With Me in Seattle Bundle One (100 page)

“Yes, this is baby Liam. Isn’t he sweet?” I kiss her smooth cheek, then blow a raspberry on her neck, making her laugh.

“Meg, look up and smile.” I raise my head at Nat’s voice and smile for her camera. The woman doesn’t go far without that thing. Even Sophie is so used to seeing a lens that she poses for the camera, too.

“Dinner’s ready, everyone,” Gail calls.

The guys help her set bowls of salads and fruits on the long buffet table next to the house, while Steven piles steak and chicken on platters.

The food is abundant and delicious.

“This is the last time this year we’ll grill. Until next summer, we’ll have family gatherings catered. It’s a lot of work to feed all of us,” Natalie tells me as she stands and takes Sophie from me, planting her on her curvy hip.

“I can see that,” I respond and kiss Liam’s head again.

“Meg, you look good wearing a baby,” Luke remarks as he joins his wife, Olivia asleep against his muscular chest.

“So do you.” I wink at him, and he laughs.

“Stop flirting with my brother-in-law.” Will scowls as he joins me.

I stand and hand him the baby.  “I’m not flirting. I’m just paying extra attention to someone who’s very attractive,” I reply seriously, my eyes wide and earnest, trying to hold the grin in.

Luke smirks and kisses his wife as Will’s scowl deepens. “He’s not attractive. He’s family.”

I laugh, hard, grab my stomach and practically double over. “Will,” I gasp. “Have you seen your family? You all look like you stepped out of an Abercrombie ad.”

“Do not,” he mutters and kisses Liam’s tiny head.

“Yeah, you do.” Natalie nods. “It’s a nice family to be a part of.”

“See?”

“So getting spanked later,” he whispers to me as we join the others to eat.

“Dude, give me my kid.” Isaac holds his hands out for the baby. “And I know he’s the size of a football, but don’t pass him off to the wrong guy. You seem to have issues with that today.”

“Fuck you, Isaac,” Will growls as he gingerly hands the baby to his oldest brother.

“Mouth!” Gail snaps.

“You’re an asshole,” Will mutters at Isaac so their mother can’t hear them.

“I was just giving you a hard time. Too soon?”

“Too soon.”

“What was the issue today, man?” Matt asks, now that the subject has been brought up, and Will sighs, runs his hands down his face and sits heavily in a chair, staring down at his full plate of food.

“It was just an off day,” he mumbles. “I think we took too long off last week.”

I bite my lip. We were on vacation last week.

“Stop it.” He catches my attention, his eyes fierce. “This is not your fault. I just should have taken advantage of the hotel gym when we were gone.”

“It’s okay, bro. Next week.” Caleb claps him on the shoulder and sits next to him with a full plate.

And just like that, the subject is dropped. Conversation continues around us, the twins run and play in the yard, babies fuss.

It’s loving, amazing, wonderful chaos.

And I can’t believe I’m here.

“Hey.” Jules nudges my leg under the table and leans in to chat with me so only I can hear. “Have you heard from Leo?”

“No,” I whisper to her.

“Not at all?” she whispers back.

I shake my head and keep my eyes on my food.

“How long?”

“Three years,” I whisper.

“I’m sure his number hasn’t changed.”

I meet her worried blue eyes with my own. “Neither has mine.”

She nods and takes a bite of potato salad. “Good point.”

I look up in time to see Brynna and Caleb share a look, then quickly turn away from each other. What’s going on there? They’re obviously attracted to each other, but they don’t really interact. They just watch each other.

I’ll have to ask Will later.

“So, let’s talk wedding.” Jules claps her hands and bounces a bit in her chair while the guys all groan.

“Can’t you and the girls talk about the wedding later, when we can escape to watch football or something?” Caleb asks, earning a glare from Jules.

“No. We’re less than a month away. Besides, I don’t have much. Alecia is handling most of it all anyway.” She takes a drink of wine and pulls out a list, causing the guys to all groan again, and I can’t help but giggle.

“The date, as you all know, is October twelfth.  Six in the evening. You have invitations with the address and all that crap.” She takes another drink as we all listen, the guys fidgeting. “Since it’s just Luke and Nat in the wedding, this is going to be easy on all of you. Dress nice, don’t give us any gifts, and come ready to party.”

She tucks the note back in her pocket and resumes eating.

“That’s it?” Matt asks.

“Yep,” she replies with a smile.

“You didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know.”

“I know, I just wanted to talk about my wedding for a minute.” She’s smug as she takes a bite of steak and smacks her mouth as she chews. “Oh! And the bachelorette party is next Sunday night.”

“Why on a Sunday?” Sam asks with a frown.

“Because we have some stupid business thing on Saturday.” Jules rolls her eyes, and Nate chuckles. “So, it has to be on Sunday. Every other weekend is full of wedding and football crap.”

“I love you, too, sis.” Will throws a roll at her, and she blows him a kiss.

“So, everyone just take Monday off work to recover.”

I giggle to myself. Jules is so not a selfish woman. She just thinks that things are simple. Like, everyone in the world should have no problem taking a day off work to recover from a hangover.

“You’re coming.” She pins me with a glare, daring me to say otherwise. I quickly run through my schedule in my head, aware that Will’s eyes are on me.

“I believe I have next Sunday night off. I’ll let them know I’m not available for on-call that night.”

“Good.” Natalie grins. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Steven stands, holding his beer in the air. “I want to propose a toast. To my family, which has grown by leaps and bounds this past year. I am a blessed man, to be surrounded by good men, beautiful women, and the most amazing babies ever born.”

“To family!” Luke’s dad agrees, and everyone drinks, and then breaks off into conversation again.

As we’re finishing dessert, the sky opens up. I knew I smelled rain earlier. We are, thankfully, under a covered patio, and most of the food has been cleared away. The four brothers and Luke work together to cover the now-cool grill, and we take the babies inside out of the humidity. For the rest of the afternoon, a football game plays on the television and adults play card games with the twins. The babies are fed, rocked, changed and fussed over.

Luke’s, Stacy’s and Brynna’s parents all leave.

Will and I are lounging at one end of a large leather sectional couch, watching football, my head in his lap. I yawn and feel my eyelids droop.

“Hey, lazy bones, are you ready to go home?”

“When you are. I’m in no hurry.”

He smiles gently down at me, his eyes soft. “I love you,” he mouths.

I grin up at him, happily, and run my hand down his smooth cheek. “You’re so handsome.”

He grabs my hand and kisses my palm. “Let’s get out of here.”

He helps me out of the couch, and we say our goodbyes, which takes another half hour. Will’s mom, Gail, hugs me close.

“Please, come back soon, Meg. We enjoyed you.”

“Thank you,” I murmur shyly.

“She’ll be back,” Will comments as he kisses his mom on the cheek.

I tilt my head back as we step outside and enjoy the rain. It’s dark now, and the rain is heavy but not cold. It’s that warm, late-summer rain that feels like tap water.

“I love the rain this time of year.”

“Great. Get in the car, babe.”

I laugh over at him. “You don’t like the rain?”

“It’s fine, but you’ll get sick if you don’t get out of it.”

“No, I won’t. That’s a myth.” I wave him off and stand in the rain for a minute longer, then join him in his car.

“Are you always this stubborn?” he asks.

“How long have we been seeing each other?” I ask.

“Awhile. More than a month,” he responds and pulls away from his parents’ house.

“Then you should know by now that I’m always this stubborn.” I grin sweetly as he chuckles.

“So, about those texts you sent me…” He turns hot blue eyes on me and offers me a half smile.

“Yes?”

“Gonna make good on them?”

“I don’t know. Your mood seems to have improved without me needing to resort to oral sex.” I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket, and I pull it out as I laugh at Will’s scowl.

Tell your bf thx for the $250k.

“Pull over.”

“What?”

“Pull the fuck over.”

Chapter Nineteen

“What’s wrong?” His voice is panicked, but I can’t look at him. I have to get out of this car.

Now.

“Just pull over, Will.”

“Are you sick?”

“Yes! Pull over!”

We’re in a remote part of Seattle, mostly deserted, and dark. The sky has opened up even more, pouring rain as if someone has turned on a faucet.

He skids to a stop at the side of the road, and before he even puts it in park, I barrel out, slam the door and start walking, fast, in the headlights.

“Meg!” he calls from behind me. “Megan, stop!”

“Leave me alone, Will.”

“What the fuck has gotten into you?”

I hear him gaining on me, his feet shuffling in the gravel on the side of the road, so I twirl and confront him.

“How dare you?”

He stops in his tracks, his eyes wide with fear and worry, and holds his hands up like he’s being robbed.

“What?”

“I told you not to give her any money.”

“Fuck.” He hangs his head and props his hands on his hips, both of us ignoring the rain falling in sheets around us. “Meg…”

I spin on my heel and start to stomp away from him again, but he grabs my arm and spins me back to him. “You’re not walking home.”

“Fuck off, Will.”

“Megan, stop this.” He takes both of my shoulders in his hands and holds me in front of him, and all I can do is glare at him, panting. My anger is palpable.

“I told you, Will. You saw how it was last week. Why in the hell would you do this? She’ll just keep coming back for more. She would have gone away if you would have just left it alone.” I can’t stand the break in my voice as I feel the tears mix with the rain on my face.

“She never would have gone away, sweetheart.” His voice is calm now but firm.

I shake my head back and forth and bury my face in my hands. “I don’t need you to clean up my life!” I step back out of his grasp and look up into his face illuminated by his headlights, water running down the sides, his hair soaked and plastered to his head. “I can handle this myself.”

“Megan, that woman is toxic. She drains you, financially and emotionally. You don’t need her.”

“I know that! You think I don’t know that?” I throw my hands in the air and march in a frustrated circle.

“I’m trying to help you.”

I stop, my back to him, and shake my head, hands on my hips. “I asked you not to help me like this.”

“Look at me.”

I stay where I am.

“Look at me, Megan.”

“Will, you betrayed me.”

“I did not fucking betray you!” he yells, and I whirl to look at him. His eyes are feral now, and his hands are in fists at his sides, every muscle taut with anger and frustration. “I paid off a woman who hates you for existing so she’ll never bother you again. She signed a contract, Megan. She can never ask you for another dime.”

“What?”

“Let me finish. That woman is the reason you can’t tell me you love me. That. Fucking. Woman.” He shakes his head in frustration and turns away from me, then turns back. “If I have the opportunity to remove her from you, why wouldn’t I do it? The money is nothing to me. She is the reason you have trust issues. She is the reason it’s so hard for you to show people you love them.”

“What are you now, a shrink?” I ask with a derisive snort, and then hate myself when I see the hurt in his eyes.

“I know you,” he murmurs quietly. His chest is heaving. “I love you, Megan.”

I love you, too.

I can’t make the words come out.

“I love you, Megan.” The words are stronger now, louder, and he’s willing me to say them back.

I turn and start to blindly walk again, my steps quick, away from him, from his car, from all these fucked-up feelings that I just don’t know how to trust.

Suddenly, I’m in his arms, and he’s carrying me back to the car. He sets me down, ass on the hood, and pins me, his hands braced next to my hips, his face level with mine, nose millimeters from brushing the tip of mine, his eyes on fire. He’s glaring at me with love and hurt.

“I. Love. You. Megan.”

“Will.” It’s a sob. I take his face in my hands and brush his cheeks with my thumbs. “Will.”

“I love you,” he whispers, his lips so close to touching mine I can feel them move.

I close my eyes and feel the tears on my face. I can feel the hot tears on his face, running into my hands, mixing with the warm rain.

I’m hurting him. And it’s killing me.

“You can’t say it.” It’s not a question.

“I can show you,” I whisper.

He closes his eyes for a heartbeat, tips his forehead down to mine, and then suddenly grips my hips and pulls me to the edge of the hood of the car and peels my sopping wet jeans roughly over my hips and down my legs, throwing them on the ground in a wet heap. My eyes are wide and on his, mouth gaping open.

“Someone could drive by.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” he growls and sinks to his knees, pushing my thighs apart and burying his face in my core. He licks and kisses and sucks on my lips, my clit, pushes my metal against my nub, making me plant my feet on his shoulders, grip his soaked hair in my hands and lift my hips off the car, coming apart at the seams, crying out, not caring who can see or hear us.

He stands and shoves two fingers inside me roughly, pushing and pulling them quickly, teasing my clit with his thumb, and he’s kissing me in the same way, with frustration and anger, and I grip on to his shoulders, holding on for dear life.