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Two miles away from her house, he pulled over and grabbed his phone. Mae answered on the third ring. “What?”
His fingers tightened on the phone at her cool tone. “Am I still invited over tomorrow?”
Silence stretched longer than he expected before she replied, “Sure. You can help me start packing.”
He leaned his head back against the seat rest and blew out a silent breath. “I didn’t mean to ruin your birthday, Mae.”
“You didn’t.” Her voice softened with a sigh. “I’m choosing to focus on only the good parts.”
“And those are?”
“Beating you at the short sticks. Ian being okay with you being the baby’s father. A bigger house. Great…food.”
He laughed at the last bit. He’d been certain she was going to say great sex. In fact he was certain she meant great sex, and the teasing was her way of letting him know everything was okay between them.
“I agree, the food was phenomenal,” he said. “But it’s just short sticks, not the short sticks.”
“Whatever it is, you were the loser.”
He laughed again, even though her last word pricked at his ego on a scale much larger than losing at mini-golf. Doing his best to ignore it, he switched the call to speaker and they discussed when would be the best time to move her and Ian to the new house while he drove home. They decided on Labor Day weekend, and by the time he said goodbye, the last of the tension had eased from his shoulders and he was more sure than ever that he loved her—and he didn’t deserve her.
Yet.
Chapter 26
Two weeks after Labor Day, Mae tied the sash on her robe and walked Merit to the door without turning on the porch light. She hugged herself to ward off the chilly night air as she snuck a glance across the street at her neighbor’s house. Not Henry’s, but Honor and Asher’s. As expected, their front porch was as dark as hers at three-thirty in the morning.
Merit turned once he stepped outside and bent down to palm her protruding belly with both hands while placing a kiss above her navel to whisper his now customary, “Love you, baby.”
The first time he’d said that…she was pretty sure that’s when she fell for him. Well, the rest of the way anyway. He’d already dragged her halfway down before that night, but that right there had pushed her all the way over the edge. Not that she’d told him yet. She didn’t want to freak him out.
Some days—or pre-dawn mornings—it was still surreal how much everything had changed since the beginning of May. She was happier than she’d ever been, with Merit, and living across from the street from her best friend in this beautiful new house that would have room when the baby came in four months.
Ian loved his new room, as well as being able to run across to visit Auntie H and Uncle A whenever he wanted. He’d also become friends with a girl his age down the block named Georgie. Mae loved that he had someone to play with that lived close, and had grown comfortable enough with the neighborhood to let him ride his bike to her house just last week.
Merit had sold his mansion and was getting set to move into her old house over the upcoming weekend. Only lately, when he gave her lingering kisses goodbye on the front porch around about midnight—or at three-thirty a.m. because they both fell asleep—she’d been considering asking him to move in with her and Ian instead.
It was a big step. Huge step, but after the past seven weeks together, she felt confident the time was right. Despite the idea freaking her out the night of her birthday, everything had been so good between them since then. He’d more than earned her trust by being there for her in everything and anything.
They’d decided not to find out the baby’s sex, which meant they’d have to come up with both boy and girls’ names, but they were having fun discussing the options with Ian. And instead of meeting her at the doctor’s office for her second appointment, he’d picked her up at the job site so they could go together. He’d been in awe of the ultrasound, and even got a little misty-eyed when they heard and saw the baby’s heartbeat. His emotion triggered hers, and they’d ended up laughing with each other through their tears.
He’d helped her and Ian move, came over most nights after she got home from work, and every weekend he jumped right into whatever family activity she planned to spend extra time with Ian before the baby came. He and Ian were even working on a tree house plan to build in the spring. He was a ratio of adult and big kid when it came to her son, and she was excited to see the kind of dad he would be with the baby.
The only thing bothering her was that he hadn’t been back to family brunch, which meant she and Ian hadn’t been to see his family, either. She’d tried bringing it up again, but he’d clammed up fast and once again insisted she leave it alone. So, she was biding her time on the subject and enjoying everything else in the meantime.
Merit straightened from kissing her belly and threaded his fingers into her hair at the nape of her neck to lean forward and capture her lips. She clutched the open sides of his unbuttoned flannel shirt, hanging on and pulling him closer at the same time.
Finally, he eased back a couple inches. “I’ll see you later.”
“I have a meeting at four to sign a new client, but I should make it home before six.”
“Ian and I will have dinner waiting for you.”
Trust fund bachelor Merit hadn’t done much cooking for himself. And by hadn’t done much she meant none at all. Regular working man on a budget Merit had been taking lessons from her and proved to be an adept learner—mostly by learning from his mistakes. Merit and her seven year old son making dinner together? That could be quite the adventure.
“Or I could grab take-n-bake pizza.”
He laughed as he turned to go.
