He let out a hum of surprise but dove in willingly, quickly working up to the kind of passionate kiss I’d imagined he was capable of. I got out of breath very quickly, which I would love to blame on the baby, but I was fairly certain it was all Sean. Loving him this much after I’d been shoving down all of these feelings for so long was a new kind of euphoria.
He backed off a little, his fingers trailing down my neck, skimming along the chain of my mother’s necklace.
“So,” he said in between kisses. “As much as I would like to keep kissing you”—he kissed me again—“I feel the need to point out that we’re not alone in this car.”
A large part of me wanted to say So what, but I forced my brain to plug in and placed a hand on his chest so I could pull back. “Right.” I cleared my throat. “That’s probably good to remember.”
Sean grinned. “He’d probably appreciate it,” he said with a nod toward Tucker, who was studiously facing forward, his expression blank.
I gave a mock sigh. “Fine.” I adjusted in my seat, uncomfortable. “That’s probably best since pregnant bodies were not meant to make out in the backs of cars.” I arched my back, trying to stretch it out.
He reached behind me and rubbed at the knots in my mid-back. I relaxed, letting my head hang forward. “You don’t need to give me more reasons to let you stick around. I wasn’t planning on letting you go anytime soon.”
“Good.” I could hear the grin in his voice.
“I feel bad making you rub my back when you’re the one who’s exhausted.”
“Yes, well. For some reason”—he leaned in and dropped a quick kiss on my neck—”I’m much more energized than I was a few minutes ago.”
We both chuckled into the darkness and then talked quietly about the last four weeks, as if speaking too loudly would shatter the quiet comfort we had found together.
♪♫♪
Over the next week we settled into the space of our new relationship. So much of it was familiar and unchanged, but everything just seemed…brighter? Being with Sean, choosing to be in a romantic relationship with him, made me shockingly happy.
Two months ago, he’d confessed to adoring me for a long time. At the time, it had been a beautiful word, perhaps even an exciting sentiment. But being actively adored by Sean was an unprecedented experience. He was thoughtful and gentle, and the love that poured off of him was almost tangible. I worried sometimes that I wouldn’t be able to reciprocate enough, but eventually realized that he made it so easy to love him back that it wasn’t going to be a problem. He loved me in such an open-hearted, all-or-nothing way that I couldn’t help but join him in that vulnerability.
Who knew the rewards of vulnerability could be so high?
We did so much of what we’d always done. Eating together, making music, or just sitting in the comfortable silence. When he rubbed my feet I was now hyper aware of the undercurrent of attraction between us, but his gentle care still filled me up and set me at ease.
When I geared up to call Louisa to ask her to be at my baby’s birth, he was sitting across from me, a silent support.
Louisa picked up on the third ring, her face popping up on the video call, the long brown head of one of her horses nudging her shoulder.
“Libby!” she said in delighted surprise. “How are you, dear? Is everything okay with the baby?”
“Yes, everything is fine. I’m doing good. What about you?” I asked, the awkwardness of our strange relationship rearing up. We got along fine, but we’d never been close, and I somehow felt like I had less claim on her since Jonas was gone, but it also felt like she had more claim on me since I was going to have her grandbaby, so I had no idea where that left us. But after how wonderful she’d been when she visited me after the disastrous photo, I knew I wanted to try. My list of family was too small as it was.
“Oh, I’m just plugging away as usual.” She stepped out of the barn and into the sunshine.
“So,” I dove in. “Louisa, I was wondering something.”
“What’s that?” She smiled, and that smile put me at ease. She didn’t look anxious or suspicious. She just looked happy to hear from me.
“I was wondering if maybe you’d want to come down here, ya know, when I have the baby? I know it’s a long way,” I said quickly, not wanting to pressure her. “So I understand if you can’t, but if—”
“Oh, Libby!” she interrupted with a hand to her heart. “I would love to.”
“Really?”
“Of course. That would just…mean the world to me.” She swiped at her tears. “You know, I’ve been telling Kent how much I wanted to be there and he kept telling me that I should just talk to you about it, but I didn’t want to make a nuisance of myself.”
I shook my head. “You are not a nuisance, ever.”
“In that case, would you mind terribly if I come a couple weeks early? I don’t want to intrude, but I would just hate to miss it.”
“Can you be away that long?”
“For this, I will figure it out.”
Sean suddenly came to sit by me, popping his head into the frame so Louisa could see him. “Thank you so much, Louisa. I know this means a lot to her. She tries to hide it, but she’s pretty nervous about the whole thing.”
Louisa shook off the bit of surprise that Sean’s appearance had created. “Well, of course she is,” she said matter-of-factly. “Every new mother is nervous. Shoot. Every experienced mother is nervous. It’s a challenge unlike any other, but I’ll be there to help you through, okay?”
I nodded, my grin almost too big to allow me to speak. “Okay.”
“You two have a good evening. I’ve got a flight to arrange.”
I laughed and waved goodbye.
♪♫♪
Sean and I had discussed the option of having him come with me to my OB appointments, but we agreed that the likelihood of it turning into a circus was too high. We were both annoyed by the necessity of that decision, but it was just another example of the price we paid for Sean’s fame. Nick accompanied me instead, and we had become close friends out of necessity. When you have a man coming to OB appointments with you and sitting in the waiting room, you have to find stuff to talk about. I mostly plied him with questions about his girlfriend and teased him about how being around me and my pregnant self was good practice for when he became a family man. Turns out, I could make tough-guy Nick blush. It was like having a new toy.
Of course, our getting along meant that there’d been an article or two with photos of us laughing or smiling, suggesting that I was getting cozy with my bodyguard. I was indignant at first, but as soon as Nick told me that his girlfriend had laughed about it, I was able to find the humor too. I was keeping in close contact with Louisa these days and I made sure to bring it up with her so I could laugh about it and assure her that I wasn’t flitting from one man to another.
With Sean back in town, there were plenty of photos. In fact, I was fairly certain that a few photographers were camped out in front of my OB’s office as I waited to be seen. I was getting a little more used to it. I didn’t shrink like I used to. I was learning to hold my head up and just keep walking. They were lessons I’d never wanted to learn, but oh well.