The Christmas Bouquet (5 page)

“That’s right. After your mom married Uncle Thomas and he built a house for her, they fixed your old house up for you, didn’t they?”

Jenny nodded. “Caleb loves it here, too, and of course, he feels this huge debt of gratitude to Bree for giving him a chance by casting him in her play so he could get his career back on track. Oddly enough, though he’s new to town and we live most of the time in Nashville, we have real roots here.”

“I imagine he’s also grateful to Bree for giving him the perfect excuse to stick around, so he could try to win you back,” Caitlyn said. “No one was very happy about that, me included.” She gave Jenny a penetrating look. “We were all wrong, weren’t we? You’re happy.”

Jenny nodded. “You were and I am. Caleb is my soul mate, no question about it.” She glanced over. “Can you keep a secret?”

“I may be one of the few in this family who can,” Caitlyn said. Before Jenny could say another word, Caitlyn’s jaw dropped. “You’re pregnant, too, aren’t you?”

A beaming smile spread across Jenny’s face. “Two months, so we’re not telling anyone just yet. I’m only telling you because I think it’s so amazing that no matter where we live, our kids will probably spend time here together on summer vacations or something. Maybe they’ll even be best friends, the way my mom was with your mom and your aunts.”

“Does anyone else know?”

Jenny shook her head. “Caleb is about to burst trying to keep the news to himself. We both know, though, that once the word leaks, our agents are going to want it plastered all over the tabloids. They’re publicity hounds.”

“And it makes great news after that whole nasty scandal that tore the two of you apart when they printed photos of him with another woman,” Caitlyn said.

“You’d think our secret wedding in New York would have done the trick with that,” Jenny said with a touch of bitterness. “But I suppose it never hurts to reinforce the fact that we’re very happily married now, thank you very much. If it can keep a few female predators at bay, I’m all for it.”

“Living in the limelight must be tough, especially with a sexy country singer for a husband.”

“It has its drawbacks,” Jenny agreed. “Nobody knows that better than we do, which is one reason I like the privacy that comes with being back here from time to time. Mick would probably personally break the kneecaps of anyone in town who spread gossip about us. He even terrified Ethel into silence after Caleb and I reconciled, and you know how she loves to spread the latest news about everyone in town. Her shop may sell souvenirs and penny candy, but all the locals know it’s gossip central.”

Caitlyn laughed. “Grandpa Mick’s protectiveness and meddling do have their positive benefits, don’t they?”

“Try to remember that,” Jenny advised. “Now, let’s go back to the house and get Noah out of Mick’s clutches before he’s brainwashed.”

Much calmer after her conversation with Jenny, Caitlyn nodded. “Let’s do it.”

As she stood up, she gave Jenny an impulsive hug.

“What was that for?”

“Just a reminder that as much as I might grumble about catching your bouquet, I am grateful that it brought Noah into my life.”

“The bouquet didn’t do that,” Jenny told her. “All it might have done was open a tiny crack in your heart so you’d recognize him when he came along.”

* * *

Mick had given Noah a lot to think about. He’d been surprisingly helpful with suggestions for getting Caitlyn on board with the idea of planning their future together sooner rather than later.

And when Noah had shared a few of his own thoughts, cobbled together after a little computer research on Chesapeake Shores, Mick’s expression had brightened with delight. In some ways the gleam in his eyes had been worrisome, but he’d assured Noah he’d trust him to handle things...until he couldn’t.

Noah understood the warning implied by his words. Mick had a timetable in mind and he expected Noah to get the ball rolling quickly.

Now he glanced around the living room, then finally drifted toward a window to admire the scenery and, hopefully, avoid another interrogation from any of the other O’Briens milling around.

Eventually he spotted Caitlyn coming up the walkway from the cliff overlooking the bay with another young woman by her side. Since the two of them looked nothing alike, he assumed it was someone other than her twin. He walked outside to meet them.

“This is Jenny Green,” Caitlyn told him. “Jenny, this is Noah.”

He regarded Jenny appreciatively. “Something tells me I owe you a debt of gratitude for tossing that bridal bouquet in Caitlyn’s direction.”

Jenny laughed. “You sound much happier about that than she does. Nice to meet you, Noah. I’ll leave you to fill Caitlyn in on your grilling by her grandfather.”

As she went inside, he felt Cait’s steady gaze studying him. Her expression was filled with concern.

“No need to look so panicky,” he told her. “I’m still in one piece. And Mick hasn’t dragged me over to the dark side and gotten me to agree to any conspiracies where you’re concerned.” That much was true. He hadn’t actually agreed to any of Mick’s proposed schemes, not a specific one, anyway. They’d merely agreed to a goal. He doubted, though, that Cait wanted to view them as allies on any level whatsoever.

“I think that may bother me even more,” she claimed. “It tells me Grandpa Mick is being even sneakier than usual. What did the two of you talk about?”

“How much we have in common,” Noah said, keeping the response truthful, but not exactly enlightening.

Cait frowned. “Such as.”

“How much we both love you,” he replied simply. “And how much we want you to be happy. Those two things create an unbreakable bond between us. We both agree on that.”

Before she could ask a lot more questions he didn’t particularly want to answer, he told her, “Now we need to get inside. Nell pulled me aside on my way out here and told me she’s about to put that famous Irish stew of hers on the table.” He grinned at her. “It’s nothing like what you made for me, is it? Do I need to prepare myself to be politely enthusiastic?”

“Trust me, this will be an experience like none you’ve ever had before. Nell’s food is like manna directly from the Irish gods.”

“Then I’ll look forward to it,” Noah told her.

“She’s given me the recipe.”

“I thought your mom had already done that.”

“It seems she left out a few essential ingredients,” Caitlyn admitted. “Mom’s not exactly an attentive student when it comes to cooking apparently.”

Noah nodded. “That explains a lot.”

Cait’s laugh rang out. “It does indeed. Hopefully that culinary gene skipped over a couple of generations and landed in me, but don’t count on it.”

“You have plenty of other things going for you,” he told her honestly.

“Ah, flattery,” she said. “Is that part of your tactic these days?”

“I didn’t know I needed a tactic,” he claimed innocently.

“You’ve been closeted with my grandfather for close to an hour. Only a fool would believe there weren’t tactics being discussed, no matter how you’d like me to believe otherwise.”

Now it was Noah’s turn to laugh. “I guess you’ll have to wait and see.”

The game, if he wanted to think of it that way, was just beginning.

5

“W
ell, we got out of town without a shotgun wedding,” Caitlyn remarked to Noah when they finally had some time to sit down and talk. Their schedules had been so hectic once they were back at the hospital and on duty that they’d barely crossed paths for the past week. He’d even slept at his own place or in the on-call room at the hospital. That should have been a relief since it had postponed any serious discussions, but her bed had felt awfully lonely without him.

Noah grinned. “I’m not sure I see that as a good thing. I half wonder if it’s not going to take something as dramatic as that to get you down the aisle.”

Caitlyn frowned at him. “Pressure’s not helping,” she remarked. Even though Nell’s words and the reassurances from her mother had helped, she still wasn’t ready to take the plunge into a marriage she wasn’t convinced would be best for her and Noah both. And a marriage license under those circumstances would not guarantee the best life for their child, either.

With time on her hands, she’d spent the afternoon trying to master Nell’s recipe for Irish stew and thought she’d finally gotten it. She spooned it into bowls and set it on the kitchen table in the small apartment that she’d made cozy with mismatched castoffs from a variety of O’Brien homes. A bouquet of daffodils that reminded her of home sat in the middle of the old oak table.

“Try this,” she said, still standing. “I think it might be a huge improvement over last time. Of course, it was probably a mistake to make it so soon after you had Nell’s. I doubt there’s any comparison.”

Noah took a taste, while she watched him nervously.

“It’s good,” he said slowly, then grinned. “Very good, in fact. You might have a very limited repertoire of recipes, but we won’t die of starvation.”

Her expression brightened at his teasing. “Seriously, Noah? It’s actually good?”

“Would I lie to you?”

“If you thought it would put me in a good mood, you might,” she said. “You are anxious to get your own way, after all.”

“Sweetheart, if I thought praising your cooking would do the trick, I wouldn’t be in the kitchen cooking most of our meals myself when I’m over here.”

She frowned at his attempt at humor. “You’re losing ground, pal.” Then she couldn’t help chuckling. “Okay, I now have one edible dish I can safely prepare for company. It’s better than last week, when I had none.”

She joined him at the table and took her own first bite of the stew, then sat back in astonishment. “Wow! It really is good.”

“I told you.”

She sipped her water and peered at Noah over the rim of her glass. “We haven’t had a chance to talk about the weekend. Or maybe I should say you’ve been pretty evasive whenever I’ve asked.” She gave him a stern look. “No more, Noah. I want to know what you and my grandfather discussed while I was in the kitchen with Gram. I doubt it was sports. Other than knowing there are football and baseball teams in Baltimore, you don’t know enough to hold your own in that conversation.”

“Hey, I play basketball.”

She rolled her eyes. “With a bunch of medical residents, who are equally clueless about other sports. When I mentioned the Ravens to Mike Hardesty, he thought I’d gone bird-watching.”

“He did not,” Noah said. “He was just pulling your leg.”

“I’m telling you the man didn’t have a clue.” She waved off the subject. “Not the point. I want to know what you and Grandpa Mick
did
talk about.”

He shrugged. “The future, my plans, the state of medicine today, things like that.”

Though he’d made a valiant effort to sound casual, as if none of it had amounted to much, Caitlyn knew better. She sat up a little straighter. “What future?”

“Yours and mine,” he replied readily.

“That’s what I was afraid you meant. Did you tell him we’d be getting married?”

“Of course not. You haven’t agreed to that.”

She saw the loophole. “But you said you were eager to get married, didn’t you?”

He gave her an innocent look she didn’t come close to buying.

“I told him it was a possibility, that it was certainly what I wanted,” he conceded.

Caitlyn groaned. It was every bit as bad as she’d feared. “So now he knows if there’s a holdout, it’s me. No wonder you’re still in one piece and I have a half-dozen messages from him on my cell phone.”

Noah shrugged, his expression unrepentant. “I gave him the facts about where I stand. He drew his own conclusions.”

“So you got out of that room looking heroic in his eyes and left me swinging in the wind,” she accused.

To her exasperation, he laughed. “That’s one way to look at it, I suppose.”

“You are shameless. You tried to turn my own grandfather against me.”

“Not against you,” he corrected. “I doubt I could do that if I wanted to. He obviously adores you. He also recognizes how stubborn you are.”

“Because I take after him,” she muttered, suddenly regretting that. Up till now she’d always considered that hardheaded O’Brien determination to be a positive. It had given her the self-confidence and will to go after what she wanted. Her grandfather had respected that. Now he was likely to see it as an impediment to getting his own way and redouble his efforts to get her down the aisle.

“He trusts you to make the right decision,” Noah said.

She shook her head. “No, he trusts me to make the decision
he
thinks is right. And if I don’t, he’ll be knocking on our door to try to change my mind.”

She put down her fork, resignation settling over her. “I’d better call him back.”

“Now?”

“I’ve ignored a lot of calls,” she said. “He doesn’t like being ignored. Trust me, I’d better get to him before he turns up here.”

She braced herself for her grandfather’s brand of pressure, which could start with subtle coaxing, but could easily lead from there to stern lectures and sneaky manipulation if his family didn’t fulfill his expectations. He’d never used any of those tactics on her before. He hadn’t had to. Which meant she had no idea if she could bring herself to tell him to butt out or not.

“Maybe you should forget about making that call until we’ve had a chance to talk about what we want,” Noah suggested. “I know you think I’ve been evasive, but you haven’t exactly been forthcoming about what you thought about while you were visiting your family. Let’s have that discussion.”

She wasn’t crazy about his reasonable tone or the suggestion. “Are you thinking you can persuade me to fall into line with your plan in the next half hour?”

“I’d like the chance to try,” he replied without hesitation.

She shook her head. “I’m not going to let you bully me into making a hasty decision we’ll both come to regret,” she told him. “And that’s exactly what I intend to tell my grandfather.”

A frown settled on Noah’s face. “Since when have I ever tried to bully you into doing anything my way?” he demanded.

“Never before,” she conceded, to be fair. “But there’s never been a situation quite like this one.”

“Which is exactly why we need to talk and work things out,” Noah said. “We’re in uncharted territory. I know this isn’t what we planned, Cait, but the baby’s going to be a reality in a few months. Pretending otherwise isn’t going to change anything.”

“Believe me, I’m well aware that the pregnancy is real. I’m the one who had to hightail it out of rounds today because of morning sickness.”

He immediately regarded her with worry. “Are you feeling okay now?”

“Perfectly fine,” she said, then gestured toward her empty bowl. “I’ve eaten every bite of stew and may have seconds.”

“That’s good, then,” he said, his voice filled with relief. “Did you tell Dr. Davis you’re pregnant so she can cut you some slack while you’re on your pediatrics rotation?”

“Absolutely not,” she said, horrified by the thought. “I’m having a baby. I’m not an invalid. Things are competitive enough in med school without me suggesting I be treated differently because I’m going to have a baby.”

“I’m just saying it might be helpful if she knew,” Noah said.

“So everyone at the hospital will know and can voice an opinion about what we ought to do? Do you really want the whole world to gang up on me? Trust me, it’s not the way to get me to see things your way.”

He sighed. “That is not what I was suggesting and, believe me, I know all about how perverse you can be. If too many people start trying to push you into doing anything, you’ll do exactly the opposite.”

She gave a nod of satisfaction. “Something you definitely need to keep in mind.”

Noah met her gaze and held it. “There’s something
you
need to keep in mind,” he said evenly. “I love you, Cait. And I won’t stop fighting for us to be a family.”

She regarded him with puzzlement. “I don’t understand how you can be so sure that marriage is the answer. You have dreams on the line, too, Noah. I’m not the only one who had the future mapped out.”

“That’s true,” he said without hesitation. “But for me, you’ve been a part of that future practically from the moment we met. This baby?” A smile lit his eyes. “It’s just an unanticipated blessing. I’ll do whatever it takes to make everything work out for us.”

She shuddered a little at the determination in his voice. If she knew little else about Noah, she knew this. He might bide his time, he might use subtle tactics, but he was a man who usually got his way. He’d won her heart against all odds, after all.

* * *

After Noah’s quiet declaration a few nights before, Caitlyn never did get around to making that call to her grandfather. Therefore she wasn’t all that surprised when she looked up from a patient chart at the hospital and saw him standing there, a frown on his face.

“It’s a relief to see you’re still alive,” Mick O’Brien commented dryly.

She winced. “Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you. I’ve been busy.” She came out from behind the desk and kissed his cheek. “I hope you didn’t make a special trip up to Baltimore. I’m on duty.”

“But you can take a break,” he said with certainty. “I spoke with that lovely Dr. Davis and she assured me it would be fine.”

“You spoke to my boss?” she said incredulously. “What were you thinking?”

“That I need to have a conversation with my granddaughter, who’s about to have my first great-grandchild,” he retorted unrepentantly. “You slipped away from the house before we could talk and you’ve been avoiding my calls.”

When she was about to protest, he held up a hand. “Don’t bother trying to tell me how busy you’ve been. You’ve never been too busy to talk to me before. I imagine you’ve been giving that caller ID thing a real workout lately.”

Since she could hardly deny it, she opted to go on offense. Scowling at him, she said, “I hope you didn’t say anything about your great-grandchild to Dr. Davis,” she said. “My pregnancy is not your news to share, especially around here.”

“Of course not. I know there are boundaries at work. Though she did seem to think you might have something on your mind.”

Alarm flowed through Caitlyn. “She said that?”

He nodded. “She said you’re one of the best students she’s ever worked with, but you’ve been off your game for the past couple of weeks.”

“Oh, God,” Caitlyn murmured. Maybe Noah had been right. Perhaps she did need to fill the doctor in before the head of pediatrics drew her own conclusions about what was going on with Caitlyn. Speculation could be a whole lot worse than the facts.

Grandpa Mick clearly saw her distress, because he put an arm around her shoulders. “Don’t look so anxious. I told you, didn’t I, that she thinks you’re an excellent doctor.”

“Who’s messing up,” Caitlyn reminded him.

“I didn’t say a thing about you messing up.”

“You told me she thinks I’ve been ‘off my game.’ Isn’t that the same thing?”

“Absolutely not. She’s a doctor, after all. I imagine she knows why someone might turn a little green around the gills from time to time.”

“She actually told you that she thinks I’m pregnant?” Now she truly was horrified. How many other people had guessed? Were there whispers all over the hospital? Had Noah been protecting her from that? And why had she thought for a single second that an entire hospital of physicians might not recognize the signs? Apparently there were a whole lot of things about which she wasn’t thinking too clearly these days.

“Pregnancy wasn’t mentioned,” her grandfather said. “Not by me, anyway. And she would hardly speculate to me, even if I am family. Do you really want to debate who said what to whom right here in the middle of the pediatrics wing?”

“Do you think the cafeteria will be any more private?” she asked.

“I guess we’ll see,” he said, steering her toward the elevator.

They rode to the first floor in silence. In the cafeteria, her grandfather got himself a cup of coffee and put two pastries—one with a blueberry center, the other cheese—on his tray, along with a hefty serving of scrambled eggs. “You want decaf, juice or water?” he asked.

“Water’s fine. And I don’t need a pastry or eggs.”

“Who said anything on this tray was for you?” he replied, a spark of amusement in his eyes. “Your grandmother’s had me on a diet of oatmeal and fake eggs. Since she’s not here to challenge me, I thought I’d treat myself.”

Caitlyn laughed. “So I get to hold this over your head?”

“You can try, but I guarantee she’ll have it figured out before you do. That woman knows my every move. I haven’t gotten away with a thing since we got back together. I’ll enjoy my eggs and pastry now, but believe me, I’ll pay later.”

When they’d found a table with some privacy, she looked her grandfather in the eye. “You and Grandma Megan are happy now, aren’t you?”

“Of course we are. Winning her back was the biggest blessing of my life.” He glanced longingly at his second pastry, then shoved it in her direction. “Which is why you probably need to save me from myself. Eat this.”

She absentmindedly tore off a piece and popped it into her mouth, then regarded him with suspicion. “This is what you intended all along, isn’t it? For me to eat this cheese Danish?”

“You think I’m that sneaky?” he asked with a straight face.