Текст книги "Sometimes It Lasts"

Convincing Marcus to let Low come over to the house and entertain Eva with Eli today had been hard. Eli was two weeks old, and this was Low’s first official outing. Not because she didn’t want to get out, but because Marcus was too damn protective. After explaining to Low why I needed Eva to be distracted, she’d packed up the baby and informed Marcus they were coming over with or without him. Luckily, he’d come with them, because I needed his help if I was going to pull this off.

“I still can’t believe you’ve got us over here on Christmas Eve. Could you not have picked another time to do this?” Marcus grumbled as we set the piano down inside the barn.

“Shut up. You’ll have Low and Eli home in plenty time for Santa Claus,” I replied. Then I threw the blanket we’d used to protect the piano off the instrument, and Jeremy helped me fold it up.

“How you gonna get this thing tuned in time?” Marcus asked.

“My mom’s on her way over,” Jeremy answered for me. That had been one of the biggest surprises. When I’d told Jeremy what I wanted to do, he’d offered his mom’s help. I hadn’t expected her to help me, but she had. And she’d worked a miracle.

Marcus just chuckled and shook his head. “You’re crazy, you know that, right?”

I just smiled. Because he just might have been right.

“I need to go on. Eva will notice my truck down here if she looks out the window. Mom will have it working like a charm in no time. Just leave the door unlocked and she’ll get everything ready for you.”

I thanked Jeremy before he left. Then I turned to look at Marcus. “Well, guess we’re done. You can take your crew home and get ready for Santa to come.”

“I got four more weeks before Santa brings me my present,” he said, following me to the door.

I glanced back at him. “Why four more weeks?”

Marcus smirked. “You don’t know, do you?”

I didn’t know what? “Not following you, man.”

Marcus slapped me on the back and let out a loud laugh. “And I get to be the one to break the news. Cage, after Eva has the baby, you can’t have sex for six weeks.”

What? I stopped walking. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Marcus laughed even louder and headed out the door of the barn.

Six weeks? For real?

Chapter Twenty-Four

EVA

I hadn’t seen much of Cage today, and I was missing him. Low had convinced Marcus to stay for dinner, and I had enjoyed the company and holding Eli, but I wanted alone time with Cage. Now that they were gone and I had cleaned up the kitchen, Cage was still not back from going to get his phone that he thought he’d left in the barn.

His presents were wrapped already and tucked under the tree, so I didn’t have anything else to do. The bedroom in the barn’s light came on. What was he doing in there? I waited a minute and when the light didn’t go off, I decided I was going after him. I grabbed my wool coat from the hook behind the door and put it on. Then I slipped on my boots before I headed across the frosty grass.

I heard music. Piano music. I stopped and listened, looking around. Where was that coming from? Someone was playing a piano. Thinking about a piano caused my heart to hurt. Cage hadn’t asked about the piano yet. But he would. I didn’t want to tell him I’d given it away. But I wouldn’t be able to lie to him either.

The music started playing again. I’d heard that song before. I wasn’t sure what it was just yet because the person playing it wasn’t exactly a pianist. They did have the tune down though. I started toward the barn again, and the music got louder. Was that coming from the barn? Surely not. Why would someone be playing a piano in the barn? I glanced around again and saw nothing.

I hurried to the barn and opened the door.

There were candles everywhere. The door slammed closed behind me as I let what I was seeing sink in.

My piano sat in the middle of at least a hundred pillar candles that lit up the barn. Sitting behind the piano was Cage. He was playing the song I’d heard outside. When had Cage learned to play the piano? I couldn’t seem to register everything at once.

Then he started to sing.

“It’s a beautiful night.

We’re looking for something dumb to do.

Hey, baby, I think I want to marry you.”

Cage was singing to me, and he was singing a Bruno Mars song. He wasn’t very good at it, but hearing his deep voice as he played the song on my piano brought tears to my eyes. How had he got my piano back? And who had taught him to play this?

He glanced up from his fingers he was studying so hard and grinned. Then he started singing some more. A giggle bubbled up inside me, and I covered my mouth to hold it in. The grin on his face as he continued watching the keys so that he didn’t miss a note was adorable.

He came to the end of the song and dropped his hands from the keys and let out a sigh of relief with the smile still plastered on his face. I opened my mouth to ask him all the questions going through my head, but he walked over to stand in front of me and dropped to one knee. Oh my God. The song. He wasn’t just being ridiculously adorable. He was proposing to me. I watched as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring. “Eva, I want my always,” he said, and held up a princess-cut diamond ring with a halo of tiny sapphires around it. “Will you marry me?”

I wanted to say yes. I wanted to throw myself into his arms and kiss his sweet perfect face, but all I managed to do was start sobbing. I nodded and smiled through my tears as he took my hand and slid the ring onto my finger. Then he stood up and pulled me into his arms.

“You got my piano back,” I managed to say through my tear-clogged throat.

“Yeah, I did.”

“You played it,” I said.

“If you could call what I just did playing it, then yeah, I did.”

I pressed my face into his chest and kissed it. “It was beautiful.”

Cage’s chest vibrated from laughter. “Baby, my singing is not beautiful.”

He was wrong. It was beautiful. His deep voice was smooth and on key. It had been perfect.

“Your dad never gave that piano away. It’s been in Jeremy’s basement. Wilson bought the kid’s center another piano and gave it to them,” Cage said, pulling back to look down at me. “I was going to go buy it from whoever had it, so I went to Jeremy to find out where it was. Your daddy said you’d want it back one day. So the piano is a Christmas gift, but it isn’t from me. It’s from your dad.”

Nothing could have made this moment more perfect. Nothing… but that.

Epilogue

I stood in my bedroom in front of the mirror. My stomach was even bigger now, but Cage didn’t seem to mind. He acted as if my stomach was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. He had his hands on it more than he had them on any other parts of my body.

The white dress that I’d had altered to gather under my breasts and hang loosely over my stomach was perfect. It was exactly what I’d always imagined when I imagined this day. And I’d been imagining this day since I was a little girl. I reached up and touched the loose curls that Low had helped me style. She had said Cage would want my hair down, but that we could still fix it. The way she had pulled it all over my shoulder and pinned it in place was so pretty.

I stepped over to the window to look into my backyard. It had been transformed into what looked like a magical forest. I had never seen so many flowers. Amanda, with the help of her mother, had handled all the decorating. Friends were filling the seats below.

Daisy was dancing around in circles, holding Preston’s hands. The flower girl dress I had picked out looked adorable on her; the flowers in her hair, however, were starting to fall out. I doubted any were left by the time the wedding started.

Marcus was standing near the front of the gazebo, where the groomsmen would all be standing soon, holding a happy little boy who had his hand stuck in his mouth while he took in the world around him.

Then there was the rock star. He looked different in a suit. He didn’t look like the guy who I saw on magazines and television. He seemed normal. And everyone here treated him like he was just that. A regular guy.

“I’m parked out back with the getaway car. You just say the word and we’re out of here,” Jeremy said from behind me. He was here! I spun around and threw my arms around his neck. I hadn’t seen him since he’d come to tell us bye before he hit the road the day after Christmas.

“You’re here!” I squealed.

“Hell yeah, I’m here. I was invited, right?”

Laughing, I hugged him before stepping back to take in his appearance. His hair was longer and his face was scruffy. He had hair on it now, which made him look more badass than before. “You look different,” I said.

“Yeah, I’m trying new things. The hair is just easier,” he explained.

“Are you back for good or are you still traveling?”

“Not done yet,” he replied.

“Are you happy?” I asked. I wanted him to be happy.

A small grin tugged at his lips. “I will be… I think.”

What did that mean? I started to ask when my door opened back up again.

“Hey, you two, wrap it up. The show’s about to start,” Amanda said, sticking her head in the door.

“That’s why I’m here. Cage sent me. He wanted me to walk you down the aisle. Said he figured that it just seemed right,” Jeremy said, watching me carefully to make sure I was okay with this.

“I love that man. I really do,” I said, grinning up at him.

“Good, because you’re about to be married to the dude, and he ain’t letting you get away from him,” Jeremy replied, then held out his arm for me to take. “Come on, little momma, let’s go make an honest woman out of you.”

Amanda giggled and stepped back so we could walk out the door.

“Y’all go on down and wait for me. Trisha is fixing Daisy’s hair again. She keeps messing it up. Once she has her ready, I’ll send her down. Then I’m going to go, and Low will follow me. Trisha will send Daisy down and then it’s you two.” She instructed us.

“Got it,” Jeremy replied.

Amanda hurried outside, and I heard Daisy’s laughter outside the door.

“You ready, girl?” Jeremy asked, squeezing my hand that rested on his arm.

“Yes. Very,” I replied.

“Good, because that getaway car thing was a joke. I’m not big on hauling pregnant women around.”

I burst into laughter just as the door opened and Low stuck her head inside. She looked beautiful with all her red hair pulled up in the front and cascading down the back in curls. “It’s my turn. Y’all make sure Daisy follows me,” she said, smiling.

We stepped outside and watched as Low walked around the corner of the house. Daisy looked up at me with big curious eyes. “You look like my princess doll that Preston got me for my birthday. Except her tummy ain’t fat.”

Jeremy choked on his laughter.

Smiling, I reached over and straightened one of the wayward flowers in her hair. “That’s a good thing, I think,” I told her, trying not to laugh. “It’s your turn, Daisy Mae.”

She nodded and skipped down the steps and around the corner of the house.

“Come on, fat-tummied princess. It’s our turn,” Jeremy said, and held on to me as we walked down the porch steps. I held my breath as we walked around the corner and stopped at the aisle that led me to Cage.

He stood there in his tuxedo, looking more gorgeous than any man had a right to. He did not look like a man who had two pierced nipples. His slow smile as he looked at me warmed me all over. He was it. This was it.

Cage starting walking toward me as Jeremy began walking me down the aisle. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but Jeremy didn’t seem confused. We only made it halfway down the aisle when Cage met us.

“Jeremy brought you halfway, but the rest is mine. I’ve had you the rest of the way.” He said as Jeremy handed me over and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

I looked up at Cage as he tucked my arm into his and bestowed me with one of his soul-stealing grins. “It’s time we start our always, Eva.”

I turned to face him. I stood on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips. Then I whispered, “We already have. We’ve been working on our always since you walked into my world with a cocky swagger and a smile.”

*