Unbreak My Heart (Unbreak My Heart #1)(85)

“If you’re new to our little open-mike night, there’s a coffee can being passed around. Who’s got it?” She paused. “Okay, see the boy in the yellow shirt? Raise your hand, Colby. There, that guy. When you get ahold of that coffee can, drop in a few dollars if you can and pass it on.”

The crowd clapped, and she chuckled again over the sound system.

The clear notes of a single guitar came through the speakers, and I watched Sage freeze as the entire room went silent. Even the baristas behind the counter stopped what they were doing to watch the stage as Kate began to sing.

My eyes were glued to Sage as the sound of Kate’s voice hit me the way it always did.

Even after five years together, she still took my breath away when she sang. She was incredible. My eyes finally left Sage’s enraptured face, and I turned to see Kate in a flowing red flowered dress, her lips and eyes painted dark. She knew exactly what she was doing, and the kids around the room freaking loved her.

She hadn’t sung in public for quite a while after Iris was born, but a little more than a year ago she’d mentioned that she wanted that creative outlet again. I’d supported her wholeheartedly.

There was something about her self-confidence onstage that just did it for me, and I was willing to pay a couple of girls in our new neighborhood to watch the kids for an hour or two so I could take her for a night out once or twice a month.

When we’d moved from Oceanside almost a year after Iris was born, Kate had been nervous that the kids would never make any friends and we’d never be able to find a babysitter again. Fortunately, she’d been wrong on both counts, and our small cul-de-sac was filled with families with both little kids and teenagers. It was pretty much the best neighborhood we could have chosen.

We could go out once a week, even if it was just for a quick dinner, and sometimes we were even able to catch a movie afterward. But my favorite nights—by far—were the ones I watched my wife on stage. Kate loved performing, especially for charity, and I loved watching her have fun. It was a win-win.

“Pretty cool, huh?” I asked Sage, smiling as she waved off the kid who brought our drinks when he stepped between her and the stage.

“Shh, Dad! She’s been practicing this Ella Henderson song forever. She’s completely slowed down the tempo. I wanna hear!”

“Sorry,” I mumbled, laughing a little.

Sage wasn’t particularly talented when it came to playing instruments—that was where Gunner excelled—but she had a really good ear. I didn’t understand most of what she and Kate discussed, but apparently Sage could understand music composition better than most people twice her age. Kate was begging me to let her get Sage a turntable and a mixer, but I was dragging my feet…I liked the way my wife tried to talk me into things.

Kate moved on to another song without a break, and Sage bounced in her seat a little, bumping the table so our drinks spilled. She didn’t even notice as I used some napkins to clean up the mess.

“Hey, you two in the corner!” Kate called into the mike when I’d finally gotten the mess cleaned up. “Aren’t you a little old for her?”

The crowd laughed as they figured out who Kate was talking about, and Sage dropped her blushing face into her hands—completely mortified.

Kate was smiling so brightly that she looked giddy. “That’s my little girl, right there. Isn’t she gorgeous?”

Sage’s face popped up in astonishment, and the crowd laughed and cheered quietly.

“I wanna know who the guy is!” a girl called out from across the room, making everyone laugh.

“Eh, that’s just my husband,” Kate answered flatly, causing the crowd to snicker.

She met my eyes across the room, smiling brightly, and slid her hand behind her guitar where I knew she hid a slight roundness. We weren’t telling anyone she was pregnant yet, instead taking a little time just for us to relish the news in secret. It would be our last baby, and we wanted to enjoy the intimacy of her first few months without having to share it.

My wife winked and blew me a kiss, then grinned before looking away—starting in on the next song as if she hadn’t just made my stomach drop.

I glanced around me and rubbed my hand over my face, forcing myself not to walk up there and pull her off the stool like some kind of caveman. I was trying not to imagine taking her home to bed so she could wrap those dark red lips around my cock.

As she sang the chorus of the new song, Kate’s eyes found mine again and her smile widened. She knew exactly what she’d done, and she found it hilarious.

She was going to pay for that shit later.





Bram and Anita may be like oil and water, but the sparks they generate prove that opposites attract. When life throws them a curve, however, a no-strings relationship may no longer be enough…

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A Change of Heart.





Chapter 2


Anita



I was distracting myself. It was stupid. I knew that I shouldn’t be following Bram through the streets of downtown Portland, but when he’d left the house in such a hurry, I’d been curious.

Okay, I’d been dying to know where he was going.

Bram wasn’t exactly social. I could count on one hand the number of friends he had, and he’d never brought a woman home. Sure, I’d seen him leaving with chicks from one of the local bars—but he never actually introduced them to us. So where was he going at nine o’clock on a Friday night?