It was plain white, with the word Dad emblazoned in big, black letters. Underneath was the year. She had stopped at the store and purchased it after her visit with Elle. Although, of course, Aidan was already a father to Chloe, and a wonderful one at that, raising her on his own without a bit of help from Chloe’s mother.
Boy, Aidan sure knew how to pick them, didn’t he? Maybe where Chloe’s mother had failed, Kate could do better. It said something that Aidan hadn’t let one bad relationship experience sour him on trying to make it work with her. And that was before he had learned she was pregnant. He was either a fool or the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Her throat was so tight she almost couldn’t speak. Instead, she hoped the “Dad” mug would do the talking for her. Or at least break the ice.
When he opened the door, she held out the coffee cup and her words spilled out. “I know you’re already a dad. But see the year on the cup? It signifies the year we became a family. All four of us.”
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” he asked cautiously.
Kate nodded. “But I have stipulations. I’m not giving up my business. I need to make my own money. And I am keeping my house. I don’t want to sell it.”
He scrunched up his face. “You want to be married, but live separately? We already talked about that, Kate”
“No, I want to live with you and Chloe, but I don’t want to sell my house. I saved for a long time before I could afford to buy it. And I don’t want to let it go.”
“Okay, we can rent it out.”
Kate shrugged. “I guess so. The extra money would be nice.”
Aidan smiled. “So we’re really going to do this?”
Kate took an audible deep breath and nodded.
“Elle knows we are married, and she knows about the baby. So we have to tell the family as soon as possible.”
“Why? Before you change your mind?”
“Very funny,” Kate leaned in and brushed a featherlight kiss on his lips. “Don’t tempt me.”
Aidan deepened the kiss and white-hot volts of electricity shot through her, waking up her lady parts. “Okay, you can tempt me that way. But let me set this down. You’re going to make me spill the coffee.”
Aidan took the bag with the bagels and set it and the mug on the table in the foyer.
Kate stepped inside. “I trust my sister to keep our secret, but things happen. Tongues slip and happy news finds a way of spilling out. And if my mother and Gigi find out we’re married and having a baby before we can tell them, they will disown both of us.”
Aidan pulled her into his arms, somehow managing to close the door in the process.
“Okay, when do you want to tell them?”
“How about this Sunday at family brunch?”
“That sounds like a plan,” he said.
“There’s something else,” Kate said. “I hope you won’t think this is silly because it’s important to me. I want you to propose to me, and I want a do-over with the wedding. I want a traditional wedding. Because we eloped, I didn’t get to buy bridal magazines and I didn’t get to say yes to the dress and cry when I found the perfect one. I want all of that, Aidan. I want my sisters to be bridesmaids and I wanted Charles to give me away. I don’t want our marriage to be defined by a bad Elvis impersonator and a ceremony that I didn’t remember.”
“I want you to have all of those things, Kate. You deserve to have the wedding of your dreams.” Aidan reached out and put his hand on her arm and gave it a loving squeeze. “If that’s what has been hanging you up about us, it is all easy to fix. I would get down on one knee right now and ask you to marry me, but I want you to have a real proposal and I intend to surprise you with it.”
Her heart swelled, and then he kissed her for real.
The connection cut through the jangle of nerves that had been rattling her since she woke up married. In an instant, she was one hundred percent certain this was right. That he was not going give up on her or tell her to leave because she was too difficult to deal with.
In turn, she would give her best to him.
He deepened the kiss and her body responded immediately. Her heart pounded and her body sighed, oooh, yes.
Or maybe she had said it out loud. She hoped she hadn’t said it out loud. Even if she had, it didn’t matter because that was the thing about them. They were so good together. Physically, they just worked. While the physical part of their relationship wasn’t the only thing to build a relationship around, it was something. An important something. And they had it.
She slid her arms around his neck and pulled him close. She opened her mouth and invited him in. He turned her so that he could deepen the kiss even more.
In contrast to how he tended to let her run the show outside of the bedroom, in the bed he was the one who was in control. Maybe that would be their saving grace?
She was vaguely aware of him gently but deftly walking her backward away from the front door, all the while not breaking the electric connection that was this kiss.
Somehow, her back was against the closest living room wall. His hands had found the back of her neck, and his touch was tender but firm, in contrast to the fiery, lingering kiss. He tasted of toothpaste with just the slightest hint of coffee, and that
