Unexpectedly Yours [Private Relations 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  Jim pulled her into his arms and said, “Yeah. Wish you had been able to go. We’ll have to go after the baby is born.”

  He smiled when her arms slid around him, and she said, “Definitely. Roller coasters are a no-no right now, though. It seemed silly for me to go and just walk around.”

  His mother waved her hand dismissively and said, “We could have shopped, honey. It would have been fun.”

  “Maybe next time,” Elle said. “Dinner should be ready in about twenty minutes. I’m just toasting some garlic bread to go with this.”

  His father looked longingly at the pot on the stove and said, “Can I try it?”

  Elle reached into the drawer on her left and passed him a spoon, saying, “Be careful. The spices haven’t quite mellowed yet.”

  He immediately moved over to the pot and took off the lid. Breathing deep, he said, “This smells so good.”

  Jim watched as she waited apprehensively for him to take a bite. When he took the bite and immediately nodded in appreciation, she relaxed slightly.

  “Oh god, that’s so good,” his father said. “Jim, hang on to this one. She can cook!”

  Elle laughed and said, “You guys must be exhausted. Go, sit down. I’m almost done in here. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.”

  “Yeah,” Jim said, “Go hang out in the living room. I just need a minute.”

  The moment they walked out of the room, he pulled her into his arms and pressed his mouth against hers briefly. Her arms wrapped around his midsection and she hugged him close. Running a hand down her back, he said, “I need to go entertain my parents now, but I’d like to continue this later. Stay the night tonight?”

  “We’ll see. I feel weird with your parents visiting,” Elle said, hesitantly.

  “They know we’ve had sex, honey. Besides, it’s my house and I’d like you to be here,” Jim said.

  “Okay,” Elle said. “I’ll stay.”

  “Thank you,” he said, after he had pressed another kiss against her lips.

  “Go. Entertain,” she said, grinning. “I’ll be out there in a minute.”

  Jim wandered out into the living room where his parents had sprawled out inelegantly on the couch. Grinning, he asked, “You guys doing okay? You look exhausted.”

  “Entirely too much walking,” his mother said.

  Jim held up his hands and said, “Hey. This was his idea, not mine.”

  His father grinned unrepentantly and said, “How often am I able to go on roller coasters, Patrice?”

  His mother grumbled slightly but gave him an indulgent smile.

  He watched the interplay between them through new eyes. They’d had a perfectly nice day together and neither of them had made negative comments about his life. He felt that this was most likely some sort of world record. He really hoped that this was a sign of things to come.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Elle moved into the kitchen to clean up after dinner. The chili pot would be a bitch to clean if she didn’t scrub it clean. She was surprised when Jim’s mother accompanied her and offered to help clean up.

  They worked in silence for a few minutes, until Patrice finally cleared her throat and said, “I can tell you really like my boy.”

  Smiling, Elle scrubbed at the chili pot and said, “He’s a great guy. I do.”

  She was somewhat startled when she felt Patrice lay a hand on her arm and say, “Be careful, honey.”

  Tilting her head, Elle asked, “Why?”

  Giving her an earnest look, Patrice said, “My boy has always had an overly active sense of duty. You seem like a nice enough person. I wouldn’t want you to mistake that sense of duty for love.”

  Giving her arm a reassuring squeeze, Patrice continued on by saying, “He was always the type of kid that picked up stray animals when he was little. Once, he brought home this scrawny little stray kitten. It had to have been the runt of the litter. He tried like heck to nurse it back to health. He kept vigil over it for a couple of days, but it still died. It was probably sick. I remember his sad little face when he went outside to bury it in the backyard. I think he felt sorry for it, more than anything. I mean, look around you now, Elle. He doesn’t own pets.”

  Taking in everything she had just told, Elle said, “Okay.”

  “I’m not trying to hurt your feelings, but you’re the stray kitten in this situation. He’s always needed to take care of things that are weaker than he is. Don’t take this as a personal slight, but, one day he’s going to find someone that he can actually love. It would make me heart sick to know that he stayed with you out of duty. I don’t think he’ll never be truly happy if he settles with you.”

  Elle felt equal waves of anger and guilt. No matter how politely it was phrased, his mother had just told her that she wasn’t good enough for Jim and that Jim just felt sorry for her.

  Taking a deep breath, Elle picked up the kitchen towel and dried her hands. Looking Patrice in the eye, she said, “Thank you for your concern. You’ve given me some things to think about. I need to go now.”

  Walking out of the kitchen, Elle grabbed her purse and said, “Jim. I’m not feeling well. I’m going to head home, I think.”

  Jim immediately stood up and asked, “Is everything okay?”

  Elle shook her head and said, “I need to go.”

  Opening the front door, she moved toward her car in the driveway. Jim followed her out and said, “Elle. Wait a minute! What’s going on?”

  Shaking her head, she said, “I really can’t talk to you right now. I don’t want to fall apart in your driveway. Please. Just let me go.”

  Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “What did my mother say to you?”

  Elle felt her eyes start to water and she said, “I need to go now. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Stop, Elle. Please. Don’t go.”

  “I can’t stay here right now. Seriously, Jim. I need to not be here.”

  Rubbing a hand over his face, he raised his palms and said, “If you need to leave, then go. Know that we’re not even close to done with this discussion, Elle.”

  Elle nodded and opened her car door.

  Jim looked at her and said, “I really don’t want you to go now, but if you have to, then please drive carefully. Text me and let me know you got home safely.”

  Giving him another nod, she got in her car and put on her seat belt. Backing her car out of the driveway, she pulled onto the street and felt some of the tension in her chest ease.

  Picking up her phone she dialed Sara’s phone.

  On the third ring, Sara picked up and said, “Hey, Elle. What’s up?”

  Trying to keep the quiver out of her voice, she asked, “Can I come over?”

  “Yes. Of course you can. What’s wrong, honey?” Sara asked, alarm in her voice.

  “I can’t talk about it now. I’m in Sherman Oaks. I’ll see you when I get there, okay?”

  “Sure, sure. Drive careful, please.”

  “Thanks. I will,” Elle said, disconnecting the call.

  Talking to herself, she asked, “Seriously? She had to pick a dead, stray cat?”

  Elle took a few calming breaths. Focusing on the freeway in front of her, she felt herself relax slightly. She needed to get it together. Stress like this wasn’t good for the baby.

  A few minutes later she replayed the conversation in her mind and started to pick it apart. Her concern for Jim had seemed incredibly genuine but now that she wasn’t just emotionally reacting to her deepest fears being voiced aloud, she realized some of it didn’t ring entirely true.

  Jim told her about the baby via e-mail. How would she have any idea about his feelings? Jim had described their relationship as “strained.” That she’d have a deep enough knowledge of her son’s feelings after less than a full day together with him seemed a little unlikely.

  Patrice didn’t give Jim much credit either. She basically said that he had no self-control or discipline when it came to helping those that were “weaker” tha
n him. Ignoring the insult, she thought about Jim’s life. He was up at five each morning, working out. He worked sixty hours a week, and owned a hugely successful business. You really couldn’t do those things without having an overabundance of self-control.

  She knew Jim physically wanted her. He was constantly touching her. Christ, he’d asked her to move in with him. He’d told her that he wanted to take care of her, but in that same conversation he’d also admitted that her self-reliance was a little bit intimidating. He didn’t see her as one of those “weak things” that he so liked to help.

  Slamming her palm against her steering wheel as she headed toward Sara’s place, she realized Patrice had been trying to mess with her head and Elle had totally let her. What a manipulator!

  Elle pulled into a spot down the street from Sara’s place and texted Jim, “I didn’t go home. I’m at Sara’s now. We definitely need to talk. Can I call you in a little while?”

  “We do need to talk. Call me,” he responded back immediately.

  Wincing, she got out of the car. He didn’t sound happy at all. Maybe he was pissed at her? At this point, she had no idea. How had things gotten so screwed up?

  Elle rubbed a hand over her face as she buzzed Sara’s apartment.

  Sara immediately buzzed her in. By the time she’d reached the thirteenth floor and gotten off the elevator, Sara stood in her open doorway waiting.

  “What happened, honey?” Sara asked, appraising her.

  “Jim’s mother happened, Sara. Get this, we’re in the kitchen and she starts off like we’re having this heart-to-heart talk about Jim. She proceeds to tell me a story about Jim wanting to take care of this stray cat when he was little. It got sick and died. She tells me that she’s not trying to be mean, but that I am the stray cat in this relationship.”

  “What the fuck!” Sara shouted.

  Holding up her hand, she said, “It gets better. She continues to tell me that he has this penchant for taking care of things that are weaker than him. She hopes that I won’t just let him settle for me because she feels like one day he could find someone he really loves.”

  Sara stared at her, speechless for a minute and said, “Tell me you killed the poisonous bitch and we need to hide her body.”

  “No,” Elle admitted. “I let her get into my head for a minute. She basically expressed every single one of my fears and confirmed them. I didn’t confront her about it. I just left in a hurry. Probably scared the shit out of Jim.”

  “What a piece of work. How does Jim come from stock like that, I wonder.”

  “His dad seems okay. Then again, until she went for the fucking jugular in the kitchen, I thought that about his mom too. Anyway, I realized in the car that she was screwing with my head. Even if he doesn’t love me, at the very least he wants to be with me.”

  “He loves you, Elle. It’s all over his face anytime he looks at you,” Sara said. “You just don’t see it because you’re too close to the situation. I think you guys need to just have an honest conversation about your feelings.”

  “I don’t know. I see shades of the whole wanting to take care of me thing, though. I don’t think he’d martyr himself in order to do so, but I worry that our relationship will end up being about the baby,” Elle said. “He asked me to move in the other night. He made it sound like a business transaction though.”

  Wincing, Sara said, “Maybe he didn’t want to freak you out by moving too fast.”

  Elle laughed and said, “Our entire relationship has moved faster than the speed of light. Why take our time now?”

  Smirking, Sara said, “I need some wine. I got you some cranberry juice so you could pretend drink with me.”

  “You’re the best,” Elle said.

  Twenty minutes later, they were talking on the couch when there was another buzz from downstairs. Elle winced and said, “Crap. That’s probably Jim. I told him where I was. I didn’t think he’d show up.”

  Sara took the last swig of her wine and said, “I would have been disappointed if he didn’t show up.”

  Walking over to the panel she hit the intercom and said, “Who is it?”

  “It’s Jim. Can you let me in please? I need to talk to Elle.”

  “Come on up,” Sara said, buzzing him in.

  Looking at her, Sara said, “I’m going to go hide in the bedroom with Deacon.”

  “Shit. I didn’t realize he was in there. I’ll try to take this someplace else so you’re not trapped,” Elle said.

  “Deacon and I will be able to find something to do in the bedroom,” Sara said, winking. “If you hear any strange noises, just don’t ask questions.”

  “Too much information,” Elle said, cringing slightly.

  “I’ll remind you of that when you start talking about all your weird body changes,” Sara said, laughing. Waving, she opened the door to her bedroom and disappeared inside.

  A minute later, there was a knock at the front door. Elle took a deep breath and opened the door. Jim stood there, a look of concern on his face.

  She stepped back and let him inside. Clearing her throat, she said, “Sorry I just left like that.”

  Looking at her steadily, he said, “I get it. My mother isn’t a very nice person. She didn’t really give much detail. Can you tell me what happened?”

  Elle told the story again, not sparing any detail. By the end of it, Jim was running his hand over his face. He said, “She’s a fucking piece of work.”

  “Sara said ‘poisonous bitch.’ I’m kind of fond of that term,” Elle said.

  “Given the circumstances, I can agree with that,” Jim said.

  Elle nodded, not sure what else there was to add to that.

  “You didn’t believe any of that shit, did you?” Jim asked, fear in his eyes.

  “At first, yeah. It kind of played into all of my fears about you staying with me strictly for the baby. By the time I made it to the freeway, I realized what she’d done though. I let her do it, too,” Elle said, shaking her head, embarrassed.

  She continued on, “What really cemented it for me was the kitten story. I could see you taking care of a stray, but her suggesting that I was one of those weak things contradicted a conversation we had recently. The rest of it fell apart once I thought about it rationally.”

  “The funny thing is, the cat story? That wasn’t even me. That was my brother,” Jim said quietly. “I didn’t think she was going to do that. She’d been really nice so far, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt. I expected her to be outwardly nasty, but she was just sneakier about it.”

  “Yeah,” Elle agreed, “That was pretty low, picking on the pregnant lady with the crazy hormones. It’s fine now, though. I see it for what it is.”

  “For whatever it’s worth, my father sends his apologies. He genuinely likes you,” Jim said. “He was pretty pissed at her. He wouldn’t even look at her when I dropped them at the hotel.”

  “Wow, hotel?”

  “She’s been giving me shit for years about my life choices. I’ve let her do it because I never wanted to have the argument. I could tell as soon as I mentioned my mother to you in the driveway that she’d done something. I confronted her about it when I went inside. She told me that she was trying to save me from another dumb choice and I just lost it. I told her she wasn’t welcome in my house anymore,” Jim said.

  Elle said, “Wow. I’m sorry to cause so much shit with your family.”

  “Not you, honey. It was her,” he said.

  “I’m still sorry,” Elle said.

  Nodding, he looked at her soberly and said, “I’d like to discuss something else with you, too. I’d really like a hug first, though.”

  Elle scooted closer to him on the couch and said, “That would be nice.”

  She sighed and closed her eyes as he wrapped his arms around her. Sliding hers around his waist, she heard him say, “You scared the shit out of me when you just left like that.”

  “I’m sorry. I couldn’t be there. I didn’t know
how else to express it without having a breakdown in your driveway.”

  “I know, baby,” he said. “You still scared me, though.”

  As they pulled back from the hug, Jim’s eyes zeroed in on the wine glasses. Looking at her sharply he asked, “That’s not—”

  “Easy, tiger. That’s cranberry juice in mine. I would never do that.”

  “Okay,” he said, relief evident in his voice. “Just checking.”

  Elle looked up at him and asked, “What was the other thing you wanted to discuss?”

  “Us,” he said.

  “You’re right. We should probably talk about that.”

  “Elle, I love you,” Jim said without any preamble. “I’ve been in love with you since that night in my office. Maybe before then. If you don’t return the feeling, I understand. I just want you to know that I love you and you’re it for me.”

  Feeling absolutely swamped with relief, her eyes filled with tears.

  Jim stared at her helplessly for a moment before he said, “Please don’t do that.”

  “No, no. These are happy,” she said, wiping away a stray tear that rolled down her cheek. “I love you too. I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you. I was so scared that you’d give me this pitying look or do something like politely thank me.”

  Jim took her face in his hands and gave her a long, searing kiss that left them both breathless. Leaning his forehead against hers, he said, “There was never any chance of that. I love you. I’ve been yours for months now.”

  “I love you too. I’m sorry it took me so long to catch up.” Elle said on a watery sigh.

  Shaking his head, he gestured between them and said, “This is all that matters.”

  Elle’s voice was shaky with emotion when she said, “I don’t even have the words to adequately describe how much I love you.”

  Jim leaned in to kiss her again, then suddenly asked, “Where are Sara and Deacon?”

  “Hiding, I think,” Elle said, smiling.

  “Oh jeez. Let’s go. We can finish our conversation elsewhere,” Jim said.

  Elle stood up and walked toward the door. Jim followed suit, shouting, “You can stop hiding now. We’re leaving.”