When They Weren't Looking: Wardham Book #3 (13 page)

Yesterday, Karen’s family had hosted a barbeque as a send-off. Tomorrow, her friend would drive up the highway to Toronto, where she was going to spend the next year studying to be a librarian. Today, it was coffee and confession time.

From behind the espresso machine, Carrie lifted a hand in greeting. Karen sat on a stool at the small bar.

Evie smiled at the familiar scene. “I brought you some things from the
items wanted
list you posted on Facebook.” She dumped the bags at Karen’s feet. “It was an excellent opportunity to empty out my cupboards. Can opener, spatulas, wooden spoons, a saucepan, a Bodum coffee press, pillow cases, a new shower curtain. And a couple of romance novels.”

Karen preferred to read fantasy and young adult novels, but Evie thought her friend might enjoy the comfort of a few strong heroes while she was living a few hours away from her own knight in shining armour.

“You don’t mind parting with all of that?”

“None of it has been used since I moved into the house. Except the books, but my mom gives me a steady stream of those.”

“Well, thanks!”

“No problem. Hey, listen…” Evie took a deep breath and gestured for Carrie to make her a cup of tea. “I need to tell you a secret I’ve been keeping.”

Carrie grinned, and Karen looked between them. “What is it?”

“You remember the guy in Toronto?”

“Uh huh.”

“This is going to freak you out, but it was Liam.”

“Ted’s nephew? How did that happen?”

“Total coincidence. We talked about Wardham that night, but we, uhm, didn’t get into details.” Evie blushed.

“So, what, are you dating now? I’ve seen him around town a fair bit. Did you know he’d be moving here?”

“Not exactly. To both questions.”

“What does that mean?”

“You know how sex can have unintended side effects?” She winced. That was not the right language, at all. “The thing is…I missed my period in June. So I took a test.”

Karen snapped to attention. “You’re…pregnant?” She slowly lowered her mug to the counter and started counting on her fingers. “Like, three months pregnant?”

Evie’s heart pounded as she nodded a confirmation. Carrie offered a supportive smile, which Karen caught.

“And you, little miss barista, you knew?”

Carrie shrugged. “Wasn’t my secret to share.”

“She guessed. Other than Liam, my mom and my sister…you’re the first person I’ve told.” God, where had her saliva disappeared to? The Sahara had nothing on her mouth right now.

“Holy crap. And Liam’s the father? Holy. Crap.” Karen stared at her, mouth still slightly agape. “Well. One thing’s for sure, that kid is going to be freakin’ gorgeous.”

Evie wasn’t sure she’d heard correctly. “What?”

“You. Him. The resulting DNA mix is going to be pure gold. Except, maybe not literally gold. He’s so dark…” Karen shivered and Carrie groaned in agreement.

“Hey!” Evie knew both her friends were happily involved with their own groan and shiver worthy men, but the flare of possessiveness inside her still voiced itself as if she had no control.

Carrie laughed.

“What?” Evie blushed furiously.

“We’re not allowed to notice that Liam is more delicious than a box of chocolate truffles?”

“No!”

“Why not?” This time it was Karen who chimed in, her grin way too knowing for Evie’s liking.

Absolutely no reason. Evie had no claim on Liam. Refused to have a claim on him, even though he wouldn’t mind. “Because he’s too young for either of you.”

“Oooooh.” Her friends harmonized the stretched out syllable perfectly.

“Oh nothing. And shut up.” Evie wanted to go home and crawl into bed. She crossed her arms under her breasts, and the tender ache there and the slight swell beneath her arms were both reminders that she needed to see this through. Needed to put up with the teasing, because her friends were going to be invaluable when everyone else found out, and the way her body was changing every day, it wouldn’t be long now.

Carrie came through the gap in the counter, but instead of stopping at her side, went to the door, threw the lock and flipped the Open sign to Closed. “Come on, let’s go sit in the back.”

Karen pressed gently on Evie’s shoulders, and she found herself being ushered back to the kitchen, where Carrie dug out a box of the aforementioned chocolate truffles.

“Dig in, this is the good stuff. Emergency stash.”

Evie took one of the dark chocolate bundles and savoured a small nibble.

“So, you think you’re too old for him.” Karen nodded thoughtfully. “What does he think?”

There was no getting out of this conversation. “He thinks all sorts of impossible things, like having a baby is going to be lovely and sweet, and we should get married because it’s the right thing to do.”

Carrie pursed her lips, but didn’t respond.

“What are you thinking?”

“Well, that’s what we did, and it turned out to be pretty wonderful.”

“That’s different.”

“Of course, every situation is different. But it’s not the stupidest idea anyone has ever had.”

“It’s stupid for me.” Evie winced again. Seriously, what had happened to her filter? “Ian is rock solid. And he worships you. Liam barely knows me. And I’m not you…I’m not…”

“What?”

“I’m not easy to love.”

“Fuck that noise.” Karen interjected herself into the conversation again. “Didn’t we basically have this conversation in the spring?” Evie didn’t bother to point out that at that point, Karen had pretty much the same self-doubt, because she knew that argument would just get turned around against her. “You are adorable. Gorgeous. Can make quinoa and spinach taste super yummy. You are funny, and you have funny kids. So obviously, you’re both a good parent and you have great genes that you pass on. I don’t know all that Dale did to your head—”

“Hey.” There was nothing wrong with her head.

Karen softened her voice. “None of us are perfect. But neither are they. The men, I mean.”

“That’s the thing…” Damnit. That
was
the thing. “Liam is perfect. Too perfect.”

The knock at the door was louder this time. A persistent, happy beat. Her mother had departed with the boys only a few minutes earlier, so it could only be Liam. She rolled her eyes and smiled at the same time. She swung the door open with enough force to cover her breathlessness. It wasn’t a secret that he affected her, but she didn’t need to be obvious about it when it couldn’t lead to anything. But there he was, leaning back against her porch railing, one ankle crossed over the other, sunglasses propped up on his head, and it physically hurt Evie to stay on the threshold instead of sliding across the small landing and folding herself into his hard, lean length.

“I brought you a treat from Bun.” He held up a travel mug and a small paper bag.

“I don’t do treats.”

He chuckled and propelled himself toward her, pausing a foot away to…

“Did you just smell me?”

“Sure did. You smell good.”

“You can’t do that. It’s against the rules.”

“Touching you is against the rules. I did not touch.” He leaned closer still, until his breath warmed her temple. “I want to, though. Very much. I want to touch you all over, from your pointy little nose to the tips of your toes.”

Her nose wasn’t pointy. Was it? And did she not put flirting on the no-go list? She really should have.

“Wow, you’re easy to rile up.” Liam slid past her, bumping his hip gently into her midsection. “That wasn’t me touching you, by the way. I was just saying hello to my daughter.”

She thunked her head back against the door frame and closed her eyes for a second. “It might be a boy.”

“It’s going to be a girl, and she’s going to be beautiful. She’ll have your nose.” He turned and gave her a panty-melting smile over his shoulder. “Are you coming? I’m happy to eat the muffin if you don’t want it, but it has six different ancient grains and absolutely no sugar.”

“Give it.” He handed the bag over and took a seat at the kitchen table. Very boundary-respecting.

She eyed him warily. “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to chat about the next midwife appointment, and I figured it would be best to do that while the boys are at school.” Again with the perfect. She sighed audibly, and he raised his eyebrows. “Did I assume incorrectly?”

“No.”

“Then what’s with the heavy, long-suffering sigh?”

“Don’t worry about it. What about the appointment?”

“We have the ultrasound at the end of the month, right? I was hoping you might be willing to find out the gender, but I didn’t want to argue about it on the day of the appointment.”

She laughed. “Why would it be an argument?”

“I assumed you wouldn’t want to find out.”

“Why?”

“Your mom said that you didn’t know with the boys.”

It took a moment for that statement to land. So, that was less than perfect. “Excuse me?”

His eyes shifted from left to right, as if reviewing what he’d just said. It didn’t take long for comprehension to dawn and he splayed his hands wide, slowly and carefully, like he was negotiating a hostage situation. “I’m not, generally-speaking, talking to your mom about you.”

“So just specifically-speaking, this one time, you discussed my prenatal health care choices with my mother?” Evie knew that wasn’t fair, could see on his face that there was an explanation, but over the years it had become second-nature to verbally spar with Dale. Attack, counter-attack. Knowing it wasn’t mature wasn’t enough to stop her from doing it, even with someone who didn’t know that’s how the game was played.

But once again, Liam proved more clever than she gave him credit for. “I discussed nothing, of course. I live across the road from her, temporarily, and from time to time she shares things with me. Like your first food was banana, and your first word was run. That’s adorable, by the way. I have no idea about my first food or word. I’d have to find a former nanny to find out, I’m sure. So when she comes over and is all proud and concerned grandma, I listen. I don’t say anything, but I listen, because it’s polite, and it’s a way for me to learn about you, someone I’ve got a vested interest in understanding. Also, because she brings me cookies. I’m not above being bribed for my time.”

Damn him. If he kept doing that, she’d have no choice but to like him. And liking him would lead to a gates-wide-open approach to wanting him, and lord help her, he was very wantable.

“Okay. Mom told you that I didn’t find out the gender for the boys?”

“Yeah. If it’s important to you, then okay, but it’s more in my nature to plan ahead.”

“So you came here to talk about that in advance.”

He shrugged. “Seemed like the decent thing to do.”

Damn him. “It wasn’t me. The surprise—that was Dale’s choice. I’m okay with finding out. Particularly if this one is a girl—”

“I have no doubt it will be.”

“You can’t possibly know that.”

“Whatever.” He grinned, she laughed, and her good mood was officially restored. “I won’t demand anything of you, Evie.”

“Of course not, you’re perfect.” She said it lightly, but he shook his head. “Don’t deny it. You probably also write poetry and donate ten percent of your income to charity.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing. And that’s the freaking point, Liam! No one is perfect. And yet you pretend to be, so that scares me.”

For the first time since they’d started spending time together, Evie watched Liam turn stone cold. She didn’t remember the day she told him about the pregnancy as clearly as she’d like, but she was pretty sure this reaction was worse.

“Pretend?”

“Okay, that was the wrong choice of words.” Once again she found herself floundering. What was it about this guy that made her so flustered, so completely incapable of logical thought?
His DNA parasite is doing its best to weaken you.

“I’m not pretending to be perfect, Evie. I’m trying damn hard to do the right thing, at every turn, because I don’t think enough people have done that for you in the past, and right now, while you’re carrying my child, that’s my job. To be there for you. I’m sure as hell not perfect.”

“I guess I just don’t know you, and that’s a problem, given the circumstances we’ve found ourselves in. Like, why couldn’t you ask your parents what your first word was?”

He shrugged. “They weren’t that involved in raising me.”

“Wow.” She wanted to know more about that, but she didn’t want to pry. No, she did. But she wanted even more for him to freely offer the information.

“Yeah. That’s not how I plan to parent, you need to know that. It’s part of why I left the city, because I could see the future and I didn’t like it.”

“And then you came here and I dumped all of this on you.”

“I like this. I like working with my uncle, and I’m going to like being a landlord when I find the right property. I like…” He trailed off, his eyes raking over her. “I like you, Evie. And I guess I’ve stumbled along the way. I was just trying to be the best I can be. For you. For our baby.”