Reclaiming His Bride (DiCarlo Brides book 3) (The DiCarlo Brides) (31 page)

His distraction reminded her that he didn’t have a place of his own. He’d gotten rid of it when he moved to Denver and he couldn’t go home, not after everything that had happened with his dad.

He pushed on, not pausing. “You can take over this suite until our son is born, or stay with your sisters. You’ll probably need some help and won’t want to call on housekeeping for help. I’ll be back before the baby’s due. I’ll want to be here for the birth. And... Please, take them.” His voice turned throaty as he pushed the papers at Lana again, as if he just realized she hadn’t touched them yet.

If she’d thought things looked bad a couple of hours earlier, they were immeasurably worse now. “Are you sure?” she asked, her chest hurt so badly she could barely breathe.

“You seem to be. And I can’t fight you, babe. You are what you are. I can’t do anything about that. I won’t stop loving you, but I can’t do this back and forth, maybe stuff anymore. It’s driving me crazy. If you can’t honestly, solidly commit, trust me completely, then it’s time to let you walk away.” He stared down at the papers.

Numbly, Lana lifted her hand to take the pages, her eyes not leaving his face. She felt like something had reached into her chest and ripped out her insides. Was it her heart that hurt so much?

After everything they’d been though, everything he’d done, fought to get them back together, now he wanted a divorce?

She moved on autopilot as she turned and headed for the door, already wondering if she would ever be the same. How could she go through this pain again?

The hall seemed to move under her feet. She couldn’t have been walking away from him, so it must have been the floor moving instead of her. The stairs seemed to be over before she realized she was even on them and she crossed the entry wondering if she had fallen asleep and was having a nightmare. This couldn’t be her life. Not again.

She reached the front doors and realized Kristi had greeted her from the front desk.

“Merry Christmas, Mrs. Bahlmann.”

“Thanks, Kristi. You too.” Lana paused as she thought about those words. Mrs. Bahlmann. She had claimed that name for less than two weeks. Did she really want it to end now?

His words echoes in her head again
. It’s time to
let you walk away.
She would be the one walking away again.

No.

The papers dropped from limp fingers and she ran back toward the stairwell.

“Mrs. Bahlmann, you dropped—” Kristi started to say, then stopped. Lana thought she heard the woman mutter that she’d get them, but she wasn’t paying attention.

She took the stairs at a sprint, raced down the hall and came to a heaving stop at Blake’s door. She stood on the doorstep for a moment, catching her breath, then pulled out her keycard again and inserted it into the lock.

She walked inside to find him sitting on the sofa, an empty bottle of beer on the table in front of him. There was another in his hand, and the rest of the six-pack sat nearby.

He glanced over at her in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“Not getting drunk like you.” She put her hands on her hips, her heart pounding. “Luckily, you make some of your best decisions when you drink.”

His forehead crinkled up in that adorable way it did when he was thoroughly confused. “What?”

“When you signed those papers, I bet you did it stone-cold sober.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t do something like that when I was drunk. You think I want to do something stupid?” He set down the half-empty long neck and stared at her.

“But you married me while drunk. You made love to me here on the night of the gala while drunk. Those were both pretty smart decisions, I think.” She circled around the sofa to stand in front of him. “That necklace and earrings you had made for me. Are they still in your office?”

“No, they’re in the safe.” He gestured toward its hiding spot behind one of the paintings, his brows raised. “You want the jewelry? Get it. It’s not like I’m going to give it to someone else.”

Lana walked over, revealed the safe and started punching in the code. “You aren’t allowed to give it to someone else. You had the necklace made for your wife. So only your wife can wear it.”

“Yeah, and my ex-wife, before long.” He took another drink. “What’s with you wanting that now, anyway? I thought you didn’t want it unless you decided to stay. We’re getting a divorce remember; I signed your damn papers.” With a beer and a half in him, his tongue had loosened.

“I’m going to shred them,” she announced firmly. “There will be no divorce.”

“What do you mean?” His focus narrowed on her and he turned his whole body to face her.

“I’m not going to divorce you, even if you beg.” She pulled out the jeweler’s case and relocked the safe, then turned to him. “I’m a total and complete idiot, but the last thing I’m going to do is throw away what we have. So you might as well pull out that crib and set it up because we’re both going to be here full time. And there’s nothing you can say that will stop me.”

Blake blinked in surprise, clearly thrown by her sudden about-face. “Are you serious?” He stood and turned to her. “Yesterday you were accusing me of colluding on all of the ghost business.”

Lana nodded in acknowledgement. It had not been anything remotely like brilliant. “Yesterday I was having pregnancy-induced stupidity. Rosemary says it’s common, though how she would know, I have no clue. You’re going to have to learn to forgive me because I still have four and a half months left to be stupid. But I promise not to be anywhere near
that
stupid
ever
again.”

He walked over, his expression cautiously hopeful. “How can I be sure?”

“You can’t, but if I can take it on trust that you’re not going to hurt me, then you’ll have to take it on trust that I’ll do my best not to hurt you, either.” Lana walked over and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you, Blake. The thought of losing you makes me want to return to wallowing in that bed and not ever get out. Please don’t do that to me.”

Blake pulled her into a tight hug and relief filled every feature. “I wasn’t really drunk when we married, you know. Or the night of the gala. I had been hoping to seduce you into what I wanted all along and only went along with your explanation because it made you happy. I knew I wanted to be with you since the first moment I set eyes on you.”

“Really?” Pleasure shot through her.

“Really. And I think you’re right. Only my wife should wear this. But not until Christmas,” he teased, nuzzling her neck.

She wasn’t going to accept that, even if it was only a matter of a few hours. “You’re a whole year late. You better put it on me before it turns midnight.”

He shook his head. “I think we should wait for Christmas.”

She leaned up and whispered in his ear. “I can think of a dozen other things I could be doing with you by the time the clock strikes twelve.” She wiggled against him.

“You win.” He picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. “I guess you get to have it now.”

She laughed as they moved to the bedroom, happy to be back where she belonged.

A Perfect Fit

SEALed With Love

And coming, spring 2013

Family Matters

Read an excerpt at the end of this ebook

This series has been a labor of love—and I looked forward to writing Lana’s story since the beginning, excited to see how I would manage to get her and Blake back together. But I wouldn’t have gotten this book done, and in readable shape without a lot of help from my friends.

Thanks to my first-round critiquers: Tamara Hart Heiner, Adrienne Torkildson and Maria Hoagland, and to Cami Checketts who was a second-round reader. Also, as always, huge thanks to my hubby, Bill for creating my cover and doing a final check for punctuation, spelling, and story issues that I missed.

Heather Tullis has been reading romance for as long as she can remember and has been publishing in the genre since 2009. When she’s not dreaming up new stories to write, she runs with the local volunteer ambulance, enjoys gardening, playing with her chickens, geese and ducks, cake decorating and working with her husband in their small business. 

Learn more about her at her website at
http://heathertullis.blogspot.com/
or her Facebook fan page
http://www.facebook.com/HeatherTullisBooks
.