Her Fill-In Fiancé (19 page)

 

Standing on the Pirellis' porch, Jake sucked in a deep breath of cool summer air and waited for the peace of the quiet night to wash over him…and waited…and waited,
dammit!

Slapping his palms down on the front railing, he gripped the wood until he feared leaving grooves in the grain. How had everything gone so wrong? How could he have held Sophia in his arms one moment only to listen in stunned silence as she was sending him on his way in the next?

She'd
call?
They would
see each other?
When they had time, of course, because she was
busy
…

It was Mollie all over again, Jake thought, his gut twisting at the truth he longed to deny. He wasn't outside of the family circle, but he certainly wasn't at the center, at the
heart
of Sophia's life where he wanted to be.

He couldn't live like that again—hovering on the periphery, teetering on the edge, one misstep away from being pushed out entirely. Not again.

 

Sophia didn't like the way she and Jake had left off the night before. For too brief a time, everything had been perfect. She'd come apart in his arms, the pleasure and passion of the moment surpassed only by the tenderness and emotion she'd seen in his eyes. He'd made her feel sexy and yet safe. Swept away by reckless desire, but anchored to solid ground.

And he made love like a man
in
love.

But then she'd had to ruin the fragile present with talk about the future.

She feared at this point anything she said might end up making matters worse, but she had to try. They only had one day left before her parents' party, and she wanted to spend it together without the shadow of expectations she'd cast hovering over them.

After dressing quickly in a pale-yellow blouse and a stretch denim skirt that she feared might not make it past another meal, Sophia headed down the hall. A glance in the guest bedroom revealed Jake's bed neatly made and not an item out of place. His woodsy aftershave lingered in the room, the scent alone enough to make the nerves in her belly quiver.

She found her parents sitting at the kitchen table, staring into their cups of coffee, but Jake wasn't there with them. The look her parents exchanged as she walked into the room had never boded well when she was growing up, and Sophia suspected it didn't now, either. “What? What's wrong?”

“We found a note this morning, sweetie. Jake left last night,” her mother confessed. “He said there was something he had to do.”

“He left?” The two words were more than Sophia could wrap her thoughts around as they spun through her head on a repetitive loop.
He left, he left, he left me…

“Don't worry though. He'd said he'd be back tomorrow.”
Her dad was quick to reassure her, but Sophia could see by her mother's worried frown that Vanessa wasn't as certain.

Tomorrow. As far as her parents were concerned, tomorrow was simply another day. They didn't realize tomorrow was the anniversary party she and her brothers had been planning. The party she'd recently stopped dreading because she now had enough good news to far outweigh the bad.

But without Jake…

“What kind of boyfriend would I be if I missed your parents' anniversary party?”
he'd asked her that first night.

I guess I'll have my answer,
Sophia thought, trying and failing not to feel like he'd already abandoned her. By this time tomorrow night, she'd find out what kind of boyfriend Jake was and if even her offer to slow their relationship down and take things one step at a time had been too much, too soon.

“Did something happen, Sophia?” her mother asked as Sophia sank into a kitchen chair.

Something had happened, all right. She'd made love with Jake, and he'd left.
Just like when she told Todd she was pregnant…

Sophia shoved the comparison aside. Jake wasn't Todd. He wasn't.

“There's something I need to tell you.”

Her parents exchanged another look, and Sophia swallowed hard. She could already feel the weight pressing down on her—the worry, the disappointment, the
Oh, Sophias
she'd avoided so far.

“Hope wants me to permanently take over running the shop,” she blurted out.

“Oh, honey! Does that— Does that mean you're moving back home?” her mother asked, hope and happiness written on her features.

“It does. I am.” Sophia laughed as her father scooped her up in a hug just like he hand when she was a child.

Looking into her parents' smiling faces, Sophia saw their love for her as deeply ingrained as her father's dark hair and her mother's green eyes. It was part of their DNA and something that would never change, no matter what she did. She'd always known that, but only since she'd learned she was pregnant did she realize how overwhelming a love for a child truly was.

It was only one more day until their surprise party, but Sophia couldn't keep quiet any longer. She'd opened up to Jake the night before, and maybe he hadn't responded the way her heart longed for him to, but taking that chance had been the right thing to do.

Just like telling her parents the truth was the right thing to do.

“There's something else.”

“More good news?”

“I hope you'll think so, Mom. I know I do.” Taking a deep breath, Sophia said, “I'm going to have a baby.” In the silence that followed, she added, “I'm pregnant.”

“Oh, Sophia.” Tears shimmered in Vanessa's eyes. “That's not good news—it's the best news! Isn't it, Vince?”

“Another grandbaby,” he said gruffly. “Nothing better than that.”

Tears stinging her eyes, Sophia asked, “So you aren't disappointed?”

Jake had promised her it would be like this—that her parents would understand and welcome her baby with open arms. He'd told her everything would work out.

“All we've ever wanted is for you to be happy,” her mother reassured her.

“I am happy.” Happy about the baby, about moving home,
and about taking over The Hope Chest. She only needed one thing more for her happiness to be complete.

“We should call your brothers and let them know,” her father announced. His smile was wide, but Sophia didn't miss the hint of steel that had kept their family in line for decades. “There's a new baby to celebrate, and when Jake
does
get back, we've got a wedding to plan.”

S
ophia thought constant motion might be the key to staying one step ahead of the heartache dogging her heels. If she kept moving, maybe the pain of Jake's leaving simply wouldn't have the chance to catch up. And with the final preparations for her parents' party underway, she had any number of last-minute details to keep her busy.

It was a good plan, and one that might even have a chance to work if she wasn't bumping into her brother every time she tried to dart here and there to oversee the rented tables and chairs, the decorations, the set up for the band, the food…

“Honestly, Nick!” Sophia complained as she ran into her oldest brother for the fourteenth time that morning—this time in the kitchen as she checked on the caterers. “Can't you just—be somewhere else right now?”

Drew had left with her parents early that morning under the guise of showing them the work he was doing on a custom house. To keep her parents from noticing three dozen
or so strange cars parked in front of their house and figuring
something
had to be going on, Sam and some of his friends were playing valet, chauffeuring the guests' cars to a neighboring street while the guests gathered in the backyard to prepare for the big moment.

She'd counted on them to do their part; she hadn't counted on Nick hovering at her side, his solemn, dark-eyed concern threatening to trip her up, to slow her down until she had no choice but to face the reality of Jake's absence. “Sorry,” Nick said, his tone 100 percent unapologetic, “but I'm in charge of making sure you don't overdo it.” Despite their recent estrangement, Nick had been as strong and supportive as Drew and Sam. Telling her parents about the baby had been like pulling on a single thread. Instead of snapping the loose piece off, her tightly woven secrets had started to unravel. In the end, she told her family all about Todd, about losing her job with the Dunworthys and about Jake.

Well, almost everything about Jake.

When the time comes, blame me. Tell them I'm not a family man.

His words played in her mind, but she couldn't stop and think about that right now or she'd never make it through the party without having some kind of breakdown.

Nick's lips curved in a shadow of his former smile. “You've got that look Mom gets when her head's about to explode.”

“I'm fine.
Everything's
fine.”

“Good. Then you can take a break and wait for Mom and Dad to get here.” Sophia tried to protest, but Nick was already leading her out of the kitchen and into the backyard.

White tablecloths gleamed beneath a canopy of twinkling lights. Fresh-cut flowers and the scent of candles filled the air. A stage, complete with dance floor, had been set up inside a tent, and the band waited in silence for their cue.

“Is Sam still out front taking care of the cars?”

“I talked to him a few minutes ago. Says he has it all under control,” her eldest brother said wryly. “Which is never a good sign.”

“I'm sure he'll do fine.”

“And what about you?”

“What about me?”

Taking a deep breath, Sophia looked for something more to do, to change, to reorganize. But there was nothing. Her parents were on their way, and everything was perfect.

Almost perfect…

“Sam and Drew said it was your idea to book the Mediterranean cruise for Mom and Dad.”

“I thought it was a good idea. Dad told me he'd always wanted to tour Italy.”

Nick frowned. “He never said anything like that to me.”

Glancing up at her brother, she said softly, “Maybe he told me because he knew I'd understand. Because he knew I'd felt that same wanderlust, too.”

She held her brother's gaze, waiting for him to see that the choices she'd made—right or wrong—had been her choices, but she would no longer take the blame for Carol's decisions.

“I'm sorry, Nick. I'm sorry Carol left, but my taking off for Chicago wasn't the reason she abandoned you, and I'm through feeling like it is. I—”

“I know.”

Certain she hadn't heard him right, Sophia said, “What?”

“I know it isn't your fault. Carol made her own choice, and it wasn't me, and it wasn't Maddie. Sometimes—” his jaw clenched “—I get so angry that she could walk out like she did. But she's Maddie's mother and Maddie still loves her.”

As her brother gripped the back of a chair, his shoulders bowed, Sophia wondered if maybe Maddie wasn't the only
one. Hesitant to break the unexpected truce, Sophia cautiously asked, “Why didn't you go after her, Nick? As angry as you were when she left, maybe if you'd just talked to Carol…”

“I did. A few months after she left, I was in San Francisco for a seminar, only I went to see Carol instead. I told her I thought we should try to work things out, to give our marriage, our family a second chance, and if she disliked living in Clearville that much, I'd move to San Francisco.”

Of all the things Nick could tell her, that was the last Sophia expected. She knew Nick loved his wife, but she wouldn't have thought he would consider leaving Clearville for anyone. “You did?”

“Yep. Told her I'd start a new practice there. I could work on pampered pets with larger wardrobes than my own.” Nick grimaced at the thought of cats and dogs with diamond-studded collars.

“What happened?” she asked hesitantly, already knowing what
hadn't
happened. Nick hadn't moved to San Francisco and Carol hadn't come home.

At first, she didn't think he was going to answer, but finally he admitted, “Turns out Clearville wasn't the only thing Carol thought was small town.”

“Oh, Nick. I'm so sorry.”

“Not your fault, remember?”

“That doesn't mean I can't still feel bad for what you went through.”

“I keep telling myself it's for the best.”

“Maybe someday you'll actually start to believe it.”

“Yeah, maybe.” His gaze narrowed as if he was truly seeing her for the first time. “You've grown up, you know. You're not the little girl you used to be.”

“'Bout time, huh?”

Her brother stayed quiet, his assent written in silence, but
that was okay, because she could see the approval written there, too. “You're not so grown up that you don't need your big brothers, though.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. To do all the things big brothers do.”

“What? Like to put frogs in my bed and pull my hair and make me eat spinach when Mom and Dad aren't here?”

“All that, and to kick your boyfriend's ass, too, for not being here.”

“I've already told you, Jake isn't my boyfriend.”

He'd told her to make him out to be the bad guy, but Sophia had made him the hero instead—a friend who'd come home with her to make telling her family about the baby she carried a little easier to bear.

“He's a friend,” Sophia repeated now. “And he said he'd be here.”

She'd been repeating the words for the past twenty-four hours. Twenty-four hours without word from Jake. He was running out of time, and she was running out of hope.

Nick started to reply when Sam raced around the side of the house, looking much as he had as a little kid on a Sunday morning—hair combed, shoes polished, dress clothes on, but still the same old Sam. “Everybody, get ready! Drew's pulling up right now!”

Her brother hadn't mentioned how he was going to get her parents around to the back of the house, but she could hear his voice getting loud as they drew closer. “I really think I should take a look at the back, Dad.”

“Son, you're turning into a man who can't see beyond his job. There is nothing wrong with the roof.” Vince came into view first, his gaze skyward, until the band started to play and the guests shouted, “Surprise!”

Her mother recovered first, lifting her hands to her face before embracing first her son and then her husband in a
hug. Sam was next, swinging Vanessa around, almost as exuberantly as he did when he played with Maddie. By then, Nick and Sophia had reached the group.

“You did this! I can't believe you all did this!” Vanessa gushed, her eyes filling with tears.

“It was their idea,” Sophia said of her brothers even as they credited her with most of the work. “But enough about that! Everyone is here to celebrate with the two of you.”

Sophia and her brothers stepped back, letting longtime friends surround the elder Pirellis. Before long, someone had called out for a toast, and her red-faced, somewhat flustered parents made their way to the stage.

Vince stepped up to the microphone with Vanessa at his side. “First, I want to thank you all for coming here tonight and joining us in celebrating our marriage and our life together. It means so much that you all are here.

“I also want to thank my sons, who came up with the idea to try and give me and Vanessa heart attacks. This is amazing. Thank you.”

Looking over the crowd, her dad gazed in Sophia's direction before glancing back at her mother and taking her hand with a huge grin. Sophia didn't think she'd ever seen her parents look happier and she…was
not
going to cry. She refused to cry.

“And last but not least, Sophia. Our little girl is home at last. You've already given us the best present by being here and by introducing us to your Jake.”

The smile she'd practiced wearing all day suddenly felt frozen, stiff, ready to shatter into a dozen broken pieces. She could feel all eyes turning her way as Vince said Jake's name. But how could she blame her father? Drew had kept her parents away from the house all day. That was the plan. They had no way of knowing Jake hadn't kept up his end of the deal.

It was the past repeating all over again. Someone she cared about—worse, someone she
loved
—leaving her to pick up the pieces, to try to explain.

And dammit if she wasn't about to cry!

“It has been nearly forty years since your mother and I fell in love,” her father continued, “but I still remember how that feels. I remember every time I look in my wife's eyes, and I remember when I look at Sophia and Jake together.” He lifted his glass. “So I'd like to propose a toast. To my lovely wife, Vanessa, for the happiness she has brought to me during our marriage, and to Sophia and Jake for all their happiness still to come.”

The toast echoed all around her until the words found a rhythm with her breaking heart.
Sophia and Jake…Sophia and Jake…

The tables seemed to start to spin around her like the teacup ride at Disneyland, and she took a step toward the stage with a somewhat crazed idea of taking the microphone and announcing to one and all that there was no Sophia and Jake; there never had been a Sophia and Jake; there never would be a Sophia and Jake—

A masculine hand holding a champagne flute reached in front of her before she could take a second step. “You'll need a glass if you're going to drink to our toast.”

Sophia spun around so quickly, she knocked into Jake's arm, spilling some of the apple juice onto the sleeve of his pale-blue dress shirt. He set the glass aside and shook some of the liquid from his hand. “Wasn't quite the way I planned it.”

Reality sinking in that Jake was back, that he'd come back, Sophia snapped out of the momentary shock into a flurry of motion. “Sorry, I'm sorry.” She took the second flute from his hand, set it aside and grabbed a napkin from a nearby table to start dabbing at the spot left by the juice.

“You're supposed to drink it, Jake, not wear it!” Sam called out and Sophia realized her parents, her family,
everyone
had known Jake was standing behind her throughout the entire toast.

Standing behind her the entire time.

The urge to escape, to run in any direction, pulled at Sophia until she thought she might break apart. But then Jake reached out and took her hand, and everything inside her settled and stilled, disjointed pieces coming back together again.

Giving up on drying off his sleeve, Sophia snatched back her hand, took the napkin and hit him across the chest with the flimsy fabric. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have my brothers beat the
crap
out of you right now!”

After a brief tug of war with the napkin, Jake set it aside and led Sophia away from the rest of the party toward the gazebo she'd decorated with garlands of silk flowers for pictures later in the evening.

Sitting down, Jake pulled Sophia beside him. “I went to see Mollie.”

His ex-fiancée?

“Not a very good reason,” she whispered.

“I needed to see Josh.” He clenched her hands as he silently pleaded with her to understand. “I know what you said about accidents happening, but I needed to see for myself that he was okay. That maybe I hadn't screwed up so bad that I don't deserve a second chance.”

“Did you get to see him?”

His heartbreaking smile told her the answer. “Yeah, I saw him. He—he remembers me.”

“Of course he does. You were part of his life for three years.”

“I know, but he was so little, and I wasn't sure. But he remembers. He even remembered the accident and had to
show me how much better he is at riding a bike now—without training wheels.”

“I'm sorry, Jake. I know that was something you wanted to teach him.”

“You know, it's okay,” he insisted, even though she could see how the loss had wounded him a little. “I'm glad Mollie even let him look at another bike, let alone ride one. But…she's different now. Happier and more relaxed. She really does love Roger. She admitted that she'd wanted to get back together with him when we were together. The accident was the impetus she needed to tell him how she felt.”

Sophia wasn't ready to forgive the other woman so quickly until Jake added, “She said it would be okay for me to still see Josh once in a while. Kind of like an honorary uncle.” Happiness and hope shone in his eyes as he added, “If you don't mind.”