Читать книгу Having Leo's Child - Emma Darcy, Emma Darcy - Страница 10

CHAPTER FIVE

IT STARTLED Teri to see the dining room almost empty when she returned. There were only two couples left, eating their choice of sweets. Dylan was cleaning the grill and Mel was chatting with Leo who’d obviously finished his main course since Mel had cleared his table. A glance at her watch showed 9:15. Time had flown since Leo had arrived.

“Ah, here you are!” Mel said with satisfaction, and held out the chair opposite Leo’s for her.

“Thanks,” she said, her eyes quizzing this unanticipated gesture of gallantry from her teenage employee.

Mel grinned. “No problem. Leave you to it now.”

Teri rolled her eyes to Leo who looked most amused at this little byplay. “Why do I feel I’m being pushed at you tonight? Are they up to no good behind my back?” she dryly remarked.

He laughed, his eyes twinkling like brilliant sunshine on blue water. “They like you, Teri. They like working for you. You make this a good place to be. They want to give you some time off. That’s all.”

She sighed. Leo really was a gorgeous man. “You know you’ve never told me how many people work for you.”

He had explained his business as software conversions, but Teri hadn’t probed much, not wanting Leo to think she was interested in how big his income was. That didn’t matter to her. However, she needed a safe, impersonal kind of conversation until they were absolutely alone together.

He shrugged. “Small team. Four crack computer programmers and one administrative assistant.”

“Any females?”

“The assistant.” He gave a crooked little smile. “Mavis is in her early fifties, frighteningly efficient while sort of mother-henning the rest of us.”

She hadn’t been checking out possible female competition, but it was interesting to know the kind of woman he’d hired. “Do you prefer your programmers to be men?” she asked, aware there were many women in computer fields these days.

Something negative flicked across his face. “It’s easier,” he said flatly.

“How so?” she asked curiously.

He sighed. “You’ll probably accuse me of being some kind of male chauvinist, but the truth is most whiz-bang computer programmers are fairly young and a lot of young women trade off their sex appeal.” An icy hardness flashed into his eyes. “They can bring tensions into a workplace I simply don’t want. Guys start competing for their attention and an atmosphere of camaraderie is suddenly shot to pieces. It’s just better avoided.”

“You’ve seen this happen?” Teri asked, uneasy with his explanation which did smack of male bias.

He nodded. “Married women are usually okay but unmarried ones can play havoc with productivity and team spirit.”

So it wasn’t exactly a bias against women, more a pragmatic choice to guard against hormone battles. But he certainly didn’t care for women who traded on their sex appeal. Teri couldn’t help wondering what his ex-wife had been like. They’d never swapped marriage stories. Raking over that particular part of her past had not appealed to her. Still didn’t. And she didn’t have the right to poke into his.

Besides, even the mention of marriage might be misinterpreted when she had the highly sensitive subject of her pregnancy waiting in the wings.

She smiled. “I guess you consider Mavis safe.”

He relaxed and returned her smile, pleased she wasn’t critical of his employment policy. “Absolutely safe. Mavis is great. Reliable, responsible, has a place for everything and everything in its place.”

Teri wondered if Leo applied some of those headings to herself...like safe and in her place. She certainly didn’t constitute a distraction from his work. She suspected she was his break from it.

The big question was...how would he view a baby?

The shifting of chairs alerted her to the imminent departure of the remaining diners. She glanced around. Yes, all of them up, ready to go. Dylan was at the cash register, waiting to take their money. Mel had cleared the buffet table and was hurrying out of the kitchen to clean up the tables being vacated.

“Do you want dessert, Leo?” Teri asked, swinging her attention back to him. There’d still be leftovers in the kitchen.

He gave her a whimsical look. “It’s being taken care of.”

She raised her eyebrows. “More special service?”

“I think I’ve won special status by winning your favour.”

“Leo, I suspect you’d win any woman’s favour if you worked on it.” And that was the plain truth, Teri thought.

“You miss the point,” he argued, his eyes dancing at her again. “It’s you who’s special, Teri.”

How special? Was he prepared to accept her as the mother of his child?

“Well, thanks,” she said as graciously as she could manage when her nerves were getting strung out like piano wires. “It’s nice to be appreciated.”

“Oh, you are! Very much,” Leo asserted, desire flowing from him in electric waves that instantly screwed the piano pegs up another notch or two and caused her stomach to go into spasms.

Fortunately Dylan provided distraction, escorting the last of tonight’s customers to the door and locking up behind them. “You and Mel can go, too, Dylan,” Teri instructed. “If there’s anything left to do, I’ll do it in the morning.”

“Okay. We’ll be off in a minute. Just got to hang up my apron,” Dylan returned cheerfully.

One more minute and she could start unburdening herself of this dreadful suspense. A sixty-seconds countdown to desertion or togetherness or a continuation of their sometime relationship into sometime fatherhood. And the strange part was, Teri had no idea which outcome would be best in the long run.

“Is something wrong, Teri?” Leo asked.

It forced her to meet the quizzical concern in his eyes. “Not really,” she answered, wishing the boys would hurry up.

“You look a bit strained.”

“Sorry.” She tried a rueful smile. “There’s nothing wrong.” An innocent baby on the way could hardly be called wrong. “It’s just...well, I have a lot on my mind”

“Anything I can do to help?”

The offer was genuine. She could see nothing but sincerity in his expression. Maybe...

“Happy birthday to you...”

Dylan’s and Mel’s voices raised raucously in song, instantly jerked her attention away. Her two young employees were marching out of the kitchen, Dylan carrying a cake with a single candle burning on it, Mel bearing a tray with two flute glasses and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket.

“Happy birthday to you...”

Leo rose from his chair to join in.

“Happy Birthday, dear Teri-i-i...”

They were all grinning like Cheshire cats.

“Happy birthday to you!”

She almost burst into tears. She quickly propped her elbows on the table and covered her face with her hands. Let them think she was embarrassed. Let them think anything as long as she had a few seconds to fight back this awful flood of turbulent emotion.

She heard the plate with the cake being plonked on the table in front of her. “Come on, Teri. Got to blow the candle out,” Dylan cajoled.

“Make a wish, too,” Mel pressed.

A wish...

Please God, let Leo want our child!

And why that suddenly meant so much she didn’t know!

She took a deep breath, dropped her hands, and blew out the candle. It wasn’t difficult to blow out one candle. If there’d been thirty...but they didn’t know about that milestone and she wasn’t about to tell them.

Her effort was roundly applauded.

“Thank you,” she managed huskily.

“It’s an orange cake with lemon icing. Your favourite. Made it myself,” Dylan said proudly.

“You shouldn’t...” She stopped herself from shaking her head and aimed a wobbly smile at him. “It’s very kind of you, Dylan.”

“Pleasure. You have a good time, Teri. Everyone should celebrate their birthday.”

“Yeah,” Mel agreed. “We’re nicking off now so you can have a great celebration. Good night, Teri...Leo...”

“I’ll lock up after you,” Leo offered, and they all set off for the door, leaving Teri staring at a cake she couldn’t possibly eat and a bottle of champagne that was utterly wasted on this occasion.

They meant well.

Any other birthday she would have been delighted at being given such a sweet surprise. She must thank Dylan and Mel again tomorrow. Her eyes misted over again and she blinked furiously, clearing the moisture as best she could. Getting choked up was not going to help anything. She took several deep breaths and was more or less in control of herself by the time Leo returned to the table.

Her hands fluttered in a dismissive appeal. “I didn’t realise they had anything like this planned. I didn’t even tell them it was my birthday.”

“I know.” He leaned down and picked something off his chair. “This is from me,” he said, handing her a slim, rectangular packet, wrapped in expensive silver paper. “Happy birthday, Teri.”

His voice was a warm caress, stroking her heart into pumping with the wild hope that tonight might not be the parting of the ways she feared. She stared down at the packet as Leo slid back onto his chair. It raised a host of questions that clamoured to be answered.

“How did you know, Leo?”

“Dylan told me when I rang this afternoon.”

“He had no right...” A painful flush burned into her cheeks as she imagined Dylan suggesting to Leo that he surprise her, too. Her eyes flashed an anguished apology. “I didn’t expect you to...”

He reached across the table and stilled the agitated wave of her hand by capturing it and pressing reassurance. “I wanted to, Teri. In fact, it’s because you don’t expect anything that it’s a very real pleasure to buy you a gift.”

“But...”

“No buts. Open it,” he commanded softly, releasing her hand so she could do so.

She wavered, wanting to, yet not feeling right about it, not in these circumstances. “I don’t even know your birthday,” she temporised.

“First of December,” he tossed off carelessly.

Their baby would be born in October.

She barely caught herself back from saying it. Too bald a statement. Better to lead into it so at least he understood how it had happened.

“It won’t bite,” Leo dryly advised. “And you won’t owe me anything, Teri. It’s simply a birthday gift, no strings attached. Please...enjoyed buying it.”

A child was a big, big string, Teri thought, as she tore open the wrapping paper, hoping Leo had picked up something simple and relatively inexpensive. He’d probably ducked into one of the airport shops and bought the first thing that caught his eye...except the long flat box emerging from the silver paper was a white leather case on which was stamped in gold, the high-fashion designer name—Escada.

Her heart wobbled as she clicked open the lid. Sunglasses—streamlined class—the elegant black-andsilver frames suggesting a space age design.

“Put them on and let me see,” Leo urged, eager to judge if his choice was right.

Teri had never owned or worn a designer label anything! The temptation—just to try—was too seductive to deny. Her hands trembled slightly as she lifted the beautiful and undoubtedly ruinously expensive glasses from their black suede nest and fitted them on her face.

“Yes!” Leo cried triumphantly. “I knew they were you the moment I saw them. Take a look in the mirror, Teri. They look fantastic on you!”

She couldn’t resist, just to see. A mirror was positioned on the wall so most of the dining room could be watched from the kitchen. It only took a few moments to get up and view her reflection. The sunglasses were wonderful; chic, classy, perfect for her face and cropped hair, giving her an ultra modern, sophisticated look that instantly took away any angst over being thirty.

She couldn’t help smiling at Leo for giving her this lovely gift, despite the deep reservations she held. “They are fantastic,” she agreed wholeheartedly. “But they must have cost a fortune, Leo.”

He shrugged, still grinning at her. “Worth every cent. All you need now are black leathers and a Harley-Davidson.”

Laughter bubbled up from somewhere and spilled out. Teri tried to get a grip on herself as she resumed her seat at the table and returned the glasses to their plush case. She had to speak—had to—before she was drawn so far into Leo’s charm-circle she’d want to forget the unforgettable.

“Time to open the champagne,” he said happily.

“No...wait!” she blurted out, halting his movement to lift the bottle out of the ice bucket. She met his quizzical eyes anxiously. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you, Leo.”

“Okay,” he invited good-humouredly.

Where to start? How to start? Why hadn’t she given this more thought?

“Remember last month when you were here and I had a bit of a queezy stomach?” she plunged in, desperate to have him understand there’d been nothing planned about it.