She tilted her head and her eyes lit up. She smiled. This was true! She barely knew Maureen, but she knew what he said was correct. “That might help your case.”
“I just want you to trust me again,” he said.
She could have been seduced by him, she knew that. She was a woman who’d gone from being frustrated by her sex life to almost bored by it to a woman completely vulnerable to this man’s touch. He was every man rolled into one—gentle and sweet, strong and powerful, generous and at times, demanding. Since he’d brought her libido to life, he was the one man who could finesse her into forgetting herself completely. He could make her lose control and all he’d have to do to set that train in motion was the merest touch, the smallest brush of his lips. There was a part of her that wished he would try. And there was no question that he knew it, too.
But he didn’t. Instead, he bent to one knee and pulled out some errant weeds that she’d missed. Then he moved to the other end of the garden and pulled a few more. He picked up the handheld spading fork and began to break up clots. She just watched him for a few moments and then she knelt again to the same task at the other end of the garden.
“You have some blossoms here,” he said in passing, not looking at her. “In a month, you’ll see tomatoes. Green ones, at least.”
In a month, will I see my love life restored? she wanted to ask. In a month, will everything be all right?
They worked in companionable silence for a long time; every once in a while Aiden would say something like, “You might be able to pull up a small carrot in a couple of weeks,” or “You’ll have to be sure to come back up here in fall—the melons and pumpkins start late, but you wouldn’t want to miss that.” Finally he sat back on his heels and said, “Erin, why don’t you shower while I finish up here and I’ll take you to Luke’s to see the new baby.”
“I do want to see the baby. Is it a mistake for me to spend time with you? Should we just avoid each other until some of this mess gets resolved?”
He shook his head and smiled. “You’ll be okay. I know you’re disappointed and maybe a little worried about what’s coming, but I think you know you’re perfectly safe with me. I’m not going to try to trip you up—I want you to feel in control right now.” Then he frowned and glanced away for a moment.
“What is it?” she asked.
He looked back at her, shaking his head. “I can’t figure out how she knew who you were, where you were. I didn’t have a conversation with her—I told her I didn’t want her around my brother’s property. No one in my family would have told her things without asking me first. I can’t figure it out.”
“She didn’t say how she knew,” Erin said. “And I didn’t ask.”
“It’ll come out eventually,” he said. “Go on, honey—clean up and I’ll drive you over. Nothing like a new baby to take your mind off all sorts of dark things….”
Aiden Riordan opened the door to Luke’s house, pushed Erin inside and announced, “Erin’s here for a visit. I’ll be outside with Luke and Art.”
She found Shelby sitting on the sofa plucking baby clothes out of a laundry basket and folding them into neat little piles. She beamed at Erin. “Well, hello! What a nice surprise!”
Maureen Riordan was in the kitchen, busy taking cookies off a cookie sheet; Rosie was up on a chair, playing with a handful of dough like it was clay. Rosie had flour everywhere—on her hands, face, clothes. The house was filled with the wonderful smell of freshly baked sweets.
Maureen smiled and said, “Hi, Erin. How are you?”
“Fine, thanks,” she said. She presented a gift bag to Shelby. “A little something for the baby.”
“Brett’s sleeping,” Rosie said. “Finally!”
“Does he fuss a lot?” Erin asked Rosie.
She shook her head vigorously, her red curls bouncing. She reminded Erin so much of Marcie as a little girl. “No! He screams!” Rosie announced.
Shelby just laughed and put aside her laundry. “Well, he’s a guy, what do you expect.” Shelby reached for the gift bag. “Now, what’s this? This is just too nice of you!”
“Really, it’s nothing. I was shopping and got sidetracked by baby things—my sister is due next month and I was busying buying out the store for their little boy. I lost control,” she said. “I have a big box to take back to Chico when it’s time for the baby.”
“And when’s that?” Shelby asked.
“Third week in August.”
“You must be so excited!” Shelby pulled a couple of little boy six-month-size onesies out of the gift bag along with a tiny pair of shoes. “Oh, Erin, how sweet! Thank you!” There was a little fussing in the next room and Shelby cocked her head. “Well, there’s my call. I’ll change him and bring him right back.”
“My granddaughter and I are going to walk down to the river now that the cookies are all out,” Maureen said. “We’ll see you in a little while,” she added.
Shelby was back in just a few moments with a tiny, tightly swaddled bundle with a bright pink face. He whimpered and squeaked in her arms, but she said, “Here. Try this out for a couple of minutes before I feed him.”
“Oh…I don’t…He’s so tiny…. Are you sure?”
“Just like that,” Shelby said, placing the baby in Erin’s arms. “Hold him close and just move a little, back and forth. Or jiggle. They all love to be up against a warm body and in motion all the time.” Shelby smiled. “You have to practice—you’re going to be an auntie.”
Erin felt clumsy at first, but very soon she loved the way he felt in her arms, against her chest. She loved his baby smell and his gassy little smile, the tiny fist he’d wrestled free from his swaddling and tried to cram in his mouth. She asked Shelby all about her delivery, about his sleeping and eating schedule, about how Luke and even Art were dealing with the baby. After a few minutes the baby’s squirming and crying had Shelby reaching for him. “Here,” she said. “I’ll feed him.”
Erin began to rise. “I’ll just step out—”
“Don’t be silly. Stay. Besides, I wanted us to talk.” She rested the baby on her lap while she got ready and when she had the little one all hooked up, she looked back at Erin. “I don’t know if this is appropriate, Erin, but I wanted to say something about that whole business with Aiden’s ex-wife. How awful for you.”
“Do you know her?”
“Never saw her before the day she showed up here,” she said, shaking her head. “Luke had mentioned her a long while back—but she wasn’t at all what I expected. Luke described her as a real hot number with about fifteen personalities. The woman I saw was pretty, but seemed very…unworldly? I did think she was a little on the sweet side to be the kind of successful businesswoman who could afford a fancy car. But I might’ve been a little distracted. I was in labor and didn’t mention it to anyone. I wanted to see what was going to happen.”
“And what did happen?”
“Not much. The labor got to be pretty obvious, Aiden told her he’d be in touch to finalize that divorce and ordered her off the property. I’ve known Aiden quite a while—I have to say, I’ve never seen him angry before. Even Maureen said she’d never seen him act like that—he was a stone. She was weeping and begging and he looked her right in the eye and said he wasn’t buying it.” She shook her head. “She must be a very bad person for Aiden to act like that. Of all the Riordan men, Aiden’s the sweetest. Luke’s the one with the shortest fuse, I think. But even Luke’s very careful around women. Just look at the way they all treat their mother…”
After a moment Erin said, “Well, eight years is a long time. Maybe she’s changed.”
“If she has, then I guess there won’t be any problem with Aiden wrapping up the divorce he thought he had eight years ago. If she’s changed, she should be very cooperative and pleasant about it. Especially since he was clear—that’s all he wants.”
Uncooperative rang in Erin’s brain. Unresponsive, the lawyer had told Aiden. A phone number that didn’t work. Th
at wasn’t a woman willing to settle things up without causing trouble.
“She visited me,” Erin heard herself say. “She was, as you say, harmless. Very pretty and innocent. She asked me to give her back her husband.”
Shelby gasped. “What in the world did you say?”
“I told her I didn’t have her husband. But the story she told me made Aiden look like a liar and an abuser. She said they’d been together a long time and in touch ever since.”
Shelby shook her head confidently. “Well, since his mother or brothers didn’t live with him in San Diego, only Aiden would know the truth to that, but an abuser? Not Aiden. I give Aiden credit for getting Luke and I through a rough patch. We’d broken up—Luke was so convinced I was much too young for him and that if we did have a commitment, in a couple of years I’d just regret it. I went to Maui to lick my wounds, and Aiden, who I’d never met before, flew to the islands to talk to me, to explain why Luke was so cautious. Because Luke was afraid of getting hurt. I love Aiden. Everyone in the family leans on him.” She made a little face. “For the first time I wonder, does Aiden have anyone to lean on?”
Erin smiled in spite of herself. “He depends on his brothers a lot, and from what I understand, they’re always there for him.”
“I guess that’s right. They’re pretty tight.” Then she laughed. “What’s so funny is that they’ll keep each other’s back, but they scrap a lot over stupid, little things. Just like a bunch of little boys.”
“You know what Aiden and I can’t figure out? He said he never had a conversation with his…with Annalee. How did she know about me? About where to find me?”
“That’s pretty weird. No one told her where Aiden was, only that he wasn’t here.”
“It creeps me out,” Erin said.
“Well, Erin—he came home in the late morning, wearing a tux. I guess you would assume that had to do with a woman, not a night out at the pub with the guys.”
“I guess,” she said. “But still—that just assumes a woman. Not me.”
“She must have found a way to uncover what woman,” Shelby said. “But no one around here mentioned you.” Shelby lifted the baby onto her shoulder and patted his back. “I hope this is over soon so you and Aiden can get back to enjoying summer.”
“Me, too,” she said. “Marcie’s baby is coming August twentieth. I’ll go home a little before that. That gives us a month, but I have a feeling it isn’t going to be that simple.”
It was not just a little visit. Erin stayed at Luke and Shelby’s through dinner and with the leaves in their large dining table, the entire family settled down for a big meal prepared mostly by Maureen and Luke. Ten of them sat around a big, square table, laughing, poking fun and enjoying a summer meal of ribs, beans, coleslaw and potato salad. Erin wasn’t exempt from the teasing. They ribbed her about her e-mail remodeling, insisting on a perfect, cushy, brand-new cabin before she would even consider a vacation in it. And Erin enjoyed that! She really hadn’t felt so much a part of a group besides her own brother and sister before now.
It didn’t take long for Erin to decide Aiden was either the smartest liar in the universe with the most cooperative lying family or he was a genuine guy that all these people could not be wrong about. In her heart she knew it was the latter.
When he drove her home later on she pulled him inside. “Are you absolutely sure?” he asked. “Because I don’t want to come in if you have any doubts. I’d rather wait until you’re convinced I’m telling you the truth. I’ll wait till I can prove it.”
“Aiden, that woman really threw me,” she said, finding it impossible to say her name. “Since there was a time she really turned your world upside down, you have to understand…”
“Believe me,” he said with a humorless laugh.
“You have the most wonderful family, but they’re relentless in their teasing. I don’t think they’d cover for you. Not for long, anyway.”
“And that convinced you? Not me, but them?”
“It’s not just your family, but the way you take care of your mother. I have a colleague at the firm who’s in her sixties. She has always said, pick a husband by how he treats his mother, pick a wife by how her father treats her.”
“Interesting,” he said, thinking about that.
“The thing is, so much of my life has been about loss. Oh, don’t think I’m whining—I’m pretty proud of my life, but there’s been a lot of loss. My mother, my father, then my ‘kids’ grew up and left. And more subtle loss that I didn’t realize had affected me—my childhood, my adolescence, those law-school years when so many men and women bonded to get through it and I hurried home to make sure things were taken care of—that Drew got to football, that Marcie made it to cheerleading, that homework was done…And in all those years, right up to this summer…” She ran her hands up and down his arms. “I never fell in love. Not till now.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to let go of it now.” She blinked away a tear. “But if I’m wrong about you, it’s going to really hurt.”
“I won’t let you down, Erin.” He ran the knuckle of his index finger along the line of her jaw and then under her chin, lifting it just slightly so that green eyes met. “Know what I’d like to say now? I’d like to promise you you’ll never face pain, loss or hardship again in your life.” He shook his head slightly. “You know no one can do that. I can make a couple of promises, though. As my wife, you’ll never again face anything difficult alone. Even if something happens to me, both your family and mine will be there for you. The Riordans are pretty scrappy and argumentative, but they never fail to be there for each other, and their families.”
“Wife?”
“Of course, wife. When I get these legal complications settled, which is already in motion, and when you’re ready.” He smiled softly. “You do have to say yes, of course.”
It came out on a breath. “Yes. Of course, yes.”
He kissed her, a kiss that started soft and sweet, deepened, hardened, grew hot and long and wet and left her gasping. He smiled, then chuckled at her near loss of control.
“You said…a couple of promises…”
He grinned and gave her a brief kiss. “Our children will almost certainly have green eyes.”
Aiden felt the bed dip, smelled fresh coffee and opened one eye to see the love of his life holding a mug toward him. He smiled lazily and asked, “Are you sure it’s time to wake up? Because I’m shot.”
“Of course you are,” she said. “Because you’re a sex maniac. I’m pretty tired, too. So tell me, Doctor—is there going to come a time we sleep together and actually get some sleep? Because at this rate we’re going to die young.”
He laughed and wrestled himself to a sitting position, reaching for the mug. He took a sip. “My dad used to say if you put a bean in a jar for every time you have sex during the first year you’re together, then take a bean out for every time you have sex after that first year, you’ll never empty the jar.”
She sipped her coffee. “Hmm, I don’t know if that’s good news or bad….”
“Why are you up so early?”
“Aiden, it’s not that early. It’s eight o’clock. And I’m up because I have a lot on my mind. Like—Sean and Franci will be heading off to Alabama to his next assignment in just a couple of days. Can we have them to dinner here? Can you invite the whole family and help me cook? Is it okay for Luke and Shelby to come and bring the baby? Is he old enough?”
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “Yes to all of that—except you can invite them yourself. Come back to Luke’s with me later this morning. Next?”
“I have to go back to Chico before Marcie’s baby comes. What will we do, where will you be?”
He took a thoughtful sip. “I suppose I’ll be wherever you want me to be….”
“Chico?”
He gave a shrug. “Would I be rushing you, crowding you, if I told my headhunter to look around Chico to see if they need a good OB?”
She let out a relieved
breath. “Would you? Because my family is there. Except Drew—but he grew up there. He could come back after he finishes his residency.”
He put his cup on the beside table and reached for her. “Details, honey. Easy details, and we have plenty of time.”
“But what if you don’t like Chico?” she asked him, her brow furrowed.
“Will you be there? Because if that’s where you want to be, I’ll find plenty to like.”
“You say that now, but…”
He shook his head and pulled her coffee mug from her hand, put it beside his and said, “Erin, there won’t be that kind of standoff or dissent. I’ve been looking for the right woman for years and you’re the one. Do you hear me? You’re the one. You’ve lived in that town your whole life, built a career there. Do I look like the kind of fool who’d risk losing you over an impasse as silly as where we’re going to live?”
“But what if there’s no practice for you there?”
“God, you are dreaming up problems. If there isn’t there will be one near. If there isn’t one near, maybe I’ll build one.”
“Really?”
“Really…It’s going to be fine. We have a million reasons to make this work.”
“At least a jarful,” she replied with a smile.
“Let’s take a shower and have breakfast at Jack’s on the way back to Luke’s,” he suggested. “We can talk all the way there, all through breakfast, all day if you want to. But first, a shower.” He touched her nose. “No talking during the shower…”
“Are we going to put another bean in the jar…?”
“I wouldn’t be surprised….”