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“Do Big Mike and Roberta know?”
“Oh hell no. My father would kill me if I broke our engagement.”
“Honey, I’ve known your father since before he was married. He would be upset to think you would marry the wrong woman to please him.”
“Don’t say anything, okay?”
“I’d never. But please think about what I’ve said. Marriage magnifies every flaw in a relationship ten times. Maybe more.”
“I don’t want to hear that.”
“Trust me, Tony. If you think Patty’s jealous and miserable now when you aren’t even living together, wait. You won’t have any personal freedom once you’re under the same roof.”
“I love her. I think.”
“Of course you do. You’ve been together since high school. How old are you? Twenty-six?”
“Almost. I’m two years older than Mike, six years younger than Joey.”
“Set a goal. If you don’t think you’re going to marry her by next Christmas, bring it to an end.”
“I hope she ends it first.”
“That’s always a possibility! Keep acting like a schmuck and she’ll get sick of it soon enough.”
“Aw, Connie, I haven’t done anything wrong in a long time.”
“Okay, well, I take that back. That’s the problem when you work with people you’ve known since they were three.”
“Ha! Just ’cause I took my dad’s car on a Friday night when I was thirteen. Nothing happened.”
“Yeah, you’re lucky nothing happened!” She put down her knife and called out, “Cake,” to the room; then the alarm went off.
“Oh, fudge,” she said, running to slide down the pole to her office.
Chapter 2
Traffic was horrible on Bridget’s commute home, but she made the most of it, singing along with the radio and eating a donut she’d taken from the lounge from the daily gift to the station by the local donut shop. The after-work routine was one she’d devised while in school. She said goodbye to her sister and kissed Flynn. After placing the parts of the breast pump that could be washed in the dishwasher, she’d jump in the shower, put on her comfy clothes, make a cup of tea if it was cold out, or a glass of iced tea if it was hot, and get into her recliner with baby Flynn, who would be more than ready to nurse for the next hour.
She thought about the calls they’d gotten, the rhythm of the station, and she had a little bit of pride that she’d gotten through the day without making any big mistakes. The only touchy thing was the encounter with Charlie Saint regarding having to pump, who’d afterward avoided her for the rest of the day. But when she left her office after lunch to wash up, she saw that he’d placed a Do Not Disturb sign on her door handle, and that pleased her. It wasn’t ideal, pumping in the office. There wasn’t water to wash up with, and she’d made do with disinfectant wipes and then smuggled her pump into the bathroom to rinse it out.
The next day, after caving in to her parents and dropping Flynn off at their house in the morning instead of daycare, there was a surprise for her when she got to work. First of all, Tony Saint had waited for her in his gigantic white pickup truck so they could walk in together.
“I thought you slept here at night?”
“I came out so we could walk in together.”
“Okay,” she replied, her heart skipping a beat. Desire radiated between them, and she tried with all her might to ignore it. But it wasn’t going to happen. He was interested and he made sure she knew it.
“On my three-day shift I sometimes come out to my truck in the morning for a break,” he said, defusing the interest a little bit.
“Oh! Okay, gotcha,” she said. “It must be hard to be away from home for three days straight.”
“Not really. Mike Junior and I still live at home with mommy and daddy and our younger brothers,” he said, sputtering as he laughed. “Joey will be on his own soon, at age thirty-two.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” she said. “I moved out because it was too difficult for my parents after I had the baby.”
He looked at her with compassion. “Were they upset?”
