Adrenaline spent, Viviana nodded and let herself savor what might be the last time in his arms. “I’m listening.” Kind of. God, he feels so good.
His heart beat loudly in his chest while he took a moment to choose his words. “You once told me you went to Boston because you needed to discover who you really were. I had been asked to do something for my family that required I leave my office and talk to people. Regular people. I don’t know if you’ve realized this about me, but that’s not an area I excel at.”
Despite how she tried to keep the walls around her heart, they started to crumble as he opened up to her. This was the man she’d laughed with, trusted, started to fall for. “You could start by not calling them regular.”
He tucked her head under his chin and hugged her closer. “Noted. But when I call you regular, I mean real, grounded, honest. It’s not an insult. So many people in my circle pretend to be something they aren’t. You’re you, and that’s pretty incredible. This life you have here is what I’ve always imagined average Americans liv—”
“Average is actually more offensive than regular.”
“I see,” he stopped, then sighed. “I didn’t realize how isolated my life had become before I met you. I went to work. I went home. Yes, I saw my family and met my social commitments, but there were no surprises—at least, not good ones anyway.”
She eased back and placed a hand over her stomach. “You consider this a good surprise?”
He laid his hand over hers. “Don’t you?”
She started to shake again as emotions rushed through her. “I do, but I’m realistic. Neither of us planned this. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
He raised her chin so her eyes met his. “No, you didn’t tell me because you thought I was an asshole.”
“I don’t know you well enough to know what I think of you.”
He kissed her briefly, gently on the lips. “Then let’s change that.”
She wasn’t ready to throw caution to the wind and believe in what he was offering. “For the baby’s sake.”
A smile tugged at one side of his mouth. “And for mine. My life was boring before you. Don’t send me back to it.” He kissed her gently again. “That would be cruel.”
She studied his face, looking for any hint of insincerity but found none. “Although it’s flattering to imagine I’m interesting enough to keep around—I don’t know what that would look like or if I could agree to something like that right now.”
“Not interesting—captivating.” He ran a hand through her hair. “As far as what it would look like, I’ve heard of this thing people do when they want to get to know each other better—I believe they call it dating.”
He said it with such a straight face that for a second she thought he was serious, then she saw the laughter in his eyes. She smiled and swatted his arm. “Jerk.”
“Say yes, Viv.”
“To start dating now, after we’ve already made a baby? I don’t know.” It seemed like too big of a decision to make hastily. This wasn’t saying yes to a drink with a stranger at a bar. It wasn’t agreeing to go to the movies with someone she’d just met. This was the father of the child she was carrying. If he wanted to be an important part of their child’s life, that meant he would be part of her life—always. Was it better to try to move forward as friends or give this another try?
What if round two ended worse than round one had? Where would that leave them? What would it mean for their child? She asked, “Why did you say yes to staying at my father’s place?”
His eyes darkened. “Because if we marry they’ll be my family.”
Marry? Holy shit, that’s where he sees this going? No. He didn’t say when, he said if. He doesn’t know either. “They don’t like you.”
“Yet,” he said with a confidence she envied.
There was a knock on the door. Gerald popped his head in. His eyes widened when he saw broken glass and flowers everywhere. “Everything okay in here?”
She blushed. “I was wrong, Gerry. I guess I didn’t want the flowers.”
“Guess not,” he said. “And him?”
“We’re still figuring that out,” she said as much to Grant as to Gerald.
Grant put his arm around her waist.
Gerald’s eyes narrowed. He looked around the trashed room again. Viviana saw the room through his eyes and rushed to say, “I did that. Not him.”
Gerald nodded. “I hope so. Funny thing about small towns, Grant Barrington: we protect our own. You remember that.”
After Gerald left, Grant joked, “I was sure he was going to threaten to use some large machinery to bury me in the back like your brothers did.”
Viviana’s head snapped back. “When did my brothers say that?” He didn’t need to say anything to guess what had happened. “I’m going to kill them.”
“No,” Grant said. “If you want there to be any chance of them accepting me, let it go.”
I don’t know if I can. “Rats like cheese. Dylan thought you’d already ratted him out for telling you I was pregnant.”
“I’m taking the fifth on all of this, so it’s not a lie when you say you didn’t hear it from me. Especially if they’ll be sleeping down the hall from me. They do both still live with your father, don’t they?”
“Yes, they do.”
Grant rubbed his jaw as if it were tender.
Anger surged in Viviana again. “Did one of them hit you?” Grant said nothing but he didn’t have to. Her brothers were hotheads, which was why she hadn’t told them when, Sidney, her ex-boyfriend had stolen from her. “I almost called the police on you, but so far you’re the one with reason to.”
He shook his head. “Who knows, given similar circumstances I might have done the same.”
“You don’t have to say that. I know they’re meatheads. I love them, but that doesn’t mean I’m not aware of their . . . more impulsive side.”
“I have brothers I feel the same way about. That’s something else we have in common.”
He meant it. She could see it in his eyes. “In Boston, I did think you were an asshole.”
He smiled. “I know.”
It was scary to lower her guard once she’d raised it. “I didn’t in the beginning. When we first met I saw you more like this.”
He pressed his lips together briefly before answering. “They’re both me. I’m not perfect, Viviana. I work too much. I don’t have friends because I never made time for them. According to the women in my family there is an inevitability to me offending you, despite their guidance. That’s me.”
“Your family knows about me?” she asked, swallowing hard.
“Just the basics,” he said, looking briefly down at her stomach then up again.
“I bet I know what they think of me.”
He ran his hand through her hair again. “I bet you don’t. If I survive your family, I’ll introduce you to mine. Then we’ll call it even.”
She chuckled. “That bad?”
He shrugged. “They can be, but things have been better lately. You’ll understand once you meet them.” After a pause, he looked around at the mess. “So, should we warn the cleaning crew about the glass?”
Viviana blinked a few times, half expecting him to start laughing. When he didn’t she went over to the closet, retrieved a dustpan and broom, then handed him the broom and said, “Watch out for the glass we need to pick up.”
“Of course.” He looked at the broom as if it were a complicated gadget, and he needed a moment to figure it out. Then he smiled and started sweeping up larger pieces. “This isn’t so bad.”
He looked so adorably proud of himself, Viviana burst out laughing. He started laughing along with her. For a moment, they were back to who they had been when they’d first met, two people simply enjoying each other, before everything got complicated.
Viviana went up on her toes and kissed his smiling lips. They both froze. She stepped back. “Let’s do it. Let’s date.”
“Soun
ds good,” he said in a strangled voice before returning to the task of sweeping the glass into a pile.
Desire licked through her, held in check only by their location. A heated look from him said he was waging the same inner battle.
Viviana instinctively placed her hand over her stomach. Please. Please let this be the right choice for all of us. “Want to see what we do here?” she asked in place of the other questions racing through her head.
“Sure.”
She led the way out of the trailer. The two of them stood for a moment at the bottom of the steps. Some of the crew were returning equipment and paused to watch. One had sent her flowers that day. Would they accept Grant?
Viviana glanced at him then back at the crew. They’ll have to because this is not their choice to make, it’s mine. Working in construction had taught her the greatest risk of getting hurt came from half-assing something. She squared her shoulders and took Grant’s hand in hers.
Okay. Here we go.
