Married by Accident

by Christine Rimmer

  Looking into her young friend’s innocent eyes, Melinda realized she felt truly understood, perhaps for the first time in her life. “We do have a lot in common, you and I.”

  Annie nodded. “Maybe that’s why we get along so great.”

  Cole came striding in a moment later. He started to smile—and then he saw Melinda, perched on the chair she’d pulled up close to Annie’s bed. “I thought you’d be long gone by now.”

  “Cole!” Annie cried in reproach. “You make it sound like you wish she’d left.”

  He had the grace to look chagrined. “Sorry. It just surprised me, to see you here. I thought you’d have to head on back to work.”

  Annie cast a questioning glance at Melinda, a glance Melinda read as if her friend had spoken aloud: Should I tell him? Melinda looked down, gave a tiny shake of her head. She did not feel, at that moment, like telling Cole Yuma that she no longer had a job.

  She said, “No, actually. I don’t have to go back to work today.” She realized then how she intended to spend her afternoon, so she told him, “I thought I’d just help out, with getting Annie and the baby all settled at home.”

  Chapter Six

  What kind of game did this woman think she was playing here? Cole Yuma asked himself.

  Whatever it was, he didn’t like it one bit.

  A few hours ago, she’d let him kiss her and feel her body all along his and start thinking crazy things that probably never could be. And then she’d sent him off with a bulge in his britches.

  So all right. He’d gone back to his motel room and taken a cold shower and told himself that he accepted her rejection. He’d come to L.A. to drag his baby sister back home where she belonged, not to fall for some soft, sweet-smelling city girl who looked like a movie star and openly admitted she didn’t know what the hell to do with her life. He’d decided that when he had to see her that afternoon, he’d focus on how good-hearted she’d been to stick by Annie while the baby was being born. He wouldn’t let himself think about the way her mouth had opened under his, about the sweetness inside there, about her breasts pressing into his shirt.

  He’d reminded himself of the obvious: that he was thirty years old. A mature man. A man who understood that sometimes a woman said yes and sometimes she said no and if it didn’t work out, you just let it go.

  Before he’d headed for the hospital this morning, he’d made a point to have his insurance number handy, so he could pass it right to her when she showed up. He’d thought she’d pat Annie’s hand and coo over Brady a little and then be on her way.

  Then, when he’d arrived at the hospital and found out they were letting Annie go home that day, he’d even dared to hope he might get them out of there before the woman arrived. He had that card she’d given him, after all. He could call her if he had to, to deal with the insurance thing.

  But no such luck. She’d come early. And showed no inclination to leave right away. So he had left, positive she’d have the consideration to be out of there when he returned.

  Wrong again. Because here she was, giving him that false, bright smile, telling him she’d be hanging around for the rest of the afternoon. And there was Annie, just lit up like a lightning bug over the idea that her new friend wanted to spend her day hanging all over her and the baby.

  That soft mouth that he’d kissed started talking again. “I was thinking that since Brady’s new seat is in my car, maybe Annie and the baby could go ahead and ride with me.”

  Annie beamed in pleasure. “That would be just fine.”

  It would not be fine, Cole wanted to shout. It would not be fine at all! But he knew what an ass he would sound like if he said that. So he didn’t say it. He’d been brought up right, raised to behave like a gentleman, no matter what he felt inside. And a damn gentleman he would be.

  “I’ll check with the nurse, then,” he said quietly. “See if they’re ready to let you out of here.”

  Cole made arrangements to have Annie’s hospital bill sent to him in Texas. Then he carried Annie’s things down and put them in his pickup. That accomplished, he went back up to accompany Annie and the baby down to Melinda’s car. Following the hospital’s rule, Annie rode in a wheelchair, with Brady in her arms. An orderly pushed the chair. Cole and Melinda trailed along behind. Cole told himself that the way she avoided his eyes was just fine with him. He didn’t want to look at her, either.

  Once they reached the big ramp that led to the parking area from just beyond the wide front doors, Annie was allowed to walk. The orderly wished them well and wheeled the chair back inside.

  Melinda led the way then. Cole tried not to stare at her sweetly swaying bottom as she strode between the rows of cars, her blond head high, the long, tempting muscles of her calves flexing with every step.

  Naturally it took him five damn minutes to figure out how to get the car seat hooked up right. Melinda stood behind him, giving him more helpful suggestions than he needed by a long shot, as Annie cooed to the baby, who had started to cry.

  “I’ll get my truck and come around here, then you can follow me,” he said when the thing was finally in place, immovable on the rear seat, facing toward the back.

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Melinda said. “Annie knows the way, don’t you?” She looked at Annie, who was still making little croony noises at his yowling nephew.

  Annie said, “Yeah. It’s all right, Cole. We’ll just meet you there.”

  He felt betrayed—by his own damn sister. And the baby would not shut up. “Fine. However you want it.”

  Annie put Brady on her shoulder, rocked side to side and patted his back. “And don’t worry if we take a while. I think I might have to nurse him before we can go.”

  “Can’t you do that on the way?”

  Brady hiccuped and wailed all the louder. Annie rubbed his back some more. “There, there, honey. It’s all right. Mama’s here...” Eventually she remembered to answer his question. “Oh, Cole.” She shot him a pained look. “What’s the point of a car seat if you don’t use it?”

  He really hated the obvious logic in that. It was something he should have known—would have known, if not for his screaming nephew and the woman who stood just a little off to the side, those full lips of hers smiling indulgently, her silky hair, the color of ripe wheat, blowing gently in the faint breeze.

  Those full lips said, “Really, Cole. You go on ahead. We’ll be fine.”

  What else could he do? He turned around and left them there, more relieved than he should have been to get shut of all three of them, for a little while at least.

  As soon as Cole was gone, Melinda settled Annie and the baby in the front seat and opened all the windows, so they wouldn’t be too hot. Annie unbuttoned her shirt and pushed the cup of her bra down beneath her round, swollen breast. Melinda went around and slid into the driver’s seat as Brady latched on like the hungry baby he was. He sighed and let out little snorting noises that made both Melinda and Annie grin.

  “I think we’re leamin’ how to do this,” Annie said.

  “It looks like it to me.”

  “I should probably put him on the other side, too,” Annie said apologetically after Brady had nursed for several minutes.

  Melinda nodded. “Definitely. And there’s no hurry.” She thought of Cole as she said that. He’d seemed so impatient when he left them. He probably wouldn’t appreciate waiting too long at Annie’s for them to show up. But it couldn’t be helped. The baby came first. “Just take your time.”

  Another fifteen minutes had gone by before they had Brady strapped safely into his seat and started on their way. Ten minutes after that, they arrived at Annie’s East Hollywood apartment.

  “Oh, look,” Annie said. “We got lucky. There’s a free space right there, just in front of the walk.”

  Melinda parallel-parked, pulling up and then swinging back against the curb, next to the cracked and broken sidewalk. She glanced out Annie’s window and saw what would probably be called a “gard
en apartment,” a pair of long, stucco structures perpendicular to the street. A narrow courtyard ran between, with a concrete walk and little plots of white rock and century plants flanking each front step. At the rear of the walk, a two-story building faced the street.

  Annie saw the direction of her gaze. “Movie stars used to stay here, back in the twenties and thirties, can you believe it?”

  Melinda couldn’t. The place had a very Hollywood, Day of the Locusts sort of charm. But it hardly seemed suitable to house the rich and famous.

  Annie read her doubtful look. “I’m serious. Clark Gable and Carol Lombard, Jean Harlow...you name it. They stayed in my apartment building when they worked at Paramount. Because they built these apartments as trailers, so the stars could come and rest in them when they were working on the lot. Jimmy told me that.” Her voice lost its brightness as she said her husband’s name. “He learned it from the manager, Mrs. Lucas.” Annie sighed. “Mrs. Lucas really liked Jimmy. He used to help her out sometimes, you know, when she needed a handyman around the place?” She was twisting her wedding ring as she spoke.

  Melinda reached across the console and put her hand. over Annie’s. The twisting stopped beneath her palm. “You miss him. A lot.”

  “Oh, Melinda. It’s like an aching, down inside me. Always there. Sometimes I can ignore it. But then something reminds me of him, and I know it will never, ever really go away—not until he comes back to me.”

  Melinda might have said, You think that’s bad? Wait until it does go away, and you’re left with only emptiness....

  But what possible good could there be in a comment like that? She gave her friend’s hand a squeeze. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”

  Cole stuck his head out of the door of the second apartment on the right as Annie led the way up the walk. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d managed to get yourselves into another wreck.”

  “Nope,” Annie said. “Here we are all safe and sound.”

  Cole’s tense face eased as he looked at his sister with her sleeping son cradled in her arms. But then he glanced past her and saw Melinda. The indulgent look vanished. “Where’s your car?”

  Melinda turned and pointed. “Right there, in front of the building.”

  “I’ll go get the car seat and that other stuff you bought and be right back. Give me your keys.” Melinda handed them over. He left the door open for them and went past them, down the walk.

  Annie led the way inside. The apartment was a single. The bed took up half the room. The baby’s crib and bureau/ changing table—both obviously new and inexpensive—consumed a good deal of the remaining space. There was a door on the right, no doubt to the bathroom, and a curtained arch near the bed that must have masked a closet. The tiny kitchen could be reached through an open doorway to the left of the curtained arch. A glance in there showed Melinda a section of counter, a sink—and a small window that looked across a driveway at the side of the building next door.

  Cole had already brought Annie’s things in from the pickup. Her suitcase sat by the closet curtain. He’d put the floppy-eared bunny in the crib and set the bouquet on a little table by the door.

  “It’s not much, but it’s home,” Annie said too brightly.

  Is it really? Melinda wanted to ask. Oh, Annie, do you even have a car? L.A. isn’t cheap. Cole will have to go back to Texas soon, won’t he? And how will you manage here with no husband to provide for you, no family nearby and a newborn to care for?

  Annie seemed to hear the hard questions, though Melinda hadn’t voiced them. She spoke firmly, tilting her chin bravely upward. “Don’t you go worryin’. I’m tougher than I look right now. I still have a little money. Jimmy left me everything we had. And honestly, I do know him. I know him to his soul. He’ll come back. And when he does, we’ll be here.”

  Melinda couldn’t help herself. She protested, “But yesterday, you told me you really did want to go back to Texas.”

  “Well, I can’t. It would just kill my dad, to see me this way, with a baby and no husband in sight.”

  “You can’t be sure of that.”

  “I’m sure enough—and here’s Cole. I can’t wait to really get a look at what else you went and bought for Brady.” She put the baby on her shoulder, opened the door and stepped back for Cole to enter. “Just put the car seat over there. And lay everything else on the bed.”

  His face a grim mask, Cole followed his sister’s instructions, pausing only to toss Melinda her car keys. Annie changed Brady’s diaper and put him in his crib. Then she oohed and ahhed over the little shirts and the soft receiving blankets, the tiny booties and rompers that Melinda had found during her shopping spree.

  “I suppose I ought to wash all these before I use them,” Annie said.

  Melinda agreed that was a good idea. New clothing was usually treated with sizing, and that could be irritating to a baby’s skin. “I’ll just take it all back to my house, why don’t I? I’ll run them through my washer and—”

  Cole interrupted her. “There’s a coin laundry in back. I’ll wash them there.”

  “But I really don’t mind at all.”

  “Forget it,” he said flatly. “It’s no problem to do it here.”

  “Cole’s right,” Annie said. “It’ll be easy for us to wash them.” She grinned. “And if you’re lookin’ for an excuse to come back and see me, well, you know you don’t need one. I want you here anytime you get the urge to drop by.”

  The invitation pleased Melinda. Immensely. “Good.” She did not let herself glance at Cole, who was lurking over by the doorway to the kitchen—with a scowl on his face, she had no doubt. “I have an idea,” she said. “Let me take everything back to the coin laundry right now and get it started. Then you’ll be able to use them as soon as you need them.”

  “Oh, Melinda. You don’t have to—”

  “I want to. You have Dreft, don’t you? I think it’s the best, for the baby’s things.”

  “You sure seem to know a lot about what’s best for a baby,” Cole said. It sounded like an accusation.

  Both women shot him a what-is-your-problem? glance. He shrugged and went through the open doorway to the kitchen, where he immediately began opening cupboard doors, looking in and shutting them harder than he needed to.

  Annie answered Melinda’s earlier question as if her brother had never interrupted them. “Of course I have Dreft.”

  Melinda began gathering up the baby clothes. “Then I’ll just go ahead and—”

  “Annie.” In the kitchen, Cole shoved the refrigerator door shut with his boot. “You need milk and eggs. I’m gonna have to make a trip to the grocery store.”

  Annie just glared at him. He glared back for a moment, then turned on his heel. He strode right past the two women and went out the door.

  Annie started apologizing the minute he was gone. “I’m so sorry. He’s not usually like that. You saw how sweet he was yesterday. But he... well, he needs to get back home. Our dad’s not well, like I said. And there’s also the veterinary hospital to worry about. He’s got two other vets who work with him, but they can’t cover for him forever. And he’s just so stubborn. He won’t believe me when I tell him I’ll be just fine here.”

  Melinda didn’t feel at all sure that Annie would be just fine. Also, she knew very well that there was more to Cole’s sudden rudeness than his pressing need to get back to Texas.

  Annie hung her head. “He’s really on edge. Yesterday, before the accident... Well, the truth is, we were arguin’. About me not coming home with him. Cole probably wasn’t paying as much attention to the road as he should have been.”

  Melinda dropped the pile of baby things and sat on the bed next to her friend. “Oh, Annie. Don’t you know you should never tell the other party in an accident that it wasn’t their fault?”

  Annie shot her a sideways glance. “Of course I know that. I’m not a total rube.”

  Melinda laughed. “You? A rube? Not on your life.”

  “
But I know I can trust you, Melinda. I know I can tell you anything.”

  Melinda closed her eyes, thinking how good it felt, to hear Annie say those words. Sometimes she felt as if nobody had ever truly counted on her, trusted her in the important ways. “Thank you.”

  Right then, more than anything she really wanted to tell Annie about what had happened between herself and Cole.

  But no. Annie had enough problems. She didn’t need to hear about how her friend had kissed her big brother passionately—and then asked him to leave. Besides, she doubted that Cole would appreciate her carrying such tales.

  Melinda leaned closer to Annie. The saggy mattress gave even more, and their shoulders touched. “Guess what?” Melinda said. “About the accident?”

  “What?”

  “I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have been, either.”

  “You’re pullin’ my leg.”

  “No. I was talking to myself. Telling myself how I was going to wow Evelyn Erikson with my carload of gorgeous lingerie.”

  Annie giggled then. “But instead, you got in a wreck. And Evelyn Erikson was not wowed.”

  “Right. She was not wowed at all. Isn’t it funny how life never turns out the way you planned?”

  Annie was looking directly at Melinda now, her expression determined. “Listen. I’ll talk to Cole. I’ll tell him he can’t take his frustration out on you.”

  “Oh, no,” Melinda said too quickly, “Don’t do that...”

  “But why not?”

  She backpedaled—believably, she hoped. “It’s...been a tough couple of days. I think it’s better if we just let bygones be bygones.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’m positive.” She stood and scooped up the pile of blankets and baby clothes again. “Now, lead me to that box of Dreft. I want to get the laundry started.”

  It took an hour and a half to wash the clothes and fold them and put them neatly away in the bureau beneath the changing table. By then, Brady was awake again. Annie fed him and Melinda changed him and then just held him for a while. She and Annie talked, sharing what they knew about a baby’s care, laughing together, enjoying each other’s company.