Married To The Mum-To-Be. Helen Lacey

very least Kayla needed to meet him halfway. With his mother trying to marry him off, it wouldn’t be long before Gwen O’Sullivan worked out why he was reluctant to date anyone, let alone anything more.

      Liam stood, grabbed his jacket and keys, said goodbye to his mother and left. He needed to talk to his wife. Right now. It couldn’t wait.

      * * *

      By the time Kayla got to her apartment that afternoon it was after five o’clock. She pulled up outside the old Victorian that she’d called home for nearly a year. The big house had been renovated into four apartments and Kayla’s was on the second floor.

      She loved the house, with its textured cladding, shuttered windows and wide-front veranda. The home had been carefully restored by the owner, an IT guru who’d inherited the place a few years earlier from an elderly relative he’d never met. Dane was something of a geeky recluse, but he was a good landlord and neighbor. Even though he was a couple of years younger than Kayla they had formed a solid friendship over the past year, and with the married couple in their midforties sharing one of the downstairs apartments and the other occupied by a seventysomething widow, she was grateful to have such caring neighbors and friends.

      When Ash arrived just after five thirty, still in her police officer’s uniform, Kayla offered her tea and within ten minutes they were sitting on the sofa, the flyers for the upcoming hospital benefit spread on the coffee table between them.

      “They look great,” Kayla said and nodded. “Thank you for doing this. I know how busy you are. But this is exactly what I was envisioning.”

      “The kids had fun with the design,” Ash said and smiled. “They incorporated the hospital logo, but still made them fun and colorful.”

      Kayla looked at her friend. Not only was Ash a single mother and a police officer, she was also a foster parent. She was probably the most generous and giving person that Kayla knew. On her small ranch just out of town, she took in teens who needed a helping hand, sometimes several at the same time. She lived on the ranch with her mother, Nancy, and her twelve-year-old son, Jaye.

      “Thank you,” Kayla said again and sighed. “I really appreciate your help.”

      “That’s what friends are for,” Ash reminded her. “Right?”

      Kayla dropped her gaze. Ash was astute. And she knew her friend sensed something wasn’t quite right with her. “Yes...absolutely.”

      “Does that mean you want to talk about you know who?”

      Her friends had all been nagging her about her relationship with Liam since the night she’d plowed into his truck, but none of them knew for certain they were involved. When they suggested it, Kayla generally laughed it off. But tonight, she wasn’t in the mood for laughing. When they discovered she was Liam’s wife she would have a lot of explaining to do.

      Liam’s wife.

      Sometimes she could barely get her head around it. They’d met up in Vegas the day her conference had ended and spent three days together. The most amazing three days of her life. And they’d returned as husband and wife. It had been a foolish, spur-of-the-moment decision. A monumental decision. If she’d had any sense she would have had the marriage annulled. But she was all out of sense when it came to Liam. And since the idea of ending their relationship hurt her through to her bones, she felt as though she was in an impossible position. Hurt herself and Liam and the child she was possibly carrying...or hurt her parents and grandmother.

      Either way, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

      And although she didn’t like the way they’d ended their telephone call earlier that afternoon, she was too tired to ring him back and go over the same old ground. She knew what he wanted...and on one level she agreed with him. She simply didn’t know how to give it to him without hurting the people who loved her most in the world.

      Of course a baby would change everything. Her child would come first, there was no question about that. She simply wasn’t going to be in some great hurry to tell everyone.

      “No,” Kayla said to her friend. “I’m not up for that...not just yet.”

      Ash sighed and offered a gentle smile. “I know what it is to feel trapped by...” Her friend’s words trailed off before she spoke again. “By obligation. But when you’re ready, you know I’m on hand to listen.”

      Ash was a good friend and had been through a lot over the years, particularly when it came to her young son and ex-fiancé. And Kayla knew her friend understood loyalty and family commitment. If she was going to unburden herself, she would be exactly who Kayla would talk to. With Lucy and Brooke so blissfully in love these days, Ash was the only one of her friends who would understand what she was feeling.

      There was a knock on the door, so Kayla excused herself, got to her feet and headed down the short hallway. Thinking it might be Lucy or Brooke or even Dane stopping by for a chat, she swung the door back on its hinges and smiled. But it wasn’t one of her friends on her doorstep.

      It was her husband.

      Her gaze was instinctively drawn to his broad shoulders. How many times had she rested her head there? How many times had she gripped his arms and back and every other part of him. Countless. For the past five months they had shared a bed and she’d been privy to the real Liam O’Sullivan. Not the arrogant and indifferent man he was thought to be. She’d seen his other side...the tender and passionate man who always talked to her softly after they’d made love. The man who was generous and kind and adored his nieces. The man who teased her about her bad cooking. The man who made her mindless and breathless with just the barest kiss.

      “Liam,” she whispered the word as though it was her last. “What are you doing here?”

      He still wore his suit, so he had obviously come directly from the hotel. “You didn’t text me,” he said flatly. “And I wanted to see you.”

      Kayla glanced over her shoulder. “Ash is here,” she said quietly. “So it’s not a good time to have a—”

      “Ash is just leaving,” her friend’s mellow voice announced as she made her way up the hall. “Hi there, Liam,” Ash then said cheerfully. “Good to see you. I’ll talk with you soon,” the other woman said and gave Kayla a brief hug. “About everything,” Ash whispered close to her ear before she brushed past Liam and headed through the door.

      Once her friend had disappeared down the stairs, Kayla turned her attention to Liam. “Really?”

      He half shrugged. “What?”

      She glared at him. “Since when do you turn up here unannounced?”

      “Beats waiting for an invitation,” he said as he crossed the threshold and walked down the hall.

      Annoyance snaked up her spine as she followed him into the living room. “We talked about this, Liam. I told you Ash was going to be—”

      “We talked about a lot of things,” he said, terser than usual, his blue eyes so dark they were almost black. He stood by the sofa, hitched his hands on his hips and stared at her. “And yet, here we are...no closer to sorting it out.”

      “Did you come here just to rehash the same old argument?”

      He stilled, his jaw clenched and then he exhaled heavily. “I came here to see you. To talk to you. To be with you.”

      Shame pressed down on her shoulders. Of course he’d want to talk. And she did, too. “I’m sorry... I know this must be hard for you, too. But we both know this situation can’t be resolved easily. At least not without a whole lot of people getting hurt.”

      He met her gaze. “People get hurt, Kayla. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do to stop that.”

      She swallowed hard. “I can. I have to try... I can’t simply—”

      “Please come home with me tonight,” he said, cutting her off, his voice raw. “You’ve spent the last