“I know that. I’ll call you very soon. Honest.”
He cupped her cheeks and kissed her, and she marveled over how he could pack so much into just one kiss.
One kiss.
Pleading.
Passion.
Possession.
And a promise that he was coming back.
Soon.
Chapter Fourteen
Colm returned to the pub…begrudgingly.
He’d put up a hell of a fight back at Kelli’s, and she’d still asked for more time. He’d had the last two weeks to prepare his case, to come up with what he’d considered an ironclad argument. He knew Kelli’s only defense would be the fact they’d only been a couple less than a month.
So he’d started a list of all the ways he could counter that argument. And he sort of thought he’d nailed it.
Until she’d looked at him with those sad, scared blue eyes and asked him for time to think.
He’d always thought himself made of pretty stern stuff, able to stand firm when he knew he was right, but dammit if she hadn’t slayed him with one look.
She could have asked him to build a space shuttle and fly her to the moon with those eyes, and fuck him if he wouldn’t be googling for a way to buy rocket fuel right now.
“What are you doing here?” Padraig asked as he dropped down onto a stool at the bar.
“I live here.”
Padraig didn’t respond to the sarcasm. Instead, he poured Colm a pint of Guinness and slid it in front of him.
His twin waited until Colm took a long swig, sucking down nearly half the beer, before he started the questioning. “What did you do?”
“Why do you assume I’m the one who fucked up?”
Padraig grinned. “I don’t assume anything. It’s you and Kelli. I had a fifty-fifty shot either way.”
“I told her we were dating.”
Padraig gave him a funny look. “She didn’t know that?”
Colm grimaced. “It’s Kelli. She didn’t want to know that. Even though she did.”
It spoke to the level of Padraig and Kelli’s friendship that he not only understood that ridiculous statement but found it amusing. “That’s my Kell. She’ll always go down swinging.”
Colm narrowed his eyes. “Thought we’d already determined she was my Kelli.”
Emmy, who was sitting at the end of the bar, tapping away on her keyboard, paused and looked up at that. The woman was a master eavesdropper, though Colm could never quite figure out how she could write and listen to all the conversations happening at the pub at the same time.
Colm caught her eye. “She’s my Kelli,” he repeated for her benefit, feeling the need to stress that point to anyone and everyone.
Emmy just nodded and smiled and started typing again.
“So clue me in, Bro,” Padraig said, leaning on the counter. “I thought things between you and Kelli were good. Why would she be so resistant to the concept of dating you?”
“You know about her baby plans.” Kelli had pulled Padraig away after dessert at Thanksgiving, the two of them finally talking for ages about her hopes for the future and what she’d planned to do.
Padraig nodded. “She still planning to keep the sperm donor? And the timeline?”
Colm sighed. “Yeah. I told her it was time for us to figure some shit out since she’s set this damn holiday break as go time.”
“Did you ask for more time?”
Colm shook his head. “At first. But I knew she wouldn’t go for it. So I asked to be the father.”
“Wow.” Padraig’s amazement didn’t really match the huge-ass grin on his face. “Talk about taking an abrupt left turn. Weren’t you the guy who wasn’t tying himself down to just one woman until he was at least forty?”
“You and I both know that was me talking out my ass. Trying to make myself feel better because love was eluding me.”
“And Kelli rejected your offer?”
Colm shrugged. “Yeah. At first. Then…”
“Let me guess, you went full lawyer on her ass and started wearing her down with all your arguments.”
Colm leaned back in his chair, scowling. “I simply reminded her that there was precious little she didn’t know about me. I don’t know why she thinks we need any more time to,” Colm finger-quoted, “‘get to know each other.’ Jesus. We’ve known each other our whole lives. What else is there to learn?”
Padraig lifted his hands in surrender as Colm became more impassioned with each word. “Hey, Bro. Listen. I’m on your side. I think you and Kelli are perfect for each other. But the truth is she’s stubborn and headstrong, and once she’s made up her mind about something, it’s hard for her to back away from it. She’s had this single-mom plan swimming around in her brain for the better part of a year. She’s made the lists, the plans, studied the pros and cons. Then, the second she takes the leap and sets things in motion, you crawl in bed with her in the middle of a blackout and boom! Everything is tossed on its ear.”
“I’m not trying to talk her out of having a baby. I just want it to be our baby.” Colm finished his Guinness.
Padraig refilled it. “The thing is…Kelli is always waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
Colm recognized the truth in that statement. Especially when he recalled her comment that everyone leaves eventually.
He considered those words from her perspective because he’d never heard her say anything with such outright assurance, and such…pain.
That was when he realized it wasn’t everyone who had always walked away from her.
It was just one person.
Her dad hadn’t just left her mom. He’d left Kelli. The asshole had been in town a few months ago and hadn’t even bothered to call his daughter.
Colm had assumed that didn’t bother her because she’d never let on that it did. But he could see now that her pride wouldn’t let her reveal her feelings about the matter.
Her dad’s departure had hurt her, and he wasn’t sure Kelli had ever faced up to it.
“I’m not her dad,” Colm said. “I wouldn’t leave her. Wouldn’t leave our kids.”
“And I’m sure
