Tragic: Chapter 22

“Piper!” Kaine bellowed.

“What?” I yelled back.

“Come out here a sec.”

I set down the plate of crackers I was eating in the kitchen and walked down the hall to the garage, where Kaine had been building shelves and organizing all morning.

It had been weeks since our frantic trip to Bozeman and Isaiah’s release from prison. And it had taken until now for life to go back to some semblance of normalcy.

The night after Kaine and I left his daughter’s grave, we made a quick stop at Target for some toothbrushes, pajamas and clean underwear, then we checked into a hotel, ordered room service and stayed in bed the rest of the night.

The next morning, we met his mom and Isaiah for breakfast.

I had hoped that after a restful night’s sleep, emotions would have settled and our meal might be a happy one. I had hoped that both Kaine and Isaiah would find something easy to discuss over our meal and begin down the long road of repairing their relationship.

Unfortunately, my hopes were dashed ten minutes into breakfast.

Kaine was his usual quiet self, and Isaiah looked as miserable as he had the previous day. When Kaine asked Isaiah about his future now that he was on parole for two years, Isaiah just shrugged and drank his coffee.

After that, conversation at the table was nearly nonexistent. Suzanne and I chatted a bit about the twins, but the tension over eggs and pancakes was stifling, and eventually, we all just ate in silence before leaving with fast good-byes.

Though we invited them to Lark Cove for the holidays, I was relieved when Suzanne and Isaiah chose to stay in Bozeman.

So Kaine and I returned home just in time to prepare for my family to arrive. My parents got here just a week after we returned home. We’d barely had time to clean, do laundry and decorate the tree before it was time to play host and hostess.

But it was wonderful seeing my parents and brother. They were overjoyed to spend time in my new home and get to know Kaine. While Mom and I spent days baking and relaxing in front of my fireplace, Dad and Owen thought Kaine’s shop and its plethora of power tools was heaven on earth.

For Christmas, Kaine surprised me with weekly massages until the boys were born. He’d bought enough so I could have one after each doctor’s appointment. And I’d given him a new pair of boots since his were about shot.

My parents showered us with gifts for the boys, as expected. I’d told them not to get Kaine and me anything, and to my surprise, they’d listened. Instead, they’d bought plane tickets to come and see us again after the babies were born.

It was the best Christmas I’d had in ages. Mom and Dad told Kaine countless stories from my childhood. My brother told us all about the woman he’d been dating for the past six months. We laughed. We ate. They drank.

My family embraced Kaine like he’d been a part of our family forever, and I didn’t miss how they were seemingly more comfortable with him than they’d ever been with Adam.

When we took them to the airport, Mom kissed Kaine’s cheek and told him he’d make a wonderful father. Dad hugged him, thanking him for taking such good care of me. And my brother had already requested a week off work next summer so he and Kaine could take a backpacking trip into the mountains.

I was sad to see them go but ready for us to just be alone.

After weeks of chaos, we finally had the house to ourselves. Kaine had decided to skip work in the shop today to do some organizing in the garage. And I’d just finished working in my office, trying to catch up from only putting in short days while my family had been in town.

“You summoned me?” I teased with a smile from the doorway of the garage.

But my smile dropped when I saw what Kaine was holding in his hands. He’d found the painting Thea had given me months ago.

The painting I’d hidden in my garage, then forgotten about. Damn pregnancy brain.

“What’s this?” he asked.

“It’s, uh . . . a painting. Thea made it for me.” I crossed the concrete floor and stood by his side. “It’s of the day we saw you on the ridge. The first day we met.”

“Huh.”

I waited for what felt like hours for another word, but he just stared at the painting.

“I can give it back to Thea if it bothers you,” I offered. Though the idea of losing it made my stomach churn.

“No,” he said quietly. “You should hang it in your office.”

I loved this painting and how Thea had captured his raw emotions, but I didn’t want to see it every day. “Oh, no. That’s okay. We can just tuck it away out here or in a closet.”

“Why don’t you want to hang it up?”

“Because.” I gave him a sad smile. “I don’t want to be reminded of you in pain.”

“And I want you to always remember that you saved me.” He set the painting down, resting it against his leg. Then he brushed a lock of hair behind the ear I’d always thought was too big. “Please?”

I might have saved him, but he completed me. And if he wanted this painting up, it would look incredible in my office. “Okay.”

Kaine kissed my forehead, then picked up the painting. He took a hammer out of the tool bench he’d brought over earlier along with a nail. Then he walked inside.

I stayed in the garage, listening to a few thuds from the hammer as he hung up the painting in my office.

“I love you,” I told him when he came back into the garage.

He set the hammer down and came to me for a hug. “Love you too.”

“Do you, um . . .” I hesitated.

“Do I, what?”

Still want to get married?

The question had been on my tongue for weeks. And just like I had time and time again, I chickened out before letting it slip free. “Do you want tacos or pasta for dinner?”

“Either one. You choose.”

“Tacos.” I brushed my lips to his, then walked to the door.

Kaine went back to his shelves, making this place his own. And I went inside to cook dinner with a heavy heart.

Our visitors were gone. We were getting back into our routine where I worked in the office while Kaine created masterpieces in his shop. Where we ate dinner, relaxed on the couch and made love before going to sleep.

Life was going back to what it had been before Kaine’s clash with Isaiah.

Except Kaine didn’t ask me to marry him five times a day anymore. His proposals had stopped completely. The last time Kaine had asked me to marry him was before he’d gone out Christmas tree hunting.

I guess I’d said no one too many times.

“What are you doing here?” Logan asked, looking up from his laptop.

I held up a large envelope. “Getting your John Hancock on this contract.”

He’d told me to take the week between Christmas and New Year’s off, but I ignored him since there was just too much to do before my maternity leave.

Logan frowned and stood from his desk chair. He came around the desk and took the folder from my hand while simultaneously pulling out my chair. At least, I’d dubbed it my chair. It was the one I sat in whenever I came down to work in his office.

“Thanks.” I sank into the seat, grateful to have the weight off my cankles.

“You know, I could have come up to you.”

I shrugged. “I had to come down anyway. I thought I’d just hang out here until I need to meet Kaine at the bar.”

It was New Year’s Eve and the Lark Cove Bar was having a party. Thea and Jackson had pulled out all of the stops, decorating the bar. Now it wasn’t just rustic, it was sparkly rustic. They’d ordered two cases of champagne and an extra half dozen bottles of tequila. Thea had even invented a special New Year’s Eve pizza, which was just pizza with the year spelled out in pepperoni.

I couldn’t think of a better way to ring in the new year than laughing and enjoying the evening with friends. And I couldn’t wait to kiss Kaine at midnight, though with how badly my feet hurt these days, I probably wouldn’t last until nine.

“What’s Kaine up to?” Logan asked, resuming his seat.

“He had to run up to Kalispell for the day to pick up some supplies he ordered from the lumberyard.”

“He’s coming for the party though, right?”

I nodded. “He promised to be back by five.”

Logan opened the envelope and signed the page marked with the little green flag. Then he slid the papers back into the envelope and handed it back. With a snap, he shut his laptop and signaled that work was done for the day.

I listened for sounds of the kids from the other room—my favorite part about working at Logan and Thea’s—but it was quiet. “Where are the kids?”

“Already at Hazel’s for the night. I told her I’d bring them over, but I guess I was taking too long because she came over after lunch and kidnapped them.”

I smiled. “They’ll have fun.”

And I hoped next year, I could talk her into taking the twins too. Though, I doubted it would take much convincing. Hazel might be a grandmother to Logan and Thea’s kids, but she’d already laid claim to my boys. On more than one occasion, she’d insisted on babysitting for us after their birth because newborns were her specialty.

“So . . .” Logan sighed. “I got an email today.”

I sat straighter, not liking Logan’s uneasy tone. “From?”

“Adam.”

“Seriously?” I grumbled. “He’s getting desperate if he’s emailing you now. What did it say?”

“He just asked if I’d pass along a request for you to call him.”

Adam had been emailing me for months. It wasn’t often, but about every three weeks, I’d see his name pop up in my inbox. I’d hoped that in time, he’d realize I wasn’t going to respond. I still hadn’t blocked his email address, mostly because his messages were a minor irritation I forgot about immediately after hitting delete. But if he’d resorted to hassling Logan, then my avoidance tactics weren’t going to work.

“Ugh. I’ll call him later.”

“He’s, um, also getting a call from Kaine.”

“What?” If not for the fact that I moved like a sloth these days, I would have shot out of my chair. “You told Kaine?”

He held up his hands. “If Thea’s ex-husband were emailing her boss after she’d already told the guy to piss off, I’d want my friend to tell me about it too.”

When I’d called Kaine earlier, he’d been cryptic, saying we had something to talk about later. Now I knew what that something was. He’d gotten tipped off to the emails I’d been hiding from him. Busted.

“Is this how it’s going to be now?” I asked Logan, holding back a smile. “You’re always going to be on his side.”

“Hey, it’s about damn time.” He grinned. “You and Thea gang up on me constantly. And that’s just with stuff around here. Let’s not even talk about all of your alliances at work. This was my shot to take back some of my power and I took it.”

“Whatever.” I crossed my arms, pretending to be mad. It lasted about five seconds before I broke into a laugh.

The truth was, I was happy that Logan and Kaine were friends. I’d been nervous after Kaine had blown a fuse the day of the Christmas tree hunt. I’d figured that Logan would go all overprotective, worrying about my safety with Kaine and warning me about getting involved with a man who had anger issues.

But like he often did, Logan Kendrick surprised me. He’d never once mentioned Kaine’s outburst. He’d simply asked if things were okay. I’d told him and Thea all about the incident in Bozeman, and they’d been nothing but supportive.

They understood that Kaine’s anger had all stemmed from pain. And slowly, he was healing.

I was proud of how Kaine had taken the lead in his family’s dynamic. He talked to his mom almost daily. And he’d had two phone calls with Isaiah in the last few weeks. Though they had both been short, mostly just saying hello, followed by uncomfortable silence before hanging up.

It was progress. Still, I didn’t like that Kaine had any kind of animosity in his life, especially from someone he clearly loved.

“What’s that look for?” Logan asked.

I unfurrowed my forehead. “Oh, I was just thinking about Isaiah. And Kaine.”

“Give them time. From what I can tell, Kaine’s put a lot of this behind him. Mostly because of you. I think the question now is not whether Kaine will ever forgive Isaiah. It’s whether Isaiah will forgive Isaiah.”

“I wish I could help.”

“You can’t fix this one, Piper.”

“You’re right.” I nodded and waved it off. “Anyway. I didn’t mean to talk about something so serious. It’s just been on my mind.” And the fact that ever since their confrontation, Kaine had stopped proposing.

He still kissed me and touched me at every opportunity. He made love to me almost every night. He told me he loved me. He looked at me and the rest of the world disappeared, just like I’d always wanted. So why, when I was so desperate to say yes, had he stopped asking me to be his wife?

I’d found the ring he’d bought for me hidden the other day. I’d just happened to be doing his laundry—and snooping. I’d found it tucked into the pocket of a pair of jeans he never wore.

He hadn’t gotten rid of the ring, so why had he stopped asking? Had this entire debacle with his family changed his mind?

Today was the last day of the year, and I didn’t want to go into the next with so many unanswered questions and loose ends.

I needed to call Adam and put an end to his emails once and for all. Then Kaine and I would need to have a serious conversation. I pushed up and out of my chair, determined to make the last hours of this year count.

“That look is scaring me,” Logan teased.

“I have a phone call to make.” First, I was going to deal with the man I’d divorced. Then I’d deal with the man I wanted to marry.

“Don’t tell Adam I said hello.”

I giggled and waved good-bye to Logan. “See you at the bar.”

“Are you going straight there?”

“Uh, yeah. Why?”

“No reason.” He shrugged. “I’m just heading down right behind you.”

“Okay. See you there.” I let myself out of his house and waddled carefully across their driveway to my SUV. I climbed inside and let the heater run for a moment before pulling up Adam’s number on the dash.

It only rang once before he answered. “Pip?”

“Adam.” I sighed. “You can’t email my boss.”

“I needed to talk to you.”

“Five minutes.” I put the Tahoe in reverse and backed out of the driveway slowly. I’d give Adam the time it took me to get to the bar.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “That’s it. I just wanted to say I was sorry.”

My foot hit the brake and I waited a few seconds for the excuses. But he said nothing. “Are you there?”

“I’m here.”

“That’s it? Just . . . you’re sorry?”

“Well, I had more, but your boyfriend called me earlier and told me that if I said anything other than I’m sorry, he’d be on the first flight out to New York to rearrange my face. He was . . . convincing.”

I snorted a laugh. Kaine’s threat had to have been quite colorful for Adam to actually hear it.

“He also informed me that if you did call, it would be the last time we spoke.”

“No more emails either,” I warned.

“No more emails.”

I lifted my foot off the brake, navigating down the narrow road that led to the highway. Divorcing Adam had nearly broken me. But in a small way, I was grateful. Because here I was.

Home.

I’d found the love of my life, and even if we didn’t get married, the commitment we had for one another was stronger than the bond I’d worked a decade to build with Adam.

“Good-bye, Adam. I wish you the best.”

“Same to you, Piper. Take care.”

I ended the call right as I reached the stop sign to turn onto the highway. But before I did, I pulled up Adam’s contact one last time. And hit delete.

“One last thing to do this year,” I told the empty car, then drove it to the bar.

Kaine’s truck was in the parking lot, which was a surprise. I thought I’d beat him here and kill some time helping Thea with whatever decorating she wanted to do. When I pushed through the door, he was sitting at the bar with a glass of ice water in front of him and a second waiting in front of the stool at his side.

“Is this for me?” I asked, taking the seat. “You’re here early.”

“Hi.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Yeah, finished up fast. Got here a couple of minutes ago.”

“Where is everyone?” It was still early, but I’d expected to see at least Thea or Jackson behind the bar.

“Kitchen. Thea’s prepping pizzas. Jackson went to change a keg of beer.”

“Ahh.” I sipped my water and glanced around the room. Since I’d stopped in yesterday, Thea had added more streamers to the iron beams that ran across the ceiling and she’d sprinkled confetti on all the tables.

“How are you feeling?” Kaine ran a hand up and down my back. He always managed to find the tight spots with one pass, and his fingertips began working out a sore spot underneath my shoulder blade.

“Good.” I leaned closer. “I hear you talked to my ex-husband today.”

He grunted. “If he calls or emails again, I’d better hear about it from you. Not Logan.”

“He won’t be calling again. But if he does, you’ll be the first to know.”

Kaine kissed my temple. “Got a surprise for you today.”

“Hmm.” I closed my eyes as his hand kept massaging. “I like surprises.”

“You can have it after the party.”

“Okay. Maybe we could duck out of here early. I need to talk to you about something in private.”

His hand froze. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“People don’t say they need to talk about something in private when everything’s good. So what’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” I insisted, shying away from the scowl on his face.

Damn it. I should have kept my mouth shut. But pregnancy only allowed my brain to function until four in the afternoon, and since it was close to five, strategic thinking was a crapshoot.

“Piper.”

“Kaine.” I mimicked his angry tone.

He stared at me, waiting, but I just stared back. There was no way I was going to talk about his proposals—or lack thereof—when my boss was due to arrive in seconds and the entire town of Lark Cove would soon be crowded around us to toast the new year.

“It’s nothing,” I lied, patting his leg.

He huffed. “God, you’re a shit liar.”

Before I could protest—because I wasn’t a bad liar, just an unpracticed one—he bellowed toward the back. “Thea!”

“What?” she called back.

“We’re going to skip the party.”

“Kaine! No, we’re not, Thea!” I yelled as she came out from the back, wiping her hands on a towel.

“Okay. You guys have a happy New Year’s Eve. Call me tomorrow.”

“Seriously?” I asked as she rounded the bar. She wasn’t mad that we were missing the party she’d been planning for a month?

No, she isn’t. Thea smiled and hugged me tight just as Logan walked in the front door.

“Leaving already?” Logan asked with a smirk as Kaine helped me off my stool.

“Kaine, I’m not missing this party.”

His answer? Silence.

“Do you think ignoring a hugely pregnant woman is wise?”

He grunted.

The man was lucky he was so hot. It was impossible for me to stay angry at that face.

With one hand gripping my elbow, he waved good-bye to Thea and Logan, then to Jackson, who’d also come out from behind the bar—laughing.

“I told you it was nothing,” I snapped as we walked outside and to my car. “Can we just go back inside now? I have to pee.”

“What did I just tell you about lying?”

Damn it again. I didn’t have to pee.

“I got all dressed up for this party.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Trying to impress someone other than me?”

“Women dress up to impress other women,” I informed him as he opened up the passenger door to the Tahoe.

“And I’m sure Thea was impressed. Up you go.”

“What about your truck?”

He answered by slamming the door.

I crossed my arms over my chest, resting my forearms on my belly. Then begrudgingly buckled up.

There was no way we’d be staying for this party. Kaine thought something was wrong, which it kind of was, and he was on a mission to solve my problems.

I pouted the entire drive up the mountain until he pulled into the driveway. Then I gasped. Because in my driveway—our driveway—was an Airstream.

“You bought a camper?”

“No, I got our camper. Logan and I made a trade. Thea’s got a new bedroom set waiting when she gets home tonight.”

“Oh my god.” I stretched my arms for Kaine’s face, framing it and pulling him closer for a kiss. The minute his soft lips touched mine, I melted. “I’m not upset about the party anymore.”

“There’s something else I want to show you.” He kissed me again before getting out and coming around the Tahoe. He helped me down and then led me to the Airstream’s door.

The generator behind the camper was running so I wasn’t surprised when the inside was toasty warm.

“It feels smaller than I remembered. Though that’s probably because I’ve turned into a hungry-hungry hippo.”

“Hey.” He stepped inside behind me, wrapping his arms around my chest. “Don’t say bad things about my wife.”

“It’s tru—” Wait. Did he say wife? “Did you just say wife?”

“Yup.”

“But you stopped proposing.”

“Did I?”

With his hard chest against my back and one arm trapping me tight, he used the other to pull something from his pocket. It was my ring.

He spun me around, then dropped to a knee. “Marry me?”

“Yes.”

He grinned and slid the ring on my finger. “It’s about damn time.”

“I love you.”

Kaine surged to his feet, framing my face with his hands. “I love you. I’ll love you every day for the rest of your life.”

I leaned closer, smiling against his lips and whispered, “Prove it.”