Wasted Vows Read online

  We’d had fun back in high school and on family vacations and that wasn’t something I’d ever deny. But that was the past and Faith didn’t belong in my future. Now, my son …

  I glanced up and met her expectant gaze. Like her trip down memory lane would cause me to fall in a heap of adoring man at her Jimmy Choo clad feet.

  “A top ten night for us, don’t you think?” She winked at me and tipped the glass in my direction in salute. “I don’t suppose you recall how it ended?”

  With her trying to seduce me, succeeding, then sneaking off afterwards to find another party.

  “Faith, I want a paternity test,” I said.

  Her eyes widened and she spluttered on an ice cube, almost choking. She ejected it into her glass with a clink. “I’m sorry. What did you just say?”

  “You heard me,” I replied, “I want a paternity test. I want to know that the baby’s mine for sure.”

  Faith slapped the glass down on the countertop and flicked water off her hand. “A paternity test.”

  “That’s right. It’s a pretty common thing to do in situations like ours.” Not that I needed to rationalize it with her. My hormone infested, teenage self had been madly in love with this woman and she’d vaulted all over my heart like a fucking gymnast on crack.

  And I wouldn’t let her do the same to my budding relationship with Allegra. I didn’t want to raise someone else’s baby. I had a right to know for sure if Faith’s baby carried my blood.

  “I won’t do it. And why should I?” Faith demanded, then sidled forward and looped her arms around my waist. Another blatant attempt at distraction. And manipulation. “We belong together.”

  I detached her like I would a piece of lint. “No, we don’t. And I want the paternity test, Faith.”

  She drew her lips into a thin line. “This is because of her, isn’t it? That slut you’re fucking.”

  “That’s rich coming from you. Have some respect for your own condition. Even if the baby can’t understand your words, he can feel your anger, sense your tone,” I snapped, then jammed my mouth shut. She wasn’t worth getting riled up over.

  “So this scarlet devil, this Jezebel, has somehow convinced you that I might not be carrying your child. What a bitch. Don’t you see? She’s just trying to manipulate you.”

  You’re trying to manipulate me. And you won’t succeed this time.

  Faith growled, and paced back and forth in front of me, belly protruding underneath her tight cotton shirt. Almost like she’d had some kind of sixth sense that I was coming and had dressed to expose her best assets.

  “I have to go. But I’ll be in touch about the test,” I replied, sparing a moment to look her straight in the eye. Not backing down.

  “I won’t do it, Gabe. There’s no reason for me to do it.” Faith called out to my retreating back. “I won’t do a paternity test.”

  I turned. “Why not?”

  Faith’s gaze flicked from left to right, searching for a valid reason. “Because,” she said, then grasped at her belly again, “because it might hurt the baby. They’ll stick a needle in him to do that and I won’t allow it.”

  I frowned at her. “I’m pretty sure paternity testing has advanced since the turn of the century, Faith.”

  “She’ll pay for this,” she snapped.

  “I’ll see you around,” I said, then strode out of the kitchen, ignoring Faith’s frustrated squeal which echoed along the travertine floor. I tucked my hands into my pockets and strode toward the front door.

  “Bye, Rosaria.”

  “Bye, Mister Gabe,” she called from George’s open office door.

  I wrenched the front door open and stared at the bright blue sky, the soft lilt of snow had stopped again, but there was the crisp smell of winter on the air. It bit at my nostrils and my breath hitched for a second. Before I hit the steps, I stopped to blow a puff of white smoke into the clean air with my warm breath. I felt lighter already.

  What if Faith had lied? I certainly wouldn’t put it past her. She was a spoiled princess who had a way of getting everything she wanted. Even me.

  A paternity test. I should’ve brought it up before. Insisted. Maybe if I had, I wouldn’t be in this damn position in the first place. But the dates had been spot on; the doctor had pinpointed the due date and it corresponded perfectly to when I was with her.

  Damn.

  I probably should’ve run this by Dad since Faith was sure to go running straight to George in an effort to shift the scales in her direction.

  I sucked in a lungful of painfully cold air and took the descent two steps at a time.

  Chapter 29

  Ally

  I stood behind the glass front counter and admired the day’s creations. Vanilla Vixen. My new favorite. It was afternoon and I hadn’t heard from Gabe since yesterday, but the bakery was up again. Nothing could dampen my mood.

  The bakery was empty of customers, so I leaned back and yelled towards the kitchen, “Tess, we need more Red Velvets! Mrs. Atkinson nearly cleaned us out. She brought friends.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” came the reply. Clangs and bangs emanated from the kitchen for a second. “We’re almost out of cream cheese frosting.”

  “I’ll put it on my list,” I answered back.

  “No, I mean we’re out of it in the next two batches,” she replied in her characteristic Tess drone.

  “Damn,” I murmured, then raised my voice again, “I’ll run out and get the stuff to make it in a few minutes. You’ll have to handle the front, though.”

  More clanging and banging, this time because Tess hated the thought of handling the front of the bakery. She was definitely the kind of woman who got on with dough; probably because she was allowed to punch it until it begged for mercy.

  I tapped my chin. That wasn’t a bad idea. Dough, hmmm, we might be able to pull off a couple of croissants, or maybe …

  The bell tinkled on the front door and I snapped to attention, plastered on that ‘welcome to my bakery, please buy as many cupcakes as you can’ smile.

  Faith waddled into the bakery and this time, her annoying grin was nowhere in sight. She sniffed and looked around the room. “What’s that smell?”

  “Carbs,” I replied. “What do you want, Faith? I think you proved your point the other day. You and I don’t have anything more to talk about.”

  She licked her lips at the cupcakes and then turned them down in disgust. “I don’t think I did. If I had, you wouldn’t have talked to Gabe.”

  I wasn’t about to get into a cat fight with a heavily pregnant woman in front of my customers. Not when everything was going so well. Even though I’d never wanted to bitch slap another woman more in my life. I could always tell her my mom was a resident of the Shakopee women’s correctional facility. That might scare her away. I grinned in spite of myself at the thought.

  “Gabe doesn’t belong to you,” I said, running my hands over the top of the counter. I really didn’t want to engage. The bakery was running so smoothly that I just wanted to focus on the positive. And I’d had a lot of that lately.

  “Gabe’s heart has always belonged to me and now it will belong to his son too.” Faith shifted one of the chairs in the bakery aside and sat down. “Always.”

  “Faith, why are you here again? Apart from the obvious name-calling and passive aggressive innuendo, I mean,” I said, glancing at the door. Lunch had passed, yet there was usually a pre-dinner rush for sweet treats. I had to get out and get those baking supplies before it was too late. The Red Velvets were definitely the most popular, even above the Vanilla Vixen. But give that creamy white concoction time. I knew in my heart she’d catch on with the customers too.

  Tess had come up with that name.

  “Hello, I’m over here,” Faith said, clicking her fingers.

  I snapped my focus back to her puffy face. Since she was nearing the end of her pregnancy, she appeared to be retaining water. “What?”

  “You planted lies into Gabe’s head.”


  “Such as?” I already knew the answer. I wanted this from her lips, straight from her foul mouth.

  “He wants a paternity test. He’s never wanted one before. It’s because of you.”

  “It’s because he’s a rational human being. You say the baby is his and he’s so kind-hearted that he takes your word,” I said, then snapped my fingers right back. “Just like that. I merely suggested that he needed to be sure.”

  “You’re a tramp. A fat-assed, poor, redneck strumpet.”

  “Great comeback,” I replied, “you used a lot of big words that you must have learned at Brown. Now, if we’re done here.” I looked at her, then at the door and pursed my lips.

  “No, we’re not done here,” she growled, then gripped the edge of the table and lurched upwards, grimacing at the discomfort, but never taking her eyes off me.

  “Don’t get too worked up, Faith. Remember your baby.” I couldn’t resist the shot so I folded my arms and studied her.

  Faith collected herself, straightened the hip-length white trench coat which barely concealed her bump and the immodest silk blouse she’d paired with it. She hobbled to the counter and placed her fists on top of it, right above the Dark Chocolate Decadence.

  “You stay away from Gabe,” Faith said, leaning forward until her belly touched the glass. Which wasn’t that far forward, but just enough to get her point across. “I won’t tell you again.”

  “Or what?” I asked, unfolding my arms and placing them on my hips instead. I planted my feet.

  “My father is George Callahan. He can make you so sorry you’ll wish you were dead.”

  “I’ll look forward to meeting him then,” I replied, looking her up and down. This wasn’t my normal behavior, but this woman brought out the worst in me. In fact, I’d been a turbulent sphere of rioting emotions ever since the fire. Maybe it was the fact that Faith flaunted her former closeness with Gabe. Or that she could actually bear children. Or that she’d phoned me continuously and called me a whore.

  “This is the last warning you’re going to receive from me.” She snapped her teeth once.

  I flinched, but held my ground.

  “I’m not going anywhere and I certainly won’t stay away from Gabe.”

  “Suit yourself,” she hissed between those perfectly white teeth.

  I opened my mouth to reply.

  “Are you ever going to get the cream cheese frosting ingredients?” Tess asked from the door to the kitchen. She held a whisk in one hand and patted her top pocket for a pack of cigarettes with the other. “There a problem here?” she asked, gesturing with the whisk.

  “This is Faith. She’s leaving. Problem soon to be removed.”

  “Faith,” Tess said, then nodded her recognition at the name. “Heard a lot about you. Didn’t expect you’d come round here again.”

  “Well, maybe you should —”

  “That means … don’t come round here again,” Tess said, stepping forward and whipping the whisk through the air in front of her. “Don’t come here again unless you want to deal with me.”

  “Tess,” I said, though there was no strength behind the warning.

  “I’m not as nice as Allegra over there.”

  Faith flapped her jaw for a few minutes, looked from Tess to me and back again. “Who the hell are you?”

  Tess lurched forward, but I held up my palm and stopped her in her tracks. “We don’t need a lawsuit on our hands right now. We’ve just gotten out of one, remember?”

  “I’ll be seeing you again,” Faith warned.

  “Wow, something to look forward to,” I quipped, then gave her a wave goodbye.

  Faith hurried out of the bakery, casting glances over her shoulder at Tess every few steps.

  Tess waited until she was gone and the bell above the door had settled before whipping the whisk through the air again. “Am I ever going to get that cream cheese frosting? We can’t afford to lose any sales right now.”

  “Calm down,” I replied, “and make sure you watch the front while I’m gone.”

  Tess groaned and sidled towards the counter. She positioned herself behind it with a weighty sigh.

  I laughed and squeezed both her shoulders. “And no smoke breaks!”

  “Be careful, I might go on a baking strike and then you’ll be screwed,” she said, then prodded me in the ribs with the end of the whisk.

  I winked at her and rushed out of the door.

  Chapter 30

  Ally

  I stood in my tiny apartment kitchen above the bakery and stared at Gabe. He leaned against the counter on one side of the tiled room, opposite from where I stood.

  “She came here again?” he questioned the obvious, then gripped the counter until his knuckles turned white. Like pellets of hail that had sailed down out of a black summer sky. “What did she say?”

  “Oh, the usual. You know, that I should stay away from you or I’ll regret it. Something about her dad, George. I should be afraid of him. Is he some kind of big shot?” The cupcakes were in the oven, my tiny one rather than the commercial grade downstairs. I’d been testing a new recipe when Gabe arrived to tell me about his request for the paternity test, not realizing Faith had beat him to it.

  “I think the pregnancy hormones have taken over her brain.” He shook his head and looked at me. “I’m so sorry this has happened, Allegra, I didn’t want it to go down this way.” He pursed his lips and tilted his head to the side as he studied me, waiting for my response. Then his gaze traveled down my body, from my ponytail, over my plain t-shirt and to the jeans I’d slipped into after work. That look finally settled on my bare feet.

  I cleared my throat to get his attention — I’d just painted my toenails a bright red. In honor of my new label as a scarlet woman.

  “It’s okay. I don’t know what you expected would happen when so much is on the line for Faith. I can handle a little animosity. We’ve all been through high school.”

  “You were bullied in school?”

  “Who wasn’t?” I asked. The sweet aroma of baking cupcakes floated through the small space between us.

  “I wasn’t. So what did you say to Faith?” Gabe asked, taking his hands off my countertop and folding his arms. He’d taken his coat off to reveal a tight red cotton t-shirt beneath. The outline of his pecs enticed me.

  I tore my gaze away from them. “I told her that I won’t stay away from you. You need a friend right now, because she’s treacherous.” I sucked my bottom lip, considering. “I know you were intimate and everything, but I don’t trust her. Hope that doesn’t offend you.” I ran a dishtowel between my fingers, feeling the miniature rough blocks of fabric which decorated it.

  Gabe’s brow wrinkled and he looked away for a second. “A friend.”

  “Yeah, that’s right.”

  He strode across the kitchen and placed his hands on either side of me, against the counter, then leaned his forehead against mine. “I am offended.”

  “I — I didn’t mean to offend you.” I was never this nervous, only around him. He was so damn intense all the time, it drove me crazy.

  “I don’t want to be your friend,” he whispered, and his breath was hot on my cheek. It swept down that sensitive flesh and whispered across my neck.

  Goosebumps sprinkled my arms and I gulped. I had to keep it together around him, because who knew if wanting him was the right thing to do? What if he hurt me again? I didn’t think I could take it.

  It was proving difficult to leave myself vulnerable. To trust. But I had to try, because I really did care about Gabe. He’d need support and I wanted to be there for him. If the baby was his. Even if he wasn’t the father. Especially then, because he’d be grieving a loss.

  He pressed himself into me, then ran the tip of his nose across my forehead and over my cheek. Gabe stared into my eyes, those blue orbs shearing through my fears and into my soul. “I don’t want to be your friend, Allegra. I want to be more than that.”

  “More?”
>
  He nodded ever so slowly, brushing his nose up and down mine. “You’re already mine. Now. Forever.”

  Riiiiiiing.

  The timer on the oven gave a shrill cry and I sucked in a ragged breath. “I have to get the cupcakes out.”

  He lingered for a moment, glancing at my lips then back into my eyes.

  “They’ll burn,” I said. I practically whimpered it.

  Gabe moved aside an inch, and I had to squeeze past him to get to the oven. I took the dish cloth, grabbed an oven mitt and opened the door, then whipped the tray of cupcakes out and placed it on the wire cooling rack.

  “Need help with that?” Gabe asked, coming up behind me and brushing his fingers down the slope of my neck. God, had it only been a few days since we’d touched like this. It felt like an eternity.

  I dropped the oven mitt and reached for the dial to turn off the heat. He followed my lead and wrapped his hand around mine. We turned the dial together. My heart went crazy, pounding against my rib cage.

  “Gabe, I don’t think —”

  “Then don’t think,” he replied, his voice heavy with desire. With all the words still unspoken. He brought my hand back to my abdomen and held it there for a moment, pressing the warmth of his skin against mine. He lowered his lips to my neck and nipped at it, then soothed the bites with his tongue.

  I moaned and melted into his embrace, resting my head against his shoulder. I didn’t want the moment to end, just this exact moment when he held me. But it had to — I couldn’t let this happen now. I wasn’t ready to let go again.

  I turned in his arms to face him. “Gabe —”

  “Wait,” he said, “listen, if you want me to stop, I will. I just can’t bear the thought of never touching you again because of this.”

  I swallowed.

  He brought my hand up and brushed his lips over my knuckles. “Yes or no?”

  I watched his lips and closed my eyes for a moment to savor the feeling. So right. So beautiful. The tension between us was too much to handle. “Yes,” I whispered. “Yes, I need you right now, Gabe. I think I might need you for even longer.”