Erica was carrying low, so my mom was convinced she was having a boy. My sister and Jake had wanted to be surprised, but everyone thought that surprise would arrive sooner than expected.
I gripped my purse tighter as I made my way through the dense foot traffic on the sidewalk. A light snow had started a little while ago, and the town was bustling with pre-Christmas excitement. Holiday music floated on the air as customers hurried in and out of shops. Vendors were set up in the square with all kinds of treats from flavored cocoas to roasted chestnuts to warm apple cider from Happy Acres Orchard in nearby Turnbull. Couples strolled hand in hand, smiling at everyone they passed. Kids raced around with dogs in tow while their parents followed close behind.
I smiled mistily. Happy chaos. I wanted to be spending this night with Jared and Sami and Sadie. Like a family of our own.
Then I saw him coming through the crowd, dressed all in black, something small in his arms. At his side, a familiar brown shape wiggled and pranced—until she saw me up the street and shot toward me like a furry brown bullet.
I was already laughing, my mind spinning. How had I conjured him out of thin air? What was he even doing there?
Grinning, I took a step forward, my heel catching on an icy spot. “Oh!” I exclaimed as Sadie flung herself at me bodily and sent me backward onto the ground. Pain exploded in my head for a brief shocking second.
You’re okay.
I struggled to get up, but Sadie wasn’t having that. Thinking we were playing, she leaped onto my chest and nearly killed me, her tongue doing a good imitation of a car wash while I tried to wrestle her away from my vital organs.
Dresses were great until they flew up to your waist in the middle of town while you were sprawled on the sidewalk. But hey, nice panties, so could be worse, right?
Huh, the stars were pink and pulsing. That was new. Holiday effect, maybe? I wondered how much that had cost. I didn’t realize the Cove had that big a budget.
“Baby, are you okay?”
Halfheartedly, I tried to tug my dress into place as Jared’s worried face swam into my vision from above. And aww, he was holding the cutest little reindeer with big blue eyes.
My baby. No, no, she was his.
But I yearned.
“Hey there.” I tried to lean up and slumped back down. The cold was seeping into my bones and I felt ice in inappropriate places, but I’d just stay right here. I was so tired all of a sudden.
“Bee.” Jared crouched beside my head, wrangling the dog who had nearly killed me with one arm while he held his adorable reindeer with the other. “Look at me, sweetheart.”
“Looking. Boy, are you pretty. Were your eyes always so blue?”
I swore I heard laughter. Maybe my ears were ringing. But this was a good time to come clean.
“I was going to split the money with you, I swear. But I may need a picture of your naked butt.”
And I fainted.
Fifteen
The smell of woods and lake water filtered into my senses. I tucked my nose into a hard, muscled chest dusted with the perfect amount of hair and snuggled in.
“You saved me.” I couldn’t seem to lift my eyelids, but I didn’t need to see him to know who held me. It was as if we were bouncing in the water, floating along without a care.
Well, other than hypothermia, since I was cold and wet and not in a fun way.
But his arms were so strong and supportive. He would never let me fall. Not for long. Not anymore.
He turned his face against my temple and warmth tickled my cheek, making me smile. Then my eyes popped open and focused on his damp, shattered eyes, zeroed in on my face as if he couldn’t bear to look anywhere else.
I reached up to touch his cheek and drew my wet fingers away to look at them.
“You probably won’t remember this.” His voice was so thick. “But I love you, Bee. Please don’t leave me.”
We weren’t in the lake. He crouched at my side and I was on the couch in his cheerfully decorated living room, a blanket wrapped securely around my legs. There was no baby in sight. No Sadie.
Over and over,