Susan Mallery - Saying 'Yes!' to the Boss

“Thank you, sir.”

The next few minutes passed in a blur. Her parents ushered them into the family room. Her mother produced lemonade and cookies, then wished they had champagne in the house.

“I didn’t think we’d need it so soon,” she said, touching Noelle’s hand. “Tell me everything about the wedding. I wish we could have been there. Oh, my. There are so many people to tell. We’ll have to have a party, won’t we, Bob? Maybe something in the garden.”

Dev listened to Jane Stevenson talk about the wedding. There were tears in her eyes as she realized all she’d missed of her oldest daughter’s big day. He felt bad for having to deceive her and her husband, but it was better this way. Better that they not know the truth about the baby. They were the sort of people who would insist on helping and he didn’t want to have to argue against their pride and love for their daughter.

Noelle was holding up better than he’d expected. She answered lots of questions about the Bellagio and even surprised him by admitting she’d already packed most of her things.

When they were finally ready to leave, he braced himself for a one-on-one with Noelle’s father. He figured he owed the man, so he wouldn’t try to duck out of the conversation. But instead it was Jane who cornered him as Noelle’s father loaded her luggage in the car.

“Please take care of my little girl,” she said, tears filling her eyes. “I know she’s the oldest, but I still think of her as my baby. My firstborn. Oh, Dev, I know you’re a good man, but this is difficult.”

He touched her arm. “I promise I’ll take care of her.”

She smiled through her tears. “I know she’ll never want for anything, which is lovely, but there’s so much more to a marriage than not worrying about bills. Noelle is special. I guess I don’t have to tell you that, but I’m going to, anyway. She’s smart and responsible and caring. And that’s what I worry about the most. Her heart.”

She paused and wiped away the single tear that had escaped. “She thinks she’s tough, but she bruises so easily. She leads with her heart. Be careful of that. Be tender.”

“I will,” he said, knowing it was a safe promise. Noelle’s heart didn’t enter into their agreement.

“As long as you love each other fully, you can get through anything,” Jane said. “That’s my best advice. Love each other.”

He nodded without speaking, then walked toward the car.

Love. Romantic love. He didn’t believe in it. Not anymore. He’d tried it once, while he’d been raising Jimmy, only the woman in question had refused to deal with a difficult teenager. He’d let her walk away because he hadn’t known how to keep her. The loss had devastated him.

Since then, he’d avoided the emotion and found he got along quite fine. Love was for the weak. He’d always been strong. Nothing about that was going to change.

Since Dev was able to carry about five times as much luggage as Noelle, they carried everything inside in two trips.

“I told you about the two bedrooms down here,” he said as he showed her a large, airy bedroom decorated in pale blue and beige. A queen-size bed sat against one wall, with a big armoire opposite. A long desk filled the space under the window.

“I ordered the desk last week and had it put here,” he said. “I thought you might like to look out while you studied.”

He’d done that for her? “Thank you,” she said as she glanced out at the beautiful yard. She could see flowers, a tree and one end of the pool. Talk about a great way to take a break. “It was very thoughtful.”

“You’re welcome. Bookcases,” he said, pointing to the ends of the desk.

She bent down and saw there was a good-sized bookcase at each end. On both sides of the comfy looking leather chair were deep file drawers.

The closet was equally impressive. A big walk-in had been finished by some expert who had put in angled shelves for shoes, straight shelves for folded items, pockets for purses, three sets of drawers and plenty of multilevel hanging space. The fixtures were a gleaming silver that looked great against the light wood.

She walked into the bathroom. There were two sinks and lots more storage space. The far door led into another nice bedroom with a queen-size bed and simple furniture.

“You’ll want to make changes,” he said. “To make this into a baby’s room. I’ll give you the name of my decorator. If you’d rather design it yourself, I have a handyman who will move furniture, paint, hang curtains, whatever. All that information is in my study.”

He left, apparently wanting to give her that stuff now. Noelle lingered for a second. A baby’s room. She tried to imagine the space filled with a crib and changing table, but nothing about this situation seemed real.

She found Dev in his study. He offered her a list of phone numbers, including his personal cell, work cell, private line, the decorator and anyone else he thought she might want to get in touch with.

There was also a leather box filled with an assortment of items. He went through them quickly.

“ATM card, checkbook. Extra key to my car. House key, alarm code. Everything is marked.”

“You’ve been busy,” she said, feeling her head start to spin. “All I had to do was pack up a few clothes.”

“This is your home now, Noelle.”

Was it? Technically, but she didn’t think she would feel totally comfortable in the beautiful space for a long time.

“So you’re saying I can put my feet up on the coffee table?” she asked.

“You can take a hammer to it, if you’d like.”

She winced. “Not my style, although I appreciate the offer.”

They smiled at each other. Okay, sure, this was weird and awkward, but Dev was doing his best to make things pleasant and easy. He’d been nothing but thoughtful from the moment he’d found out about the baby.

“You’re a really good guy,” she said. “Why aren’t you married?”

He grinned. “Actually, I am, Mrs. Hunter.”

“What? Oh. Me.”

“Forgotten already?”

She glanced down at her ring. Mrs. Hunter. Was that her? “Sort of.”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “You’ll get used to it.”

She nodded and started to say something, but the words got lost as she realized how much she wanted to step closer to him. Right now she could do with a good hug and one specifically from Dev. She wanted him to hold her next to him and tell her everything was going to be all right. She wanted to borrow strength from him and listen to his heartbeat and maybe have him…

What? What did she want? She swallowed as the truth uncoiled inside of her.

She wanted him to kiss her.

The thought was so unexpected, she actually took a step back. Kissing? There was no kissing in their relationship. Oh, sure. Slight, friendship-style kisses on the cheek. But not mouth to mouth, breath mingling, tongues touching, I-want-to-melt-into-you kissing. That was not allowed.

“You all right?” he asked.

“Fine,” she said in a squeak, then cleared her throat. “Thanks for all of this.” She motioned to the box. “I’ll, um, try not to go wild at the sales.”

“I’m not worried.” He hesitated, then said, “There’s something else you need to see. Under the circumstances…” He seemed at a loss for words, which was so not Dev. “Jimmy lived here, in the pool house. I’m having it redone into a game room, but before the workmen show up, I thought you might want to look around and see if there’s anything you’d like to keep for yourself or the baby. I’ve already taken a few things for myself.”

Jimmy. She hadn’t thought about him in days. He was the reason all this had happened and yet he’d practically vanished from her mind.