by Taryn Quinn
She wasn’t. Her being in my bed most nights since we’d returned home—or me in hers—didn’t change that.
Still, born from tattered cloth. And besotted by incredible sex. I could only be blamed for so much.
“You’ve been working a lot lately.” Seth dumped more cream in his coffee. I was waiting for him to start ordering the cream pitcher with a dab of coffee in it. “Staying late at the office a lot, coming in later the next morning. If you’re going to be tied up with paperwork while you have Laurie, we’d just as soon have Sage help out instead.”
My gaze lit upon the woman in question as she stopped to help the couple at the next booth, the Gundersons.
“I’m sure if I’m unavoidably detained with work, Sage would be willing to assist me. Wouldn’t you, Sage?” I lifted my voice just enough for her to glance my way as she poured Mrs. Gunderson’s coffee.
That was another one of my addictions—finding ways to get Sage to make eye contact with me. I sure as hell couldn’t stop watching her, so it only seemed fair she repay the favor.
She nodded at me, indicating she’d be over in a moment. I frowned. She was rubbing her back again. Did she have ibuprofen in her locker? I could always run to the drugstore and pick up some if she didn’t.
Hearing my own thoughts, my frown only grew. Christ, I sounded whipped. As bad as Seth.
I could not be as bad as Seth.
Could I?
Ally glanced over her shoulder at Sage then returned her attention to the table. “I’m worried about her,” she said in a low voice.
So what else was new? But I didn’t say that. Perhaps she knew something I didn’t. Being inside of Sage every night definitely didn’t make me privy to the inner workings of her mind. If anything, I’d say she was working hard at not sharing more of herself with me than her body.
Not that I’d noticed overmuch.
Jesus, I was going to need a journal like Sage if I didn’t kill this shit fast.
“Why is that?” I drank more coffee. At this rate, I’d have to settle for texting Sage one-handed from the urinal.
“She just seems awfully tired and out of sorts lately. She’s quiet when she comes over.”
Of course she was quiet, since she had to hide her life. Her choice, but somehow it didn’t feel that way. It felt as if the decision she’d made had only partially had to do with her own desires, and her need not to be second-guessed by my family. Perhaps her own as well.
“Maybe she’s depressed,” Seth said equally quietly, keeping an eye out for Sage’s arrival from the nearby booth. “She’s been different since Vegas.” This he delivered with a beady-eyed stare that hadn’t intimidated me when I was ten and certainly did not now.
“She doesn’t seem depressed to me. I’d almost say she’s been ebullient when in my presence.” She approached the table, coffeepot in hand, her eyes narrowed on my nearly empty cup. I finished it off and grinned. “Isn’t that right? Look at that smile.”
She rolled her eyes and held out a hand for the cup. Forgetting our shtick, I took the pot from her and poured my own, returning it to her as I noticed Seth closely watching the proceedings.
Damn nosy bastard. That was a trait I absolutely did not share with him. I always stayed in my own lane.
“Who says I’m depressed?” Before anyone could answer, she set down the pot and rubbed the small of her back. “I think you’ve got me confused with the obsessive caffeine junkie seated across from you. Though he’s not depressed so much as clearly needing a jolt. Or three hundred,” she added pointedly as I again picked up my coffee.
Truth be told, I would probably need a detox program after this lunch. Water for me from now on.
“You just seem a bit different lately is all.” Ally rested her hands on her enormous belly and flashed a wan smile. “Then again, everyone seems different to me. Damn hormones. I’m ready to get this baby out.”
“Me too. We have a lot of time to make up for if we go for that nine we talked about.” Seth winked and she whacked him in the shoulder.
“Not nearly hard enough,” I told her, leaning across the table. “Allow me to demonstrate.”
“Children,” Sage said, her voice reeking with fatigue. “Save the schoolyard skirmishes for somewhere else. I’d hate to have to toss all three of you out.” She cocked her head at me. “Well, I’d hate to toss two of you out. The other I wouldn’t miss.”
With that, she flounced off, but it felt false. Sage without a smile was like summertime without the sun. Her big green eyes had been flat, listless. As if she was going through the motions.
We hadn’t been sleeping a lot lately. A few hours a night at most. There never seemed to be enough time to explore each other in all the ways we wanted. I had to believe she was experiencing the same urgency I was, since her needs were as omnipresent as my own.
Clearly, it was taking a toll. She needed more rest. A real night off that didn’t just consist of fucking me—as obviously amazing as that had to be.
Well, it was. I had my gifts. Being a braggart meant some inflation of the truth. My skills as a lover were legendary. At least in my own mind.
Maybe I’d write that in her diary. Okay, no, I wouldn’t look in it. That wouldn’t be kosher. But I could slip a note inside without reading anything. She would smile at the very least.
Fuck, I needed to see her smile.
Or I could write her a note here and now. Why put it off? Ally was right that Sage wasn’t herself, if only because she was tired.
I hoped it was only because she was tired, and not creeping dissatisfaction with—
“Yo bro. You alive?” Seth pointed at me. “You’re almost as bad as Sage lately. Think you need to cool it with all the late nights. I know you’ve been trying to bring in lots of new business with springtime coming up. It’s appreciated, especially with the kid coming, and God knows I’ve been distracted.” He raked a hand over his hair.
It was longer than mine, as usual, and he’d been growing in a short beard to go with it. I was back to my typical clean-shaven appearance after that one day in Vegas.
What I wouldn’t do for Sage. It was disturbing. And even as I had the thought, I was digging through my wallet for a piece of paper to use.
You’re whipped. Pureed. Practically mashed baby peas.
Babies every-damn-where.
“Sorry.” I yanked out a piece of paper. It was a receipt, but I could make it work. “Remembered a call I had to make to Jeff Connors when I get back to the office.”
Ah hell, I’d forgotten I was meeting with Connors today. Sometimes lies came in handy.
Slippery slope there, Hamilton.
“See what I mean?” Seth shook his head. “This isn’t like you, man. You’ve always been a workaholic, but you used to balance it with a healthy social life too.”
“I’ve turned to internet porn.”
Ally braced a hand on her belly. “A keyboard is a shallow substitute for human interaction.”
“You haven’t seen everything that Shyla Rabbit can do.” Neither had I, in fact. I only knew her name from an ad I’d happened upon one night.
She did seem to be well…rounded.
“I’m serious. What happened with you and Ursula? I thought you two had something going.”
“Something.” I dug out my ballpoint pen from the inside pocket of my jacket.
“It’s over then?” Ally sighed. “Your love life is like watching a season of The Bachelor, except you hand out roses all year long every year.”
“Did it ever occur to you that you both spend far too much time concerning yourselves with Sage’s business? And my business? Is that part of being happily married? Suddenly you feel the urge to make everyone hate you with your know-it-all, smug behavior.”
Seth appeared nonplussed. “Whenever he speaks more than two sentences in a row, he’s wound up. Wound up means struck a nerve.” He tapped his chin. “Did Ursula break things off?”
I was going to have to go
into the john to be allowed to write this damn note. Not to mention, Beavis and Mrs. Butthead were watching my every move. They probably thought I planned to slip my number to Jean.
Luckily, Ally excused herself to the ladies’ room and Seth was much easier to distract. Especially when he was in counselor mode, sure he’d zeroed in on the source of my malcontent.
“You know, you don’t have to act tough with me. It’s not as if I don’t get it. Shit, you saw me all messed up when Ally stopped talking to me.”
“I certainly did. I also recall interceding in that situation and ultimately helping you.”
“You did.” Seth cracked his knuckles. “I’m not sure she would’ve been ready to hear me out if you hadn’t gone to the cabin.”
Sage’s laughter drifted to our table and I tapped my cheek. Hmm. The cabin. That held some possibilities.
Especially since tomorrow was that most complicated of occasions for a new relationship.
Valentine’s Day, aka a new lover’s Waterloo if the right tone wasn’t struck.
“That’s exactly right. I intervened and you had a positive outcome.” I raised my brows. “I’d appreciate it if you helped me now and then.”
“How?”
Like, oh, by not forcing the best relationship I’d ever had underground with his and his wife’s well-intentioned prying ways. But since I couldn’t ask for that, I’d request the next best thing.
“Stop pushing.”
“With you or Sage?”
“Why should I care what you say or do about her?” Even saying it burned my tongue. I cared far too much. “But since you’ve put it out there, then yes. Both of us. Give us space. I’m sure she’d love it as well. Not that I have any way of knowing. At all.”
Laying it on a bit thick there, huh?
Seth nodded. “Yeah. I guess we’ve been going overboard lately.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Sorry about that, bro. It’s only because we care. And—”
“And because you’re so happily coupled up, you want everyone else in the world to be too. I know.”
Seth scratched his chin. “No, that’s not it at all with Sage. I think Ally is more concerned about Sage finding someone, to be honest. She tends to fall fast, and most men aren’t worthy of her love. She’s worried she’ll be hurt again.”
“She won’t be, all right?”
“How do you know?”
Very good question. Now I was an expert on love and romance?
I pressed the point of my pen into the paper. I’d managed a few disjointed words and started to fold the paper into a shape before I caught myself. An old habit held over from prep school when I was bored in class.
Evidently, it also served as my response when my brother was doing his best FBI stare as he tried to probe into my admittedly screwed-up brain.
But instead of unfolding the shape, I let muscle memory take over. It wasn’t quite the right size for the origami bird. Close enough. Maybe she’d be amused enough to at least open it.
Just to be safe, I scrawled open me on the bird’s beak and tucked it in my pocket.
My brother’s eyebrows fused together. “Did you just write open me on a note to yourself? Folded like an origami swan?”
“Sometimes I do origami for fun,” I said at length. “Don’t always remember to open the notes. Anyway, wonder where Ally is?”
Seth looked over his shoulder. “Hmm, should I go check on her? It’s so close to the baby being born.”
“Yes.” I nodded emphatically. “You should definitely go do that.”
While he was otherwise occupied, I would snag Sage for a moment.
“Be right back.” He slid halfway across the seat and glanced back at me. “You know you want a piece of this action. Being a father means worrying every other minute of the day. Add in a wife and…Jesus.” He huffed out a breath.
My neck tightened. “Yet you wanted a second child.”
“I did, and it was the best decision I ever made, other than marrying Ally. Finally. Took long enough there, huh?” He grinned. “Let’s hope the twin thing doesn’t kick in there for you.”
I couldn’t help shuddering as he climbed out of the booth and walked away.
A father. Me. Who could even fathom such madness? It was almost as crazy as imagining myself a husband. Even watching Seth settle down hadn’t spurred the same desire in me. At least not consciously. I had my niece and soon-to-be nephew and that seemed like plenty.
Until…
Slipping my hand into my pocket over the origami swan, I slid out of the booth. I didn’t have time for useless pondering. I had to find Sage.
After I checked the break room, I headed for the storage room. Bingo. She flew out of the back room, her arms full of paper products and condiments. She noticed me coming down the hall and fumbled the box, sending napkins and coffee stirrers and tiny packets of jam flying. I caught what I could and clamped my hand around her upper arm, keeping her upright.
She quickly shook me off and crouched to grab the few bundles of napkins that had escaped our scrambling. “You’re not supposed to be back here,” she huffed, blowing her bangs out of her face. They were a change to her hairstyle, cut long and low across her brow. I wasn’t one to notice such things, but I seemed to notice far too much about Sage Evans.
“I wrote you a note.”
That stopped her short. “A note?” She peered up at me. “Like in grade school?”
I shoved the jam and coffee stirrers I’d rescued into the box and slipped my hands into the pockets of my trousers. I cupped the swan protectively, already questioning the impulse to give it to her.
She wants a torrid affair, and today you’re trying to give her playground antics?
Rather than respond, I drew it out and offered it to her, wholly unprepared to see her chin quiver as if I’d presented her with a diamond. She dropped the napkins into the box and held up her hand with the swan, eyeing it from all sides.
“Origami,” she breathed.
Not just a diamond, I decided, but the priceless Hope diamond.
“A crude representation in any case.” My chest swelled and I fought to take a deep breath as I rocked back on my heels. Casual. I could do casual. Hell, I was the king of it.
Or I had been before her.
“It’s not crude. I can’t believe you can do this. It’s beautiful.” I helped her to her feet when she started to stand, but she was focused on the note, not me. “I don’t want to unfold it.”
“You have to. It says ‘open me’.”
She grinned. “I see that.”
“You know what I see?”
“Hmm?”
I twisted my hand into her ponytail, probably wrecking it as I drew her closer. She didn’t fight the move, instead going up on her toes to meet my mouth. The kiss was all hunger and slashing tongues and clashing lips, and she moaned as she fisted one hand in my suit jacket. Her other hand was held carefully out to the side, my origami swan precisely balanced in the center of her palm.
Glimpsing that, I laughed. Right into her mouth until she joined me, and we laughed together like idiots.
“I didn’t want to crush it,” she mumbled between teasing little kisses.
“I can make you more, you know. It’s just paper.”
“But this is the first one. Firsts are special.” She eased back enough for our gazes to lock and Christ, my balls tightened like knots from that knowing look in her eye.
“They are.” Lightly, I gripped her throat and rubbed my thumb in circles over her soft skin. “I like giving you all your firsts.”
“Not all. There’s still so many things yet to do and try.” She licked my chin. “But you’ve definitely set me down an interesting path.”
“Interesting, hmm?” I cupped the hand balancing the swan and pushed it toward her. “Open it so I can give you more.”
“Now you’ve intrigued me.” She caught the tip of her tongue between her teeth as she studied the piece of origami. She pulled at
the beak, nudged her nail against the folds of paper in search of the proper spot to begin.
Then she shook her head and offered it to me. “You do it. I don’t want to wreck it.”
“Watch. It’s easy to open.” I demonstrated, showing her the scattered words on the inside panels. Each one made my heart pound harder in my head.
“You’re asking me out?” she asked, once she’d finished reading my message.
“Technically, I’m asking you in.”
“To your family’s cabin. For Valentine’s Day. Like a legit date. Romance.”
If she hadn’t been watching me so closely, I would’ve tugged at my suddenly constricting collar. “A reasonable facsimile of it, maybe.”
“Maybe.” A smile twitched on her lips. I’d kissed off half her lipstick. On cue, her hand came up to rub at my mouth. “I need to get higher-end makeup if we’re going to keep this a secret.”
I grasped her wrist, holding her in place. “Or we could say fuck them all.”
Her eyes flashed, and she started to speak before the thunder of recognizable footsteps coming up the hall made us both whirl toward the box of stuff on the floor. We were both pretending to toss stuff in it when Seth came around the bend at the opposite end.
“There you are. Ally is ready to go. She’s having contractions, but not super close ones. Think she needs to just get some rest.”
“Due to your many years of experience as a pregnant woman?” I rose and shifted toward him, my relaxed expression firmly notched in place. “Go on. I’ll take care of the bill.”
“You sure? What happened here? Are you okay, Sage?”
“Fine.” She was still crouched, gritting her teeth in an awkward smile. “Just stumbled with a box. Luckily, Oliver was here to help.”
“Oh yeah? Why were you back here anyway?”
“Looking for you and Ally. Thought maybe she needed to walk a bit. Sorry, I don’t go into women’s bathrooms even for you two.”
Seth chuckled. “All part of the deal, man. I’ll catch you later.”
“Sure thing. Give my best to Ally.”
“Tell her to call me.” Sage rose and dusted off her hands. All at once, she must’ve realized she’d dropped the swan in her haste because her gaze flew to mine, panicked. She glanced around the floor, at the box, near my feet.