I knew I missed him. I knew I longed for him and felt the emptiness of him not being a part of every day. But I was forcing myself to get by. Now that I was in his arms again, the craving was even stronger, and I didn’t want to let go.
“Thank you for the flowers,” I said when the kiss ended. “They’re beautiful.”
“I knew you love peonies, but I wanted to do something special.”
“So, they would be different from the ones Nick gives me?” I asked.
The question took some of the light and happy feeling out of the room, but I felt like it needed to be said. As good as it felt to be this way with him again, there were still things we needed to work out. We needed to talk through what happened and ensure it was totally resolved. If we just ignored it or pretended it didn’t happen, it could all explode again later.
And I knew we needed to get everything out in the open and talk through it before I could tell him about the baby. The news was right there on the tip of my tongue. The ultrasound images were folded up in my bag stuffed in the bottom drawer of my desk. I could so easily tell him. But it didn’t feel like the right moment.
We were alone in the office, but it wasn’t lost on me that his brothers and my staff were just on the other side of my door. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if I opened the door and found that Nick and Darren had beckoned in Quentin, Merry, and Kelly. Vince’s parents might have even been there when we came out of the office. A few borrowed seconds and a very public reconciliation weren’t the right time for him to find out he was going to be a father.
It would wait.
“Lindsey, I know I already said it, but I am so sorry. I don’t even know how to tell you how sorry I am. You didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.
I took his hands and nodded. “Yes, I did.”
“No. I was being selfish and ridiculous. You didn’t have any obligation to tell me anything or to make me the first priority when you were going through something. It was just me being sensitive and defensive because I wanted to be the first person you thought of,” he said.
“You might have been being selfish and ridiculous, but so was I. Vince, I should have told you the truth from the very beginning. Especially when things started getting more serious between us. I never should have just assumed your brother would tell you or thought that was enough. You deserved more than that. You still do. But we don’t have the time to talk about it all right now.”
“I can come back after work,” he suggested, but I shook my head.
“Come tomorrow. Another couple rented out the bar for a private event, so I won’t need to be here after it’s set up,” I told him.
Vince agreed and kissed me one more time before walking out of the office. I followed him and was relieved to see him ushering his brothers out. As much as I would like to celebrate my custody victory with Nick, it was better if we did that some other time. A time when he wasn’t going to be compelled to tease me all night, and when I could tell him why I wasn’t drinking.
Until then, I needed to get through the night and the next day and look forward to my time with Vince.37Vince“You’re in early,” Mom said the next morning when she found me in the kitchen brewing a cup of coffee.
She paused at the edge of the island to look at the cake sitting in the middle of it. Or, at least, what was left of it. This was not a cake crafted by Anthony. It said boxed cake mix and cans of frosting smeared by my brothers all over it. It also said a few choice words and featured a stick figure scene necessitating the removal of the majority of the top of the cake to make it acceptable for presentation in public. At least presentation in front of my mother.
The fact that the cake was already waiting for me when I got to the office almost two hours before I usually did was a testament to their dedication. It probably meant they’d come up with the idea the night before and came to the complex to bake the cake in the kitchen so it could be waiting for me.
“Still not my fault,” I told her, and she laughed.
“I wasn’t even going to ask about it,” she said. “Whatever this whole pastry communication system you’ve got worked out, it’s between your brothers and you. I’m just here for the leftovers.”