by Kennedy Fox
I believed her. It was a new feeling for me. It remained to be seen just how much I’d need my new friend.
I stopped at the lockers and put on my smock again. I fluffed my hair and detangled my hoops from the fresh highlights Paisley had done for me the day before.
“He’s just a guy. You can talk to him and then…” I stared at myself in the mirror.
And then…what?
Then I’d deal with whatever came next. That was what I always did.
Pushing open the curtain, I straightened my shoulders and crossed to my station. I took a minute to soak all of him in. It should have been easier to see him by now.
My gaze tracked down his long, muscular frame. His Burberry coat was open over one of his usual cardigan sweaters. This one was a soft gray like his eyes. His jeans had stress wears in all the right places and a pair of battered Timberlands peeked out from the frayed cuffs. Again, there was an affluence to him that didn’t quite match his artist moniker.
I thought most artists made their money posthumously—unless they were in the city. Maybe Syracuse wasn’t his home either. Maybe a lot of different things. I didn’t really know Callum MacGregor very well.
Well enough to sleep with him.
Well enough to make a baby.
Maybe.
“Ellie?” He stepped closer.
I’d totally zoned out. “Sorry. I’m a bit distracted. Did you want a haircut?” I immediately reached up to sift my fingers through his hair. And I wished I hadn’t. I was used to touching because hair was my job.
Callum wasn’t just a head of hair.
His cedar and brisk winter air scent set me back on my heels. It dragged me back to the festival and his arms around me.
He leaned into my touch, his eyes closing. “I missed you touching me.”
I dropped my hand. “I’m sure you could find another hairdresser a bit closer to you. If you’re looking for a discount, the MoneyMaster coupon expired last week.”
His smile made me light up inside in a way I’d almost forgotten I could. He had given me that at Christmas. “I can pay full price. Why does everyone think I’m cheap?”
“Because you spend all your dough on hot cars and fancy threads?”
I decided to touch his tweed coat this time. Why, I did not know. It looked soft, and I just wanted to lay my head on it and rest. Not plan or worry or stress for one freaking moment and let someone else take care of me.
Not that he’d offered. Or that he wanted to. Just something about his open, hopeful expression and the fact that he kept coming back for me, time and time again, made me want to trust he’d give me a safe place to land for just a little while.
My mom had left me, but this virtual stranger wanted to be in my world. I couldn’t figure out how to handle it, so I kept screwing it up.
And now I might be screwing up a life that wasn’t even solely my own if I continued on this path.
“Ellie,” he murmured as my chin wobbled. I gripped one of his buttons to keep from letting the tears I didn’t know I’d stored up flow. “What is it?”
I didn’t look up at his face, just stared at his pearlized button clutched between my fingers. “Can we go somewhere?”
“Sure. Of course.” His voice was so gentle and not the least bit judgmental. “Where would you like to go?”
“Not anywhere with a bed,” I said a touch too loudly, squeezing my eyes shut at the muffled laugh I heard from behind me.
“Who needs one of those? I’ve heard Crescent Cove trees are mighty sturdy.”
I shook my head, laughing despite my nerves. And embarrassment. And about fifty other emotions he stirred up in me so easily. No wonder I wanted to flee every time he got too close.
“No beds,” he said low enough for my ears only. “Let’s go for a ride. In a car,” he added for the benefit of my eavesdropping coworkers.
I couldn’t exactly blame them. Apparently, Callum and I were big news in town. I didn’t know why when it came to that either, but I was beginning to think there were a few things I needed to learn more about.
Swallowing deeply, I looked up at Callum. People too.
“Okay. Let me get my jacket.” I turned toward Paisley to ask if it was all right, but she was already waving me off. “Oh, I have Mrs. Bloom coming in.”
She waved me off. “I’ll take care of her.”
“Are you sure?”
“Totally. Get out of here, you crazy kids.”
The word kids stopped me in my tracks. At least that was a bright side. Just one kid. Maybe.
Then again, Callum had triplets in his family. Was that hereditary? I gazed down at my stomach, nicely hidden by my smock.
Nope, I was not going there. I wasn’t a big person. There was no room for…all that.
“Are you okay?” Callum asked, peering over my shoulder as I stared at my belly.
“Yes, I’m fine. One second.” I whipped off my smock and returned it to my area before grabbing my jacket.
He was waiting for me by the door, and we walked out to the street where he’d parked in silence. When he motioned to a Jeep instead of his hot yellow car, I did a doubletake. “You sold it? Why? I have good memories of that car.”
“Me too.” The huskiness of his voice made me curl my fingers into my palms. “But no, I’m just getting some custom work done on it at Dare’s shop. He gave me this loaner.” He opened the passenger door for me. “What do you think of it?”
“I love Jeeps, but if you get one, I hope you paint it neon green. Normal colors don’t seem to suit you.”
“They don’t?” He sounded inordinately pleased.
“Not anymore. I mean, when I first saw the grandpa sweater—” I couldn’t stop from giggling when he poked me in the side. “Very attractive grandpa.”
“That’s better.” He frowned. “How old are you anyway?”
“Twenty-four.”
“Whew.”
“What about you?”
“Thirty in a few months.”
“Did you suddenly think I was barely legal? Little late to worry.”
He leaned in and spoke against my temple, ruffling my hair with his deliciously warm breath. “I’d have to take my luck with that sort of sin, since I can’t seem to stay away. Now get in.”
As I did what he asked, I realized I was shivering—and not from the cold.
My hottie artist hookup was dangerous. Not physically, but in every other possible way.
He didn’t tell me where we were going, and I didn’t say anything as he drove up one of the side roads that led around the lake.
Until he stopped at a hidden lane called Wolf Hollow Way and signaled to make the turn.
We were near the house. My house. I’d never gotten quite this close before because this was a private road surrounded by enough trees to make me think of all the scary movies I was only brave enough to watch with all the lights blazing and a big bucket of popcorn. He veered off and drove into a clearing that opened up near the lake, pulling to a stop close to the water.
I opened my door and stepped out, taking a deep breath of air tinged with the scent of the lake. The sun glistened off the cover of ice, nearly blinding me for the second it took to pull out my sunglasses from my jacket pocket.
“You’re going to get arrested for trespassing,” I warned instead of all the much nicer things that flitted through my brain.
Like…
How beautiful. Thank you for showing me this. How did you know I needed the water and the sunshine?
He didn’t blink as he walked around the Jeep to stand with me. I moved back and he shut my door. Always a gentleman.
I didn’t know how to share the sweeter parts of myself with him without being worried that he’d toss them back in my face.
For a moment, he shifted from foot to foot, as if he was weighing what to say. Then he went for broke.
“It’s not trespassing when you own the place.”
“You…I…what? Here? My favorite s
pot? Why?”
He turned to me, a smile curving his lips. “Turns out you have amazing taste.” He stepped forward and cupped my elbows, his touch easy. “I was supposed to invite you to a nice, casual lunch. Then I was supposed to get a haircut. So far, my day isn’t going as I planned at all.”
“I think I’m pregnant.”
In another situation, watching the color leech from his face might’ve been funny. Right now, it wasn’t. Not at all.
“Say that again.”
“I think I’m pregnant. I don’t know for sure. I haven’t taken a test. I’m just late, and I’m never late—Callum, put me down!” I screeched as he lifted me up in the air, spinning me around so fast I gripped his shoulders to keep from falling. But he held on to me securely, never letting go even when I slid down his body back to the ground.
He pushed my sunglasses on top of my head and cupped my face in his hands. “Can we go find out now?”
His gray eyes were filled with excitement and terror and what seemed like genuine pleasure. “Did you understand what I said? What it means?”
“Yes, I was there that day in health class. When sperm meets egg, you get a baby or babies—”
“Baby. Say it with me. B-a-b-y. As in one, singular. I don’t have the capacity for triplets.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised how elastic—”
I reached up to close his lips with my fingers. “Unless you want me to talk about how elastic your male body parts are, please don’t.”
He chuckled and nodded, so I dropped my hand. He immediately grabbed it and lifted it to his mouth to kiss my knuckles. “I was warned about Crescent Cove. I can’t say I really believed it, but it didn’t stop me from being with you. Nothing would. Not a hurricane or a blizzard or a Dear John note on the dresser when I was already on my way to falling in love with you.”
The words spun around dizzily in my head. I stumbled back to lean against the Jeep because the world was tilting, and I wasn’t entirely sure it was just because he was a gorgeous, wonderful, insane man.
He moved toward me instantly. “Are you all right? Do you want to sit down? I don’t have the keys yet, but there are chairs on the wraparound porch.”
I shook my head, pressing my lips together against a smile. Warmth bloomed inside me, the kind that even my logical mind couldn’t squash. “I didn’t even know the house was for sale.”
“Me either. My timing was just right. Guess it was fate.”
“Fate or not, you can’t fall in love in not even a day. It’s not possible.”
“Tell that to Ariadne, who fell in love with Theseus as soon as she saw him on the dock, which probably isn’t that dissimilar from a gazebo—why are you laughing?”
“I don’t know who those people are.”
“They’re from Greek mythology. I teach it at the community college. It’s not as fancy a position as Lennox has with his powerful law firm, or Finn with his architectural firm, but it suits me. I’m a good teacher.” Not so subtly, he moved closer to me. “I have patience and a love of the subject material.”
“You have good hands too,” I mused idly as he cupped my hips. Then I laughed again, feeling like the hugest fool who had ever lived. “You’re really a professor? I thought you were a flighty artist with an inconsistent income.”
“I really am a professor. And I can be flighty. And my income can be inconsistent, though less so in the past couple of years thanks to my paintings.” He rubbed his thumb over my lower lip. “But I’m exceptional at making promises. I don’t give my word unless I can keep it.”
“Callum,” I whispered, but I wasn’t strong enough to hold him off.
Not when I so badly wanted him to line up our mouths and kiss me like he’d missed me so much over the past six weeks. Just as I’d missed him.
He slid his fingers through my windswept hair, his lips gentle and persuasive with that undercurrent of need that had me rising to my tiptoes to meet his kiss. I wound my arms around his waist, nestling them under his long coat, and just allowed myself to sink into him. To enjoy for a moment without thinking about the next.
Breathless, we finally parted a few minutes later. He ran his fingertip between my breasts and kept on going, stopping just above my belly button. “Do you really think so?”
The wonder in his question made a lump form in my throat. “It’s a definite possibility.”
“If you are, if we are, I’ll do everything in this world to make you happy. I swear it on my life.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I’ll make both of you happy and me too. Or you know, all four of us—” He laughed as I punched him in the ribs. “Ow. My woman is strong.”
“Is that what I am?” I was still dazed from all he’d said.
Words were easy. Emotions and actions weren’t. And if he was faking his reaction to the possible existence of this child, then he had me fooled. His sincerity was as much a part of him as his cedar scent or the misty gray of his eyes.
Or his sweet, confusing heart.
He drew me against him and brushed my hair off my cheek. “If you’ll have me.”
“I’m scared.” Admitting it was probably the hardest thing I’d ever done.
“Oh, baby, I am too.” He pressed my hand against his chest so that I could feel his rapid heartbeat through the material. “But it’s a good scared. It means I want this. I want you and what can be. Whatever is meant for us. I’m right here, ready to take every step with you.”
My lips quivered into a smile as I put my sunglasses back into place. “Is that casual lunch still on the table? Because suddenly, I’m starving.”
I wasn’t lying. For the first time in a while, all I wanted was a big juicy cheeseburger and thick steak fries from the diner. Or that poutine from Gina that Paisley had mentioned.
And if some of the reason my appetite had returned was because of this impossible, incredible man beside me, well, so be it.
I wasn’t running anymore.
“Absolutely. Your choice. Let’s go.” He started walking around the Jeep to the driver’s side, but I grabbed his hand and held on tight as he looked back at me.
“After we go buy a pregnancy test? If you wouldn’t mind being there while I make sure.”
This time, I wasn’t even surprised when he spun me around. Although I made him put me down a lot faster, since my stomach and I weren’t on the best of terms when he tried stuff like that.
But the rest of me secretly loved it.
God, I was a sap.
The whole way to the drugstore a town over, Callum rubbed my knee and smiled at me every time our gazes locked. Which was often.
When I’d told him where to go, he hadn’t even questioned why we had to travel so far when there were stores in town.
And when I went in the store’s small, dingy bathroom to do what I needed to do, he paced in the hallway, asking every thirty seconds, “Is it time yet?”
I opened the door and took a quick glance around before dragging him inside so he could look at the little stick with me.
One of us whooped. It was probably him. I was too shell-shocked to do anything but press my forehead against his strong, solid chest when he hauled me into a hug.
“We did it,” he murmured into my hair over and over.
I let out a sniffly laugh. “You do realize this wasn’t a goal we were aiming for. It just kind of happened.”
“Yes, we got lucky. It’s as if we’re in our own mythology tale, centered in that far away land called Crescendia Cove. They’ll write about us someday.”
As I laughed harder, he smoothed his thumbs under my cheeks. That was how I knew I was crying. “Is that so?”
“Yes. The story will be about the beautiful woman with pink messy braids and hope in her eyes who kissed the lonely man under the mistletoe and gave him a reason to believe. And he pledged to give her and their baby a lifetime of Christmases, because who says you can only celebrate once a year?”
I leaned against him, because I was finally beginni
ng to have faith that I could. That he wouldn’t have come back so many times if he didn’t truly want to stay.
“Who says,” I repeated softly as his lips met mine.
Epilogue
Ellie
CHRISTMAS EVE EVE
My breath caught on the turn into my house. Our house—a house made for a family. Something I’d never dreamed of having. Cal had indulged me in my love of Christmas decorations. I was pretty sure he might be out-Christmasing even me.
The huge oak tree at the edge of our property was decked out in about a bazillion white lights. Huge red Christmas balls and illuminated white stars swung merrily in the breeze off the water. Callum had spent one of the nice Sundays in November monkeying all over that tree to get it done. All because he found a photo in my family look book.
Well, it was sort of ours now.
Photos for inspiration that I’d found in magazines and printed out from online made up the book, just like with my hair-focused one. I knew Pinterest would be easier, but it had seemed to be the perfect joint planning thing for us as we’d gotten to know each other over the last year. He sneaked in sketches, and I went for glossy photos.
His brothers—who were just as insane as he’d warned me—had come to help decorate while his mom and I stayed on a quilt with the babies.
Yeah, babies. Plural.
Wouldn’t have pegged me spending my pregnancy bonding with my mother-in-law-to-be through thick ankles, stretch marks, and late night cravings, but I had. Cal had gotten the news that his mother was pregnant a day after we’d taken our test. We’d gone to tell his folks, and they’d had a special update of their own.
Cal and his dad had worn matching stunned expressions for a few weeks.
His mom had given birth to Cal early in life, and while she wasn’t the oldest mother in the medical journals, she’d astounded our obstetrician with how easily she’d made it through the pregnancy. I guessed after triplets, anything was easy. And because I didn’t have a doctor of my own, we’d just ended up doing our entire pregnancies together, right down to the office visits.
But my fiancé had a master’s degree in adapting. He happened to have one in Mythology as well. If he ever finished his thesis for his PhD, he’d be a full-fledged doctor too.