The Taming of the Bachelor (25 page)

She heard footsteps outside and the voices of Dillon and Tyler on the front porch. Tyler opened the door and shouted goodnight to Dillon and then the front door closed and Tyler came bounding in. “Mom! Mom. Where are you?”

She met him in the hall and her non-dancing, non-singing son was practically dancing and singing as he told her how he and Dillon went for ice cream sundaes to celebrate his success and that they were already talking about ideas for next year’s Science Fair.

Tyler chattered happily all the way up the stairs, into the bedroom where he brushed his teeth and then while he changed and climbed into bed. “I like him, Mom,” he said, as she leaned over to kiss him goodnight.

“That’s good.”

“You like him, too, right?”

“Goodnight, honey.”

“Mom?”

“I’m glad he’s your friend, honey. Now go to sleep.”

But in her own room that evening, it took Paige hours and hours to fall asleep.

I
t’d been a very long day, and except for a three-hour break mid afternoon, Paige had been on her feet at the diner for almost thirteen hours today.

But now she was closing the front of the restaurant while Jeffrey, their new twenty-two-year-old cook scrubbed down the grill in the kitchen. Paige’s feet ached and her back was sore but she’d gotten through the day and tomorrow she had off. Soon she’d be home.

She passed by the stereo on the way to her bleach bucket with the cleaning and cranked the volume up, letting Jennifer Nettles’ throaty voice pour from the speakers tucked high in the ceiling corners.

Outside, the moon shone bright. Thank God she’d soon be home, in bed.

Paige took the damp rag and wiped the ketchup bottles down, and then refilled the salt and pepper shakers. She was in the middle of screwing the caps back on the pepper when a knock sounded on the front door.

It could have been Jeffrey’s ride. But it wasn’t. She knew without looking who it was, she could just feel it, the energy too intense.

She walked to the door, pointed to the deadbolt lock and shook her head. “We’re closed,” she said. “Closed an hour ago.”

Dillon gave her a look.

“Closed,” she repeated, even more loudly than before.

One of his black brows lifted.

“Sorry,” she said, although they both knew she was not in the least apologetic.

He just looked at her, a long penetrating look that made her feel a tad ridiculous. But she wasn’t the problem. He was.

“Open the door,” he said firmly, his deep voice carrying.

“I can’t.”

“Open the door, Paige.”

“No.”

“Paige.”

“Um.” Jeffrey stood behind her, clearing his throat. “Is everything okay?”

Paige shot her cook a glance. Jeffrey looked nervous. She supposed she didn’t blame him. Dillon looked huge on the doorstep.

“I’ve got it,” Paige said.

“You know Mr. Sheenan?” Jeffrey asked uncertainly.

Paige nearly rolled her eyes. Mr. Sheenan indeed. “Yes,” she said, hiding her frustration. “I know Dillon Sheenan.”

“Then you’re okay if I take off?” The cook kept glancing from Paige to the shadow outside the door, and then back again. “The grill is clean. Kitchen’s mopped. Everything’s sanitized.”

“You’re good to go then. Thanks, Jeffrey. Goodnight.” She twisted the deadbolt, unlocking the door and swinging it open to let Jeffrey out. Dillon took advantage of the open door to come in.

“We’re closed,” she said flatly.

“So you’ve said.” He stepped past her, his big body bumping her as he squeezed by. Dillon took off his cowboy hat and ran his hand through his thick black hair, smoothing it. “How much longer do you have?”

She lifted her chin, tone cool. “Hoping to get out in the next few minutes.”

“Good. We need to talk.”

“We covered this already. There’s nothing to be said, and I need to get home to the kids—”

“Who are sleeping. I know, because I’ve spent the better part of my evening at your house, with the kids, and their grandparents. Lew’s parents. Nice people.”

She stiffened. “What were you doing at my house?”

“Tyler invited me over to meet his grandparents and talk about our plans for the next year’s event.”

“I should have never given him your number.” She knotted her hands, fingers making fists. “He’s brilliant and lonely and impressionable and he doesn’t need you confusing him.”

“How would I confuse him?”

“By being kind to him and offering to help him and making him think you are some nice guy when you’re not nice at all—” she broke off, swallowing hard to keep from saying more, especially as she’d already said too much.

Dillon sighed and peeled off his jacket, draping it on the back of a chair, before sitting down at the table as if he owned the place.

“I’m trying to get out of here, Dillon, so Lew’s parents, those
nice
people, can go home.”

He turned in the chair so that he could stretch his legs out, and cross his boots at the ankle. “I like you better when you’re naked in bed.”

“I’m not a faucet you can turn on and off, hot and cold. So let’s not play games here, Dillon. You were into me, and then you weren’t, and I came to see you—my bad—but you made it painfully clear in Texas that you’re
really
not into me, so I’ve no idea why you’re back here in
my
town, acting as if we’re friends. Because we’re not friends.” She looked him up and down, seeing how he filled the seat, filled the space, his legs long and muscular. “And we will never be friends.”

“Why not?”

“You’re not the kind of friend I need.”

One of his black eyebrows lifted quizzically as he smiled, a slow infuriating smile that made her blood boil. “I disagree. I think I’m exactly what you need.”

“Never.”

He had the gall to laugh
, laugh,
as he got to his feet. “You are so feisty.”

“I’m not feisty. I’m angry, and offended.” She backed up a step and then another as he walked towards her. She lifted a hand, her finger pointed in warning. “So go, leave, but take this with you: don’t you ever play me like I’m one of those Grey’s girls hanging around the pool table. I deserve better. I deserve—” And then the words died as he reached for her, pulling her to him.

Her head tipped back and her mind went blank as she looked up into his eyes, the gold-whiskey eyes bright, hot, demanding.

“Don’t,” she whispered, putting a hand to his chest even as his arms circled around her, drawing her closer still.

“Don’t what, baby?”

“Not your baby,” she protested huskily as his head dipped and his mouth hovered just above hers. “Can’t be your baby when I hate you.”

“You don’t hate me,” he murmured. “You love me.”

Her heart thudded hard, and a lump filled her throat. “You’re awful.”

“Awfully crazy about you.”

“You broke my heart.”

“But I’m here, and I’ll put it back together again.”

She swallowed hard, eyes stinging. “You don’t mean it.”

“I do.” He reached out to gently pluck a tendril of hair from her eyelashes and smooth it back from her face. “I do. Don’t you realize, sweetheart, that I’m madly in love with you?”

She held her breath, afraid to move, or think.

“It’s true,” he added, smoothing another flyaway strand. “I love you. And there are other things I’d like to say, but for now, there’s nothing more important than saying I’m sorry. I was wrong. And I’m asking you for a chance to let me make things right.”

The fight was beginning to leave her. She stared up at him, worn out, and confused. “Dillon, I don’t understand.”

“I know you don’t. And I didn’t understand, either, not until after you left Austin and I thought about everything you said. For days all I did was go over and over everything we talked about, driving to Fredericksburg, driving back, and I realized in all those different conversations you never once mentioned perfection.”

Her brows tugged. She looked at him, bemused.

“You never asked me to be perfect,” he added quietly. “And maybe it’s okay if I’m not perfect.”

“Why would you think you had to be perfect?”

“Because otherwise I’m going to screw up, and hurt you, and let you and the kids down.”

“Dillon, no one is perfect. We’re human. We’re always going to disappoint each other. We just have to forgive, and love.”

“And show up.”

She suddenly understood. She could hear her words back in Austin, the things she’d told him about just showing up.
Being there
. The lump was back in her throat. “You showed up last night at the Science Fair,” she whispered.

He nodded. “Had to. Couldn’t miss the Science Fair.”

She struggled to smile through her tears. “And you showed up again tonight.”

“And I’m going to show up every day from now on. I’m here for you, Paige. Here for you, and the kids. I want to be with you, all three of you. I want to make this work.”

“Showing up this weekend was a good start.”

“Do you think your kids could accept me in their lives long term?”

“Absolutely, but Dillon, our lives aren’t like your life in Austin. Our lives are messy, filled with noise and tears and chaos.”

“I had four older brothers. I can handle it.”

She was silent a moment, digesting everything. “So how do we do this?”

“I don’t think just shacking up would be right. I’d like to think we’d marry, and move in together—”

“You’d move back to Marietta for us?”

He didn’t even hesitate. “Yes.”

“And Tutro?”

“Troy commutes to California. There’s no reason I can’t go back and forth to Texas.”

“That would be such a strain on you.”

“But it’d make things easier on you, and you could stay in your house—”

“Oh, Dillon, no! I
hate
that house.”

“What?”

She grimaced. “Okay, I don’t hate it, but it’s too much for me, and it’s been too much for years. I never really wanted an old house, either, but I thought it would be fun to own something with ‘history’. I was wrong.”

Frowning, he lightly traced one brow, and then the other. “So, just curious...how attached are you to Marietta?”

Paige rose up on tiptoe and pressed her lips lightly to his. He smelled so good. A mixture of soap and shaving cream and man. “Not that attached,” she whispered.

“Do you think the kids would like Texas?”

Her heart skipped another beat. “As long as there are Disney stores and Science Fairs, they’ll be fine,” she said, savoring the way his body felt against her, his hard chest crushing her breasts, his lean hips making her ache.

“What about Lewis’ parents? They’ll miss the kids, won’t they?”

“We would have to make sure they come visit us in Austin, and it’s not as if we won’t come back here a couple times a year, either. This is your hometown. It’s where the Sheenans are from, and where two and a half of your brothers still live.”

“Who is the half?”

“Troy. Half here, half San Francisco.”

He laughed softly and lifted a strand of hair from her cheek and smoothed it behind her ear, his fingers lingering on the curve. “You know what comes next, don’t you?”

His warm gold eyes held hers, and she couldn’t look away. “No,” she answered, breathlessly. “What?”

“What do you think happens when a man is madly in love with a beautiful woman? He gets down on one knee—”

“Stop it.”

“And propose—”

“
Dillon
.”

But he was already getting down on one knee, the faded denim wrapping his muscular thigh.

She grabbed at his arms and tried to pull him to his feet. “You can’t, Dillon. You can’t do this here, now. Not in the diner!”

He was laughing at her, white teeth gleaming. “Why not? What’s wrong with the diner?”

“It’s the
diner
!”

“I know, and it’s where we had our first date.”

“We’ve had very few dates.”

“It doesn’t feel like it. Not when I’ve spent years loving you, not daring to believe I’d ever have a chance with you.” He reached into his jeans pocket and drew out a jewelry box and popped up the lid, revealing a huge, stunning diamond ring. “I love you, Paige Joffe. Will you marry me?”

“Dillon, this is crazy!”

“Is that a yes, or a no?”

She was shaking, overwhelmed. “Is this really happening?”

“Is that a yes, or a no?”

Of course it was a yes.

She barely had time to get the ring on before she fell into his arms. “Yes, yes, yes. Love you, Dillon.”

“Love you, too, babe. More than you know.”