NFH 02 Perfection (35 page)

She stuck her hand out towards him in
silent demand. "There's no need to evict me since I already told
you that I'm moving out so give me a copy of the key," she said
evenly and he could tell by the way her eyes kept darting down his
leg that she was thinking about kicking him.

"I'm sorry, Zoe. I just can't do that.
I'm already using it for storage," he said, wondering how much
longer it would be until she gave into the need to attack
him.

"You're using it for storage? How the
hell can you do that with all my stuff in there?" she demanded, her
voice rising as her little hands curled into fists by her
side.

"I needed the space," he said with a
shrug.

"For what?" Did her eyes just dart to
the butcher block?

Since he really didn't feel like
spending the night in the hospital he decided to take pity on her
and just let her know the new arrangement, besides all her violent
little thoughts probably weren't good for the baby.

Baby
.

He still couldn't believe that he was
going to be a father. Truth was he hadn't been sure that he wanted
to have kids. He didn't want to pass down his problems to a child
or have to deal with any of the bullshit that came from having a
family, especially if it didn't work out and things ended in
divorce. He never wanted to be responsible for giving his kid the
kind of pain his father gave him even unintentionally.

With Zoe as his child's mother he
would never have to worry about it, not that he planned on letting
her go, but he knew without a doubt that she'd kick his ass up and
down the street if she thought even for a moment that he somehow
let their child down.

After the slight panic attack he had
after Jason calmly explained what Zoe's prescriptions were for, he
realized that he was actually pretty excited about having a family
with Zoe. She was so damn sweet, attentive, kind and he loved her.
He couldn't wait to have babies with her. Once he convinced his
cousins and uncles to get off of him and let him up off the floor
he started making plans.

Sure Zoe was probably going to get
pissed and she wouldn't talk to him for a few days or weeks, but
this really was for the best and when she realized that she would
no doubt thank him for taking care of everything.

"Well, since you moved in here I
really didn't have much choice but to move my stuff in there," he
pointed out.

"Moved in with you? What the hell are
you talking about?" she asked, but he saw the moment she realized
that all of her kitchen belongings were now in his kitchen. Of
course he made sure to use her stuff and box his shit up to make
her happy, which she'd probably appreciate once she stopped
scowling.

"I did tell you that my family was
over here last night. It took a few hours and the guidance of Haley
and my aunt, but I think we did a pretty good job," he said,
glancing around the kitchen.

"Please tell me you're kidding and
that you really didn't move my stuff in here," she mumbled as she
looked around the kitchen as if she couldn't believe what she was
seeing, which was kind of insulting since he'd worked pretty damn
hard to make the kitchen "cute" for her. Did she not see the
matching puppy dog oven mitts that he bought for her?

"Of course I did." He walked over to
the fridge and grabbed a Coke for himself and a bottle of apple
juice for her. When she only frowned down at the juice he
explained, "You can't have caffeine while you're
pregnant."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't want
juice. I want you to put all of my stuff back into my
apartment."

"Why would I do that?" he asked,
frowning as he stepped past her and headed into the living room
where his boys were lounging in front of the couch.

"Gee, I don't know," she said,
storming into the living room after him. "Maybe because I never
told you that I wanted to move in here or perhaps because I ended
things with you and I believe I told you that I was moving out.
Take you pick, Trevor, but put my stuff back in my
apartment."

"First off," he said, pausing to
finish off his soda, "I believe you cried tears of joy when I asked
you to move in." When her mouth dropped open in stunned disbelief
he decided to continue and press his luck. "Secondly, I really
don't remember you ending things and I really think I would have
remembered that," he said, deciding that Jason's theory was correct
and it didn't count if a woman was pissed when she did it. The man
was a Harvard grad after all so who was he to argue with the man's
logic?

"Are you serious?" she demanded. "I
broke things off with you yesterday and you damn well know
it!"

"Thirdly," he said, ignoring her as he
leaned back and tried to get comfortable since this looked like it
was going to take a while, "I can't move you back in there not only
because it would be a waste of time since I'd just have to move you
again when we bought a house, but it would also be pretty weird
being married and living separately, don't you think?"

"
Married
?" she practically screeched,
not sounding all that pleased, which left him feeling a little
offended. "We're not getting married."

He snorted at that. "I may have let
you have your naughty little way with me for the past couple of
months, but that doesn't mean I'm going to allow you to keep
treating me like some dirty little boy toy. If you want to live
with me then I expect you to put a ring on my finger," he said,
holding up his left hand and wiggling his ring finger to punctuate
his words.

"Naught little...," she mumbled,
shaking her head in disbelief as she tightened her hold on her
towel and dropped into an overstuffed chair. "Oh my god, you really
are insane."

"Probably," he said with a shrug, "but
don't worry I doubt it's hereditary so the baby should be
fine."

Her eyes widened at that announcement.
"Great one more thing to worry about," she sighed and he did his
best to ignore the fact that she was only wearing a towel, a really
large towel, but a towel nonetheless.

"There's really nothing to worry
about," he said with a shrug.

"Nothing to worry about? There are
about a million things to worry about and apparently having you
committed is one of those things," she snapped.

"And when we get married you can
legally have that done," he said brightly, grinning hugely when she
scowled his way.

"Why in the hell would you want to
marry me? I thought you were done with this little arrangement of
ours," she pointed out, sounding frustrated and more than a little
confused.

"Because I love you," he said simply
even though she really should know that by now.

Apparently she hadn't.

For a moment she could only stare at
him, looking as though she'd been hit between the eyes with a
hammer. It was actually a bit disconcerting and he was starting to
wonder if she was okay.

Finally she said, "You don't love me,
Trevor."

"Yes, I do."

"No, you don't," she said, sounding
irritated.

"Of course I do and you love me too,"
he said, sounding smug, but he didn't care. He knew the woman was
head over heels in love with him so he wasn't overly concerned that
she hadn't professed her undying love to him, much.

"I'm not in love with you?" she
declared and he really couldn't help the shit eating grin at that
little declaration.

Her little growl pleased him as well.
"Fine, okay? I'm in love with you," she snapped, but that doesn't
change anything, Trevor. You don't love me."

"Yes, I do," he said, feeling less
than pleased that she doubted him.

She took a deep calming breath and
when he opened his mouth to say something she held up a hand to
stop him and took another one. "Look, while I appreciate the fact
that you're trying to do the right thing here for the baby, I think
if you thought it over you'd realize that there's really no need to
force yourself to do something that you don't want to do. I'm sure
that we can sit down and talk about this rationally and come up
with something that will work for both of us where the baby is
concerned. I-"

He decided to cut her off right there
because this had nothing to do with the baby and he was having a
really hard time following this conversation with her towel
drooping in the front and flashing an indecent amount of cleavage
that had him shifting in his seat. He wondered if it would always
be like this, where he couldn't keep his mind out of the gutter
around her and knew it would. When they were in their nineties he'd
probably be chasing her down in his wheelchair, desperate for a
kiss.

"This has nothing to do with the baby,
Zoe," he said softly, interrupting her and earning a groan of
frustration.

"Of course it does, Trevor. Up until a
couple of days ago you didn't want anything more than a sexual
relationship with me," she said softly, but he didn't miss the
slight tremble in her voice and it killed him that he'd hurt
her.

"We both agreed to that arrangement,
Zoe," he reminded her gently. "I'm not the only one who was willing
to settle, sweetheart, but I promise you I stopped looking at you
like you were just a convenience a long time ago."

"And now you want to get married," she
said flatly.

"Yes," he said without hesitation.
"More importantly I want you."

She worried her bottom lip even as her
eyes watered and he knew she was softening. He just had to show her
how much she meant to him and everything would be okay.

"I can't do it, Trevor," she said,
shaking her head. "I can't go from being nothing to you to suddenly
being your wife. How do I know that anything will change? I can't
be married to a man who's never even held my hand in public or
acknowledged me in any other way than just his tenant."

As much as he hated to admit it, she
had a point. For the past couple of months he'd been pretending
that the best thing in his life didn't exist and that hadn't been
fair to either one of them. Now that he gave it some thought he
realized his current plan was kind of ridiculous. It would never
work if she didn't trust that he meant what he was telling her.
Ignoring her the way he had in public, and god was he a fucking
moron, and then getting married was never going to work. He needed
to show her how much he loved her and he needed her to know that he
saw her as more than just his little tenant.

She was absolutely everything to
him.

"That's a good point," he said,
standing up.

"I'm glad you understand, Trevor. I
think it's best if we-"

"How's your head?" he asked,
interrupting her.

"Doesn't hurt that much," she
admitted.

"Are you hungry?" he asked, knowing
that she must be starving.

"Yes, but I think-"

"We should go out on a date tonight? I
totally agree," he said, cutting her off because he had a feeling
that she was about to suggest something he wouldn't
like.

"A date?" she repeated, sounding a bit
confused.

"Yeah, a date," he said, grabbing her
hands and pulling her to her feet while she still looked confused
as hell. He gave her a little nudge to get her moving in the
direction of the stairs. "You know where I pick you up, you keep me
waiting for a half hour, we go out, and I charm you while you hang
on my every word. We eat, we talk and then at the end of the night
you invite me in for a cup of coffee and I pretend to think it over
since I'm such a gentleman," he said, choosing to ignore her little
snort of disbelief as he guided her towards the stairs.

"But-"

"No, buts," he said, giving her
another nudge to get her up the stairs. "Get your little butt up
there and put something on that will drive me out of my
mind."

"But-"

"Go," he said, giving her another
nudge that thankfully got her moving. "The sooner you get dressed
the sooner you can start fawning over me like a proper date and
remember just because I agreed to go out on this date with you
doesn't mean that I'm easy. I expect you to do a little work to get
me out of my pants."

He couldn't have his future wife
thinking he was easy after all.

Chapter
30

"What do you think, the blue one or
the green one?" she asked, holding up of the pretty tops that she'd
bought a few months back, but hadn't had the chance or reason to
wear.

Until now.

She couldn't believe she was going on
a date with Trevor. Although she was nervous about what people
would say after their one and only date, especially when she
started to show, right now she really couldn't care less. She knew
people were going to talk after the babies were born and a lot of
them were going to make issue out of the fact that Trevor was the
father and because of that they'd probably always think the babies
were either conceived out of pity or a night of drunken
stupidity.

If worse came to worse she would move
out of town where she could keep her children away from the
majority of the gossip. There would always be talk, but as long as
her children knew they were loved she could deal with all the
nonsense. There was plenty of time later to deal with the drama.
Right now she was going to enjoy her night with Trevor.