Only One (Ward Sisters Book 2) (27 page)

“And now it's impossible.” Liam nodded. “Do you
want
to get over her?”

“Do I have a choice? Why am I finding these videos now?”

“I don't know. What are you going to do? Stop listening to that song?”

He sighed. “No clue. I wish it was that simple.”

Rob nodded. But it wasn't.

Chapter 22

Harpswell, Maine, one week ago...

When he returned from Minnesota, Liam determined to be a good boyfriend to Nina – he owed it to his girlfriend to put his best foot forward. He might not be able to forget the videos Jenna had left him, but it was probably best that he couldn't watch them without contacting her. The feelings he'd had in Minneapolis he chalked up to a combination of being without Nina and seeing those videos.

Nonetheless, he intentionally still hadn't listened to
Beast of Burden
since he heard it that day at Rob's house. No point in poking the bear.

Liam hadn't realized how much he'd missed Nina until he got back to Maine. He was so happy to see her at the airport when she picked them up, that he kissed her passionately right at baggage claim. She pulled away and said, “I missed you, too,” giving him a huge grin.

The returned to a flurry of activity between Emily's work and packing her apartment. Over the following weekend, Em came to the same conclusion Liam had, that she was pregnant. As soon as Em officially told her fiancé, Liam knew Rob would push to move the wedding light years ahead.

Rob's family had a track record of babies before marriage once the commitment to get married was made. Inevitably, it resulted in what Liam's family called a shotgun wedding, and that meant his best friend was about to be taken off the market, much to the chagrin of half the world's female population. If news of it leaked, the photographers would be as bad as they had been after the Lola disaster, maybe worse.

The last night he'd be able to stay at her house, he and Nina had sex all night long like they did the day they met. Except, now they were making it last longer for both of them.

Morning arrived and Nina walked out of the bathroom with a frown. “What's wrong?” Liam asked.

“I just started my period.”

“Well, that's a good thing.”
It means no baby.

“Except it means no sex this week. I was hoping to christen your new bed while we were getting the house ready.”

Liam slipped his arms around her. “We'll have to wait until the wedding, then. We can christen my bed after Rob and Em get married. How is that?”

She pouted. “Okay. I guess I can wait. At least we had a good night last night.”

Liam smiled. “That we did. Let's get ready to go. We've got a ton of stuff to do this week.” Nina nodded and they were off.

Luckily for Nina, she could get off with kisses. There were several times during the week when they found a quiet corner and he kissed her senseless until she came apart.

“You're so naughty,” she whispered once.

“I wish I could take you upstairs,” he said.

“In a few more days. I promise it'll be worth the wait.”

A little later, she tugged him toward his new room. “What are you doing? I thought we couldn't have sex yet?”

“I have a surprise for you.”

“Should I be worried?” he teased.

Nina shook her head and opened the door. She bit her lip and flicked on the light. Across the room hung a black and white version of The Beehive photo they'd seen at the Art Festival.

“You asked him to make me a special print?”

Nina nodded. “I knew you liked it and I wanted you to have something in here that would remind you of us.”

Liam was touched. “Thank you. I love it.” He kissed her gently and hugged her tight. “Now, whenever I look at it, I'll think of you.”

She smiled. “That was the idea.”

They pushed hard to prepare the house for the move and to receive guests. In a week, a housewarming party would be turned into Rob and Emily's wedding. Em had the idea to invite the entire Deac Roberts full-time staff, providing an excuse for Christopher to attend. Which meant that Jenna was coming, too.

With all those nights alone, Liam had time to think. He found himself restless, unable to sleep. His mind wandered, and no matter how hard he tried to think about Nina, Jenna would creep into his thoughts.

After a couple of nights tossing and turning, he pressed play on his iPhone, and listened the Stones while he killed pigs on Angry Birds. Since he'd seen that last video, he'd avoided this.

When sex with Nina wore him out enough to crash, that was fine. That wasn't happening, and he didn't know what else to do.

At least, that's what he told himself.

The reality was, he wanted to get off – regular sex made him want it all the time – and thinking about Nina wasn't working, for some reason.

So, he turned on his Stones playlist and pressed shuffle. Sure enough, almost as soon as the first three chords of
Beast of Burden
played, his dick hardened like steel. Instead of fighting it, he let himself become swept into the memory of watching Jenna on that video. Before he knew it, he was grabbing himself and stroking. And the orgasm, like the ones after he'd watched the videos in the first place, was intense and powerful.

Jenna was still a part of him, whether he wanted that or not.

As Friday approached and the time to see Jenna drew near, Liam became increasingly unsure that he wanted her out of his life, and he had no idea what to do with that.

Chapter 23

Los Angeles, California, one month ago...

“Hey gorgeous,” Rob said, the smile in his voice evident across the expanse of country that separated southern California and Maine. Though he'd used the term of endearment saved for her, Jenna knew his happiness was about Emily.

A tiny part of her ached at that thought.

“Hey, honey. You're alone, finally.”

“I am. Rick and Kelly are here with the kids. I'm at the beach right now. Emily is at work with Liam.”

“Oh? Sounds like fun, being at the beach. I wish I could go to the beach, but my boss just made a lot of work for me.”

“Sorry about that, hon. How are you feeling? How's my baby boy? Does he miss his Uncle Rob?”

Jenna laughed and rubbed her belly where the baby leveled a swift jab to her abdomen.

“Of course he misses you. He's kicking me now because I'm hearing your voice. I miss you, too. You miss me?”

“Always. You know I miss you when we're not together. Who else would keep me sane? Or protect me from myself?”

Jenna nearly cried at that. She was glad he couldn't see her furrowing her brow, trying to hold back the tears. “I think Emily will do that for you if you ask.”

“You're right. She will. Especially now that she's going to be my wife.”

She tried to keep the tears from her voice, even though they were running in streams down her cheeks.

“Finally took the plunge, huh? Are we getting ready for a big announcement? I assume this time I'll hear from Amy instead of you directly. Which means we're keeping it quiet for now?”

“I had to tell you. It's not like I think you can't keep a secret.”

“No, you know I can do that. Are you going to tell her, Rob? About us? That we've been lovers? That the only thing preventing us from getting married all this time has been our inability to fall in love with each other?”

“I don't see what purpose it serves. We haven't been lovers for four years. It's not like we're planning to run away together and this is me tiding things over until then.”

No, Jenna knew, after what had happened when Emily left before that Rob was over whatever he'd felt for her.

He reassured her, “You know I love you. If all I wanted was a wife who was an industry outsider, I'd have married
you
.”

“That assumes I would have been willing to marry you.”

“Would you? If I'd asked? If I'd wanted to make a life with you, would you have said yes?”

“Maybe if you had asked right after our love affair, I'd have believed you fell in love with me and I'd have embraced it. But you didn't do that, and now we'll never know. The genie is out of the bottle. You're in love with Emily and that's that.”

“Me being in love with Em and marrying her doesn't change the fact that I love you. You know I will
always
love you.”

“I know, Rob. I'll always love you, too. There isn't any point in lamenting what never happened between us. That ship sailed the moment I suggested that we should just be friends.”

“It didn't, Jen. I seriously thought about it for a long time after that. I wondered if maybe I had been reluctant to fall in love with you because of everything with Rachel. And the more I loved you, the less I understood why it was that we couldn't get there. Then I introduced you and Liam, and I got it.”

Jenna's breath caught. She inhaled. “Well, you've finally found your One, honey, and I'm happy for you. Really. I'll be looking for an announcement to post. And I'll be there when it's time for you to make it official, I promise. Now, let's talk shop...”

She had to change the subject, fast, because she couldn't talk about Liam. It hurt too much to think about him at the moment, with Rob winning Emily back and getting engaged. Now, if Liam wasn't an option, she was really on her own with this baby.

And that was terrifying.

Will You Still Love Me?

Present Day

Chapter 24

He was standing on the deck, talking to Nina and Rob, when the guests started to arrive for the wedding festivities. Em's family was coming on Saturday morning and the Deacons would be here Friday night. A small group was joining them for lunch on Friday, including Nina's cousin, Meg, Christopher, Reggie and Jenna. Meg and Reggie had arrived a few minutes earlier and were in the house grabbing drinks.

Liam heard a commotion and he guessed that the other two guests had just walked through the front door. Christopher liked to make an entrance. Rob had said that Christopher and Jenna had arranged to fly together so that they could share a car.

The first thing Liam saw when Jenna stepped onto the deck was her face. His heart skipped a beat. She was more strikingly beautiful than she had been seven months before, wearing an adorably nervous smile. Then he felt bad, because his girlfriend was standing in front of him and it wasn't nice to be happy that another woman was anxious to see him.

Was it?

The next thing he noticed was that her boobs looked bigger.
Noticeably
bigger. And then he saw the giant belly below her newly huge boobs, and things swam in his vision. He suddenly felt lightheaded and sounds grew tinny. The last thing he heard before everything went black was Emily saying, “Grab him, Rob!” as though she was underwater.

**********

Liam blinked away the bright sun, looked around and realized he was lying on the chaise on the deck. To his left, Rob sat in one of the Adirondack chairs holding a cloth to his nose.

“Did I pass out?” Liam asked, groggy.

“Yeah. You okay?”

He nodded as he sat, still feeling weird, but since he hadn't eaten much all day, his blood sugar might be low.

“What happened to you?”

“Your head smacked me in the nose. It's just a nosebleed.”

“Shit, I'm sorry about that.”

“Don't worry. You want to tell me why it is you passed out? We've been friends for almost fifteen years. I've never seen you black out without a case of beer in you.”

“Where's everyone else?” He needed privacy for this.

“They all went inside. Decided to give you some air.”

“Nina?”

“In there with Meg. She was worried about you, but I told her you'd be okay. We gonna talk about it?”

“Not up here. Can we go to the beach?”

“You up for walking down those stairs at the moment?”

“I'm fine. Let's go.”

The two of them made their way to the small beach in front of the house. They sat on the rocks and for a couple minutes, Liam was quiet, processing things. Rob spoke first.

“Unless you have a health issue you're hiding from me, I take it that was a reaction to seeing Jenna pregnant.” Liam nodded. “Is it your baby?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure about that?”

“Positive. The last night we were together, we had a condom break. She was on the pill, but that's no guarantee. It's one reason I've always insisted on condoms. I didn't want surprises later.”

“So much for that.”

“I don't think she did it on purpose, Rob. I had just told her that I loved her. She moved back to look at me and it broke.”

“You still have feelings for her?”

“I don't fucking know how I feel.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I don't know. I have to talk to Jenna, at least. She's having my baby. If I'd known that, I would have been to see her before this.”

“I don't think she wanted you to know.”

“What makes you say that? Did you know?”

“I'm her boss. She had to tell me at some point.”

“And you never told me? What the fuck! You're supposed to be my best friend!”

“She didn't say it was
your
baby. I thought she was seeing someone new because she used to ask about you daily and then she stopped. A month later, she told me she was pregnant, and she didn't say to tell you, so I wasn't sure it was my place to share it.”

Liam put his head in his hands. “Why wouldn't she tell me?”

“I don't know. You'll have to ask her. Do you want some time alone? Or do you want to talk to her now?”

“No, I need to talk to her. This can't really wait.”

Rob clapped him on the back. “Then let's go. We can talk more later. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. If I'd known that the baby was yours, I'd have told you immediately. I figured it was a long shot,” he said as they walked up the stairs. “She was so in love with you, I thought if the baby was yours, she'd have told you. Especially when you said you loved her and promised that you were done seeing other women.”

“Yeah, she'll believe that once she realizes I've been dating Nina.”

“Do you
want
her to believe it? Do you want her back?”

Liam stopped on the stairs and sat. “I don't know! If you'd asked me that a month ago, there would've been no hesitation. I'd have instantly said yes. How fair is that to Nina, to say goodbye because a woman I once loved shows up pregnant with my baby?”

Rob sat next to him. “But you're thinking about it.”

“Of course I'm thinking about it! I loved her, Rob! I had no idea how much I loved her until she wasn't there.”

“Why the hell didn't you call her?”

“We never had that kind of relationship! If I was gone, we didn't talk until I was in L.A. or on my way there. Period. It's not like she didn't know what was happening with me. She knew what went down, which means she was aware you sent me after Em. I didn't think I needed to call and update her because we didn't have that sort of relationship in the past.”

Rob gave him a sad smile that said,
That's a pathetic excuse
.

“When you said Jenna was seeing someone else, fuck, I thought she was done with me. I wanted to call her. I thought about her
every single day
before I met Nina. I still think about her all the time – those videos didn't help me forget her, that's for sure. Nina is fun, sexy, one of the nicest people I've ever met, and the sex is phenomenal, but there isn't the passion there was with Jenna. Even the first time I kissed Jenna was more passionate than I've ever been with Nina. The connection between me and Jenna was electric. I didn't even
consider
settling down before I met her. The longer we meant something to one another, the more I wanted to commit to her, but I told her that night I still wasn't ready to get married, and I figured she met someone who was.”

“Do you love Nina?”

“I don't know. I like her a lot and I care about her. I could see myself falling in love with her over time and that she'd make me happy in the long-term, but it's only been a month.”

“What about Jenna? How quickly did you fall for her?”

“Hell, I was probably in love with her the moment I opened the door, but I knew I felt something for her when we went to sleep that first night. It scared the shit out of me.
Everything
about Jenna scared the shit out of me and made me nervous. I've never felt like that with Nina. Which one is the way it's supposed to be?”

“Are you really asking? Because you know how I met Emily and how I was in love with her from the moment I met her. That I've always felt intense passion for her. So if you're asking
me
to tell you how I think it's supposed to be, then you already have your answer.”

Liam was quiet for a moment. “I don't want to hurt Nina. And what if Jenna doesn't want me? What if she really was done with me? Am I supposed to throw away everything I have with Nina?”

“Why don't you talk to Jenna first?
Then
worry about how you're going to handle everything.”

Liam nodded, stood, and slowly walked back to the house.

**********

After Liam had collapsed, Emily turned to Jenna and said, “Let's go to my office and talk.” Jenna nodded her agreement and followed Emily into the house, past the kitchen where Nina, Meg, Chris and Reggie were sitting at the bar. Chris had already given Rob ice and a cloth for his nose.

Emily smiled sadly at Nina and Meg as she passed. Jenna could see the anger on Meg's face as well as the despair on Nina's. Reggie looked sheepishly at Emily. Though she'd never directly said so, the makeup artist's expression indicated that she'd long suspected Liam was the baby's father.

When she closed the office door behind her, Emily gestured Jenna toward a big, comfy chair and then sat at her desk. She put her chin on her hand and looked at Jenna with an expectant expression. “So, I bet if I did the math, I'd find that 34 weeks is the night you came to the Malibu house for dinner.”

Jenna nodded, tears in her eyes.

“He didn't know,” Emily said.

“I haven't spoken to him since before I left the next morning. He was supposed to call that night, but he never did.”

“He chased me across the country. Didn't you know that?”

Jenna sighed. “Yes. I knew. I was upset at first. He'd told me he loved me and that he'd ended things with everyone but me. We were supposed to make things work between us. When he didn't call, I thought he'd changed his mind and I was angry. Then I was sad, and then I peed on a stick and it told me I was pregnant. I had no idea how to tell him without saying it in person. You remember how I told you that we didn't call or talk when we were apart? I thought, if he loves me, he'll call, even if that's not what we usually do. He never called and Rob never said that he'd asked about me. I thought he'd moved on. I guess he has.”

She started to cry.

“Oh, Jenna. I had no idea. I didn't know he was in love with you before. I'd never have pushed them together if I'd known. You said you didn't expect him to settle down with you.”

“I didn't! Not when you and I talked that night. I'd suspected he loved me, but his signals were so mixed. Then he made love to me like I was the most treasured person on earth and he told me he loved me. I pulled away to look at him and the condom broke. He was worried, but I was on the pill and I said it would be fine.”

“Except it wasn't. What happened?”

“The doctor told me that it was probably because I didn't take my pill at the same time every day and for some women, it's a crucial step. I guess for me it is.” How Rob had never gotten her pregnant in weeks of sex without condoms was a mystery.

“So, because Liam knew the condom broke, when he saw you, he knew the baby was his.”

She nodded. “I assume so, yes. He at least suspects. Frankly, I wasn't sure how he'd react. Especially if he had a new girlfriend. Or two. Or three.”

“He's not seeing anyone but her. He's either with me or with Nina. She's my sister's best friend. They met at Charlie's wedding. If I had known about the two of you, I'd never have encouraged him to date Nina.”

“Are they serious?” Jenna asked, tears in her voice.

“I can't speak for them. I know I
thought
they were, but I saw the way he looked at you before he realized you were pregnant. I think he's still in love with you. I haven't seen him smile that wide since I last saw you two together in Malibu. He looked as happy to see you as he did when you walked in the door of the beach house, and I never would have guessed then that he was in love with you. Honestly, I thought he liked Reggie more than you.”

“I told Reggie that once, too. She said I was nuts, that Liam had always been in love with me. Even before she met me and we became friends, she knew it was me he really wanted. He wasn't the same with her after he met me.”

“He met her first?” Jenna nodded. “How did he manage to form a lasting bond with you? He doesn't seem to stay in one place long enough to develop relationships. In fact, he told me once he liked it that way.”

“I think he believed he did, that it was easier. We met when he was guarding Rob after what happened with Lola. That was about three years before I met you. We literally spent every single night together from the day we met until they had to leave L.A. for Rob to go on location. It was nearly four months. From the beginning, he was honest about the fact that he wasn't only seeing me, but we were exclusive that whole time in L.A.”

“I would never have guessed. I thought he said that Nina was the first girl about whom he'd ever been serious, but maybe I just wanted to hear it.”

Jenna shrugged. “I don't know how he feels about me now. You said he's only seeing her?” Em nodded. “Well, then maybe she's who he really wants and it was a mistake to come here. I'll probably have my heart broken all over again.”

“Didn't you want him to know he's going to be a father? I can't imagine keeping that from Rob.”

“Of course. I want him to have a relationship with his son, even if he doesn't want me anymore.”

“You're having a boy?”

She automatically grinned. “Yes. I was so happy to think that Liam would be thrilled to have a little boy to teach hockey. Then I remembered that he didn't know, and I was so sad.”