The Offer

I squeeze her hand. “It did. You got a bit excited when you saw Bram again. Sometimes if you get too excited, it becomes too much. But the doctors were able to help you, and from now on, I have to watch you a little closer, maybe try some new ouchies. But you’ll be okay.”

“I’ll be great,” she says sleepily. “Just like you and Bram.”

She closes her eyes and drifts off again.

Bram comes up behind me, putting his strong, supportive arm around my waist and the two of us watch Ava as she dreams.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Nicola

The next few days speed on like a rocket. Whereas everything in my life seemed to slog by in slow motion before, now it was blasting forward. There’s been some bumps along the way but that’s to be expected when everything around you does a 180, even if it’s for the better.

The better, of course, is having Bram back in our lives. The worse is that it’s taken a little bit for Ava to pull herself out of her whole episode. It’s been three days and she spent a full one at the hospital, recovering. Luckily, James was proactive and he kicked in my health insurance the moment I got promoted, so there were no financial scares this time around.

I’m still at Kayla’s, which is fine. Ava and I are used to it. Being back with Bram is so new and fresh still, and things have changed in the last two months that it’s taking a while for us to get used to each other again. In fact, I haven’t even slept with him after he told me he loved me. I know that’s a bit shocking, but it hasn’t felt right. Not yet, anyway.

Honestly, I haven’t really been alone with Bram. Other than being at the hospital together, I’m still working my ass off at the Lion, refusing to relax even if he’s back in my life.

This evening though, is quiet. It’s a Saturday night but the city is going through a rare heatwave, complete with actual sunshine, so I guess everyone is hogging up all the prime patio space on the streets and by the bay. A stuffy Irish pub is the last place people want to be.

“Hey, gorgeous,” I hear, that beautiful Scottish brogue breaking me out of my thoughts.

I straighten up from organizing the beer in the fridge and look over at the bar to see Bram strolling in toward me. He’s wearing a suit – of course – but it’s a light stone color and there’s no tie, just his white dress shirt unbuttoned a few, showing off that sexy throat and summer tan. In his hands is a bouquet of pink and blue roses.

“Are those for me?” I ask, totally charmed by the flowers and the man holding them.

“Of course,” he says, standing on the other side of the bar and handing them to me. “I realize that all this time, I never had a chance to properly wine and dine you. You know, like a gentleman would. All my wooing was through my pants.”

I flush at that and grin. “Well, I can’t say I objected to Bram McGregor’s particular style of wooing.”

“Even so,” he goes on, “since we’re all about starting over in one way or another, I’d like to ask you out on a date.”

“Right now?”

He nods. “Aye. I called Kayla and she’s agreed to keep watching Ava as long as I treat you right. Actually, she was a lot more, erm, brutal than that.”

Kayla, God bless her.

“So, are you ready? Seems kind of dead in here.” He eyes the place, biting his lip, as if this whole date thing has him a bit nervous. How cute.

I look over at James who’s been pretending not to listen but actually has. “James?” I ask.

He waves at me dismissively. “Go.”

So I do. Of course the only problem with going from bar to date is the fact that I don’t have any nice clothes with me.

I grab my purse, hoping that at least my makeup and hair are holding up after the shift, and hook my arm around Bram’s.

“I hope you’re not taking me somewhere fancy because I don’t have any nice clothes on me.”

“Clothes?” he says, raising his brow and doing his best Doc Brown impression. “Where we’re going we don’t need clothes.”

I giggle. “All right, weirdo. Naked restaurant it is.”

“You’ll see,” is all he says, voice husky, and suddenly all I want is to never mind the date and just screw his brains out. It’s been far, far too long and he feels far, far too good.

He takes me out into the hot, stuffy night and into his waiting Mercedes. We drive through the city and I get the impression we’re just kind of meandering. I can’t complain though. With the windows down, the breeze in my hair and Bram’s warm hand on my thigh, it’s a perfect night with only good things coming our way, I can tell.

“How is Matthew doing?” I ask him. I don’t mean to bring him up but Bram’s only talked about him in passing here and there. I know that Matthew and his mom live down in SoCal and they have their own little life going on. So far things seem wonderfully uncomplicated but still, I want Bram to know that it’s okay to talk about him. I don’t mind.

“He’s fine,” he says, his eyes gleaming under the passing streetlights as we begin to zig-zag down the famous Lombard Street, the most crooked street in the world. Normally going down the street makes me dizzy but tonight I feel nothing but alive.

Bram goes on, “I don’t talk to him that often, you know. It’s still a bit strange for both of us. Especially since we both knew about the other but we don’t have that relationship whatsoever. He thinks I’m just some friend of his mom, even though he knows that I’m his father. I guess the word just doesn’t apply other than in technical terms. But I’m all right with that…these things take time and I have no need to intrude on their little unit, you know?”

I can’t help but smile softly. “I think you intruding on me and Ava’s little unit was the best thing that could have happened to us.”

He takes his eyes off the road to look at me. “Do you really mean that?”

“Of course,” I tell him. “You changed our lives. And yeah, maybe it was a bit, turbulent, for a while there. But I think it sorted itself out.”

He sighs, his hands gripping and ungripping the wheel. “You know, I just keep wanting to apologize. Every single day.”

“Don’t. You’ve said enough.”

“I know,” he says emphatically. “But it feels like it’s not enough. You’re too good for me, Nicola.”

“No,” I tell him. “I’m not. And you’re not too good for me. I think we’re good together and that’s enough. It’s more than enough.”

Bram doesn’t say anything to that and we drive through a beautiful, comfortable silence. We head across the Golden Gate Bridge and the city sparkles in the side-mirrors, a ghost in the night. I’m finally about to ask where we’re actually going but he pulls the car off to the side and we climb the steep hills to a viewpoint overlooking the city.

There are a couple of cars there, tourists or locals or romantics taking in the sight of the glowing bridge. But we drive further down the lot and park at the end so we’re completely alone.

“This doesn’t look like di

He’s looking at me like he’s going to devour me and then I know what’s really on the menu.

He jerks his head at the backseat and I crane my neck to look as he flicks on the interior light.

There’s a picnic basket back there. I hadn’t noticed it earlier. He leans back, twisting in his seat, and that wonderfully manly, fresh smell of his makes me tingly all over. I don’t dare tell him that I used to sleep with an old shirt of his just to keep smelling him as I fell asleep at night, pretending he was there.

“Ta-da,” he says, lifting up the basket. I see a bottle of red wine and a bunch of appetizers in colorful containers – antipasto, olives, bread, cheese, fruit, Greek salad, quinoa. It all looks absolutely fabulous. “I thought we could have our first date here. Can’t get a better view than this.”