The Bride and the Bargain

by ALLISON LEIGH,

  The relief that crossed Jack’s face was almost comical. “Then I really don’t gotta go back to the apartment.”

  “You really don’t have to,” Gray corrected.

  “It wasn’t a bad place,” Jack said suddenly, as if he felt the need to correct the impression. “My mom wouldn’t have us living in a bad place.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s just. You know. Ty lives there.”

  “Ty, one of the guys you were with when you were picked up.”

  Jack nodded. “It wasn’t my idea, you know.”

  “So you weren’t the mastermind. Just the hired help.”

  “Dincha ever do stuff you didn’t want to have to do?”

  Gray shoved his hands in his pockets. If the kid only knew. “What exactly did you have to do?”

  “Ty told me to watch out for the store manager. Make sure he wasn’t watching.”

  “A brilliant assignment from him, given the security cameras all over the store.”

  “I know. I told him—”

  “But you still went along with him. Come on, Jack. Did you ever have something stolen from you?”

  “My bike a few years ago. It took us a year before I could get another one.”

  “How’d you feel?” He nodded at the boy’s grimace. “Why would you want to make someone else feel like that?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Then why did you try?”

  “’Cause it was the only way I could get Ty to shut up about Molly. He makes her feel even more stupid ’cause of her whispering.”

  Gray rubbed his hand down his face. He never thought he’d feel some sympathy for Harry’s uninvolved parenting methods, but now he did. “If today’s any indication, it sounds like she’s over that for now. You couldn’t have found a better way to deal with it?”

  Jack grimaced. “Next time I’ll just punch him in the face.”

  Gray let out a half laugh. “Yeah, kid. That’s a good alternative.”

  “Well…what was I supposed to do? Molly’s kind of a pain sometimes, but she’s my sister. Mom expects me to protect her.”

  “Protect her by helping her learn it doesn’t matter what people say about you. What matters is what you do and what you know is true.”

  “Figures you’d say something like that. Aunt Amelia says stuff like that, too.”

  “Says stuff like what?” Eyes still dancing, Amelia fairly floated to a stop behind them. She’d strapped Timmy again into his sling and looked so happy, so right, that Gray felt a jolt inside that went deeper than usual.

  “Was that one of the doctors who went in there?”

  Amelia nodded. She put her arm around Jack’s shoulders and squeezed. “Dr. Coats. She thinks your mom speaking even one word is a very good sign. Molly’s in there reciting her spelling words from school.” She brushed Jack’s bangs off his forehead. “Do you want to go on back and sit with her for a few more minutes? Dr. Coats doesn’t want your mom getting too tired, but said the more interaction she has right now, the better.”

  “You don’t want to be in there, too?” Gray asked when Jack—after a quick look toward Gray—headed back to his mother’s room.

  “I’ll have plenty of time to come sit with her when the kids are in school, and I am not,” she said pointedly. But, for once, she didn’t sound heated about it.

  “Thought you were determined to serve out your full notice.”

  “Mr. Nguyen brought around my replacement this afternoon. She can start immediately.”

  “Why wait until now to mention it?”

  “You don’t have the corner on pride, Gray. You’ll never know what it feels like to know how easily you can be replaced.”

  “It’s a job they’re filling. Nobody can replace you.”

  “Very tactfully put,” she said. Her smile said that nothing was going to ruin her enthusiasm just then.

  Gray found himself wishing that he knew how to make sure nothing ever did.

  “I forgot to ask earlier. Did the news release go out? Usually, there’s a radio going in the teachers’s lounge, but there wasn’t today.”

  “It’s probably going out right now. Our media department wants to hold a press conference tomorrow. You’ll need to be there.”

  Her eyes widened. “What for?”

  “To stand beside your man,” he drawled, watching the interesting flush rise and fall in her cheeks. “Think you can do that without looking like you’d just as soon stick a fork in me?”

  “I imagine I can suffer through,” she returned, deadpan.

  He couldn’t help smiling. She did have an ironic sense of humor that he could appreciate. “It’ll be at the shack. Harry won’t do it elsewhere. Says that now he’s out of HuntCom’s daily operations, he doesn’t want to go to the offices again.”

  “You’re kidding!”

  “He’s ornery. He’s doing what he has to do, but he’s damn sure going to make it as inconvenient on the rest of us as he can while he’s about it.”

  She pressed her lips together.

  “What?”

  “Just…well—” a dimple came and went in her cheek “—kind of sounds like your apple didn’t fall far from his tree.”

  “I don’t need any reminders of how much like Harry I am.”

  “Can’t be such a bad thing. Look what you were willing to do to make him happy.”

  “It wasn’t selfless.”

  She was swaying slightly, a human rocking chair for her nephew. “Because you got the chairmanship, as well.” She lifted her shoulder. “Did you think I’d miss that not-so-small detail? The timing is too coincidental.”

  “You’re not going to give me hell for not disclosing that fact?”

  There was a flicker in that happy expression of hers. “We’re little more than strangers to each other, Gray. What do you think?”

  “I think we stopped being strangers two weeks ago.”

  “We met two weeks ago.”

  “Yes.”

  Tension suddenly hung in the air and Gray couldn’t tell if it was stemming from him, or from her. Or from both of them.

  He wasn’t used to being unable to read situations. People. Himself. And he wasn’t certain how he felt about it. Annoyed. Disconcerted. Relieved.

  Her lashes had lowered. She moistened her lips. “So, um, what were you and Jack discussing so seriously?”

  “Guy stuff.”

  She made a soft mmm sound. Her hand had gone from patting Timmy’s back to moving around in slow, distracting circles. “I know it’s early yet, but I do appreciate the way you’ve all been with Jack and Molly. And I might think a nanny is overkill, but the nursery you arranged for Timmy is pretty spectacular.” She looked around. The nurse had left her station and was nowhere in sight. “I know it’s for appearances, but still. Thank you.”

  “It’s not all appearances, Amelia.”

  The amber flecks in her eyes seemed to multiply. “If I let myself start thinking that way, then—”

  “Then, what?”

  “Then I might start…liking you,” she finally admitted.

  “We’re married,” he said drily. “Things would be easier if you did.”

  “And harder still when it all ends. Not just for the children.”

  “More of that cynicism of yours?”

  “I prefer to think of it as experience, rather than cynicism. But neither really matters. Our agreement has a finite term, remember?”

  “And if it didn’t?”

  She smiled skeptically. “Then neither one of us would have agreed to it. We’re—” she hesitated, searching for a word “—useful to one another for now. That’s all.”

  Gray couldn’t argue with the very argument he’d used to convince her to sign away her singlehood.

  “In any case, my sister spoke today for the first time in more than three months. And Molly, too…” She lifted her hands. The skepticism faded from her smile, and she was simply a woman whose faith in her sister’s recovery h
ad received a well-needed boost. “Whatever I agreed to was worth this. So.” Her dimple winked at him again as she stood on the tiptoes of her navy-blue shoes and pressed an unexpected kiss to his cheek. “Thank you.”

  He couldn’t help himself. He turned his head and covered her mouth with his. Swallowed the sexy little gasp she gave and made himself stop the kiss before he forgot where they were.

  She went back down on her heels, looking suddenly shy.

  “I, um, I’d better go back to Daphne.”

  “Yes.”

  She flushed a little. Then turned on her heel as she headed toward her sister’s room once more.

  Watching her go, Gray wondered if her gratitude would last long enough to survive Harry’s suspicion where Daphne’s baby was concerned. If it would survive his own suspicion that was occurring to him now, thanks to Jack’s comment about that birthmark. A suspicion that would complicate the situation even more if Gray was right.

  He doubted it. And the fact that he wished her gratitude would last—that it could—disturbed him more than anything.

  “Amelia,” he called suddenly.

  She stopped. Looked at him. Ran the tip of her tongue over her lower lip. “Yes?”

  “You want to go running in the morning?”

  Her lips parted. “I, um, I’m really not much of a runner,” she admitted.

  Given the situation, he’d suspected as much. “Is that a yes, or a no?”

  He saw the swallow that worked down her long throat. The look she gave toward her sister’s room. The uncertainty in her eyes when she finally looked back at him.

  “Yes. I’d like that.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Happy birthday, Amelia, happy birthday to you!”

  Amelia laughed and leaned over the enormous birthday cake that was decorated with about a million and a half yellow icing roses. She took a deep breath and blew out the candles.

  All thirty-one of them.

  Around the big dining room table in the main dining room, the guests they’d invited to the birthday celebration that Gray had insisted on cheered.

  Even Daphne, sitting between Amelia and Molly clapped. The motion was stilted and awkward, but Daphne managed it. And the smile on her face was slightly crooked. But it was still a smile. It was her first visit to the shack, and as far as Amelia was concerned, it was a raving success. She hoped they’d be able to repeat it soon, but Dr. Jackson was still urging some caution where Daphne’s long-term memory was concerned.

  “Well, let’s not just admire the cake,” Cornelia said humorously. “Let’s have some.” She lifted the mother-of-pearl-handled knife that one of the maids had brought to the table along with the cake. “Shall I?”

  Amelia happily waved away the duty to her. She sat down next to Daphne and squeezed her hand. Daphne’s squeeze in return was weak, but it was there.

  “Here.” Gray, sitting on the other side of Amelia, slid a slender box onto the table where the maids had already cleared the table to make way for dessert.

  She looked at the box—clearly a jewelry box. “But you already gave me a birthday present.” It sat, gleaming red and sleek, in the driveway outside their wing. She’d nearly fallen over in her tracks when he’d presented her with the keys to the fancy little car.

  In the days since he’d taken over Harry’s position at HuntCom, they’d only seen each other on the mornings he’d been able to fit in a run. The rest of the time he’d been dealing with the changeover at HuntCom. He was always up before she woke and didn’t come to bed until after she was asleep. The only proof that he’d been there at all was the scent of him on the dented pillow beside her. But he never failed to call and talk to the kids at least once a day and now that they were on their summer break from school, both Molly and Jack raced for the phone when it rang in the middle of the afternoons.

  And those predawn runs with him were becoming dangerously addictive for Amelia.

  “Consider this a one-month anniversary gift,” he said.

  “You going to be that attentive after a few years?” J.T. asked humorously. Only Justin and Lily hadn’t been able to make it for Amelia’s birthday. They were at the ranch in Idaho with little Ava, who was suffering from chicken pox, though they expected to make it for HuntCom’s official reception honoring Harry’s retirement that was being held in a few weeks. The planning for it had been in the works for some time, now. Amelia actually found herself looking forward to seeing the house’s enormous reception hall put to use. She’d even been able to contribute her part by pulling together a historical perspective of other HuntCom celebrations. Ones that weren’t already chronicled in the gallery above the reception hall.

  She’d thought she’d have time heavy on her hands without her position at Brandlebury. But Gray had been right. She seemed constantly on the move and had to work hard to keep time reserved for the children.

  “Aren’t you going to be that attentive?” Amy challenged her husband and everyone laughed.

  “You going to open it or just look at it?” Jack wanted to know, peering across the wide table at them.

  Flushing, avoiding Gray’s eyes, she pulled off the gold bow and paper and flipped open the box.

  Everything female inside her sighed at the lovely diamond pendant nestled against the white velvet lining. “I don’t know what to say.” Mindful of Harry watching from his position at the head of the table, she leaned closer to Gray. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

  “I was able to find the same designer who did Cornelia’s necklace from George. I thought you’d like it.”

  Her lips parted. “You went to that trouble?”

  He smiled slightly. “Had to, since Loretta’s been so busy working on Harry’s reception,” he murmured before brushing his lips over hers a little more slowly than he needed. She felt herself flush and busied herself lifting the necklace from the box. She held it out to show Daphne. Her sister’s eyes smiled more easily than the rest of her, but the smile was still that of one to a virtual stranger. Daphne recognized her and the children as family only because she’d been told it so often. But the “connection” was still missing. Amelia was facing the likelihood that it would remain lost.

  “I might never take it off,” Amelia warned, fitting the clasp around her neck. The delicate pendant settled like a tiny, warm caress in the hollow of her throat.

  “Like your A pin. Did you get something for Uncle Gray?” Molly asked above the collective oohs from the women around the table. She hadn’t returned to her whispers-only habit since they’d visited her mother that day with Gray. She had to speak up to be heard because not only were Amy and P.J. there with their husbands, but Paula and even two of Cornelia’s four daughters had been able to make it. It was Amelia’s first chance to meet “the cousins” as Gray called the women, since none had been able to make their hurriedly scheduled wedding. All four would be officially on hand for the HuntCom event, though.

  “I should have thought of something,” Amelia answered Molly.

  “I don’t think your uncle Gray is too worried about it, honey,” Frankie said, looking amused. Fortunately, for the sake of the youngsters, she refrained from speculating what sort of gift Gray could expect from his new wife.

  “Hush your mouth,” Cornelia scolded lightly as she passed out china plates laden with hefty slices of the moist, white cake. She gave Amelia the first slice. “There you go, dear. I hope the coming year holds everything you deserve.”

  “I’ll second that.” Harry lifted his champagne flute. “We need some refills, here. Corny, where’d that maid get off to?”

  Georgie, Cornelia’s eldest, rolled her eyes and went to the sideboard to retrieve two bottles that had been chilling on ice. One champagne, and one sparkling cider. “We can rough it,” she said drily, and handed one of the bottles to Gray, who sat closest to Harry. Twin pops filled the air as they uncorked them almost simultaneously. Then she began working her way around the table, filling the crystal flutes set near ea
ch place. The children automatically received cider, as did Amy, whose pregnancy was just now a soft bump beneath her eyelet sundress.

  When Georgie reached for P.J.’s glass, though, the redhead slid her hand over the top. “I’ll have cider, too,” she said, then seemed to color at finding herself the center of all attention.

  Amelia tucked the tip of her tongue between her teeth. She’d noticed that P.J. hadn’t drunk the wine she’d been served with dinner but had said nothing. But now—

  “No alcohol for me,” P.J. admitted, looking toward her husband for some assistance. Gray’s middle brother just sat there looking like the cat who ate the canary, and tossing up her hands a little, the woman looked around. “And before anyone gets too excited, we’re just trying to get pregnant. It’s a long shot.”

  “But even if we don’t,” Alex added, his gaze on his wife, “we’ve gotten our names on several adoption-agency lists.”

  “Wonderful.” Harry exclaimed, looking more satisfied than Alex, if that were possible. “Well done, son. P.J., you’ll be a fine mother, whenever the day comes. I for one couldn’t be happier.” He lifted his champagne glass in a toast. “Unless—” His crafty gaze turned toward Gray and Amelia.

  From the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, Amelia felt her skin heat. Beneath the cover of the heavy linen draped over the table, Gray closed his hand over hers. “Unless nothing, Harry,” he warned easily. “Good luck to you both. I know my brother can’t be unhappy at all that trying.” Laughter circled the table once more and Cornelia settled a piece of cake in front of Harry, which seemed enough to distract him from further speculation.

  Before Amelia knew it, the evening had slipped away. Daphne had been returned to the care center along with the private nurse that Gray had arranged to accompany her on the outing. The children had turned in and a look in on Timmy assured her that the baby was still asleep, as Bonny had reported before excusing herself for the night.

  Her finger drifting over the diamond at her neck, Amelia headed along the hallway to her own bedroom. As usual, Gray was not there. If he was home in the evening hours—which was fairly rare—he spent most of his time working in his study. Tonight, she found herself wishing he weren’t.