Ross 01 Unleashed (23 page)

He smiled, tracing a finger down her face. “Well, right now we’ll compose ourselves for a few minutes, and then I’ll take you to lunch. Then I’ll go kick your boss’s ass in court, since you’ve reenergized me. Tonight, I’ll take you home, and I won’t let you leave. You won’t spend Christmas like you did last year. You’ll spend it with me. I’ll take you to Florence to meet my family there, if you want. Next summer I’ll take you wherever you want to go. At some point during all this, I’ll take you to the altar, if you’ll have me—”

“I’d marry you in a heartbeat, Evan Ross.” The words tumbled out in an emotional tangle of laughter and indescribable relief. She’d seen him at his best and at his worst through the years. Whether he was ecstatically happy, fighting mad, sick or down in the dumps, she’d loved him all the same. “I’ve known you long enough to be certain of that.”

He quickly put his finger to her lips. “Not another word. I refuse to tell our kids I proposed to you on my office desk.”

“Why not?” she joked. “They can know Mom and Dad were so in love they had to maul each other wherever the mood struck.”

He laughed. “True. But give me time to do this right. To give you everything you deserve. And I will, I promise.”

“Oh my
God
,” she whimpered. “Just tell me this isn’t a dream.”

“It’s real. And speaking of dreams, I want you to follow yours. Don’t you dare let me keep you from it.”

Her lips curled. “So you’re gonna make me go to law school?”

She could let that smile of his eat her alive and she’d die happy. “Yep. It’s a requirement.” He laughed as she pinched him on the side. “I mean it, if you want to go to law school, then go, and I will support you all the way. I’ll even throw in free tutoring. Wait until you see
my
Socratic method, baby.”

Her burst of laughter agitated more tears, sending them trickling over her cheeks. He reached up to wipe them away. “And from now on I’ll make sure this is something you’ll do only out of joy, and never pain.”

They strolled from his office twenty minutes later with every semblance of professionalism. Kelsey had reapplied her lipstick and managed to tame her hair, but she knew nothing would remove the sensuous satiation from her face. Evan didn’t hesitate to hold her hand as they walked down the hall, giving her the sense that it was them against the world.

Delilah looked up from her computer as they passed, her expression freezing when she spied them. Kelsey gave her an obnoxious smile and a shrug as they went by. She could swear she heard the other girl snatch up her phone and start dialing before she and Evan could get out the door.

Outside, the rain had stopped and a sliver of blue struggled to break through the overcast, but the world still glistened with remnant raindrops. Evan held open the door of his sleek black truck for her and she climbed in, so grateful to be back there again. Back in his life the way she wanted to be. Her gaze never left him as he walked around to get in the driver’s side, utterly delectable in his dark gray suit. Hers, finally. For once, she considered herself the luckiest girl on earth.

“I have one question,” she said as he settled himself in the seat and brought the engine to life. “Did you really keep this trip after you and Courtney split up because you wanted to take me? It won’t hurt my feelings if you say no.”

He grinned. “After it all blew over, and I remembered I needed to do something about this trip, you’re the first person who came to mind. You usually are. Think about it, when you called me that day last Christmas to tell me about Todd and Courtney, don’t you remember what I asked you?”

“I don’t remember much. You didn’t say anything for so long I thought you’d hung up.”

“Yeah, but then…?”

The memory unfurled, smoothed out like a crinkled-up piece of paper. Kelsey’s lips curled upward.

Evan! Oh, God, get over here. Get her out of my house.

What? Who?

Todd and Courtney are sleeping together! I just caught them in my bed! Come get this whore out of my house!

The dead silence on his end was usually as far as she let her memory get, because the thought of her hysterical screech was enough to mortify her until her dying day. If she’d let it play out…

Kelsey, are you all right?

No! Evan—

Just stay away from them until I get there, do you hear me? I’ll be there in ten minutes. I’ll kill that son of a bitch for doing this to you.

She nodded. “I remember.” He’d always seemed far angrier over Todd hurting her than any wrong done to himself.

“He really did me a favor, and I knew it. But you were hurt, and you needed time to get over it. I wanted to make sure you were. You scared me, though.” He trailed a finger down her cheek, the gesture full of meaning.

Kelsey scoffed. “If you had told me how you felt all those years ago, I never would have left that party with him. I’d have stayed with you.”

“I know that now, and yes, I feel like that much more of a dumbass because of it.”

“Don’t. No more of that. Let’s just look ahead.” But they
could
talk about it now, she realized. She could think of her college days and the Todd-and-Courtney fiasco without the slow burn of fury slithering through her, or feeling like she wanted to hit something. Or just shutting down completely. Finally, the wall between her and Evan was broken down, and in its place was a connection she never could have imagined.

“Sounds good.” He reached across to link his fingers through hers, never letting go as he navigated the damp streets.

A new thought struck her as he pulled into a parking space at their favorite restaurant. “One more thing, though…you never did read everything I wrote about you.”

He put the truck in Park, smiled and leaned over to kiss her. “I don’t have to. Every time I look at you now, I can see it all.”

Epilogue

One year later…

Evan didn’t think he’d ever seen Kelsey look more beautiful than on their wedding day. He stood on the beach with Brian at his side and watched her slow approach, a dream in white with the morning Hawaiian sun glowing on her sundress. If his jaw was clenched in desire and his hands were shaking with the need to get her out of that dress, no one noticed—except maybe her—because all eyes were on her, and hers on him.

She’d agonized over wearing a white dress. “Evan,” she’d despaired, “it seems a little ridiculous to wear white since I’ve already been married once and now I’m knocked up. I mean, come on.”

“But only one other person knows about that last part,” he’d told her, grazing a knuckle over the little bulge of her belly. The fact that his baby was growing in there made him happier than anything in his entire life ever had.

“I saw your mom looking at me funny, Evan. She was looking at my boobs.”

And he’d cleared his throat and stuttered that it was kind of hard
not
to. Which had made her sock him.

They were keeping Kelsey’s pregnancy quiet until after the wedding, not out of shame or any desire to fool anyone—though it was quite possible Kelsey’s mother would faint dead away when she found out—but because they didn’t want all the focus to be on that detail today. They had six more months to celebrate their impending arrival. Today was for them.

If any of the guests had been looking closely, they might have noticed that when the wind blew just right, Kelsey’s flowing dress rippled back and molded to the slight swell of her stomach. She held her bouquet of calla lilies down low trying to conceal it. God, she was so lovely she made his chest ache, her spiraled hair gathered softly at the nape of her neck, the sun glistening on her tanned shoulders. A pink lei hung around her slender throat. It was a struggle for Evan to swallow around the dryness in his mouth.

He’d worn solid white, too, to appease her, and because she’d told him it looked unbelievably sexy on him. He didn’t know so much about that, but whatever made her happy.

And thank God he’d talked Brian into dying the damn blue streak out of his hair, just for this one event. Though his brother vowed that in return he was going to dye every strand of it blue. Or red or purple, he hadn’t decided yet. Maybe a Mohawk. He’d brought Michelle to Hawaii with him, and she looked astoundingly normal. She was also madly in love with Brian. Poor girl. But at least he was working hard on opening his own tattoo parlor.

Lisa, proud matron of honor and the sole bearer of their secret, was practically bouncing in her spot as Evan shook hands with Kelsey’s father and drew his bride up beside him for their vows. Kelsey’s fingers were trembling and he gave them a reassuring squeeze. She wasn’t crying yet. She didn’t cry until they were pronounced husband and wife. And then he didn’t have to wait to be told to kiss his bride. She threw her arms around him and kissed her groom amidst cheers and whoops and applause. And kissed him and kissed him. Lisa threatened to grab Kelsey’s lei to drag her off.

When Evan led her back up the aisle of seats set up on the beach, he leaned close to her ear and whispered, “How are you feeling?”

“I didn’t blow chunks during the ceremony, so we’re good,” she hissed back through her smile. They laughed and the photographer snapped a picture—
that
was going to be a good one. No one would ever know they’d been smiling and laughing at one another while whispering about the possibility of her throwing up during the wedding. It might not seem the smartest thing, scheduling it for the morning given her condition, but hell—she was afflicted with morning sickness, noon sickness, night sickness…so any time they picked would’ve been a crapshoot. And he hadn’t liked the thought of her suffering out here through the worst of the day’s heat.

They held a brunch at the resort for their families and friends who had flown out, during which they entertained them by smearing cake all over one another and generally being incapable of keeping their hands off each other. Evan was careful not to agitate Kelsey’s equilibrium during their first dance as a married couple.

Brian managed to get through a surprisingly eloquent toast without calling Evan an assortment of epithets even once. Lisa dropped no less than two-dozen hints about the baby in her own toast, which was about the beauty of friendship blossoming into love. Kelsey only had to run and throw up once. By then the mimosas were flowing and no one even noticed her flee, but to Evan it was an effective end to the festivities. He had a wife now, and he needed to take care of her.

Lisa ducked into the ladies’ room to get Kelsey washed up and presentable again while Evan waited in the hallway, and by the time they emerged she looked just as fresh and lovely as she had on the beach.

“Sorry,” she whispered to him, her expression pained. “It’s the smell of the food. Even though I want to eat every bite of it.”

“Yep,” Lisa said, nodding in fond remembrance.

“Honey,
I’m
sorry you’re having the day spoiled for you like this.”

“Oh, no! It’s not spoiled. Nothing could spoil today for me.” She put her hand on her belly and smiled at him. “It’s worth it.”

Lisa erupted in tears and pulled them both in for a hug. “Oh my God, y’all are so
sweeeeet
!”

“Lisa,” Kelsey wheezed around the shoulder in her throat. “I’m the hormonal one. I know it’s usually the other way around…”

“Oh, shut up.” Lisa released them, wiping her streaming eyes. Evan handed her his handkerchief, which she took and dabbed at her cheeks. “I’m just so happy for you. You don’t even know.”

“Sure we do, I just hope I’m not going to bother you too much, calling you and asking about every little thing.”

“I don’t care if it’s four in the morning, call me. After having three, I’m like the expert. And I’d better be one of the first ones you call when the time comes, too.”

“You will be,” Evan assured her. “Godparents are always high on the list.”

Lisa only dissolved in tears again at that bit of news, burying her face in Evan’s handkerchief, and it took several minutes of soothing for them to get her to stop the waterworks. “So when are you telling everyone else? Because I’m about to burst here,” she asked when she was capable.

“That’s obvious,” Kelsey said dryly. “I wonder if there’s anyone in the room who
doesn’t
know by now, thanks to you. We’re thinking right after we get back from the honeymoon, though. Can you last till then?”

“It’ll be hard, but I think I can.”

The view from their suite bedroom was spectacular, even better than the year before. Kelsey stood at the window, watching the crystal blue waves roll in on the beach where she and Evan had just stood becoming husband and wife. The sun caught on the whitecaps, turning the surf to diamonds. It sparkled almost as much as the one on her finger. The ring hadn’t left her hand since Evan slipped it on there at Christmas in Florence, standing outside the Duomo.

She still couldn’t believe it.

Absently stroking her hands over her belly, she heard him enter the room behind her and turned to smile at him. “It’s even better than last year, I think.”

But
he
was quite possibly the most beautiful sight she’d ever beheld, wearing white slacks and a loose white long-sleeved shirt buttoned up under his lei. His hair was still wind-tossed, and he raked a hand through it as he walked over to put his arms around her from behind, his hands joining hers on her stomach. “How are you feeling?”

Anticipation shivered through her. “Really good right now.”

“Mmm. You feel really good to me, too.”

She giggled and tilted her head as his lips trailed over the side of her neck. “I’m so happy. It was beautiful, don’t you think? Perfect.”

“It was. But all it needed was you there to be beautiful and perfect.”

“Sweet talker.” She turned into his embrace. “So what if someone had told you just before our first trip here that we would be back in a year, getting married, with a baby on the way?”

His lips grazed the tip of her nose. “I wouldn’t have believed it, but I’d have thought, ‘Damn, that would be incredible.’”