Twice in a Lifetime (Love Found) (38 page)

And she’d totally ruined Christmas dinner. With effort she brought up the wedding again. Thankfully that brought a spark back to the conversation. And finally, as everyone finished up their meal, Trey just couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“I think she’s pregnant.”

Allie started as her fork clattered against her plate.

“Why do you think that, Trey?” Bentley asked after swallowing his bite of potatoes.

“She’s puked twice, and she’s tired all the time. And she keeps falling asleep on the couch.”

Nick looked across the table at her. “Allie, you’re not feeling well?”

“It’s nothing. Just had a little flu.”

Jake zeroed in on Trey. “What do you know about being pregnant?”

Trey puffed out his chest. “I hear things. Besides, four girls in my school got pregnant last year.” He turned to Allie. “You remember Angie Muldoon?”

“Sure. She was that cute little redhead you had a crush on in middle school.”

Trey nodded sagely, eyebrows quirked upward, lips twisted to the side.

Whoa. What? “But those girls were only seventeen.” And how naïve did that sound? Jake leaned forward in his seat. “I thought you guys got a safe sex lecture at school.”

“Sure, Jake. Every year since seventh grade.” Trey’s dramatic eye roll spoke volumes about the efficacy of the program.

Bentley and Nick were silent, probably in shock. Allie’s face fell. Jesus, Christmas or otherwise, this was definitely not dinner conversation. “It’s time to clear the table, Trey.” Jake stood, carrying a load of plates to the sink. “Allie, honey, you all go into the living room and sit. We’ll be out soon.” The murmur of voices rose and fell as they settled in the living room, the television turned on to a holiday variety show.

Jake placed the last glass in the dishwasher and stacked the pans to soak in the sink. Drying his hands on the dishtowel, he took a breath—a deep, bolstering breath—and turned. “Trey, what do you know about menopause?”

Trey looked confused for a moment. “Isn’t it that Jewish candle, the one with lots of lights on it?” He used his hands to demonstrate. “Are you Jewish?”

At sea, he thought a minute, then chuckled. “No, knucklehead, that’s a menorah. Menopause is something women go through.”

The light dawned on Trey’s face. “Oh yeah, I saw an article about that in my mom’s
Cosmo
. It’s for old ladies. Why?”

The whole Trey reading
Cosmo
discussion could wait. And since his face was already heating, he needed to make this as simple as possible, for both their sakes. “When your mom says she’s not pregnant, she means it, Trey. She says she’s already started going through menopause, which means, among other things, that she can’t have babies anymore.” He jammed his hands into his pockets. How much of this should he—or
could
he—discuss with Allie’s son? “She does seem a little young, but I guess they go through it at different times.”

“Well isn’t that good? It means you don’t have to worry about condoms.”

Ah, just found the limit. “Just do me a favor, kid. Drop the subject of babies around your mom, okay?”

Confusion was still written all over his face, but it was Christmas and there was a gift with Trey’s name on it so Jake was off the hook.

“Sure, whatever. We done here? Gramps has presents for us.”

Jake gave a final glance around the kitchen. Everything was clean except the pans in the sink. “Yeah, we’re done enough for now.”

Together they walked into the living room, where Christmas music poured from the television. Trey stopped in the middle of the room, pointing. “See, what did I tell you?”

Jake followed his finger and spotted the sleeping Allie, slumped down in the corner of the sofa, wrapped around a throw pillow. His brow furrowed at the dark smudges under her eyes. He hadn’t been doing a very good job of taking care of her lately, but that was over now. It was time to wrap this party up. He crouched beside her and shook her gently. “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty.”

Allie peeked her eyes open, stretching and sitting up. She snuggled into him as he sat beside her, draping his arm around her and rubbing her shoulder.

“Mmm.” She dimpled up at him. “Prince Charming, I presume?”

Jake crowded into the doorway with Allie and Trey, waving farewell as Bentley and Nick braced against the icy wind on their way toward Nick’s SUV. Shouts of
goodbye
and
Merry Christmas
rode a gust back toward the house.

With his arm across her sagging shoulders, he led a yawning Allie back into the littered house. Gift wrap and empty boxes were scattered across the living room floor, the kitchen table held the remnants of dessert—china plates scraped clean of apple pie and empty glasses filmed with egg nog.

The contentment he’d known briefly and then lost returned as blinding serenity. His throat worked as he pulled Allie to him and the comfort of her arms surrounded him. If he had a choice, he wouldn’t be anywhere else. This was it for him. His home. His family. His reason to care.

Trey pushed the door closed and was gone, shot as if from a cannon down the hallway to the seclusion of his room. Allie followed him with her eyes, her smile bemused as his door slammed shut. “He really likes that laptop Bentley got him. Maybe you can—”

He tipped up her chin and cut her off. Regret sat like a stone in his chest but she was pale again. “Time for me to leave now, too. It’s been a long day.”

He caught the finger she ran down his shirt before it reached his belt. The kiss she breathed across his lips nearly stopped his heart. “Stay.”

“But you’re tired. And ill. And Trey—”

Again she quieted him. “You’re home. Stay.”

He pulled her back into his arms. Yeah, he was home.

She woke with Jake warm and hard and wrapped around her, dark morning scruff shrouding the firmness of his square jaw, creases that typically etched the corners of his eyes smoothed out in sleep. She rubbed a thumb against the barely visible grooves. When he smiled they’d be back. She hooked the sheet and lowered it, exposing an impressive amount of muscle for a guy his age—well, for any guy, actually—and grinned as he blinked awake.

He raised himself onto an elbow. “What you got in mind, babe?”

She continued to pull, a grin tugging at her lips. “I got myself a pretty great Christmas gift here. Just wanted to take a look.”

His eyes flared, and weren’t the only part of him that blazed awake. Goosebumps chased across her skin as he lowered her to the bed, looming over her. Warm hands caressed her as he nuzzled her throat, growling as he tugged the straps of her nightgown. “You’re right, babe. This is the way to unwrap a present.”

Allie pulled fresh undergarments from her dresser. Then laughed at the unconcealed interest in Jake’s eyes as they followed her movements. “Now I know why you want to marry me.” She laughed again as he snatched his hand to his chest before she closed the drawer on his fingers. “Here I thought the reason was my charming personality, but all along it was really just me in my panties.”

He finished tugging his T-shirt down and over his abdomen. Barefoot, he backed toward the doorway, pausing to brace his palms against the jamb. “And you’d be wrong, babe. It’s really you
out of
your panties.”

Allie let Jake lead her to his truck, waving one last farewell to her family as she climbed in and buckled. Sinking into the chilly leather of the bucket seat, she tightened her coat around her and covered her mouth as it stretched open in a yawn. It had been a truly exceptional day—the excitement on Trey’s face as he opened his gifts, the horror and then delight on Jake’s as he unwrapped the box containing all her favorite soppy love stories, late morning church services and then dinner with her parents and brother. But the best part was definitely when Jake raised his glass and announced their engagement. Evidently, he’d already chatted privately with her dad because they both fairly beamed with happiness. She reached for his hand across the console.

“Merry Christmas, sweetheart. I love you.”

“Not nearly as much as I love you. Five more days until you’re my wife.” She grinned. The countdown was a daily ritual. “Seems like a lifetime.” So was the grumbling.

“Big baby. It will be here before you know it.” She kissed him lightly to take any sting out of her words.

Yes, the day had been nearly perfect, marred only by the heartbreaking sadness on her brother’s face.

“I don’t like seeing Ryan so unhappy. It would be nice if he and Tess worked things out.”

Ryan’s wife of only five years had been gone for several months now, taking their twin sons to live in her former hometown. It was really too bad. They appeared to be so happy in the beginning.

Jake put the truck in gear, sparing her a glance as he pulled away from her parents’ curb. “I talked to him tonight about coming to work with me and Nick.”

She straightened in her seat. “Oh, yeah?”

He nodded. “Sure. We could use an in-house architect; it would speed up some of our projects.”

And give Ryan the chance to be home more often. “Jake, that’s great. Think he’ll do it?”

He shrugged. “Can’t say, but I hope so. It’s hard to tell what’s going on with him and Tess, though.”

She shifted back and laid her head against the headrest. Rain poured down the windows in streaming rivulets. Heated air blew in from the air vents, warming the interior. Her son was on the back seat. The man she loved was beside her. She reached for Jake’s hand again and closed her eyes. She’d forgotten what it was like, how comforting, to have someone to share her life with. How gratifying it was to have a complete family once again.

The truck door slammed, and she fluttered her eyes open. Trey was running across the yard and into the house, shaking moisture from his hair like a mutt as he crossed the threshold. Jake was still, intent on the wipers swishing against the windshield. Abruptly he killed the engine. His hand covered hers, stopping her before she opened her door.

“I’ll say goodnight here. With this weather I’ll to need to start work early and I don’t have clothes here.”

Aggravation and impatience collided in his voice. With her free hand she fingered the locket hanging around her neck—the one he’d given her just that morning, already loaded with photos of Trey and himself—and fell into him when he tugged at her arm.

“Are you sure you can’t stay? I’m getting used to you in my bed.” His lips pressed against hers. She captured his jaw in her hands and sank into the kiss. Her pulse kicked up when his arms pulled her closer. The warmth of his hard chest bled through the layers of his heavy coat. Her hands strayed, roamed across the width of his broad shoulders as she pulled away. She would much rather he stayed and finish what he’d started. She’d have to talk to Trey, because really, she couldn’t take five more days of this delicious agony. “Will you bring your stuff tomorrow? You may as well start moving in.”

“What about Trey? Will that cause a problem?”

“I’ll talk to him tonight, but I’m sure he’ll wonder what took you so long.”

“So long? It’s only been two days.”

She grinned and pulled on her mittens. “That’s what I said; it’s been two whole days.”

Jake raced around the hood of the truck and led her to her front door. Grinding his impatient lips against hers, seeking entrance with a slash of his tongue, his eyes darkened to black, his arms tightened, his kiss spoke to her.

Good night, I’ll miss you. I want to do this all night long.

With regret she pulled away, murmuring into his hooded eyes. “I know. Me too.”

He kissed her once more, on her nose. “Tomorrow I’ll bring clothes.” Grinning, he dashed back through the rain to his truck. She entered her house and stood at the window like a lovesick teenager. She stayed until Jake was out of sight, and only then walked down the hallway to bed.

The next day, Monday, dawned overcast and dreary, but rain no longer pelted the roof. She hopped out of bed. She had too much to accomplish to laze around.

Glancing at the clock to make sure she wouldn’t be late to meet Maddie, she laced up her runners. She didn’t need to hurry to make their usual meeting time, but with the holiday they hadn’t hit the track in days. She was anxious to get back. With only three weeks until their marathon, they both needed to stay on their training schedule.