Home Run (17 page)

“You were hurting.”

“Yeah, well it clouded my better judgment. I’m not going to let that happen again.”

Sonia chewed on her lip. “You’re sure you’re okay with the kids and everything going on in her life?”

Christian played what she was saying over in his head. She didn’t actually say anything about the baby, so he wouldn’t either. “I’m ready for
anything.”

Sonia stepped back and let him into the house.

When the kids saw him they ran to him, their arms open and then wrapped around him.

“Can I talk to you two?”

They each took one of his hands and they walked out to the living room. Christian sat the kids on the couch and knelt down in front of them.

“I want to ask you two a question. First of all, I want to tell you that your daddy was my very best friend. And when you were born, he asked me to take care of you. And I want to do that. I also want you to know I love your Aunt Tori.”

Sam look unenthused, but there was a giant smile on Ali’s mouth.

“I want to ask her to marry me and then we would all be a family—forever.”

Ali clapped her hands together and Sam watched. Then he clapped his hands together.

“I want to know if you two would be okay with that?”

“Yes!” they both answered.

“And would it be okay if someday we had a baby or two? Would you be okay if more babies lived in our house?”

“Can I hold them?” Ali said enthusiastically.

“Of course. Someday, okay?”

She nodded.

“Okay. Now I want to show you something.” He pulled the ring from his pocket and showed it to them. “I want to give this to Aunt Tori. Do you think she’ll like it?”

“Yes. I like it! She will like it. Can I have one?”

He laughed and he could hear Sonia, just beyond the wall, laugh too.

“You want a ring? I’ll buy you a ring. What about you, Sam? What do you want?”

“Baseball!”

Oh, this one was a kid after his own heart.

“Okay then.” He pulled them into his arms and kissed each of them on the cheek. “You two stay with Sonia this evening and I’ll give her the ring and see if she’ll marry me.”

As he left the house he wondered if he should have taken them with him. He still wasn’t sure Tori was going to want to spend her life with him. He had a lot of making up to do for the year he’d let her take on the world alone.

Chapter Twenty-One

Christian arrived before she had. There were flowers on the table. Two champagne glasses next to the flowers and a bottle of sparkling cider, ready for celebration. Next to the glasses he’d displayed the ring.

If they made it to dinner then he would call in a favor at the restaurant a buddy owned.

It was nearing four o’clock. He looked at his watch nearly every minute, but she hadn’t walked in the door yet and he was growing more nervous by the moment.

He was taken by surprise when the doorbell rang. He walked through the house and pulled open the door.

Scott stood on the front porch with a bouquet of flowers in his hands. He was dressed in a fancy suit and his expensive sunglasses begged to be broken into a million pieces.

“Oh, hi,” he said as if he were surprised to find Christian standing in the doorway. “I didn’t realize you’d be here. I wanted to talk to Victoria.”

Christian bit down hard. “Tori isn’t here. Why would you want to talk to her? I think the statutes of limitations on the apology you owe her has passed.” He would have kept his tone kinder, but he couldn’t find it in him to do so.

“I beg your pardon? What about you? What about the way you left her to deal with everything she had to deal with? You think she’s got a better situation with you?”

Christian moved toward the man who had him by at least three inches in height and a solid build. But he’d push him into the street if he had to.

“Scott!” Victoria’s voice came from the steps behind Scott. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to apologize for my behavior a few weeks ago. I was a bit stressed with work and wasn’t prepared for what you’d told me.”

Tori’s eyes widened and she shot a glance to Chris. His gut twisted. Scott did know. She had told him about the baby and she’d left him out of the loop completely when it came to knowing.

“Scott, this isn’t the very best time.”

Christian stepped out of the house and stood facing both of them. “C’mon, Tori, let him apologize for his attitude. Let him apologize for walking out on you when you needed him.”

“Chris,” she said through gritted teeth. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He kept his glare on Scott. “Don’t I? Don’t I know that the moment you told him you were pregnant he walked out on you?”

He heard her gasp and Scott stepped up to him until their noses nearly touched.

“Well at least I see by your being here you stepped up to be a man. Though having a one night stand with someone else’s girlfriend isn’t what I’d consider being a man at all. But at least you’re here, which leads me to believe you’ve taken your responsibilities seriously.”

“Oh, Scott! Chris!” They both turned their eyes to Tori standing next to them. “Please, Scott, you have to go. Please.”

“Fine. I thought you might have thought this through. I was willing to give your baby a name. Obviously his father has some anger issues.”

His words were a blow to his already twisted gut. “What did you say?”

“You heard me.” Scott dropped the flowers and moved in again so that he was face to face. “You sleep with someone’s girlfriend and get her pregnant and I’m the one making an ass of myself? I don’t know who you think you are, Mr. Keller, but this isn’t the way to do things. If you were a real man…”

“Wait!” He held up his hand and then turned to Tori. “I got you pregnant?”

“Christ, man. She’s not the kind of woman who just sleeps around. Give her some credit.”

He was about to give Scott a fist to the jaw.

“Chris, let’s go inside and talk.”

“All this time I thought you were having his baby and it was mine?”

“Chris…”

“You didn’t think you could tell me?”

Scott shook his head. “Right, because you might just walk out like you did when her sister died.”

That was the last straw. Chris pulled his fist back to swing at the man, but found himself knocked on his ass.

“Oh, God!” Tori rushed to him. “Scott, what are you doing?”

“I’m walking away. I shouldn’t have come in the first place.” He looked at Christian. “For your information, asshole, I never even slept with her. And if you’d been the man in her life I wouldn’t have even been involved. I came to take on your responsibility, because she’s a good woman and the kids are fantastic kids.”

Scott turned and walked down the steps and a moment later he was speeding off down the street.

Christian moved his jaw from side to side.

“If the baby was mine why didn’t you tell me?”

She was sobbing now and that hurt him as much as his jaw.

“How did you know? I didn’t tell you. I didn’t tell anyone but Sonia.”

“Well, he seemed to know.”

She sat back on the ground. “He found the test. Chris, I didn’t plan this. I just figured I’d raise the baby alone. You couldn’t commit to a life with me and Scott walked away.”

“You would have considered him over me? You would have let him raise my baby?”

There was some clarity for him.

He got to his feet. “Let’s get this out in the open.” He looked down at her not even offering her a hand. His attitude had changed from one of acceptance to blinding anger. “You are pregnant from our one night?”

She nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

“And you didn’t think it was important to tell me this in light of all the time we’ve been spending together?”

“I thought you’d be mad.”

“I’m mad, because all this time I thought it was Scott’s baby you were carrying and you were afraid I’d turn you away.”

“I never slept with Scott.”

“That’s what makes this worse. Don’t you see it? You don’t even trust me enough to tell me that you’re carrying my baby.
My
baby.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys.

“Where are you going?” Tori struggled to stand. “Chris, what are you doing?”

“I need some time to think this though. If you can’t trust me to be part of my own child’s life, how can you trust me with anything?”

He saw her struggling, but he had to keep moving. Accepting the baby was one thing, but to know she held the information from him on purpose, that was what hurt. If she loved him like she said she did then she should have told him.

He put the keys in the ignition and started the truck. As she made it down the stairs he drove away.

Victoria stopped as the truck screeched around the corner. The tears fell freely now and her heart ached so that she thought she could die.

He was right. She hadn’t told Christian about the baby because she couldn’t trust him to stay.

She placed her hands on her stomach and held the tiny swell. Dear God, what had she done?

Dragging herself back toward the house she picked up her bag and walked inside.

She felt sick again. Her entire body shook and the tears wouldn’t stop. Falling onto the couch, she let the sorrow of the moment take over and the tears rolled until she no longer had tears to cry.

By then, it was dark outside and she’d been on the couch for nearly three hours trying to put all the pieces of the past few months into place.

Finally, she stood and walked toward the kitchen. She’d long forgotten that in her car were groceries to make dinner for Chris. She was going to ask him to marry her and to have their baby. His reaction wasn’t the one she’d wanted, but there was a part of her that had been prepared for it.

She thought about the picture that she had to show him. What would he think if he could see their baby? As she turned around to find the bag she’d drug in with her she noticed the flowers, the glasses, the sparkling cider—and the ring.

Her knees went weak and she grabbed hold of the back of the chair. What had she done?

It took her another hour to pull herself together. Once she did, she drove to Sonia’s house where when Sonia opened the door she fell into her arms and cried even more.

“I should have told him. I should have told him right away,” she sobbed against her best friend’s shoulder. “He hates me. He left.”

Sonia ran her hand over her hair. “Sweetheart, calm down.”

“I can’t. He’s gone. I ruined it.”

“No. Shhh.” She kissed the top of her head. “Listen, give him some time.”

“I can’t. I messed it all up.” Victoria sniffed. “I—I lied to him.”

“You just didn’t come forward when you should have.”

“You
do
think I’m wrong.”

“I think you’re misjudging him. That’s all.” She wrapped her arm around Victoria’s shoulders and walked her to the couch. She guided her down and sat next to her.

“Tell me what happened when you got home.”

Victoria took some deep breaths and tried to get her composure. When she could she explained how everything happened when she got home. How Scott was there to apologize and how he told Christian all about the baby.

She long ago should have run out of tears, but she hadn’t yet.

Then she told her about him leaving and how she then found the ring.

“A three diamond anniversary band?”

Victoria’s eyes opened wide.

“Yes.”

“He came here and asked the kids if he could ask you to marry him.”

“Are you kidding me?” The tears were drying.

She shook her head. “He showed them the ring and Ali asked for one too.”

That finally made her chuckle.

“What did he say to that?”

“That he’d buy her a ring and Sam wanted a baseball.”

God he was wonderful and she’d let him out of her life a year ago without a fight and again when he drove away.

“What am I going to do?”

“Don’t you suppose that he needs some time too?” She rubbed Victoria’s back. “And when he was talking to the kids he asked them if it would be okay if the two of you had more kids. Do you think he knew?”

Victoria looked at her friend. “He did know.” She shook her head as if she’d only just realized it. “He said he thought I was having Scott’s baby.” She wiped away the last of her tears. “He didn’t say how he knew, but he knew.”

She looked at Sonia who shook her head. “I didn’t say a word.”

“Last night when I got sick he asked how much longer it was supposed to last. He meant the morning sickness.” She sucked in her breath. “Why didn’t he tell me he knew? He just kept asking me if I had something to tell him.”

“Calm down.” Sonia took her hands in hers. “You need to just calm down. If he knew about the baby and even thought the baby belonged to another man
and
was still going to ask you to marry him, don’t you suppose once he’s done being angry that you didn’t tell him he’ll come back around? Tori, he loves you.”

“I’m scared. I’m so scared.”

Sonia pulled her back into her arms. “He’s a Keller man. And Keller men don’t let the women they love out of their grasp.”

Victoria nodded at that. “I love him. I don’t want to do this without him.”

“Give him a few days.”

She agreed, but she wasn’t sure she’d survive a few days without him—not anymore.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The night was extremely dark. Christian sat on the tailgate of his pickup and looked out over the ball field which was still just piles of dirt.

Just like the field, where he could imagine the bleachers, the bases, the people cheering—he could imagine his life with Tori, the kids, and their baby.

He ran his fingers through his hair. Arianna had prepared him for the thought that the baby might be his, but he’d never really bought into that. It just didn’t make sense, that if the baby was his, why didn’t she tell him? And as angry as he was, what did it really matter? He loved her and Ali and Sam. And there was a part of him that loved that baby more than anything.