Читать книгу A Baby for the Bachelor - Victoria Pade - Страница 9

Saturday was hectic. There were last-minute wedding preparations for Sunday evening’s ceremony, rearrangement of the furniture to accommodate the reception, decorating to be done, deliveries of food and flowers and tables and chairs and other necessities. There was the rehearsal and the dinner, and the introduction of Neily’s sister, five brothers and their spouses and dates to Wyatt’s family.

Because of the commotion at the house, Noah Perry’s work on the remodel was suspended for the weekend. And while he wasn’t a member of the wedding party and so wasn’t included in the rehearsal or the dinner afterward, he was still on Marti’s mind almost constantly through Saturday and Saturday night. All without coming to any better conclusion than she had on Friday—she needed to do some fact-finding before she decided how to proceed.

Then Sunday evening came, and guests finally began to arrive for the seven o’clock ceremony.

Once Marti had carefully styled her hair in a French twist, applied her makeup and dressed in her curvehugging, short black dress, she stood at the window of her upstairs bedroom watching for Noah. And trying to make her stomach stop doing somersaults at the mere thought that she was going to see him again.

He arrived early because he was providing the transportation for his grandfather, who was the former town reverend and was performing the ceremony in the absence of the current, vacationing, minister. As Noah helped the elderly man get up to the house, Marti couldn’t keep from taking stock of her baby’s father.

Noah had been dressed casually at the Expo and he’d been in work clothes on Friday, but now he was wearing a navy blue suit over a cerulean blue shirt and a darker blue tie. The suit fit him so well he could have been an endorsement for the good tailoring to be found in Northbridge—his broad shoulders filled the jacket to perfection before it tapered to just hint at his narrow waist, and the pants whispered down long, long legs to break exactly where they should.

His hair still had that devil-may-care look to it, offsetting the clothes any Wall Street executive would have been proud to wear, and combined it made for a picture Marti just couldn’t take her eyes off of.

But tonight is just about getting some background in formation, she reminded herself of the only thing she’d come up with after two nights of not very restful sleep and a full day of consideration in between. She was going to take things in small steps, hoping that way she could handle it better and arrive at a rational, intelligent, best-for-everyone plan of action.

When it came time for the ceremony it was Ry who persuaded the agoraphobic Theresa to go down the back stairs and into the kitchen with Mary Pat where she could watch Wyatt and Neily say their vows without seeing or being seen by any of the guests.

Because Wyatt had wanted both Ry and Marti to be his grooms-people, as he called them, Neily had chosen her sister Mara and oldest brother Cam to give balance to the attendants. Standing with her brothers, her back to the onlookers, Marti wondered if Noah Perry was watching her the way she’d watched him on his way into the house. And just assuming that he might be did not help those stomach somersaults one bit.

His grandfather performed a stern but gracious ceremony that only lasted twenty minutes, and when it was over, Mary Pat slipped Theresa back upstairs to her bedroom and the reception began.

That was when Marti lost all awareness of anything or anyone other than Noah Perry, whose gaze was definitely trained on her as she congratulated Wyatt and Neily.

Noah didn’t approach her, though. He just kept an eye on her as the music began to play and guests started to mingle. And even when she caught him watching her, he didn’t cover it up by glancing away. He just went on looking at her, studying her, until she pretended that something else had caught her attention.

Go on, go over and talk to him, she told herself.

But instead she went upstairs to make sure her grandmother wasn’t too agitated in the aftermath of her foray to the kitchen.

The food was being served buffet-style and by the time Marti returned almost everyone was eating. Only a few stragglers were going through the line and Noah was at the end of it.

Maybe now’s the time, she thought. After all, she could step up behind him, fill a plate and say hello—belatedly, but exactly as she had with everyone else tonight. Then maybe she could nonchalantly sit with him to eat and use small talk to get into her fact-finding mission to learn about him before she made her decision as to whether or not to admit the baby was his.

So why didn’t she budge?

Because she was a great big fat chicken!

Maybe he didn’t really want to know if the baby was his, she thought. After all, he hadn’t made a beeline to her to ask—he could have come to the house just to see her yesterday if he was dying to know, and even tonight he could have cornered her immediately after the ceremony.

Or maybe he was obtuse and it hadn’t even occurred to him that the baby might be his. Maybe he’d accepted the artificial insemination story at face value. Maybe she could just go on the way she’d planned even though their paths had crossed again…

Or maybe not. Because when he reached the end of the serving table he turned to look out over the room, spotted her and headed toward her.

Marti was inclined to run again. To make a dash for the stairs and take refuge in her grandmother’s room as if she hadn’t noticed Noah’s beautiful brown eyes locked onto her with single-minded intent.

But she didn’t run. She forced her feet to stay planted right where they were. She breathed deeply. She told herself to act as if nothing was going on. She even managed a small smile—although she cut that short when she felt her lips quiver nervously.

“I took enough for two,” he said when he reached her, motioning upward with his plate. “I thought maybe we could share.”

Then he leaned in and said for her ears only, “If we can share that night in Denver, we can share a plate, can’t we?”

Openly referring to that night sent a wave of panic through her. “I’m not very hungry—”

“Sit with me anyway,” he countered, not allowing her any out.

Oh, he’s suspicious, all right…

But this was something she needed to do and he’d just initiated the process for her. She knew she had to push through, so she conceded, nodding over her shoulder at the entryway behind them. “Want to sit on the steps?” she asked hesitantly.

“Sure.”

It was quieter in the entry, away from everyone else gathered in the living room. Marti went to the large staircase that rose to the upper level and sat on the second step, hugging the wall so Noah could sit, too, but not too closely.

He took the hint, positioning himself at an angle with his back to the newel post. Then he set the plate on the step between them and handed her one of the two forks and two napkins he’d brought.

“I took some of everything since I wasn’t sure what you might like,” he said then, stabbing a small parsleybuttered potato for himself.

As he ate, he looked at her again the way he had been all through the evening, as if he were cataloging what he remembered and what he didn’t.

Marti pretended to be more interested in the cherry tomato she was trying to skewer than in him.

“How are you today?” he asked.

“Fine,” she was quick to assure him. “That was just a little dizzy spell yesterday. I’d been sitting in the car for so long and it was low to the ground and I got up fast—” That was all more information than he needed and she cut herself off before it went any further and said, “Today I’m fine,” and popped the tomato into her mouth.

Noah continued to look at her for a moment after she’d stopped babbling. Then, in a completely conversational tone, he said, “So. Pregnant, huh?”

He was definitely suspicious.

“Mmm-hmm, pregnant,” she confirmed as if it were no big deal. But that was as far as she was willing to go and she volleyed with, “So. Northbridge, huh?”

His agile mouth twitched with a tiny smile at her deflection but she had the distinct impression that he was going to let her set the pace, that he wasn’t going to force the issue. And he didn’t. Instead he merely said, “Northbridge, yeah. Born and raised.”

“You didn’t tell me that in Denver, did you? Didn’t you just say that you were from a small town in southeast Montana?”

“I think so. I didn’t think you would know Northbridge by name. Would you have?”

Marti shook her head. “No. I’d never heard of it before Gram showed up here.”

Noah glanced in the direction of the bedrooms on the upper level. “You couldn’t get her to come down tonight?”

“She was hidden in the kitchen during the wedding itself but not even Ry could get her to do more than that—and if anyone can ever talk her into anything, it’s Ry. She keeps saying she can’t face anyone here, that she’s too ashamed, but we don’t know what that means.”

Noah nodded and ate a bite of ham, again leaving the ball in her court.

Marti knew that while talking about her grandmother might seem like a safe subject, it wasn’t getting her the information she needed. So she didn’t take it any further, seizing something she hoped might. “The reverend is your grandfather?”

“Yep,” Noah confirmed. “For better or worse.”

“Why for better or worse?”

“He’s a tough old bird—so tough that not even the family dare to call him anything but Reverend. He’s not the most understanding or compassionate or forgiving person in the world.”

Was there a message in that? Was he saying that he was more understanding, compassionate and forgiving than his grandfather? And what exactly did he think he had to be understanding or compassionate or forgiving of? Marti thought, feeling a tweak of her temper.

It wouldn’t do her any good to get angry, though, she told herself. So she didn’t pursue that either, and instead, as if she hadn’t seen his arrival for herself, she said, “Did you only bring your grandfather tonight?”

“Who else was I supposed to bring?” Noah asked.

Marti shrugged. “Your wife…”

That made him smile and she knew he understood exactly what she was doing. But all she could think about was that it was a thousand-watt smile with perfect, straight, white teeth. A smile that put creases down his cheeks. A smile she remembered now that she’d seen it again, that transformed his face from handsome to striking. A smile that got to her more than any other smile she’d ever seen, including Jack’s.

“Now you’re asking me if I’m married?” he said.

His smile broadened, making her grin sheepishly in response.

“I don’t recall you asking me, either,” she accused in return.

“Are you?”

“No. Are you?”

“No,” he said.

At least there was that. Marti felt a miniscule sense of relief.

“What about a girlfriend or a significant other?” she asked.

“Nope. You?”

Marti shook her head and took one slice of bread from the plate, breaking off a pinch to eat and wondering if the next question she wanted to ask would open a door she wasn’t ready to have opened.

But she honestly did want to know who could be affected by her pregnancy if she told Noah he was the father, so she said, “How about kids? Do you have any of those around?”

He’d been looking down at the plate when she said that and while he didn’t raise his head, he did glance up at her from beneath his slightly full eyebrows. “No, no kids either,” he said with some gravity. And maybe the tiniest bit of a question in it, too.

Or was she only imagining that?

She couldn’t tell. And there he was talking again so she let it go.

“I do have a brother and two sisters, if you’re interested in my family tree. And three cousins—they’re sitting together over by the fireplace,” he said, pointing toward the far side of the living room where a group of people had convened at one of the rented tables. “That’s all of them except my sister Kate. She’s out of town and couldn’t come. And my parents and my aunt and uncle live in Billings now.”

He leaned slightly toward her to continue in a more confidential tone, “I also have a grandmother we’ve all just met—Celeste. She’s pretty notorious. She caused a huge scandal by ditching the Reverend to run off with a bank robber. See the heavyset lady sticking close to Neily’s sister Mara? That’s my grandmother and this is the first time she and the Reverend have been at the same social event in years. So if all hell breaks loose between them sometime tonight, you’ve been forewarned.”

Marti had to smile again at that, remembering that he could be very amusing, too.

“Wow, the whole family,” she said. “Skeletons in the closet and everything—nothing like putting it all out there.”

“I’m an open book,” he assured her, eating a forkful of green salad. “Ask me anything.”

Marti broke off another bite of the bread because that was the only thing she’d eaten that wasn’t threatening to upset her stomach. Food and nerves just didn’t mesh. And while talking to Noah like this again was reminding her why she’d been attracted to him in the first place that night in Denver, she was still on edge and undecided about what she was going to do about him, and that was making her queasy.

“Are you close to your family?” she asked, taking him up on his offer to tell her anything.

“Most of them are right over there—how much closer do you want us to be?” he joked.

“I know people who seem to be close to their families but aren’t. Just because you live near them—”

“No, I don’t just live near them. I like them, too. I’d run into a burning building for any one of them and they’d do the same for me.” He said that as if he truly meant it. Then he looked at her very intently, pinning her with those eyes of his as he added, “Family is important to me. Really, really important.”

Uh-oh…

Marti could see in his expression and hear in his voice where he was going with that. And she just didn’t know if she was ready for it. If she could be honest with him. If she should be. She didn’t have any more idea of where things might go from here than she had when they’d sat down, or if she should let him in, or what kind of havoc might be wreaked if she did.

It’s my baby, she suddenly wanted to make perfectly clear to him. Mine…

But before Noah seemed able to find the words to ask outright, his grandfather appeared from the living room pounding his cane on the hardwood floor to gain their attention.

“Noah!” the Reverend said, his voice booming despite his frail, spindly appearance.

Noah’s gaze remained on Marti for another moment before he turned to his grandfather. “Reverend,” he answered, sounding none too happy to be interrupted.

The old man didn’t seem to care. “I’m tired. Take me home,” he demanded.

“Could you give me a minute?”

“No! I want to go now!”

Noah sighed, obviously knowing the Reverend would have his way or else. “Okay.”

Marti watched as Noah grabbed his grandfather’s topcoat from the hall and helped him pull it on, her gaze fixed on Noah’s strong hands, recalling how they’d cupped her shoulders and let her feel their power in the most enticing way…

But thoughts like that had no place at the moment. She told herself that she should just be glad the old reverend had bought her a little more time to think through what she was going to do instead of being distracted by her attraction to Noah.

Embracing her reprieve, she stood to join the two men at the door to see them out.

“Thank you for the lovely ceremony, Reverend,” she said politely to the elderly man, despite his rude attitude.

In response he grumbled something she didn’t quite catch as Noah opened the door for him and he went out.

Noah didn’t follow him immediately the way Marti thought he would. He paused a moment to look at her, to let those dark chocolate eyes delve into hers once more.

Then, in a low voice that was again for her alone to hear, he said, “Is it mine?”

Panic shot through Marti stronger than before and a thousand thoughts ran through her head.

But the only one that stuck was that while she might not know much of anything about this guy, she knew he was nobody’s fool.

“Is it, Marti? Is the baby mine?” he reiterated after his grandfather had made another demand from outside to be taken home.

Please don’t let this turn out badly…

“Yes,” she whispered, still not sure it was the right thing to do.

Noah’s gaze dropped for just a split second to her middle, then rose to meet her eyes again.

He didn’t say anything. He merely stared at her a minute more, his brows beetled together in a dark, dark frown.

Then he nodded—really only a raise of his chin in acknowledgment—before he followed his grandfather out of the house.