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His step faltered, and he stopped and stared, nostrils flared. “I’d give just about anything to paint you right now.”
She shook her head. “Another time. Right now, you need to get over here and finish what you started.”
His mouth crooked in a grin as he tossed the pizza box onto the end table next to the couch and advanced with a lascivious gleam in his eye. “I’m not so sure I could work for you.”
She frowned at the unexpected musing. “Why not?”
“Because if you were my boss and said that to me on the job, I’d be in so much trouble. Or you would be.”
She laughed, but it faded quickly when he dropped to his knees in front of her. He started back up where he’d left off, and she couldn’t help imagining him coming into her trailer office and locking the door behind him. By now, he knew exactly how to make her explode with pleasure, and without a doubt she’d be having hot, vivid daydreams at work for months to come.
Chapter 29
Mae walked into Must Love Frosting on a rainy Monday morning to find Honor finishing decorating the front windows of the bakery for the last week before Halloween. They were both about twenty-seven weeks along, but her best friend had a cute little basketball belly compared to her bigger beach ball. Then again, she’d had the cute basketball when she was pregnant with Ian.
She waved hello to the other employees, and Roxanna over at the register in Lift Your Spirit, just as Honor turned around from the window. “Did you decide if you’re going to the Diamonds’ Halloween fundraiser yet?”
“Merit and I are taking Ian trick-or-treating first, then we’ll head over a bit later.”
“Good. What are you going as?”
“Ian’s going as a zombie, and he wants me to be his pregnant zombie mom, but I’m leaning away from gross and gory. I thought about pregnant nun, but that seems a little cliché.”
Honor laughed. “The irony of Merit dressed as a priest next to you would be so worth it.”
“True,” she agreed with a grin, thankful she was now secure enough in their relationship to joke about his past. “But since it’s a children’s hospital fundraiser, I’ll probably go with kitty and my stomach as a ball of yarn.”
“Ooh, you should pull your shirt up and paint fish on your belly instead.”
Even though she liked the idea of asking Merit to paint the fish, Mae gave her a mock-glare. “Are you saying I’m big enough to be a fish bowl?”
Honor widened her eyes with exaggerated innocence. “Of course not.” But then she immediately turned away to gather up the remnants of her decorations and the empty trays that had held the ghost cake and pumpkin cupcakes now gracing the window display. “Your belly is just perfect for my little niece or nephew in there. You guys still waiting to find out?”
“Yes.” Other than a brief moment of weakness when Honor and Asher revealed they were having a girl, Mae was still content to wait until the baby was born. She loved how excited Ian was about the surprise, and even Merit was cute about it as he went back and forth as to whether he preferred a boy or a girl. She kind of wanted a girl, but suspected Merit leaned toward a boy.
Following Honor into the kitchen, she asked, “You guys still waiting to tell everyone what name you’ve picked out for my little niece?”
“Yes.” She passed a chocolate cupcake to Mae, grabbed one for herself, then leaned her hip against the counter out of the way of her employees. “It was nice to have you guys at brunch yesterday. Finally.”
Mae peeled the paper wrapper off her treat. “That’s part of why I stopped by this morning. I wouldn’t mind going every week like the rest of you, but the only reason Merit suggested it was because he knew his dad is staying in Washington until the fundraiser.”
“That’s what Asher figured. But he says Merit won’t talk to him about it. I think most of the brothers and sisters have mentioned the rift at some point over the past few months.”
She hated the thought of him losing what closeness he might have with his father. She knew how much it hurt to lose that connection with parents, and it wasn’t for lack of her trying. Her parents had never gotten past the fact they’d warned her about Ian’s father from the beginning, and when she ended up pregnant and alone, she’d gotten a big fat I told you so.
Now, they were sour on Merit, too, no matter how many times she told them things were good. They’d never change their views, and now that she’d accepted it was on their shoulders, she was done banging her head against the wall. But at least she had tried. Merit hadn’t even done that, and if he let the distance get too far, she was afraid he’d regret it later on.
She sighed and finally took a bite of her treat. After licking the silky, chocolate frosting from her lips, she grumbled, “You know, I love the man, but he can be so damn stubborn sometimes. It took me a week to convince him to take the job Becca offered after his interview for Lockhart Construction.”
“That might have had something to do with Asher and Loyal teasing him about sleeping with the boss.”
Maybe, but she’d heard Shelby razz him about it, too, and he’d laughed. “No. He joked about that himself. I think the job thing has something to do with his dad still, but anytime I bring up anything remotely connected to the senator, he gets all testy and clams up.”
“Stubbornness runs in the family,” Honor commiserated. “And persistence. You just have to be more stubborn and persistent than they are.”
“You know I can be that.”
“Oh, I know,” her best friend agreed with a grin.
