A Vow, a Ring, a Baby Swing Read online

  Last night changed everything.

  Steve hadn’t actually said he loved her. But didn’t actions speak louder than words? Everything he had done for her, to her, convinced her that he had romantic feelings for her.

  “A perfect world,” she whispered.

  Steve’s arm tightened across her abdomen and nestled her more closely to his muscular length. His breath stirred her hair. Waking up in his arms was better than anything she’d ever imagined. She grinned from ear to ear.

  Then he tensed. She had a bad feeling and her happy bubble started losing air.

  “Oh, God,” she heard him groan.

  He removed his arm and rolled onto his back, away from her.

  Rosie did the same, then turned her head to peek at him. He rubbed a hand over his face and she heard the rasp of whiskers against his palm.

  “Don’t say you’re sorry,” she said, trying to keep her tone light and teasing. She knew there was a desperate “please” at the beginning of that statement, but if God was merciful, Steve wouldn’t guess.

  “Okay. I won’t say it.” He didn’t look at her but she saw that his hands were clenched. “It’s just—”

  “What?” she prompted. This was like taking a bullet and trying not to breathe because the pain would be excruciating. Just get it over with, she thought. “What?” she said again.

  “This is all my fault.” He glanced at her then. “I never meant for that to happen.”

  “But it did.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Now what?”

  “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, Ro.”

  “What’s the right one?” she asked.

  “Things got out of hand. We got caught up in the moment. That’s all.”

  She heard it again. That sound she’d heard when he’d pulled back from her in the woods. Her heart was cracking. She prayed for the strength to keep him from seeing.

  “Of course that’s all. What more would there be?” she asked with as much nonchalance as she could muster.

  “Not a darn thing.” He stared hard at her and she wondered what he was thinking.

  “We’re consenting adults. I’m an independent woman. For goodness’ sake, it’s practically expected. We’re married.” She couldn’t ever remember talking being so painful. “When are you going to get that through your head? You’re as bad as my parents, worrying

  He put his finger to her lips. “At ease. You convinced me. I’m glad you agree that it shouldn’t happen again. Thanks for understanding, Ro. I’m going to take a shower.”

  Understanding? Things were clear as mud, she thought.

  She looked away as he rolled out of bed. Not because she was embarrassed to see him now. She was afraid he would see the tears that blurred her vision. Sitting up, she pressed her forehead to her knees. Would she ever again be able to draw a breath without pain? Willing herself to get the message, she chanted, “He will never love me.”

  As he closed the bathroom door, Steve heard Rosie mumble something. He turned the water on as hot as he could stand, then let it pound his head and shoulders. He hoped it would wash at least part of the sin from his soul. All these years he’d kept his distance from Rosie to prevent exactly this. He’d broken the cardinal rule. And that wasn’t the worst of his crime. Now that he knew the sweetness of her, inside and out, it would be that much harder to keep his hands and his emotions to himself.

  That would only compound his mistake. He’d been with women before; he believed women wanted him. But love? That wasn’t in the cards for him. It never had been and never would be. He’d come to terms with that fact years ago. People who were supposed to love you ran out on you. About the same time he’d realized that, he found out something else about himself.

  Never take the chance of needing anyone.

  When the water turned cold, he shut it off and stepped out. After what he’d done, he couldn’t stay alone with her even one more night. He would tell her he had to get back to town. Plead work.

  Steve slipped on his jeans and stepped out of the bathroom drying his hair. He caught a glimpse of Rosie, wearing his shirt. With her dark hair falling wildly around her face and shoulders, she looked like a woman who had just been well satisfied by a man. He grew hard at the thought. He’d prepared himself for this but hadn’t anticipated that it would happen so soon—or so powerfully.

  Then her look of distress penetrated his foggy brain. “Nick’s here,” she said, sounding frantic. “He’s here right now!”

  “Nick? What’s—” Then he remembered. With everything that had happened, the casually issued invitation had completely slipped his mind.

  A movement in the doorway drew his attention. Nick Marchetti stood there for several seconds and it was impossible to mistake the rage vibrating through him. He moved slowly, stopping in front of Steve.

  “You backstabbing son of a bitch.”

  Nick had always known he wasn’t good enough for Rosie. Steve had finally proved him right.

  Steve didn’t see the punch coming and wouldn’t have blocked it if he had. A second later pain exploded in his head.

  Chapter Seven

  Shocked to her core by the single act of violence, Rosie couldn’t move for several moments. Then she positioned herself between the two men and stood her ground in spite of her trembling. She managed a glare for Nick that would have done her mother proud. If he made another move toward Steve, she would stop him.

  “How dare you?” she asked. “What gives you the right to walk in here and hit Steve?”

  Nick gave her a brief glance. “You’re a Marchetti. That’s all the reason I need.” Then he turned his steely eyed look on Steve. “Mother sent you to stop her wedding, not sleep with her.”

  He took one step, and Rosie grabbed his arm, hanging on for all she was worth. “I’m a consenting adult and this is the nineties. What I do is none of your business.”

  “I’m making it my business.” When her brother

  “Watch it, Nick.” His voice hummed with anger. “She’s—”

  “Not going to put up with the heavyweight championship of the world,” Rosie said quickly. Steve had been about to spill the beans about her pregnancy. This was not the time or the place. Instead of a single punch, she would have World War III on her hands.

  “Sorry, Rosie,” Nick said. “It would be best if you leave us alone. I’ll take care of him for you. Then we can go home.”

  She put her hands on her hips and frowned at him as her temper simmered. “If I needed your help, big brother, I would have asked for it.”

  “He’s right, Ro. This is between him and me.” Steve looked down at her. “Give us a few minutes alone to talk.”

  Some things never changed. They were leaving her out again. Only when they were children, Steve had almost always included her. She frowned at Nick. “You burst in here uninvited and—”

  “I asked him to come,” Steve said.

  “What?” She looked up at him and noticed redness around his right eye. It was going to swell and needed ice, but she was afraid to leave these two baboons alone long enough to get it. Correction—one baboon and his punching bag. Steve hadn’t lifted a finger to defend himself.

  “I invited him up for the weekend,” Steve said again. “It slipped my mind.”

  That wasn’t a big surprise, considering everything that had happened. But everyone knew her brother was a notorious workaholic. He thrived on working

  She looked at her brother. “You’d rather have a root canal than R and R. What are you doing here?”

  “Mother was worried.”

  “Why?”

  “She got a brief message from him.” He nodded in Steve’s direction. “That was almost two weeks ago. She’s worried.”

  “Why didn’t she just use the telephone?” Rosie asked.

  “She tried and couldn’t get through.”

  Rosie thought back over the last two weeks and tried to recall if they’d used the phone. She’d threatened to call
a cab to go into town, but hadn’t gotten farther than pulling out the directory. She walked into the living room, self-conscious that she wore nothing more than Steve’s shirt. It came to just above her knees and was big on her, a very good thing. Signs of the pregnancy were becoming obvious and she knew how observant Nick was. In certain clothes, he wouldn’t miss her rounded tummy.

  She picked up the receiver and listened. There was no dial tone. Steve checked the wall and held up the other end of the cord that was not plugged into the jack. “Here’s the problem,” he said.

  “Premeditated seduction.” Nick scowled. “Didn’t even want the phone to get in the way. Right, Schafer?”

  “It’s not like that,” Rosie said. “Plugging in the phone was the last thing on our minds.”

  As soon as the words were out of her mouth Rosie wished to call them back. The dark look on Nick’s face turned thunderous and his hands curled into fists.

  “My own sister.” He moved forward and Rosie stepped in his path. He stopped, but didn’t look at her. Over her head he met Steve’s gaze. “I never figured you for a low-down dirty creep.”

  Rosie felt Steve’s hands on her arms as he tried to move her out of the way. She wasn’t budging. He stepped around her and squarely faced her brother. “Nick, you don’t know all the facts. Don’t jump to conclusions—”

  “I didn’t jump to anything. You slept with my sister. She was on the rebound and you took advantage of her.”

  Rosie moved beside Steve in a show of unity. Nick’s black eyes burned like coals, but she refused to look away.

  Rosie was at a complete loss to understand why he was so angry. He’d been the most outspoken of her brothers about his dislike of Wayne. She’d expected him to be giddy with superiority that she’d found out what a jerk the guy was. She’d expected him to be pompous with approval that she’d wound up with his best friend. There was one small detail he needed to know that might make the difference in his approval.

  “It’s not taking advantage if you’re married,” she said.

  “Married?” Stunned, Nick looked from one to the other.

  She nodded. “Almost two weeks now.”

  The muscle in Nick’s cheek contracted. He stared at her hard. “So he stopped your marriage to the weasel and snapped you up himself?”

  “No one forced me to say the words,” Rosie said, lifting her chin.

  “What’s wrong with you, Rosie?”

  Steve stood beside her. “Don’t blame her, Nick.”

  “We didn’t send you to break up the wedding with Wayne so you could marry my sister. I thought we were friends.”

  “We are,” Steve said.

  “I don’t understand how you could do this.” Frustrated, Nick turned away for a moment, running a hand through his dark hair. When he turned back, the fury glittered brighter in his eyes. “You never said a word. You always swore that no woman would snag you. How could you do this?”

  Rosie stared at her brother for several moments, letting his words sink in. Finally she said, “I don’t think you give two hoots about me, Nick. You’re upset that Steve didn’t consult you.” She put her hands on her hips. “I think you’re more ticked off about losing your bachelor buddy than anything else.”

  “You are so far off base, Rosie.”

  “Am I?”

  “Yeah. A buddy doesn’t up and marry his best friend’s sister without warning. I thought I knew you, Schafer. After all these years, and everything we’ve been through together, this is a hell of a way to find out that I don’t know you at all.”

  The muscle in Steve’s arm contracted as his hand curled into a fist. “Nick, listen to me—”

  “There’s nothing you can say that I want to hear.” He looked at Rosie. “I’m leaving. Are you coming with me?”

  She reached a hand toward him. “Nick, let’s talk about this—”

  “Are you coming or not?”

  “No.”

  Without another word, he walked out the front door.

  Rosie started to follow, but Steve stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She turned to look up at him, but his image wavered from the moisture in her eyes. He folded her into his arms. “It’ll be okay, Ro. Give him time to cool off.”

  Tears didn’t blur her hearing. There was a whole range of emotion in his voice. Anger, frustration, regret. And most of all, sadness. She had never heard this voice from Steve before and it tore at her. This mess was all her fault. Surely there must be something she could do to set things right. Letting the wrong impression fester in Nick’s mind longer than necessary didn’t seem smart. She could fix the problem in thirty seconds. In fact, she didn’t understand why Steve hadn’t told him that he’d married her to protect her. Although Nick hadn’t given them time to explain much of anything. But it wasn’t too late. She could catch him.

  She wriggled free of his hold. “Let’s go after him, Steve. We’ll tell him what’s going on. He’ll understand.”

  “And thank me?” The words oozed bitterness that she knew was self-directed.

  “Yes.”

  “No. You’re his baby sister and I crossed the line. He’ll never understand. Marchettis don’t forgive.”

  “That’s not fair. I’m a Marchetti. I’m not too stubborn to admit when I’m wrong.”

  He released her, and gave her a wry look. “Yeah, like the way you came clean right away about not being in love with Wayne?”

  “That was different—”

  “It always is, Rosie.”

  She sighed and he gave her a half smile to match his half-closed right eye. It was the most endearing look and she felt the tug all the way to her heart. His poor face. His best friend had done that. What were they going to do? Lifting her hand, she gently touched the puffiness in his cheek. She pulled back when he winced. “Sony. I’ll get some ice for that.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Let’s just get out of here.”

  His bleak tone, so unlike him, robbed her of the will to argue. As she packed her things, she couldn’t forget the animosity she’d seen between the two men. The only good thing, if she could call it that, was that the ugly scene had taken her mind off Steve’s morning-after-the-night-before rejection.

  It was a one-time insanity. “Caught up in the moment,” Steve had said. “Things got out of hand,” he’d said. She had done her best to hide her pain, but it hurt that he could trivialize such a beautiful experience. It was something she had dreamed about for a long time. But she would give it up in a heartbeat if it would bring Steve and Nick back together again.

  They had always been best friends. Although he’d never said it in so many words, Steve considered Nick the brother he’d never had. The only time she’d ever seen friction between the two was when Steve let her tag along over her brother’s objections. This marriage was one humongous tagalong.

  Nick had to know the truth about it, about how Steve had given her his last name to save her reputation. She would love to see her always-superior big brother with egg on his face. And she would make sure his apology to Steve was long, eloquent, and as

  When they were ready to leave, Steve loaded the luggage into the car. Before he opened the door for her, she said, “I’ve been thinking about something.”

  “What?”

  “We have to go straight to my folks and break the news that we’re married.”

  “By the time we get there it’ll be old news.”

  “I know. But we have to tell them the whole truth, about why we got married, I mean.”

  He stared down at her and gave her a look that turned her heart over. It continued to pound and her breath caught in her throat when he took her face in his hands and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s not the marriage Nick is so upset about, Ro.”

  “Oh.” Her cheeks burned. “But we were married when that happened.”

  “That’s probably why he only belted me once. But you’re his little sister. Nothing else matters.”

  “That’s silly. If
he knows why you married me, he’ll get over all of it.”

  “I don’t think so. But let’s cross one bridge at a time. Okay?”

  “Whatever you say.”

  “Does that mean Miss Grown-up, Independent Woman is going to let me do the talking?” he asked with a slow half smile.

  “Whatever you say,” she repeated.

  But when the time came, she wouldn’t let him take any more heat from her family. She would explain how she’d gotten herself into this mess and how Steve had generously saved her rear end. It would be hard, telling them everything she’d done. But somehow the

  At least for now, she thought sadly.

  Steve and Rosie walked up the steps to the Marchetti house. It was a big, sprawling place with manicured lawns in the front and pool with brick-trimmed patio in the rear. It was the kind of home Steve had always yearned for but knew he would never have. A condo was sufficient for a bachelor. Technically he wasn’t one anymore, but he would be. The sooner the better. Rosie was a temptation that he couldn’t afford. Sleeping with her had only made it worse. Sleeping with her again would compound the mistake.

  Steve wasn’t looking forward to facing Flo and Tom Marchetti with the news that he’d married their daughter. No matter that the duration of the union would be as short as he could make it, he was the last man they would have chosen for her. Nick’s furious reaction had confirmed that suspicion.

  He glanced behind him at the circular drive and the four cars lined up in front of his. “I see the forces are mobilized.”

  “Looks that way,” Rosie snapped, her voice tight with nerves.

  All her brothers were here. Steve figured that was a good news, bad news situation. He only had to do this once. The bad news—Alex and Joe had tempers equal to or greater than Nick’s. Luke was different. Even his looks weren’t vintage Marchetti. The others all had dark eyes and nearly black hair. Luke’s eyes were blue, his hair lighter brown. The youngest Marchetti

  Rosie met his gaze and said, “I’ll protect you.”

  Make that four against two. “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.”

  He smiled, thinking about little Rosie trying to protect him from Nick. Five feet and a bit against six feet two inches of wiry strength, and she’d never flinched. She’d known Nick wouldn’t hurt her physically. But that might have been easier to bear than his disapproval. Her family was very important to her. He just hoped this charade to give her and the baby his name for protection didn’t cost her the people she cared about. Steve knew he could deal with it. He’d never known any different. But Rosie had.