Authors: Erin Nicholas
“I’ve read two more books since I talked to you.”
Kat smiled. “Two books in three days. Impressive.”
“I thought you only read cookbooks,” Luke said.
“I read what I’m interested in,” Marc replied, meeting Luke’s eyes.
“You’re interested in
babies
,” Luke clarified. “And labor, delivery, dilation, Pitocin, all that stuff?”
Marc looked at Sabrina. “Definitely.”
She glanced quickly at Luke. He seemed as confused as she felt.
“She needs twenty-seven milligrams of iron a day,” Luke said
“And one thousand milligrams of calcium a day,” Marc returned.
Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Do you know about kick counting?” he challenged.
Kick counting? Sabrina looked at Kat. “What’s that?”
Her friend—and
doctor
—ignored her.
“She’s just past fifteen weeks. She won’t be feeling any movement yet. But the baby has fingernails now,” Marc replied easily.
Sabrina looked at Kat again. “Is that true?”
Kat didn’t answer.
“Does the baby have fingernails, Kat?” Her eyes were riveted on the men.
“Yeah. Shh.”
She’d just been shushed by her doctor at her checkup? Even more amazing, though, her baby had fingernails. And Marc knew that.
Then she frowned. Why did Marc know that? That was what the books were about? He was studying about pregnancy and babies and—
“It can also suck its thumb,” Luke said.
“That’s amazing,” Sabrina said. It wasn’t as amazing that Luke knew it—it was like Luke to know something like that. But it was amazing that it was true.
“We need to get her out of The Camelot and off her feet more,” Luke said. “Her ankles are going to start to swell.”
“Then I’ll buy her some support hose. There’s no reason she can’t be there if she wants to be.”
“She doesn’t need to work. She’ll have whatever she needs.”
Marc frowned at Luke. “I know she will.”
Sabrina looked back and forth between the two men. They were both nuts. It was sweet, she supposed, that they were fighting over her. But the fact they were talking about swollen ankles and support hose kept it from being romantic—or even something she wanted to keep talking about.
“Marc. Luke. You have to—”
But they weren’t listening to her.
“It’s going to get harder to be on her feet as time goes on,” Luke insisted.
“Then she can sing from a stool,” Marc countered.
“I was talking about bartending.”
“She’s going to be too busy with the band to bartend much.”
“Is that right?”
“They’re booked three nights a week through the summer,” Marc informed him. “Once a week with us, minimum.”
“Were they booked that much with us before Sabrina joined them?”
“No. But I like her voice. And I’m perfectly capable of making decisions about the entertainment we hire.” Marc looked like he was waiting for Luke to challenge that statement.
Luke stared at him for several seconds while Sabrina processed the idea that Marc had booked the band more because of her. That was also sweet.
Finally Luke asked, “Are you aware of the sexual positions pregnant women should avoid after the first trimester?”
No one even moved for a moment. That seemed to have finally tripped Marc up. He didn’t reply right away and got pale. He glanced at Sabrina, then back to Luke.
Sabrina couldn’t make her mouth work. Did Luke know about Marc’s kitchen? And if so, why didn’t he seem more upset? Or upset at all?
“Are
you
?” Marc demanded.
“Yeah.” Kat was scowling at Luke. “Have you researched that?”
Luke shrugged. “No. But somebody might want to look that up.”
Sabrina turned wide eyes to Kat. She looked at Sabrina. “Any position in particular you’re interested in?”
Sabrina shook her head vehemently. She would Google that herself for sure.
“Standing,” Marc said.
Sabrina gasped before she thought of the fact that was a sure giveaway.
Kat looked vastly amused. Sabrina didn’t dare look at Luke for his reaction.
“Standing should be fine,” Kat said.
“I have a whole list,” Marc said. “Do you have a book I could borrow?”
Sabrina wanted to smack him.
Kat stifled a laugh. Barely. “Probably. But the only thing you—
she
—has to worry about is being on her back too long or getting her hips up in the air too far.”
Marc looked at Sabrina and she couldn’t look away, even though she knew she should. “Her on top, or the man behind, or on her side should all be fine then.”
He’d basically announced to the man she might be marrying that they had slept together and he was intending to do it again.
She was pretty sure her blood pressure and pulse were now off the charts.
She frowned at both of them. “Time to go. You’re agitating me.”
“As a matter of fact,” Kat said as she pointed to the monitor. “All the numbers look good.”
“You’re sure?” Marc asked.
Kat shrugged. “Apparently the baby isn’t bothered by any of this. Probably finds it amusing. I know I do.”
Kat did seem less tense as well.
Sabrina, on the other hand, was afraid she was going to have permanent frown lines. “We shouldn’t talk about sex if the baby can hear us.”
“How about we talk about something else?” Marc moved to perch on the bed beside her. “Like baby names. For a girl I like Abigail.”
Sabrina stared at him. Names? He had an opinion on the name of her child?
Abigail was beautiful.
Luke stood looking at Marc, and Sabrina waited for him to say or do something, offer another name, argue about Abigail, something.
Instead he nodded. “Really good name.” He leaned over and kissed Sabrina’s head. “I’ll check on you later.”
She turned and watched him go. “I’ll be right back.” And Kat disappeared.
“Is she acting weird?” Sabrina asked.
Marc was simply watching her when she looked at him.
“How can you make a hospital gown look sexy?”
She laughed. She knew she looked the exact opposite of sexy. “You’re such a liar.”
“Then why do I want to kiss you so bad?”
He leaned over and did, but it was very different from all previous kisses. It was sweet, lingering, not lustful, not like it was leading anywhere. Just a kiss of some nameless, wonderful, I-want-more-of-that emotion.
“Sorry I never told you to call me,” he said softly against her mouth.
“I wanted—”
“It’s okay.” He stopped her with his hand over her mouth. “From here on, I want to be the one you call.”
From here on? But she couldn’t say it out loud.
“What if it’s a boy?” she asked instead.
He laced his fingers through hers. “How about Patrick?”
Something niggled at her memory. “Why Patrick?”
“It was my dad’s name.”
And Abigail was his mom. It all clicked into place in her brain. Marc was offering her his parents’ names. And Luke knew it—had basically agreed.
What the
hell
was going on?
“What do you think?” he asked.
She had no frickin’ idea what to think. “I think I would kill for some apple juice.”
He laughed and headed out for her juice. She slumped back against her pillows and squeezed her eyes shut.
It seemed apparent that Luke and Marc had lost their minds.
But she was hoping it was a bizarre dream she would soon wake up from.
Or not. It was bizarre, but kind of nice at the same time.
“We need to talk.”
Sabrina felt her spine go rigid. She was crouched behind the bar putting the new shipment of liquor bottles away and she took several deep breaths before slowly straightening to where Luke could see her face.
It had been four days since the scene at Kat’s office. She hadn’t known what the hell to say to him, so she had just avoided him. It had worked pretty well because it seemed he was avoiding her too.
Marc hadn’t. Of course. But he’d been low key compared to usual too. There hadn’t been as much touching or innuendo, and they hadn’t gotten naked. It was like both men were waiting for something.
She suspected it was her. Or a decision from her.
Actually, she more than suspected. She knew. They were waiting for her to make a decision. Between them. And she wasn’t really sure she could do that yet. Or at all. Or ever. Because she didn’t want to hurt anyone.
Luke looked different. He had really ever since she’d come home. The Luke she knew best smiled and laughed and teased and charmed all the time. Even when he was upset or frustrated he was patient and optimistic. The guy she’d known over the past three weeks in Justice was a lot more serious and didn’t hide his concern and dissatisfaction as easily.
“Yeah, okay.” She took a deep breath.
“Are you in love with him?”
Okay, he was going to jump right into it. She swallowed. This was Luke. She owed it to him to be totally honest. “Um, yeah, I think so.”
“And you think he’s in love with you too?”
“I, um—” That one tripped her up. Marc hadn’t said so but surely this felt unusual to him too. “I don’t know.”
“Seems like something you should be really sure about.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that you can’t mess around with this, Sabrina,” he said, exasperated. “This isn’t a band you can quit or a roommate that will move on or a song you can rewrite over and over. This isn’t like being invited up on a stage once in awhile.
You
have to make some decisions and commitments here. This is important. This matters. This isn’t just about you.”
She stared at him. Wow. This Luke—this intense, harder Luke—was tough to get used to. It seemed clear that he wasn’t here to make her feel good about herself, or to bail her out. He was here to make her face what was going on and make some difficult decisions.
“I’m not trying to mess around with things.” It hurt to hear that he thought she had quit the bands and her various jobs over the last few years because she was messing around. And it bugged her that he thought she did everything she did because it was someone else’s idea first.
“But you are. You’re messing around and you’re running out of time.”
“Because you’re going to propose again.”
“Because you’re going to have a baby.”
Right. The baby. That was coming in a few months whether she had a steady job or someone to help her or any frickin’ clue about her life at all. That took a lot of strength from her and her shoulders slumped. “I know.”
Making decisions wasn’t her forte. That was why short-term things worked best for her. Even if she chose wrong, it wasn’t forever.
That was why she’d been putting this off even after realizing that she could never feel for Luke what she felt for Marc.
“So I came to tell you, no more proposals. No more convincing you,” Luke said. “I’m not going to make you say no to me. For both our sakes.”
Her heart squeezed. Of course he would know that was the worst part for her, imagining saying no to him. Even four years ago, she’d avoided actually saying the word. She’d asked him to come to Seattle with her, but she’d managed to not say no to his proposal.
He wouldn’t ask again.
She let that realization sink in. No matter what happened with Marc, there would be no Luke as a safety net. Being without Luke would be permanent.
Then again having this baby, being a mom, was also pretty permanent.
If Marc didn’t want a happily ever after with her and her child then she was going it alone. Permanently.
She swallowed hard. “Okay.”
“You know,” Luke said quietly. “You’re still the only thing Marc and I have ever fought about.”
“Marc?” Josie came into the kitchen. “Phone call for you.”
He wiped his hands on his apron and held out his hand. “Marc Sterling, can I help you?”
“Hey,” a male voice greeted. “This is Scott. I’m with Next Stop Nashville.”
Marc froze. He’d actually been expecting this call. When he’d notified them that she would be in Nashville for the competition they’d said they would be calling with the schedule and details. But now…this was it.
“Hey, Scott.”
“You were down as the contact for Sabrina Cassidy?”
“That’s right.” She was going to kill him.
“Okay. She is the third performer in the first round. She needs to be in Nashville at the Tennessee Theater tomorrow at four p.m. Is that going to be a problem at all?”
“None at all. She’ll be there.”
He’d already booked the hotel and had the plane ticket on hold. He sent the text to Kim, the only travel agent in Justice, authorizing her to go ahead and book it.
Then he went to find Sabrina.
It had been four days since the scene at Kat’s office and Marc had been sticking close to her. Luke had, surprisingly, not been sticking close to her.
She was behind the bar, wiping glasses and singing Katrina and the Wave’s “Walking on Sunshine”. Which, considering the lack of accompaniment and acoustics, was quite good.
You had a phone call.
That was all he had to say. That wasn’t hard. No big multi-syllable words. But he couldn’t get it out. Instead he just watched her. Even when she turned, found him standing there and gave him a big welcoming grin. Even when she came toward him, her own smile slowly fading into a confused frown. Even when she was close enough that he could smell her hair.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“Not really.”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
He was pretty sure that he knew exactly how he looked. Like he wanted to carry her off to his bedroom and not let her out for the next few weeks. At least.
She was leaving and he knew he had to have her again. One more time.
“I want you.”
She blinked up at him in surprise and her breathing changed immediately. “Oh.”
He made a decision then and there. He stepped closer. “I want you to know that, and instead of crazy, spontaneous, should’ve-said-no-but-couldn’t sex, I want deliberate, aware, we-both-
choose
-this sex. I want you to say yes, get in your car, drive to my house and climb the stairs to my bedroom. I want you to park your car next to mine even though people might see it.”