie turned around and saw her son look at her stomach. “He did?”

  Trevor shrugged. “I’m okay about the baby. And Scott said he’s hanging around—which is good, too.” Her son squeezed her arm and shuffled back on his feet. “And I reckon it’ll be cool to have a stepfather.”

  Evie’s temper surged and she wondered if Scott would be so duplicitous to use her hero-worshipping son to get her to change her mind. He wouldn’t, surely? “I’m glad you and Scott get along so well.”

  “Families are supposed to, aren’t they?”

  “Yes,” she replied, but didn’t point out that Scott wasn’t exactly family.

  “And having a new baby might get you to stop treating me like a little kid?”

  He was grinning, but Evie saw through his smile. “Do I? I don’t mean to.”

  He shrugged lightly. “I know. But sometimes, when you want to know where I am every second and try to handpick my friends, it gets hard to take.”

  She took a step back and leaned against the counter. “Is that what I do?” Evie considered her son’s words. “I didn’t realize I was being so overprotective.”

  Trevor shrugged again. “It’s okay. I get why you do it. But you know, when I might want to hang out with some of my friends, even the ones you don’t like all that much, I reckon you should let me make my own decision.”

  It seemed like a huge leap for Evie. Her son was no longer a little boy. He was growing up so fast and she didn’t want to let him go.

  “You know,” Trevor said as he grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl, “I like Scott. I vote we keep him.”

  She stared after him as he left the room and was about to return to her chore of banging pots when Scott came through the doorway. She scowled at him. “Being underhanded won’t get you anywhere.”

  He rested one shoulder against the jamb. “What does that mean?”

  Eve straightened. “My son, who obviously believes you can do no wrong, told me he thinks we should keep you.”

  “He’s a smart kid,” Scott said, straight-faced.

  Evie raised her brows dramatically. “He is smart. But he’s easily influenced. I’d prefer it if you kept our relationship private.”

  “I didn’t say anything about our relationship, Evie,” he said. “I only told him about the baby.”

  She scowled. “I did intend to tell him.”

  “Of course you did. But, I needed to tell Trevor myself, man to man,” he said, and pushed off the jamb. “If I overstepped the mark, I’m sorry.”

  It was a little presumptuous, she thought. “How did he take the news?”

  Scott shrugged. “He was surprised at first,” Scott told her quietly as he made his way around the countertop. “And he asked me about my intentions.” He smiled. “But I think he understands. He’s a smart kid. A good kid. You’ve done a great job raising him, Evie. If I’m half the parent you are, I’ll be a happy man.”

  Evie fought the heat behind her eyes and pressed her hips against the bench. “Sometimes I forget he won’t be a child for much longer. He’s growing up. So, thank you for explaining it to him.” He chuckled and Evie frowned. “What’s funny?”

  “Nothing,” Scott replied as he moved into the kitchen. “But I think we both just agreed on how to parent a teenager.”

  It surprised her. It also surprised her that suddenly she didn’t actually mind Scott running interference with Trevor. “I guess we’ll have plenty of practice soon enough.”

  Scott was in front of her now. He reached out and placed his hand across her belly. “Do you mind?” he asked softly.

  Evie shook her head. “Of course not.”

  “Can you feel the baby moving?”

  She smiled. “Not quite moving,” she rep
lied. “More like fluttering, I suppose you’d call it. Another month or so and it will be a different story. When I was pregnant with Trevor I felt like I had a soccer player inside me.”

  Scott raised his brows. “Do girls play soccer?”

  “Are you hoping for a girl?”

  He rubbed her stomach gently. “I thought you might prefer it.”

  Evie felt the heat from his touch rise over her skin like a bloom. “I’m happy either way.”

  His touch changed slightly, shifting to something that reminded her of how it was to be made love to by this man. But she didn’t pull away. His hand trailed around her hip and up her side, lingering on the underswell of her breast.

  “Your breasts are bigger,” he said, and moved closer.

  Evie colored, good sense tugging at her wits. Only, it was useless to imagine she could pull away. “Of course.”

  “There’s no ‘of course’ for me,” he said, and traced the back of his hand across one nipple. “This is all new...your body changing...the incredible way you look even more beautiful, if that were possible.”

  “I’m not beautiful.”

  “You are to me.”

  Evie swayed. “Don’t do this,” she pleaded. “Don’t use my attraction for you against me.”

  His expression narrowed. “Evie,” he said softly as he grasped her chin. “Sometimes you say the damnedest things.”

  “I don’t want to confuse the lines here, Scott. I want to stay clear about what I need to do.”

  He released her abruptly. “You mean by refusing to marry me?”

  Evie pushed herself along the countertop. “You know why I won’t.”

  “I do?” He stepped back. “That’s news to me. I don’t get you at all, Evie. We have this unbelievable opportunity to be a part of something great together. But you won’t even consider meeting me halfway.”

  She bristled and snapped out the first thing she thought of. “You’re too young for me.”

  “That’s an old song,” he said. “But if it bothers you so much I’ll dye my hair gray and spend loads of time in the sun so I wrinkle up by the time I’m forty.”

  “And I’ll be nearly fifty,” she reminded him. “You’ll still be gorgeous and I’ll be a middle-age, menopausal wreck. You’ll have younger women chasing after you and I won’t have a hope of competing with them.”

  “That’s ridiculous. And I don’t believe for one minute that you’re that insecure.”

  “I am,” she announced, wishing she was a better actress. She wrapped her arms around her chest and expelled a heavy breath. “This is such a disaster.”

  He quickly took three steps back and shook his head as he glanced at her belly. “I’m gonna forget you said that.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I’m also going to hit the sack because the jet lag is kicking in and I feel like hell. But I’ll see you later and we’ll talk some more.”

  She watched him leave and sank back against the counter. What am I going to do? Having Scott so close wreaked havoc on her good sense. With an ocean between them she’d felt stronger, as though she could do it alone. But this was like being a kid and browsing through a candy store, where everything was so close, but locked beneath a glass cabinet. She was the sugar-addicted kid, and Scott was the candy. Wanting him...longing for him in ways she never imagined she’d want any man again. It made her feel exposed and vulnerable.

  * * *

  Evie didn’t see Scott again until the following morning. When he entered the upstairs kitchen, she’d already pushed Trevor out the door for school and refreshed the lavender bedroom for the guests who were arriving the following day.

  He loped into the room in low-flung loose fitting jeans and a red T-shirt and helped himself to coffee. “Good morning.”

  Evie stalked across the room and sat down at the table. “You wanted to talk,” she said, determined to be practical. “Okay, let’s talk. First, how long are you staying?”

  He sat down opposite her. “Is that a trick question?”

  “What?”

  Scott put down his mug. “Well, if I say I’m staying forever you’ll give me one of your disapproving looks and tell me it’s never gonna happen. But if I say I’m here temporarily, you’ll hit me with how you’d expect nothing less from me than if I abandoned you and the baby.”

  Evie’s spine jerked upward. “I wouldn’t say that.”

  Scott raised a brow. “Really? What would you say, then?”

  “I don’t see the point of—”

  “For good, Evie,” he said quietly. “I might have to go back to hand in my resignation and put my apartment on the market. But I can’t see that taking too long. My parents made sure Callie and I had dual residency since we were kids. I can live here or the States.”

  “And then?”

  “And then I’ll get a job so I can support you and the baby.”

  “I can support myself,” she pointed out. “As I have done for the last ten years. The B and B is lucrative enough and I recently sold a few paintings.”

  “You’re painting again?”

  Evie nodded. “Yes. My muse is back.”

  “So your heart isn’t broken anymore?”

  She gripped her teacup. “Not like it was.”

  He pushed his mug into the center of the table and stood. “Good. Because I want your heart, Evie, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get it. And I fully intend to support you and our baby, and be a stepdad and friend to Trevor. So get used to me being around. Get used to being loved. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Evie’s heart lurched forward. “You can’t stay here...I can’t do this. I won’t be manipulated into—”

  “I have no desire to manipulate the mother of my child. But I know you’re running scared, Evie. And I’m not sure why.”

  “You think everything’s black-and-white,” she said statically. “Nothing’s that simple. You said you’re going to quit your job with the LAFD and look for work over here. But as what, a firefighter?”

  “I haven’t—”

  “Of course it will be,” she said, her heart and body filled with so much pain and fear she could barely get the words out. “That’s what you do...that’s who you are. You’ll join the fire department here and keep running into those buildings and the only difference will be geography. And I know I don’t have any right to ask you to be someone other than who you are. You are a firefighter. And maybe for a little while you could try doing something else, but we both know your heart wouldn’t be in it.”

  He looked at her and there was raw truth in his eyes. “I’d sweep streets for you, Evie.”

  “But you’d be unhappy,” she said. “And because of that you’d be distracted. It would be like your friend Mike all over again. You’d be distracted and I’d be worried sick every time you left the house, every time I heard the sirens wailing.” Evie stood up and pushed her chair back, fighting the tears batting against her lashes. “And then one day, something would happen, and you’d get injured...or maybe worse...and our child might be left without a father...and I’d...and I’d be left without...and I can’t...”

  She stopped speaking and closed her eyes. It was harder than hard. But she needed to say it. She needed to hear herself say the words.

  The admission came out as a whisper as tears fell. “I just don’t have the strength to bury another husband.”

  * * *

  Scott moved out of Dunn Inn that afternoon. Evie didn’t know where he went and she didn’t ask before he drove off in his rental car. She had her life back. Sort of.

  But true to his word, he didn’t abandon her.

  In fact, he became a permanent fixture in her daily routine over the following week.

  At first he dropped by to see how she was doing, and not once did he repeat his marriage p
roposal. He hung out with Trevor some afternoons and at other times discussed the baby, or when they’d start decorating the upstairs guest room into a nursery. They talked colors and wallpaper and booster seats and cribs and pretty much everything to do with the baby and nothing about their relationship.

  She should have been happy about it.

  Instead she became more miserable with each day. He didn’t touch her, didn’t try to kiss her and didn’t do anything even remotely intimate. He just talked. When he wasn’t talking he was doing things around the B and B. He fixed anything she asked to be repaired and didn’t voice one complaint.

  At her parents’ house one Sunday to celebrate her father’s birthday, Evie prepared herself to endure the scrutiny of her family’s curiosity about their relationship. But their relationship had developed into something so lukewarm it barely rated mentioning. More to the point, no one seemed to care. She was pregnant; Scott was the father of her baby. Even her mother, who would normally be gushing over the idea that one of her daughters was in a relationship, even if a slightly dysfunctional one, only smiled and patted her shoulder and mentioned what a nice man he was and how she was looking forward to being a grandmother again.

  Nice...sure...more like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

  And that was exactly how she felt. As if his indifference was deliberate. Her declarations about fearing something might happen to him had clearly struck a chord with him and he’d backed off. Or at least that’s what he wanted her to think. Yeah—some disguises were used for camouflage and some for hunting. Evie wasn’t fooled. He was on the hunt...and she was the prey.

  Scott had said he didn’t want to manipulate her. But she felt manipulated.

  And by Sunday afternoon she was a mass of nervous energy, waiting for him to pounce. She would rather have met him head-on and deal with his marriage proposal and the attraction they had for each other than play this waiting game.

  Fortunately, Evie found an ally in her sister. Grace was back from New York for a few days for the party, and Evie was grateful for her sister’s support.

  “You know he’s staying with Hot Tub, don’t you?” Grace told her, sitting down to share the love seat by the pool, which Evie had occupied for the past lazy hour because it was sheltered and quiet and away from Scott, who was playing pool with her brother and Trevor. Her sister handed her a long glass of iced tea.