Читать книгу The Late Bloomer's Baby - Kaitlyn Rice - Страница 11

Callie stepped inside the door of Mary’s and allowed her senses to adjust. The sharp smell of cigarette smoke made her want to pinch her nose, and the crowded darkness invited trouble. The bar was small and shabby, but it fulfilled a purpose. Local citizens kept the business going because they preferred to drink and mingle without having to drive the extra few miles to a more upscale place.

Since she valued logic over social approval, Callie didn’t mind admitting that she preferred clean smells and daylight. She’d never frequented Mary’s or any other bar, but she’d wanted a good place to talk to Ethan tonight.

The crowd added safety, yet unless something happened, folks would be uninterested in her and Ethan’s conversation. Besides, she’d wanted to meet Ethan late, so she could leave Luke at Josie’s apartment without burdening her overworked sisters with his care. He’d been asleep for an hour already, and he’d likely sleep through until morning.

Ethan was here, somewhere. She’d seen his car in the lot. She scanned the space and located him sitting at a table just yards in front of her with his back to the door. Surrounded by four pretty women, he was entertaining them with an anecdote that must be enthralling.

The ladies were all pitched forward in their seats, eyes wide, heads nodding and lips pursed. Suddenly, all four women opened those pouty lips to gasp.

Callie swallowed a lump of jealousy. Ethan had always liked people. All people, not just women. He was probably passing the time, expecting her to be late, as usual. In any case, his behavior was none of her business.

Heavens, he looked good. The sight of his broad shoulders and muscled arms made her wish for things she shouldn’t. Ethan had made her feel sexy and soft, instead of just smart. No couple could have had a more romantic beginning. None. Just like the ladies at his table now, she’d brightened in his company.

She’d be tempted to repeat every trial of their marriage, just to relive one of those early days.

If that were possible, however, she’d be wishing Luke right out of her life.

She couldn’t do that. Luke was her life.

Her deep, crazy wishes hardly mattered, anyway. Ethan had made it clear that he was finished with her. He’d tired of her, just as her mother had predicted.

An outbreak of wild female giggles nearly brought tears to Callie’s eyes. She knew her envy didn’t make sense. She wasn’t supposed to care. She was supposed to be over him, vanishing into her separate life while he vanished into his.

Unfortunately, when it came to Ethan, Callie’s emotions often overtook her rational thoughts.

She’d have to be very careful.

She approached the table, stopping at Ethan’s side. “I’m here,” she said.

Ethan said goodbye to the ladies, then grabbed his bottle of beer and stood. “I couldn’t find an empty table a few minutes ago, but we can hunt for one together.”

They surveyed the area. Most of the crowd had gathered around the pool tables or the bar. All five tables in the larger room were occupied, but Ethan put a hand at Callie’s waist to guide her in that direction.

A single guy sat alone at a table, ogling a petite blonde waiting to order at the bar. Ethan approached, offering the guy a nod in greeting. “Pretty girl,” he said. “Interested?”

“Sure as taxes,” the man said.

Ethan handed him a bill. “I saw her eyeing you earlier. She’s receptive. Go offer to buy her a drink.”

“Wow. Thanks, man.”

“We’ll be taking your table, though.”

“No problem.”

Callie smiled as they sat down. Ethan was in a friendly mood. Maybe they could talk without getting into an argument. She’d always felt so out of control during their clashes, and she feared that she’d say something she’d forever regret.

Could she convince Ethan that he should simply vanish again, without discussing a divorce?

“You want something to drink?” he asked. “I’m sure they have something nonalcoholic.”

She eyed his bottle of beer. She’d never been much of a drinker, but at the moment she wanted something to steady her nerves. “I’d drink one of those.”

“Really?”

She nodded.

He raised his eyebrows, then got up and went to the bar. Soon, he returned with two open beers—a fresh one for himself and one for her.

She tipped the bottle to her mouth, wrinkling her nose at the first taste, then took a longer drink. The beer’s cold bitterness soothed her dry throat. After another drink, she set the bottle on the table and gazed at him. “It’s been nice to see you, Ethan. But after we talk tonight, you should go home and forget about me and my sisters.”

He scowled, but he didn’t say anything.

“Our relationship is over,” Callie added. “I can’t think of a single reason for us to spend time together.”

“You’re serious.”

“Absolutely.”

“You must have a jealous boyfriend.”

Callie stared at him. She hadn’t thought of lying about an involvement, but his presumption could be lucky. “Well, I have gone on with my life,” she said.

“Then I guess this is a good time to talk,” he said. “I’ve also been dating. The woman’s name is LeeAnn Chambers, and she works as a secretary and moonlights as a fiddle player for the River’s Bend music group. You heard of them?”

Oh, Lord. He had a girlfriend? Callie didn’t want to hear a name, and she most certainly didn’t want details. “No, I haven’t,” she said. She picked up her drink, realized her fingers were shaking and gripped the bottle more firmly. After another long swig, she glared at Ethan as he continued to talk about LeeAnn.

Plunking the drink on the table, Callie looped her hair behind her ears and fixed a stare past his head. Maybe an act of disinterest would make him stop rattling on about this woman.

He did stop.

And he grabbed Callie’s left hand. “You’re still wearing your wedding ring?” he asked, his expression incredulous.

Damn. She’d forgotten about the ring.

She wore it mostly for convenience. Whenever she took Luke out in public, people approached her to comment on her baby’s dimpled grin or thick hair or bright eyes. She wanted those folks to picture him with a perfect home life, with parents devoted to each other and to him.

The way she’d imagined her life with Ethan.

But part of her reason, too, was that she hadn’t found the heart to remove it. The impossibility of a reconciliation didn’t keep her from clinging to that old dream, as if it were a long-comatose loved one on life support.

She couldn’t tell Ethan any of this.

“I don’t think about it,” she said, shrugging. “But I’ve always thought it was pretty.”

“Your boyfriend doesn’t mind?”

Callie held Ethan’s gaze for an endless time. When the floor didn’t swallow her up, chair, beer and all, she decided she’d have to keep talking to him.

She couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

Ethan tipped up his beer, finishing it, then said, “You don’t have a boyfriend at all, do you?”

She shrugged.

“You’re trying to evade men’s interest,” he said. “You’re using the ring as protection.”

He wasn’t too far off target, and his words hurt because he knew her so well.

He knew her so well, yet he’d left her.

“It’s none of your business, is it?” she said. “It’s my ring. Go away and let me live my life.”

Callie got up and wound her way through the crowd. As soon as she’d left the bar, she broke into a jog. She’d almost made it to the car when he caught her elbow.

“Let go of me, Ethan.”

He did, and she turned around. She hoped he’d attribute her flush to anger rather than humiliation. Women who were over their exes didn’t wear the man’s ring, did they? Her mother hadn’t worn her father’s. Here Callie was, the woman Ethan had left, wearing his wedding ring two years later. He’d suggested that she wore it to hide from other men, but he might also wonder if she was pining away for him. She could hardly explain that she wore it for their baby’s sake, damn it.

“I just want to know why,” he said. His attention traveled from her eyes to her mouth to her neck.

Her blush flowed downward, until she was hot everywhere.

“Why, Callie?”

Sweet heaven, she couldn’t think when he looked at her that way.

She didn’t want to think.

She had so much to lose if she got involved with him again. Why not kiss him one last time—really kiss him—while she had the chance?

She grabbed his T-shirt and tugged him nearer.

Before his chiseled lips touched hers, he parted them. He tasted sexy, like cold beer and hot, wild seduction. As his warm breath flowed into Callie’s mouth, the reminder of their lusty early days hit her, hard.

Her knees wobbled. Her breasts ached. Her womb opened.

She wanted nothing more than for Ethan to touch her, long and lovingly, everywhere she ached.

That could never happen again.

Still, she didn’t move away from him. The unaccustomed alcohol in her system had probably made her reckless. It also didn’t help that they were standing in the same parking lot where she’d first learned how to love a boy in every way. His hands settled low on her hips, and she leaned into him. She’d always loved it when he pulled her to him and flaunted his body’s need for her.

But this time, he propelled her backward.

His expression showed confusion, but Callie could still feel his passion down to her bones. She could still see it in the flash of his eyes and in his quick, deep breaths.

Man, she’d missed that look.

In the end, when they were battling over everything from laundry duties to where they should live, she’d stopped seeing any signs he wanted her. She’d thought his desire was gone forever.

It needed to be gone forever.

And Callie needed to think her way through this situation. Of course, their reunion reminded her of the good things. Ethan had made Callie feel beautiful, once.

He’d made her feel alive.

As much as she’d missed him—as much as it tore her heart out to let this man go again, even for a moment—she couldn’t forget the reason for the separation.

Leaving had been his choice. A thousand wishes hadn’t brought him home, and now Callie had a baby she couldn’t fathom losing.

A baby whose identity she couldn’t risk revealing.

Fisting her hands to keep them from trembling, Callie perched them against her hips and said, “What would your fiddle player think if she realized we still have that level of heat between us?”

He scowled.

“That’s why, Ethan. That’s why you have to go away and leave me alone.”

“I wanted to talk to you about unfinished business tonight, Callie. About our marriage. I didn’t intend to start anything else.” He shook his head. “Maybe we need a chaperone.”

She glanced around. They were alone out here, but someone might come or go at any time. “We aren’t going to discuss anything in Mary’s parking lot.”

“I didn’t plan to have the discussion out here.”

“You followed me out.”

His jaw tensed. “You get your way, don’t you, Cal?”

She didn’t think so. She might have maneuvered her way out of a conversation tonight—she hoped so—but she for damn sure hadn’t gotten her way.

She felt an almost frantic desire to keep Ethan near, but she couldn’t. Not if she wished to raise Luke in the way every child deserved—in one home, by the person who had nurtured him from his first second of life.

“Cal?”

She shrugged, pretending this wasn’t hell for her, too. “Guess so.”

He sighed. “I’m suddenly in no mood to talk tonight, but get it in your head that we will have this conversation very soon. Deal?”

She lifted her chin and didn’t answer.

Ethan looked at her for another few seconds. Then he finally strode across the parking lot. He got in his car, started it and drove away. Callie watched until he turned right onto the highway and traveled out of sight.

She stood in the same spot for a few minutes afterward, imagining that sweet, lost desire and something else she missed just as much: feeling safe enough to be honest with Ethan.

But losing him had taken a lot out of her. Sharing her days with their sweet baby kept her whole and peaceful. If she lost her little boy, she might become bitter.

She might become her mother.

For the life of her, she couldn’t take that risk.

A WEEK LATER, Ethan sipped his water and watched the breakfast crowd at Wichita’s Beacon Restaurant. After it had become apparent that his odd working hours and Lee-Ann’s weekend concert bookings weren’t always going to mesh, they’d taken to meeting here on the Saturday mornings he didn’t have to work. Since his west-Wichita house was nearer than LeeAnn’s east-side apartment, he generally got here first to grab a table.

LeeAnn was always right behind him, though. He’d only been there five minutes when she bustled through the door in her jeans and fancy boots, leaving behind a trail of perfume and admiring glances. That feminine confidence was the first thing that had attracted Ethan to her, with her well-toned body coming in a very close second. She worked hard to stay fit.

“It’s great to see you, Ethan.” She leaned down to press a kiss against his lips before settling in across from him. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”

“Of course not.”

As she studied the menu, he studied her. Her beaded Western shirt and gold necklace showed off a great tan—another thing she maintained diligently. As usual, she appeared to be ready to rope the world and make it hers. “You’re lookin’ good this morning,” he said.

Glancing up, LeeAnn winked at him. “You are, too. You hungry? I can’t do a whole order of French toast, but it sounds good. Have half and order another entrée for yourself.”

Ethan considered her offer. Sometimes, they ate breakfast here and went their separate ways, meeting again in the evening when they were both free. Whenever they could manage it, they had a big breakfast and spent a long, leisurely day together. This morning, neither of those options sounded interesting.

Ethan’s mind kept returning to Callie. Seeing her had thrown him back in time. However, instead of recalling the turmoil that had finally ended their marriage, he’d kept remembering the good times. He’d forced himself to get through the week without driving out to Augusta to see her again.

He dragged his thoughts back to the pretty woman sitting across from him, awaiting an answer.

“Sorry, LeeAnn. I’m not up for this,” he said. “Do you mind if we just get coffee or juice? Tonight after your show, we can do anything you want.”

“Biscuits and gravy don’t sound good?” she asked, naming a Beacon specialty he normally found irresistible.

“Not really.”

After they’d ordered their drinks, LeeAnn leveled a gaze at him. “Still thinking about last Saturday?”

“Maybe,” he said. Since he prided himself on his honesty, he corrected himself immediately. “Yes.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell her.”

“You’ve said that,” Ethan said. “I don’t know why it matters when I tell her. I will. I don’t want to just dump it on her.”

“You’ve said that,” LeeAnn said, winking again as the waitress brought their drinks.

“Any reason we should hurry?” he asked.

“I don’t know, Ethan. What do you think?”

Aha! LeeAnn was losing patience with him. Why didn’t he feel flattered at her eagerness to take the relationship to the next level? He’d thought he was ready, too.

From the beginning, he’d been honest with LeeAnn. He’d told her that he was still married, but that he’d reconcile with his wife when hell froze over. He still believed that to be the truth.

Callie owned a piece of his heart, but she’d been impossible to live with in the end.

He liked LeeAnn. She was outgoing, sophisticated and pretty in a vivid, brunette way. Basically, she was everything Callie wasn’t. But as Ethan watched her drink her glass of orange juice, he noticed the way she held it with a light touch and sipped slowly.

Why, all of a sudden, did he find it sexier for a woman to order what was possibly her first beer at the age of twenty-nine, hold on to it with a death grip and drink it so fast her eyes glazed over?

And why did Callie’s paler features remain in his thoughts as the ideal of feminine beauty?

She’d tied him in knots. Again.

“I think you should dispatch the papers to your wife and be done with it,” LeeAnn said. “She told you she didn’t want you around.”

Ethan smiled. He’d decide how to handle Callie. Maybe he should learn to be honest to LeeAnn without telling her every detail. “I appreciate the input,” he said, turning the conversation to other topics.

Twenty minutes later, he stood and tossed a couple of bills on the table. “You ready?”

“I’m ready.” LeeAnn led him from the restaurant with a sure stride. Anyone watching might think him lucky to be with her.

That was probably true. LeeAnn was terrific.

After walking her to her car, however, Ethan kissed her quickly and tried not to think of a more provocative parking lot kiss. “I’ll call you later,” he promised before he closed the car door between them.

In his car, Ethan sat for a minute, thinking. He hadn’t told LeeAnn, but he had the day off.

He had no, business heading to Augusta.

LeeAnn was right. Callie would no doubt be thrilled if she received divorce papers. She’d sign and return them, and she’d be through with him.

As he left the parking lot and headed east out of town, Ethan tried not to think about where he was going, or why. He just switched on the radio and drove. He wound up sitting in his car at Augusta’s city lake, staring at the shady clearing where he’d proposed to Callie.

He could picture the two of them, stocking the kitchen in their first Wichita apartment. They’d talked for hours about their plans. Careers in law enforcement and biomedical research. Three kids, because he’d been a lonely only and she enjoyed her sisters so much. Date nights on Saturdays and family time on Sunday afternoons.

He was a different person now.

But he was a good man, he reminded himself. This guilt was unwarranted. He hadn’t left Callie to pursue a life of debauchery. He’d left after she’d made it clear that she believed her mother’s tenets about men in general and about him in particular.

Damn it all, anyway.

Tomorrow, he’d pull those papers from his filing cabinet and send them to Josie’s address. Callie would receive them while she was within easy driving distance. If she had problems with anything, they could meet to talk.

And after the concert tonight, Ethan would take Lee-Ann out to celebrate a new start.

That decided, Ethan drove away from the lake with every intention of heading home. But he couldn’t resist driving by Isabel’s house one last time, just to see which cars were parked in front of it.

And when he saw the silver Toyota truck with a JO-Z vanity plate, he had to stop.

Callie’s youngest sister had been twelve when he’d met her. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been twenty-one and in her senior year of college. Rowdy and fun, Josie was the least complicated of the Blumes. Callie couldn’t blame him if he dropped by to say hello to Josie.

By the time he got to Isabel’s front door, he’d almost changed his mind. He knocked anyway, and his nerves about did him in until a stranger answered the door.

“If you’re here to help, come on in and find where you need to be,” the man said. “If you’re looking for the Blumes, they’re somewhere in the back of the house.”

“Thanks.” Ethan followed him into the living room, where the stranger and two other guys were installing new Sheetrock. On his way through the house, Ethan saw two more men ripping out the ruined kitchen flooring.

Isabel and Josie were removing old wallpaper from the top half of Izzy’s bedroom, presumably intending to match it to the newly replaced bottom half.

“Knock, knock,” he said. “I’m just stopping by to visit my favorite tomboy.”

“Ethan!” Josie set down the paintbrush she’d been using to apply a chemical stripper, then rushed across the room to throw her arms around his neck. After a warm hug that did much to feed Ethan’s courage, he backed up, smiling as he studied Callie’s youngest sister.

Just below average height, voluptuous Josie had very dark, very short hair. Isabel was a couple of inches taller, with lighter brown hair and an hourglass figure. And Callie was a blonde, of course, and just four inches shorter than his own six-two. Except for similar upturned noses and full lips, the Blume sisters were all very different in appearance.

Josie glanced at the peeling wallpaper with a grave expression. “The place looks awful, doesn’t it?”

“It’s much improved over past weekend,” Ethan said, gazing across at Isabel. “I can’t believe how fast your house is coming together.”