Summer Temptation (Hot in the Hamptons Book 2) (14 page)

“Because she’s something special,” I explained, looking at her, wishing I could take her back into my arms.

“Yes, she is,” Garrett said, reaching up to cup Leigh’s cheek. “But honest to God, Leigh. How could you let this happen? You have such a bright future ahead of you.” He glanced at me. “If Nick’s not the father, who is?”

“For right now, that doesn’t matter, Dad.”

“It most certainly does matter,” Garrett said boldly, his cardiac episode apparently over. “The father has responsibilities. You’ll need to get married.”

The thought of Leigh with any other man filled me with a jealous rage.

Leigh looked pale.

Needing to take care of her, I opened some cabinets, found a glass and filled it with the iced tea I found in the refrigerator. Then I carried it over to where she stood. “Come on.” I put my free hand on her low back and guided her to the chair next to her dad. “Sit down before you fall down.”

She did. After a few sips, she turned to face her father. “I made a mistake, and now I’m pregnant. I won’t compound that mistake by marrying a man I don’t love and who doesn’t love me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Garrett said, as if marrying for love was a farce.

“I’ve already decided,” Leigh said. “I’m going to do this on my own.”

“Leigh,” Garrett said miserably.

“Not really on my own because I have you.” She placed her hand on her father’s knee. He covered it with his. “Even though I know you’re disappointed in me right now, and you have every right to be, I know you’ll always be there for me and my baby. You’ll be a wonderful grandfather, like your father was a wonderful grandfather to me.”

Tears leaked out of her eyes and down her cheeks. Damn if tears didn’t fill Garrett’s eyes, too. And mine. I glanced to my side, and added Murphy’s to the list.

“You have me, too.” The words popped out of my mouth without a second thought.

“And me.” Murphy stepped forward.

“We could get married,” tumbled out of my mouth.

Leigh looked at me like I had a trout flopping around on my head.

Leigh

O
h. My. God.

Nick did
not
just propose.

“Okay,” he said, looking directly at me. “I know.” He ran his hand over his head. “As far as marriage proposals go, that one sucked. I mean, I don’t even have a ring.”

“You could use this one.” Murphy pulled on a chain around his neck to reveal two silver colored rings dangling on the end. “They belonged to my Lilly.” He held them out to me. “She’d love for you to have them.”

“I…” didn’t know what to say. Emotion clogged my throat.

Nick walked toward me, taking my hands into his, staring into my eyes. “I know we’ve only known each other for a few weeks, but it’s been long enough for me to know you’re the one for me, Leigh.”

So sincere, but, “Do you love me?” I refused to marry for any reason but love.

Nick hesitated, and I had my answer. I tried to pull my hands away, but he wouldn’t let me.

“Yes,” he said. “I do love you.”

If he did, then why hadn’t he said so before today? “No, you don’t.”

“I do,” he said calmly.

“You hesitated.”

“Because before I said those words, which I have never said to another woman, I’ll have you know, I wanted to be sure I meant them. It took me a few seconds to be absolutely, positively sure that yes, I do love you. That I want us to be together.”

He couldn’t possibly love me. “It’s too soon. And the baby, I don’t expect you to—”

“I love you and I’ll love your baby…like it was my own.”

“You don’t want children. They ruin everything, you said so yourself.”

“I don’t want
obnoxious
children who say rude things. We’ll have to raise our child better than that.”

Our child
? Everything was happening too fast…so unexpected. He sounded sincere and sweet, but I couldn’t take a chance, wouldn’t tie him down.

I walked over to Murphy. “Thank you for offering, but no.” I took the rings from his hand and tucked them back beneath his shirt.

Nick said, “If you want something different, we can go shopping. You can pick out whatever you want.”

I gave Murphy a kiss on the cheek. “It would be an honor to wear your wonderful Lilly’s rings,” I told him, adding, “Someday. But not today.”

I turned to Nick. “Thank you for offering.” I walked to him and gave him a hug. “But, no.” I stepped back to look up at him. “I won’t rush into marriage because I’m scared of the future. And I won’t let you rush into marriage because you’re trying to be honorable or because you feel sorry for me.”

“I don’t—”

“If you’d like for us to continue dating after the summer, I would like that.” I gave him a small smile. “Very much.”

“I do want to.”

Pure joy surged inside of me. “After the baby’s born, if we’re still together, and you still want to, we can talk about marriage.”

He pulled me into his arms. “I’ll still want to.”

I hoped so.

“What about your job?” my dad asked me.

I let out a breath and stepped away from the safety of Nick’s embrace. Over the past forty-eight hours I’d given it a lot of thought. “I’ll call them tomorrow and tell them I can’t accept it.”

“Damn it.” He pushed up from his chair.

“Please, Dad.” I set my hand on his shoulder. “Calm down. I’ll find something else. Something local that won’t require such long hours and so much travel.” I looked up into the eyes of the man who’d raised me. “You taught me to work hard and be self-sufficient. I’ll make you proud. I promise.”

Dad softened in an instant. “You’ve always made me proud, Leigh. I love you.”

I threw my arms around him. “I love you, too.” He gave me a tight squeeze back.

When he stepped away, he pointed directly at Nick. “Now you. Why haven’t you responded to my job offer?”

Nick stared right back at him, standing tall, not the least bit intimidated. Good for him! “I wasn’t sure if you made your very generous offer based on my skills and experience or based on my relationship with your daughter.”

Dad nodded approvingly. “A little of both.” He sat back down. “Your relationship with my daughter is what got you in the door. But your resumé, your interview, and an exceptional reference from your last supervisor are what earned you the job offer.”

“Good to know,” Nick said.

“So you’ll take it?” Dad asked.

Nick looked at me. “Leigh and I will discuss it.”

“As long as you know,” Dad said to Nick, “I will not stand for my future son-in-law, especially one with your credentials, working for anyone but me.”

What? “Dad! Nick is not your future-son-in-law.”

“But someday soon I’d like to be,” Nick said, looking at me. “And I think it needs to be said that I love you for you, Leigh, not for who your dad is or for the lucrative job he offered me.”

“I know that, Nick.” Without a doubt.

“I’m a hard-worker and self-sufficient, too.”

“Yes he is,” Murphy added.

“As of yesterday I’ve got three job offers for us to talk over.”

I loved that he valued my opinion.

“Wait a minute,” my dad said.

“Stop it, Dad. Nick will decide which job he’s going to take.” Hopefully it’d be the job with The DeGray Fund. My dad needed someone like Nick on his staff, and he’d always said he wanted to keep his company in the family.

Murphy walked over to stand beside me. “You remind me of my Lilly. It only took me one date to know she was the one for me. My son? Met his wife and married her six weeks later. They’re happily married to this day.” He glanced over at Nick, then back at me. “We Kenzy men don’t fool around when the right woman comes along.”

“No, we don’t,” Nick said, looking down at me, his eyes filled with affection. “Which is why, when you’re ready, I’d love for you to be my wife, for us to raise your baby as our baby.”

My love for Nick swelled in my chest, and I realized, that even though I felt it, I’d never said the words. So I did. “I love you, too, you know.”

“I know.” He pulled me into his arms. “I see it in your eyes. I hear it in your voice. I feel it in your touch.”

I hugged him tight, feeling blessed to have found such a wonderful man.

“Now that that’s settled,” my dad said, “let’s set a date.”

“No,” I told him firmly. “Not until after the baby’s born. Not until Nick sees what life will be like with a newborn and he’s sure he wants to take on a new baby and a wife at the same time.

“I will,” he said quietly.

Time would tell.

Nick

Four months later

“W
hat’s all this?” Leigh asked, looking toward the dining room as she walked over to give me a kiss. Since the summer, we’d been splitting our time between her dad’s house, my granddad’s house, and my apartment. Tonight I wanted her all to myself, so we were spending the night in the city.

I swiveled around and pulled her body to mine. “How was your day?” Turned out Hollis and Hamilton knew an exceptional employee when they interviewed one. Rather than accepting Leigh’s resignation before she’d even started, they’d offered to modify her job to include only local travel when absolutely necessary. After the baby was born, she’d be job-sharing with another woman who was currently on maternity leave.

Leigh smiled. “Good. How was yours?”

Work at The DeGray Group was high-pressure and exhausting, and I loved every minute of it. “Good.” Today, with her father’s blessing, I’d left work early to come home to prepare a special dinner. Not that I’d cooked, mind you. But I’d done everything else: flowers, candles, and non-alcoholic bubbly. I’d set a damn nice table, too, if I did say so myself.

“You used my mom’s china,” Leigh noticed.

I’d also used Grandma Lilly’s crystal glasses that Murphy had insisted I take after Leigh had commented on how beautiful they were.

Speaking of beautiful. “You’re looking exceptionally beautiful today,” in a dark blue pant suit with her hair up in a bun, her feet bare, and her toenails painted a pretty peach color.

She set her hands at her low back, stuck out her round belly, and said, “I’m looking exceptionally pregnant today.”

“Beautifully pregnant.” I compromised, because she was. “How’s our baby girl?” I rubbed her belly. As soon as we’d found out we were having a girl, we’d decided on the name Lilly Rose – Lilly for my grandma, and Rose for Leigh’s mom.

“She doesn’t like the chicken salad at the deli down the street from my office.”

For the last month Leigh had been having terrible problems with indigestion.

“How does she feel about chicken piccata from La Mondas?”

“Oh.” Leigh smiled. “We love chicken piccata from La Mondas!” She walked into the dining room. “But why so fancy? What’s the occasion?”

The doorbell rang.

I paid the delivery man and carried dinner to the table.

“The occasion is,” I began unpacking the box, “I love you.” While that was true, it wasn’t the only reason I’d planned a special dinner.