by Rhodes, Beth
Her eyes widened. “I’m not tired,” she said quickly. But her pulse was pounding in her neck at the thought of being in the same bed with him. For the love! She slammed a door on those thoughts. He didn’t want everything that came with having a baby, being a family.
“I’m taking you to the den. You can watch television, read a book, play cards.”
“Oh! Oh, okay.” She cleared her throat.
David rolled his eyes. “Come on.”
He led her into a huge comfy room that was tricked out with…everything.
She stopped just inside the doorway. A pool table, two televisions, a gaming corner that had big comfy chairs. A bar with a small fridge and a little tiny sink. Barstools. She took off her shoes and set them aside. The carpet was soft and lush. “Wow.”
His gaze left her and wandered the room as if seeing it for the first time, and he looked uncomfortable. “It’s okay.”
She crossed to the couch and sat down. “Thanks, David.”
With a nod, he handed her a remote and showed her how it worked, turning on the television and finding the Food Network.
“I think I got it.” She grinned. “We actually have things like cable and satellite where I live, too.”
“Right.” He blushed. “Sorry.”
When he turned to go, she touched his hand, and it was like taking hold of the past. The familiar ridge of callous along the outer edge that had convinced her he worked with his hands for a living. But the tension in them and muscles that flexed over her hand as if he wanted to pull away was different.
“I’m sorry, David. This isn’t what either of us planned.” She blinked away the tears. Crossing her arms over her chest, she avoided his sharp gaze that saw too much of her and took a deep breath. Now or never; do it. “You crushed me when you left, but I didn’t hold it against you. You were like this perfect moment a woman gets, once in a lifetime, and I was ready to go on, do my best to forget. I couldn’t hold you. I should have said no. Hindsight is the most annoying know-it-all, don’t you think? I should have said no.”
He frowned, his frustration almost palpable. “I’m sorry—” Making love to you was a promise.
Her hand tightened on his. “No to myself, David.”
Finally, he looked at her, melted her with those eyes. And she couldn’t look away, didn’t want to. “If I’d been stronger, I could have saved us both this…inconvenience.”
“That’s not fair. We were both there. Speaking of archaic, don’t do that to yourself. Don’t pull that martyr routine here, not with me.” He crouched in front of her, tension riding every muscle and never breaking eye contact. She took a deep breath and was filled with the scent of him—the subtle hint of cologne but also the distinct edge of wood and grease, lingering from their ride in the old truck. Maria ran a hand down the front of his flannel shirt. “We made choice, and now we deal with the consequence.”
She’d wanted to stay mad that he owned a bank and lived in this huge mansion. But here he was, crouched before her, wearing flannel and the lousiest pair of beat up running shoes she’d ever seen. Dang it.
“Go.” She nodded toward the door. “I’ll be fine here.”
But he hesitated, and for the briefest moment her breath stopped. But then he must have come to his senses, because he rose in front of her and left without a word.
She flopped back onto the couch.
Surely the skies would be blue and the roads would clear before tomorrow morning.
5
On the way back to his room, he crossed the hallway to his home office and hesitated. It was early, but he felt wired. His brain was running scenarios for the coming days and weeks…hell, even months.
David showered instead and took his time to get dressed, make his bed, and eventually stop in his office, where he began a slow perusal of his tasks for the week. Mondays were always a big day for him. The banking side of the business was his dad’s, mostly. He managed all the investments, which included the buying and selling of hotels, resorts—really.
He’d met Tammy through business when his dad had wanted a place on the coast. To his dad, they were two powerful people with similar interests and goals. A partnership could have been perfect. When David had come home from California, wrecked by his recent fling and the gut-wrenching proof that even he might be susceptible to the pain of falling in love, he’d asked Tammy to marry him. A business arrangement. A fucking attempt to smother the panic and the pain being with Maria had hinted at.
Tammy had laughed in his face.
He shrugged, thinking about it. Her refusal bit into his pride, and he’d dug into work with gusto. Sitting back in the big leather chair, he rocked once then twice, turning ever so slightly to watch the snow blow across the window.
He hadn’t been kind with Maria. Meeting Maria had brought out the best in him…and the very worst.
“Why?” he whispered against his fist. She’d invoked a side of him he didn’t know existed. He’d been freaked out by his need, by wanting her so badly he’d been ready to leap into the one thing he’d promised himself would never happen—love.
David blew out a breath, rubbed the sides of his head, and stood. He paced the length of the floor behind his desk. He’d dropped her like a hot potato. And he’d been free, home free. The feelings had disappeared. Liar.
A small—very small—voice of crazy, deep inside him, broke free.
Marry her.
He stood as his blood iced, and he blew out a breath. God, was he serious?
Wouldn’t that be the right thing by her? No matter what she said, wasn’t that why she was here? And a kid deserved a family, a mom and dad. He’d experienced the alternative. Could he let his own blood go through the same when he had the power to do it differently? He could take care of her and the baby—financially speaking. She’d never lack for anything.
The tension in his neck eased a little, a sure sign that he was on the right track. Gut feelings had led him to some of his biggest investments. He liked following his gut.
When his phone rang and he saw the name Colleen Teller on the screen, he had the urge to ignore the call. But he fingered the first edition Robert Frost collection on his shelf. A gift. It had belonged to her father, his grandfather who’d died before David was born. He hadn’t broken it open yet.
He’d been warding off his mother’s efforts to reconnect for a year. She pushed. He pushed back.
And then he spent another month or so avoiding.
She’d left, but that didn’t mean he had to judge everyone else by her standards. And with an arrangement like he could put together, there would be…a deal. One way out, if necessary—his way.
Sitting down at his desk, he made a list of items they could address in the contract, including finances and fidelity. Those were non-negotiable, as far as he was concerned. And he believed she’d agree.
The truth was he hadn’t been interested in anyone since Maria. Even when he asked Tammy to marry him, it had been business only.
Maria. She did something to him.
David shut down his computer, and left the office. He slowed as he approached the den, the quiet an unsettlingly eerie calm. He’d expected the television to be on. But the den was dark. Had she escaped?
It couldn’t have been more than a couple hours, though.
“Ria?” he whispered. His feet took him around to the couch where he’d left her, and he stopped short. Her small body was curled around a book and her bare feet were tucked under the quilt his grandmother had made thirty years ago, before he’d been born. An arm was tucked under her head and the bulky sweater she’d come in with was thrown across the back of the couch. She wore a t-shirt that hugged her curves as she slept.
He didn’t remember her looking so young, so innocent in California.
Even as they’d talked about what she was going to do with the rest of her life, he’d seen her as a peer, his peer. And when she’d told him she wanted him, he’d hardly been able to stop the thrill,
the excitement…the want.
Then, her dreams for life had been about family, growing roots there in California. She’d laughed because she thought it would be a long way off. That she liked what she did as a nurse and wasn’t ready to give it up. Caring for others was a part of her.
David sat on the coffee table in front of her. He brushed the hair from her face. They’d really messed things up, hadn’t they? Did she resent it, too? What had her first reaction been?
He couldn’t stop his hands from touching. Her presence pulled at him, and his hands went from her hair to her shoulder down her arm to the hand tucked under her chest against the couch. Her fingers curled around his fist as his thumb caressed the soft skin.
His heart pounded. Now that he’d come to the conclusion of asking her to marry him, the idea had settled in his conscience, too. It was the right thing.
For the baby.
They could be comfortable together. There wouldn’t be the stress of what a deep, heartbreaking love could do to a family. He’d seen it with his parents—the fights followed by the incredible highs only to be followed by the crushing lows.
This was his way to reconcile the past and change the future.
Financial responsibility and sincere affection. Even his dad couldn’t argue that.
Actually, that wasn’t true. His dad could argue just about anything.
On the other hand, until yesterday morning, his dad hadn’t had anything to say regarding his personal life since he’d turned twenty.
David rubbed a hand across his forehead.
“You should have let me go if my being here was going to cause so much trouble.”
His heart flew to his throat and his gaze to her more suspicious, narrowed one.
“It might have been slow driving, but I’d be at the airport by now, sitting with a book and a coffee, waiting for my ride home.”
He looked at her. “Or you could be dead. Look out the window, Ree.”
With some effort, as if she didn’t want to at all, her gaze turned from his to the window behind him.
“Not much to see, is there?”
“Oh, it’s so pretty.”
“What? The blinding white? The liability on wheels?”
She laughed. “We didn’t do a lot of travelling or vacationing as kids. My parents were always working. But, I’ve seen pictures. And imagined it. Sledding, ice skating, snowball fights. You know.”
“Your imagination is too tame.”
“Well, it never included a handsome fellow coming to the rescue, either. That’s for sure.”
He rolled his eyes.
Tucking her hands between her legs, she shrugged. “Thank you.”
His heart turned over, and damn, if that didn’t scare him. He pushed the unexpected feeling aside. “Maria, I think we should get married.”
“What?” She sat up too quickly, unbalancing him from his perch on the table as she scrambled to get away. “Estas loco? Quieres que deje a mi familia? Mi hogar y que?” She shook her head. The line between her brows deepened when she frowned. He had no idea what she said, but he was pretty sure she wasn’t professing any thanks or agreement. “Marry you?” She spit out.
“Well, what’s wrong with that?” he asked. “You came all the way to Vermont. Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking it.”
Her mouth fell open. “I came to find the man who’d left me in California, without a word. I came to find the man I fell in love with. Not you! I thought we had something, something special. You weren’t perfect, but—” Her face paled considerably.
David took a step toward her, alarmed. “Are you okay?”
“You’re not perfect.”
David lifted his brow. “Yeah, so? Tell me something I don’t know.”
“I didn’t come here to trap you into marriage,” she said, changing gears and leaving him grappling for solid ground.
“I don’t think that.” And it was true. Maybe the idea had crossed his mind, but this was a woman who came from a family of strong, independent women. With a sister in the Army, a mother who ruled the roost with an iron fist and an even stronger heart, Maria was not one to lay her troubles at someone else’s feet. She would never play the blame game. “I was there, too, Ree. What happened…the b—” His throat closed around the word.
“The baby.” Maria held a protective hand over her abdomen. “It’s a baby. Ten weeks.”
“Right.” He let out a breath. “The baby is unexpected, but—”
Maria narrowed her eyes at him.
“But,” he continued as he lifted his wait-a-minute finger, “I’ve been thinking about really settling down. This could be perfect. The—the baby needs a father. We get along, and I’m rich, so you could work, not work. Do whatever you want. There’s a clinic two towns over where you could get a nursing job. My mom is a doctor there.”
“What?” Her hands went to her hips. “Your mom’s a doctor? You have a mom?”
“Of course I have a mom.”
“But—but— David.” Her hands went into her hair and she dug her fingers through the thick black length that fell as two tiny little pins sprang loose. “I thought your mother was gone.”
“Gone? You mean dead?”
She stopped and her gaze turned thoughtful, her head tilted to one side. “Yes. No. I guess not. I just—”
David reached for Maria. If they were going to debate what to do next, if they were going to talk about his mother and how life was a bitch, they were going to do it sitting down. She resisted at first, but a slight tug pulled her to his side. He took the corner of the couch, and she sat next to him.
Close.
Closer than they’d been since he left California. The heat of her thigh pressed to his, then she leaned back, tucking herself behind his arm.
He was going to need to get used to having her near—if she decided to stay.
She might not! And he would be okay with her decision. Maybe.
“My mom left when I was nine.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shrugged. “Life.”
She took his hand. “But not really, David. I’m sorry”
Awkward had never been a feeling for him before, but he had the urge to squirm in his seat. Here she was, from a good, solid family. He didn’t want pity from her. It might not be her life or the usual life, but it was his life.
“You should know all the facts before you choose what you want to do, Maria. We like each other. We can make this work.”
“I can’t leave my family.”
Her words gave him pause. Weren’t they the words he’d wanted to hear his whole life? He’d been drawn to a woman who put family first. “I could be your family.”
She laughed with a shake of her head. “Because we like each other?”
“It’s better than the alternative.”
“Hating each other?”
“Actually…” He cleared his throat. “Loving each other.”
That shut her up, and she turned in the seat next to him. And stared. “Wow. She did a real job on you. You want me to stay here, live here for the rest of my life, raise our child, with no promise of love. To me, that is the promise for hate. What happens when one of us finally falls in love?”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“And you know this how?”
David nodded. This he could do. He was very good at planning and setting out boundaries. “Because there’ll be no stepping out. This is a commitment. If we do this…get married, that is, there will be no one else. For either of us.”
“No going back, eh?” He heard a spark of something dry and humorless in her voice, and when he looked, her face was quite serious.
He thought about what she said about not going back, though. “The Marches don’t take promises lightly…but, we could run a trial period and evaluate again later if you want.”
“What?”
“You keep saying that.”
“You’re crazy, David March. I can’t even keep up
with you. You want to marry me because we like each other, but you’re okay if things don’t work out and you’re willing to renege later, if that happens?”
“That wouldn’t be ideal—” he added. She was twisting his words.
She started to rise then stopped and turned on the couch, putting space between them. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“We’re stuck here for a while, until the storm lets up, anyway. Take some time to think about it. If you want numbers, I’ll give you numbers. You’d be well taken care of here, Ree. You’d never want for anything, I promise.”
“Okay.”
For a second, his heart soared.
“I’ll think about it.” Maria moved to get up. “You know, you might ask yourself, David, what happens if we fall in love?”
“People don’t have to fall. And what is love anyway? What we felt in California? Was that love? Or was it just physical attraction and a damn good fuck?” He forced himself to say the words, even when they turned his stomach. But she had to be realistic about this, too.
She bit at her lip, looking uncertain.
Guilt swamped him. He wouldn’t have been crude three months ago when they were together. He took her face in his hands. “We can choose to be together, Maria. We can build on mutual affection and similar interests. And we’ll always have the baby.”
Her brow rose. “And long walks on the beach?”
The line appeared between her eyes again, and then he did laugh.
“What are you laughing at? This is not funny.”
“Do you like to play board games? Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scattagories?”
“Oh,” she breathed and relaxed again on his lap. “We used to play a lot when we were kids. Cards, mostly. Euchre, Hearts…Poker. But I do like to play Monopoly,” she added hopefully.
“See?”
“No. I don’t. What am I supposed to see?”
“We could have a good life.”
She opened her mouth as if to protest and he lifted her, standing at the same time and set her down in front of him. “Come on. Let’s go shake off the serious, play a game.”
“Yes, I can see how this life of yours will be very satisfying. A woman couldn’t ask for more. Unless sex is included in this marriage, too?” Her eyes were narrowed again, speculation written in the dark brown depths of them.
