by Unknown
He hugged her and Jessie, then kissed them both. The baby held her arms out and Mike took her, holding her close with one arm while he draped his other arm around Savannah’s shoulders. They went back into the house.
“Let me take care of Jessie tonight, okay?” he said.
“That means feeding her.”
“Fine with me. And then when she’s asleep, I have plans for you and me.”
Savannah smiled.
Mike fed and changed Jessie, lying on the floor in the family room to play with her until she took her last bottle and he rocked her to sleep. He returned to the family room and switched off all the lights but a small one in the bar. Then he crossed the room to pull Savannah into his arms.
The following morning, before Constance had arrived and while Jessie was still asleep, Mike turned to look at Savannah, who was pulling on her skirt and had already fastened the buttons on her green blouse.
“Have lunch with me today,” he said. “We need to talk.”
“This sounds serious,” she said. “Business?”
He nodded and she realized he was worried. “What is it?” she asked.
“We both have to go to work, and Jessie could wake any minute. I think I should tell you at lunch. Actually, I meant to tell you last night.”
“Now you have to tell me,” she said curiously as she crossed the room and put her arms around his waist. “What is it?”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“Try me,” she said, barely thinking about business. Most of her attention was on him and how in love she was with him. She wished they could just stay home all day and not have to see anyone else except Jessie. “Mike, I’m so glad you like Jessie.”
“Of course, I like her. Savannah, pay attention. I know who has the tie to that new law company.”
Eleven
“I saw those three men in the firm in Austin and they were having lunch with Troy.”
Savannah stared at Mike, then shook her head in disbelief. “No. You’re wrong. Troy wouldn’t do that to me. He might have found them just like you did and wants to get to know them for business reasons, but not what you’re talking about.”
“I think Troy is the one who is behind your loss of clients,” Mike said, pulling on his charcoal suit coat.
“I’m sure he can explain having lunch with them.”
“I’d rather you didn’t confront him with it yet. I want to check into some more things. Do you have an agreement where, if either of you leaves the firm, you can’t take clients with you?”
“Yes, we do, but you’re wrong, Mike. Troy and I have known each other for years. It was out of mutual respect and trust that we went into business together.”
“You’ve told me that your firm was almost nothing when you both started and John Frates’s business really gave you a boost.”
“That’s true, but Troy wouldn’t lure away our people to help another agency. I know he wouldn’t,” she said, moving away from Mike and thinking about what he had told her. “I’m as sure of that as I’m sure of myself. And it doesn’t make sense, either. It hurts him financially as much as it hurts me.”
“You might be wrong. Let me check a little further before you talk to him,” Mike repeated.
“He’ll have a good reason for being with those Austin attorneys. I trust Troy like a brother. You back off and leave him alone.”
“You’re being stubborn again,” Mike said.
“You can’t imagine how absurd you’re being. The man is not going to rip off the company he’s in.”
“He might if he can make a lot more money elsewhere. Or if he’s angry because you wouldn’t date him. Savannah, you listen to your heart more than your head,” Mike said, becoming annoyed with her and remembering how stubborn she’d been when they’d first met. “It makes sense. You’ve lost clients. They’ve all gone with one company that’s new. You don’t know any of the lawyers in the firm and Troy has had lunch with them. Will you stop and think logically?”
“You’re the one who isn’t thinking logically. Troy wouldn’t do that to me, and if he did, he would be hurting himself as much as me. You just don’t like him. Forget Troy or get off the case.”
“Even if Troy is the one sabotaging your firm?”
“I simply know he’s not. I’m going to ask him.”
“You’re so damned stubborn, Savannah.”
“No one can be more stubborn than you are,” she retorted.
They glared at each other. Suddenly Jessie’s crying came over the intercom, and Savannah went to tend to her. When Constance arrived, Savannah returned to the master bedroom and found it empty.
She wanted to tell Mike to forget the case, yet she knew she needed to find out if someone was deliberately trying to sabotage the firm. But she was sure it wasn’t Troy, and she intended to ask him about his acquaintance with the attorneys in Austin.
That evening, she waited for Mike to get home, glad when Jessie took a late nap so she could talk to Mike without interruption.
Savannah was on the patio when he came striding out. He had changed into jeans and a T-shirt, and in spite of her anger with him, her pulse still jumped at the sight of him.
He sat down facing her, studying her intently. “So he gave you a good excuse,” Mike said.
“What makes you think that?”
“It shows. You look happy, smug even. If he hadn’t been able to talk his way out of it, you’d be upset.”
“Yes, I would have, but Troy had a perfectly logical answer. He’s been investigating on his own—he’s used a private detective—and he wanted to meet those attorneys and talk to them. You just happened to see him on the day he met with them.”
“And you believed him,” Mike said.
“Yes, I did. I want you to leave Troy alone. Stop following him.”
“There’s no need to now. You’ve alerted him to what I’m doing.”
“And when you do, it won’t be Troy and you’ll owe both me and Troy an apology.”
“Maybe you, never Troy. And I don’t see any need in arguing over apologies because I don’t think I’m going to have to make any.”
“You can be insufferably sure of yourself.”
“I’m not the only one, Savannah,” he said, standing and staring at her. A muscle worked in his jaw, and in that moment she realized that she was going to lose him.
When he turned and left, she was tempted to call after him, but she bit her lip, kept quiet and let him go.
She could go after him, tell him to go ahead and investigate Troy. Would that smooth things over and put them back where they had been? She doubted it. Mike was inordinately stubborn, yet if he persisted, he would find if someone was deliberately causing her to lose clients and he would find that it wasn’t Troy.
By the time he discovered the truth, irreparable harm might have already been done to their relationship because already the golden glow they had been wrapped in was gone. Savannah hurt and wondered if it was worth it to defend Troy to the extent that she lost Mike, yet she knew she had never really had Mike anyway.
Hours past midnight she lay in the big bed all alone and wondered where he was sleeping—or if he was sleeping. Was he as miserable as she was?
By Friday, Mike hardly saw Savannah alone. He saw her when they were both with Jessie, but those were the only times. He knew he had to make some decisions, because his investigation of Troy had angered her beyond anything he could have imagined. He would have thought she was in love with the guy, except she had been firm about refusing to date Troy, and there was no reason for her to tell him anything except the truth.
Did he want to go back to his life in Washington? Mike mulled it over, wondering if he wound up proving to Savannah that it was Troy sabotaging the firm, she would hate him for it.
Mike knew that if he left Savannah, he would be tied forever to Jessie. He couldn’t walk away from the little girl now. She was his. She bore his name and she was his daughter legally, and as far as
Mike was concerned, she really was his daughter.
He loved her. He didn’t have to question his feelings for Jessie at all. It was impossible not to love her.
He always came back around to what he felt for Savannah. How deep did his feelings run and could they survive this latest, big clash?
When the weekend came, he packed and flew to Washington, renewing acquaintances, returning to his old life. Saturday night, as he switched off the lights in his hotel room and looked out the window at the city he loved, he ached with longing for Savannah.
Savannah didn’t hear from Mike all weekend or for all of Monday. She didn’t know where he was and wondered if he had gone back to Washington to rethink his life.
She missed him more than she’d thought possible and now she wished she hadn’t fought with him about Troy. She no longer cared, although she knew she should. The firm wasn’t as important as home and family. Family had always been the most important thing in her life and it still was. She missed Mike, knew Jessie missed him, and it wasn’t worth defending Troy to lose Mike. Time would tell whether Troy was involved with the law firm in Austin.
Mike’s absence might not be about the issue of Troy at all. Jessie was adopted now, and according to their agreement, that was all Mike had to stick around for; he was free. The fact that they had become physically intimate, Savannah suspected, wouldn’t, in Mike’s view, change anything in their agreement.
She wondered whether he would come back to Texas or if he’d already walked out of her life, not to return for a long time and then only to get the divorce.
By midmorning, Savannah knew her mind wasn’t on work. In an uncustomary move, she gave up trying to work and told the receptionist she was going home. She sent Constance home, because the only thing Savannah wanted was to be with Jessie.
In early afternoon, when Jessie had gone down for her nap, Savannah wandered around the huge house, remembering Mike in every room she entered. She was tempted to try to find him, just to talk to him, but she knew that was futile. If he had made up his mind to leave, she wouldn’t be able to talk him out of it. Nor would she even want to.
He either loved her and would return or he wouldn’t. She thought he loved Jessie, but even if he did love Jessie, that would not be enough to get him to return to Texas if he wanted out of the marriage.
Savannah was certain Mike wasn’t in Texas. She’d called his office early this morning and gotten no answer. She had his cell-phone number and could call him on that, but she was reluctant. If he had left Texas for Washington, then he was thinking about leaving her, and she knew she had to let him go.
That was their agreement, and she had walked into their relationship with her eyes wide open and fully knowing that he wasn’t into lasting commitment. He had warned her from the first that he wasn’t, yet why did she think what they had was unique, once-in-a-lifetime special? Probably every woman who had loved him had thought the same thing.
She had thought about calling him to tell him that she no longer cared whether he investigated Troy or not. Yet she knew that doing so wouldn’t change anything, because there would always be issues between them where they didn’t agree and each one thought the other incredibly stubborn and willful. It always came back to the fact that they were too much alike in some ways.
Savannah wiped away tears, realizing it was the first time in her life she had cried over a man. She was hurting and she wanted Mike back, and she wished she could undo what she had done, yet she knew Troy wasn’t the real issue. Sooner or later, Mike had to make a decision just as she had made a decision about this marriage, a marriage that had started without love and was only a means to an end. For her it had turned into love, and she had wanted Mike to feel the same.
“Mike,” she whispered, looking out the window and wishing she would see him coming up the drive, but the drive was as empty as her heart.
As he flew back to Texas, Mike stared out the window of the plane. He could only see images of Savannah, not the blue sky or clouds. Never had he felt this way about a woman. A million times each day he thought about her. Too many times to count over the weekend, he had reached for the phone to call her, only to stop at the last moment. He missed her and wanted her, and he wanted to go back to Texas to the life they’d had before he’d laid out his suspicions about Troy.
Yet Mike was certain he was right about Troy. He just had to figure a way to prove it.
If Troy was tearing up their firm, what did he have to gain that was so much better than remaining partners with Savannah? Mike knew he needed to be able to answer that question.
He wondered about the firm’s finances and if he could get Savannah to hire an outside accountant to audit her books.
If Troy was the guilty party, would that kill any chance Mike had of getting back with Savannah?
Should he give up his investigation into the loss of clients? Mike knew he either had to prove it was Troy or resign from the job before he could expect to get back together with Savannah.
It was impossible to think long about Troy, because Savannah dominated his thoughts and dreams. Mike ached for her, thought about her constantly.
All weekend he had hardly slept. Each night when he finally went to bed, he would lie in the dark and hurt, wanting Savannah in his arms.
He could drop his pursuit of Troy. Was that as important as his relationship with Savannah? Savannah was financially secure, so why was this such an issue?
Mike knew that it angered him that she didn’t trust him. She had taken Troy’s side against him and, to Mike’s thinking, unreasonably so. And they would always clash because they were both willful. So it got back to making up his mind which life he wanted—his old one in Washington or his new one in Texas with Savannah and Jessie. A solitary life versus a life of love. It wasn’t a difficult choice.
Mike wondered what Savannah was doing right now. He looked at the sky and thought about Savannah under the same sky, so far away in Texas.
In passion she had whispered, “I love you.” Words he had never told her or any other woman. Yet he knew now that he did love Savannah, that he wanted her back in his arms and in a real marriage.
He raked his fingers through his hair and reached for the airline phone on the back of the seat in front of him. Then he realized he wanted to talk to her in person, not on an airplane phone from a thousand miles away.
He loved his wife and he missed her, and today he was going back to Texas and hopefully tonight he could tell her. But there was something he needed to do first.
When Savannah didn’t hear from Mike on Monday, and then Tuesday came, she was certain he’d decided to return to Washington and his former life. Unable to concentrate and hurting badly, she took another day off work. Several times during the day, she reached for the phone to call Mike, but each time she stopped, knowing he’d made his decision and talking to him wouldn’t change it.
Late in the afternoon, Savannah heard a car and raced to the window to look out. Her heart thudded when she saw Mike’s car go around the house to park in back.
She raced through the house, flung open the back door and ran out to meet him. She threw her arms around him without waiting to see if he’d come to get his things and say goodbye, or if he’d come to stay.
“I missed you!” she said, pulling his head down to kiss him. His strong arms wrapped around her and he kissed her passionately, and it was then she was certain he hadn’t come home to tell her goodbye. At least not yet.
He picked her up and carried her into the house, still kissing her. He kicked the back door closed behind him and suddenly her longing for him changed to an urgent desire for total intimacy, the union of hearts, as well as bodies.
Mike set her feet on the floor and raised his head. “Where’s Jessie?”
“Asleep,” Savannah said, pulling him back for her kiss, while she tugged loose his tie and unbuttoned his shirt. Mike unfastened her skirt and twisted free the buttons on her blouse. In minutes, clothes were strewn aside,
and he leaned back against the door, picking her up again.
Savannah locked her legs around his strong body as he lowered her onto his thick shaft. They moved wildly. She wanted him beyond all else. She clung to his shoulders as urgency intensified into frenzy. Mike raised his head. “Savannah, I love you!”
Dimly she heard his words over her roaring pulse, but she was immersed in a raging need.
“Mike!” she cried later. “Mike, I want you!”
Words were gone as she exploded over a brink and rapture replaced need. While she clung to him, she felt his release, and then slowly they drifted back to awareness. He kissed her long and hard, lowering her to her feet.
“Let’s go up to bed,” she murmured, nuzzling his neck, her cheek tickled by the faint stubble of his beard.
When he framed her face with his hands, she looked up into his dark-brown eyes.
“I love you,” he declared firmly.
“Oh, Mike!” Her heart pounded. “I love you and I’ve missed you. I don’t care about Troy or the firm. They’re not important. You’re all—”
His mouth covered hers so hungrily that she trembled. Leaving their clothes behind, he carried her up to the shower, which they shared. Then when he had a towel around his middle and she had pulled on a terry robe, he headed for the bathroom door.
“I’ll be right back. Don’t go away,” he said.
She laughed and held out her hands. “Where would I go?”
He smiled and left, and she began to blow-dry her hair. In minutes, he was back. He turned off the dryer and took it from her hands to set it down, then led her into their bedroom.
“Let’s talk while we have a chance before Jessie wakes up,” he said solemnly. She nodded as he moved to the small sofa and sat, pulling her down on his lap. He held out his hand. “I got this for you.”
A small, black-velvet box nestled in the palm of his hand. As she took it, Savannah looked at him questioningly, then opened the lid. Nestled inside was a sapphire-and-diamond ring.
