The quiet in the room was deafening. Stevie could almost hear her own rapid heartbeat as she waited for her friends’ reactions. Of all their possible responses, silence was the last thing she expected.
It seemed minutes before Tess roused first from the temporary paralysis. “You’re married?”
“Yes. For three whole days now.” With a look of apology, she sought out the gaze of her oldest friend. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. It’s just...well, it all happened very fast.”
Setting aside her teacup, Jenny rose slowly to her feet. “I can’t believe this, Stevie. It’s...it’s just...I can’t believe you’re married.”
“When did all this come about?” Tess nudged the cat gently out of the way and stood. “You never even hinted that you and Cole were seeing each other.”
Stevie twisted her hands in front of her. “It’s sort of a long story. I was going to tell you part of it when we got together last week, but it was the night you announced your pregnancy, Jen. I didn’t want to steal your thunder or worry either of you. Cole and I agreed it might be easier for us to elope and tell you everything afterward. Please don’t be hurt that I didn’t tell you first. As I said, this all came about very quickly, and there was hardly time to make any calls. I didn’t even tell my mom until after the wedding.”
She watched as her friends exchanged glances that held all the doubts and concerns she’d braced for. “You don’t have to look so worried. I knew what I was doing, and I gave it careful consideration.”
Okay, maybe she’d given it all of five minutes consideration before she’d accepted Cole’s proposal, she thought with a slight wince of memory. Perhaps it would be best not to mention that just now.
“Forgive us for being skeptical,” Jenny said slowly, “but, Stevie...have you lost your mind?”
Stevie didn’t take offense. She might have said exactly the same thing if the tables had been turned. “No. I have my reasons, Jen, and I think when you hear them you’ll agree they’re good ones.”
“The only valid reason to marry is for love,” Jenny retorted flatly. “Aren’t you the one who made that declaration repeatedly when I was considering Thad’s proposal? You were never enthusiastic about my relationship with him because you said it was too calculated and dispassionate. You were all for me getting back with Gavin despite our differences, because you knew I had always loved him.”
“And didn’t you nag me to make sure Scott and I were getting married for the right reasons?” Tess chimed in. “You said marriage should be more than a practical business arrangement. You were so insistent that I actually broke off our engagement until Scott was able to convince me he was in love with me. So I hope you have a very good reason for eloping with your neighbor.”
“I did marry Cole for love,” Stevie assured them, her hand on her stomach. She loved this baby enough to give him or her as many advantages as she could provide, including a man who would dedicate himself to being a wonderful father. She thought her friends would agree there was nothing cold-blooded or calculated about this marriage, despite its functional foundation.
Jenny knew her too well and for too long to simply accept those words at face value. She took a step closer and frowned intently into Stevie’s eyes. “You broke up with Joe only three months ago. I knew you weren’t particularly heartbroken by that split—and frankly, I thought it was well past time—but you never said a word about having feelings for anyone else. This wasn’t a rebound thing, was it? Or were you involved with Cole even then?”
Again, Stevie wasn’t insulted by Jenny’s personal questions. As both her friends had just reminded her, she’d butted her nose into their affairs a few times, always with the best intentions. Just as they held now toward her. “No. At the time, Cole and I were simply good friends.”
“When did that change?”
She drew a deep breath, then confessed, “When I told him I was pregnant and that I was nervous about trying to raise the child alone.”
Tess sank abruptly back down onto the couch, as if this newest surprise had taken the stiffening right out of her knees. “You’re pregnant?”
“Yes.” She aimed another look of apology toward Jenny. “Now do you understand why it was so hard to tell you on the same night you told us about your baby? You were so thrilled and excited, and I was so happy for you and Gavin. I knew there would be time to share my own news later.”
Jenny gripped Stevie’s arm as if she couldn’t restrain herself any longer. She looked from her face to her waistline and back again, her expression almost comically conflicted. “You’re pregnant? You’re sure? How far along are you? Do you feel okay? Is Cole happy about the baby?”
A laugh escaping her, Stevie covered Jenny’s hand with her own and rested her cheek for a moment against her friend’s shoulder in a little hug. “Yes, I’m absolutely sure, and I’m fine. I’ve only been sick once, and that was this past weekend, probably from too much rich food. Cole is very excited about the baby. He’ll be a good dad. He’s a great guy, Jen. Smart and dependable and kind, with a dry sense of humor and a generous heart. You’ll like him, I promise.”
“Where is he?”
“He went next door to his house to give us some privacy for this talk. I told him I’d text him when you were ready to meet him.”
“Well, call him over.” Jenny bounced a couple of times on the balls of her feet, her lips pursed in what was meant to be an intimidating frown. “I want to get a look at this guy. Maybe rake him over the coals a little to make sure he’s worthy of you.”
As she texted him, Stevie laughed softly, grateful that Jenny was trying to make the best of this admittedly awkward situation. “Good luck with that. You’ll find my husband is not easy to rattle.”
“Your husband.” Holding the cat now, who’d taken a strong liking to her, Tess still looked dazed. “This is a lot to process in one night. So both my bridesmaids will be in maternity dresses for the wedding.”
Relieved that most of the confessions were out of the way—with one notable exception—Stevie nodded. “Looks that way.”
“Well, at least that loose, comfortable style I requested should work for both of us,” Jenny said with a strained little smile. “We’d better get busy finding the perfect dress that will suit whichever shape Stevie and I happen to be in June.”
The opposite of a demanding diva bride, Tess waved a hand. “Pick whatever dress you and Stevie like. As long as it works with the colors I’ve chosen, I trust your judgment on style.”
Jenny nodded. “I’ll check with my suppliers and see what I can find in the time we have.”
“Yes, well, you and Gavin had a very short engagement, and you thought my wedding was short notice,” Tess commented with a little laugh. “I’d say Stevie wins this one. She skipped all the wedding prep entirely.”
“Cole took care of everything,” Stevie admitted. “We had a lovely little Valentine’s Day wedding at a cute chapel in the Ozarks. I have a disc of photos that was part of the wedding package. I want to have them printed in one of those glossy photo books when I have time to deal with them.”
“I can’t wait to see them,” Tess said.
Tess was obviously trying hard to show support for Stevie’s decision, to look happy about the developments despite whatever concerns she wasn’t voicing. Stevie appreciated that, though she wasn’t sure she deserved it after keeping her friends in the dark all this time.
Jenny examined Stevie’s middle again. “When is your due date? Maybe it’s the same as mine. Wouldn’t that be something?”
“Um, no.” Stevie moistened her lips. “I’m a little farther along than you. I’m due in early August. My tentative due date is August 10.”
Jenny looked confused. “August? But that makes you—”
“Three months pregnant.”
“Three months,” Tess murmured, staring at Stevie’s waistline in disbelief. “But you aren’t showing.”
“I’m getting a little thicker around the middle. I’m wearing loose clothes so it’s hard to tell. But I haven’t gained much weight yet, though my doctor assured me the baby is developing as it should be.”
Comprehension dawned slowly but inevitably on her friends’ faces. “But three months ago...”
Stevie held Jenny’s gaze without looking away. “That was just before Joe moved to Austin.”
“So Joe is...?”
“Out of the picture. Permanently.”
Jenny digested that for a moment, then asked quietly, “Does he know?”
“Yes. But it doesn’t make a difference. He made his choice. I made mine. I don’t think either of us will have any regrets.”
“Cole doesn’t mind...?”
“Like I said, Cole’s looking forward to being a dad to this baby. I married my very good friend, Jen, and we’re going to raise a child together. We’ll make it work.”
“I have no doubt of that,” Jenny murmured, her eyes suddenly liquid. “But will you be happy, Stevie? Truly happy? I always thought you’d be crazy in love when you married.”
Stevie managed a smile. “You know me. I’m always happy. I’m confident I could have handled all this on my own, just like my mother did, but I’m very fortunate that I’ll have a helpmate. That my child, like yours, will have a dad to love and encourage him. Or her.”
“It doesn’t surprise me that you’d sacrifice everything for your child. That’s just so you.”
“I don’t think of it that way at all,” Stevie assured her, equally softly. “Cole is fully committed to this partnership, and I’m so grateful to him. I just hope he doesn’t feel that he’s the one making the sacrifice.”
“I don’t.”
Stevie almost gasped in response to the deep voice from the doorway leading into the kitchen. She looked around to see Cole standing there, his eyes locked with hers, his expression somber.
“I didn’t hear you come in,” she said.
“I came in through the back door.”
She moved to draw him into the room, standing beside him as they faced her friends. “Jenny, Tess, I’d like you to meet my husband, Cole McKellar.”
* * *
“Oh, my God.” Cole draped himself over a living room chair, his limbs hanging bonelessly, his hair rumpled from being scraped through with both hands. “I’ve had job interviews complete with FBI background checks that were less grueling.”
Reclined on the couch, Stevie laughed. “It wasn’t that bad.”
“It was that bad. I had the feeling that if I gave one wrong answer, your friend Jenny would throw me out on my ear.”
“Just give her a little time to adjust. You have to admit I sort of sprang all this on them.”
He opened one eye to look at her. “You think she will? Adjust, I mean?”
“Of course. She already likes you. I could tell, and I know Jen better than anyone. She’s just a little worried.”
He grew serious. “Your friends seem nice. I figured they would be, from everything you’ve told me about them.”
“You’ll like their guys, too. You and Scott have quite a bit in common, actually. He’s into tech stuff, too. Always buying new computer equipment for his commercial construction business. Gavin’s more into sports and cop stuff, but he’s a great guy.”
“Cop stuff, huh?”
She shrugged.
“I’ll try to find things to talk about with him. Something tells me we’ll be spending time with them since you girls are so tight.”
“I’d like to meet your friends, too. We haven’t talked about them much. Who’s your best friend?”
“Probably Joel Bradley. He’s an engineer, living and working in Dubai at the moment. He’s the one I told you about, my friend from school who was adopted?”
“Of course I remember.” He’d said his friend was closer to his adopted family than Cole was to his biological one. Having seen Cole with his Dad, Stevie didn’t find that hard to believe now. “Do you hear from Joel much?”
“We stay in touch. Through computers, of course,” he added with a wry smile. “It’s been a while since we’ve touched base, but we’ll talk again soon.”
“And what about your friends here?”
“Sometimes I meet up with a couple of guys from my gym for beers and conversation. And I’m still tight with some friends from the dojo where I trained for a while. We try to get together once a month for some friendly sparring or gomoku tournaments.”
“Go—?”
“Gomoku. It’s a traditional Japanese board game played with black and white stones. My friends and I are kind of nerdy,” he confessed with a chuckle that made no apologies.
Fascinated by this new glimpse into his private life, she prodded, “You said you met at a dojo? You trained in martial arts?”
“Yes.”
In the year she’d known him, it was the first she’d heard about this. Swinging her feet to the floor, she studied his face. “What kind?”
“Karate.”
“How high did you advance? The belt color thing, I mean?”
“I have a black belt. Second degree.”
She felt her jaw drop a little. So that explained why he was in such good shape! “I thought you weren’t into sports.”
He spread his hands. “Not football or basketball or other organized team sports, particularly, though I’ve been known to attend a game occasionally with friends. I look at karate more as a way to stay in shape than as a sport. After all, I sit at a computer all day.”
She wondered if his father knew about Cole’s accomplishment. Jim had been so dismissive of Cole’s job and interests, implying that they weren’t “manly” enough—but surely a second degree black belt in karate was macho enough to satisfy even Jim McKellar’s old-fashioned gender expectations. More than likely Cole hadn’t mentioned it. He didn’t seem to need to prove anything to his hard-to-please dad, nor need to defend his masculinity. He’d never even mentioned his accomplishments to her.
“Can you break a stack of boards with your fist?”
He smiled. “I’ve been known to split a few.”
She cocked her head and pictured him barefoot in the traditional white wrap jacket and loose pants, a black belt wrapped around his taut waist, his hair and face damp with sweat as he squared off against an opponent. A jolt of sexual attraction shot through her in response to the image. Interesting. And unexpected, considering what she’d once considered her “type.” She’d certainly never before envisioned her quiet, cat-owning, math-whiz neighbor as a tough, sweaty warrior.
He frowned. “Why are you staring at me as if you’ve never seen me before?”
“Sorry, was I? You’re just turning out to be full of surprises, Cole Douglas McKellar.”
His lips quirked into a half smile. “Just trying to stay healthy.”
“Do you still train?”
“Other than the casual sparring, no. I wasn’t interested in competing in tournaments and that would be the next step.”
“I’ll have to work off the baby weight after Peanut arrives. Maybe I should take up karate.”
His grin made her wonder just what amused him so much. Couldn’t short, busty women wear white pajamas and kick things?
But he changed the subject before she could challenge him. “By the way, I finally connected with my mom this afternoon. Told her we were married and expecting a kid.”
The latter fact was one he’d neglected to mention to his father, she remembered. “How did your mom react?”
“She’s pleased with the prospect of being a grandmother. She said she and Ned would head this way in a few months to visit, once the weather gets warmer.”
“She didn’t mind that she wasn’t invited to the wedding?”
“No. Not when I told her no one else was there, either.”
“Good.” She’d have hated to get off on the wrong foot with her mother-in-law.
He rubbed his chin. “Your friend Tess is planning a big wedding, isn’t she?”
“They’re trying to keep it contained, but Scott has a big family and a ton of business associates. Tess’s family is smaller, but her friends and relatives want to be there, too.”
After a moment, he asked, “Are you sorry you didn’t have a more traditional wedding so your friends could stand up with you?”
“No,” she said and hoped he believed her. “I much prefer our sweet little ceremony. I wouldn’t have minded having Tess and Jenny there, but if we’d invited them, others might have been hurt, so it’s best we kept it just the two of us.”
“I just don’t want you to feel that I prevented you from having the wedding you wanted.”
“You didn’t talk me into anything I didn’t want to do,” she said, meeting his eyes. “I’d think you should know by now that I make my own choices.”
He conceded with a nod, though he didn’t look particularly gratified.
An uncomfortable stillness fell over the room. Stevie felt as if there were more things he wanted to say. More things she perhaps needed to say. She just couldn’t think of them at the moment.
She pushed herself to her feet. “I have a meeting with a client tomorrow afternoon. I think I’ll go over my notes for a while. Unless you need something?”
“You don’t have to entertain me, Stevie. I live here now, remember? I have some reading to do. Might watch some TV for a while. We’re good.”
We’re good.
For some reason those two words made her feel somewhat better as she moved into her office.
* * *
Cole couldn’t focus on either work or television for the next hour, though both the TV and computer screens flickered in front of him. His thoughts were focused on Stevie and on the snippet of conversation he’d heard earlier.
He hadn’t liked Jenny’s suggestion that Stevie had sacrificed herself for her child’s sake by marrying him. He thought they were doing very well so far. He enjoyed having meals with her, planning a future with her, waking up beside her. He especially liked making love with her. He was already starting to picture himself teaching their kid about science, math and computers, about classic sci-fi and the basics of martial arts training. All the “nerdy” things he longed to share. Stevie would impart her love of music, her creativity, her humor and joyous spontaneity, her people skills and business acumen. Between the two of them, the kid would have a well-rounded foundation.
He was even starting to feel less guilty—a little—that he was moving on in his life, putting past regrets behind him and looking forward to a new, rewarding future.
* * *
Pepper Rose was rapidly becoming one of Stevie’s all-time favorite design clients. Despite the name Pepper herself cheerfully termed a “classic stripper name,” she was a brilliant and highly respected neuropsychiatrist affiliated with the medical school in Little Rock. Sixty years old, defiantly flame-haired, a few pounds overweight but energetic and light on her feet, Pepper had insisted on the use of first names as their collaboration continued.
“Just don’t call me Dr. Pepper,” she’d added with a weary smile. “You have no idea how tired I get of that particular joke.”
“I can imagine,” Stevie had responded with a laugh.
Married to a cardiologist, Pepper had recently cut back on her formerly grueling work schedule and was now involved in remodeling the home she and her husband had purchased a few months earlier. Built on a tall bluff with a breathtaking view of the Arkansas River below and the distant rolling hills beyond, the house was luxurious but a bit sterile in decor, especially in the white-on-white-on-stainless contemporary kitchen.
“Color,” Pepper had said when Stevie asked the first thing she wanted changed. “Please give me some color. I don’t care about trends or fashion, I just don’t want to feel like I’m still in a hospital setting when I walk into my kitchen in the morning.”
Stevie had embraced the challenge of designing a kitchen that was functional, fashionable and still incorporated Pepper’s love of color—most particularly, the color purple.
“Oh, Stevie, you’ve found it!” Pepper exclaimed at this meeting in her home late Tuesday afternoon. “This is the ideal granite for my countertops. I can’t believe it.”
Almost smugly, Stevie patted the granite sample she’d brought with her. Mottled shades of gray with a subtle purple veining, the granite hadn’t been easy to locate, but she’d known when she’d found it that it was exactly what Pepper wanted. Though Pepper had tentatively approved a blueprint for the remodel, the multitude of other choices had been put on hold until Stevie located the perfect granite.
“We can keep the backsplash neutral or pull out more of the purple. I’ve also located a set of pendant lights for over the island that I think you’ll love, but we’ll have to order them quickly if you want them. They’re a little pricey, but still just within the lighting budget.” She turned her tablet toward her client to better display the photo of the unique pendants formed of hand-blown purple glass.
“They’re gorgeous. Order them.” Typically, cost meant little to Pepper, though she and her husband had determined a top dollar for the remodel project. “Stevie...is there something you haven’t told me?”
Looking up from the tablet screen, Stevie searched her mind for any other kitchen item she’d forgotten. “What do you mean?”
Pepper reached out to touch Stevie’s left hand. “I don’t remember seeing these before.”
Her gaze drawn to the rings, Stevie nodded in comprehension. She felt her cheeks warm a little. “Oh. Yes, I was married last Friday.”
“And you’re working today?” Pepper clicked her tongue in disapproval.
“We’re delaying our honeymoon for now,” she answered lightly. “It’s a busy time for both of us in our careers.”
“Congratulations on your marriage. I hope you’ll be very happy. And I hope he knows how lucky he is.”
Stevie smiled. “Thank you, Pepper.”
“Philip and I will celebrate our thirty-fifth anniversary next month. We were both still in medical school when we married. It’s hard to believe the time has passed so quickly.”
“Congratulations to you, too. That’s quite a milestone.”
Thirty-five years. She couldn’t even imagine that far ahead in her own marriage.
Pepper gave a little shrug. “I won’t pretend we never had a rough time keeping it together. It wasn’t always easy balancing two very demanding careers and two inflated egos, along with the challenges of marriage and raising our two daughters. We were fortunate to be able to hire nannies and housekeepers to assist us, but there were plenty of times when I was ready to pull out my artificially red hair,” she added cheerfully. “Philip didn’t have enough left to pull by the time he was thirty.”
Stevie laughed softly. “It’s still quite an accomplishment to have a successful career and a successful marriage.”
“I’m glad we made it through. Now that our daughters are grown and we’ve started spending a few less hours at work, there are quite a few things we’d like to do together. Visit our little grandson in Tucson. Travel around Europe. See Australia and New Zealand. We’ve just never had the time.”
“That all sounds wonderful.” She wondered if she and Cole would do things like that someday. After this baby was out of the nest, would they be a couple who wanted to share adventures together? Or would they be more like Cole’s father and stepmother—he still immersed in his solitary work, she pursuing her own interests for the most part? She didn’t like that option. Could either of them really be happy settling for that?
“Stevie? Is everything okay?”
She schooled her expression quickly, reminding herself of her client’s profession. It wasn’t easy to fool a psychiatrist, especially for someone like her who wore her emotions close to the surface, anyway. “Yes, thank you. It’s all still very new, of course, so we have some adjustments to make, but Cole and I are looking forward to setting up our household and starting our family. We’ve, um, actually gotten an early start on that. I’m expecting a baby in August.”
“Well, congratulations again.” Pepper looked genuinely delighted. “You’ll be a wonderful mother.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.” Pepper patted her hand again. Then, seeming to sense that Stevie wanted to change the subject, she reached for the tablet. “Now, about these cabinets. Paint or wash?”
Relieved to be brought back into her area of expertise, Stevie pushed her concerns to the back of her mind and focused on her business.
* * *
Breathing heavily, Cole tugged off his head gear and ran a hand through his sweat-dampened hair before mopping at his face with a small towel. His friend Russ Krupistsky dropped to the mat at Cole’s feet, dragging in breath as he rested with his knees drawn up in front of him. “Good match, Cole,” he said, his voice still raspy from exertion.
“Yeah, you, too.” Cole reached down to shake Russ’s outstretched hand.
He’d met with five others for the monthly meeting at the dojo where he’d studied karate. It was Thursday evening, and the place was closed for lessons, but the owner encouraged these gatherings of former and current students who wanted to stay in touch. They chipped in to compensate Sensei Tim, deeming the exercise and fellowship worth the nominal cost.
Having refereed the bout and declaring Cole the winner, though by only a very slim margin, Tim gave him a couple of hearty pats on the back. “Good job, Cole. You’re staying in good shape for a computer guy.”
Cole laughed. “Thanks, Sensei. I do my best.”
His broad, dark face creased with a grin, black eyes glinting with humor, Tim reached down a hand to help Russ to his feet, already making a few suggestions for Russ’s next bout. When he wasn’t formally teaching, Tim was easygoing and jovial. Put him at the head of a class, though, and he barked out orders and corrections with the sharp precision of the army drill sergeant he’d once been.
“Hey, Cole.” Her white gi belted snugly around her, Jessica Lopez touched his arm to get his attention. Her brown ponytail hung limply and her cheeks glistened from exertion, but she was smiling. “That was a nice side kick that took Russ down.”
“Thanks. I saw you sparring with Gabriel. Looked like you were holding your own.”
Jessica, who was somewhere in her late twenties, chuckled wryly. “Considering he’s nearly a decade younger and a helluva lot faster than I am, holding my own was the best I could do. But he took it easy on me and I had fun.”
“That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?”
She nodded, ponytail bobbing. “So, Cole... Gabe and Russ and Nick and I thought we’d go have a burger or something when we’re done here. We’ve worked off the calories, right?”
She laughed and he smiled in response, preparing for the inevitable next question.
“Would you like to join us?”
It wasn’t the first time in the past few months that he’d suspected Jessica was interested in him, and not just as another member of the gang. He was kind of dense at times when it came to social signals, but even he recognized when a woman was letting him know she wouldn’t mind spending time with him.
“Thanks, but I’ll have to pass this time. My wife is waiting at home for me.”
My wife. The words still felt a little odd on his tongue, even though he’d been married before. It was just taking a little time to grow accustomed to thinking of Stevie in that way.
Jessica’s eyes widened dramatically. “Your wife?”
“Dude, you got married?” Russ asked, overhearing. “When did this happen?”
“Last week.” He draped his towel around his neck, subtly flashing his wedding band in the process.
As he accepted the surprised congratulations from his friends, he was glad he’d come tonight. He’d only done so, though, because Stevie had a meeting and he’d figured he might as well stick to his regular schedule.
She wasn’t yet home when he let himself in. He dropped his keys in a little basket she used for that purpose and wiped his feet carefully on the mat leading in from the garage before bending down to greet Dusty with a pat.
Stevie kept her house impeccably neat. When he’d first met her, he’d have assumed she lived in cheery chaos. His own housekeeping skills were limited to keeping things mostly in their place and wielding a mop once a week or so, but he made sure not to make a mess here. Not that Stevie would have minded. As tidy as she was, she made her home a comfortable, welcoming place, and she didn’t seem bothered by Dusty’s toys that popped up all over the house, or the occasional scattered kibble or rare, but inevitable, hairballs. She wouldn’t fret about kid’s toys spread across the living room floor, either, he thought, picturing just that as he moved through the living room toward the bedroom.
He was freshly showered and dressed in a T-shirt and pajama pants when she arrived an hour later. She hung up her coat. “Sorry I’m so late. The meeting ran over. How was your evening?”
“Not bad. Sparred a couple of times. Won the second time. Got my butt handed to me in the first bout.”
She laughed and moved to pat his cheek. “Someone beat up my hubby? Should I be incensed?”
Catching her hand, he leaned his head down to kiss her lingeringly. “I’ll recover,” he said when he released her.
Her cheeks looking a little flushed now, she cleared her throat. “Glad to hear it. Do you ever have spectators at monthly sparring things? I’d like to watch you sometime.”
“Occasionally someone tags along, but we’re not really performing for an audience. Just trying to stay in shape.”
“Still. I’d like to see you being all manly and sexy.”
He laughed in response to the teasing phrase she’d used before. “As long as you don’t call me a ‘cutie’ in front of my opponents,” he said, remembering the addition she’d tacked on last time.
Giggling, she moved toward the bedroom, looking over her shoulder. “I’m sure they’re already aware of that.”
He lasted all of a full second before he gave in to that beckoning look and followed her.