Jumping away from Jace as he lets my arm drop, we turn at the same time to face Richard.
Until now, I’d forgotten that there was a chance I’d run into him and, by the sound of it, he doesn’t seem too happy. It’s his first day working out of this location, so I guess I need to get used to seeing him here.
My longing to catch a glimpse of Jace was what brought me here, and everything else has flown right out of my head.
“I was just checking that she’s okay. She looks pale,” Jace offers, his jaw tight as he looks between the two of us, refusing to budge.
He’s obviously picking up the vibes from me that are saying I don’t want to be alone with my fiancé.
Richard has a temper and I’m relieved that I’ve only ever seen it once. It had shaken me up. He hadn’t put his hands on me in anger, but he’d roared around my house until he’d left to cool down. I’d spent hours shaking, terrified that he would come back and hit me.
“Richard, we have to go.” Stefan dashes around the corner, and comes to a stop when he notices me. Smiling, he says, “Hi, Savannah.” He reaches out and kisses me on the cheek—this is something he’s done for years. His gaze then flitters to Jace, he nods, “Jace,” in greeting before he turns back to me. “It’s been a while, Savannah. How’re you doing?”
I smile fondly.
I’m a best friend to his sister, Rachel, who now lives in New York, but Stefan adopted me as his sister a long time ago.
“I’m fine, thanks Stefan.” I ignore the anger emanating from Richard, and ask Stefan, “How are Mandy and the kids?”
“Just great.” Stefan looks back at Richard, who is still glaring at me. Stefan’s eyes narrow in confusion before he says, “We need to go…now.”
“All right.” Richard closes the distance between us as I fight the urge to step away from him. He leans in, his lips hovering just above my cheek. I can smell the stale coffee he drank today before he finally plants a kiss to my cheek. He pulls away, his eyes filled with some strange emotion that I can’t place as he says, “I’ll see you tonight, okay?” I nod automatically before he dashes off after Stefan, leaving me cold.
“C’mon,” Jace takes my arm but his warmth does nothing to drive away the cold as he adds, “let’s go and get some cake before your uncle really does eat it all.”
Chapter Three
Jace
I seriously need to stop with the daydreaming. Every now and again, an odd word will drift to me from the conversation that Ryder and Dahlia are having with our parents. But my attention is on a small, curvy, redhead when it should really be on the bundle in my arms.
Faith Louise is sleeping so peacefully that I feel like I want to nap with her…with Savannah curled around us.
Sighing heavily, I tune into the conversation around me, just as Ryder growls, “Jace?”
“What?” I snap. “Sorry.”
“Are you okay?” Dahlia asks, reaching out and rubbing my arm.
Smiling, I admit, “I’m fine, just distracted with work.”
Ignoring the stares from my family, I look down at Faith, who is still sleeping peacefully in my arms. She’s a gorgeous baby, even though I might be biased, but she is.
Only a few weeks old, Faith is the cutest bundle I’ve ever seen, and she’s so peaceful…at least whenever I visit with her. Dahlia tells me that she sleeps from her feeding at ten-thirty at night right through until six in the morning. So I’m going to presume the bags under Dahlia’s eyes have more to do with Ryder wanting his wife than Faith waking for a feeding.
“Well, we have our babysitter lined up, babe,” Ryder comments.
I look toward my brother and smile. “I’m all yours, all you have to do is ask. You should know that by now.”
“I do. I’ll give you a call when we sort something out. I want to take my wife to dinner.” He kisses Dahlia on the lips, and I feel a longing in my chest—to have what he has.
Until I let Savannah get under my skin, I’d given up on a family of my own. Now, I can’t stop thinking about what it would be like to have with Savannah what my brother has with Dahlia—a family.
She’s younger than me, which begs the question of whether or not she’d want the same things. Something tells me that she would. She comes across as someone who likes to spend time at home rather than going out drinking or partying every weekend. I guess I got that idea because of the baking, which she obviously enjoys doing.
“Jace, I wish you’d pay attention,” my mom’s words break into my thoughts.
“Sorry, what?”