Johnny (Connelly Cousins #2) (20 page)

“Hey, girlfriend,” she yawned. “How are you feeling today?”

“Better,” Lina said. “I had a doctor’s appointment this morning.”

“What did he say?”

“Same thing he always does. The queasiness is perfectly natural, it should start to ease soon, blah, blah, blah.”

“Maybe you should get a second opinion.”

“I’m certainly not the first woman to have morning sickness, Stace, and it’s nothing compared to what you’re going through with your rehab and stuff. I refuse to be a wimp about this.”

Stacey bit her tongue to keep from saying what was on her mind – mainly that while morning sickness was fairly common, being sick around the clock and throwing up more than she digested was
not
normal. She’d already expressed her concern more than once, but Lina assured her she was fine and that everything would pass.

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Well, now that you mention it... Kyle has to work late tonight, and I was wondering if you’d like to come over and keep me company. You know, if you can tear yourself away from my brother,” Lina teased.

“It’ll be easier than you think. He’s working late tonight, too.”

“Perfect! We can have a girls’ night.”

It sounded like exactly what she needed. “Sounds awesome. What did you have in mind?”

“Amy’s been bugging me to bring you over again. You up for it?”

“Absolutely.”

“Cool. I’ll pick you up about four. We’ll hit the Book Shoppe, grab some DVDs, then come back to my place and feast on saltines and vitamin-fortified juice.”

Stacey laughed, feeling better already. “Sounds like a plan.”

“S
orry about that. This was supposed to be a night off for you,” Lina apologized several hours later as they left Amy’s Book Shoppe, each with a tote full of paperbacks. Lina was a romance novel junkie, and Stacey enjoyed reading someone else’s stuff once in a while. Besides, it kept her up to date with what was going on outside of her own literary bubble.

They turned at the end of the walkway just as the streetlights began flickering to life in the darkening twilight. The sidewalk was wide enough for Stacey to maneuver her wheelchair easily with Lina by her side.

The autumn evening was unseasonably warm. The scent of damp leaves hung in the air, along with that of freshly cut grass. It was only a short distance from the Book Shoppe to Lina and Kyle’s house, so they’d opted to leave Lina’s car at the house and enjoy the lovely weather while they could.

“No problem,” Stacey assured her. “It was fun. And enlightening.”

As it turned out, the Birch Falls Romance Readers Club had been holding their monthly meeting at Amy’s, and their book of the month was a Salienne Dulcette (Lina claimed she had no idea). When Stacey realized what was going on, she asked if she could sit in on the discussion. The feedback was priceless; it was rare that she got to hear such honest, open critiques of her books. Nearly everyone present had enjoyed it, with the exception of one or two women who felt the intimate scenes were just too graphic.

“Don’t listen to those old biddies,” Lina told her. “They’re just jealous because they haven’t seen any action since the Reagan administration. And I don’t know if you noticed, but for as loud as Gertie Hauser was preaching against the lack of virtue in contemporary romance, she snuck two more Salienne Dulcette’s into her book bag when she thought no one was looking. I bet if we swiped her smartphone we’d find pictures of naked men, too.”

Stacey snorted in laughter. Lina never failed to lift her spirits.

“Speaking of, we’re not going to tell the guys about the DVD Amy lent us, right?”

“Not a chance,” Stacey agreed. She was pretty sure neither Johnny nor Kyle would be happy to know they planned to watch the uncensored director’s cut of a movie about professional male strippers. “But if they do manage to find out, we’re saying it’s strictly research for my next book.”

Lina’s eyes grew huge. “You’re going to write a book about male strippers?”

Stacey grinned wickedly. “Maybe.”

“Oh, that’s going to be good!”

“Think your brother Michael will agree to a cover shoot?” Stacey waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Lina scrunched up her nose. “Ew, no. You can’t put my
brother
on one of your covers. That would just be weird.”

Stacey laughed. It might be weird to Lina, but she’d bet her laptop that ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the female population would beg to differ.

“Speak of the devil,” Lina said under her breath.

Michael was leaning casually against one of the porch posts. He straightened when he saw them coming up the walk, looking none too pleased.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“What does it look like?” Lina sniffed, tilting up her chin. “We’re walking. Well, technically I’m walking and Stacey is rolling, but you know what I mean.”

Stacey choked back a laugh. She loved the way Lina stood up to her overprotective, sometimes overbearing big brothers.

“You should have called.”

Lina stopped in front of him and crossed her arms. “Why would I do that?”

Michael widened his stance and mirrored her pose. He looked far more menacing than Lina did. “Because it would have been the
smart
thing to do.”

“
Pffft
. It’s a beautiful night and Amy’s isn’t far. Besides, you were
busy
, remember?”

Lina put particular emphasis on the word, and Michael’s gaze flicked over to Stacey. He pinned her with clear, emerald-green eyes, so like Johnny’s and Lina’s. But where they were fair-haired, Michael’s collar-skimming locks were black, and his features were decidedly more chiseled. Stacey only had eyes for Johnny, but she could appreciate the man’s sheer masculine beauty as much as the next girl. She wondered, not for the first time, if those dominant Connelly genes would prevail in her child.

“Did you get everything done?” Lina asked, and Michael’s gaze swung back to his sister.

“Yeah.”

“Good. Then
move
and let us by.”

Michael narrowed his eyes, and Stacey swore she heard a low growl come from the vicinity of his large chest, but after a moment or two he took a step back, opening the door for them.

“Come on, Stace. Don’t mind him. If he gets in your way, roll over his toes.”

Stacey had no intention of doing anything of the sort. She thanked Michael quietly for holding the door as she followed Lina inside. Stacey still didn’t know what to make of Michael. He seemed nice enough, despite the whole lethal black ops thing he had going on. He came and went according to his own mysterious schedule. Sometimes he stayed at Johnny’s house, sometimes he didn’t.

“Hey, baby,” Johnny said, coming out of the kitchen. He leaned down and gave her a kiss that curled her toes.

“Johnny! I thought you were working late tonight.” The sight of him never failed to jumpstart her heart and send butterflies into her stomach. He looked yummy, as usual, in his jeans, T-shirt, and open flannel button-down. Freshly showered, too, if the scent of clean male soap was any indication.

“Change of plans. Ready to go home?”

“No.”

“No?” Johnny cocked a brow and looked questioningly at Lina as if she had answered instead of Stacey.

“No,” Stacey told him, drawing his attention back to her. “I promised Lina I’d keep her company while Kyle was working.”

“Michael will keep her company, won’t you?” Johnny asked, shooting a pointed glance his brother’s way.

“Yeah.”

“But - ”

“No buts,” Johnny said firmly. “They’ve got it covered, and I want you all to myself tonight.”

A delicious shiver ran up and down the length of Stacey’s spine. One or two sentences spoken in that husky, deep voice was all that was needed to get her lusty juices flowing. But she didn’t want to let Lina down.

Stacey cast another look back at Lina, who smiled and agreed with Johnny. “Go ahead, Stace. Just promise you’ll call me tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay,” Stacey agreed, but there was something odd about the way Lina was smiling at her. What freaked her out even more was the fact that Michael was now grinning, too.

* * *

J
ohnny couldn’t remember the last time he’d been quite so nervous. He, Michael, Kyle, and a dozen guys from his crew had busted their asses to get everything ready over the last several hours while Lina kept Stacey occupied and out of the house. Hopefully, they hadn’t forgotten anything. Johnny wanted this to be perfect.

“So everything’s good at work?” Stacey asked as they made the ten minute trip back to their place.

“Yeah.”

“The McCaffrey renovation? Did the custom cabinets finally come in?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And the new suite of offices over on Kearney? The building inspectors actually showed up this time and signed off?”

Damn, the woman really did listen to him when she asked about his day and how things were going. “Yep.”

Sweat began to bead on his upper lip. His one-word answers were making her suspicious. He could feel her worried glances, but he continued to stare ahead, afraid that he might give something away.

“Did you have a good time with Lina?” he managed, proud of himself when it came out sounding relatively normal.

“Yeah. We went to Amy’s.” She told him about the book club meeting, which took some of the attention off of him, thank God. She seemed pleased that the women had been complimentary about her latest book (her word, not his), which didn’t make any sense to him. She was a hugely successful, talented author.

“Of course they loved it,” he shrugged as they finally pulled into the driveway. “You’re fucking awesome.”

He knew it had been the right thing to say when he opened her door and began to lift her out of the seat; she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him fiercely.

“What was that for?”

“Because I think you’re pretty fucking awesome, too,” she whispered.

He kissed her again, simply because he needed to, and carried her to the door.

“What about my chair?”

“I’ll get it later.”

“Why not now?”

“Because I don’t want to let you go.” That was the truth, but keeping her in his arms also reduced the chances of her going anywhere in case things didn’t work out the way he hoped.

“Close your eyes.”

“Why? What are you up to?”

He exhaled heavily. “Just do it, okay?”

“Okay,” she huffed.

“And no peeking until I tell you. Promise?”

“Promise,” she agreed.

Johnny walked through the foyer and stopped at the base of the staircase. He chanced a nod at the figures waiting quietly in the shadows. He couldn’t see them, but he knew they were there. Or at least they’d better be.

“Johnny?”

“Okay, you can open your eyes now.”

Stacey gasped in surprise when she saw the custom stair lift chair they’d installed. He set her down gently in the contoured, padded seat. “Go on,” he urged. “Try it out.”

She looked at him with excitement in her eyes and tapped a button on the glowing control panel, squealing in surprise when the chair began a smooth ascent up the staircase. He followed along behind, glad that Kyle had suggested supercharging the motor to make it go faster than the stock model. His hellcat wouldn’t have been satisfied with senior citizen speed.

“What do you think?” he asked when she reached the top.

“I love it!” she squealed. “Is this what you’ve been doing all afternoon?” she asked, realization dawning.

“Partly.” He scooped her off the swivel seat and carried her down the hallway. “Close your eyes again.”

“More surprises?” she asked, but this time she didn’t question him. Her lids snapped shut, an excited smile playing about her lips. Johnny opened the door to what had once been his boyhood bedroom and stepped inside.

“Okay. Open.”

“Oh, Johnny,” she whispered. The look on her face was priceless as she took in the powdery blue walls with fluffy clouds, a lamb mobile hanging over the crib, the glider rocking chair, the changing table, built-in shelves, and toy chest.

“We’ll have some shopping to do,” he told her, “but it’s a good start. And I thought you’d like to pick out everything else yourself. Lina said you’d want to choose a theme and - ”

Stacey wrapped her arms around him in a choke hold and kissed him. It wasn’t until he felt the wetness on his face that he realized she was crying. “Baby, don’t cry.”

“I can’t help it,” she sniffed. “This is amazing. You are going to be the best daddy in the world, you know that?”

Her words filled him with warmth. He didn’t know if that were true or not, but he was going to try his damnedest.

“When did you do all this?”

“When you were at rehab,” he shrugged. “And sometimes at night. I had a lot of help, though. We finished it up today.”

“Lina was in on it, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah,” he admitted. “I couldn’t have done it without her. She’s the one who told me everything we’d need.”

“This is the best surprise ever,” she told him.

“It’s not over yet.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Johnny Connelly, what else could you possibly have up your sleeve?”

He grinned. Inside, a series of squirmy things had taken up residence. He’d saved the best surprise (hopefully) for last. Both Michael and Kyle, as well as the married guys on his crew, thought the build-up was key.

“You know the drill. Close ‘em.”

He had planned on letting her ride the chair back down the stairs, but he didn’t want to wait that long. He carried her down himself, just in time to catch Kyle slipping out the front door and giving him a thumbs-up. Johnny moved to their bedroom and opened the door.

“What do I smell?” Stacey kept her eyes closed but lifted her nose and sniffed.

“Open your eyes.”

Stacey did and immediately sucked in a breath. He didn’t blame her; the room looked even better than he’d hoped. Dozens of white, scented candles flickered on every available hard surface. Huge bouquets of assorted flowers had been strategically placed around the room. The functional bedding had been replaced with crimson satin, over which white rose petals had been scattered.