Bad Boy - A Stepbrother Romance (21 page)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Rory

3 years later

Christmas Day

“Merry Christmas, Abuela! And to you too, Dr. Cummings.”

I called out to my grandmother and her partner as I left the spacious house they were now sharing, and they waved and called back to me from the porch.

“You too, darling,” Grandma said. “See you at dinner with James tonight.”

“And come on, it’s been three years. I keep telling you…call me Greg!” Dr. Cummings added.

I laughed. “Sorry.
Greg
. I’m still just so used to seeing you as our family doctor, even after all this time.”

He grinned. “Fair enough. Anyway, have fun at the play.”

I was about to meet Finn at the hospital he’d been working at as a volunteer for years now. I’d been volunteering there for the last three years as well, ever since he’d inspired me to do so. We were doing a special Christmas skit for the kids today, and I was one of Santa’s elves.

Finn was Santa, of course.

He’d had to get to the hospital early today to sort something out with the volunteer manager, so I’d come to visit Grandma and Greg to spend some time with them and give them some gifts while he did that. We were all meeting up at the Crown later on this evening, too. James and his new partner Ellen were hosting a Christmas dinner, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands—and mouth—on the pudding I knew Grandma would be bringing for dessert. I also couldn’t wait to spend some more time with Ellen—she was a wonderful woman, and I was glad James had found love again.

He’d been through a lot of grief after having the marriage to my mother annulled, but that was all in the past now, and he’d well and truly moved on. As for my Mom, she was currently spending her days in a state prison.

I hadn’t bothered to visit.

I grabbed my keys from my bag, and my stomach rumbled as I remembered that I hadn’t finished the mug of spicy hot chocolate that Grandma had given me a few minutes ago. It was usually one of my favorite things to have, but in my rush to get to Finn at the hospital, I’d completely forgotten and left it half-full on the coffee table.

“Oh, wait, I forgot to finish my hot chocolate!” I said, dashing back up to the porch.

Grandma waved her hands at me, shooing me away from the door. “No, don’t worry about it. I’ll bring more of it to dinner tonight. You get to the hospital. Now!”

I grinned. “Okay, okay, I’m going,” I said, walking over to my car and unlocking it.

That had been a little weird. Usually she couldn’t stand it if I left things unfinished, but she’d practically run me out of the house. Shrugging, I started my car and started heading towards the hospital, mentally running through the Christmas skit script in my head. Some people might not have been interested in giving up a few hours of their time on Christmas Day in order to work at a hospital, but Finn and I were happy to do it. There was plenty of time to catch up with our family at dinner later, and the sick kids needed some cheering up on a day like this.

My phone began to ring as I drove, and I quickly switched on my car’s hands-free set before answering. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me…the bestie who you seem to have forgotten to call and wish a merry Christmas to!” Dana said.

“Hey, merry Christmas!” I replied. “Sorry, this morning has been hectic. I
was
going to call you, though, I promise! Anyway, how’s your day going?”

“Good, good. Where are you?”

“I’m just on my way to the hospital,” I replied. “Finn and I have that volunteer thing.”

“Oh, that’s right. How far away are you?” she asked.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as she spoke. Weird. First Grandma had hurried me out of her house, and now Dana was calling to check exactly where I was.

It was probably nothing.

“Um. Fifteen minutes, maybe. How come?”

“Oh, no reason. I was just curious,” she said in a breezy voice. “Anyway, what did Finn get you for Christmas?”

I groaned. “I don’t know. He hasn’t given it to me yet, and he’s doing the weird clue thing again.”

Finn had been teasing me about this year’s Christmas gift for a week now, giving me ridiculous nonsense clues to try and throw me off the scent whenever I tried to guess what it was. He’d done the same thing last year, giving me clues like:
You can tie a piece of string to it, you can paint it, and you can put it in the oven.

That gift had turned out to be a brand new laptop for work—which I’d recently been promoted at—and when I’d asked him why on earth he’d given me those awful clues, he’d replied, ‘
well, you can do all those things to a laptop…I just don’t know why you would.’

Annoying, but technically true. Regardless of that, the laptop had been an amazingly thoughtful gift, and I was getting a lot of use out of it at work. I was now an official developer at the software startup I’d worked at for the last few years, and I even had an assistant to help me out with my work. It was busy, but totally worth it.

Finn was frequently busy with his work as well, but that only made us cherish the time we had together even more.

“So what are this year’s gift clues?” Dana asked.

“Um…let me think for a sec. Oh, that’s right—I can throw it off a building, I can shoot it with a laser, and I can put it in the freezer.”

“Wow. How specific,” she replied, snorting with laughter. “I’m sure it’ll be great, though.”

I smiled as I thought of Finn. “Yeah. Definitely.”

I was so lucky to have found him. He was a kind and loving man, despite my initial impressions of him, and I couldn’t imagine my life without him now.

“I better go, Rob’s calling me from the other room,” Dana said. “I’ll talk to you soon!”

I could have sworn I heard
Finn’s
voice calling her, not her boyfriend’s, but I shrugged to myself, figuring the hands-free phone set was simply distorting voices like it always seemed to do.

I arrived at the hospital ten minutes later, and I quickly made my way to the children’s ward. Several volunteer elves were running around putting up last-minute decorations, and my heart melted all over again as I saw Finn sitting on a beanbag chair in his Santa suit, reading a book to some of the kids.

It was so sweet that after all this time, he still did this to keep the memory of his sister alive.

He saw me and beckoned me over, and I shook my head and pointed in the direction of the bathroom. “In a sec. Need to put on my costume first,” I mouthed, and he grinned and nodded.

Forty-five minutes later, we were finally finishing up the Christmas skit, and I almost fumbled my last line out of shock as I looked out at the audience to see Grandma, Greg, James, Ellen, Dana and even Dana’s boyfriend Rob grinning at me.

What were they all doing here?

As I gazed at them in confusion, the other volunteers left the stage, and some of the kids from the ward came on instead, wearing little elf costumes similar to my own.

Seriously, what on earth was going on?

“We helped make this,” one of the kids whispered to me with a mischievous grin.

“What did you make?” I asked, but she just smiled and didn’t reply.

The kids quickly pulled down the winter wonderland stage backdrop to reveal a huge sign written in messy colorful paints, and my jaw dropped as I took in the words on it. In huge letters, it said:
Rory…will you marry me?

Oh. My. God.

Well,
that
explained why everyone had been acting strangely around me today. They’d known about this, and they’d all wanted to come and watch without making me suspicious by telling me that they’d be here today.

The kids scurried away, leaving only me and Finn on the stage. My hand flew to my mouth, and I looked at him with tears of joy in my eyes.

“I didn’t do this. I guess someone else wants to marry you,” he said with a shrug, and then he grinned and dropped to his knees. “Just kidding.”

With that, he pulled a velveteen ring box out of his pocket, and I gasped as he opened it, revealing a classic-cut diamond ring. I recognized it as the engagement ring my grandfather had given my grandmother when he proposed to her decades ago, and I looked out to the audience to catch her eye. She smiled and nodded, and I turned back to Finn.

“You really…you really want to marry me?” I asked, all choked up.

“Of course I do. The question is…do
you
want to marry
me
?”

I was too choked up to respond for a moment, and he smiled as he waited for me to get the word out.
Yes.
He already knew I was going to say it.

Finally I nodded. “Yes, yes, yes!” I said.

Finn gently slid the ring onto my finger. “I know I gave you all those terrible clues, but please don’t go throwing this off a building or firing lasers at it. Your Grandma would be pretty upset if that happened,” he whispered.

I giggled through my tears at his silly joke, and he rose to his full height before leaning down and kissing me. Everyone in the room whooped and cheered, especially the kids, and as we embraced, it was like kissing him for the first time all over again.

Only this time we weren’t trapped in an elevator.

Back then, I’d been torn by the confusing feelings I’d had for the man who was now officially my fiancé. I’d despised him and wanted him at the same time, but now…now I was undeniably, head-over-heels in love with him.

Sometimes, it’s just impossible to resist a bad boy who’s a good man, and that’s exactly what Finn was to me. He was a good man, and all the other good things in life were even better with him around.

A million times better.

This proposal had been an amazing surprise, and I was going to remember it for the rest of my life, but there was one thing Finn didn’t know yet.

I had a surprise of my own…

Chapter Twenty-Six

Finn

1 month later

“Are you ready for the amazingness that awaits?” I asked in a dramatic tone, finally stopping the car in front of our destination after a few long hours of driving.

Rory laughed. “For the last time, yes! Can we go inside now? It’s going to get freezing now that the heating’s off,” she said.

I nodded, pulling the key from the ignition. “Of course,” I said. “Your wish is my command.”

I opened the door, walked around the car and escorted her outside like a true old-fashioned gentleman would. I’d spent enough years acting like a non-gentleman before I met Rory, so I was making up for lost time now that I’d found a woman like her.

She still liked it when I behaved in a not-so-gentlemanly way in certain instances, though…I’m sure you can imagine which ones.

We stood in the snow together, looking up at the mountain cabin we were staying in for our honeymoon. Seeing as we’d first told each other that we loved each other during a rare snowfall incident back home in San Francisco three years ago, we’d thought it was appropriate to relive that memory in the snow now that we were married.

The wedding had been absolutely perfect, by the way. We’d wanted to do it as quickly as possible, so it had been a small event with only our closest friends and family in attendance. Adelina had walked Rory down the aisle, and I’ll admit it—I’d shed a tear or two at that.

Rory had only had one bridesmaid, Dana, and my best man had been Rob, Dana’s long-term boyfriend. We’d become close over the last few years, so that had worked out well. I had a feeling he’d be proposing to Dana soon, so they’d be getting their happy ending too.

“Is it amazing or is it amazing?” I asked, nudging Rory as we took in the beautiful scenery around the cabin.

“It’s amazeballs.” She giggled next to me, making me smile despite her awful slang word usage.

“Come on, we better get inside. Don’t want you to get cold,” I said, rushing to get our bags out of the trunk. Rory went up the stairs and waited for me to unlock the front door, and as soon as we entered the cabin, memories came rushing back.

It was cozy and cute, filled with heavy blankets and shaggy rugs. I couldn’t wait to tumble onto one of them with Rory. “Come on, let me show you around.”

I pulled her inside, our luggage forgotten in the living room as I showed her the rest of the cabin. It hadn’t been used in years, but my Dad had kept it anyway, and I couldn’t wait to relax in it for the next couple of weeks.

Rory’s job had been busier than usual lately, and after our quickie wedding, she was happy but tired. I needed a break too—working all those hours at the hotel made me itch for Rory’s company and no one else’s.

The cabin was going to be perfect for that.

It had been an inheritance from my Mom’s side of the family, and once upon a time, we’d come here every winter—me, her, Kristin and Dad. I had a lot of happy memories of the place, but Dad and I hadn’t come back here after she died so as to not spoil those happy memories.

I’d spoken to him about it recently when Rory and I had been thinking of honeymoon ideas, and he’d agreed that now was the right time to visit it again. I knew Rory would love the place, hence my excitement, and the memories of my Mom and Kristin didn’t make me sad when I looked around. It made me happy, remembering how much they’d enjoyed our vacations up here in the mountains.

“And here’s the bathroom.” I pointed inside a big room as I continued giving Rory the grand tour. There was a sauna along with a huge claw-footed bathtub in the middle of the room, and she ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the sight of it.

“I can’t wait to enjoy a nice long bath,” she said with a tired moan. I hugged her from behind, and she cuddled closer.

“I can’t wait either.” I nibbled on her earlobe, a wicked grin on my face. “Wifey.”

I couldn’t stop calling her that, and Rory seemed to be amused by it. Ever since our wedding, she was my ‘wifey’. She said it made her feel ancient, yet she never tried to stop me when I called her that, and she always giggled at it.

I pulled her closer, lifting her up. “Finn!” she said, laughing. “Put me down, I’ll be sick!”

“Nope.” I grinned at her, carrying her back to the living room and plopping down on the coach. I pulled her into my lap, and she took a sharp breath as our lips met in a kiss. I would never, ever get tired of kissing this woman. She tasted so sweet; the best thing I’d ever had in my life.

“I love you,” Rory whispered against my lips, and I kissed the words on her mouth.

“I love you,” I repeated, the words like a mantra. I did. I’d loved her for over three years now, and I had no intention of ever stopping. “Do you want to take a bath? It’ll be dark soon. We can explore tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she said. “Will you make some hot chocolate?”

She gave me puppy eyes, and I nodded. I would’ve done anything for her. She jumped off my lap and started pulling off her clothes right there in the middle of the living room, and just looking at her stripping made me grin like a fool.

“Catch me if you can!” Rory shouted, running for the bathroom in her scarf and panties. Christ, she was adorable.

“Soon!” I called out. “Gotta make your hot chocolate first!”

The kitchen had been renovated since our last vacation here, and for that I was thankful. I’d brought some groceries with me in order to make Rory’s favorite food and drinks over the next few days, and I pulled out some chocolate, spices, double cream and milk from one of the bags before stirring it together in a saucepan on the stove. Adelina had taught me how to make proper spicy hot chocolate a few months ago, and it had always been one of Rory’s favorite things, so I loved making it for her.

The sort of people I’d hung around a few years ago would probably call me a pussy if they saw me now, but I didn’t think caring about a woman was a ‘pussy’ thing to do. It was the right thing to do, and I was glad I’d given up my old man-whoring ways to settle down. All I’d needed to do was find the right girl to do it with—my sweet Rory.

I guess that old saying was true; it really took a good girl to tame a bad boy…but I was still bad where it counted. Rory loved it when I growled and pounced on her before throwing her on the bed like I was a caveman, and I loved doing it.

I loved everything when it came to her.

I poured two cups of the steaming hot chocolate I’d just made, and then I remembered the cozy pajamas we’d packed and decided to go and grab them. In freezing weather like this, I preferred Rory in a warm fluffy gown rather than the most revealing of her lingerie sets.

Only by a little bit, though…

I was rummaging around trying to find the pajamas in the suitcase when I came across some velvety red fabric. Confused, I pulled out something enormous, red, and fluffy, and I stared at it for a long time until I finally realized it was my Santa costume.

I shook my head with a grin. “Rory, Rory, Rory…”

I still worked at the hospital as many hours as I could, and she must’ve packed my suit in our luggage for a giggle. I kept digging around for my pajamas when I came across something else, and my heart stopped in my chest.

Was this what I thought it was?

I must’ve stood there for five minutes without moving or saying a word, and I could have sworn I didn’t even breathe. I barely heard Rory calling me a moment later, but when her words finally reached me, I got up and walked to the bathroom. She was in the bathtub, soaped up and glowing from the heat of the water.

“Hey,” she said with a smile, looking radiantly beautiful amidst all the bubbles. “I missed you. What are you—”

Her eyes landed on the item in my hands and widened in shock, and her hand flew up in front of her face. “Oh my god…”

“What’s this?” My voice was shaky as I raised my hand. A tiny Santa suit dangled from my fingers, complete with a little hat and red gloves with a white furry trim.

“I…” Rory said, looking flushed and more beautiful than ever. “I was going to give it to you later. I didn’t know how to tell you…”

My voice shook with excited anticipation. “Tell me what?”

“Finn,” Rory finally managed to get out. “I…I’m preg—”

I didn’t even wait for her to say it. Clutching the baby Santa suit to my chest, I walked over to the bathtub, an ecstatic grin plastered on my face. I reached for Rory, and her face lit up as I leaned over to give her the kiss of a lifetime. On a scale of one to ten, this news was definitely a twelve.

“Really?” I murmured against her lips.

Rory’s hands found mine and she nodded.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you for making me the happiest goddamned man in the world.”

And then she pulled me into the tub, clothes and all.

***

An hour later, we were curled up on the couch, each with our own mug of hot chocolate, which I’d had to reheat after our bath escapade. I pulled Rory into my lap a few moments later, and her head rested in the crook of my shoulder. There was a Christmas movie on the TV, and I’d never been happier.

“Rory,” I said, nudging her ten minutes later.

She looked up at me sleepily. It wasn’t late, but she’d just started to doze off. “Mm?”

My hand found her belly. It wasn’t swollen or showing any signs just yet, but I knew she was carrying my baby, and it made my love for her burn even brighter, like the flames in the fireplace in front of us.

“I just remembered, there’s meant to be a meteor shower tonight, in about five minutes,” I said, checking my watch. “Wanna go outside and see if we can watch it? The stars are way brighter all the way up here in the mountains, anyway, so even if we can’t see it, it’ll be nice.”

“Sure,” she said before letting out a yawn. “Let me just find my boots…”

“I’ll grab them for you.”

I helped her put them on, and she rubbed her tired eyes as she looked down at me. “I hope you’re this attentive when I’m all swollen and nine months pregnant,” she said in a teasing tone.

I finished putting her left boot on and then rose to my feet, leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Of course. Anything you want, always.”

“Ooh, you know I like to hear that,” she said, sticking her tongue out.

We trudged outside, and I pointed towards the west a moment later. “There! It’s started.”

We watched two shooting stars streak across the night sky, and as a third and fourth appeared, Rory turned to me. “Should we make a wish?”

I grinned down at her. “Nah. I made the only wish I’ve ever wanted to make last time we saw a shooting star, and it already came true. I got you, didn’t I?”

She smiled and snuggled into my arms. “I wished for the same thing that night. To be with you.”

We kept watching the meteor shower, and my hand crept to her belly again before remaining there in a protective gesture.

“Do you think I’ll make a good Dad?” I asked.

Rory turned around and took my face in her hands as she looked me right in the eyes. “Finn Grayson, you’ll be the best damn father in the world. Just like James has always been to you.”

“Promise?”

She kissed me, a sweet peck on the lips. “Promise. You’re amazing.”

“So what you’re saying is…I’m on the good list this year?”

I grinned at her as I spoke. I might have matured a bit since I’d met her, but I still made lame jokes on occasion. Okay…maybe more than occasionally.

Rory laughed and shook her head at my quip. “Oh, Finn, you may be on the good list for now, but you’ll always be…”

She gave me a seductive smile, ignoring the cold air and opening her fluffy gown for my eyes only.

“My bad boy…”

THE END

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