Chapter 16
“Let me get that.” Miles took the tray from Rumor. “Where is your idiot husband anyway?”
“You mean your brother?” Rumor laughed. “Chained to the bed.”
Miles nearly dropped the tray of drinks.
“I’m joking.” She patted Miles’ back. “He’s arguing with your mother about baby names.”
“Good luck with that.” Miles set the tray on the table and kissed Liberty’s sweet lips. “Here you go.”
“Why, thank you.” She took the cocktail and sipped. “Damn, Emmerson makes a mean margarita.”
“He sure does.” Miles straddled one of the chairs and waved to Gabriel. “He looks perplexed.”
“He’s about to lose his first game of chess to my dad.” Liberty laughed. “Never thought I’d enjoy having that man back in my life, but dammit, I do.”
“He’s not the worst person in the world,” Miles said.
“Nope. He’s not.” Liberty sipped her drink. “And now that Charlie and his father have been sentenced to thirty years in prison, we all can really rest easy.”
“We sure can.” Miles had never been more grateful than when that sentence had been handed down. “Steven’s niece, Stephanie, is totally enamored by Gabriel. It’s kind of cute.”
“He likes her too and I hate to admit it, but she’s good for him,” Liberty said. “Helps him even out his emotions. I just hope things keep going slowly.”
“What’s slow? Because I saw them kissing in the garage,” Rumor said. “Might have been some fondling.”
“Wonderful. I’m so not ready for that,” Liberty sighed. “So, Rumor, how are you feeling these days?”
“Well, the morning sickness is completely gone, but these two rascals are already kicking the hell out of my bladder.” She patted her rounded belly. “I get up like five times a night to pee and it makes Emmerson crazy. The man is the biggest worrywart.”
“I can’t say as I blame him,” Miles said. “He nearly lost you when you got shot and then the scare with the twins. He’s been walking on eggshells ever since.”
“Doc says these babies are healthy.” Rumor stretched out her legs on the lounge chair. “I hope Emmerson isn’t getting too bad of an earful about our name choices. She can be one tough nut.”
“You picked names?” Liberty smiled. “Are you going to tell us?”
Rumor nodded. “Our little girl will be Bethany Blue.”
Liberty swallowed. Hard. “You’re going to use my last name as your child’s middle name? I don’t know what to even think about that.”
“We love the ring to it. And you’re special to us.” Rumor glanced over her shoulder. “And our little boy will be Benjamin Gabriel.”
Liberty fanned her face. “You sure do know how to make a girl cry.”
“Aw. Didn’t mean to do that,” Rumor said. “Miles, have you shown her?—”
“Not yet.” Miles hopped to his feet. “Come on. Let’s go for a walk.”
“Where?” Liberty took his hand.
He didn’t say a single word. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he didn’t even know where to begin. They had settled into a nice life together. Well, as best they could living next door to one another while she mended fences with her father and continued to help Gabriel adjust to all the changes.
Gabriel always came first and Miles accepted that.
He never felt as though he were second fiddle to anything.
But sometimes it was hard when he slept alone, in his bed, in his house, instead of with her in his arms. It didn’t happen all the time, but it happened enough and he had grown tired of it.
Time for another change.
He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her around the side of Emmerson’s house to the next-door neighbor’s, which was currently empty and for sale. He tapped his fingers on the keypad, punching in the code that the real estate agent had given him.
“Miles, what the hell are you doing?” Liberty tugged at his arm.
“I wanted to show you this place.”
“Why?”
He pushed open the door and gave her a little shove. His brother Jameson had just finished the renovation on it for the owners and he’d done a bang-up job. The layout was similar to Emmerson’s, although it didn’t have a pool house. But it did have a tiki bar, which was cool.
And his neighbor would be his brother.
That was if Liberty went for it.
All of it.
“Because I want to buy it.” He took her hand and led her into the spacious kitchen where he’d left some paperwork for her to look at. Talk about a little secret.
“Are you kidding me? I bet the listing for this place is over two million.”
“It’s actually close to three,” he said.
“How can you afford this?”
“Not me. Us.” He tapped his finger on the papers, which was held down by an engagement ring. He wasn’t the most romantic, and neither was Liberty. The whole on one knee thing wasn’t going to work for her, so he wasn’t going to do it. Subtle was more her style.
And his.
She pushed the ring to the side as if she hadn’t even seen it.
He chuckled.
Figures.
“What am I looking at?”
“My bank statements.” He leaned against the counter, taking the ring into his hands, fiddling with it. “I know someone who is interested in buying my house now that all the renovations are complete and Jameson is dying to get his hands on yours. He figures he can be done with it in four months and we should be able to sell it quickly.”
She snapped her gaze to meet his. “Are you suggesting we move in together?”
“Something like that.” He held the ring up where he knew she could see it, but she pushed his arm to the counter.
“I can’t afford anything like this and I’m not sure how you can either.”
“If you would look at the numbers on that paper, you’d see that clearly, we can afford this place.” Once again, he lifted the ring, but this time he’d wait a second before actually shoving it in her face.
Her eyes shifted back and forth as she studied the paper before it slipped from her fingers and a gasp escaped her lips. “Jesus, Miles. That’s a whopper of a bottom line.”
“I know.”
“When you told me you had a little money saved up, that’s not what I expected.”
He chuckled. “When Trixi’s father called me nothing but a grease monkey and a loser and that I’d never be able to take care of a family, I started hoarding money. Part of me did it subconsciously. I’d put it away and forget about it. I don’t need much. But now I do have you and Gabriel to think about and maybe sometime we’ll have kids of our own.”
“Kids of our what now?” She lowered her chin. “How did we go from the fact that you’re kind of a millionaire to us having kids? I haven’t agreed to move in with you. We’re not even married, much less engaged.”
He pushed the ring up to her face. “But we could be. That is if you’ll have the dumber part of dumb.”
“Holy shit.” She plucked the ring from his fingers. “Miles Rutherford Kirby, what have you gone and done?”
“I think that’s obvious,” he whispered. “I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life showing you that I’m good enough.”
“Wow.” She slipped the ring on and wiggled her fingers in front of her face.
“Is that a yes?”
“You know I’m not the only person you have to ask.” She rested her hands on his shoulders.
“Who the fuck do you think helped me pick out that ring?” He arched a brow.
“No way. Gabriel knew and he kept it a secret? From me? His only sister? For how long?”
“Three long fucking weeks.” He brushed his lips over her mouth.
“Oh my God. When we go back to Emmerson’s, they’re all going to be staring at my finger to see if you put a ring on it, aren’t they?”
“Not only that, but the rest of my family will be there with cake. It’s a whole thing.”
She stepped back and poked him in the chest.
“Ouch. What did you do that for?”
“You’re a sneaky devil. And what would have happened if I said no?”
“I was fairly confident you would say yes to marriage, but not so much on the house. I still don’t know what you think about this place.”
“Again, it’s Gabriel?—”
He covered her mouth. “Don’t get mad. But he’s seen it and knows I want to buy it. For us. For our family. Come on, Liberty. What do you say?”
“At least this time the man I picked, his only ulterior motive is to get into my pants.”
“Every chance I get.”
She wrapped her arms around his body. “I say yes to it all, but if you ever hide money from me again, I’ll deck you.”
“You do know that from now on, you’ll have to manage all that because Trinity isn’t going to want to do it anymore now that I’m going to have a wife.” He burst out laughing. “Every time she told me what I was worth, I thought she was fucking with me.”
“She’s not.”
“Good to know. Now, would you like to christen this place?” He waggled his brows.
“Um. No. Everyone would know what we were doing if we took that long. Including my father, Gabriel, and I guess what I should accept as his girlfriend. That’s the kind of embarrassment I can’t handle right now.” She took his hand and yanked him toward the door. “But I can promise you that you’ll get some serious action tonight.”
Miles followed her back to his brother’s house and as soon as they walked through the side gate, everyone stopped and stared.
Liberty raised her hand, showing off her ring.
Gabriel was the first on his feet, congratulating them.
If anyone had asked Miles a year ago if he’d ever settle down, it would have been a hard no. But he hadn’t met Liberty yet and she had changed the way he viewed the world.
And himself.
Love wasn’t always about taking care of someone. It was about trusting a partnership and that’s what he had with Liberty.