Читать книгу Coming Home to Texas - Victoria Chancellor - Страница 10

Jodie spent some time soaking in the big bathtub in Travis’s guest suite, wondering where he’d gone so suddenly after the early dinner he’d served her. It had been dark for several hours and he hadn’t returned. Should she go looking for him? Call someone? Where would she report a missing rancher? Dialing 9-1-1 seemed extreme when the man in question was probably just avoiding further discussion of their situation.

She sighed and decided the water was too cool to stay in any longer. She rose from the tub, then went through her nightly ritual of brisk towel-drying and moisturizing. Her skin was one of her best features. She took very good care of her assets.

After dressing for bed in a short gown and longer robe, she wandered into the bedroom. She wasn’t used to having so much free time. She should have picked up a new novel to read, but she hadn’t been thinking clearly. She’d just impulsively booked a flight to Texas to talk to Travis.

The father of her baby.

“Could you want to be a daddy, Travis?” she murmured as she looked out the window. There were lights in the barn, but she didn’t know if they were automatic or if it meant someone was working in there. If Travis was there, avoiding her.

The house was so quiet that she turned on the small CD player she found in the entertainment cabinet. After searching through several country-western stations, she located one that played some generic sort of easy listening. Curled up in a chair where she could see the barn, she let the tension drain out of her as the music flowed in. She shouldn’t be sleepy, but she was, perhaps because of the time zone change, perhaps because of the pregnancy.

Outside the window, a branch from a tree swayed in the night wind. She felt the hypnotic pull, aware that she was drifting off, but not caring at the moment. She was safe and warm, she’d presented her plan to Travis, and all she could do was wait for him to agree.

TRAVIS REMOVED HIS BOOTS in the mudroom, walked quietly over the cold slate floors, then toward the master bedroom. Before he went looking for Jodie, he needed a shower and a change of clothes.

He hadn’t found solace at his favorite spot, but he had been able to think while he’d cleaned out stalls. His barn now sported the cleanest floors, the most spotless feed buckets and the neatest tack room in the entire Hill Country.

And he’d come to some conclusions. He needed to throw out his vow to never marry again. Jodie had presented him with the one reason that would get him back to the altar—a child. He wouldn’t have married for companionship or sex or any other reason since he could have all those things without the problems a wife represented. His past experience had made him associate marriage with manipulation, frustration and disappointment. But that was marriage based on love—or more accurately, two people who thought they were in love. He and Jodie didn’t suffer from that delusion. If they married, it would be for sound, logical reasons.

He stripped quickly and eased beneath the warm water, grateful that he’d installed a top-of-the-line shower stall with multiple jets of water to soothe tired muscles. Big enough for two. Not that he expected Jodie to open the glass door and join him, but that was exactly how their baby had been conceived.

Thinking back, he even knew the date. January fourth. He counted forward nine months. That meant their child would be born around October first. By Halloween, he could get one of those cute costumes for the baby. By Christmas, he’d have a son or daughter to buy gifts for. The idea was mind-boggling, nearly surreal, since Jodie looked exactly the same as she had when they’d first met.

He certainly hadn’t planned on having children—since he’d sworn never to marry again—but now it was almost all he could think about. Unlike his own father, he wanted to be a dad who changed diapers and took his child to the mall and read stories to him at night.

Would Jodie try to exclude him from their baby’s life, just as she’d tried to make all the decisions about their relationship? Their marriage?

He showered quickly, dried off and dressed in comfortable sweats. The house was silent as he made his way down the hall. The few lights on automatic timers revealed no sign of his guest. She hadn’t been in the kitchen, or if she had, she was one neat person. Not a glass or spoon was out of place.

He silently climbed the steps. Walking softly in his socks, he paused outside the guest bedroom. The faint sound of music filtered through the thick oak door. He knocked softly.

She might be sleeping. He’d heard that pregnant women needed lots of naps and a good night’s sleep. If so, he didn’t want to bother her. But the urge to check on Jodie, to make sure she was comfortable, overwhelmed his need to respect her privacy—and his good sense. He slowly turned the knob and eased open the door.

By the soft glow of an accent lamp, he saw her curled up in a chair beside the window. Her feet rested on an ottoman and she’d hugged her arms around herself, tugging her robe tight. She should be wrapped in a soft throw or blanket, but she hadn’t taken the time to do so before she’d fallen asleep.

He leaned down and looked out the window. She’d been watching the barn, he realized. Was she worried about him? Had she thought he’d gone off and deserted her?

He should have been more forthcoming about where he was going and how long he would be gone. He should have been more thoughtful, but he wasn’t used to having someone around. He’d had a few guests beside his sister Kate and her family, but no one else had ever lived in this house. He’d designed and built it after his divorce, when he’d moved to Ranger Springs to escape life in the city.

There was usually no one around to wonder what he was doing in the barn or to worry about him working through meals in his studio or to care whether he stayed out late at Schultze’s Roadhouse. And he liked it that way, he reminded himself.

He pulled a soft throw from the bench at the foot of the bed and draped it over Jodie. She stirred but didn’t awaken. He tucked the ends around her feet and she opened her eyes.

“Travis,” she sighed. Her husky, sexy voice invaded his mind and body like a mild electric current, putting him on alert. This was no time for sexual desire or any feelings that would sidetrack him. His focus would stay on what he had to say, because he had to make Jodie understand his position.

“You must be tired,” he said.

“I’m blaming it mostly on the time zone changes.”

“I’m thinking it has something to do with the baby.”

“Could be,” she murmured as she stretched. “Other than being a little more tired than usual, I haven’t noticed any changes.”

“No morning sickness?”

“No. I’ve been lucky.”

“I’m glad. That doesn’t sound like fun. I remember listening to my sister Kate and Kerry Jacks talk about their pregnancies. I thought then that pregnancy would be really tough on women who worked outside the home.”

“I sure wouldn’t want to have a lot of assignments, especially if I had to fly, if I were sick every morning.”

“You’ll be cutting back on your assignments now, right?”

“Very soon. Even though I’m plus size, a round tummy is going to show. I’ll probably stick with chest-high shots and my cosmetics obligations through the pregnancy.”

“But you won’t be working all the time, will you?”

“No, of course not.”

“Because I want you to take care of yourself and the baby. I don’t want you to overdo it.”

“I won’t.” She frowned. “But why the concern? I’m healthy. I’m not expecting any complications.”

“Can’t I be concerned? I care about you. And this is my baby, too, right?”

“Right.” She paused, then shifted in the chair, bringing his attention to her full breasts.

“So…where were you tonight?”

He looked back into her eyes. “Just doing some chores.” She didn’t have to know that he had a helper who cleaned the stalls and maintained the tack for him when he was busy with a project or out of town. “Thinking, too.”

“Oh? About what?”

“Us. The baby. What you want to do about it.”

She shifted in the chair, sitting up straighter. “Did you come to any conclusions?”

He could tell that what she really wanted to ask was, “Have you decided to do things on my terms?”

“Yes, I did.” He reached for her hands, noting they were cool and dry. He felt tiny tremors pass through her body, as though she was trembling in anticipation. “First, I have to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Do you think what we felt in Monte Carlo was real?”

“What do you mean, real? I certainly wasn’t faking anything!”

“I mean, do you think the immediate attraction we felt was genuine? Or was it a fluke? When you look back on that time, do you say to yourself that you were stupid? Or do you remember the weekend fondly?”

“Well…I think we were irresponsible that one time, but overall, I don’t think anything that happened was stupid. I don’t think we reacted to each other any differently there than if we’d been introduced in New York or L.A. And despite the inconvenient timing of this pregnancy, I can’t say that I’m sorry that we made a baby together.”

“For the record, I’m happy about the baby, too. It took me a while to get used to the idea, since I hadn’t planned to get married or to have children.”

“Well, it hasn’t been so long. I just showed up on your doorstep right after lunch.”

“True, but I’m an intuitive kind of guy. I just needed some time to think about us in relation to this…new development.”

“Still, this was a pretty big shock, I think.”

“I’m glad you told me right away, though.”

“It was only fair, especially since I also asked you to marry me right away.”

“Speaking of marriage, I’ve been giving it a lot of thought.”

“And?”

“I understand your position about your career and the contract you signed.”

“I feel a big ‘but’ coming on,” she said, pulling her hands away from his and tugging her robe tighter.

“I also believe that having two parents is best for a child.”

“Best, perhaps, but not necessary.”

“The thing is,” he continued, deciding to ignore her comments for the moment. She could get him into a tangential conversation far too easily. “I’ve been giving your ideas on marriage a lot of thought. And I simply don’t agree with your premise.”

“Which premise is that?”

“That this needs to be temporary. That we have no basis upon which to build a deeper relationship.”

“You want to stay married longer? For the sake of the baby?”

“If we get married, I want to stay married period. That’s how marriage is supposed to work.”

“But often doesn’t.”

“True. I’m a perfect example of how it’s sometimes necessary to end a marriage.” Getting a divorce was the best thing possible, given his ex-wife Tiffany’s priorities. He wasn’t about to be labeled a two-time loser, especially not now that he’d set down roots in a place he loved. If he married then divorced Jodie, people who cared about him would be understanding, but they’d still know he’d failed twice—either by choosing the wrong women to marry or by being unable to compromise and care enough to hold them.

“This time, I’m older and wiser. If I stand before a minister or an official of the state and say my vows, I need to mean them.” He looked deeply into Jodie’s troubled eyes. “I need to know you mean them, too.”

“Travis, you’re making a bigger issue out of this than it needs to be. There’s no reason to make this into a big production with lifetime consequences.”

He pulled back, his anger rising until he told himself that Jodie was scared. He could see it in her eyes. She felt as if she might lose the career she’d built based on her image. She was pregnant and single. And she didn’t want a lifetime commitment from him because she didn’t believe in the feelings they’d shared for one weekend in Monte Carlo.

Not that he believed in love. Depending on that fleeting emotion would be like building a house on shifting sand. Anyone could say they loved you, swear that they’d love you forever, without it meaning anything. The attraction, the mutual respect, the companionship he and Jodie shared—those were real.

He was convinced they could get those feelings back. He knew it when he looked at her sleeping in his guest room or in unguarded moments when she allowed her vulnerability to peek through the polished veneer she showed the rest of the world.

“Like it or not, we’ve made a lifetime commitment by creating a child together.”

“We can have a responsibility to the child without having one to each other.”

“Maybe you can. I don’t think so, but I might be wrong. But I can’t function that way. We should have a commitment to stay married or we don’t get married at all.”

“You’re giving me an ultimatum?”

“Just like you handed me one when you walked in the door.”

“That was different. I was trying to be considerate. I never wanted you to think that I was trying to trap you into marriage. You must know I didn’t plan to get pregnant. That’s why I still believe a temporary marriage would be best.”

“Jodie, I’m absolutely serious when I tell you this. We’re getting married on Saturday, which is Valentine’s Day, at Bretford House in Ranger Springs. That’s where we normally have receptions for local weddings. I would suggest having the ceremony in the church, but they’re refinishing the floors right now.”

He paused to take a breath. “It takes three days in Texas to get a license and make the arrangements. The date will seem romantic when your publicist prepares a press release about our whirlwind courtship.”

“Three days to plan a wedding!”

“You’ll have one day to decide, then we need to go to the county clerk’s office to apply for a license. I suggest you call your relatives, friends and business associates tomorrow and make travel arrangements for them. I’ll take care of the rest.”

She looked completely stunned as she sat upright in the chair, framed by the window. In the dark glass he saw a reflection of the room. He saw himself, looking stiff and determined. Well, fine. That’s how he felt. His decision was firm—he wasn’t getting married again unless it was for keeps. Maybe he and Jodie didn’t have enough in common to build a marriage, but maybe, just maybe, they did.

At least this time his wife wouldn’t beseech him to tell her he loved her one more time. To prove that he loved her by giving in to her demands for more, more, more. Jodie wasn’t insecure and clingy; she wouldn’t need constant reassurance.

He turned away from his austere image, then remembered an earlier conversation. “Oh, and by the way, we’re having dinner Wednesday night with Hank and Gwendolyn McCauley. Seven o’clock.”

“Travis, you can’t just come in here and turn my world upside down like this!”

“Funny you should say that, sweetheart, because that’s exactly what you did to me earlier today.”

She ignored his sarcasm. “I need time. I need to consult with my attorney and agent. I have plans to make!”

“Jodie, if you want to get married to me, you’d better make those plans in a hurry, because come Saturday, there’s going to be a wedding. It’s not going to be the biggest or the most elaborate wedding ever, but it’s going to be public, it’s going to be legal and it’s going to be ours.”