Keeping Their Love (Griffin Brothers #7) (3 page)

There’s a spring in
my step as I walk into the foundation offices later that day. Alex
and I smile at each other as she finishes the call she’s on. When
she’s done, I lean over her desk and kiss her hard.

“Wow,” she says
when we break apart. “What was that for?”

“I had the best idea
for the wedding,” I tell her.

“Really? What is it?”

“We should change the
date.”

“Excuse me?”

“Your uncles all had
trips planned, and I can’t get something I wanted for you this
weekend. So we should push things back. It’s no big deal. We’re
practically married, anyway.”

I’m not expecting her
hand to reach out and slap me, but honestly, I should’ve been. I
realize my mistake a second too late. I reach for her, but she steps
back. Tears are streaming down her face as she throws her engagement
ring at me.

“How about we have no
wedding, huh Miles? Since we’re practically married anyway and
all.”

“Shit, Xandy. I
didn’t mean it like that.”

“How exactly did you
mean it?”

“Just that we
should’ve thought more about everyone else when we decided on the
date. Your uncles are really screwed right now because they have no
backup plans for their wives. And I meant what I said about not being
able to get you what I wanted.”

“You’re all I want,
Miles. Maybe we should’ve picked a different date, but I’ve
wanted to be your Valentine for a very long time. When I was in
school, and they had those balloon fundraisers, I always wished for
one from you. I wanted a heart full of candy and this cute little
necklace I saw at a store once. It was a heart with little pink and
red fake jewels that said ‘be mine.’ It wasn’t expensive or
fancy, at all. But I thought it would be something I’d want from
the man I loved. From you.”

“I’m always going
to be your Valentine, Xandy. And I always was. I’ve never been with
anyone else on Valentine’s Day. Never. Because I wanted to be
sending you balloons, and buying you candy, cute necklaces, and
everything else. I feel like I’m letting you down, by not getting
what I wanted for you, but now I know that I’d be doing worse if I
made you change the date.”

I drop to one knee
again, and hold out the ring. “Get up, Miles. You know I’m going
to marry you. I shouldn’t have slapped you. I was just so scared
that you didn’t want me anymore.”

“That’s something
you should never be afraid of. I’ll always want you. More than I
want to keep breathing, I want you. I’ll be getting on my knees
again later to show you just how much,” I tell her as I walk to her
and slide the ring back on her finger.

“I’m not going to
argue about that. But before we go home, we need to talk to the girls
and see if they can help my uncles.”

“That is an excellent
idea.”

We run into Stella
first, and enlist her to help Ryan. We were afraid that with the
wedding styling, she wouldn’t have time, but she assures us that
she does. She even has an idea about what she’d like to help him
do, but she won’t tell us. Darcy walks up right then and says she
wants in on the helping. We laugh and thank them both.

Tegan’s the perfect
choice for Owen, and she readily agrees. She knows all about finding
sexy, wherever you are. She tells us not to worry at all. She’s
going to call him right away, and she says she’s going to ask
Audrey, who grew up in California, to help as well.

Both Reina and Isabelle
want to help Scott. They know Yasmin’s business has been failing,
and they have an idea to help her. All they’ll say is that it’s
something to do with a friend of Tegan’s. With Isa’s genius level
mind, and Reina’s business savvy, we know Scott’s in good hands.
They shoo us out as they start to plan.

For Luke, we enlist
Ellie and Jade. Along with Isa, they’re the closest in age to
Olivia, and they’ve become good friends. They tell us that they
don’t know what’s been bothering her, but they’ll do everything
they can to help Luke. And I don’t doubt that one bit.

I know Ainsley and
Faith would love to help, but we both decide to let them spend time
with their guys. Both of their relationships are really new, and we
don’t want to pull them away. Plus, Faith and Gavin are working on
something’s that important to both of them right now. We’ve got
plenty of great help. Except for not getting the room for us,
everything else looks like it will turn out okay. I’ll be keeping
my fingers crossed every chance I get, though, because nothing ever
seems to go as planned with us and our friends. We may need a
Valentin’s Miracle. If there even is such a thing.

Luke

Ellie and Jade have
been helping me plan for the past couple of days. We realized that
since the rehearsal dinner ends at eight on Friday, and the wedding
isn’t until seven thirty on Saturday, I have at least twenty-one
hours to wow Ollie. There’s nothing saying that we can’t start
our Valentine’s Day early. And there’s also no reason we have to
stay at Disneyland that whole time. As long as I have us back by four
thirty or five, we should be good.

Once we decided that, I
had the perfect idea for where to take her. We’ve been finalizing
things all day, and I think we’re all set. I’ve pulled them into
a group hug when Ollie walks into our kitchen.

“Isn’t this cozy.”

“Hey. You’re home
early today,” I tell her, breaking away from the girls to go hug
her.

“You’re going to
touch me after being with
them
?”

“Liv, what the hell?
You know we’d never do that and Luke sure as shit wouldn’t touch
anyone but you,” Jade says, looking pissed.

“Everyone wants Luke.
Just look at him,” she replies, waving her hand at me. “All those
girls who hang out at the hockey rink, even when he’s kissing me.
The moms at his school. How long’s he going to wait for me?”

“I’m pretty sure
he’ll wait forever for you, even if you are being a royal bitch
right now,” Ellie tells her.

“I would. Beyond
forever, even. I can’t stop women from looking at me, but I don’t
want anyone else. I only want you.”

I watch her shoulders
slump and then she’s crying. I go to her immediately. She can push
me away if she wants, but I have to try. I love her too much to give
up. Miraculously, she lets me hold her. She even wraps her arms
around me and pulls me tight up against her. I haven’t been this
close to her in over a month, and I freeze as I feel what wasn’t
there before. I pull back immediately.

“You’re pregnant?”

“Yes,” she says,
biting her lip.

“Oh my God, that’s
great,” Ellie tells her, rushing over to hug her.

Jade follows, and they
insist that she lift her shirt to show them her little bump. I feel
like my legs have weights in them, I can’t move. She has a fucking
bump
which means
she’s at least a few months along. She not only didn’t tell me,
but she’s been pushing me away. While she’s carrying my child. Or
maybe not.

“Whose baby is it,
Olivia?” I ask her, barely holding onto the anger that wants to
break free.

“Wh-what?”

“You didn’t tell me
you were pregnant, even though you’re obviously a few months along.
You haven’t let me even close enough to hug you in over a month. So
I’ll ask you again. Who. Is. The. Father. Of. Your. Baby?”

There’s complete
silence for over a minute as Jade and Ellie take in what I said. They
were so excited for their friend that they forgot that I didn’t
know. I wouldn’t have planned all of what I did if I’d known.
They won’t even look at me, which is good because I wouldn’t be
able to stand their pity.

“You’re the father,
Luke,” Olivia tells me in a small voice. “How could you doubt
that?”

That’s who she is to
me now—Olivia. My Ollie wouldn’t have done this to me. Wouldn’t
have hid our child from me. I don’t even know the woman who’s
standing in front of me. And I’m honestly not sure I want to.

“I need to leave
right now. Will you guys take care of her?”

“Yeah. We got this,
Luke,” Jade tells me.

I see the pity now when
I meet her eyes. Hers widen when she sees the unshed tears in mine. I
thought Olivia had broken me once, but that was nothing compared to
this. I was worried about her leaving me, but now I can’t imagine
even being in the same room with her ever again.

“I’ll need a
paternity test once your child is born. We can work out all the legal
stuff then.”

“Luke, oh God, no.
Please, I can explain. Let me explain.”

“I can’t.”

“We promised. We said
we’d always communicate with each other and listen.”

“I cannot listen to a
fucking word that comes from your lying mouth. Because either you’ve
been keeping the knowledge of my child growing inside of you from me
for months, or you’ve cheated on me. Both are about as fucked up as
you can get. And I’m not sure I could forgive either at the moment.
I’ll see you on the plane, and at the wedding, because I have to.
But past that, I-I just don’t know where we stand, Olivia. I love
you so damn much, but you just destroyed me. You know how much I want
to be a dad. I never pushed you, but you
know.
”

I leave before I say or
do anything else. She just broke both our hearts and I want to just
shake her and ask her how she could do that to us. But I’d never
hurt her, pregnant or not, so I’m leaving. And I really can’t
imagine ever coming back.

* * *

Owen

I’m feeling great.
Tegan and Audrey helped me find the perfect hotel to spirit my wife
away to, and Cyndi said she’d keep Hope Friday night. I figure I
can rock Candi’s world, and mine, all night, ringing in the
holiday. Then we can sleep for a few hours before taking our little
girl to the park. The girls also helped me score VIP passes, so we’ll
be skipping the lines, so we’ll only really need a few hours to do
everything Hope would want. Truthfully, a few hours is probably more
than enough for her. Especially with the excitement of being the
flower girl that night. So, yeah, everything’s coming together. And
Candi and I will both be coming over and over again.

I haven’t told her
all my plans, of course. But I did tell her I’d worked something
out for us, and that we’re definitely celebrating the holiday
together. Alone. She smiled so bright, I thought my heart would
burst. Damn if I don’t love this woman more than anything.

We’re settled in
watching Frozen—again—with Hope, when the doorbell rings. It has
to be family or friends since no one else would’ve gotten in the
front door downstairs. I get up and open the door to see Luke
standing on the other side, barely holding it together.

“Unc Luke,” Hope
yells as she sees him, running over and reaching her arms up.

My brother smiles a sad
smile before picking her up and holding her tight. He is losing it
now, tears streaming down his face. Candi is next to us in seconds,
pulling Hope out of his arms.

“Hope, let’s watch
the movie.”

“I want Unc Luke.”

“I know, baby. He
needs to talk to Daddy for a few minutes first though, okay. Then I’m
sure he’ll watch it with us.”

“I will, sweetie. You
know I love watching your movies with you.”

“’Kay, I’ll tell
you what you miss.”

“Thanks, sweet girl,”
he tells her, kissing the top of her head.

We go downstairs to my
studio for some privacy. When we get inside, Luke falls to his knees.
“Luke, man, what’s wrong?”

“She’s pregnant.”

“Olivia? That’s
great. I mean, isn’t it?”

He shakes his head.
“She didn’t tell me. I don’t think she planned to tell me.”

“What the fuck?”

“Exactly.”

He explains what
happened at his house, and I’m shocked. Truly and totally shocked.
“It has to be yours, though. She wouldn’t cheat.”

“Are you sure?
Because at the moment, I’m not.”

“Yes. I’m sure. And
you know it, too. I don’t know why she kept this from you, but if
she’s pregnant, there’s no way the kid isn’t yours. So get that
train of thought out of your mind, at least.”

“It just hurts so
much. She’s already robbed me out of however many months of sharing
this—sharing the miracle of our child. Not to mention, the physical
and emotional distance from her. Why would she push me away?”

“You’re going to
have to talk to her, and find out.”

“I don’t think I
can talk to her right now. Maybe at the wedding. I mean, I’m not
following through with my plans. Part of it wouldn’t be good for a
pregnant woman, and the rest…yeah, I just can’t.” He takes a
deep breath, before smiling. “What I can do is go see my beautiful
goddaughter upstairs, and give you and Candi a couple hours of alone
time.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep. Snuggling with
Hope will do any heart good, and helping you and the Mrs. get your
love on is just an added bonus. Someone should be happy, after all.”

I run up the stairs.
Literally run full-out. Luke follows me up at a slower pace, laughing
the whole way. We get him settled with Hope, and then I’ve got
Candi down in my studio. I added a bed this week, hoping we’d get
some alone time soon. Tonight is sooner than I could’ve even wished
for, but I’m not complaining.

“I can’t believe we
have all night together. It’s like a dream come true.”

“Believe it, babe.
Luke’s staying over, and he’s not letting Hope out of his sight.
I get to worship your hot body.”

“I’m doing some
worshipping, too.”

We undress quickly, and
then we’re just staring and circling each other. This is the first
time in forever that we’ve been able to actually take the time to
look. We’re usually just rushing, with most of our clothes intact.
I make the first move, pulling her too me, with her back to my front.
I run my hands all over her body as I suck on her neck.