by Angie Wilder
Emma held her breath, watching the scene play out, her mind running wild.
“That’s fine,” Ben said. “How about I hang on to it until Kaley is ready?” When he spoke, his voice sounded heavier than usual. The words drawled out then clipped off short like he detected himself saying too much.
Kaley brushed her fingertips against Ben’s palm when she placed the ring there.
From the moment Emma’s momma had slipped off that diamond, her brother had only had eyes for Kaley. He watched her while he closed his fingers over the band.
Kaley’s hand seem to tremble.
Emma’s teeth clicked together to control her mouth from hanging open. Was Ben the father? When? How? Scratch that. She didn’t want to think about that. Emma hesitated to jump to wild conclusions, but their peculiar behavior and the fact that Kaley wouldn’t reveal the dad’s name all made sense, assuming this crazy hypothesis. Emma rapped her fingertips against the tabletop, her mind clicking the clues into place.
The action drew Kaley’s focus. She sucked in her lower lip, angled away, and hurried to the sink.
Oh my lord, her best friend had slept with her brother! In secret! Emma’s heart thudded as she peeked at Evan to see if he had caught on to this possibility. They were the only ones in the room to know the truth about Kaley and Mark. That the baby wasn’t his. It was Ben’s!
Evan’s focus seemed disconnected, like his attention was somewhere else, but then he shifted his gaze to Emma’s. The light in his eyes caused her already wild heartbeat to flutter out of control.
“What’s next?” Lisa asked, and the construction pace picked back up.
Was most of the room caught up in relationship turmoil? Lulled into a stupor at the sight of Great-Grandma’s ring? The diamond that Ben now had in his possession.
Evan’s shoulder brushed against hers.
Emma blinked, and she dropped his fingers, wondering when their hand-holding had happened. Had anyone seen?
Kaley dried the mixing bowl and set it aside. “Emma, I think I left the candy decorations on the top shelf of the closet in the entryway. Can you come and get them with me?”
Evan scooted out of his chair. “The gingerbread crew needs their leader. I’ll go with Emma.”
Emma was about to bubble over with her baby hypothesis. Kaley must have sensed it, sought a word alone, but Evan was already set to help. A conversation with Kaley would have to wait. Emma followed Evan out.
“I’m handy at fetching things up high.” Evan winked as he opened the closet. Behind the door, his smile grew as he drew her into his arms and gave her a soft heart-stuttering kiss. “I’ve been dying to do that for hours.” His lips swept over hers again while he copped a feel. He released her with a faint growl and reached for the bag of sweets.
She’d never get enough of his attention, but she fought the intense craving to cuddle up in his arms. Someone might see. Instead, she shuffled a step backward, to deal with the other pressing matter. In a whisper, she said, “I think I know who he is.”
“Who are you referring to?” Headlights flickered through the window, and Evan started to the front door as a jeep pulled into the driveway.
“Evan.” She touched his arm. “I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that Ben is the father of Kaley’s baby.”
“What?” The cords in Evan’s neck tightened, as did his fists.
Emma grabbed his hand and laced her fingers with his. She craved the connection, and Evan had to stay calm. “I’m piecing it together from clues. I know Ben and Kaley are close. She wouldn’t reveal to me the guy’s name, which is odd, unless there was a reason, like her baby-daddy being my brother. Plus, that wedding ring scene in the kitchen was weird.”
“Right. I’m going to hurt him.” Evan dropped her hand.
She grasped his shirt and tugged him back. “No, you’re not. You promised not to flip out.”
“My best friend had a one-night stand with my sister. He knocked her up.”
“Let them work this out.”
Evan closed his eyes and dragged in a deep breath. Seconds passed before he let it out. “Now what?”
The sound of a car door drew Emma’s attention back outside. “Now we figure out who’s here.” She peered out the window. A man carrying a bouquet approached the front porch. When the lamplight revealed his face, Emma’s skin broke into goose bumps. “Oh, no!” She looked to Evan for an answer.
“Hell,” he muttered. “I thought they broke up?”
Kaley’s ex had arrived. Only the parents believed he was the baby’s dad and Kaley’s fiancé. Emma blinked as if the visitor was only in her imagination. “It’s Mark.”
“Mark?! Kaley’s Mark?” Lisa Heartley joined them in the entryway and delighted in the good news loud enough to warn her whole household, then tugged the door open.
“I’ll tell Kaley.” Emma ran for the kitchen.
Kaley stood in the center of the room. Her complexion had gone white as flour.
Ben frowned and shoved his chair backward as if he fixed to leave.
Emma’s momma removed her apron and uncoiled her sleeves.
All the while Kaley’s mom was greeting Mark, welcoming him inside, and their footsteps were approaching at a record pace.
Kaley plucked at her snug tunic top as she focused on the doorway.
“Be strong,” Emma said seconds before the throng entered the room.
Once Mark got a glimpse at Kaley and her new baby-bump figure, his smile collapsed, and he lowered the large bunch of red roses he carried.
Lisa slipped past Mark, wearing a huge grin. “Kaley didn’t mention you’d be home for Christmas. This is wonderful! Minutes ago we were talking about engagement rings and just like that, you, Kaley’s fiancé arrived!”
Mark set the flowers on the counter and took a step toward Kaley. “Her fiancé? What’s going on, Kaley? You’re pregnant? You said nothing about a baby when you broke it off.”
Kaley glanced around the kitchen, her audience shocked into silence. Everyone in the two families was there, accounted for and confused. When her gaze returned to Mark, she said, “I’m sorry. There is no getting back together. When we were on a break, there was someone else. Not right now. I never cheated on you, but my life is taking me in a different direction, without you.” Her gaze drifted to the floor, and she continued, “I’m sorry I lied to everyone about the baby, Mark isn’t the father. I was scared. I—”
“Who is the father?” Ben demanded, stepping to her side.
Kaley turned to him, her eyes wet. “You are.”
The room exploded with the clang of questions being shouted over one another. Mark strode out, not interested in hearing more, while the parents couldn’t hear their fill. Emma’s momma was swinging between manic with joy and confounded concern over Ben being a daddy.
Ben stood stunned. He reached for Kaley. Lisa reached for Kaley. Her dad was yelling at Ben, threatening a shotgun wedding and demanding explanations. Daddy was yelling at Kaley’s dad for yelling at Ben. The shock had everyone acting crazy.
Kaley backed up from the crowd. “Stop shouting. Stop. It’s not like I’m the only one who slept with her best friend’s brother,” she cried, then slapped her hand over her mouth. The room plunged into silence. “I’m so sorry, Emma.” The apology was muffled, but the message rung loud and clear.
“What!?” two sets of parents cried.
It was Emma’s turn in the hot seat. She watched her brother drop into a chair, while her momma continued to shout her surprise, “You and Evan?”
Emma nodded. She was about to fall apart the same as Kaley. There’d be questions now. Questions Emma wasn’t prepared to answer. She had to talk to Evan.
“You and Evan are together?” her momma said, then she cheered, “That’s fantastic!”
The exclamation startled Emma to her soles. It was fantastic, but—
“You’re in love! You’re staying in Hillcrest? Getting married?” Her momma jumped to conclusions, tying
their relationship up in a neat little bow. As if it were that easy.
Emma saw spots dance before her eyes. “It’s not like that,” she croaked before her momma called the bridal shop and whipped out her AMEX card. Emma loved Evan, but they hadn’t talked about the future. She glanced at Evan for aid.
His face was hard as stone. “In that case,” Evan’s words clipped out. He turned his back to Emma and strode toward the entryway.
“Where are you going?” The drama moved too fast. She couldn’t keep up.
Evan didn’t reply.
He was leaving! “Evan, stop! Please!” The front door banged shut. How could he walk out on her? It’s not like she’d created this mess on her own. He’d been in that bed with her.
“Good God, the kids are fornicating with one another!” her daddy said.
Emma had to get away. She shoved past the kitchen table, where her brother sat dazed, and ran out the back door. She dashed through the snow, barely noticing her lack of shoes and coat. She was numb with emotional pain. How could Evan have abandoned her like that? Emma glanced at the front of the Heartley house.
He was on the porch. The distance between them felt like miles. She stood there for a second. It passed like an hour. Those few words he’d tossed out, “In that case…” What case? Minutes ago they were sneaking kisses and now…
Emma twisted her face away and continued to her parents’ home. Inside, she slammed the door, and her body sagged with lost hope. She snatched a pillow from the entry bench and hugged it to her stomach. She had to make it upstairs to her bedroom before the family returned. But she was a glutton for punishment and rounded back for one last peek at the Heartley’s porch. She pressed a palm to the door and stared through the peephole.
Evan headed her way.
Love. The word he’d never used because he hoped she’d say it first. Evan gripped the front porch rail of his parents’ home and dragged frigid air into his lungs. He hadn’t been able to remain in the kitchen one more second and listen to Emma reveal to her mom, their families, that she didn’t feel the same.
“It’s not like that,” she had said.
Then what the hell was it? Sex?
Sure, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other, but they weren’t dying for a release—any old good time roll. This was Emma! She’s practical, tenderhearted, and wouldn’t share his bed without the possibility of falling in love. Would she? He thought he knew her.
Evan watched her dash across the yard, her misery obvious. When Emma glanced his direction, something in her posture felt final. Angry as he was, he wasn’t ready to call it the end. It was long past time they had a conversation about where their relationship was headed.
As Evan cut through the snow, he replayed the fallout. What a train wreck. His sister was a sobbing mess with her secret outed in the presence of everyone. The pain in her eyes… Kaley had been gasping with panic.
Ben was her one-night stand! He’d gotten Evan’s little sister pregnant. If Ben cared about Kaley, the way she claimed to feel about the baby’s dad, then why would she have gotten back together with Mark? Unless she’d been only a fling to Ben, and he’d given her the one-and-done blow-off. Evan's knuckles ached, contemplating that unpleasant thought. Why hadn’t Ben suspected he was the father? He’s a doctor. One didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to do the calculations.
Evan’s skull pounded, his mood black as all get out. He should turn back home and hash this out with Emma another time, but he knew better than to let a woman stew. Especially one that owned his heart.
He scrubbed his hand over his face. Think man, think. You love this girl. Evan didn’t mind that the news about their relationship had slipped out. He hated the secrecy. But Em’s response cut deep, and he’d walked out. It was a wrong step. He glanced back at his family’s house. The group gathered in the kitchen was still going at it, but then Kaley’s bedroom light appeared, a filtered glow behind closed curtains. Emma’s bedroom window remained dark. Evan hurried before that changed, and she locked herself behind another door.
Evan tapped his knuckles against the wood and tried the handle. “Emma?” He eased the door open, and a pillow bounced off his head. A solid indication that Emma had more than injured feelings. She was pissed.
“Em, we need to talk.” He bent and picked up the weapon before stepping inside. Then he crossed the room to where she stood with her back against the wall. Her lips were pinched tight, her skin white, and her body quivered. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and hug it out.
“It’s time we both walk away.” She yanked the cushion from his grasp and hugged it to her chest.
She couldn’t possibly mean that. He wasn’t ready to be over. The way she said “both walk away” was a clear sign that she assumed he’d already abandoned the relationship. “I’m sorry.” He reached for her. “I shouldn’t have left. That was my mistake. And—”
“And what was mine?” She shifted out of reach, dodging his touch. “Would it be too much to count on you, Evan, to care enough to stand there next to me? Did you consider for one second how I would feel?” Tears spilled down her face.
“Of course I care,” he said around the knot in his throat. “Your words hurt, Emma. When you told everybody you weren’t interested in commitments, in moving home… I believed we had something together. I had hoped you’d stay. I didn’t want to pressure you, but I prayed you’d considered us worth it. Please?” He wondered if he should get down on one knee, wait for her to fall into his arms, and say the word he was desperate to hear—yes.
“You’re asking me to give up my Beverly Hills partnership? The one I’ve struggled to make happen? This is the job of a lifetime.”
“I’m begging you to give us a chance, Em.”
“I want that too. I’m trying to work this out. Since the beginning, I’ve racked my brain for an idea, a solution to how we can be together. It’s not that easy. I can’t figure this out alone. You walked away when I needed you the most. Do you see how scary that is? You abandoned me back there, and now I should upend my life? Move for you? Isn’t that why you dumped your last girlfriend? Because you decided to return to Hillcrest and she didn’t want a life here?”
“Don’t go there, Em. This is about us.”
“Us? But it’s your way or no way. Always the star. The one the girls follow, and when they don’t, they’re a problem. They get left standing alone in the kitchen. Well, I’ve worked hard to reach this place in my career. This partnership.”
He rubbed his jaw as if she’d slapped him. “Is that how little you think of me?” He staggered backward. “I’m trying to tell you I’m in love with you. That I don’t want to lose you.”
She dragged in a shuttered breath.
He took another step backward toward the door. “Emma, you already have a successful partnership—here. But it’s not good enough for you. I may have had my moment of fame, but now I’m just a country vet that can’t entice a Hollywood-bound girl like you to stay.”
“That’s not true! Evan, please, we need time to talk. I’ve always loved you, but I don’t know what to do. I need you to help me figure this out. It’s only been a week since…”
“It’s been minutes since we started this conversation, and I’ve changed my mind, Emma. Maybe I am a self-centered asshole, if that’s what you believe, but I deserve someone who doesn’t think inheriting her father’s clinic is beneath her.”
“I never said that!”
“Didn’t you? You know what? I’ve also worked hard to get where I am.” Evan stepped outside and shut the door. Emma sobbed his name as he walked away.
The day he took that disastrous hit out on the ice, the stick to the skates and the check to the ribs that hurled him off his feet and ruined his shoulder, hadn’t hurt half as awful as the slam he’d just endured from Emma. Through the agony, he had risen and skated off the rink, away from the game he loved. He’d had a strong hunch then that there would be no comeback. He’d suspected nothing could cau
se him to suffer worse—until now.
17
He said he loved her, then changed his mind. The loss was overwhelming.
Emma didn’t recall treading up the stairs or how she’d come to hold Harry. She cradled him to her chest as she stood in the dark in front of her bedroom window to stare out at the Heartley home. Her parents, Ben, all the people she cherished were there except for one—Evan.
After their confrontation, she had watched the man she’d loved her entire life walk away. He’d hesitated and looked back once when he reached his truck.
As she lingered in the doorway, a bubble of hope had swelled in her chest. Would Evan come back? Offer her one of his hugs that she so desperately needed and a kind word to make them better? That’s all it would have taken to have her begging for forgiveness and forever. All those hideous things she’d said…how he’d misconstrued them, making it worse. She'd willed him to return to her, but he had climbed inside his truck, where he could no longer hear her call out his name, and slammed the door. She had started a fight she had never intended. Evan was all she’d ever wanted. He drove off.
The emptiness consumed her, caused her body to ache. “Evan loved me,” she murmured to Harry as she rubbed her chin against his head. “But not anymore. I messed up… I can’t breathe. It hurts.” She clung to the cat like a lifeline of comfort. “I’m sorry I can’t take you with me. When I go…” The tight pain in the back of her throat impeded her speech. “Evan might still…” She closed her eyes, and tears trickled down her cheeks. “He might still want you.”
Emma was about to turn away from her bedroom window when Kaley’s room went dark, and a flashlight beam cut across the yard, aimed at Emma’s room. On and off blinked the light three times, a signal, like when they were kids. Emma didn’t have the strength to search her dresser, though she remembered the tool was in the top drawer. Centered between the curtains, a slender vase-shaped lamp sat on the nightstand. She twisted the lever, and soft light filled the room, a sign for Kaley that Emma was there.