by Quinn, Taryn
“Higher!”
Forever the refrain when she saw me. All she wanted me to do was throw her in the air, in the pool, in the bouncy house. The girl was a daredevil and had me wrapped around her finger. Even worse, she knew it. It was growing to be a theme in my life.
“Hey, Ma.”
“Hi, baby.” She pulled me down by the ear to kiss my cheek. “You said you wouldn’t be a stranger when you got that cabin. Your check-in calls do not include any of the good stuff. Nope, I have to get all that at Suzanne’s when I’m getting a cut.”
Before I could open my mouth, she turned to Veronica.
“So, you’re the one causing such a stir in town.”
She blinked at my mom, then held out the flowers. “Depends on the hour of the day, I suppose. But if you’re talking about my baby project, then yes, ma’am, I’m sure people are still talking. I’m Veronica Dixon, but my friends call me Vee. Well, except your son.” She peered up at me, her eyes going from fierce to soft. “He likes to call me by my full name.”
I caught her hand in mine.
My mom didn’t miss that. I knew she wouldn’t. Her gaze narrowed, but she took the flowers. “Well, come on in before the boys eat all my food.”
“I’m more worried about the cookies,” I muttered.
“Cookies?” My mother perked up. She had a sweet tooth as legendary as each of her boys. It was second only to my little sister, Maddie. She was pretty much made of sugar. And vinegar.
A head peeked around the corner. “Who made the cookies?”
“See. I knew they weren’t safe. Don’t you eat all those.” I set Carrington down and she took off like a shot.
“Cookies? Can I have one?”
“Not before dinner,” my mother shouted. “I’m JoAnn, by the way.”
I flushed. “Sorry, Veronica. This is my mother, JoAnn.”
“Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Masterson.”
My mom waved that away. “You can call me Jo or JoAnn and that’s about it.”
“Right.” Veronica beamed a smile at her. The fierce Veronica was back in her box and the sweet one who won over everyone in the town was back. “Your home is beautiful. Thank you so much for letting me intrude on your family dinner.”
“Considering you’re thinking about adding one to our numbers, it’s only right.”
Vee opened her mouth, then shut it. What exactly could she say? My mother was just as much a force of nature as Veronica was. Her hold tightened on my hand as we headed into the living room.
My parents had one of those cookie-cutter houses that was all open space and windows for the majority of the downstairs. The other half was the kitchen. My mother’s domain in all ways.
The television was on and my father was in his recliner. Veronica’s plate of cookies was already being plowed through. I’d probably overstated the whole too many cookies thing. All my siblings had a bottomless pit for a stomach. My father was even worse than we were.
He spotted Veronica and the footrest slammed down as he got up with the quickness. “So, you’re the one who’s finally going to give me another grandchild.”
Veronica’s eyes went wide as her neck craned back.
My dad didn’t give her a chance to even say hi, he just scooped her up in a big hug. “You might be doing things a little backward, but I like you already.”
“Oof.” Veronica gave me a startled glance, her face buried in one of my dad’s flannel shirts.
“Hank, put the child down. There’s no bun in the oven yet.” My mother’s eyes narrowed. “Right?”
“No, Ma.”
Not that we knew of anyway.
She gave a little grunt and headed for the kitchen, but not before I caught her burying her nose in the blooms. My mom might have to be a hardass thanks to the men in her life, but she loved flowers. I should have thought about bringing her some myself. Veronica was always the thoughtful one for all occasions.
My dad dragged her into the living room.
“Tell me about yourself, sweetheart.” He set her in front of the couch, then sat on the edge of his chair, turned toward her.
She sat down gingerly and smoothed the skirt of her dress. “I’m a baker at Brewed Awakening.”
My dad held up a hand. “Not that part. We know that part. Who are your people?”
She blinked. “Pardon?”
“Family,” Penn said before licking the pads of his fingers with an absurdly loud groan. “These cookies are from heaven. I don’t care who your mom and dad are. I just want dozens of these to bring back to New York.”
Veronica flushed. “Why thank you.”
Penn winked at her. “Maybe I’ll just take you with me instead.”
I crossed to the couch and sat between them.
“Ow. Fucking hell, Moose.”
“You keep that city trash talk on the train, young man,” my mom hollered from the kitchen.
Penn frowned and punched me in the kidney. I didn’t give him the satisfaction of grunting even though my eyes nearly crossed. His bony-ass knuckles always hurt. I aimed a well-placed elbow into his ribs, and he flicked my ear.
“All right. Take it outside or cut it out.” My dad reached for Veronica’s hand. “I’m sorry about my sons. They have no manners.”
“I didn’t do anything.” Christian reached for another cookie from the coffee table.
“Because you didn’t even introduce yourself.”
“Everyone knows who I am.” Christian nodded at her. “Nice to see you again, Vee.”
“Officer.”
Christian tapped his chest. “No badge today, hon.”
“She’s not your hon.”
“Aww, look how growly Moose is getting.” Christian snagged two more cookies. “Don’t worry, I’m not looking to knock up the hot baker.”
Veronica’s cheeks flushed.
My dad flung the remote at Christian. “Manners, boy.”
“Hey. Why are you all ganging up on me?” He leaned down to pick up the remote and lobbed it back at my dad.
“Because you have about as much sense as a wildebeest.” Maddie came in the room and popped him on the back of the head. She held her hand out to Veronica. “I’m Maddie. Somehow I’m related to these idiots.”
Veronica shook her hand. “I’m Vee. I think I’ve seen you in the café.”
“I’m pretty sure the whole town goes to the café. Well, except Dad. He only likes Folgers.” She shuddered.
Veronica wrinkled her nose. “You should really come in, Mr. Masterson.”
“Hank. And I don’t need to be paying three dollars for a coffee, thanks.”
“Try eight in the city. And that’s for subpar coffee.” Penn tossed a corner of a cookie into the air and of course it landed right in his mouth. Everything came up roses for my damn brother.
My dad reached for a cookie.
“If you ruin your appetites, I will tan all of your hides.”
He sat back with a little snarl on his lips. “I swear that woman has eyes all over the house.”
“She could. Big Brother is out there.” Penn pulled a pencil from behind his ear and twirled it through his fingers.
My father ignored him. “Tell us about you, Vee.”
“I moved to Crescent Cove to work with Macy at the shop. We had a small coffee truck for a while, but when she found the storefront here, we both decided to move. And it’s been amazing.” Veronica laced her fingers through mine and held on tight.
“And your folks?”
She squeezed my hand harder.
“Dad.”
“What? I’m just being conversational.”
“You’re being nosy.” Maddie plopped into her well-used beanbag chair. “Interrogations are for second visits.”
“No, it’s okay.” Veronica gave him her brave smile.
Was it any wonder I was already head over heels for this woman?
“I moved around a lot with my mom. She recently came for a visit, but she’s off to Austral
ia with her new husband.” She shrugged. “Long story.”
That was the truth. Andrea Dixon had whirled through our first official date with a whole lot of revelatory bombs. I still hadn’t fully recovered from meeting her.
My dad frowned. “Is she some sort of airline stewardess?”
Veronica laughed. “No, that would be too sensible. She just finds a new adventure and goes for it.”
“Sounds like you.” My dad laced his fingers over his slight paunch. “Going off with that Macy girl.”
“Dad, Macy is one of the most successful women in our town right now. And most of it is because of Veronica. You can’t keep your hands off her cookies.”
“That’s what she said,” Penn muttered.
I stomped on his steel-toe boot.
Penn just chuckled. The bastard.
Veronica nudged me with her shoulder. “Thanks, Fortress. You don’t have to stick up for me. I know that my lifestyle isn’t conventional. He’s right to ask questions.”
“Well, if you do have a baby with my son, I just want to know if we will have to chase you down to see our grandchild.”
“Dad.”
“It’s not an outrageous question.”
Veronica patted my hand. “No, it’s not. And while my quest for a baby might be a little unconventional, I’ve found my home here in Crescent Cove. I’ve been looking for a real home for a long time. And I want nothing more than to raise my baby here.”
I wasn’t aware that my entire body had tightened until she said that. I wrapped my arm around her and hauled her close. “Now can you stop with the questions? I don’t want to scare her away.”
She turned her face into my shoulder for a moment and gave me a grateful smile.
“Would someone set the damn table?” My mom’s bellow came from the kitchen.
I rose and tugged her with me. “We’ll do it, Ma.”
“I’ll help!” Carrington came into the dining room with a stack of plastic bowls with napkins inside.
I came up behind her and she immediately climbed onto my boots as we shuffled around the table so she could reach. She rattled off the extent of her day at Kindergarten in excruciating detail, but I didn’t interrupt her. My niece was adorable as hell despite her father’s truly craptastic taste in women.
Speak of the devil. Travis came through the sliding back door with his helmet under his arm.
Carrington wiggled away from me and shrieked her way across the room to him. Travis dropped the helmet and caught her mid-leap and hoisted her above his head. “Munchee-chee. How goes it?”
“Travis, wash your hands and help me with the salad.” My mother was a no-nonsense woman. Especially when one of her kids came in late for dinner.
“Right.” He set his daughter on the floor gently, then scooped up his helmet. “Hellooo.” On his way up, his eyes followed the petite lines of my…what? Girlfriend? Possible future mother of my child? I didn’t even have a decent label for her.
We didn’t talk about them. Somehow I wasn’t supposed to toss her over my shoulder and keep her up in my cabin.
The stack of dishes I was shuffling around the table clanked together.
“Veronica, meet my perpetually late brother, Travis.”
He reached up to ruffle his colorful mohawk. “Look, we match, darlin’.”
What the hell was it with my brothers? Didn’t they know how to speak to a woman without an endearment attached?
Veronica grinned. “So we do. What did you use for color?”
Travis shrugged. “They stick me in a chair and put goop on my head. Then I go in front of a camera. That’s all I know.”
“Travis is a model. Ish.” Christian stole Travis’s helmet. “Don’t hold it against him. We don’t. Mostly.”
“You’re just jealous because I get paid to have beautiful women crawl all over me.”
“Really?” Penn flicked the long ends of his hair. “Last commercial I saw you in, there were more suds on you than pretty girls.”
“Even men have to do dishes, jerk.”
“Not if you have a maid.”
“Well, there are no maids here, so I appreciate the free products that Travis sent me from the set.” My mother came in with a huge platter of chicken. “And for that remark, Penn, you get to do dishes tonight.”
“Ma. I came all the way from—”
“I don’t care where you park your butt at night, Penn Michael Masterson, you come in this house and you’re just my son. And if you think you’re too good to get your hands dirty in my sink, you can skip my dinner too.”
“Jeez, Ma.” Penn crowded into her and dropped a kiss on her cheek. “I’ll do the dishes. Just don’t take away my chicken.”
“Go on now. Get the potatoes.”
I felt a small, cool hand curl around my fingers. “Can you come outside with me for a second?”
I frowned down at her and curled my arm around her back. “Everything okay? They didn’t scare you into leaving, did they?”
“No. I love your family. They’re so real.”
“Real is one word for it.”
She tipped her head up. “Just for a second.”
I put the last two plates down. “Sure. We’ll be right back, Mom.”
“Don’t be too long, the food will get cold.”
“Go ahead. We’ll be right back.”
“I don’t know that it’s fair for Moose to get to go outside to make out with a pretty girl. That should be my job,” Penn hollered.
My jaw tightened.
“More scooping, less talking,” my mother shot back.
I followed Vee outside. She led me to the edge of the deck, then urged me down two steps. “What’s up?”
She turned me to face her. With the height of the stairs, she was almost to my eye line. She framed my face with her hands. “Relax, Murphy.”
I frowned. “I’m relaxed.”
She smoothed her hands to my shoulders and gripped them. “Really? Because there’s a lot of tension going on here and here.” She released my shoulders to smooth the pad of her forefinger between my brows.
“My brothers always make me crazy.”
“I don’t know how it is to live with siblings, but if it’s anything like me and Macy, I understand they know how to push your buttons.”
I blew out a breath. “Yeah.”
She laced her fingers along the back of my neck. “I only care about one Masterson man in that house. While your brothers are charming and funny in their own ways, they aren’t my Fortress. And that’s who I’m here with and want to be with.”
I lowered my mouth to hers and kissed her hard. The kind of kiss that marked her as mine. The kind of kiss I’d never felt the need to give a woman in my life. There were so many tangled emotions inside me when it came to me and Veronica.
Knowing how much more interesting my brothers were than I was had always been a sore spot for me. Women always chose Penn and Travis, and even Christian had people running after him like he was built out of chocolate.
Me? Not so much.
Vee plastered herself to my chest and sighed into my mouth. “Just you.”
I lifted her up as I walked us back toward the house. I set her down just outside the door. “Not sure I like that you handle me, Veronica Dixon.”
She bit her lower lip and slid her hand under my Henley to score her nails lightly along the skin of my lower back. “I think you love how I handle you, Fortress.”
I groaned and dropped another kiss on her smirking lips. “You may have a point.”
“Now let’s eat so we can go home.” She grinned. “Then I’ll show you just how much fun it is to be handled by a Dixon girl.”
“I definitely like that idea.”
Nineteen
Cabin Fortress: I thought I’d bring home dinner. Save you a night cooking. What would you like?
Two and a half months later
I stared at my phone.
What did I want?
Hmm,
that was a good question. Not a particularly hard one either.
I wanted what I already had.
Happiness. Definitely had a butt load of that lately. So much that I usually walked around with a perma-grin. Macy scowled when I got too “love-dippy”, but I knew she was happy for me.
Us. Because we were definitely an us.
Love was another thing I’d always wanted, and I had that in spades. Even if we hadn’t quite said the words. I hadn’t yet, and neither had Murphy. But I knew how I felt, and I was almost positive he was on the same page.
One covered with lots of hearts and initials and fat-cheeked Cupids.
Good thing because Valentine’s Day was only a month away, and this year, I would actually have a special someone in my life.
I also wanted a beautiful home, one spacious enough that I didn’t feel cramped but that also seemed cozy. I had that too. Though I hadn’t officially moved in with Murphy, I stayed over almost every night. His cabin was ours now. He’d told me multiple times to add whatever I liked or to change the décor if it suited me.
So far, I’d just added a few paper-mache bats in the kitchen at Halloween that had stuck around. I was too used to a Halloween all year atmosphere at work because of Macy, so making up a batch of lemon-blueberry muffins with beady-eyed bats staring at me from the eaves of the stove just made the place feel homey.
Even if it was January.
I wanted the cutest dog ever known to man, who was currently sleeping on my feet as I worked on the laptop by the fireplace in the living room. Every now and then, he would look up at me adoringly until I leaned down to give him a pat and cooed to him that he was Mama’s favorite.
He was also Mama’s only baby, but whatever. Latte enjoyed being loved on as much I appreciated the cuddles.
I rubbed the slight ache in my lower belly. Especially today.
I had to go to the bathroom, due to far too much coffee while I answered emails from new people who had heard about the baby club support group. We’d actually named it Baby Daddy Wanted and set up an LLC and all that, at Murphy’s lawyer’s urging.
Yes, my boyfriend had a lawyer, because he already had a gaming company and from what I could tell, money out the wazoo although he wasn’t the least bit ostentatious.