Page 30 of Falling for You (Balsam Cliffs #2)

I stare at Rome like he’s lost his damn mind.

“What? Are you crazy?”

“I’m serious. I want nothing more than to be with you. All of this has taught me that I can’t breathe without you. When you were hurting I thought my own heart was breaking. I want you to be mine, forever, my wife, Olivia’s mom. Mine. ”

“You’re serious?” I turn to face him, letting the Milky Way ice-cream drip down my hand and onto my leg.

“I am. I’ll marry you right here. Right now.”

“How about tomorrow?”

I launch myself into his lap, smothering him with kisses, our dessert, long forgotten in the sand.

I can’t remember a time when I wasn't in love with Roman Thomas. What started as a childhood crush that was never attainable, has turned into my dream.

When I come up for air, he finally speaks. “We need rings. And you need a dress. And your parents, and—”

I cut him off with a kiss. “I only need you.”

“Emma Thomas, you are all I will ever need. You, me and Livvy Girl.”

A grin spreads across my face, “That has a nice ring to it.”

“Sure does, Sunshine.”

I sit silently for a minute. This is everything teenage me could have dreamed of, but something is off. It doesn’t feel totally right.

“Rome, do you think we could wait?”

His brows furrow together as concern crosses his face. “Why?”

“Livvy Girl needs to be with us. We need to do this with all three of us together.”

He kisses my forehead. “Of course we can. I agree. Maybe she needs a matching dress?”

God, this man was born to be a girl dad.

“And a bow to go with it.” I smile up at him before snuggling into his chest.

He holds me in his lap as the sun goes down over the cliffs, reflecting off the ocean.

If we had Olivia back, this would be all I ever need.

When I woke up this morning, I was alone.

Except for the note on the coffee maker that tells me Rome ran out for breakfast sandwiches, and a donut for me. I lick my lips as I read the note in anticipation. Violet’s donuts are the best I’ve ever tasted.

I sip on my coffee, snuggling with Fiona on the porch. She’s snoring happily on the porch swing next to me.

She has been sad without Olivia. I found her this morning in her room, laying by the crib with Olivia’s blanket tucked under her chin. Rome and I aren’t the only ones affected, and it makes the anger in my chest grow for the Ryans.

While I can be compassionate for their grief, how dare they do this to Rome and Olivia? Rome was absolutely right. I don’t back down. And now that I’m back, I’m going to get Livvy Girl back to us no matter what.

I’ve started researching custody laws in Maine. I want to know all there is to know when we have court. I will not go in blindly and risk even one small mistake with her. Mama Bear mode has been activated.

“Sunshine?”

Fiona’s head pops out from under the blanket making me giggle as she cocks her head looking for Rome.

“Out here!”

“Good morning.” He leans over to kiss me, while making sure that Fi gets her head scratches.

“What took you so long, and I don’t see any boxes from Sweet Violets that were promised.” I raise my eyebrows in question.

“Oh. Uh. Margaret didn’t have any of your donuts, but Violet had them at the inn. So I ran over to pick them up and saw your parents. They were asking about the lawyer.”

He slips back through the door, returning almost immediately with the signature boxes my trainer in college would have swatted right out of my hands.

Thankfully I don’t have a trainer anymore and these boxes are all too welcome now.

Although my trainer is the reason that Roman didn’t recognize me that night on the beach.

He told me that he had to ask Hunter and G who I was.

I giggle about it now, thinking back to my junior year when I got serious about working out and building muscle, and I wanted a nice ass.

When I came home I was almost unrecognizable if you couldn’t see my face.

I was never a big girl, but I was curvy for sure, and not in the right ways. I work hard to keep the body I have now, but Violet’s donuts aren’t something I can pass up. I’ll just add a mile to the tally later.

I moan as the cherry cream hits my tongue mingled with the chocolate glaze of the donut.

“You know it’s a lot better when I’m the reason for that moan.” He pouts, pushing Fi into the middle so he can join us on the swing.

“Technically without you I wouldn’t have a chocolate cherry donut. So, really, it is because of you.” I swipe at the corner of my mouth to get the cherry cream off my lip with my tongue.

He throws his head back laughing. “I’ll take the credit, Sunshine.”

He pulls his phone out of his pocket and frowns.

“What’s the matter?”

“Mr. Bardeau wants to meet in five minutes on a call. He said he has some news for us.”

“Already? What do you think it is?” I frantically unlock my phone, looking for the website I just found with a timeline for custody cases.

“I don’t think it could be bad. We haven’t even served them yet, and they don’t know I have a lawyer.”

I don’t look at him, I just keep scrolling, looking for what I want.

Bingo.

“Well this says that in the first week it’s probably that they were served with their paperwork. So maybe something to do with that?”

Relief instantly fills my chest with the knowledge that it probably isn’t something bad.

His phone rings and we move closer together to accept the call.

“Hi, Mr. Thomas.”

“Good morning.”

“I have good news. The Ryans were served with their papers and they now know you have a lawyer. They were shocked to see that they were being served, so I don’t think they expected you to fight for her.”

“They can’t just think we’re going to roll over and accept what they say as law?” I blurt out unintentionally.

“Unfortunately, a lot of times that is what people are hoping will happen. That they won’t hire a lawyer and fight back.”

“Okay, so what are the next steps?” Rome asks.

Mr. Bardeau shuffles some papers on his end. “Well, we go over the pros and cons, the only real con I can find for you is that you’re a single parent household.”

“I’m not. Emma is my fiancée. She stays home with Olivia during the day too.”

“I apologize. I didn’t realize you were engaged.”

Rome looks at me, “It’s new. But real.”

“Okay, well, don’t rush off to get married. It might look like this is only for the custody case and we don’t want that. But being engaged and the fact that Ms. Keaton stays home with her is a huge win in our favor.”

“We couldn’t get married without Olivia being there,” I admit.

“Good. Good. Well, it sounds like everything is on track, and I’ll let you know when I hear about a court date.”

We hang up and both of us sink back into the porch swing.

“That was fast.” I break the silence.

“Wyatt did say he was a shark.” He groans. “I guess I’ll have to say thank you.”

I tap his leg. “I have to go to the inn. I need to meet with Liam on the books today so we can get our quarterly information to the accountant for taxes. What are you doing?”

“I’m going to go to the brewery tonight. I’ve been gone a lot and want to make sure I’m there when I can be. I want to be free to do whatever I need for Olivia.” He gives me a weak smile. “I just keep hoping that they’ll change their mind and not make us go through this.”

I reach over to place my hand on his arm. “I know. Me too.”

We both get up and call Fiona inside. I need to get ready to go meet Liam, and prepare myself because I know that all my brothers are going to be there, and they’ll all want to talk about Roman and my miscarriage that they now know about. They’re going to be a mix of angry and protective.

A few hours later I’m sitting in the office with Liam, reviewing our books when every single Keaton brother walks in, except G.

He and Willow are back in Nashville this week to meet with a new artist. After Willow experienced the underbelly of the music industry, she started a non-profit to help young girls get into the industry, and not be taken advantage of by the men in their lives.

She and G split their time pretty evenly among Nashville, Lupine Valley, and Balsam Cliffs.

Liam stares at the three other brothers who are just standing in the doorway. Cooper looks between me and Hunter before taking his seat on the small loveseat in the office.

“This oughta be fun. I should have Vi make me some popcorn.”

“I have cookies! I’m coming! Wait for me!” Violet yells from the kitchen that’s right next to the office.

“What the hell are you idiots doing here?” Liam asks.

“Uh… well...” Hunter stumbles through whatever he’s trying to say.

“Mom told them both they needed to apologize to you and Roman for how they acted.” Cooper grins ear to ear as he tattles on his brothers. Just like when we were kids.

“Oh really? Apologize to me? Whatever for, dear brothers?” I clasp my fingers under my chin and rest my head, looking at both of them.

“Emma,” Hunter says through gritted teeth.

I don’t move, I don’t speak. I wait them out. They deserve it, they know they do.

“Why didn’t you tell us Ems?” Wyatt asks more hurt than angry.

“I know you guys, I didn’t want to be smothered with love. I needed to process it on my own.”

“I can’t fucking believe that asshole just left you up there alone to deal with everything. Not only did he go behind my back—”

“I’m going to stop you right there. Roman found out only a couple weeks before you did.

I made the choice to keep it from him. I made the choice to keep it from everyone.

And in case you’ve forgotten, he dumped me in the first place because of you .

So before you go pointing fingers anywhere, try a mirror first.”

Hunter steps forward with his finger already pointed directly at me and I know this won’t end well for him. Liam, Cooper and Wyatt are already inching closer to him.

“Stop fucking defending that asshole, Ems. He isn’t worthy of you.”