Wishing and Hoping

by Susan Meier

“I don’t have any money. I don’t want yours. I think your lawyer should be able to handle that.”

  “You don’t want your lawyer to draw it up?”

  “I don’t have a lawyer.”

  “Then we’ll use mine. But you should get one to look it over before you sign it.”

  “Why? Planning to cheat me?”

  “No, just teaching you to watch your back. Marriage is as much a business proposition as anything else. It pays not to forget that.”

  She would have had a snappy comeback, but as he spoke the room began to spin. She swayed slightly and groped for the back of a nearby club chair with cognac-colored pillows that matched the silk printed drapes.

  Before she had a solid hold, Drew was at her side. “Whoa. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. But it’s been a long day.” Really long. All she had wanted was to do the right thing. For her trouble, she was stuck with a lunatic arguing about prenups. “I’m exhausted.”

  “Then we’ll talk in the morning. We have the whole house to ourselves for at least two weeks because my housekeeper is taking care of her sister in Minneapolis after surgery. We don’t have to figure everything out tonight.”

  Tia shifted out from under his hold. “Great. I’ll get my overnight bag from my car, then you can show me where to sleep.”

  “I’ll get your overnight bag,” Drew said as he caught her by the shoulders, turned her around and led her into the foyer. He pointed up the steps. “Pick any room you want. Just don’t take the room at the end of the hall. That’s mine. I’d give it to you if you insist, but since Mrs. Hernandez has been gone, it’s a mess. The others are all clean. Take one of them.” With that, he turned and walked out the front door.

  Tia climbed the steps. At the top she gazed down the long, quiet corridor of the second floor of his brand-new house and counted six bedroom doors. She would have taken the first, but curiosity got the better of her and she sneaked down the hall, peeking into each room, gasping every time she opened a door because all six were beautifully appointed. Probably professionally decorated.

  And she suddenly realized why Drew wanted a prenup. In the same way that she’d grown up in the past six years, he’d become wealthy. Maybe even the object of women pursuing him for his money. And she’d shown up on his doorstep waving the oldest trick in the book. A pregnancy. After a case of mistaken identity.

  Wow. No wonder Drew wanted a prenup. For all practical intents and purposes, it looked as if she’d tricked him.

  “Do you have any rope?”

  Drew glanced up from reading the morning paper. When he saw Tia standing in his kitchen doorway, he steeled himself against the slam of desire that hit him like a tsunami. He didn’t mind that she had the waistband of her too-big sweatpants bunched in her fist. What got to him was the enticing strip of belly flesh exposed because she had her white T-shirt tied at her midriff. It reminded him that he knew how soft she was. He knew how sweet she smelled. He knew just how good they had been together before he’d figured out she was Ben’s daughter.

  Which was exactly why she was totally off-limits. She was Ben’s daughter. Not somebody he’d normally seduce. Not somebody he would sleep with again. Not only that, but their situation hadn’t really been settled. If she wouldn’t sign a prenup, he couldn’t marry her.

  When she’d conveniently become sick before they could finish their discussion about the prenup, it had finally sunk into Drew’s thick skull that it was pretty darned odd that Tia had had absolutely no hesitation about making love the day they’d met at the party in Pittsburgh. They didn’t really know each other as adults, so Drew knew there was no emotional bond between them. Which meant the most logical conclusion to be drawn for why she’d fall into the arms of a man she hardly knew was that she had wanted something.

  He didn’t have a clue what it was, but he did know that though he was duty-bound to raise his child and protect Ben, there was no way in hell he was losing half this farm. If she thought she was going to hoodwink him out of money, she was sadly mistaken. In fact, he’d decided not to push the issue of the prenup until he had a better handle on what game she was playing.

  Gripping her too-big bottoms, Tia ambled to the table. “The first two weeks I was pregnant, I threw up every day and I lost ten pounds. Now all of my baggy clothes are way too baggy.”

  “There’s plenty of rope for those pants in the stable,” he said, and turned his attention back to his newspaper. “If we were staying for breakfast I’d get you a bale. Since we’re going out, you might as well shower and put on something that fits.”

  “We’re going out?”

  “We need to be seen in public before your mother calls the preacher to arrange the ceremony or the local caterer to order two roasters of chicken for a buffet supper, and word of our marriage gets out.”

  “You’re right.”

  “So go change and I’ll see you at the truck.”

  Though Tia cringed at the mention of his truck, much to Drew’s relief, she didn’t argue. She left the kitchen and twenty minutes later, dressed in comfortable-looking capri pants and a crisp white blouse, she joined him by his black truck where he was talking over the day’s chores with two hands.

  “Jim, Pete,” he said when Tia joined them. He slid his arm across her shoulders. “You remember Tia Capriotti, Ben’s daughter.”

  Jim grinned. Pete took off his hat.

  “Sure.”

  Tia extended her hand to shake both of theirs. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “We’re going for breakfast right now,” Drew said, not giving anybody a chance to really get to know each other. If her goal was to cheat him, he had to be very careful how chummy he let her get with the people close to him. He still had to marry her. He still wanted to be part of his child’s life. But he’d be darned if he’d let her insinuate herself into his world enough that she could get information to use against him to take half of the farm he’d worked for for the past ten years. “We should be back at about eleven. I’ll check on you then.”

  Jim and Pete nodded and headed for the stable. Drew turned Tia in the direction of his truck.

  “How about if we take my car?”

  “No.”

  “I no longer get morning sickness, but I still get motion sickness in any vehicle but my own car. We don’t want to show up at the diner first thing in the morning with me green and begging for crackers.”

  He sighed. Unfortunately, she had a point. “Fine. But I’m driving.”

  Tia rolledher eyes. “I’m pregnant. I’m not an invalid.”

  “No, but I’ve seen the way you drive,” he said, taking the keys from her. “I want to get there in one piece.”

  He opened the passenger’s-side door for her. She got in and he closed the door, then rounded the hood. He slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. It purred to life like the finely tuned piece of engineering that it was, and he smiled. He didn’t know a man in the world who wouldn’t have smiled.

  “Nice car.” And not the car of a woman who needed to cheat a man out of money. He frowned. That really was the truth. This wasn’t the car of a woman who needed to trick a man for money.

  “Thanks. I bought it as a present to myself two years ago when I graduated.”

  Ah. Graduation money. The car didn’t count. “What is it you do for a living, again?”

  “I work for an ad firm.”

  “You took all those brains your dad told me you had and decided they would best serve the world by selling panty hose?”

  She laughed. “I’m pretty good with panty hose, breakfast cereal is the specialty of the company I work for.”

  “You think hawking cereal is more important than science or medicine?”

  “No, but I don’t have a science or medicine kind of brain. I’m analytical, but I’m more verbal. I could have probably made a lot more money at a drug company, but I like what I do.” She shrugged. “And I don’t do so bad in the money department, either. In
fact, as I climb the corporate ladder, my salary will increase quite nicely.”

  Drew frowned again. She sounded like a woman who had her future all planned out, not a woman who would marry a guy for money. But that only baffled him all the more. If she didn’t want his money, what the hell did she want badly enough to make love with him that night in Pittsburgh?

  “So you have a good job?”

  She nodded. “And a house.”

  That’s right! He’d been to her house. “Which means you should want a prenup as much as I do.”

  “Because of my house?” she laughed. “Every cent I had saved went into a down payment, and I mortgaged the rest. If you tried to take my house, I’d hand you the payment book.”

  “So you need money?”

  She shook her head as if disgusted with him. “How many times do I have to tell you that I have a job. A good job. A job where I can climb the ladder. I have as much of a chance of being an executive at my company as anybody. I’m fine.”

  Drew shifted uncomfortably on the driver’s seat of her car. He got it. She was self-sufficient. She didn’t need him or his money. But that meant the only logical conclusion he could draw for why they’d ended up in bed was that she had been overwhelmingly attracted to him. So attracted to him she’d forgotten all about birth control. So attracted she’d fallen for stupid lines. Really fallen. She’d all but purred with happiness in his arms.

  He swallowed, suddenly aware of how close they were in the confines of her tiny car. The attraction they’d felt the night they’d met at the party had not been onesided. He’d been overwhelmingly attracted to her, too. On top of that, the heavenly soft, incredibly sensual woman beside him would be spending the next eight months of weekends with him. If he didn’t get ahold of himself right now, all he would be thinking about for all eight of those months would be sex.

  He parked her car in the lot beside the diner and guided her into the small restaurant. Filled with Saturday-morning patrons, the place was alive with conversation and brimming with the scents of fresh coffee, bacon and maple syrup.

  “Good morning, Drew,” Elaine Johnston said. Tall and amply built, the wife of Bill Johnston, the diner’s owner, served as hostess normally, but also filled in as a waitress or cook. “And good morning to you, too, Isabella.”

  “She goes by Tia now,” Drew interjected, and though Tia laughed, Drew was struck by what a smart move that had been. By telling Elaine that Tia no longed used Isabella but went by the name Tia, he subtly told the woman in contact with nearly everybody in Calhoun Corners that he knew personal things about Isabella Capriotti.

  But though that was good for the charade, Drew felt an odd sensation in his gut. They were sexually attracted. She hadn’t tricked him. She didn’t need him. Hell, she didn’t want him—except sexually. Now that he’d waded through the situation and realized she’d found him as irresistible as he’d found her, he was also recognizing that if he played his cards right she could want him again. And again. And again.

  As Elaine led them down the aisle between two rows of booths, Drew inhaled a sharp breath. He had to stop thinking like this.

  When they were seated and Elaine was on her way to get their coffee, Tia said, “So what now?”

  His answer was quick and automatic. “We continue to make people believe that we are madly in love.” But as the words came tumbling out of his mouth, he realized that if she wasn’t the problem—if she hadn’t tricked him and didn’t want anything from him—then, technically, he was the problem. He’d seduced her. He was forcing her to marry him. He was demanding a place in her baby’s life. And now he was thinking about seducing her again.

  He was scum.

  “We have to make people believe we’re madly in love immediately? Can’t we date?”

  “We don’t have time. Wedding’s already set for two weeks from now. Besides, if we start here, right now, the rumor will get to Rayne Fegan this morning.”

  “Mark’s daughter? What does she have to do with this?”

  “Your dad’s heart condition isn’t the only thing in the editorials. Mark’s also written about things your brothers did as teenagers, wondering why they were never arrested and almost accusing your dad of using influence to keep them out of jail.”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “Mark’s writing the editorials, but Rayne is the one digging up the past. We want her to find out we’re together so she’ll check up on us and decide we’re for real, and let us alone.”

  “You’ve really thought this through.”

  “It’s only common sense. There was no reason for Rayne to check on your brothers except to stress out your dad. When she hears about us she’ll think she struck pay dirt for more ways to push your dad and she’ll come gunning for us. But that’s what we want. We want her to ‘accidentally’ find us looking calm and ordinary. Like this has been going on so long that we’re comfortable. So nobody questions the wedding and there’s nothing about it that stresses your dad.”

  Tia nodded, then leaned back and smiled at him. Once again, the easy upward movement of her lips was very good for the charade. Very bad for Drew’s libido. Still, he knew what he had to do. Especially when he saw Ossie Burton striding toward them, an evil look on his face, as if he was about to have one hell of a time teasing Drew.

  Drew’s chest tightened. He’d vowed in every bar from here to the Chesapeake Bay that he’d never seriously date a woman again, let alone get married. He was not only about to endure months of the greatest physical challenge of his life by resisting a sexual attraction that suddenly seemed as natural as breathing, but he was also about to endure months of the teasing of his life.

  Nonetheless, for Ben’s sake, he reached across the table and took Tia’s hand.

  Tia and Drew ate breakfast interrupted by diner patrons who popped over to say hello, and the curious stares of people not bold enough to actually come over. When they left the diner, they walked to the small grocery store and picked up a few everyday items, making sure everybody saw them doing common, ordinary things. But when they reached the flower shop, Tia saw Rayne Fegan striding toward them.

  “I told you she would track us down,” Drew whispered as he put his hand on the doorknob to go inside. Rayne stopped them.

  “Tia!” she said, catching Tia’s arm to keep her from entering the flower shop. “My goodness, I didn’t know you were home!”

  “I’ve been home a few times since May.” As if she’d done it a million times before, she turned and smiled at Drew.

  Rayne’s eyebrows rose. “Oh.”

  “We’ve been dating, Miss Nosey,” Drew said. Compared to Tia, Rayne looked like somebody’s maiden aunt. Though she wore her hair in a youthful ponytail, her long bangs sloppily brushed the frames of her outdated, oversize glasses. Her too-big blouse billowed over jeans that could have been taken in four inches. “I’ll spell it out for you so you don’t have to speculate in the newspaper.”

  “Very funny.”

  “It’s not funny the way you’re trying to take attention off the real issues of the election by focusing on Ben’s health.”

  “He’s our elected official. He set himself up to have his life scrutinized. Whether or not he can actually do the job is a part of that.”

  “He’s done the job for an entire year since his heart attack,” Tia said, joining Drew in defense of her father. “If you or your dad don’t realize he’s perfectly able to keep going then you’re wrong.”

  “We don’t think we are,” Rayne said. “We think the town needs a young, enthusiastic mayor and we take the responsibility of the press very seriously.”

  “In other words,” Drew countered, “you love making mountains out of molehills.”

  Rayne shook her head. “We’re doing what needs to be done. Anytime he wants, Ben can pull out. From our point of view he’s the one who needs to reevaluate.” She sighed and glanced at Tia. Drew noticed the way her face softened with regret as she said, “It was nice to see yo
u.” Then she walked away.

  “I get the feeling you and Rayne were friends at some point.”

  “We were two outcasts in high school. I was the brainy girl, she was the daughter of the guy who could put your misdeeds in the paper. We were a natural pair.”

  She turned and entered the flower shop. Drew followed her, putting his hand on the small of her back, directing her to the counter.

  “What can I do for you, Tia, Drew?” Sam Jeffries said, wiping his hands on a white cloth as he approached from the table behind the counter where he had been arranging a huge funeral bouquet.

  “We’re getting married in two weeks,” Drew said easily.

  Sam grinned. “Well, that’s a surprise.”

  Drew only smiled before he said, “Tia’s mom will be handling most of the details, but Tia wanted to take a look around first so she knows what to tell her mother to order.”

  “I have catalogues,” Sam said, not missing a beat. “I’ve got everything in here from altar bouquets to the bouquet the bride tosses when she leaves the reception.”

  “It’s not going to be much of a reception,” Tia said, taking her cue from Drew and speaking easily, naturally. “Just something small in my parents’ backyard.”

  Sam flipped open a huge book. “Let me suggest you sift through these,” he said, pointing at some pictures. “Match what you want as centerpieces or decorations with the flowers in your mother’s gardens and it will be perfect.”

  Tia agreed with Sam’s logic, but a strange feeling overwhelmed her as she glanced at the bouquets being held by the brides in the photos. Up until she actually saw these pictures, the wedding was an abstract thing. Planning not to live together except on weekends reinforced that. But knowing there would be a ceremony, that they were taking vows, buying flowers, made it all seem too real.

  She was quiet on the drive home, but so was Drew. His face drawn in serious lines, he appeared to be thinking so intently about something that Tia knew he probably wouldn’t hear her if she tried to make conversation. She let her gaze slide down to the sure way he gripped her steering wheel, then to his long legs. If she had thought her car was filled with him on the drive into town, it was even worse now.