Tanya Michaels - Mistletoe Baby

It wouldn’t make for the wittiest or sexiest reception toast ever, but marriage required compromise. He could tell himself that he’d been working his tail off-trying to pay her more attention, sending her flowers, giving her space while still being persistent in fighting to salvage their marriage-but what had he actually compromised?

The question stumped him. Had Rachel ever asked him to give up anything other than sex on the nights she wasn’t in the mood and a few of his more high-handed ways?

Perhaps-that maddening inner voice was back-if you’d been a little less high-handed, she would have been in the mood a little more.

“David!” Arianne snapped her fingers, and he blinked, startled to find his sister standing in front of him, a worried look on her face. “Were you even listening to me?”

He was getting that a lot from women these days. “Sorry. What were you saying?”

She pointed to the corner of the room, where tall pieces of white lattice work draped in tulle formed an enclosure around a long table. The wedding cake and groom’s cake sat next to each other. “They’re going to cut the cake, but first we do our toasts.”

“What’s yours?”

“That I can’t imagine why any woman would willingly live with one of my brothers, but that even knowing what pains you and Tanner are, every time I see all that happiness shining from Lilah’s face, I get…jealous.”

He couldn’t believe that was actually her maid-of-honor toast, but knowing Arianne, maybe it was.

“Anyway,” she told him, “you go first. If yours is good enough, I’ll just add, ‘what he said,’ and we can get on with the party.”

All of the other members of the bridal party were gathered around the table, including Rachel. People naturally shifted so that he could be closer to his wife. Her body brushed his, and his entire system heated with wanting her. He could still clearly remember their own wedding-it had been tormenting all through the ceremony-and how enthusiastically they’d made love throughout their honeymoon. Rachel had lost that enthusiasm in the last year.

Some of that was an understandable side effect of the medications and disappointments, but…was he also to blame? Had David unintentionally made his wife feel unimportant to him, marginalized?

Tanner nudged him with his elbow. “You’re up. Bang a glass or something.”

David arched an eyebrow. “I’ve got it under control.”

“Good,” Tanner whispered back. “I just want everything to be-”

“Perfect?” David remembered his brother saying the same thing to him a few weeks ago as they shot hoops in their parents’ driveway. At the time, he’d been tempted to dampen his brother’s unrealistic hopes, but maybe those hopes were every bit as realistic as what a person was willing to invest. There were no perfect people, but that didn’t mean a man and a woman couldn’t be perfect for each other…as long as they worked for it. And, more important, worked together.

He held his glass, tapping it lightly with one of the forks he’d grabbed from the cake table. “Hello. I hope you’re all having a wonderful time today-” He paused unintentionally, worried about Rachel’s emotional state. She couldn’t possibly be having a wonderful time. Had she been reliving the same memories as him during the ceremony?

“On behalf of my brother and his beautiful bride, thank you for joining us to celebrate their union.” He waited while good-natured applause and hurrahs erupted across the room. Then he glanced at the index card in his hand, and, meeting Rachel’s gaze, crumpled the paper.

Her eyebrows rose as he shoved it back in his pocket, but he didn’t think anyone else noticed.

“I had a speech all written out, full of brotherly advice about what it takes to make a good marriage, but what do I know?”

Rachel paled, as if he’d suddenly lost his mind and was about to announce to the entire town that his own marriage was a sham.

He gave her a bittersweet smile. “Because the truth is, marriage is a learning process and the very best person to teach you is your partner.” And I’m sorry for all the times I made you feel like less than an equal partner, he wanted to tell her. It was difficult to keep his voice even. “Tanner and Lilah, you may be surprised at how much you have to learn about each other, stuff you thought you already knew, how even when you think you’re getting it right…” What kind of husband was he? Why had it been more important to explain to Rachel why he was right than just to listen to her explanations about the effect his actions were having on her?

For that matter, what kind of brother was he? He’d trailed off in the middle of what was shaping up to be the worst best man’s toast of all time.

Rachel stepped forward, suddenly grabbing his hand and smiling. “The beauty of a good relationship is all the new things you’ll continue to learn about each other and about yourselves. Celebrate those surprises, celebrate your differences and celebrate the ways you learn to work around them to become an even stronger couple. We wish you many, many years of happiness and lots of love. Cheers!”

Feeling suddenly overwhelmed in front of all those people, including the one who mattered most to him, and as if he were suffocating behind his bow tie, David barely made it through Arianne’s quick, irreverent toast and the resulting laughter before he ducked around the corner of the makeshift wall. The back door was only a few steps beyond, and he slipped outside as surreptitiously as possible, feeling guilty for making an escape. He should have at least stayed long enough to thank Rachel for intervening, bringing his mangled monologue to a graceful close.

“Hey,” she said quietly from behind him.

Well, here was his chance. Seated on the top concrete stair, he looked over his shoulder. “Thank you for saving my butt in there.”

She came closer, joining him on the step but leaving a careful gap between them. “I was afraid you’d be embarrassed that I cut in. Knowing you, you would have regrouped brilliantly all by yourself in another moment or two.”

“Brilliantly?” he scoffed. “You must not have been listening.”

“Oh, I was.” She cocked her head, her gaze almost a caress. “I…I think I heard what you were trying to say quite well, actually.”

“You are definitely the better listener of the two of us.” He wanted to reach for her hand but hesitated. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry if it took you yelling or saying goodbye for me to hear you.”

Her lower lip trembled, and she bit down on it.

“Rach. Don’t cry.” He pulled her into a hug, his own eyes damp. “Please don’t cry. I’m so sorry.”

She glanced up, her eyes round with surprise. “You’re crying.”

He sniffed, casting about for something to say. “It doesn’t count unless the tears actually get out of your eyes. Man rules.”

“Ah.” She smiled, and the sight of it was like every Christmas present in the world rolled into one. He wanted to be on the receiving end of those smiles for the next hundred years or so.

“I need you,” he blurted. “Don’t leave me.”

Her jaw dropped. “David.” She launched herself into his arms, pulling him closer and covering his face with kisses.

“That’s the most incredible thing you’ve ever said to me,” she whispered.

And then they were kissing each other so fervently that neither of them said anything for a long time after.

When they finally stopped to catch their breath, he promised, “I’ll try to do better.”

“It’s not just you,” she told him. “Lord knows there are ways I could be a better wife. You’ve done so many wonderful things for me, and I should appreciate you more. I should take into consideration the intentions as well as the actions.”

“I’ll try to stop acting so much without getting your input first. So we’ll work on the ‘better,’” David resolved. “And consider the ‘worse’ behind us?”

She nodded, her eyes red-rimmed, tear tracks streaked through her makeup, her professionally arranged hairstyle destroyed by his plunging fingers. She’d never looked more radiant.

“I love you,” he told her.

“I love you, too.” She wiped her cheeks. “I’m sorry it’s not easier.”

“Nothing worth having is. And you are definitely worth it, Mrs. Waide.”

She blushed, which he found inexplicably arousing. Then again, he’d been aroused since her mouth had touched his.

“Think we should go back inside?” Rachel asked.

“Probably.” He grinned at her. “But I’d much rather go somewhere and have my way with you.”

She tilted her head up, the sun catching the glint in her gaze as she clucked her tongue at him. “You know, I’ve heard about boys like you.”

“And?”

She traced her index finger over his bottom lip. “And I think you’re absolutely perfect for a girl like me.”

Smiling in agreement, David kissed his bride.

Tanya Michaels started telling stories almost as soon as she could talk…and started stealing her mom’s Harlequin romances less than a decade later. In 2003, Tanya was thrilled to have her first book, a romantic comedy, published by Harlequin. Since then, Tanya’s sold nearly twenty books and is a two-time recipient of the Booksellers’ Best Award as well as a finalist for the Holt Medallion, National Readers’ Choice Award and Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA^® Award. Tanya lives in Georgia with her husband, two preschoolers and an unpredictable cat, but you can visit Tanya online at www.tanyamichaels.com.