Married To The Mum-To-Be

Abby was the head chef at O’Sullivan’s. “Mom, I—”

“It’s a shame that Lucy Monero is engaged to that Parker boy. Now, she would have been a great match for you. And she’s a doctor. And she’s got such beautiful hair.”

Liam zoned out as his mother prattled on about Lucy Monero, who was a doctor at the local hospital and was soon to marry Grady Parker’s younger brother. She was also one of Kayla’s closest friends.

Liam drank the club soda and vaguely listened as his mother kept talking and mentioning several single women that he knew between the ages of twenty and forty.

“What about Ash McCune?” she asked.

Ash was another friend of Kayla’s, a pretty redhead and a police officer. “Not my type,” he said and grinned.

His mother scowled. “Ellie Culhane?”

“Too young.”

“Carmel Morrissey.”

He grinned. “Too old.”

Liam could see his mother thinking about other potential would-be wives and he drew in a long breath. He knew she was clucking around him to keep her thoughts off losing her only daughter and he wasn’t about to be unkind and tell her to stop. As much as her matchmaking got on his nerves, he would never intentionally hurt her feelings. She was his mother, and that alone was enough of a reason to bite his tongue.

Besides, there was a certain irony in the conversation. His mother was urging him to get married and start a family. He was almost tempted to say he’d already done that. But he wouldn’t say anything until they knew for sure.

The concierge approached, interrupting them about a problem with a guest. Liam held on to his patience as the younger man explained the issue and then barked out a couple of instructions. Some days he longed for a solitary job where he didn’t have staff lining up with questions. He almost envied Kayla her isolation at the museum. When the other man left them, Liam noticed his mother watching him, both brows up.

“What?” he said.

“No one likes a bad-tempered boss,” she said and grinned.

“I don’t have a bad temper.”

“Well, not with me you don’t,” she said and patted his arm. “And you’re very sweet with your nieces and little old ladies and I’m proud of the way you’ve taken Connie under your wing these past few years. But with the rest of the world, including the people who work for you, you seem to have developed a reputation for being grumpy and impatient.”

The criticism irked him more than usual. “Because I like things done a certain way?”

“Because you like things done your way,” she replied and patted his arm again. “You know, you really do seem tense. I think you need to loosen up a bit.”

“I’m loose enough,” he said, even though he knew people believed he was uptight most of the time. It was who he was, who he’d always been. He was J.D. O’Sullivan’s eldest son, heir and successor to the O’Sullivan legacy...imagining he could have had any other kind of life was never an option. Not that he’d had any real ambition to do anything else. Unlike Kieran who’d always known his path was medicine, or Sean, who wanted a faster paced life than small town, South Dakota.

Still, he couldn’t help but sometimes wonder what would have happened if he’d changed course after college, maybe focused on the photography that he’d loved in his teens. But it was all rather moot now... He ran the hotel and the O’Sullivan portfolio and had a responsibility to his family and the many employees who relied on O’Sullivan’s for their livelihood.

“Liam?”

His mother’s voice got his mind back on track. “Yes?”

“What about Annie Jamison or—”

“Enough,” he said gently and held his palm up. “Okay, Mom, I get the drift. You want me to get married and then have a few sons so we can carry on the great O’Sullivan name.” He got to his feet and pushed in the chair. “I’ll do my best not to disappoint you or Dad.”

“You never disappoint us. Not ever.”

He tried not to, although he knew that when the truth about his relationship with Kayla came out, there would be disappointment on both sides. It was inevitable. But something had to give. At the very least Kayla needed to meet him halfway. With his mother trying to marry him off, it wouldn’t be long before Gwen O’Sullivan worked out why he was reluctant to date anyone, let alone anything more.

Liam stood, grabbed his jacket and keys, said goodbye to his mother and left. He needed to talk to his wife. Right now. It couldn’t wait.

* * *

By the time Kayla got to her apartment that afternoon it was after five o’clock. She pulled up outside the old Victorian that she’d called home for nearly a year. The big house had been renovated into four apartments and Kayla’s was on the second floor.

She loved the house, with its textured cladding, shuttered windows and wide-front veranda. The home had been carefully restored by the owner, an IT guru who’d inherited the place a few years earlier from an elderly relative he’d never met. Dane was something of a geeky recluse, but he was a good landlord and neighbor. Even though he was a couple of years younger than Kayla they had formed a solid friendship over the past year, and with the married couple in their midforties sharing one of the downstairs apartments and the other occupied by a seventysomething widow, she was grateful to have such caring neighbors and friends.

When Ash arrived just after five thirty, still in her police officer’s uniform, Kayla offered her tea and within ten minutes they were sitting on the sofa, the flyers for the upcoming hospital benefit spread on the coffee table between them.

“They look great,” Kayla said and nodded. “Thank you for doing this. I know how busy you are. But this is exactly what I was envisioning.”

“The kids had fun with the design,” Ash said and smiled. “They incorporated the hospital logo, but still made them fun and colorful.”

Kayla looked at her friend. Not only was Ash a single mother and a police officer, she was also a foster parent. She was probably the most generous and giving person that Kayla knew. On her small ranch just out of town, she took in teens who needed a helping hand, sometimes several at the same time. She lived on the ranch with her mother, Nancy, and her twelve-year-old son, Jaye.

“Thank you,” Kayla said again and sighed. “I really appreciate your help.”

“That’s what friends are for,” Ash reminded her. “Right?”

Kayla dropped her gaze. Ash was astute. And she knew her friend sensed something wasn’t quite right with her. “Yes...absolutely.”

“Does that mean you want to talk about you know who?”

Her friends had all been nagging her about her relationship with Liam since the night she’d plowed into his truck, but none of them knew for certain they were involved. When they suggested it, Kayla generally laughed it off. But tonight, she wasn’t in the mood for laughing. When they discovered she was Liam’s wife she would have a lot of explaining to do.

Liam’s wife.

Sometimes she could barely get her head around it. They’d met up in Vegas the day her conference had ended and spent three days together. The most amazing three days of her life. And they’d returned as husband and wife. It had been a foolish, spur-of-the-moment decision. A monumental decision. If she’d had any sense she would have had the marriage annulled. But she was all out of sense when it came to Liam. And since the idea of ending their relationship hurt her through to her bones, she felt as though she was in an impossible position. Hurt herself and Liam and the child she was possibly carrying...or hurt her parents and grandmother.

Either way, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

And although she didn’t like the way they’d ended their telephone call earlier that afternoon, she was too tired to ring him back and go over the same old ground. She knew what he wanted...and on one level she agreed with him. She simply didn’t know how to give it to him without hurting the people who loved her most in the world.

Of course a baby would change everything. Her child would come first, there was no question about that. She simply wasn’t going to be in some great hurry to tell everyone.

“No,” Kayla said to her friend. “I’m not up for that...not just yet.”

Ash sighed and offered a gentle smile. “I know what it is to feel trapped by...” Her friend’s words trailed off before she spoke again. “By obligation. But when you’re ready, you know I’m on hand to listen.”

Ash was a good friend and had been through a lot over the years, particularly when it came to her young son and ex-fiancé. And Kayla knew her friend understood loyalty and family commitment. If she was going to unburden herself, she would be exactly who Kayla would talk to. With Lucy and Brooke so blissfully in love these days, Ash was the only one of her friends who would understand what she was feeling.

There was a knock on the door, so Kayla excused herself, got to her feet and headed down the short hallway. Thinking it might be Lucy or Brooke or even Dane stopping by for a chat, she swung the door back on its hinges and smiled. But it wasn’t one of her friends on her doorstep.

It was her husband.