STEPHANIE WAS COMING DOWN OFF the emotional welcome at the Villa as she sat silently in the motorized cart on her way down the private road to the St. John homestead. Ben, as usual, was chatting away as he drove along. The bulk of her luggage had already been delivered from the limo so Tori and Draegyn knew she’d arrived and was on her way.
At the Villa, Meghan had been every inch the perfect other half to Alex’s old-world charm, greeting her with warmth and social grace like she’d been born to the role. She really liked the ladylike redhead. Alex’s fiancée had that va-va-va-voom quality Stephanie saw a lot of at work. But this lady was the real deal.
Friendly and outgoing, she had a delightful way of putting everyone around her at ease. Alex, of course, barely took his eyes off her. He positively radiated a chest-thumping male satisfaction at his choice of mates. Was there perhaps something in the water here that made so much love possible? Everyone, it seemed, had paired off. Even Gus and Carmen.
After a brief chat, Meghan let her know a family barbecue was on tap for the next day. Stephanie said her good-byes, conferred briefly with Carmen about her accommodations at Draegyn and Victoria’s house, and headed off into the late afternoon shadows.
As Ben steered them into the drive, she had to admit Draegyn’s home was spectacular. Right away, she noticed a profusion of planters in all sizes, shapes, and colors grouped in clusters along the edge of the massive wrap-around porch. Stephanie smiled. Tori’s influence, no doubt. The haphazard mish-mosh of pottery worked because of its disarray. The imperfection was the charm.
From the angle of their approach down the circular driveway, she couldn’t see the impressive addition Draegyn had designed that stretched off the master suite in the back, overlooking the desert valley. Victoria was over the moon with the new baby’s suite, sending her an endless stream of Instagram pictures.
The cart stopped at the foot of the wide-open steps leading to the massive porch. The front door flew open and a very pregnant Tori waddled forward with one hand pressed low on her back and the other acting as a sort of rudder to keep her balanced.
“Mom!” she cried out, love shimmering in her eyes.
“Oh, shugah,” Stephanie chirped. “Give mama a big kiss.”
She quickly swept up the stairs so her daughter didn’t have to navigate that belly any further and threw her arms around Victoria for an intense embrace. Mothers always know, she thought. With one hug, she felt Tori’s love, of course, but also her fear and something else. Uh oh. Pregnancy hormones were in full battle mode. Damnation.
With her heavily pregnant daughter clasped tight against her chest, Stephanie looked over Tori’s shoulder and found Draegyn standing absolutely still with an expression of worry mixed with relief etched on his face. He was also giving off a sharp, expectant-father, deer-caught-in-the-headlights vibe. Recalling Alex’s statement that Tori’s husband could use some parenting, she held up an arm and motioned him to join the hug.
Noting his reaction with keen interest, she was gladdened by how swiftly he came forward. Looking down into the upturned face of his wife, he smiled, placed an arm around her bumped out waist then turned politely to Stephanie.
She was surprised when he grabbed her around the waist and warmly kissed her on the cheek. “I’m happy to see you, Stephanie.”
Returning the hug, she clasped her precious only child and the man Victoria had entrusted her life to, and tried to infuse them both with her love, affection, understanding, and support. This was her family now. Draegyn, Victoria, and that little rascal taking his sweet time arriving.
Stephanie was vaguely aware of Ben moving past them. He was making several trips to bring the rest of her travel bags into the house as the three of them hung there entangled in a tight sandwich hug with Draegyn and her supporting Victoria. Concern for her daughter was snaking along her system. She’d done her part and gotten the pregnancy into the last weeks with everyone healthy. Now it was time for Tori to sit back and quietly nest. Prepare for the challenge ahead.
Add to that, poor Draegyn himself. Holy hairspray. Stephanie almost didn’t know what to make of the anxious, overwrought, unshaven man. He was as big a mess, if not more so than the pregnant lady. What in the hell had she gotten herself into?
Ben came along and broke their affectionate reverie, announcing that all of her bags were in the foyer and inquiring of Draegyn whether he wanted him to take everything up to the mother-in-law suite.
“Oh, Mom!” Tori burbled excitedly as Draegyn slowly and gently got them moving toward the door. “Wait till you see the suite Draegyn designed for you! It’s so perfect and sweet with a private deck and a little meditation space. You’ll be right there, near the baby, but have your own mini-wing so you can have some privacy, too.”
Tori bestowed a beaming smile to her husband, who was guiding them along with a sheepish expression—he clearly wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of praise. Classic sign of an adult who hadn’t been the center of his parents’ universe. The lack of atta’ boys and good job high fives in his past meant Draegyn sometimes came across as cold and detached without a lot of warm fuzzies. She could only sigh.
Inside the house, Stephanie stopped and marveled at the glorious masterpiece Draegyn designed. The wood. The windows. The open spaces. The light. The stone fireplace. It was all just so perfect. So organic. It was going to be a terrific home in which to raise a family. Their child was one incredibly damn lucky baby.
Keeping a supportive arm wound around Tori’s waist, Stephanie watched, bemused as Drae and Ben commandeered her mountain of bags down a hallway next to the dining room.
“That’s new,” she murmured to Tori with a question in her voice.
Victoria laughed and shook her head. “Damn. You noticed the change. I keep trying to tell Draegyn the slight alteration in the space isn’t that big a deal. Don’t let him know you saw right away,” she giggled.
“Understood, baby girl, but what’s that all about?
“It’s so cool, Mom. We got a small elevator. With the layout of the addition, we have three levels now, so…elevator. That’s why they dragged your bags down the hallway.”
To say Tori waddled wasn’t entirely accurate when in actuality what she did was a sort of shuffle shuffle shimmy that mimicked walking. Seeing firsthand how difficult it was for her to get around, Stephanie was delighted to learn about the elevator. Tori must have been channeling that exact thought ‘cause she chimed in. “I’d never be able to move up and down steps so the elevator has been a blessing. Without it, I’d be trapped on one floor. Ugh. What a thought.”
By the time they’d crept along the hallway to the elevator door, Tori was winded. “Shugah, darling,” Stephanie drawled. “What this situation needs is a rolling chair! Remember how we used to take Daddy’s old desk chair and use it to stack our grocery bags on? Get yourself a twenty dollar chair that you can scoot around on.”
“Aw, Mom. Shit. I’m so glad you’re here. The chair idea probably sounds hare-brained, but you’re so right. After all, it’s only for a few weeks. Know what? Let’s get two and we can have rolling chair challenges. Just like when I was a kid.”
As the elevator door closed and she pushed the button for the second level, Stephanie kissed Tori on the forehead. “Look at you. Already thinking like a mama. You’ll be making those sorts of memories with your own child real soon and then all this will have been worth it.”
Victoria slumped against her and murmured, “God, I hope you’re right.”
AFTER A BRIEF TOUR OF the new baby suite that Tori declared the coolest fucking nursery on earth, Draegyn scooped Tori up in his arms. He motioned to Stephanie to go ahead of him and up a short rise of steps at the far end of the hallway. At the top of the wide stairs and after a quick pivot to the left, Stephanie was faced with a wide-open space. It was laid out as a sitting room with a sectional sofa, some easy chairs, and a flat screen TV mounted on a wall.
After he’d settled Tori onto the sofa, Stephanie reached out, grabbed her son-in-law’s forearm, and squeezed. “Draegyn,” she sighed, gratitude and amazement in her voice. “This is beautiful.”
Tori snorted in amusement saying, “You ain’t seen nothing yet, Mom. Check out the kitchen and the deck. My husband really outdid himself.”
Seeing Draegyn’s actual man-blush was just as cute as could be. He was the blink of an eye away from scuffing his foot on the ground, hanging his head, and muttering, Aw shucks. Stephanie was definitely starting to grade him on a curve.
“It was nothing, really,” he joked. “I knew Victoria would want you to be part of our baby’s life, and the casita is nice and all but too far away. This way, you’re right here but have all the privacy you need. Behind this room is a bedroom with a walk-in closet and a full bath. The kitchen is small but has everything you need and opens onto a private deck. This section of the house is secluded, just like our deck is so…”
Stephanie threw back her head and laughed. “Are you suggesting your sainted mother-in-law be getting up to some outdoor hanky panky?”
“What? No,” Draegyn choked out. “I just meant that, well…now that you put it that way, yes, I suppose that’s exactly what I just said. Only I was thinking more along the lines of enjoying a make-up free breakfast on the deck away from prying eyes.”
“Shugah, this is really too much,” she told him. “I don’t know what to say or how to thank you two.”
“Stephanie. This is a huge house. You’re part of our family. We both want you to be as invested as you’d like to be in your grandchild’s life. Building you a suite was fun. It made my wife happy, and honestly, I enjoyed the challenge.”
She drew him aside, out of Tori’s earshot, and asked anxiously, “Is she always this wiped out? Do you want me to make dinner? Tell me what works for you, Draegyn.”
Drae peeked around the corner at his wife then back at his mother-in-law’s anxious expression.
Shrugging he said, “Suppose it won’t float trying to pretend everything is fine, huh?”
“Absolutely not,” she answered with a frown. “Should I be worried?”
It was a ridiculous question to ask, and she knew it. Of course, she should be worried. Tori looked like hell and was putting off a vibe that as her mother she just couldn’t quite pin down. And Draegyn—well, he was barely hanging by a thread if his appearance was any indicator.
Taking her by the arm, Drae moved them into the small meditation room across from where his wife sat as if giving his mother-in-law a guided tour of her new space. It was just far enough away that Victoria wouldn’t be able to overhear their words.
Drae knew this conversation was coming—he’d been thinking about what he wanted to say for days. Stephanie was fiercely protective of her daughter and for good reason. She also wasn’t exactly a card-carrying member of the Draegyn St. John Fan Club. A mama bear worried about her cub with a less-than-stellar attitude toward the cub’s husband. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Drae glanced back toward his wife and took a deep breath. “Okay, first of all, she’s fine. Physically. The baby is fine, too. Everything is right on schedule and our obstetrician feels we’re looking at a Christmas birth.”
“So…five or six weeks, more or less,” Stephanie murmured.
“Yeah,” he replied with a slight grimace that he just couldn’t hide. Drae wasn’t so sure he’d survive another six weeks. The worry and guilt were eating away at him non-stop. She was such a little thing to begin with and had gotten so big so damn fast. Shit, helping her through the throwing up and swollen feet was nothing compared to the agony he endured watching Victoria try to function normally with her belly sticking out so far.
She tried not to show it, but he knew her back constantly ached. He’d heard her bitch to Lacey about it being months since she’d seen her own feet. She was uncomfortable in any position...and the mood swings. Ugh. He needed a script to keep up with how quickly the scene could change. One minute she’d be laughing and giddy—rhapsodizing about the baby, the family they were making—and the next, she’d erupt in a waterfall of tears that would make Niagara Falls jealous. And those tears kept changing hats, too. Happy tears. Angry tears. Frustrated tears.
“The doctor said that this last stage is always the hardest part. There’s nothing to do now, but wait and try to keep her calm.”
Stephanie shifted back and forth, crossing her arms in front of her chest and fixed him with a look he knew well. It was the same one his wife used when he was knee-deep in guy speak and missing some bigger point. Crap.
“You try lugging a fifty pound sack of potatoes strapped to your waist twenty-four seven and tell me how calm you are. No offense, son,” she muttered, “but all you men are just so damn clueless.”
Drae’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. Had she just called him son? Wow. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard that word used. His parents had been as cold and distant as ever, even after learning their only son was married with a child on the way. Fine by him. He didn’t want either of those two anywhere near his new family. Even his sister, Desi, knew all too well what piss-poor grandparents Arthur and Hillary St. John made, after having them all but ignore the births of her two children.
Until she used the expression, he didn’t realize how desperately he wanted Stephanie Bennett’s approval and acceptance. Victoria was going to be a wonderful mother because of the example her own had set. Some part of him wanted to hug the woman glaring at him so he could experience just a whisper of what that connection to a parent felt like.
Drae hung his head and groaned. “I know, Stephanie. Believe me, I know. I’m a dick for having put her in this position.”
“Oh, zip it,” his mother-in-law shot back at him. “This isn’t about you. Tori loves you. Having your baby means everything to her as she tells me ad nauseam. Women have been having babies since the dawn of time, and last time I checked, it wasn’t intended to be an easy process. Buck up, Draegyn. She needs you.”
Straightforward and brutally to the point. Pure Stephanie Bennett. “I know, I know,” he assured her. “I just mean that…well, I don’t know what in the hell I mean. It’s killing me to see her like this.”
He was surprised when she laid her hand on his arm and gave a gentle squeeze. “I’m here now, shugah,” she drawled in her perfect Southern accent. “Just relax, son, and try to be with her as much as you can. These last weeks, well, they’re precious for an expectant couple. It’s the last time when it’s just the two of you.”
Just the two of them. God. He loved the little woman in the next room so much his heart couldn’t contain all the emotions he felt. She was his everything. Without her and that naughty mouth of hers keeping him on his toes, he wouldn’t know what to do.
“You let me worry about the daily stuff, Draegyn, and you focus on my daughter. I’m going to take good care of both of you,” she told him with a big smile.
Oh, thank fucking God, he thought. “Carmen has filled the refrigerator and freezer with a ton of meals so Victoria doesn’t have to do anything. No need for you to take that on.”
Drae scraped his hand across the stubble on his face and loosed an embarrassed cough. “She could use some pampering.”
He watched his shrewd mother-in-law assess his words. She was good that way. He’d been struck from the first moment they met at how astonishingly feminine the woman was while also being no-nonsense and tenacious.
He rolled a shoulder and practically kicked at some imaginary dust bunnies, all the while feeling like a bull in a china closet. Men really were as helpless as women imagined where these things were concerned, he admitted.
“Uh, she complains that she hasn’t seen her feet in a dog’s age.”
Stephanie laughed. He liked the way it sounded and a part of him instantly relaxed.
“I’ve got the picture, sweetie,” she assured him with a gleeful twinkle in her eyes. “Your job is to rub her belly, and just so we’re clear Draegyn…that’s about you two staying connected, okay?”
He nodded and looked toward his wife. She was half-sitting, half-reclining on the sofa, trailing her delicate hand in slow circles on her bulging tummy. The promise she’d wrangled out of him to return to their bed would test his resolve to keep his lustful desires under strict control, but maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He’d promised, after all, to be with her every step of the way. Making a silent decision to do nothing else except focus on Victoria for the next few weeks, Drae felt some of his tension dissipate. Having Stephanie here was just the release they needed.
“By the way,” Stephanie drawled in her exaggerated Southern twang. “Where’s that adorable dog of yours? Raven, right?”
Drae chuckled and rolled his eyes at the question. “She’s in doggie day care at the moment. Spends most of her time down in the kennel with Brody and his canine team. Teaching her some manners! She’s a tad rambunctious and just adores Victoria—always wanting to curl up on her lap. Damn dog doesn’t realize how big she’s getting plus she’s always underfoot. Brody brings her by most nights because my wife refuses to let her sleep anywhere but in her doggie bed.”
His mother-in-law laughed gleefully and elbowed him in the ribs. “Bet you’re hoping that the baby is a boy, huh? Seems you’re a bit outnumbered with females these days.”
Jesus. She had no idea how spot-on that observation was.