When They Weren't Looking: Wardham Book #3 (21 page)

“I didn’t need to see her to know that this is worth the world, Evie.” He kissed her hair. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t give for her. And she’s not even born yet.”

She breathed him in. His shirts smelled different of late, like laundry soap instead of…”Liam, can I ask you a stupid question?”

His chest vibrated against her cheek. “Sure.”

“Did you used to get all of your clothes laundered at the dry cleaners?”

“Why?”

“Just a guess.”

“You’re a smart girl.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t anymore.”

“I know. You smell like Tide.”

“Ted buys it.”

“I like it.”

“I’ll never use anything else.”

She curled a secret smile into his newly plebian garment. “Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?”

“Why?”

“It’s Wednesday? We missed you last week.”

He rubbed his thumb lightly along her cheekbone, then up her temple. With a groan, he wove his entire hand into her hair and tipped her head back, kissing her brow. “I can’t, Evie. It’s best if we stick to baby appointments for a while.”

She couldn’t read the expression on his face, but it wasn’t good. “What’s going on?”

He frowned, lips drawn tight together, holding back words he didn’t want to let spill out. Words she probably didn’t want to hear, but he’d never held back before.

“The boys miss you.” She was grasping at straws. “I miss you, too. And today was so wonderful.”

His lips softened, and then the sweetness returned to his eyes. “It really was. Don’t worry about me, I’m not going anywhere.”

“But—”

“No buts, Evie. I’ve got some stuff I’ve gotta take care of, and you need time and space to figure out what you want. When you’re ready, I’m here.”

What if she was ready now?

If you have to ask…
Damn him for being smart. And she couldn’t argue. He was giving her what she wanted, a respectful co-parenting relationship without any complications. But she couldn’t help but feel like she’d lost something important.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

He’d put off this phone call long enough. Liam looked at the ultrasound image he’d tucked into the inside cover of his project binder and took a deep breath. He could do this.

His mother answered on the second ring. “William, I was starting to think you’d lost your phone.”

“Mother.” They both hated those names. But as long as she insisted on calling him by his father’s name, she wasn’t getting the warm and fuzzy back.

“How is your little adventure going?”

“I’ve sold my condo, and bought an investment property here.”

She sighed. He knew what she was going to say next. McIntoshes didn’t sell property that would increase in value, that was foolish. “It was such a good investment. You should have asked your father—”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“I don’t understand this feud, William. He’s a very generous man.”

“That’s not why I called, Mother. I have some other news that I’d like to share with you.”

“Do tell.”

“I’m going to be a father. In February.”

Over the telephone line, he could hear a tick of a grandfather clock. She was sitting in her favourite chair in the library. A slight rustle of silky fabric. And then she sighed. “There are some questions I have, of course, but I wouldn’t want to be indelicate…”

“Oh, go ahead. Be indelicate.” He huffed a humourless laugh. “You want to know if I’m sure it’s mine? How much this will cost the family?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of when did you find out and when will the wedding be, but yes, those are good questions as well.” She sighed again. She was an expert at that. “Maybe you should connect with a lawyer?”

“I don’t need a lawyer.”

“Don’t be foolish, William. There’s nothing romantic about—”

“About what? Being saddled with the responsibility of a child for eighteen years?” He snorted. “Just what would you know about that?”

“There’s no call to be rude.”

She was right. Not to her, at least. His father had some decidedly evil tendencies, but Amelia McIntosh had never done anything worse than care too much about what certain segments of society thought. “My apologies. Truly, I’m sorry. I didn’t call to get into a quarrel, Mother. I just wanted to inform you of my news. Happy news, I assure you.”

“Well, thank you. Will you and the mother-to-be come for Thanksgiving or Christmas?”

“Probably not, no.” There was no chance he was exposing Evie to his father. She’d run screaming in the other direction.

“Can I tell your father that you called?”

“Knock yourself out. I mean, yes, please do.”

“Are you keeping yourself busy there?”

“I’m helping Ted on the farm. Renovating this property I bought. Spending time with…”

“Yes, what is this young woman’s name?” Liam didn’t answer, and his mother sighed. “Is she from Wardham?”

“She is.” He deliberately only answered the second question. He wouldn’t be surprised if his father already knew all about Evie. It would be just like him to hire a private investigator to keep tabs on Liam. If he hadn’t already, he definitely would after this call, but he wasn’t making it easy for the old man.

“Well, if you’re happy…” She trailed off, like there was still significant doubt in her mind that was possible in what she would surely think of as a godforsaken little backwater.

“I am.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t just find out, Mother. It’s taken some time to make this call.”

“I probably owe you some sort of apology for that?”

“We’re past apologies.”

She laughed softly, a sad sound. “So like your father.”

Liam closed his eyes. That was a direct hit. “I have to go.”

“I understand. Please keep me up-to-date. I do check my email, you know.”

After hanging up, Liam picked up the ultrasound picture. The soft paper curled in his hand. They should sell hard plastic sleeves to protect the delicate images from freaked-out first time parents, Liam thought, then laughed. Hell, they should sell the same thing for newborns.
Holy fuck
. He was going to have a baby. Soon. Evie would know what to do, but when she was tired? He’d watched some YouTube videos, a series of soothing strategies that ironically all started with s. But those dads were
there
. All the time. Not across town in a half-renovated house. And he couldn’t bring the baby here, anyway. Evie wanted to breastfeed. She’d stressed how important it was that visits work around that.

Hands shaking, Liam set the ultrasound image down. Damn. They were still stuck in that co-parenting nonsense that wasn’t nonsense, but it wasn’t right for
them
. Nineteen weeks to go.

Time to get serious. On multiple tracks. His unit was almost ready to move into. He’d call the moving company and arrange for his belongings to be delivered. He’d set up a home here, even if he knew in his heart it was a sham apartment he had no intention of living in for very long. He had his eyes on a tiny cottage a few blocks away.

With that vision warming his heart, he pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of the ultrasound image, careful to cut Evie’s name out of the shot at the top. Before he could second guess the charitable gesture, he sent in attached to a brief email to his mother.
Meet your granddaughter. She’ll be accepting visitors in March.

When Evie arrived at work the Thursday before Thanksgiving, there was an Essex Telecom van sitting at the curb. As she unlocked, a man climbed out carrying a toolbox.

“You work at the Pilates studio?” he asked.

“Yes, it’s my business. Is there a problem with the phone line?”

“No, ma’am. I’m here to upgrade your service.”

“I didn’t order anything?”

He handed over a work order sheet. “Internet installation.”

“I really didn’t…” Liam. She sighed. “Can you hang on a second?”

She left the confused man outside and called her apparent benefactor. He picked up on the first ring. “Evie!”

“Don’t ‘Evie’ me, you know why I’m calling.”

“I really don’t, sunshine, but it’s nice to hear your voice.”

“Did you order internet for my studio?”

“Oh, that. I thought the install was next week, I was going to tell you…”

“Liam! I can’t afford that.”

“It’s a gift.”

“You can’t gift my business anything, it’s…”

He laughed. “Did you send the man away? I bet that’s going to cost double to get him to come back.”

“No, he’s waiting outside.”

“Let him in. This is a little thing I can do for you.”

“The dishes is a little thing.”

“I’ll do those, too.” He sighed. “Think about it as something for the baby. In case you need to look up something for her while at work.”

That was a stretch. She glanced out the window. It would be nice… “Fine. But I owe you one. Many, actually.”

“I love the sound of that.”

The installation took an hour, and afterward she called and invited him to Thanksgiving at her mom’s. She told him he could bring Ted, but she stressed that she wanted him to come.

Liam slid the bottles of wine and the jar of spiced pumpkin seeds into his backpack, next to the book of Thanksgiving Mad Libs for the boys. He should be nervous, but instead a quiet optimism filled his being. She wanted him there, as part of her family.

Claire was bustling around the kitchen when he arrived, thirty seconds after his uncle. She pointed to the living room, where he could hear the boys arguing over the rules to something. He left Ted and the wine with their hostess, and headed in the direction of his woman.

They were crowded around the coffee table, working on a puzzle. Evie was rubbing Max’s back, maybe keeping him focused on the task, or soothing him after whatever altercation Liam had just missed. Connor was examining the loose pieces with a fierce focus.

Underneath Liam’s foot, the floor creaked, and Evie glanced up. Her lips curled and her eyes crinkled as a smile spread across her face, and he thought his heart might just explode.

Dude, you’ve turned into a sap
was warring with
dude, look at her
. Sexy, caring, sweet.

“Liam!” Max abandoned the puzzle and jumped up. “Want to see my new alert bracelet?”

“Heck ya.”

“It’s orange!” Max shook his wrist back and forth rapidly in front of Liam’s face.

“What happened to the camo one?”

“Grandma didn’t like it, so she got me this one for Thanksgiving. It matches my winter coat, so it’s cool.”

“Awesome. Now you’ve got two.”

“Three. Remember? That ugly metal one, too?” The seven-year-old looked askance at the idea that Liam had dropped such an important detail from his memory.

“But you haven’t worn it since you got the other one…is it still in rotation?”

“Only for e-merg-en-cies.” Max used his hands in the air to help drag out the word.

“Ah. Hey, how’s the puzzle going?”

“Puzzles are stup—”

“Max!” Evie frowned, and Liam had to fight to keep a neutral expression on his face.

“Oh, right. Bad word. I mean, puzzles are not my kind of thing.”

“I like puzzles, but you know what I like even more?”

“What?”

“Mad Libs.” Liam pulled the book out of his bag and before long Connor had joined them on the couch. Once they got settled and Connor had taken over filling in the words, he left them to their silly giggles and moved over to help Evie with the puzzle.

She watched him place up a few pieces, then reached out and tapped his hand. “Come on.” She led him up the stairs to a bedroom. “That was nice, with the boys.”

“I didn’t do it to be nice. I saw it and thought it would be fun.” He pressed the door shut. “Also fun, by the way, is being alone with you in a room with a bed.”

She laughed, and pulled him in for a hug.

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Happy Thanksgiving.”

“You, too.” She found his hand and pressed it to the side of her belly, where a hard, pointy ball was wriggling around. “Your daughter wanted to say hi.”

He tugged up Evie’s shirt, keeping his eyes on hers to make sure she was okay with the contact, and slowly smoothed his hand over the growing bump. She softened against him, and he was hard-pressed not to keep touching, higher and lower, until she melted.

“Evie…” he muttered her name, his face pressed into her hair, and as she shifted, her thigh found contact with his hard-on.

“Oh!”

“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Sorry.”

She tipped her head up to look at him, lips parted, eyes hooded, and he knew he could kiss her. Maybe even do more, but their family was downstairs and until she asked for it, he wasn’t going to press his luck.