The Maverick's Wedding Wager, page 17
Jane stared at her, stunned. Of all the things her mother might have imagined to be wrong, this obviously wasn’t on her radar. Her mother stood up, grabbed a box of tissues and brought them over to the table. She pulled a couple of tissues free from the box and handed them to her.
Genevieve wiped the tears from her face before she blew her nose. The tissues crumpled up into a ball on the table as she waited for the questions from her mother that were bound to come.
“Your marriage isn’t real?” Jane’s words came out very slowly. “What do you mean? You aren’t really married to Knox?”
“No.” She frowned. “I’m really married.”
“Then, I don’t understand, Genevieve. You need to spell this out for me.”
Once she started talking, recounting the whole story, from the initial wager to the elopement to the layers of lies they had told in order to make the whole plan work, she couldn’t seem to stop. She told her mother everything, including that they had consummated the marriage and that she feared she was pregnant. It took her a long while to finish confessing, and when she did, her mom didn’t say a word. She just sat at the table, her round face unsmiling, her finger tapping on the tabletop while she mulled over what her daughter had just told her.
“Oh, Genevieve,” Jane finally said with deep sadness laced in her voice. “When are you ever going to learn to look before you leap?”
“Hopefully I’ve learned that lesson now. I’m so sorry, Mom. I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I had you go through all of this planning and expense for the wedding reception.”
“Don’t you be sorry for a thing. I’m not. I had the time of my life and don’t have a bit of regret.”
“But the money—”
“Ladybug, when you were born, your father and I started a college fund and a wedding fund. I spent your wedding fund to throw this party.”
“Well, at least I don’t have to feel guilty about the money anymore.”
“No. And there’s no sense feeling guilty about anything. It’s a complete waste of energy.” Her mother reached for her hand and squeezed it. “And do you know what else I think? I think your husband is crazy about you. I think he’s head over heels for you, I really do. Everyone sees it. Everyone. Even your father sees it and that man is blind as a bat when it comes to just about everything. As a matter of fact, even Maximilian Crawford sees it. He told me so himself last night. So maybe this marriage isn’t as fake as you believe.”
“I don’t see it,” Genevieve muttered. “He’s never said it to me.”
With the exception of that one time in the loft when they were making love. In her mind, coming as it did in a moment of passion, that didn’t count.
“Some men are just slow to come to their senses,” Jane said. “Your father loved me for months before it occurred to him to speak the words aloud. I remember he actually thought he told me that he loved me and he hadn’t. He’d thought it in his mind and didn’t bother to get the words out of his mouth. If Knox loves you, he’ll break down the door looking for you and then you’ll know.”
“Maybe. But that’s not my biggest problem right now. A baby wasn’t part of our bargain, Mom.”
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans, ladybug. I think it’s time we find out if there’s even anything to worry about.”
“I’m not going to buy a pregnancy test at the general store.”
“Oh, no,” Jane agreed. “Absolutely not.”
Her mother got up and walked over to the phone on the wall and dialed a number. “Darling, do you happen to have any pregnancy tests in your medicine cabinet?”
Of course. As often as her sisters got pregnant, no doubt they had a stockpile of pregnancy tests in their bathrooms.
“Thank you, love,” Jane said into the phone. “We’ll see you in a minute.”
Her mother hung up the phone.
“There. Problem solved. Ella is coming over and we’ll have our answer right quick. Better to know than sit around worrying and wondering.”
As usual, her mom was right. If she was pregnant, she needed to know. And if she did have a Crawford bun in the oven, then that was going to take the next conversation she had with her husband in a whole different direction. In fact, it was going to take her whole life in a different direction.
* * *
Knox took his hammer and smashed into the hinge, banging it again and again even though it didn’t budge.
“Are you trying to fix that or break it more, Knox?” Hunter was holding the gate up so he could try to unseat the rusted hinge.
Knox gave the stuck hinge a few more hard whacks before he cursed and threw his hammer on the ground. Frustrated, he kicked the gate several times. With a concerned look on his face, Hunter let go of the gate and focused his attention on Knox.
“What’s going on? You’ve been off all day.”
If it had been any other brother than Hunter asking, Knox would have made an excuse, any excuse, just to end the conversation. But Hunter was different. He had been married, and he had a daughter for whom he was responsible. It made Hunter more grounded and Knox trusted his counsel.
Knox wiped the sweat off his brow with his sleeve. “Genevieve left me.”
He hadn’t spoken those words aloud. It felt like a punch in the gut to give them a voice.
Hunter stared at him for a second or two and then waved his hand with a smile. “If that’s a joke, brother, it ain’t funny.”
“It’s not a joke. She left me. She didn’t come home with me last night. As far as I know, she’s planning on moving back into that garage apartment at her parents’ house.”
Now he had Hunter’s full attention.
“I don’t understand,” Hunter said. “The party...”
Knox kicked the gate again. “It was a lie. All of it was a damn lie.”
Perhaps he shouldn’t have begun to tell Hunter the truth, but once he told him one part of the problem with Genevieve, his brother wasn’t satisfied until he knew the whole truth of the matter. When he was done explaining his elopement scheme, the disbelieving, disappointed look on his brother’s face spoke volumes.
“You and Dad are cut from the same bolt of cloth, Knox,” Hunter said with a shake of his head. “The same darn bolt of cloth.”
Knox hated to hear that, yet there was a ring of truth in his brother’s words. Both he and his father would go to any lengths to get their way, to be in control—to be right.
“You need to go and fight for her,” Hunter said plainly. “If you love her, then don’t let her go.”
“I tried to tell her how I felt last night.”
“You tried,” his brother scoffed. “Please.”
“I did,” Knox said. “Now she won’t answer my calls. My texts.”
“I know you can’t possibly be as dense as you’re sounding right now, Knox. A woman wants her man to fight for her. Genevieve is begging for you to step up and be a man and claim her, to prove to her that this marriage might have started out as a wager but it ended up as the real deal. Instead of going over there and fighting for her, you’re standing here and kicking a fence! That woman is the best darn thing that has ever happened to you. We all see it. And you’re a better man for having married her, no matter the circumstances. If you let her go, then all I can say is that I love you but you’re not the man that I believed you were.”
* * *
Genevieve sat on the side of her garage apartment bed and stared at the pregnancy test. Never in her life had she experienced such mixed emotions. One minute she was happy and the next she was incredibly sad, like a giant grandfather clock pendulum swinging back and forth. With a heavy sigh, she slid the pregnancy test back into the box, walked into the bathroom and put it on the edge of the sink. All she wanted to do with the rest of her day was hide under her covers. The confession to her mother and then her sister had exhausted her. It was going to take a full day of sleeping just to prepare her for the next round—dealing with her father and then with Knox.
With a heavy heart, Genevieve climbed under the covers and rested her head on the pillow next to Oscar, who had easily slept right through her traumatic morning. Genevieve rubbed Oscar’s fat belly, causing the cat to roll on his back and purr loudly. Why couldn’t her life be a simple as Oscar’s life? She pulled the covers over her head to block out the light and wished for sleep. She had deliberately turned off her phone because she didn’t want to be disturbed. For now, she wanted her life and everyone in it to just go away.
Sleep had thankfully come and Genevieve had no idea how long she had slept when a loud knock on the door jolted her awake.
“Go away!” she grumbled, turning over and burying her head back under the covers.
“Gen!” Knox’s strong, determined voice penetrated the door. “Open up, please. We need to talk.”
“Go away!” she yelled. She wasn’t ready to speak to him.
When he didn’t respond, didn’t fight her on it, it only confirmed her suspicions that her feelings for Knox were one-sided. It really had been just a game to that Crawford cowboy.
A sound like a key in the door made her pop her head out from underneath the covers. The door opened and suddenly Knox, as handsome and put together as always, was standing inside of her sanctuary.
“Mom gave you a key.”
Knox shut the door behind him. “She did.”
“I’m not in the mood to talk to you.” Genevieve pushed her mussed hair out of her eyes.
Her husband sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes steady, his face more somber than she had ever seen.
“You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, Genevieve. I just need you to hear me out. I just need you to listen.”
Chapter Sixteen
Knox had never truly been in love before. Perhaps that was why he hadn’t been able to pinpoint the exact moment he had fallen in love with Genevieve. But he certainly knew it when she walked away from him. That moment was burned into his brain and his heart. The night of the wedding reception, he had returned home to Silver and an empty bed. Yes, he had known that Genevieve had quickly become an integral part of his life, but it wasn’t until she was no longer filling the cabin with her laughter and her sweet smile that he realized how important she had become to the very fabric of his happiness. He had never been so happy as he was when he opened the door to the garage apartment to find a groggy, grumpy Genevieve scowling at him. Even a disgruntled Gen was better than no Gen at all.
“This is all my fault,” he said for openers.
Gen looked up at him with narrowed eyes. “You know, I’ve been thinking about that a lot. And, you’re absolutely right. This is all your fault. If you hadn’t bet me to marry you, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“I know.” Knox turned his body so he was able to look her in the eye. “But if I hadn’t convinced you to elope with me, would we have ever fallen in love?”
His wife’s eyes widened for a moment before they narrowed. “Who says we did?”
Knox reached for her hand; he was encouraged that she didn’t pull her hand away from him.
“You know we did, Gen.” He looked at her with an open and steady gaze. He wanted her to see what was inside of his heart. “Do you remember when I told you that I wasn’t afraid of anything?”
His wife nodded.
“That wasn’t true. I am afraid of something. I’m afraid of losing the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m afraid of losing you.”
A single tear slipped onto her cheek and the sight of that tear crushed him. He reached out and wiped it away with his thumb. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you this before, Gen. I love you. I love you. With everything that I am, and with everything I have, I love you. I believe I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw your picture on your website.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked with an emotional crack in her voice.
He couldn’t wait a moment longer—he gathered his wife up in his arms and hugged her so tightly. “I don’t know. I’m a man. I’m an idiot. I’m a slow learner.”
Through her freshly shed tears, Genevieve laughed. “You are all of those things.”
He leaned back so he could see her face. “Yes. I am all of those things. But I’m also the man who loves you, Genevieve. I’m the man who wants to spend the rest of his life with you.”
Knox kissed his wife, tasting the salt from her tears on his lips. He kissed her tears from her cheeks and then took both of her hands in his.
“Tell me that you love me.”
“I love you, Knox.”
Knox noticed the engagement ring made of hay he had given her sitting on the nightstand. He reached for it and held it out for her to see. “I want you to be my wife, Genevieve.”
With a little laugh she took the ring and held it gently in her hand, as if it were made of precious metal. “I am your wife, Knox.”
“Then promise to be my wife for the rest of my life, Gen. Promise me.”
“I promise you.”
“Thank God.” Knox pulled her back into his arms.
During the hug, Knox felt Genevieve rub her face on his shoulder. He sat back with a suspicious smile. “Did you just dry your face on my shirt?”
His wife grinned at him guiltily. “Maybe just a little.”
Knox stood up and looked around for a box of tissues. Genevieve pointed to the bathroom. “Toilet paper in there.”
He walked over to the bathroom and when he was bending over to pull some toilet paper off the roll, something caught his attention on the bathroom sink. Squares of toilet paper crumpled in his hand, he reached out to pick up the pregnancy test. He stared at the box and then, with legs that didn’t seem to want to move, he looked in the direction of his wife.
* * *
Genevieve was still reeling from the sudden appearance of Knox in her garage apartment and his profession of love. It took a minute for it to register that he was in the bathroom with the pregnancy test. Careful not to disturb Oscar, who had managed to keep on sleeping, Genevieve got out of bed. She was heading toward the bathroom when Knox emerged holding the box.
“Are you?” he asked quietly.
Feeling sadder than she could express in words, she shook her head. Genevieve took the box from his hand and threw it in the trash. When she turned around, she turned into Knox’s waiting arms.
“Are you okay?”
She buried her head into his chest and nodded. He kissed the top of her head so sweetly that it almost made her start crying all over again. It was the strangest feeling. She was actually mourning a baby that never was. When she’d seen that the pregnancy test was negative, it had driven home how much she had begun to like the idea of being a mom. No, it wouldn’t have been easy to be a single mother, and no, she wouldn’t have wanted to trap Knox with an unplanned pregnancy. But in the end, she had wanted to be pregnant and now she knew she wasn’t.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He rested his chin on her head.
“I didn’t know for sure.” She put her hand over his heart. “I missed my period but I wasn’t sure.”
He handed her the balled-up toilet paper so she could blow her nose and then they sat down on the end of the bed together.
“Are you sad that you aren’t pregnant? Is that it?” He held her hands in his.
“Actually,” she admitted, “I am sad. I don’t even know why.”
Knox put his arm tightly around her. “Maybe because you’re ready to be a mom now.”
“Are you ready to be a dad?”
Her husband looked down at her and met her eyes. “With you? Absolutely.”
“A woman’s fertility drops off a cliff after thirty-five,” she told him after she blew her nose again. “That’s only a couple of years away.”
Knox got off the bed, kneeled down on one knee before her, and held her hands in his. “Why don’t we go on a honeymoon, Genevieve? I’ll take you anywhere in the world you want to go.”
“Anywhere?”
“Anywhere.”
The one place in the whole entire world that popped into her mind was the one place she had always wanted to go.
“Paris,” she told him. “I want to go to Paris.”
“Paris?”
She nodded.
“A cowgirl in Paris? I didn’t expect that.”
“You said that you would take me anywhere in the world I wanted to go.”
“I did. And I meant it.” Knox stood up and coaxed her up as well. “If you want to go to Paris for our honeymoon, then that’s where we’ll go.”
Genevieve had never felt more safe or loved as she did when she was being held in Knox’s arms. Knox kissed her again—a kiss filled with the promise of so much love to come.
“Maybe we could try for a baby on our honeymoon?”
“My beautiful wife, I’ll give you as many babies as you want.” Knox pulled her into his body. “And we don’t have to wait until Paris. We can start trying for that baby right now.”
* * *
As good as his word, Knox made all the arrangements for their honeymoon. The first leg of the trip was made by private jet to Paris and they couldn’t resist making love over the Atlantic Ocean. After a quick shower, Genevieve slipped back into bed while Knox went to talk to the stewardess about a late-night snack.
“How does chocolate and champagne sound?” Knox opened the door carrying a silver tray.
“Amazing.” She smiled at him warmly. “I would say we worked up an appetite.”
Knox put the tray on the small table just inside of the bedroom door.
