Not Through Loving You by Patricia Preston (13)

“I smell bacon.” Stevie walked into the kitchen where Aaron and Lia were making breakfast. Aaron was frying bacon at the stainless steel stove. Lia stood at the kitchen island, getting pancake batter ready. Stevie grinned. “How domestic.”

Aaron just shook his head, and Lia smiled at Stevie, who had on jeans and a black tee. Other than the shape of their noses, he and Aaron didn’t resemble one another at all; their personalities were completely different as well.

“Do you like pancakes?” she asked Stevie.

“Honey, I love pancakes.” He sidled up beside her. “I like plenty of syrup, too.”

“We have plenty of syrup.” She indicated the bottle of unopened maple syrup on the island.

He cut his wide brown eyes toward her. “Can you heat mine up?”

She burst into laughter. There was something just so bad about everything he said that she found him hilarious. “It’s not cold.”

He lowered his voice. “Can you heat up it anyway?”

“Stevie.” Aaron turned from the stove. “Make yourself useful. Peel the oranges.”

“Bro, you’re a slave driver.” Stevie pulled up a stool to the island. “Paint the rooms. Pick up all the junk. Peel the oranges. Where’s Dad?”

“He’s gone to Cherokee Sam’s to meet his buddies for coffee.”

Lia chuckled as she carried the pancake batter over to the stove. Aaron grinned at her. “Loretta, is your giggle box turned over this morning or what?”

She looked into his sexy blue eyes. It was more than just her giggle box turned over. It was like joy had spilled out inside her, and she felt like she was on top of the world. Everything just made her smile. Especially him. He bent and gave her a kiss.

“There’s a child present,” Stevie announced. “No getting frisky in the kitchen.”

“Close your eyes,” Aaron said as he moved the cooked bacon off the stove.

“Are you going to call Miss Pauline today?” Lia asked. Of the three women they had interviewed, Pauline Holloway was the one they both liked the best. Miss Pauline was seventy and had raised four children; plus she had twenty years of experience working in pediatrics. She was soft-spoken and appeared to have an even temperament and an innate kindness about her.

“I think she’s the best choice,” Aaron said. “I’m going to check with Dr. Ramsey today.” Miss Pauline had listed the doctor as a past employer and a reference.

“Are you talking about the nanny?” Stevie asked.

“Yeah,” Aaron answered as he moved the bacon pan out of the way and Lia heated up a griddle for the pancakes. “We’ve decided on Miss Pauline.”

“That’s the one with the round face.” Stevie set aside a peeled orange.

Aaron shrugged and turned to Lia. “Does she have a round face?”

“I don’t remember.” Lia tried to picture Miss Pauline, who was a little overweight and had lovely short platinum hair. “She looked very nice.”

“Just tell Dad you hired the one with the round face.” Stevie started peeling another orange. “That’ll make him happy.”

“Okay,” Lia replied. She poured pancake batter onto the griddle. “Seriously, Stevie, how many do you want?”

“Three is good.”

“Three it is.”

They decided to have breakfast outside at the umbrella table on the deck. Carrying a glass of orange juice and her breakfast plate, Lia chose the sunny side of the table that offered a nice view of the blooming crepe myrtle that grew beside the corner of the house. Aaron sat opposite her in the shade of that crepe myrtle, his back facing the rear of the house.

Stevie sighed as he put his plate of pancakes, drenched in syrup, and a glass of juice on the table beside Lia. He moved the spare chair so it touched hers and sat down. “Bro, this is how you have breakfast with your girl.” He waved his hand. “For starters, you don’t sit way over there.”

Lia laughed as Stevie turned to her. “I’m trying,” he said. “He’s got no women skills.”

“I know,” she agreed.

Aaron made a face at them and took a drink of his orange juice.

“You want to show him how it’s done?” Stevie winked, and she nodded. Silly was her thing this morning.

With his chair against hers, he draped his arm over her shoulders. “Honey, this is the first day of the rest of our lives.”

“I’m so thrilled.” She batted her lashes, and he tapped his cheek. “Oh.” She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“I’m having to teach her, too.” Stevie tightened his arm around her shoulders. “Heads together.” He leaned his head toward her and she leaned toward him so the sides of their foreheads touched. Lia pressed her hand against his chest. “She’s getting the hang of it.”

Aaron just grinned and kept eating his breakfast as Stevie held up his phone.

“You have to take selfies of all the once-in-a-lifetime moments.” Stevie began taking selfies of the two of them, cheek to cheek. “Aren’t we cute?”

“We are.” Lia smiled as the camera in Stevie’s phone snapped. “Maybe we should eat.”

“Feed me, baby,” Stevie said in a husky voice, still taking pictures.

Lia struggled to keep a straight face as she cut into the pancakes on her plate.

“No, from my plate. You don’t have enough syrup on yours.”

“Sorry.” She picked up his fork and speared a slice from the stack on his plate. “Goodness, they’re so soggy, they’re dripping.” The pancakes sagged on the fork, and she held one hand under the fork as she rushed it toward Stevie’s mouth as he took a picture.

Aaron let out a cackle as she shoved the pancakes in Stevie’s mouth.

“Jesus,” Stevie muttered, suddenly choking.

“Here.” She grabbed his glass of juice, and he slugged it down. She offered him hers, but he refused. “I’m okay.”

Laughing, she dropped her head on his shoulder.

“Honey, maybe the feeding part’s not a good idea.” He rested his cheek on her head, and they took another selfie.

“I think we need to feed ourselves, sweetheart.” She stroked his hair. “You know, maybe I can make it up to you later.”

“Look at you, girl. Catching on just like that.” Stevie pointed at Aaron. “Are you paying attention? We got skills going on here.”

Aaron gave his crazy brother a bored glance. “Why don’t you use your skills to eat?”

Before Stevie picked up his fork, he spoke to Lia. “If you wanna make it up to me, you could let me take a drive in your Jag.”

“All right. Can I drive your truck?” She was ready for a change.

“Seriously?” Stevie yanked the keys to his truck out of his pocket and put them in her hand.

“Wait,” Aaron cut in. “Stevie, you’ve got no business driving that Jag.”

“Hey, I will take care of that car like it’s my baby. I won’t get a scratch on it. I’ll even wash and wax it until it’s so slick a fly couldn’t land on it.”

“Lia.” Aaron looked to Lia for support.

“I don’t mind him driving the car,” she said as she ate. “I hate the way guys hang around it, looking at it. Especially here. I’ve never had that problem in Nashville.”

“You mean those guys at the hotel that night?” Aaron asked.

“I know why they hang around it,” Stevie put in.

“The guys yesterday,” Lia answered Aaron. “After lunch, there were a couple of guys hovering, and I had this bad feeling about them. But they didn’t do anything. They just told me they liked the car, and then they left.”

“Stevie,” Aaron said. “Take the Jag.”

Lia fetched her keys and gave them to Stevie. “A red Jag!” He looked like a little kid on Christmas morning. “This is the most awesome thing ever.”

“Don’t end up with a bunch of speeding tickets,” Aaron warned him.

“Come on,” Lia said. “I’ll show you some things like how to turn the security system on and off and how to use the computer stuff.”

She and Stevie walked across the driveway to where the Jaguar was parked. Its sleek curves gleamed bright red and seductive in the sunlight. Lia had been with Dallas the day he bought the car because he was in the mood for a red car.

“You know, this car is like an orgasm on wheels. That’s why those guys are looking at it,” Stevie told her. “They’re getting off on it.”

Lia grimaced. “No way.”

“Yeah. Men have a relationship with cars. Kinda like with women but different.” He paused, and a serious expression came over his face. “Speaking of relationships, my big brother hasn’t been in one in a long time. Be good to him.”

“I will. Always,” she promised. A part of her wished she and Candace had shared a relationship like Aaron and Stevie, who loved and looked out for each other regardless.

“Be careful,” she told Stevie. “Don’t drive too fast, okay?”

Stevie grinned. “Now you sound like a big sister.” Then he gave her an inquisitive look. “Maybe someday?”

She shrugged. “You never know.”

As Stevie drove away in the Jag, she walked toward the deck. Someday. The implication of the word was that sometime in the future she would be a part of Aaron’s family.

Nevertheless, as she walked in the morning sunshine, deep in her heart she sensed the fragility of this new affair. She had written songs about love gone wrong. She heard it in his sigh. Love’s whispering good-bye.

She had even written a verse about love being a stack of faded pictures stored in an old heart-shaped candy box. Almost like Aaron’s shoebox of hurt. But her breakup songs were just that—songs. She didn’t have a box full of old memories that had been hidden away for years because she had yet to deal with the end of a relationship.

She and Dallas were unfinished. There was one final thing to do. Their farewell. Both privately and publicly. The thought created sadness inside her, along with anxiety about how she would cope when it was all said and done.

“We may never see Stevie again,” she said as she stepped up on the deck. Aaron sat at the table with a cup of coffee in hand and his laptop.

“True,” he replied. “The housekeeping service is supposed to arrive at ten.”

“I’ll be here.” They had agreed she would be at the house when the housekeeping service arrived to give the house a thorough cleaning before the home study provider arrived tomorrow.

He looked at his appointment screen. “I’ve got to stop by the cleaners and pick up my suit for tomorrow. And go meet with Miss Pauline at lunch. Go to the clinic and sign off on some paperwork and stuff. A pediatric staff dinner at five and go see John.” He stopped a moment. “I probably should stop by Maury’s office and see if there’s anything else I need to do before the home study tomorrow.”

Standing beside his chair, she bent and gave him a kiss on the head. “Everything’s going to be fine. You’ll pass that home study with flying colors.”

“I’ll just be glad to get it over with.”

“Me, too,” she said. “I need some coffee.”

In the kitchen, she took a coffee mug out of the cabinet, and while she was looking in the fridge for creamer, Aaron joined her. He poured himself a refill.

He took a sip and said, “I think you should get rid of the Jaguar. We can get you another car. An SUV would be a good choice. Plenty of room for baby stuff.”

“Yeah.” She smiled. “I’m taking the Jag home next week. Actually, it belongs to Dallas. He bought it on a whim and then gave it to me to drive when he got tired of it.”

Aaron sat on a stool at the island, cradling his cup of coffee. “I’ve been thinking. Instead of going back to Nashville next weekend, why don’t you have your father come here? We can all spend some time together and get to know each other. John Aaron will be home by then. Your dad can see the baby, and you can break the news to him about Dallas.”

“No.” The word came out sharp, more so than she intended. She put the coffee pot down without pouring any into her cup. “My father doesn’t know anything about the baby. He doesn’t even know I’m in Lafayette Falls.”

Surprise was followed by a frown on Aaron’s face. “What do you mean he doesn’t know about the baby or that you’re here?”

“I haven’t told him,” she answered. “He and his girlfriend, Sheila, are in Europe with a couple of new groups on their first overseas tour.”

“Okay, but surely you’re in communication with him.”

“Not about my whereabouts or the baby.” She walked over to the island and sat on the stool beside Aaron. “My father despised my mother and anything connected to her. That included Candace. He never wanted me to associate with them. I was twelve before he allowed me to go see my mother in the summer, and that was just because I insisted. He considered them nothing, and he preferred that they never be a part of my life. He won’t like it that I’m here with her baby.”

“Are you saying your father won’t accept the baby because of your sister?”

“Yes. Pretty much so.”

“No.” Aaron pushed the coffee mug aside and turned to her. “John is innocent like every other baby in this world. He had no choice when it came to his birth parents. Lia, I won’t let him be victimized because of who his birth mother was.”

“I agree. You’re a thousand percent right. But I don’t know that I can change what’s in my father’s heart.”

“So we’ll talk to your father together. We’ll tell him that as far as we’re concerned, John Aaron is our baby and that’s how he’s to be treated. There’s no middle ground to that. None that I’m willing to accept,” Aaron said. “And you can talk to your father about Dallas.”

She sighed. “Dallas and I have to tell all the people who work for us and our friends.”

“I don’t want you to go.”

“I have to do this. I’m not enthused. I dread it,” she confessed. “But our press agent, Conner, is great at handling the media. He’ll keep the press release generic. Like, ‘We regret to announce the end of our long-term relationship but remain on good terms. We appreciate all the fans who have supported us over the years and hope they will continue to support us through this transition in our life.’

“Since there’s no scandal attached to the split, it should only last like one news cycle before it fades. I’ll still be hounded by the media for a little while because they are always looking for something they can sensationalize,” she said. “The public is fickle. That’s a plus. Something else may break on the same day that’s ten times more exciting than Dallas and me. If that happens, I won’t be gone long.”

“What do you mean?”

“After Conner goes public with the announcement, I’m planning on going to the ranch in Colorado to avoid the media for a couple of weeks.”

He looked as if she’d struck him. “Colorado?”

“I don’t want the media to know about us. I want to keep you and the baby out of this. I don’t want trash printed about you or your family or about my sister’s baby either.” She tried to think of how to explain it. “It’s like a being caught up in a storm, and then it blows over. I have to ride out the storm alone.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.” She stroked his face. “And you have to take care of John Aaron until I get back. Okay?”

He walked over to the sink and poured out his coffee.

“Aaron, you knew I was going to have to leave on the eighteenth.”

“Yeah, well, I thought maybe things had changed.”

“There’s something you should know.” She walked up and hugged him from behind. “I’m not through loving you.”

* * *

Late that evening, Aaron sat in the rocker, giving John his eight p.m. bottle. “I think you’re gonna like being out in the world.” He had moved John out of the NICU pod and into the special-care nursery. “If you keep doing this well, I think I’ll take you home Sunday. You’ll love your room. It’s full of great stuff.”

As the baby sucked vigorously on the bottle, Aaron battled his concerns about Lia. Julian Montgomery sounded like a controlling asshole who had his daughter so intimidated she kept things from him. She hadn’t told her father about her sister’s death, the baby left behind, or that her relationship with Dallas had long been over.

Aaron was trying to be understanding about the situation. He understood what it was to feel animosity toward an ex-wife, but that shouldn’t carry over to a baby. He hoped Lia’s father would come around. It might take time, and he was okay with that. It all came down to love. He loved Lia and he knew she loved her father, so there would have to be some give and take.

But he was not open to her “riding out the storm” by herself after the breakup with Dallas. He had thought about it during the drive to the hospital, and he couldn’t agree to that. He wasn’t going to let her go to Colorado and hide out for weeks. That was ridiculous.

If she had to go to Nashville on the eighteenth, he was going with her. John Aaron should be fine with Miss Pauline for a few hours. He’d make sure one of his partners was on standby. Lia could get things settled that day, and they would come home. He didn’t give a shit if reporters camped out in his yard.

“She needs to be here with us.” He cuddled the baby close. “With bottles every two hours, you’ll keep everyone busy.”

“Aaron.” Dr. Jack Burnell, one of Aaron’s partners, entered the special-care nursery. In his mid-forties, Jack had a short, squat neck that made his head appear to be sitting directly on his bulky shoulders, which gave him the look of a linebacker even though he had never played football. “I’m glad to see you.”

“What is it?”

“New OB admit through the ER. They are prepping the patient for a section, and we’re looking at twenty-five weeks gestational age on the fetus. Probably less than two pounds, and it may not be viable. They’ve got medivac on standby for a flight to Nashville,” he said. “I’m on call, but if you can scrub in on this with me, I’d appreciate your expertise.”

“Sure,” Aaron answered, knowing it had now turned into a long night for him.

On the elevator, he sent Lia a text message.

Her reply lit up on his phone. He chuckled as he saw she had used the title of a Loretta Lynn song in her message.

Funny. He added a laughing emoji with tears running down its face.