Perfection anfh-2

by R. L. Mathewson

  "Yes."

  "Okay," he nodded slowly. "We can discuss the baby in here," he said, pulling back the shower curtain and gesturing for her to enter.

  "Or we could just wait until later," she said, taking a step towards the door.

  "Either you strip out of that shirt and get your ass in here, Zoe, or I'm going to toss you in there. Your choice," he said firmly, probably thinking that she'd just do whatever he wanted, but he really should have known better.

  "We'll talk later," she said, turning her back on him and heading for the door only to find Trevor blocking her way. For a big man he moved pretty quickly, she thought, backing up as he stalked towards her.

  "Okay, fine. We'll talk now," she said quickly, knowing there really was no choice in the matter, but trying to appear like she had a say.

  "After you," he said, gesturing once again towards the shower.

  With a small sigh she pulled her shirt and panties off and tossed them on the hamper and stepped into the shower. "We're just talking, Trevor. Nothing more and I'm only going along with this because I need a shower and I don't want to wait an hour for the water to heat up again."

  "Whatever you say," he murmured in agreement as he stepped in behind her.

  She stepped beneath the shower spray, already cringing at the prospect of her stitches stinging. When they didn't, sting that is, she felt herself relax and enjoy the hot water. She felt the tension leave her body and almost sagged with relief. The only thing better would be a bath, but she wanted to get clean more than she wanted to relax.

  "Step back," Trevor murmured as he gently gripped her shoulders and pulled her back until she was leaning against his chest and halfway out of the water. "Close your eyes."

  She was about to argue, but decided to save her energy. They had a lot to discuss and probably argue and she wasn't about to start over something so petty. Besides, the man had some very talented fingers and she'd always loved the way he took care of her.

  When he started massaging shampoo into her hair she'd barely been able to bite back a moan of pleasure, but she hadn't been able to stop herself from sagging back against him. Without a word he put his arm around her to support her while he continued to massage shampoo into her hair. When she felt the hand on her stomach gently caress where their babies were she nearly cried at the sweet gesture.

  Five minutes later she felt refreshed and more than ready to face what needed to be done. She just wished she knew where to start.

  "We probably should talk," she said, hoping he'd start them off so that she had some idea of what he was thinking. Other than apparently being happy about the baby, well, he didn't know they were having twins and she should probably tell him at some point, but for right now she needed to have some idea of where he stood.

  "Okay," he said, reaching past her to shut the quickly cooling water off. "What do you want to talk about?"

  She should have known it wasn't going to be easy, she thought as she stepped out of the tub and wrapped a large fluffy towel around herself. As much as she would love to put this off and go drown her sorrows in a pint of ice cream, and yeah she could do that and not feel guilty about it now, she needed to get things settled between them so that there were no misunderstandings. She also wanted to be able to say that they were friends since the thought of not being able to tolerate each other wasn't exactly helping her stomach.

  "Okay," she said, deciding that this conversation was probably best held in the bedroom where she could get space. She walked into his room and did her best to stay away from the bed while she wrapped her arms tightly around her body for comfort, "This is probably where I should tell you that I'll be moving out."

  "What else?" he asked, barely looking at her as he dried off and pulled on a pair of boxers and jeans.

  "The arrangement is over," she said, a little hurt that he hadn't at least argued about her leaving. Not that it would have made a difference, but it would have been nice to know that he at least liked having her around.

  "I know. I came to the same conclusion the other day," he said with an indifferent shrug.

  "Oh," she said, feeling like an idiot. Of course it was no big deal for him. This had never been more than an arrangement for him and now it was over and true to his word he was walking away without a care. Granted neither one of them had predicted that they'd be ending this with a pregnancy, but it was over nonetheless.

  It was fine. More than fine. She'd known coming into this thing that there wouldn't be a future. She could handle that. It was more than fine with her, she thought as she contemplated storming over to him and kicking him in the shin for breaking her heart.

  "Then I guess there's not much else to discuss right now," she said, deciding she'd tell him about the twins later. Right now she wanted to go feel sorry for herself in the privacy of her own home.

  "I'll just be going then," she said, gesturing towards the door.

  "Okay."

  "Well, thanks," she said lamely, "for taking care of me and everything."

  "Not a problem," he said, giving her his back as he pulled a shirt on.

  "Okay then, bye," she mumbled, heading for the door and wondering just how long it would take for her broken heart to heal and surprising herself by not regretting a single moment with him.

  Of course the little bonfire she had planned for his Yankees shirt would probably make her feel marginally better.

  Chapter 29

  "You son of bitch!" Zoe yelled.

  "That didn't take her long," Trevor noted, heading downstairs at a snail's pace as he did his best to bite back a huge shit eating grin.

  "What the hell is this?" Zoe demanded as she stormed back into his apartment, waving a piece of white paper in the air.

  "Your eviction notice, what else?" he asked in a bored tone as he headed for the kitchen.

  "You can't evict me!"

  "Looks like I just did," he said, gesturing to the paper.

  "There are procedures you have to go through first. You cannot just post an eviction notice to my door and change the locks!" she snapped, slapping the notice on the kitchen island.

  "True, but going through the courts to get you evicted would take too much time and money. I figured it would just be easier to leave a notice and change the locks," he said, before adding with a one shoulder shrug, "and cheaper."

  Her eyes narrowed on him dangerously as her face took on an interesting shade of crimson. She noticeably took a deep breath to calm down and it probably didn't help when he grinned. She was just so damn cute when she looked ready to kill him.

  She stuck her hand out towards him in silent demand. "There's no need to evict me since I already told you that I'm moving out so give me a copy of the key," she said evenly and he could tell by the way her eyes kept darting down his leg that she was thinking about kicking him.

  "I'm sorry, Zoe. I just can't do that. I'm already using it for storage," he said, wondering how much longer it would be until she gave into the need to attack him.

  "You're using it for storage? How the hell can you do that with all my stuff in there?" she demanded, her voice rising as her little hands curled into fists by her side.

  "I needed the space," he said with a shrug.

  "For what?" Did her eyes just dart to the butcher block?

  Since he really didn't feel like spending the night in the hospital he decided to take pity on her and just let her know the new arrangement, besides all her violent little thoughts probably weren't good for the baby.

  Baby.

  He still couldn't believe that he was going to be a father. Truth was he hadn't been sure that he wanted to have kids. He didn't want to pass down his problems to a child or have to deal with any of the bullshit that came from having a family, especially if it didn't work out and things ended in divorce. He never wanted to be responsible for giving his kid the kind of pain his father gave him even unintentionally.

  With Zoe as his child's mother he would never have to worry about it, not tha
t he planned on letting her go, but he knew without a doubt that she'd kick his ass up and down the street if she thought even for a moment that he somehow let their child down.

  After the slight panic attack he had after Jason calmly explained what Zoe's prescriptions were for, he realized that he was actually pretty excited about having a family with Zoe. She was so damn sweet, attentive, kind and he loved her. He couldn't wait to have babies with her. Once he convinced his cousins and uncles to get off of him and let him up off the floor he started making plans.

  Sure Zoe was probably going to get pissed and she wouldn't talk to him for a few days or weeks, but this really was for the best and when she realized that she would no doubt thank him for taking care of everything.

  "Well, since you moved in here I really didn't have much choice but to move my stuff in there," he pointed out.

  "Moved in with you? What the hell are you talking about?" she asked, but he saw the moment she realized that all of her kitchen belongings were now in his kitchen. Of course he made sure to use her stuff and box his shit up to make her happy, which she'd probably appreciate once she stopped scowling.

  "I did tell you that my family was over here last night. It took a few hours and the guidance of Haley and my aunt, but I think we did a pretty good job," he said, glancing around the kitchen.

  "Please tell me you're kidding and that you really didn't move my stuff in here," she mumbled as she looked around the kitchen as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing, which was kind of insulting since he'd worked pretty damn hard to make the kitchen "cute" for her. Did she not see the matching puppy dog oven mitts that he bought for her?

  "Of course I did." He walked over to the fridge and grabbed a Coke for himself and a bottle of apple juice for her. When she only frowned down at the juice he explained, "You can't have caffeine while you're pregnant."

  She rolled her eyes. "I don't want juice. I want you to put all of my stuff back into my apartment."

  "Why would I do that?" he asked, frowning as he stepped past her and headed into the living room where his boys were lounging in front of the couch.

  "Gee, I don't know," she said, storming into the living room after him. "Maybe because I never told you that I wanted to move in here or perhaps because I ended things with you and I believe I told you that I was moving out. Take you pick, Trevor, but put my stuff back in my apartment."

  "First off," he said, pausing to finish off his soda, "I believe you cried tears of joy when I asked you to move in." When her mouth dropped open in stunned disbelief he decided to continue and press his luck. "Secondly, I really don't remember you ending things and I really think I would have remembered that," he said, deciding that Jason's theory was correct and it didn't count if a woman was pissed when she did it. The man was a Harvard grad after all so who was he to argue with the man's logic?

  "Are you serious?" she demanded. "I broke things off with you yesterday and you damn well know it!"

  "Thirdly," he said, ignoring her as he leaned back and tried to get comfortable since this looked like it was going to take a while, "I can't move you back in there not only because it would be a waste of time since I'd just have to move you again when we bought a house, but it would also be pretty weird being married and living separately, don't you think?"

  "Married?" she practically screeched, not sounding all that pleased, which left him feeling a little offended. "We're not getting married."

  He snorted at that. "I may have let you have your naughty little way with me for the past couple of months, but that doesn't mean I'm going to allow you to keep treating me like some dirty little boy toy. If you want to live with me then I expect you to put a ring on my finger," he said, holding up his left hand and wiggling his ring finger to punctuate his words.

  "Naught little...," she mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief as she tightened her hold on her towel and dropped into an overstuffed chair. "Oh my god, you really are insane."

  "Probably," he said with a shrug, "but don't worry I doubt it's hereditary so the baby should be fine."

  Her eyes widened at that announcement. "Great one more thing to worry about," she sighed and he did his best to ignore the fact that she was only wearing a towel, a really large towel, but a towel nonetheless.

  "There's really nothing to worry about," he said with a shrug.

  "Nothing to worry about? There are about a million things to worry about and apparently having you committed is one of those things," she snapped.

  "And when we get married you can legally have that done," he said brightly, grinning hugely when she scowled his way.

  "Why in the hell would you want to marry me? I thought you were done with this little arrangement of ours," she pointed out, sounding frustrated and more than a little confused.

  "Because I love you," he said simply even though she really should know that by now.

  Apparently she hadn't.

  For a moment she could only stare at him, looking as though she'd been hit between the eyes with a hammer. It was actually a bit disconcerting and he was starting to wonder if she was okay.

  Finally she said, "You don't love me, Trevor."

  "Yes, I do."

  "No, you don't," she said, sounding irritated.

  "Of course I do and you love me too," he said, sounding smug, but he didn't care. He knew the woman was head over heels in love with him so he wasn't overly concerned that she hadn't professed her undying love to him, much.

  "I'm not in love with you?" she declared and he really couldn't help the shit eating grin at that little declaration.

  Her little growl pleased him as well. "Fine, okay? I'm in love with you," she snapped, but that doesn't change anything, Trevor. You don't love me."

  "Yes, I do," he said, feeling less than pleased that she doubted him.

  She took a deep calming breath and when he opened his mouth to say something she held up a hand to stop him and took another one. "Look, while I appreciate the fact that you're trying to do the right thing here for the baby, I think if you thought it over you'd realize that there's really no need to force yourself to do something that you don't want to do. I'm sure that we can sit down and talk about this rationally and come up with something that will work for both of us where the baby is concerned. I-"

  He decided to cut her off right there because this had nothing to do with the baby and he was having a really hard time following this conversation with her towel drooping in the front and flashing an indecent amount of cleavage that had him shifting in his seat. He wondered if it would always be like this, where he couldn't keep his mind out of the gutter around her and knew it would. When they were in their nineties he'd probably be chasing her down in his wheelchair, desperate for a kiss.

  "This has nothing to do with the baby, Zoe," he said softly, interrupting her and earning a groan of frustration.

  "Of course it does, Trevor. Up until a couple of days ago you didn't want anything more than a sexual relationship with me," she said softly, but he didn't miss the slight tremble in her voice and it killed him that he'd hurt her.

  "We both agreed to that arrangement, Zoe," he reminded her gently. "I'm not the only one who was willing to settle, sweetheart, but I promise you I stopped looking at you like you were just a convenience a long time ago."

  "And now you want to get married," she said flatly.

  "Yes," he said without hesitation. "More importantly I want you."

  She worried her bottom lip even as her eyes watered and he knew she was softening. He just had to show her how much she meant to him and everything would be okay.

  "I can't do it, Trevor," she said, shaking her head. "I can't go from being nothing to you to suddenly being your wife. How do I know that anything will change? I can't be married to a man who's never even held my hand in public or acknowledged me in any other way than just his tenant."

  As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point. For the past couple of months he'd been pretending that the best thing in h
is life didn't exist and that hadn't been fair to either one of them. Now that he gave it some thought he realized his current plan was kind of ridiculous. It would never work if she didn't trust that he meant what he was telling her. Ignoring her the way he had in public, and god was he a fucking moron, and then getting married was never going to work. He needed to show her how much he loved her and he needed her to know that he saw her as more than just his little tenant.

  She was absolutely everything to him.

  "That's a good point," he said, standing up.

  "I'm glad you understand, Trevor. I think it's best if we-"

  "How's your head?" he asked, interrupting her.

  "Doesn't hurt that much," she admitted.

  "Are you hungry?" he asked, knowing that she must be starving.

  "Yes, but I think-"

  "We should go out on a date tonight? I totally agree," he said, cutting her off because he had a feeling that she was about to suggest something he wouldn't like.

  "A date?" she repeated, sounding a bit confused.

  "Yeah, a date," he said, grabbing her hands and pulling her to her feet while she still looked confused as hell. He gave her a little nudge to get her moving in the direction of the stairs. "You know where I pick you up, you keep me waiting for a half hour, we go out, and I charm you while you hang on my every word. We eat, we talk and then at the end of the night you invite me in for a cup of coffee and I pretend to think it over since I'm such a gentleman," he said, choosing to ignore her little snort of disbelief as he guided her towards the stairs.

  "But-"

  "No, buts," he said, giving her another nudge to get her up the stairs. "Get your little butt up there and put something on that will drive me out of my mind."

  "But-"

  "Go," he said, giving her another nudge that thankfully got her moving. "The sooner you get dressed the sooner you can start fawning over me like a proper date and remember just because I agreed to go out on this date with you doesn't mean that I'm easy. I expect you to do a little work to get me out of my pants."