Starting Over (Treading Water Trilogy) (36 page)

She sighed with contentment.

He kissed her eyes closed. “Sleep, baby. I’ll take care of everything.”

“Love you,” she whispered as she nodded off.

Brandon watched her sleep for a long time before he left to pick up Mike.

Brandon and Mike arrived at home just before five to find Daphne still asleep. He sent Mike to wash up and sat on the bed to trail kisses up and down Daphne’s neck.

Still half asleep, she put her arms around him and pulled him down with her.

Brandon could have stayed there all night, but he knew Mike would be back in a few minutes. “Wake up,” he said, kissing her neck again.

“Don’t want to.”

“Have you been asleep all this time?”

“Uh-huh.” She yawned. “What time is it?”

“Almost five.”

Her eyes flew open. “For real?”

He studied her. “What’s going on,
hon
? Maybe we should get you to a doctor tonight.”

“I’m okay.” She started to get up but sat right back down.

“Daph, you’re scaring me.”

“I got up too fast, that’s all. I thought we were going out tonight.”

“Why don’t we just stay in?”

“Would you be terribly disappointed if we did?”

He brushed the hair off her face. “Of course not. Mike and I will cook. I want you to take it easy.”

“You and Mike are going to cook?” she asked with an eyebrow raised in amusement. “That ought to be interesting.”

“We have many skills you don’t know about. Go soak in the tub and relax.” He kissed her and sent her on her way, but all he could think about was how pale she was. Reaching for the bedside phone, he called Erin.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

He told her about Daphne not feeling well and asked for the name of a doctor. “She thinks this whole thing with Mike might be giving her an ulcer.”

“I can’t believe she hasn’t had one for years. I know just the guy. She’ll love him.”

Brandon called the doctor and made an appointment for nine o’clock the next morning. He also made a mental note to ask Lorraine in the office about getting Daphne and Mike added to his health insurance. Daphne was soaking in the big tub when he went into the bathroom. “I got you in with Erin’s doctor at nine in the morning.”

“I told you I would call,” she said, her brows furrowed with unusual annoyance.

He bent to kiss away her scowl. “I’m worried about you. You’re pale as a ghost and sleeping half the day. That’s not like you.”

“I’m sorry.” She seemed startled when her eyes flooded with tears. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me lately.”

“Then let’s find out, okay?”

She nodded.

After a dinner of spaghetti and salad that Daphne had to admit was surprisingly good, they snuggled on the sofa with Mike to watch
The
Lion King
.

“How many times have you seen this, squirt?” he asked.

“I think like a hundred,” she said, fixated on
Simba
.

“It’s got to be more like two hundred,” Brandon said. “Even I know the words to the songs, and that’s saying something.”

Daphne giggled and squeezed his hand.

Brandon couldn’t remember ever being more content, with Daphne resting her head on his shoulder and Mike using his leg for a pillow. “Do you think we could pause the movie for a minute?” he asked once he had the lump in his throat under control.

Mike sat up and reached for the remote.

“I’ll be right back.” He got up, went into the bedroom, and came back with a big bag.

“What is that?” Mike asked.

“It’s a present for you and your mom.”

Mike’s eyes lit up. “Is it for my birthday?”

“Nope. This is for something different.” Brandon sat between them. “In my family, we have a tradition. You’ve seen my green coat with the O’Malley & Sons company name on it, right?”

Mike nodded. “It has all the yellow shamrocks, and it says ‘Brandon O’Malley.’”

“That’s the one. Well, every member of our family has one. Because there are O’Malleys and
Maloneys
, we have our full names on them. And since you guys are my family now…” He pulled a small green jacket out of the bag and handed it to Mike. “This one’s for you, and this one’s for your mom.”

“Mine says Mike O’Malley on it,” she said, looking at Brandon with confusion.

“Yes, it does.”

Daphne had tears in her eyes as she skimmed her fingers over the gold embroidery that spelled Daphne O’Malley.

“I don’t get it,” Mike said.

“I do,” Daphne whispered, kissing Brandon’s cheek.

“Try it on, squirt,” he said, making an effort to stay focused on Mike.

Still looking perplexed, Mike stood up and slid it on.

“Does it fit?”

“Yep.”

He adjusted the coat and zipped it up.

She put her hands in the pockets. “What’s this?” she asked, pulling out a small box wrapped in gold paper.

“Why don’t you open it and find out?”

Mike tore the paper off the box and found a velvet jeweler’s box. Inside was a diamond solitaire on a delicate gold chain. She gasped. “Is that
real
?”

“Yes, it’s
real
,” Brandon said, grinning at her reaction. He took the necklace from the box and put it on her. “I love you, Mike. I want to adopt you and give you my name. How does Mike O’Malley sound?”

“Do you mean it?”

He nodded. “Will you be my daughter?”

Her golden eyes sparkled with tears. “I’d like that, Brandon.”

“Good.” He hugged her. “I was thinking we could use Monroe as your middle name so your first daddy would always be with you, too. Would that be okay?”

“What do you think, Mom?”

Dealing with her own flood of tears, Daphne nodded. “That’d be perfect, Pooh.”

He settled Mike on his lap. “Mommy’s turn,” he said, reaching for the box in the pocket of Daphne’s jacket.

Her hands trembled as she removed the gold paper. When she stopped to wipe away tears, Brandon took the box from her.

“All my brothers are getting married.” His face twisted into a pout that made Daphne laugh even as new tears spilled from her eyes. “I don’t want to be left out.”

“We can’t have that,” she said, caressing away his pout.

“I never imagined I’d have a home and a family of my own. The two of you have given me that and so many other things I didn’t even know I wanted. I love you—both of you—with everything I have, everything I’ll ever have. Will you ladies marry me?”

Daphne glanced at Mike. “Yes,” they said in unison.

Brandon hugged them for a long time.

“What did you get for Mom?” Mike asked, toying with her new necklace.

“Ah, yes, how could I forget that?” He opened the box. A cushion-cut diamond was surrounded by topaz.

“Oh, I love it!” Daphne said. “Topaz is my favorite. How did you know?”

“I didn’t. The color reminded me of your eyes and Mike’s. Calling them brown doesn’t do them justice, so when I saw a topaz in the window of Chatham Jewelers, I said, ‘That’s it, that’s the color.’” He put the ring on her finger, hooked his free arm around her neck, and kissed her.

Mike squirmed off his lap. “
Eww
, gross, if you’re going to start that, let me down,” she said, making them laugh.

When Brandon heard the movie go back on, he took advantage of the opportunity to kiss Daphne properly. “We’re getting married,” he whispered.

“Your mother will freak.”

“Nah, I warned her. I was going to do this a week ago, but then Aidan got engaged. I decided to give him a week before I knocked him off the front page.”

“Did I mess up your plans by not wanting to go out tonight?”

“Not at all. This was much better.”

“This was perfect,” she whispered. “Thank you for including Mike the way you did.”

“It wouldn’t have been right without her.”

“No,” she said, kissing him. “It wouldn’t, especially since you fell for her first—after she chose you for us.”

“I can’t deny that, so I won’t even try. When do you want to tie the knot? We’ve got Dec’s wedding at the beginning of July, Aidan’s in mid-July, and Colin’s in August. That leaves September. My parents are going to Ireland for the first two weeks of September, so how’s late September?”

Her smile faded, and the worried look was back.

“What’s wrong? Is it your stomach?”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“I want to wait to get married until we resolve this thing with the
Monroes
. I don’t want to start our life together with that hanging over our heads.”

“I don’t care about that. If we wait then we’re letting them run our lives even more than they are already. Let’s set a date, and if it’s not resolved by then, so be it.”

“Can we wait a few weeks to see what happens before we make any plans?”

“I suppose we could do that, but we
will
be married before the end of the year, even if it’s not resolved, you got me? You can just say ‘yes, sir’ again. That works for me.”

“No way. You caught me in a moment of extreme exhaustion. You’ll never get that out of me again.”

“I’ve got
a lot
of years to work on you.”

With a sly sideways glance that made his mouth go dry, she ran her hand up his leg. “Give it your best shot.”

He tore his eyes off hers long enough to find Mike on the floor watching the movie. “Time for bed, squirt.”

When Mike insisted on wearing her new necklace to school the next morning, Daphne protested. “You’re not wearing a diamond necklace to kindergarten. Your teacher will think I’ve lost my mind.”

“I want to show it to everyone and tell them we’re engaged,” Mike said.

“It’s insured,” Brandon whispered to Daphne.

“It is?”

“I was giving a diamond to a six-year-old. I’m not a total idiot.”

“Just a partial?” she asked with a smile.

He laughed at the reminder of the day they met. “Let her wear it today, and then we’ll put it away for special occasions.”

“All right, Mike. Your new daddy has gone to bat for you once again. You can wear it today, but that’s it. And I expect you to be very careful with it.”

With a grateful grin for Brandon, Mike said, “I’d never let anything happen to it, Mom. Don’t worry.”

“I’ll drop her off on the way to my meeting,” he said.

“Thanks.”

“Call me the minute you leave the doctor. I want to know what he says.”

“I will.”

Brandon spent the morning rehanging shutters on the freshly painted apartment building. Soon he’d be finished at the apartments and would be moving on to his new venture. When he told his sponsor about his plans for the renovation business, Joe asked to be his first client. “My wife has been after me for a new kitchen for years. And my daughter just bought an old place in Brewster. You’ll probably be hearing from her, too.” It was a start, and Brandon was excited about the future. He had so much to look forward to these days.

He was on a ladder hanging a shutter on one of the second-floor windows when Daphne pulled up in front of the building. Moving quickly to turn the last of the screws, he scurried down the ladder to meet her as she came through the gate.

“What did he say?” Brandon put his arm around her and sat with her on the stairs. “Is it an ulcer?”

Her eyes seemed even bigger than usual against the backdrop of her pale face as she shook her head.

“Then what? Come on, you’re taking years off my life here.”

“I’m pregnant.”

Brandon stared at her. “What? But, how…”

Amused by his astounded expression, she patted his face. “The usual way, I suspect.”

“But we’ve been so careful.”

“Not always,” she reminded him. “Remember that day you came back home after you took Mike to school?”

“That’s all it takes?”

“Apparently.”

“Pregnant.” He dropped his head onto her shoulder and for once gave in to the need to weep.

“What?” she asked, alarmed. “Are you mad?”

He shook his head. “I was just thinking about how much I have to look forward to. That there could be even more…”

She wiped the tears from his face and kissed him.

He wrapped his arms around her.

The kiss went on for several minutes until he took her hand to pull her up. He scooped her into his arms and carried her inside to his apartment.

“Where are we going?” she asked as he kicked the door closed.

“To celebrate.”

Chapter 33, Day 132