Taking You (8 page)

But Aria didn’t join in. A part of her wanted to, but another part wondered why she had to be the March sister who always did things the hard way.

“Why do I always screw things up?” she asked with a sigh.

“You didn’t screw anything up. We’re the happiest married couple I know.”

“Now,” Aria said. “But first I had a baby with a man I should never have gone home with for a night, let alone lived with for several years, was sued for custody of the baby, and faked a marriage with a man who hated me.”

“I never hated you.”

“You didn’t like me much, either,” she said, shoving her hair away from her forehead. “Whatever, Nash. Just ignore me. I love you; I love us. I just wish I’d had the sense never to let you go in the first place. Then maybe we’d have that memory of saying our vows and meaning them, you know?”

“Aria,” Nash said in a voice that made it clear he was finished humoring her. “Look at me.”

Aria reluctantly turned to meet his eyes, not wanting to hear that she was being ridiculous, even though she knew it was the truth.

“We might not have meant those words when we first said them,” he said, his gaze so intense and unguarded it made Aria’s breath hitch. “But now I hope you know I live by those words.”

“I do, babe,” Aria said. “Of course, I do. And I feel the same way.”

“Seriously, Red. It doesn’t matter how we got started, it matters how we live from here on out. And from here on out, there is nothing I want more in this life than to love, honor, and cherish you until the day I die,” Nash said, the tenderness and sincerity in his voice making the prickling in Aria’s eyes become a full-fledged sting.

“Everything else is just gravy,” he continued, running his fingers through her hair to fist at the nape of her neck. “You’re my meat and potatoes.”

Aria laughed even as the tears filling her eyes slipped down her cheeks. “You should have stopped after the first part.”

“You don’t like being my meat and potatoes?”

“I love being your meat and potatoes,” she whispered, reaching up to capture his face in her hands, cradling him like the treasure he was. “I love you, Meaty.”

“And I love you,” he said, using the hand fisted in her hair to pull her close, a possessive gesture that made Aria’s nerves hum with awareness. And then he wrapped his free arm around her waist, lifting her into the air until her feet dangled before kissing her like the world was about to end, and the hum became a roar.

Nash demanded entrance to her mouth; Aria’s lips parted with a moan as he swept inside, meeting her tongue with firm, hungry strokes that made her wish she’d taken him up on that offer to visit the family bathroom. All she wanted right now was Nash’s hands on her, Nash’s fingers between her legs, coaxing the slick heat from her body before he replaced his hand with something more intimate and pushed inside.

She wanted him filling her up, claiming her with all the passion she could feel coiled in his tense muscles, banishing the last of her sadness with the blissful feel of his body pounding into hers.

“Let’s get out of here,” she mumbled against his mouth, breath coming fast.

“Downstairs bathroom?” he asked, as breathless as she was.

“Or the woods behind the building or the backseat of the truck, I don’t care,” she said, claiming his hand as he set her back on her feet. “I just need you.”

“And I need you,” he said, squeezing her fingers as he drew her across the terrace and down the stairs leading to the bottom floor. “Don’t ever doubt it, baby.”

“I don’t.” Tears filled Aria’s eyes again, just the way he called her baby enough to make her start sniffling all over again.

“I’m sorry,” she said, stepping off the stairs onto the concrete patio. “I don’t know why I’m so emotional today.”

Nash smiled over his shoulder as he headed for the door to the bottom floor and the hopefully unoccupied family bathroom. “It’s a wedding, babe. Half the women in there have cried today and some of the men, too.”

Aria shook her head. “No, seriously, I don’t cry at weddings. They don’t hit me that way. I mean, I cried at my friend Hannah’s wedding, but that’s because I was…”

She froze just inside the door, her hand slipping from Nash’s with a swiftly drawn breath as an unexpected thought danced through her head.

“What’s wrong?” Nash turned, his eyes looking even greener with the light green walls of the lounge area behind him.

“I think…” She bit her lip, struggling to remember the first day of her last period. She knew it had been before she and Nash had their epic four-times-in-one-night adults only evening, but she couldn’t quite…

“When was our last date night?”

He frowned. “Um…it was after the barbeque at your parent’s house, right? The night your mom and dad were going to have the intervention with Melody and Nick and ended up freaking out because Lark was pregnant instead?”

“Right.” Aria nodded slowly even as her heart began to race with a very different kind of excitement. It had been five weeks. With Melody ending up in the hospital with a severe allergic reaction and then all the wedding-planning madness, Aria hadn’t even realized she was late.

She was
never
late. The last time she went more than twenty-eight days between cycles was when she was pregnant with Felicity.

“What’s up, Red?” Nash asked. “You’ve got a weird look on your face, and I have a feeling we’re not headed to the family bathroom anymore.”

Aria stared up at him, her husband, standing there looking like a secret agent in his tux with his hair mussed from when they were kissing and his love and concern so clear on his face. He was so beautiful and sexy and kind and funny and all-around-wonderful. She couldn’t ask for a better stepfather to Felicity and she couldn’t imagine bringing another baby into the world with anyone else.

Another baby.
They were going to have another baby! She was almost one hundred percent positive.

Still, she didn’t want to tell Nash what she suspected until she was sure.

“What time is it?” she asked, spinning in a circle, looking for a clock on the wall, but finding nothing but overstuffed sofas and a painting of a hunting dog fetching a pheasant from the grass.

“Almost seven. Why?” Nash asked. “Aria, what the hell is going on, I—”

“I have to go do something really quickly,” Aria said, gambling that the Mom and Pop store not far from the venue was still open and had a pregnancy test on the shelf. Women in the boonies needed to know if they were pregnant, too, didn’t they?

“Go where, to do what?” Nash asked, following as she headed up the stairs leading to the main entrance.

“I’ll grab the keys from the coat check and be back in fifteen minutes,” she said. “You won’t even miss me.”

“You’re right. Because I’m coming with you.”

“No, you stay here and help Mom with Felicity,” Aria said. “I promise I’ll be right back.”

“No way. You’re acting way too weird. I’ve never seen you cry this much.”

“Oh, I cried all the time when we were first getting together. It’s not a big deal,” Aria said, reaching the top of the steps and turning back to point at his chest with a stern finger. “I’m fine. Trust me. Go eat cake with Felicity and I’ll be right back with a surprise.”

Nash’s expression remained stormy. “I don’t like surprises.”

Aria smiled. “I think you’ll like this one.”

“I’d rather be in the family bathroom with your panties on the floor.”

Aria’s tongue slipped out to wet her lips. “That could still happen, if you play your cards right and stop interfering when I am clearly on a mission.”

He sighed and shook his head in defeat. “Fine, but if you’re not back in fifteen minutes, I’m borrowing Nick’s car and coming after you.”

She snorted. “Good luck catching anything in the Midget,” she said, backing toward the coat check by the front door. “I’ll be right back.”

“Be careful,” he called after her, worry in his voice.

Aria felt a pang of guilt for making him worry, but pushed it away. She had to know if her suspicion was fact, if she was really pregnant with his baby. She knew how eager Nash was to expand their family. She didn’t want to get his hopes up unless she knew for sure.

***

Ten minutes later, she had parked the truck at
Yerger’s General Store
and was pacing down the medicine aisle, thankfully finding what she was looking for on the top shelf. She snagged two tests for good measure and hurried to the front, pulling her credit card out of her drawstring purse.

“Do you have a bathroom I could use?” Aria asked the older woman behind the counter, meeting the woman’s raised eyebrows with a big smile.

The woman returned the smile, obviously relieved to see that Aria wasn’t worried about the results of the test.

“Sure,” she said, pointing to a doorway covered by plastic flaps at the back of the store. “Head into the back and turn right at the beer. The restroom’s at the end of the hall.”

“Thank you so much,” Aria said, hurrying to the back of the store.

Five minutes later, she had her answer. With a giddy squeal, she capped the test, rinsed it off, and wrapped it in a paper towel before stuffing it in her purse—just in case Nash wanted to see evidence. He was a cop, after all.

As she hurried back through the store to the front door, the woman at the counter lifted her eyebrows. Aria smiled and nodded, laughing as the woman gave her a happy thumbs up.

She all but danced back to the truck, the difference in her mood like sunshine and rain. Now that she understood why she was feeling so moody, she knew she would be able to manage it so much better. She had struggled with emotional ups and downs during her first pregnancy, but she’d managed to keep her center, even with her ex doing everything possible to make her a miserable wreck.

A wave of gratitude suddenly tightened her chest. She already knew her second pregnancy was going to be vastly different from her first. Nash would never be less than thrilled to find out that they were pregnant, he would never cheat on her while she was carrying their baby, or make her feel anything less than beautiful as her body changed to accommodate the child growing inside of her.

A child. Their child, hers and Nash’s.

Her hand came to her abdomen as she sent a wave of love to the tiny life inside of her, knowing Felicity and this little boy or girl would be the most loved children in the whole world.

***

Nash paced the edge of the dance floor with Felicity in his arms, keeping the sleepy baby lulled into silence as Bob March finished his toast to the newly married couple. It was a glowing testimony to Bob’s love for Lark and Mason that made Nash want to roll his eyes just a little.

Mason was a good friend—and family, now—but he had made his share of mistakes with Lark before he left to do his residency. But where Mason Stewart was concerned, Bob March had obviously forgiven and forgotten. Meanwhile, Nash and Bob still butted heads at least once a week, despite their best efforts to play nice for Aria’s sake.

Nash got the feeling Bob was still wishing that Nash would disappear, but Nash wasn’t going anywhere. Aria was more than his meat and potatoes, she was the air he breathed, and he would have told her so if he hadn’t known she would tease him for being cheesy. But the truth was he wouldn’t last a day without her, and wouldn’t want to. She and Felicity were his family, the source of the happiness that buoyed him through even the roughest days.

As the room erupted in applause at the end of the toast, Nash turned to look at the door again, frowning when there was still no sign of his wife.

Where was she? What in the world was this surprise, and why did she have to leave to go get it
right now
?

Most of the time, he loved Aria’s impulsive nature, but he really didn’t want to be alone right now. He’d been looking forward to dancing with his wife.

They hadn’t had a chance to date before they were married and had gone straight into their relationship as parents of a baby. There wasn’t much time for just the two of them and they usually didn’t want to waste a date night outside their bedroom. They were still deep in the honeymoon phase and found being naked with each other without a baby in the house the ultimate form of entertainment.

Still, he liked the idea of holding Aria close while they swayed to music.

“Thank you, Dad,” Mason said, claiming the microphone from Bob as his father-in-law gripped him in a quick hug that made Nash wish Aria was here to gag about it with him. She loved her daddy, but she was the first to agree that he could be a total pain in the ass.

“And now, Lark and I would like to do something a little unusual,” Mason continued, scanning the room until he found Nash and meeting his eyes with a smile. “As most of you know, my good friend, Nash, married Lark’s sister, Aria, a couple of months ago.”

Nash forced a smile as applause filled the room once more, uncomfortable with the attention and wishing Aria was back beside him more than ever.

A second later, as if drawn to him by his racing heart, she appeared breathless at his side, hooking her arm through his. He smiled down at her flushed cheeks and eyes sparkling with happiness and felt his heart clench, amazed all over again that this gorgeous, funny, loving woman who could make him hard with one crooked smile was his wife. This was the woman he got to wake up with every morning, the woman who ran to hug him as soon as he got home, and who had made him the father to a beautiful baby girl who looked at him like he hung the sun and the moon combined.

Who cared if his father-in-law hated him? Nash was still the luckiest man in the room. Bar none.

“But Nash and Aria didn’t do the big church wedding,” Mason said once the applause had died down. “And they have refused to let us throw them a reception on the grounds that they didn’t want to steal my and Lark’s thunder.”

“But we are all about sharing our thunder,” Lark said from beside Mason, summoning a laugh from the corners of the room. “And that’s why we want to share our first dance with Nash and Aria,” she continued. “Because they are our family and our friends and an inspiration about what it means to love. Thank you, Nash, for joining my family and loving my sister and niece the way you do.”