He shrugged. “I’ll take him until then.” He strode across the room and picked Riley up, and Riley flashed a small, gummy smile that might have been nothing more than a facial twitch but still made Danielle’s heart do something fluttery and funny.
Joshua’s confidence with Riley was increasing, and he made a massive effort to be proactive when it came to taking care of the baby.
Watching Joshua stand there with Riley banished any lingering gross feelings about being considered difficult, and when Joshua left the room and Danielle turned to face the array of gowns, she pushed every last one of her doubts to the side.
Maybe Joshua wasn’t perfect. Maybe there were some issues. But all of this, with him, was a damn sight better than anything she’d had before.
And a girl like her couldn’t afford to be too picky.
She took a deep breath and unzipped the first dress.
Ten
The day of the wedding was drawing closer and Danielle was drawing closer to a potential nervous breakdown. She was happy, in a way. When Joshua kissed her, when he took her to bed, when he spent the whole night holding her in his strong arms, everything felt great.
It was the in-between hours. The quiet moments she spent with herself, rocking Riley in that gray time before dawn. That was when she pulled those bad feelings out and began to examine them.
She had two days until the wedding, and her dress had been professionally altered to fit her—a glorious, heavy satin gown with a deep V in the back and buttons that ran down the full skirt—and if for no other reason than that, she couldn’t back out.
The thought of backing out sent a burst of pain blooming through her chest. Unfurling, spreading, expanding. No. She didn’t want to leave Joshua. No matter the strange, imbalanced feelings between them, she wanted to be with him. She felt almost desperate to be with him.
She looked over at him now, sitting in the driver’s seat of what was still the nicest car she had ever touched, much less ridden in, as they pulled up to the front of his parents’ house.
Sometimes looking at him hurt. And sometimes looking away from him hurt. Sometimes everything hurt. The need to be near him, the need for distance.
Maybe she really had lost her mind.
It took her a moment to realize she was still sitting motionless in the passenger seat, and Joshua had already put the car in Park and retrieved Riley from the back seat. He didn’t bother to bring the car seat inside this time. Instead, he wrapped the baby in a blanket and cradled him in his arms.
Oh, that hurt her in a whole different way.
Joshua was sexy. All the time. There was no question about that. But the way he was with Riley... Well, she was surprised that any woman who walked by him when he was holding Riley didn’t fall immediately at his feet.
She nearly did. Every damned time.
She followed him to the front door, looking down to focus on the way the gravel crunched beneath her boots—new boots courtesy of Joshua that didn’t have holes in them, and didn’t need three pairs of socks to keep her toes from turning into icicles—because otherwise she was going to get swallowed up by the nerves that were riding through her.
His mother had insisted on making a prewedding dinner for them, and this was Danielle’s second chance to make a first impression. Now it was real and she felt an immense amount of pressure to be better than she was, rather than simply sliding into the lowest expectation people like his family had of someone like her, as she’d done before.
She looked over at him when she realized he was staring at her. “You’re going to be fine,” he said.
Then he bent down and kissed her. She closed her eyes, her breath rushing from her lungs as she gave herself over to his kiss.
That, of course, was when the front door opened.
“You’re here!”
Nancy Grayson actually looked happy to see them both, and even happier that she had caught them making out on the front porch.
Danielle tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Thank you for doing this,” she said, jarred by the change in her role, but desperate to do a good job.
“Of course,” the older woman said. “Now, let me hold my grandbaby.”
Those words made Danielle pause, made her freeze up. Made her want to cry. Actually, she was crying. Tears were rolling down her cheeks without even giving her a chance to hold them back.
Joshua’s mother frowned. “What’s wrong, honey?”
Danielle swallowed hard. “I didn’t ever expect that he would have grandparents. That he would have a family.” She took a deep breath. “I mean like this. It means a lot to me.”
Nancy took Riley from Joshua’s arms. But then she reached out and put her hand on Danielle’s shoulder. “He’s not the only one who has a family. You do too.”
Throughout the evening Danielle was stunned by the warm acceptance of Joshua’s entire family. By the way his sister-in-law, Mia, made an effort to get to know her, and by the complete absence of antagonism coming from his younger sister, Faith.
But what really surprised her was when Joshua’s father came and sat next to her on the couch during dessert. Joshua was engaged in conversation with his brothers across the room while Mia, Faith and Joshua’s mother were busy playing with Riley.
“I knew you would be good for him,” Mr. Grayson said.
Danielle looked up at the older man. “A wife, you mean,” she said, her voice soft. She didn’t know why she had challenged his assertion, why she’d done anything but blandly agree. Except she knew she wasn’t the woman he would have chosen for his son, and she didn’t want him to pretend otherwise.
He shook his head. “I’m not talking about the ad. I know what he did. I know that he placed another ad looking for somebody
