Driving to You (H1.5) (5 page)

But that nagging feeling that her dad wouldn’t be put off for much longer remained.

Chapter Seven

“
For the love of God, woman, please don’t ever ask me to do that again,” Finn groaned.

They’d just spent an hour
in one of the community centers, watching a DVD of women giving birth. Now, thank God, they were now on their way home. Well, not their home. He still lived next to her and she still lived next to him. But they were talking and spending time together, almost like old times if he didn’t think about the lack of sex.

But he was a man, so
he constantly thought about the lack of sex with her. He only wanted sex with her, despite the numerous opportunities he had in the past month.

April spared him a glance
as they walked down North Davidson. The wind gusted, giving truth to the whole March coming in like a lion saying. “Bless your heart, Finn.”

“That means I’ve stuck my foot in it,” he sai
d. “Guess I’ll be going to as many as you want me to, then.”

“You don’t have to go to any
at all, you know,” she said softly.

He nodded. “I do.”

Avoiding a mother pushing a stroller, he moved to the right side of April and their fingers brushed.  His gut clenched, his libido jumped up and down like a dog wanting to play catch. He jerked his hand away like she’d set it on fire. He didn’t know how much longer he could take her friendship.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her big blue eyes taking him in.

Yep, nothing but friendship there. He was so screwed and not the way he wanted to be. “Trying to maintain, ba—April.” She frowned. At his almost slip of calling her babe or his flip reply, he didn’t know. “So, I was wondering if you were free tomorrow night? Thought we could go to dinner, then back to my place for a movie.”

She laughed as they
made a right onto Thirty-Sixth Street. “It’s amazing how free your social calendar becomes once you stop going to all the places your single friends like to go.”

“Hey
, I’m single and your friend,” he said and she laughed again. “And I’m asking you out.”

Stopping at his driveway, she gazed up at him and strange look in her eyes. The setting sun highlighted her pretty face. “Are you asking me out as a friend or as a guy?”

“C’mon, April.” He had to look away from her knowing eyes. “Thought we were besties now. Hell, Hunter is jealous of all the time we’ve been spending together.”

“Then maybe you should ask him out.” She left him standing there, shoving her hands in her coat as she made her way to her side of their property fence.

Way to go, dumbass.
The luck of the Irish was definitely
not
with him tonight. “Night, April.”

She didn’t respond, just walked up her driveway, up the porch stairs and let herself inside. Out of habit, he waited for her to turn on an interior light and lock her door before he went inside.

Tomorrow, if she would speak to him, he would apologize. Perhaps even bring her some grapefruit covered in hot sauce.
Ugh.
He had no idea what that dreadful combination made her so happy.

A pounding on the front door woke him out of a dead sleep. Pulling on a pair of pajama bottoms, he yawned and started for the door. He smacked his toe along the way and began to hop like a deranged
Easter Bunny. “Motherfu—”

The pounding started up again.

“I’m coming. I’m coming.” He punched in the security code before unlocking his door and opening it. April nearly fell into his arms.

“I’m sorry,” she said on a hiccup, then began to sp
eak at him, a rush of words that ran together. “Buthehadallmy-myutilitiescuto-off, and I had a noteab-boutmyhouse, myhorribleminivan. And he foundoutaboutmymoney. Oh God, Finn, I’ms-scaredandhaven-no one b-but
you
.”

Still not fully awake or comprehending what she was saying, he gently guided
her into the house, flipping on the living room lights along the way. After getting her settled on the couch, he sat down beside her. She had a death grip on his hand.

“Start from the beginning and go slowly,” he said.

A shudder racked her body. “He kept his promise.”

“Who’s
‘he’?” he asked, wrapping a blanket around her bare shoulders. She wore nothing but a yellow tank top, green shorts and flip-flops. He wanted to lecture her for going outside in the middle of a freezing March night, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. She had come to him.
Him.
That had to mean something, right?

“The Governor.”
She stared off in the distance. “I thought I could do this, all by myself. I thought I didn’t need anyone.”

Not even him? So much for coming to him. So much for the past month of dates, of tentative smiles and talks and baby classes. April still didn’t trust him. His fault though. “Everyone needs a little help now and again.”

“I need more than a little help, Finn,” she said, her pretty eyes fixing on his face. “I’m broke. I have no insurance. No house, no phone, no lights or water. Not even that stupid minivan is mine anymore. He took it all away, just like he promised, because I couldn’t convince my ex to pretend that the baby was his.  I couldn’t do it, Finn. I just couldn’t, especially after offering Carter money to be with me. I felt like a whore.”

Swallowing down his righteous fury at the thought of his child being passed off as someone else’s, he said, “You are not a whore, April.”

“No, I’m worse. I’m a liar and a horrible person to be around.”

“A liar wouldn’t have told me the truth about the baby.”

Big blue eyes blinked up at him, lashes all spiky and wet. “You’re not mad at me?”

Oh, he was
mad all right, but not at her. Jesus, he hated to see her like this. So defeated and small.  He knew her, knew she valued her independence above all things. Chad Billingsworth had to have done a number on April, using his political connections to take everything from her.  “No, sweetheart.”

She began to cry in earnest. “I don’t deserve you or your friendship.”

He couldn’t take her crying, not like this. “ What can I do? Tell me what you need and I’ll take care of it.” Both of their prideful natures be damned.

“Can I move in with you, just for a little while? After I get a job, I’ll pay you, then after the baby’s born…” Her lower lip trembled and she buried her face in her hands. “Oh God, who’s going to hire a pregnant woman?”

“Me,” he blurted. Oh hell, he was totally going to regret this. It was hard enough to keep his distance now, but to see her at his office everyday…He was taking the next client’s request, no matter how small.

“Really?” She lifted her head. “But what would I do?”

“Ah, remind me what you went to university for.”

“Interior design,” she said with a little sniff. “I refused to major in political science, like every other Billingsworth who went to Carolina.
I refused go to Carolina, too.”

He ruffled her hair. “Rebel.”

“
It’s okay. I’m pretty sure an Investigation firm doesn’t need someone to mix patterns or pick out window treatments.” She stood, letting his blanket fall to the couch. “Sorry to have bothered you. I’ll go back to my place now. The Governor has given me thirty-six hours to vacate the property.”

“Your
dad’s a bastard, if you don’t mind me saying.” Finn joined her, taking her small hand in his.

Their fingers curled around each other. For long moments, they did nothing but stand there, holding on to each other. She seemed no more inclined to let go than he did. So he stayed, rubbing his thumb along her skin and said nothing.

Time seemed to slow as her gaze met his, beautifully blue and vulnerable as he’d ever seen. Her grip tightened and he took a step closer to her, bringing their joined hands to his mouth. He kissed her knuckles, then simply held hand against his mouth and closed his eyes.

Ri
ght then, it hit him. He had to say it. He opened his eyes and smiled. “I love you.”

April tried snatching her hand out of his grip, but it was like vise. “No you don’t. You just feel sorry for me and want to make me feel better.”

He gave her an incredulous look. “By saying I love you? Of all the reasons a man will say I love you, that isn’t one.”

Oh God. She was totally screwing this up. The only thing that could make the whole situation worse was if she had said thank you to his confession. “So you mean it?”

This time he let go of her hand and ran his fingers through his already messy-from-sleep hair. “It’s not a phrase I throw around, willy-nilly.
Why do you think I bought this house, changed my entire life, my routine…everything?”

“For the baby.”

“And you. Package deal, remember?”

Yeah, she remembered. Still a shred of doubt remained. “What if you don’t love me after the baby is born?”

“I’ll love you after
every
baby is born,” he said, his words so firm and confident that she began to believe him. That she allowed the new walls she’d built around her heart to keep him from getting in again to crumble. “I’ll love you when we have lots of grandchildren and hardly any teeth.”

A giggle escaped her, then a sob, until she was doing both. She had to tell him, had to get it out there before she destroyed her second chance at happiness, even if it scared her to death. “And I’ll love you when you’re fat and bald and can’t get it up anymore.”

Grinning, he pulled her to him, let go of her hand and wrapped his arms around her. “Never fear, my darling. Viagra has made it so I can always get it up for you.”

“You say the most romantic things, Finn Kennedy,” she said, her arms slipping around his neck. Rising on her tip-toes, she gently pressed her lips against his. He growled low in his throat and deepened the kiss, then swept her off her feet.

“Stay the night with me,” he said and a thrill of excitement ran through her.

She kissed all the parts of him she could reach as he moved to his bedroom and placed her in the middle of his bed. “I missed this.”

“Me, too.” Dipping his head, he placed a kiss on the swell of her belly. “Hello, in there. This is your dad and I’d like to marry your mother, if it’s all right with you.”

A fresh round of tears welled. “Stop making me cry. I am not a pretty crier.”

Smiling, he shushed her and turned his head, placing his ear against her baby bump. “Oh, you‘d like that, would you? Mommy, the baby says to say yes.”

“Bossy baby.”

“Just like its mother,” he said, then frowned. “A pony? I’m not so sure…okay, you win.” She ran her fingers in Finn’s hair as he continued talking to their baby, her eyes growing heavy. The last thing she remembered Finn saying to her bump was, “You do have the best mommy ever. She’s a real corker.”

***

April was in the middle of packing when the Governor walked through her door. Of course he would show up on the last day, when she was almost done and sorting through her odds and ends.

“Stubborn as ever I see.” His dress shoes were shiny, his suit immaculate and his hair perfect. He reminded her of a snake-oil salesman.

Carefully wrapping up her great-great grandmother’s candy dish, she placed it in a box. “You know how those Billingsworth’s are.”

“I bet you’re wondering why I’m here.”

“You’d lose that bet.” She smiled, then picked up a pair of candlesticks. “Now who did these belong to?”

“Your great-grandfather on my side. They’re
priceless and should be in the Capitol’s history museum, not displayed in some Chippendale knockoff.”

“Here.” She held them out to him and let them drop from her hands before he could take the brass fixtures. “Whoops, my bad.”

Her father’s jaw worked. “Childish, April.”

Placing a hand on her belly, she turned and smirked at the look on his face.
Yeah, that’s right, everyone with eyes in their head can see that I’m knocked up.
“Pregnancy hormones tend to make me temperamental.”

“Let’s not do this, sugar. I’ve come here to apologize.”

Her mouth dropped open. She couldn’t help it. Her dad never apologized, except to his constituents and it was always the
I’m sorry if you were offended
B.S.. “You’ve got to be joking.”

“I’m serious. I was wrong about the baby
… my future grandchild.” April rolled her eyes. So now it was his grandchild. “And that young man of yours, well, I was wrong about him, too.”

Something
about Chad’s speech didn’t pass her smell test. He was lying or knew something that would be to his benefit. “Then you’ll be thrilled to know we’re getting married.
After
the baby is born, because I am not walking down the aisle like this.” Not that she minded how she looked right now. Finn sure as heck liked how she looked. The man couldn’t keep his hands off of her.