Hot Buttered Yum (33 page)

He didn’t
answer. This was not the way he’d expected this conversation to go.

“Doesn’t
matter,” she said. “I already know you do. You wouldn’t have considered
bringing her home if you didn’t. And that doesn’t go away overnight. Not if
it’s real.”

And dammit, it
was real.

“So the way I
see it is you have two choices.” She opened a box that contained six small
bottles of different-colored sprinkles and set them out on the counter. “You
can either forgive her—”

“What’s to
forgive?” he cut in. Anger suddenly fueled him. “She’s not here. She’s sitting
in a parade right now, starting her career all over again, and has probably already
forgotten we exist.”

It wasn’t that
he wanted her to choose Gracie over her career. He would never want that. They
could find a balance. But a parade over his daughter’s
health? Over being there when he needed her?

That had hurt.

His mother eyed
him shrewdly. “You said she loved you.”

“She claimed she
did.”

“So you think
she’s already forgotten you?”

He stared at his
mother. His jaw clenched. Did all women stick together whether they’d ever met
or not?

“Never mind,” he
muttered. He stalked past her.

“Lucas Eugene.”

He paused just for
a second at the words, but then shook his head. She didn’t understand.

The buzzer on
the stove went off at the same time the doorbell rang. Perfect. An escape.

As he went down
the hall, he glanced up the stairs to where he could hear the kids. That would
be Lisa’s mother at the door, but he didn’t call Lisa down yet. He needed the
distraction as long as he could get one. He suspected his mother was going to
want to finish their talk when they were once again alone.

But when he
pulled open the door, a five-foot, wild-haired, freaked-out woman stood before
him. She looked like she’d taken a shower and thrown on the first thing she
could find, whether clean or dirty, and had forgotten there was such a task as
combing her hair.

“Is she okay?”
Roni quickly asked.

His heart quit
beating. She’d come.

Lucas nudged her back and stepped out on
the porch, shutting the door tight behind him. “What are you doing here?”

She pleaded with
her eyes. “Please, Lucas. I know you probably hate me now. And I deserve it. I
should have been here. But I need to know—”

“Don’t you have
a parade to be in?”

He was so hard.
Surely she hadn’t lost him in one night.

But she’d
deserted his kid. She probably had lost him.

She forced out a
breath. “I went to the hospital first,” she explained. “Three
of them, actually. I couldn’t find you. I couldn’t find Gracie.” She
glanced over his shoulder at the solid door at his back, wishing he hadn’t shut
it. Surely there would be some sign in the house. Had she been too late?

“I’ll go,” she
promised. She didn’t want to, but she could see he didn’t want her there. It
would be best not to complicate things. “But I needed to make sure she’s okay.”
She stared into his eyes and thought about the rest of the reason she’d come.
“And I needed to tell you something.”

Cold blue eyes
peered back at her. She couldn’t read a thing from the look, and the fear
started in her again. Gracie had to be okay.
They
had to be okay.

She needed him.

“What did you
want to tell me?” he finally asked.

Nerves tingled
inside her and she thought about her friends, who had taken her over to the
mainland that morning in Ginger’s boat. Andie had come with them. The whole way
over they’d coached her on what to say when she got to him. But not a single
word of what they’d said then came to mind now. She didn’t know what she was
supposed to say. Other than …

“I love you,”
she whispered. A shimmery feeling swept over her from the neck down. “And I’m
sorry. I let fear control me, but only for a while.” She shook her head. “I
won’t let it happen again.”

He had to
believe her.

Yet the
unchanging expression said he didn’t.

She swallowed.
“Please, Lucas. I know I don’t deserve a second chance, but I want you to know
that I would give you one. I would give you many. Though you’d probably never
need as many as me,” she finished lamely.

Geez, she sucked
at this. She needed to remember what Andie and Ginger practiced with her. She
was ruining everything.

“What aren’t you
at the parade?” he asked. His face had not grown any softer, but she thought
she detected a slight ease in his voice. It was enough to give her hope.

“Because you
didn’t answer my text and all I could think was that Gracie …” She bit her
lip as the worst thing she’d thought ran through her mind. “I had to be here. I
couldn’t be too late again.”

A muscle in his
jaw twitched and she glanced frantically at the door.

“Lucas,” she
begged. Was she really too late?

“She’s fine,” he
finally said.

All the air left
her lungs in a rush and she thought she might fall down. Instead, she backed up
to the railing and leaned against it. Her shoulders sagged and she covered her
mouth with her hand. Gracie was okay. She was fine.

She looked at
Lucas. There were several feet between them now, and she wanted to be next to
him. In his arms. But knowing Gracie was alive was
enough.

“You just left
Kayla in the lurch?” he asked.

She nodded. One
side of his mouth twitched up and she felt a tiny bit of the clench around her
heart loosen.

“I’ll bet she
liked that,” he said.

That wasn’t
quite the way it had gone over. But Kayla had understood. She’d even admitted
that she would do the same thing.

“I had to
promise her a full concert later, though,” Roni admitted. “My
first concert. She’s a tough negotiator.”

“When is it?”

She shook her
head. “Not until …” She stopped talking and just stared at the man she
loved. He might reject her, but she had to tell him what she wanted. She had to
go for it. “Not until Gracie is okay,” she told him solemnly. “I won’t go back
to the piano until Gracie is one hundred percent. She comes first.”

“I never asked you
to choose.”

“I know. And I’m
not. I’m just putting her first. I’m putting
us
first. I always will. If you’ll let me.”
She gripped her hands into fists at her sides as he continued giving her
nothing in return. “The piano is just my job,” she stressed. “I want you and
Gracie to be my life.”

She glanced at
the door again, still needing to see for herself. “Is she here? Can I meet
her?” She turned back to Lucas, worry still tormenting
her, and asked in a small voice, “Will she need chemo again?”

His eyes changed
then. The hard edge left them and the blue turned warm. And then she moved
toward him, and whimpered when he took a step toward her. He didn’t pull her
into his arms, but he took her hands.

“Can I meet
her?” she asked again.

He nodded. He
squeezed her fingers in his. “But there’s something important I have to tell
you first.”

“Oh God.” The words came
out breathless. “What? She’s bad, isn’t she? I knew it. She—”

“Fell and cut
her head.”

Roni’s words
froze as she tried to comprehend what Lucas had said.

Falling had
triggered the cancer to return? That made no sense.

“She got
twenty-two stitches,” he added. He turned loose of one of her hands and pointed
to his hairline, just above his eye. “Right here. And
she’s pretty darn proud that she didn’t even cry when they gave her the shot to
numb it.”

Roni stared at
him dumbly, nothing making sense. And then a lightbulb went off inside her and
she got it. Her eyes grew wide and finally, Lucas began to smile.

“You’re telling
me she fell last night?” she asked. “And that’s all?”

He nodded.

Relief poured
through her, but at the same time, she wanted to pummel his chest with her
fists.

“You let me
worry about her all night long?”

His smile was
fully in place now. “I want to say you deserved it.”

“I did,” she
admitted with a groan. “I know I did. I should have left with you last night.”

He cupped her
cheek in his hand and she swayed toward him. The rougher skin on her cheek was
the best thing she’d felt all day.

“You didn’t deserve
it,” he said gruffly. “You have plenty of reasons to be scared. I get that. I
just forgot last night. I was worried about Gracie.”

“I was too.”

He pulled her
into his embrace and she slid her arms around his waist with a moan.

“I’m sorry,” he
said. He kissed the top of her head. “I should have let you know she was okay.
I’ll be more supportive of you too. I promise.”

She tilted her
head back and looked up at him. “I think I’m going to be okay,” she said. “I
really do. I’ve grown a lot these last few days. I’ve overcome some things.”

“You’ve overcome
a lot.” He smiled gently and caressed the backs of his fingers over her cheeks.
“You’re the bravest person I know.”

That was the
second time someone had said that to her today. And she loved both the men.

“Kiss me,” she
begged. “I’ve missed you too much.”

Nine
days later … Christmas morning.

Roni cracked open her eyes at the touch
of something scratchy against her cheek. It was still dark in the room, but she
could make out shadows from the night-light she’d left on in the hall. She was
back at her house on Turtle Island. Lucas was with her—though not in the bed
with her—and Gracie was there as well.

Lucas’s parents
were at the hotel. They’d be over later in the morning. Roni’s family would be
arriving on the ferry midmorning. And Ginger had promised to stop by as well. Even
Mrs. Rylander had agreed to come over. It would be a house full of people, and Roni
couldn’t be happier. It was the kind of Christmas she’d wanted to give Zoe. Roni
knew the little girl was smiling down on them now, and that was good enough.

Their first
Christmas on the island.

She only hoped
for many more.

“Daddy said I
could bring this to you,” Gracie whispered right next to her ear.

Roni let out a shriek
and jumped upright in bed.

She flipped on
the lamp next to her. Gracie stood there in the red-and-white-striped nightgown
she’d picked out for Christmas morning, holding a bright-red poinsettia with a
green foil wrapper around the bottom.

“I wanted to get
you a flower,” the little girl explained. She held it up higher. It was almost
too big for her to hold. “Daddy said this would be the
bestest kind.”

A deep chuckle
sounded at her door and Roni looked over to find Lucas leaning against the doorframe.
He wore green plaid pajama bottoms hanging low on his hips and a Santa hat on
his head. Nothing in between.

“Ho ho ho,” he
murmured in a low sexy voice.

Roni’s pulse
raced.

She gripped her
fingers into the soft material she wore as she eyed him. She had on his matching
top. She’d stolen it from him when he’d snuck into her room overnight.

Giggling brought
her back around to the little girl, who was now climbing onto Roni’s bed, the
plant tilting precariously on its side.

“Thank you,
Gracie.” Roni ignored the hunk at her bedroom door and reached out to take the
flower. Once she had both child and flower nestled in beside her, she motioned
with her head for Lucas to join them. He studied them briefly as if he was afraid
that if he did he wouldn’t be able to control himself, but then pushed off from
the door.

After he settled
beside her, she smiled at them both. This was what she wanted. Now her life
truly was good.

“This is the
most beautiful flower I’ve ever gotten,” Roni informed the girl. Gracie smiled
brightly.

The two of them
had spent countless hours over the past nine days getting to know each other.
They’d gone shopping together, eaten ice cream
together, made hot chocolate together, and had even worked on a present for
Lucas together.

It had been
everything she’d ever dreamed of.

She loved Lucas’s
house, and she thought his parents were perfect.

They’d all stayed
in Dallas until a couple days ago, but Gracie had begged to come to the beach
for Christmas, and Lucas had suggested it might be a good tradition to start.

She hoped that
meant he would eventually trust her enough to ask her to marry him, but she
wasn’t pushing it. She’d tested things hard the night she hadn’t gone back to
Dallas with him. Plus, they’d only known each other a few weeks. She had to
give him time; he needed to trust that if anything were to happen to Gracie,
Roni would be there.

She
knew she would be
there. She would never be anywhere else when the child needed her. Not ever again.

Cancel shows,
cancel tours. Whatever was called for, she would do it. Because like she’d told
Lucas, they were her world. Nothing else was more important.

But she got that
Lucas needed time to make sure. So she’d give him that.

Yet the second
he proposed, wedding plans would be in the works. In fact, she already had
Kayla on standby. She was that positive about them.

She looked down
at Gracie snuggled close to her side. “Should we give your Daddy his Christmas
present?”

Gracie nodded,
her curls bouncing around her head. “Now?” she asked. “Can we?”

“Absolutely.” Roni glanced at
the clock, seeing that it was barely five. “And then we’ll see if Santa brought
us any gifts.”

“I already
peeked,” Gracie said in a hushed voice. “He did.”

Roni and Lucas
laughed, and then Lucas leaned over before she could climb off the bed and
kissed her full on the lips. “Good morning, gorgeous,” he murmured against her.
“I missed you.”

“Daa-ad,” Gracie
moaned. “No more kissing. We have a present for you.”

Roni shrugged as
if to say they had to do what the kid wanted, and then trailed off after her.
She’d racked her brain for the perfect gift for him, and nothing had come to
mind. And then she’d thought of what might be a very special moment. Not simply
for Lucas, but for all of them. And she’d set out to make it happen.

When they reached
the living room, she saw that Lucas has already turned on the tree and started
the fire. The room glowed in the dark of the morning, with reflections
shimmering off the many packages below the tree. Santa had definitely come
during the night.

But instead of
heading to the presents, she and Gracie took each other’s hand and marched to
the piano. As they sat side by side, she caught Lucas’s eye. So much love
poured back at her that she almost felt undeserving. He was such a good man.
And she’d almost lost him.

“I love you,”
she mouthed the words.

He nodded. “I
love you too.”

Then she and
Gracie put their hands on the keys, and they began to play “The Twelve Days of
Christmas.” Gracie was a little rough. They’d only had nine days to practice,
after all, and the kid was only four. But her determination made up for all the
missed notes.

As they played,
Lucas came to stand behind them. He put a hand on each of their shoulders, and
she met his gaze in the reflection in the window on the other side of the
piano. They looked like a family. One tall, gorgeous man,
and two girls with out-of-control curls.

When they finished
the song, Roni smiled widely and Gracie clapped.

“Yay!” Gracie cheered.
But Lucas didn’t say anything.

Roni tilted her
head back to look up at him and gasped when he held a ring in front of her face.

“Marry me,” he
said.

Gracie giggled
beside her, and Roni glanced at the girl. “Did you know about this?”

She laughed harder.
“You and me snuck a present for him, and we snuck a
present for you.”

“It looks like
you did,” Roni agreed. And then she turned her attention to the man.