Emily couldn’t hide the surprise that flitted across her face. “Thank you, dear. So do you. I hear from Paul that congratulations are in order.” If she was hurt that Lisa hadn’t told her about her pregnancy herself, she hid it well. “Are you feeling all right?”
“Never better,” she assured her truthfully. Even with the nausea that had started plaguing her in the mornings, she had never felt better in her life. How could she not?
Rourke loved her. And she loved him.
“You can see that I’ve asked Sara Beth to join us.”
Emily’s lips pinched together again. “Clearly.” Her chin lifted a little. “And you all can see that your father and I have asked Derek to be here.” She drew him forward.
He looked only marginally better than he had when he’d shown up outside Rourke’s apartment. Still too pale and much too thin. But his eyes were clear and steady and they met Lisa’s head on. “Lisa.”
Lisa felt Rourke come up beside her. His hand slipped protectively around her shoulder.
For a moment, Derek looked as if he wanted to turn around and leave. But he stood his ground. “Devlin.”
“Derek.”
Gerald cleared his throat, breaking the barely civil tension. “Before anyone says anything else, I have something to say.” Waving off Emily’s aid, he wheeled his chair into the center of the room. “Derek’s told your mother and me everything.” He closed his unsteady hands together. “About the embezzlement.” He looked at Paul. “The real reason you told him to leave the institute.” He looked at Lisa. “Which finally explains why your husband’s money was suddenly fueling our coffers. And while that grieves me—us—deeply, what grieves me more is that none of you thought fit to come and tell me what was going on when it was going on. I had to find out about it when Derek’s counselor at the rehab clinic he checked himself into called me.”
“Daddy,” Lisa said, “your health has been—”
“Bad.” Gerald nodded. “Nobody knows that better than me. So you were trying to protect me.” His gaze drifted to Sara Beth. “And Emily’s tried to protect me. Protect her family.”
“Gerald—”
“Enough, Emily. I’ve had enough. I’m not dead and in the grave yet and I’m going to have my say and then that’ll be the end of it.”
Emily blinked. Closed her delicately gaping mouth.
“The institute has weathered a lot this past year,” Gerald said. “This family has weathered a lot. For a lot longer than just a year or two and Lord knows that I bear the responsibility for most of that.” His gaze touched on Olivia and Jamison and their two new sons. Moved on to Sara Beth and Ted, whose arms were looped protectively around her. Then Paul and Ramona, and Lisa and Rourke, before settling on his wife again. “Nobody’s perfect.”
Derek’s face flushed a little, but he didn’t look down, or away.
“Least of all me,” Gerald added. “But it’s time to stop moaning over the past and do better for the future.” He held out his hand toward Emily and she looked thoroughly unsettled as she moved forward to take it. “The fact of the matter is, both the institute and this family are still going on. The institute will be better than ever. And this family is going to be a family. All of us.” There was steel in his voice. The kind of steel that Lisa hadn’t heard in a very long time. “Are we agreed?” He looked at his wife. “Emily?”
She looked almost teary. “Yes, dear. Agreed.”
He nodded. “All right, then.” His voice went a little gruff and he cleared his throat. “Happy birthday to me. So let’s eat before the staff and the rest of the city descends on us since I figure that’s about how many people my wife has invited to celebrate the fact that I’m getting to be as old as Methuselah.”
“Oh, Gerald.” Cleary flustered, Emily took his chair and began wheeling him out of the room.
Derek’s gaze ran over the rest of them. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry.” His voice was low.
Even across the room, Lisa could hear Paul exhale. Then he was drawing Ramona forward and he closed his hand over his twin’s shoulder. “You heard Dad,” he said gruffly. “Let’s go eat.”
Lisa watched them follow her parents. Olivia and her crew went behind and she was drawing Sara Beth along with her, wanting to know when the baby was due.
The last ones left in the drawing room, Lisa looked up at Rourke. “Can you stand to sit at the same table as Derek?”
“The only thing I care about is whether you can sit at the same table as your brother.”
Just when she thought her heart couldn’t pump out any more love for him than it already did, it leaked some more. “I can.” She started to follow after the others, but Rourke reeled her back to him before she got more than an arm’s distance.
“Your father is impressive,” he murmured.
“He is.” She smiled faintly. “Thank you.”
A faint smile played around his lips. His gaze was as warm on her face as the hands linked behind her back that held her against his broad chest. “For what?”
“Loving me.”
His lips grazed over hers. “I could no more stop that, than I could stop breathing.”
“Good.” She kissed him back. “But if you do…” She leaned up until her lips were inches from his ear. “Just remember, there’s always a doctor around in this family who knows CPR. They’ll keep you breathing one way or another.”
He threw his head back and laughed. He pressed a hard, thorough kiss on her lips. “That’s my girl.”
She smiled at him, so deeply happy that it invaded her every cell.
Yes. She was his girl. And even when they were old and gray and their children had children of their own, she knew in her bones that was what she would always be.
And still smiling, fingers twining together, they went out and joined the rest of the family.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5645-7
THE BILLIONAIRE’S BABY PLAN
Copyright © 2010 by Harlequin Books S.A.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For questions and comments about the quality of this book please contact us at [email protected].
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Visit Silhouette Books at www.eHarlequin.com
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
‡Family Business
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
**Montana Mavericks: Striking It Rich
††The Hunt for Cinderella
*Back in Business
§Fortunes of Texas: Return to Red Rock
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
†Men of the Double-C Ranch
‡‡The Baby Chase
The Billionaire’s Baby Plan Page 20
