Chapter Twenty-four
“ Oh man, this is so good,” Keeley murmured. She was leaning back on the sofa in the living room of the big house.
Cam and Sawyer had invited their group to the big house at Cider Mill Farm for potluck game night, and Owen’s contribution was Rico’s latest sample for the exclusive Easy Money cheesecake.
Emery licked her fork. “Who’d have thought Key lime would be so, so delicious. I could live off this.” She offered a bite and Shane opened his mouth to accept, his hands busy rubbing her feet.
“ No kidding,” Cam agreed. “I think Rico’s Key lime cheesecake will now be my number one pregnancy craving.” She stretched like a cat as Sawyer massaged the ball of her right foot. Willa lay on her back against Cam’s leg, four little paws in the air.
After playing team Pictionary, the women were enjoying post-game bliss.
“ Looking pretty smug there, princess,” Owen murmured.
“ Feeling pretty smug. We whooped your butts.” Keeley moaned when his thumb delved into her arch. “You can keep doing that. Timer’s still going.”
“ Girls are smarter,” Delaney pronounced, sighing when Walker’s hands moved up to her shins. “Get used to it.”
“ Girls cheat, you mean. I ought to arrest every one of you,” Sawyer griped.
“ For being able to draw more than a stick figure?” Cam shot back .
“ I think this one,” Shane pointed to his wife, “was doing something tricky with the dice.”
“ We whooped your butts,” Keeley repeated. “Deal with it.”
“ Foot massages for the winners, and cheesecake for everyone is the best idea ever,” Emery pronounced.
Keeley fed Owen a bite, then took another for herself.
Owen leaned forward and whispered, “If the dudes had won, it wouldn’t be my feet you’d be massaging.”
“ Don’t disturb my cheesecake coma with your sexy insinuations, Owen Hardesty.”
“ I thought you said the lemon meringue is the best cheesecake ever.”
“ I did, but now I’m eating Key lime and it’s delicious. I don’t know how you’ll choose Easy Money’s exclusive cheesecake. They’re all so good.”
The timer went off marking the end of foot massages. Walker leaned forward and laid his head on his wife’s belly.
“ We heard the baby’s heartbeat at the clinic this morning.” Delaney ran her fingers through Walker’s dark hair. “This guy thinks he should be able to hear it.”
“ I can’t wait until our appointment next week,” Cam said. “We’re hoping to hear ours.”
Keeley laced her fingers with Owen’s. He’d been through the expectations of a pregnancy before. It had to be painful for him, but he didn’t look upset. He brought up their joined hands to his cheek.
With a sigh she let go of his hand and pushed herself off the couch to gather plates.
Delaney followed her into the kitchen bringing wine glasses and beer bottles.
“ Hey, friend,” Keeley said, bumping Delaney with her hip.
“ Hey back. You okay?”
Startled, Keeley caught Delaney’s gaze. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be ?
Delaney shrugged. “We’re all married. There’s lots of talk of babies. You said Owen doesn’t want marriage and a family, and I know you do.”
Keeley’s shoulders slumped. “That’s true.” She shrugged. “I can’t make him want the same things I want. It’s okay.”
“ It’s not okay, Keeley. I want you to have everything you’ve ever wanted.”
“ Right now, Owen’s everything I want. Really. I’m fine.”
Delaney pulled her into a brief hug. Stepping back, Keeley caught sight of Owen standing in the doorway, the box with the remnants of the cheesecake in his hands and his brows drawn low over his eyes.
He shoved the box onto the counter and grabbed Keeley’s hand. “Come with me.”
“ Where are we going?”
“ Outside.” Without breaking stride, he towed her out of the house and down the flagstone path to the pergola. Fairy lights twinkled overhead, and the scent of wisteria perfumed the air. He dropped her hand to stand with his hands on his hips.
“ We’re getting married.”
“ What?”
“ You told Delaney you’re fine. That’s girl code for not fine. I don’t want you unhappy. We’ll get married.”
Her heart gave a hard lurch in her chest, then sank. She wanted Owen, and she wanted to marry him. But not like this.
“ You’ll marry me because I’m unhappy?”
“ Yeah. We’ll get married, and if you want a couple kids, I’m good with that. Hell, we could have three or four if that’s what you want.”
This was not how she imagined Owen proposing marriage. Or how they’d have the important discussion on whether to have kids.
He thought he was giving her what she wanted but had left out the heart and soul. She crossed her arms in front of her like she would ward off a chill. “What changed your mind? ”
Owen gestured toward the house. “They’re all married. They’re all having kids. That’s what you said you wanted, so that’s what we’ll do.”
Keeley felt a layer of ice forming over her heart. Ice was a good thing. Maybe being frozen would keep her heart from breaking.
“ You’re saying we should get married and have kids because that’s what our friends are doing.”
“ No.” He scrubbed his hands over his face and paced the width of the shelter. “I mean, yes. You want marriage and kids. You’ve been looking for a man, and you even have a fucking dating app. You went out with the asshole Jaxon, for god’s sake. No more. We love each other so you’ll marry me.”
“ No, thank you.” She suddenly felt as fragile as ice crystals forming on the surface of a pond. “I need to go.”
“ What do you mean you need to go? I just asked you to marry me.”
“ No, Owen, that’s not what you did. Tell the others good-bye for me.”
She was wrong. Ice wasn’t working to keep her heart from shattering. When she would have rushed past him, he grabbed her arm, but she reeled back. “Don’t. Don’t touch me.”
He released her but didn’t step back. She hitched a shoulder to wipe the dampness from her cheek.
He looked like he’d been struck on the head by a sledgehammer. “Oh shit, you’re crying. I made you cry. I fucked up. I’m sorry.”
“ Don’t worry about it. Not your problem.” She tried to edge past him.
“ Let me fix it, Keeley. Please don’t leave.”
She gave a watery laugh. “You can’t fix this like a leaky faucet, Owen.”
“ I’ve hurt you. I love you more than anything in this world, and I hurt you. I’m sorry.”
He looked upset and desperate, and because she loved him, she almost relented .
It would be so easy to simply go along with his non-proposal and make the best of it. But there would be an emptiness in that life that would eventually tear them apart.
She stiffened her backbone, breathed in through her nose, then out through her lips. “I love you, Owen, more than anything in this world, too. I also want a future that includes marriage and family. But right now, I don’t want that with you.”
“ Why the hell not?”
“ I’d rather be single than with someone who won’t commit. I want marriage because it’s the highest expression of our love and commitment to each other, not because our friends are married.
“ I want children with a man who loves them, who will cherish them. You want me and because I want kids, you threw them in like a signing bonus.”
She laid a hand on his chest. “I don’t want children with you if you can’t emotionally engage with them. You lost Robby and it broke your heart. You’re closing yourself off because you don’t want to risk that again.” She rose to her toes and kissed him on the cheek. “I understand that, but it’s not healthy for you, and I won’t have children with a man who can’t love them with his whole heart.”
When she would have stepped back, he grasped her hands. “Give me a minute, princess.” He tipped his head back, eyes closed, clutching her hands tighter. She saw his throat work as he swallowed. A deep breath expanded his lungs and when he looked at her again moisture glinted in his eyes.
“ You’re right,” he said gruffly. “I’m a coward.”
“ You’re not—”
“ I am, princess. I thought I could have you and still protect myself from being hurt like I’d been before. It about ended me when Gloria and Robby were killed.
“ I didn’t love Gloria, didn’t seem capable of it. But she was my wife and the mother of my son, and I was committed to our relationship. Robby though,” he breathed deep. “He had such a light in him and it absolutely gutted me when he died. ”
“ I know, Owen. I’m so sorry.”
In the way he had, he framed her face with his big hands, dark eyes shining. “I’ll love them, Keeley. I’ll love our children. I won’t hold back to keep from being hurt. I promise you.”
He took another deep shuddering breath. “Let me try this again. Will you marry me, princess? Will you love me as I love you? Will you have a family with me and make the kitchen the heart of our home exactly like you described?”
Love and commitment. Owen was willing to put his heart on the line, to risk having it broken again, to build a life with her.
The love in her heart swelled and she felt like it beamed from her like rays of sunlight.
She turned her face to press her lips to his palm. “You’re the strongest man I know. Thank you for trusting me with your love.”
She brought her arms up around his neck as his encircled her. Looking into his warm blue eyes, she saw the future unfolding before them, a future of love, family, and friends.
She smiled through her tears. “Yes, I’ll marry you and make a family with you. I love you, Owen.”
“ I love you back, princess. Always.”
Release date Spring ’25 for last book in the Payback Mountain series
Thank you for reading Guarded Secrets ! I hope you enjoyed Owen and Keeley's adventures on their way to an HEA. Developing characters and building tension is my favorite part of writing.