Читать книгу Married Right Away - SUSAN MEIER, Susan Meier - Страница 10

The next morning, when Savannah opened her door to Ethan McKenzie, birds chirped in the trees in the front yard of her yellow Victorian home. The flowers lining her sidewalk and in the beds surrounding the wide gray porch seemed to be yawning and stretching in anticipation of the new June day. The sun was in the final stages of rising, leaving a band of pale reds and muted blues along the charcoal horizon, but there was sufficient light that Savannah noticed the strain in Ethan’s face, the tautness of his muscles, the caution in his approach.

“Good morning, Savannah.”

“Good morning, Ethan,” she said, motioning for him to enter.

She didn’t blame him for being tense. A great deal was at stake in this bargain. Not just his father’s career and her brother’s future, but also the future of their baby. Fortunately for her, she had spoken with Barry’s boss and with her own attorney in Thurmont, so she also wasn’t worried about custody anymore. Within a few days, she would hold the trump card in her hands. Though the proof of how their child was created had originally hurt her, it would now protect her. Even if she didn’t make any deal with Ethan, those papers were her insurance that he wouldn’t take away her baby.

Knowing her child was safe, she now had to do whatever she could to free Barry and protect Ethan’s father.

“I’ve decided getting married solves both of our problems,” she said immediately, if only because Ethan’s expression indicated he had worried about her answer. “I appreciate that you didn’t push me last night. But even after a few hours to think about the situation, I couldn’t come up with a better solution. So I’m in.”

To her amazement, he seemed to sag with relief. “And today we can finalize everything?”

“I think so,” she said, leading him into her kitchen. She wouldn’t tell him that after a short discussion with the clinic director about the right of an accused to see any evidence presented against him, he had agreed that she and Barry should be allowed access to the records once they secured legal authorization. She also wouldn’t disclose that she had contacted her attorney, Wallace Jeffries, who was in the process of drawing up legal documents. She was sure that behind the scenes Ethan was doing his level best to protect himself, too. He would be crazy if he wasn’t. And he would be naive to think she would go into this without precautions of her own. There was no need to discuss it. No need to threaten him. No need to tip her hand. Besides, if Ethan stuck to whatever bargain they made, she would never even use the information.

She led Ethan through the swinging door into her kitchen. Delicious aromas from freshly baked cinnamon rolls and coffee greeted them.

“Would you like something? Coffee? Maybe a cinnamon roll?”

Savannah watched Ethan glance at the syrupy rolls sitting on a plate in the center of her round table. “Did you just bake those?”

She grinned. “This morning.”

“Oh, God, please,” he said with a groan of pleasure. “Coffee and one of those rolls sounds like heaven.”

“Coming right up,” she said and gathered a plate, cup, saucer and appropriate silverware for her guest. For the first time since his arrival at her house the night before, she heard a tone of normalcy sneaking into their conversation and she desperately wanted to keep it. They didn’t merely need to be comfortable with each other to negotiate visitation fairly. They also needed to relax because they would be living together until after the baby was born. Somehow, they had to break through the awkwardness between them once and for all to make their lives bearable until they divorced.

Trying to lighten the mood, she said, “Marrying me is going to have some hidden advantages. I bake like no one you know.”

“So it seems,” he agreed, but his voice was oddly quiet. Almost reverent.

She turned and caught him staring at her stomach and recognition of what he was thinking sent a ripple of unease through her and breathed new life into the tension she had hoped was dying. Though they had both had less than twenty-four hours to acclimate to the fact that they were having a baby together, she had had five months to adapt to being pregnant. For him, all of this was still new and until he got accustomed to her pregnancy he would not be comfortable with her.

She licked her dry lips. “Pretty amazing isn’t it?”

His gaze didn’t move from her tummy. “Fascinating.”

“As my stomach grows, I realize the baby is getting bigger, becoming more developed, and it just sort of blows me away.”

“I can understand that,” Ethan whispered.

Savannah took a long breath and set the plate and utensils on the countertop. He sounded like an outsider looking in, and she realized that was the problem. As the baby’s father, he had as much right to be part of this experience as she had. Once he got those rights, once this pregnancy became as much his as it was hers, the awkwardness would vanish.

“Would you like to touch?” she softly offered.

Though he wore jeans and a simple shirt, he straightened in his chair as if he were wearing a three-piece suit and carrying a briefcase. “No. No. That’s not necessary. I’m sorry, Savannah. I don’t mean to be staring.”

She took a few steps closer to the table. “Ethan, this is your baby, too.”

His gaze fell to her stomach again. “I know.”

“And it’s good for you to want to be a part of things.”

He raised his dark brown eyes until they met hers. “You think?”

“Sure,” she cheerfully agreed, though her heart was beating a million miles a second because they were face-to-face with the intimacy that was actually the catalyst of their nervousness. When they worked together they hadn’t even been friends, just acquaintances. They never expected to be intimate, and didn’t want to be intimate, but they now couldn’t avoid it. So it was better to hit it head-on, because once they faced this, there would be nothing to be tense about anymore.

She lifted the loose T-shirt she wore over maternity jeans, exposing the smooth porcelain mound containing their baby.

But Ethan didn’t move. It hardly seemed as if he were breathing.

Savannah reached down and took his hand and placed it on her warm stomach. The baby picked that precise second to move. Slowly, gently, the tiny body shifted, causing a soft ripple across her tummy. Not something you could see, only something you could feel. Ethan’s gaze shot to hers.

“That’s him?”

Savannah inclined her head and suppressed a smile. “Or her.”

The baby moved again and Ethan grinned. “Or her,” he agreed, then laughed out loud. “My God, I can’t believe it. I’m going to have a baby,” he said, his voice dripping with awe.

“Technically I’m going to have the baby,” she said, stepping away because she was experiencing weird sensations, none of which had anything to do with her pregnancy. Staring into Ethan’s affection-filled brown eyes, she had felt as if she were bathed in warmth. Her skin felt silky and tingly at the same time, and she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in the moment.

Which wasn’t just wrong, it was dangerous. She didn’t really know Ethan’s full intentions about their child, but she did know he wasn’t marrying her because he loved her. With all the hormones floating around in her system and the loneliness that often consumed her, it would be very easy for her to misinterpret his affection for the baby as affection for her. She had to keep up her guard. Not lose her head. Not do something foolish.

She lowered her top to cover her tummy and turned to the counter again to retrieve the dishes and utensils. Quietly, she took them to the table. When she turned again to get the coffeepot, Ethan stopped her with a hand on her forearm.

Again, the silky feeling floated through her.

“You don’t have to wait on me. I can get my own coffee. You sit.”

Their gazes locked and, once again, Savannah felt she could get lost in his eyes. Almost black and warm with emotion, they held her as surely as the grip of a hand. She reminded herself that their baby inspired the tenderness she saw in Ethan’s eyes. She told herself it had nothing to do with her, but that didn’t stop the flood of recognition that flowed through her. Whether it was wise or not, at this precise moment she wasn’t thinking about the baby. She was thinking about how attractive he was. How awful his divorce had been. How genuinely kind he had been to her when her parents died. What she was experiencing was an appreciation for him as a man.

Tall and lean, he had the structure and solidness of someone upon whom she could depend, and his behavior backed that up. He hadn’t demanded she marry him. He hadn’t waved his family’s money or position to threaten her. He had asked her to marry him and given her time to think it through because he was intelligent, responsible and fair. For Savannah that was every bit as sexy as his compelling dark eyes, beautiful black hair and the cute little cleft in his chin.

Perhaps if the situation were different, if she had met him on the street and didn’t have any prior association with him, she might want to flirt with him, wishing he would ask her out, wondering what it would be like to be his wife. Instead, they did have a connection, she didn’t dare flirt with him. And in a few days or weeks, whatever timeline they decided this morning, she would be his wife.

The thought shot a shiver through her and she backed away from the table. If she didn’t watch herself, she could end up in big trouble here. She could easily fall in love with this guy and end up completely brokenhearted.

When Savannah stepped away from the table, Ethan rose to get his coffee from the pot on the counter. Lifting the container, he noticed his hand was shaking and he knew why. When he put his palm on her abdomen, he felt a zing that had nothing to do with the baby he was touching and everything to do with Savannah. Logically he knew that was because he hadn’t really touched a baby. He had touched her. He had stroked the soft skin of her tummy. And he felt a hundred emotions he had no right to feel. Appreciation. Wonder. Awe. And affection. He could put his genuine affection for Savannah down to having worked with her for two years, and he did, but he wasn’t so foolish as to not realize that with very little help his feelings for this woman could explode.

And that would be trouble.

He had exonerated her, and he wasn’t pressing charges against her brother. In return, she was helping him cover the problem so that the press didn’t hurt his father. They were working together amicably, but that didn’t mean he should relax with her. He didn’t really know that she wouldn’t take advantage of this situation to extort money. But even if she was sufficiently cleared of that, he couldn’t afford to get emotionally involved with another woman.

Unfortunately, if he got any more appreciative of Savannah, he wouldn’t merely be involved, he would be smitten. Then he would give her anything she wanted when they divorced, and that took him back to his bottom-line suspicion. Savannah might not have helped her brother cook up the scheme to get a part of the McKenzie money, but now that she had her foot in the door there was no telling what she could demand. Though he didn’t believe Savannah was greedy, he couldn’t completely leave himself and his family unprotected, either. Which meant he couldn’t act upon any feelings he had for Savannah beyond what was appropriate.

“So, when do you want to get married?” he asked, taking his coffee to the table.

She shrugged. “I need two weeks to help my friends create a schedule and train them so they can run the bed-and-breakfast for the months I’m gone. Plus, we’ll need time to get a license and do whatever else is required to get married in Maryland.”

“That makes sense. How about the Saturday after next, then?”

She nodded. “The Saturday after next,” she said, playing with her silverware as Ethan helped himself to one of her delicious-looking cinnamon rolls, if only to give her a few seconds to acclimate. He knew her entire life was being turned upside down, but there was no help for it. Getting married was the only way to protect his father.

“So…have you told your parents?”

He glanced at her. “I’m not going to.”

She gasped. “You’re not?”

“Not on your life. I discussed this with Hilton last night,” he said, referring to Hilton Martin, family friend of the McKenzies, owner of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and a man Ethan knew Savannah very much liked and respected. “And he agrees that there is no reason for my parents to know. Actually, their not knowing will help keep the scenario safe for them. Because they don’t know the truth, they won’t ever be lying to the press.”

“That makes sense,” Savannah agreed quietly.

“Yes, it does. The fewer people who know, the better,” he began, but he suddenly realized something he should have thought of immediately and he almost groaned. “Savannah, did you tell anyone how you got pregnant?”

Obviously realizing why he had asked, Savannah grimaced, “This isn’t something you share with the general public, so I only told the four women you met last night and Olivia Brady.”

“Olivia Brady? From Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods?” Ethan said, stiffening with fear that his perfect plan had a big hole in it.

“I didn’t actually tell her everything when I had lunch with her in March. I tried, but she thought I was only considering getting pregnant and she never let me finish the story.”

Ethan relaxed. “So, that’s good, then. At the very least it’s manageable. We can say we bumped into each other while you were in Atlanta, realized we were head over heels in love and keep the story as pure as the driven snow.”

“I wouldn’t call this story as pure as the driven snow,” Savannah said, again playing with her silverware. “It’s a lie.”

“Yes, but it’s a necessary lie,” Ethan insisted. “What about your friends?”

“What about my friends?”

“What did you tell them?”

For this she looked him right in the eye. “I told them exactly what you told Hilton Martin.”

Understanding the comparison she had deliberately made, Ethan sucked in his breath. He couldn’t criticize her for telling her friends because he had confided in Hilton. “Do you trust them?”

Savannah gaped at him. “Of course, I trust them! I trust them enough that they’ll be running my business for six months.”

“This is different….”

“I don’t see how. Besides, even if I hadn’t wanted to talk with them about this last night to get my bearings, I would have had to tell them something to give them a reason for why I was marrying somebody they didn’t know and pulling up stakes. But only for six months. Not forever. Which immediately would alert them that something was wrong. There was no way I could have lied to them.”

“Right. You’re right. And I’m sorry.”

“Okay.”

Looking at Savannah’s angry face, Ethan suddenly felt like the villain. And he wasn’t. Her brother was. He wouldn’t be coercing her into marriage if it weren’t for her brother.

Nonetheless, guilt swamped him because he was asking a great deal of this woman. Then concern for her safety struck him next. What the hell was he doing upsetting the mother of his child? But continued fear about her friends hit him last and when that wave came it was a tsunami because it was a deal breaker. He wasn’t afraid one of them had already leaked her secret. Up to now the details of her pregnancy were highly personal for Savannah, a secret easily kept among friends. But now that the information had real value in the tabloid marketplace, Ethan knew any one of those four women could decide to sell this story. Which would make getting married pointless. If even one of them wasn’t as trustworthy as Savannah believed, this plan was dead in the water.

Still, not wanting to upset her with any more questions about her friends, and knowing she would be biased anyway, Ethan decided he wouldn’t say another word, but would check out her friends on his own.

“Why don’t you go change while I call my attorney to see what we have to do to get married in Maryland.”

“We have to see an attorney for that?”

“Well, we’re also going to need to have a prenup drawn up. Nothing extravagant, just one that says what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours.”

“Okay,” she said, then licked her lips.

Ethan’s gaze was drawn to her mouth. He noticed her lips were lush and pink. Full. Very kissable. If he hadn’t already reminded himself of all the reasons he couldn’t encourage his attraction to her, he would have been very tempted to at least wonder what it would be like to kiss her. But he wasn’t. He couldn’t take the risk.

“Okay. We’ll hash out the details at Gerry Smith’s office,” he said. “You go ahead and get changed.”

He watched her walk out of the kitchen, and after she was gone, he combed his fingers through his hair in frustration. It bugged the hell out of him that she made him feel guilty for pushing her into this scheme when she could be planning to turn around and blackmail him. Before he could enter into this marriage, he had a lot of backgrounds to check out….

On the drive back from Gerry Smith’s office, they decided that since they were entering this partnership “together,” he might as well move into the bed-and-breakfast for the two weeks before their wedding. Then, thinking this as good a time as any, he casually asked Savannah to let him meet her friends again and from the expression on her face he realized she suspected he was going to check them out. For a few seconds it appeared she might get angry, but, instead, she simply told him she would invite them to the house that night.

Within seconds after their arrival, he found himself seated on a stiff-backed chair across the sofa from four very curious, not-too-pleasant women, and for the first time since he made up his mind to interrogate them he wondered about the wisdom of it.

“So, Savannah tells me that she told you all the specifics of our marriage,” he said, opening the conversation with truth since there was no way around it.

Not one of them smiled. Not one gave him an even semi-friendly look. His gaze moved from the two blue-eyed redheads to the blonde, to the last woman with the dark hair and serious eyes.

Though all four of them stared at him as if he were the angel of death, only Lindsay, the blonde, replied. “Yes. She told us that she was marrying you to preclude bad press which might hurt your father.”

Though he tried to fight the ludicrous urge to defend himself, since it was her brother who had put them in this precarious position, he failed. “I could press charges against Barry, you know.”

“Except that would be trouble for your father,” Lindsay said. Her eyes were sharp, observant and her tone was clearly adversarial. If he were taking guesses, right now he would put money on the bet that this one would be an attorney someday.

“Yes, it would. But that doesn’t negate the fact that I’ve made some concessions, too.”

“Not as big as Savannah’s concessions. If you look at this situation objectively,” Lindsay said, “Savannah is giving up much more because she’s forced to leave her home, which also happens to be her place of business, and ask her friends to run it while she’s gone so she can live with you.”

“I don’t mind,” Savannah said, unexpectedly jumping into the conversation on his side.

Ethan cast her a sidelong glance, glad she spoke up. Her quick agreement proved she understood his logic, but it was also the first time they were on the same side. And it felt right. Good. Unfortunately, it also gave him a tingly feeling in the pit of his stomach, which he liked a little more than he should.

“Her living with me is the only way this really works.”

“That may be true,” Becki said. “But I can’t help but feel that you’re somehow punishing Savannah for a crime her brother committed.”

Not one to let a good opportunity pass, Ethan leaped on that. “Which is my point exactly. Her brother is the one who committed this crime, but my father is the one who will suffer if word of this gets out. Can I trust you?” he asked, looking from one woman to the next until he was sure he had their complete attention. “Can I trust that none of you will sell this story to a tabloid?”

Becki gasped, “Sell this story to a tabloid?”

“That’s exactly what I said.”

“It appears, Mr. McKenzie,” Andi said, “that you don’t have a clue how friendship works.”

“I know how friendship works, but none of you is my friend. And it’s my father who is in trouble. I need to know that I can trust you or there’s no reason for Savannah and me to get married. And if there’s no reason for Savannah and me to get married, all bets are off on this baby.”

Silence covered the room like a cloak. Though Ethan hadn’t come right out and made a threat, everybody knew what he referred to when he said all bets are off on this baby. He glanced at Savannah, who sat perfectly still and silent. Though she wasn’t trying to sway the opinion of the four women in her living room, she wasn’t condemning him, either. She seemed to understand that he had no choice but to use the power at his disposal. And though she could have argued or cried, or even made her own threats, she did nothing. Said nothing. Which gave Ethan another odd tingly sensation. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

Finally, Mandi said, “We’ll keep your secret, as long as you’re fair with Savannah.”

Ethan nodded. “I never had any intention of being anything but fair. But there’s a lot at stake here, and I’m taking some pretty big chances, too. This is the deal Savannah and I struck. You guys are just going to have to trust me the same way she does.”

Even as the words were coming out of his mouth, Ethan couldn’t believe he said them. Not only had he admitted that he knew Savannah trusted him, and that’s why she hadn’t said or done anything when he made his threat, but also he had switched from making sure they kept the secret, to pleading his case because he wanted their approval. Why? Because it was obvious they loved Savannah and he didn’t want them to worry about her.

“Does anybody want coffee?” Savannah asked, bouncing from her seat.

Ethan guessed she had done that hoping that if she disturbed the group at this point in the conversation they might consider it closed. And closed on a satisfactory ending—with him telling them they could trust him. Since they had already said they would keep his secret, he couldn’t think of a better way to end it himself.

“It’s a little late in the day for coffee for me,” Ethan said, doing his part to close the discussion. “But I wouldn’t mind something cold.”

“Neither would I,” Becki said, rising. “Except you’re not getting it,” she added, nudging Savannah back down to her chair. “Mandi and I will get the drinks.”

“Yeah, and Andi and I will get out the cards,” Lindsay said, as she rose from the sofa. She looked at Ethan. “You do play poker?”

“I play poker,” Ethan said cautiously.

“Good,” Andi said, more or less directing everybody to a game table in the back of the room.

But when Andi and Lindsay were out of hearing distance, Savannah stopped Ethan by placing her fingers on his forearm. “You don’t have to play. This is just how we amuse ourselves since Thurmont’s not exactly a bustling metropolis.”

“I don’t mind,” Ethan said, and realized that he didn’t. Wacky thoughts were running through his mind. He had just butted heads with four women who should be thanking him for coming up with a plan that protected everybody, but he almost didn’t care. The fierce loyalty Savannah inspired touched Ethan because he knew it proved something. Savannah Groggin was a genuinely good woman.

“Ethan?”

“Yes?” he said, then, forced out of his reverie, saw Andi was losing patience with waiting for him to accept the cards from her. Through the course of his musings, the sodas had been distributed, and everybody was waiting for him to deal.

“Sorry.” He took the cards and began to shuffle, but he couldn’t stop his gaze from wandering over to Savannah. He should be pleased to constantly get confirmation of her virtue, but it only complicated the attraction he felt for her. He knew the genesis of his feelings was her pregnancy—because she was carrying his child he felt intimate with her. The puzzling, almost alarming part was that with confirmation came the realization that she was the same woman he had worked with two years ago. And realizing she was the same woman, he felt closer to her—which deepened the sense of intimacy.

Worse, as the intimacy deepened, his feelings about their impending marriage were changing. Suddenly he was thinking that it would be okay to sleep together…and he meant sleep, at least he had initially. He just wanted to lie cuddled together, with their baby between them. But that need was growing into a desire to touch all the wonderful velvet skin he had sampled when she let him touch her stomach to feel the baby…and more.

As the poker game progressed, he unsuccessfully tried to fight the sexual turn of his thoughts by taking them into neutral territory. He reminded himself that she was sweet and innocent and that this made her beautiful, and vulnerable in a way that hit him right in the heart, and he wanted to protect her. And that was bad.

Bad.

Bad.

Bad.

Because that meant his feelings were transcending typical lust and even infatuation and rolling into territory that could become love.

The only anchor he could mentally hold on to to save himself was that Savannah might not be drawing these same conclusions. But even if she was, if he didn’t say something first, odds were she would keep her emotions to herself because she was shy.

Plus, theirs wouldn’t be a real marriage. As long as he stopped entertaining these crazy ideas, there would be no inappropriate touching, so both of them would be safe.

That thought comforted him through the rest of the card game. It comforted him as he waved goodbye to her friends. It comforted him through the awkward minute when he insisted she go to bed and let him turn out the lights and lock the doors for her.

But when he was climbing the stairs to his room, congratulating himself on his determination to keep both of their hearts safe, he suddenly realized that he would be touching her. He would be kissing her, and he would be pretending to be madly in love with her every time he was around his parents, or in the public eye.

If he wanted his parents and the press to believe this was a love match, he was going to have to pretend to be in love with her, which included touching, kissing, living together, being friends, sharing a child.

Boy, he was in big trouble. He had a sneaking suspicion that Savannah Groggin was the one woman he could trust enough to really make another honest stab at marriage. Except he didn’t want to make an honest stab at marriage. The first shot almost killed him. He didn’t want to risk his heart or his sanity again.

And the whole heck of it was, he couldn’t even run like hell in the opposite direction to protect himself as he promised himself he would do if he ever met another woman who tempted him to let his guard down.

In seven days, he would be married to her.