Unchained (47 page)

He in no way sounded sorry.

She held him back when the kitchen came into view and motioned for quiet. In stealth mode, they moved closer but didn’t give away their presence. Alex had his back to them. He was standing next to Victoria with an arm casually slung over her shoulder. In front of them, Daniel sat on the big island clapping his chubby little hands together as Meghan crowded close for safety’s sake.

“The itsy bitsy spider went up the waterspout …”

She felt rather than heard Calder’s soft chuckle as Meghan performed the children’s nursery rhyme with the sort of rollicking flamboyance guaranteed to captivate a young child. When she got to the end, everyone clapped and cheered. Especially Daniel, who obviously enjoyed being the center of attention.

She’d known about being pregnant for only a few short hours, but that didn’t stop her from having a swift case of emotional baby-hormones surging through her. This was her family. And what a bunch of unusual and diverse people they were! Overcome with emotion as the simple but poignant scene unfolded, she put a hand to her throat and held back a choked sob.

Calder immediately noticed and stared at her so hard she was sure he could see right through her.

She gave him a wobbly smile and sniffed away the tears threatening to pour from her eyes.

He read her mind. I mean, of course, he did. She and Calder were somehow hardwired to each other, and he knew with half a glance what she was thinking.

“Family,” he murmured quietly.

Stephanie nodded. “Are you ready for this, Daddy?” she whispered as quietly as she could.

He appeared to grow in stature—straightening until she felt dwarfed at his side. Clearing his throat, he kissed her on the forehead and took her hand. “Come on, baby mama. Time to tell the kids what their naughty elders have been up to.”

His droll comment was so funny she squeaked with laughter. Couldn’t be helped. She hadn’t seen it that way, but the second he said it, she knew they were in for months and months of nonstop ribbing.

Tori must have heard her laugh or sensed their presence because she turned around and searched the space until she found them.

“Mom,” she called out. “Oh, good! Get over here! Alex and Meghan are home. Look!” she cried gleefully.

They started forward when she stopped Calder and frantically whispered. “Oh, shit. Stash the bag you’re carrying. Quick!”

Running toward Tori to head her off gave Calder a chance to put their haul of pregnancy goodies in an out-of-the-way corner. “I thought you two got kidnapped or became gypsies you were gone so long.” She laughed excitedly.

“Well, look who it is,” Alex boomed with real delight. “If it isn’t Stephanie Bennett, landowner.”

She flew into a tremendous hug with the big man who was responsible for every single change her life had been through these past two years. How the hell could she ever thank him enough?

“Okay,” Alex drawled with an air of long-suffering indifference. “Show me the ring. Did my uncle do good or did he ignore my advice and show up with the monthly special from the Piercing Pagoda at the mall?”

His dry comment brought gales of laughter from all who were present. Except Calder, of course, who came up behind her and shook Alex’s hand before standing sentry at her side.

“Eat shit, little boy.” He smirked at his nephew. “Wanted something special so bypassed the mall and went right to QVC. Go ahead, honey. Show him what I got on four easy pays.”

Meghan almost fell over she was laughing so hard. Pointing at Calder and snickering loudly, she screamed with delight, “Easy pay!”

Tori was settling the baby in a highchair and watching all of them with a genuine smile. Relief shot through Stephanie. Real smiles had been hard to come by where her daughter was concerned. Seeing her eyes sparkle again was a hopeful sign.

However, her sparkling eyes were also the most dangerously discerning of those assembled. Pure reflex made Stephanie suck in her imaginary gut and straighten. Tori’s eyes instantly narrowed.
Oh, shit.

“I cannot believe you’re actually going to marry this old fart,” Alex teased with a jerk of his head at Calder. “We’ll talk,” he told her snarkily. “I know where some of his skeletons are stashed.” His cocky wink and the way he sneered at his uncle were so damn hilarious she burst out laughing and couldn’t stop.

Waving her hands as she bent over with body shaking giggles, Meghan joined in, and they clung to each other until the guffaws finally stopped.

“Welcome to the family,” Meghan chirped. “You’re going to be my aunt! And Tori,” she added enthusiastically, “I think this makes us cousins. Right?”

The lines of relationships and family borders were so murky and intertwined that it’d take one of those researchers from
Ancestry.com
to figure it all out. The Family Justice tree had many branches.

Stephanie knew the second her daughter’s mind started clicking. She walked into the midst of the joking group, arms crossed with a look of total focus on her face.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

No waffling with this one. Never had, never will.

“Shugah,” she tried. “Whatev-ah do you mean?”

Her protective fiancé reached for her hand and held tight. Tori saw the action and arched a single brow.

“Uh-huh.”

Nobody delivered a frigid, accusatory ‘Uh-huh’ like her daughter did.

Alex and Meghan shared caught-in-the-headlights expressions and moved closer to each other, standing side-by-side, their heads moving back and forth as they tracked every word and reaction happening right in front of them. Only Daniel seemed oblivious, sitting in his highchair with a bottle of juice in one hand and a toy in the other.

“Mom, I’m serious. What the hell is going on?”

Calder foolishly thought he’d step between them and referee. “Uh, Tori,” he began.

“Back down, Moondoggie,” she snapped.

Meghan’s shortened snicker was covered by a very fake cough. Stephanie groaned. Good lord. It was never good when Victoria started with the snarky nicknames. What was a private joke and sometimes endearment between she and Calder was pure fire and brimstone in her daughter’s hands.

Zeus trotted in and went to sit next to Daniel’s highchair.
Oh great,
she thought. Anyone else want to get in on this? Maybe they should sit down and have some tea while they wait for the whole damn crew to show up.

That was when her man completely lost his mind. “We’re getting married. Immediately.”

She looked at him and grunted, “Huh?”

He kissed her hand and kept her glued to his side. “Immediately,” he repeated in case anyone didn’t understand what he meant.

Alex and Meghan looked at each other wide-eyed.

Only Tori appeared unmoved and unconvinced.

“What’s the rush?” She grunted sarcastically. “Not like you guys are under the shotgun or anything.”

Stephanie shuffled awkwardly. Calder said and did nothing. Daniel laughed for no reason.

Dead silence.

A diamond drill bit would be necessary to cut through the thickening tension gathering in the room.

Tori snapped first. “Mom!” she barked. “I can only take so much. What the hell is going on?”

“Um,” she squeaked, gripping Calder’s hand for reassurance. “We’re pregnant?”

The statement question hung in the silent air. Nobody moved. Or breathed.

“Did you say … pregnant?” Meghan asked in an incredulous voice.

It was like a comedy sketch of
Who’s On First
.

“You’re pregnant?” Tori whooped at Meghan.

“No,” Alex quickly replied. “Right, honey? You’re not pregnant. Are you?”

“Wait? What?” Meghan hooted. “I’m not pregnant!”

“But you said,” Tori muttered in a confused voice.

“I didn’t say I was pregnant. Did I? No. It was your mom. She said, ‘we’re pregnant.’”

Stephanie couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Why the hell wasn’t someone taping this? Abbott and Costello would be on their feet applauding with glee.

“No, we’re not,” Alex muttered again.

“Um, guys?”

All three pair of eyes swung to Stephanie and Calder. Waving her finger between them, she spoke slowly and succinctly, using small words and hand gestures to make her point.

“Pregnant. Us. Me and Calder.”

“We’re having a baby,” her man announced with unmistakable pride.

Even Daniel’s mouth appeared to drop open.
From everyone’s stunned reaction, you’d think we just announced we got picked for the Mars mission
, she thought.

When nobody moved or spoke, she turned to Calder and said, “Maybe that tea would be a good idea now, hmm? Give them a chance to pick their jaws up off the floor.”

R
IDING ALONG IN
absolute silence, Alex maneuvered the fancy new Polaris buggy along the access road to Cam and Lacey’s cabin. In the front passenger seat sat his mute and unusually reserved wife. Zeus lay across the back seats, kept safe in the open sided vehicle by a laced-mesh screen covering the blank space.

They weren’t talking because, in all honesty, neither of them knew what to say.

Stephanie. Pregnant.

Calder—a first-time dad.

Wow.

And that wasn’t all.

Tori revealing she was under a doctor’s care for postpartum depression. Her unsettling revelations about the true state of her marriage. Drae being off the radar and seemingly M.I.A.

Some homecoming.

Lacey was in a rocker on the front porch with Dylan resting in her arms when they pulled up. Her face split into a wide grin of pure happiness. Meghan was out of the buggy and running toward her before Alex turned off the motor.

It was a teary but joyful reunion. Dylan, for his part, nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw them. Alex swept the almost one-year-old from his mama’s arms and walked back and forth across the porch engaging in guy chitchat as the ladies did whatever they did.

“And there were bulls and riders on horses. Lots of flags and trumpets too!” Dylan smacked Alex’s arms as he listened to a detailed account of a bullfight he and Meghan went to in Spain. “Your daddy would love the parade. He’d join right in!”

“Honey,” he heard his wife call out. “Let’s go inside, okay? It’s too hot out here for Dylan. Lacey says he’s still running a temperature.”

“Women,” he griped to the attentive baby. “We’re manly men, right, big guy? Not gonna let a little temperature get us down.”

Lacey was watching them closely, her eyes switching from her son’s face to Alex. He wondered what the hell she was thinking. Kissing his oldest nephew on the cheek, he sidestepped the outstretched arms of the kid’s mother and went reluctantly inside the house.

“Step aside, Mrs. Cameron,” he joked. “Uncle Alex is back. You have plenty of opportunity to hold this handsome young man. It’s my turn.”

“He’s missed you. Missed all the brothers,” she murmured with a self-conscious swoop of her head.

Above all else, Lacey Cameron never showed an inkling of weakness. It was her superpower—that uncanny ability to hang tough and stay the course no matter what life threw her way. But the frightened, lonely lilt in her voice was telling. She was struggling. Jesus Christ. Why wouldn’t she? But the slightest hint of something else was there too. Something he couldn’t put his finger on.

An hour went by as they caught up, passed the baby around, and enjoyed each other’s company. When Dylan went down for a nap, they gathered in the living room to sit and talk. Meghan rummaged around in the kitchen and threw together a tray of ice-filled glasses and a pitcher of mint iced tea. It was one of Cam’s favorite drinks.

“When was the last time you heard from him?” he asked, patting Zeus’s head as she lay at his feet.

Lacey said, “Hmm,” and sipped some tea. “Let’s see. Not recently. Not by phone anyway.”

Her offhand response got his antennae up.

“What does that mean? Not by phone? Has he hired a plane to do skywriting? What? Tell me what you’re trying so hard not to.”

“Oh, uh,” she stammered, shocked by his direct line of questioning. “I just meant that he hasn’t called. Not for weeks. Um,” she said again and pushed some stray hair away from her forehead. “But I think he sent a package.”