Twins on the Way

by Janice Maynard

  Now that he had momentarily dropped his guard, he looked far more approachable. He folded his arms across his chest. “I’m sorry if I’ve been less than welcoming. I want you to stay for a while. If you’re telling the truth, we’ll have things to discuss. Plans to make.”

  Despite the if in his response, his about-face in terms of hospitality sent relief washing over her. The nausea she’d been fighting for days resurfaced. “Bathroom,” she said hoarsely, her hand clamped over her mouth.

  He read the situation instantly. Pointing to a door across the foyer, he followed on her heels as she made a dash for the facilities. Emptying her stomach for the third time that day left her wrung out and exhausted.

  Gavin helped her to her feet, handed her a damp washcloth and steered her to the kitchen, where he gently pushed her into a chair and poured her a glass of cold water. Through it all, he didn’t say a word. But his quiet empathy took the edge off her embarrassment.

  “Thank you,” she muttered.

  He propped a hip against the counter. “Has it been bad?”

  “You could say that.”

  “You’ve lost weight.”

  The man had seen her naked. His dispassionate comment shouldn’t have made her blush, but it did. “I could stand to lose a few pounds.”

  Gavin shook his head. “Not that I recall.”

  Suddenly, the world shifted and they were back in the desert on a dark night, racing along the highway. She experienced the same sense of anticipation, the same feeling of wonder.

  When it seemed as if her stomach was going to cooperate, she grimaced. “I want to be honest with you about everything. My father has kicked me out of the house. Carlo took my place at the casino. Apparently I’ve besmirched the Corelli family name. I think I was supposed to walk out into the desert and die for my sins, but I’ve never been the self-sacrificing type.”

  * * *

  Gavin still reeled from Cassidy’s revelation, but growing up with six brothers, he had learned to keep a poker face. Never had that ability stood him in better stead than now.

  He’d spent only one night with her, but even he knew how important it was for her to win her father’s approval. It was hard to imagine the hurt she had suffered and the feelings of being adrift with this latest development.

  And then there was his own bizarrely blank reaction. He was going to be a father. No matter how many times he said the words in his head, they didn’t seem real. His brother Liam had a kid. And Dylan had adopted his bride’s little girl. Aidan and Emma were expecting. But that didn’t make it Gavin’s turn. Not at all.

  He wasn’t cut out for parenthood.

  Looking at Cassidy made him ache. Even dimmed, her beauty and spirit tugged at his heartstrings. If anything, the touch of vulnerability in her weary posture added another layer to her appeal.

  “You can stay as long as you need to,” he said quietly, wondering if he was condemning himself to weeks of sexual frustration. He’d acted out of character once in his life, creating an enormous mess. No point in compounding the mistake.

  “I’m sure my father will relent eventually. For once, Carlo is on my side. He’ll plead my case.”

  “What exactly does Mr. Corelli want from you?”

  Cass’s cute turned-up nose wrinkled. “He told me not to come home until I was engaged or married.”

  Gavin froze, his heart pounding in his chest. “You’re joking, right?”

  “I wish I were. My father is very old-school traditional.”

  For a moment, Gavin wondered if Cassidy was going to bring up their visit to the wedding chapel. Again, he reminded himself he couldn’t believe everything she said. What if this whole thing was a scam? A setup?

  “I don’t know you, Cassidy,” he said flatly. “And you don’t know me. I hope you’ll understand when I say we need to get a paternity test.

  Though she winced, she nodded. “It’s not necessary, but if it will make you feel better...”

  “Can we do it while you’re pregnant?”

  “It’s possible, I think. One tests the placenta and the other the amniotic fluid. But both procedures carry a small risk of miscarriage.”

  “Then we’ll wait.”

  “For months?”

  “Do you have a better solution?”

  She sagged into the chair. “I suppose not. But what am I supposed to do in the meantime?”

  “I don’t know. What do other pregnant women do? Read books? Design nursery plans?”

  Her eyes flashed. “I worked my butt off for six straight years of college. Is that degree useless now? Just because you and I did something stupid?”

  He sympathized with her plight. He really did. But no matter the equality of the sexes, a woman always had to bear a greater share of the burden when it came to children. Especially if she planned on nursing the baby.

  Imagining Cassidy with an infant at her breast was not a good idea. When he realized his hands were shaking, he shoved them in his pockets. “Your degree will keep. In the meantime, you can explore Silver Glen. We’ll need to find you a doctor very soon. Have you had an ultrasound yet?”

  “No. I’d like you to be with me for that.” She looked at him with such naked hope, that he wanted to reassure her. This moment should be joyful. And it would be so easy to let her back into his life. Her presence in his house would ensure warmth and light.

  Though he couldn’t say it out loud, he reluctantly admitted to himself that he had missed her. He wanted badly to believe her...to accept that he was her baby’s father. But he’d been naive about a woman’s sincerity once before and had paid dearly for his mistake.

  “I’ll be happy to go with you,” he said. There was tenderness in his voice despite his reservations. No matter how hard he had tried not to, he remembered every second of the time she had spent in his bed. And how she had made him feel. He hadn’t allowed himself to acknowledge how special it was, because there had been no choice but to let her go. Now she was here, and he could no longer pretend that the night in Vegas was ordinary. If the baby was his, life was about to get very complicated.

  “I’m tired.” Cassidy’s emotions were written on her face. Despair. Disappointment. Had she expected him to welcome her with open arms? Not even a sheltered twenty-three-year-old could be that optimistic.

  “I’ll show you to a guest suite. You’ll have plenty of privacy. The room has its own bath.” His house wasn’t all that large. But he’d built it sparing no expense when it came to comfort and luxury. Top-of-the-line everything. At least he could offer Cassidy the safety and security of a pleasant place to lay her head.

  He knew his reserve hurt her. Maybe she really was exactly what she seemed. Gavin had been her first lover. No doubt about that. But she might have moved on quickly. She was a sensual woman, and he had awakened her sexual nature. It wouldn’t be unusual if she’d exercised her newfound knowledge with a longtime boyfriend.

  He still couldn’t explain why she’d chosen Gavin and that particular Vegas night to change her status, but he liked to think it was because she saw something in him that she wanted...that she needed.

  The two of them together had been incendiary. Sexual chemistry off the charts. But that didn’t mean she had been celibate in the meantime.

  What did it say about him that he hoped desperately he was wrong? If he let her know how much he wanted to believe her story, he’d be handing over power he wasn’t ready to cede. Better to advance cautiously and see what happened.

  “If you’re feeling steadier now,” he said, “I’ll help you get settled.” He ushered her down the hall and opened a door. “Will this do?”

  The room was neither masculine nor feminine. But its muted shades of lemon and eggshell blue exuded a sense of serenity. He’d had help with the decor, and he was pleased with how it had turn
ed out.

  Cassidy scanned the furnishings with a small smile. “It’s lovely,” she said.

  “I’ll fetch your bags.”

  When he returned to the guest room, he found Cassidy bent over, one hand on the bed, slipping out of her shoes. It was a maneuver he had come to expect from her. She didn’t see him at first, so he studied her freely. Though she was competent and smart, he sensed that her impending motherhood was weighing on her.

  What did a man know about such things? He would never understand what it meant to carry a baby for nine months. To feed the little boy or girl. To form a bond long before the day of birth arrived.

  As a quintessential middle child, he’d forged his own way in life. Though he loved his family, he’d never felt as connected as he ought to be. Would it be any different if he had a son or daughter? His own father had been selfishly obsessed with chasing dreams of long-lost silver mines. The pursuit had cost him his life.

  Gavin lived alone and liked it. He worked all hours of the day and night, answering to no one, except maybe his mother, Maeve, who was constantly trying to keep him involved in family events and telling him he spent too much time as a hermit. Lord knows what she would think about Gavin’s houseguest.

  Having Cassidy beneath his roof would play havoc with his life. He’d be tormented by images of her just down the hall. Sleeping in a bed he’d provided, getting naked in a shower he’d designed.

  Holy hell. He was doomed.

  She must have heard him, because she straightened suddenly and faced him, barefoot and beautiful. “I thought I’d take a nap,” she said. “If you don’t mind.”

  “Of course not. My office is at the back of the house. Let me know if you need anything.”

  She didn’t blink an eye at his unwittingly suggestive offer. “I will.”

  Seven

  Cassidy didn’t realize she was holding her breath until the door closed behind Gavin. She sank into a blue-and-white toile-covered armchair and put her hands over her face. Well, that went well.

  Surely there was no greater humiliation than puking in the presence of the man to whom she’d just given not-so-welcome news. Gavin had been in turns stoic and quietly compassionate.

  But what he hadn’t been was happy to see her. Perhaps she hadn’t admitted to herself how much she was hoping for a fairy-tale ending. Which made no sense at all, because she and Gavin had spent less than twenty-four hours together. He was right. They didn’t know each other.

  In his shoes, she would have demanded a paternity test, as well.

  Even so, the day had lost its fizz. Despite the upheaval in her life, she had been excited about traveling to Silver Glen and giddy about the prospect of seeing Gavin again. But it was painfully clear that their brief encounter in Vegas had meant nothing to him other than physical release.

  She certainly hadn’t spent the intervening weeks doodling her initials and his on napkins. Responsibilities at the casino had kept her busy for a succession of fourteen-hour days. She’d thrown herself into the family business with gusto, convinced that her father recognized her worth as an employee and an equal. But amid all that, it had been impossible to forget meeting Gavin.

  Images from the night they spent together popped into her head at random moments, making her cheeks heat and her core tighten. He was not an easy man to forget.

  Now, stripping down to her underwear, she climbed under the covers and tried to rest. One of the biggest problems with her pregnancy so far—in addition to the nausea—was an all-encompassing fatigue. That was partly the reason she hadn’t thought twice about the fact that she had missed a period. She’d been stressed and exhausted, but determined not to show it.

  Today, however, she had slept on the plane. Because of that, she only dozed lightly now, her mind darting from one subject to the next. Where would she live? Would her father relent? How much, if any, of a role would Gavin want to play in his child’s life?

  She was normally an optimistic person, but it was hard to see a way out of this. She had never anticipated being a single mom. In fact, she had never planned on being a mom at all. Though several of her friends were eager to start families, Cassidy’s main goal in life had been to become her father’s right-hand man. Or in this case, woman.

  But that was part of the problem. Though her father loved her, she knew he didn’t really think a female should shoulder serious responsibilities in the workforce if she was of childbearing age. Italians loved children. And they revered Madonna figures. In Mr. Corelli’s estimation, there was no higher calling than to be called Mother.

  Well, Cassidy couldn’t argue about the importance of that role. But she wanted more. Was that such a crime? Growing up without a mother had made her painfully aware of how important it was for a girl to have a female parent. Since Cassidy was a realist, she deduced that she couldn’t pursue her goal of one day running the casino and being a mom at the same time, because of her father’s old-fashioned values.

  So she made a choice. She chose career over home and hearth.

  But what happened now?

  At last, when it became clear that she wasn’t really sleepy, she climbed out of bed and rummaged in her suitcase for gray yoga pants and a hip-length solid T-shirt in bright teal. Though some of her clothes were only now beginning to feel a little tight, the ever-present nausea meant that a loose-fitting wardrobe offered a degree of comfort.

  Barefoot, she tiptoed down the hall toward the rear of the house. It wasn’t difficult to locate Gavin. The door to his office stood open. She paused in the doorway and gawked.

  On the far wall, a bank of no less than a dozen television screens were mounted in three rows. One of them played a popular news program. A second was linked to the Weather Channel. The other ten or so displayed what looked to Cassidy like gibberish. Gavin was focused on his work.

  Surrounded by laptops and desktops and stacks of paper, he appeared to be multitasking without breaking a sweat. Knocking lightly at the door so as not to startle him, she crossed the threshold.

  He swirled to face her. “Cassidy. Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

  “You were deep in thought. Am I interrupting?”

  He shrugged. “Not particularly.” He waved a hand at the leather executive chair that matched his. “Sit down. Did you nap?”

  “A little.” The bland conversation was polite and frustrating. Gavin looked masculine and gorgeous in jeans and a cotton sweater in a pale shade of green.

  He ran his hands through his hair, rumpling it and making him look even sexier...as if he had recently rolled out of bed. “I forgot to mention that the kitchen is pretty well-stocked,” he said. “You should help yourself to anything that sounds good to you.”

  “Do you cook?”

  “Only when necessary. I have a weekly housekeeper who leaves things in my freezer that I can heat up. Sometimes I go eat at the Silver Beeches Lodge. And if I’m in the mood for pub food, my brother Dylan owns the Silver Dollar Saloon. I don’t starve.”

  “I could fix some meals while I’m here. It would make me feel like I’m earning my keep.”

  “It’s not necessary. But please feel free to do anything that entertains you.”

  “I’m not a child,” she snapped, his last comment catching her on the raw. “I don’t have to be distracted with pony rides and ice cream.”

  Her temper elicited a grin from her oh-so-serious host. “I don’t own any livestock, and I’m lactose intolerant.”

  “Don’t patronize me.”

  The madder she got, the more genuine his smile. It infuriated her.

  “You know why we’re squabbling, don’t you?” he asked, cocking his head and staring at her with a gaze hot enough to make her squirm in her chair.

  “Because you’re an ass?”

  “Ouch.” He shook his head. “I
brought you in and offered you food and lodging. And this is the thanks I get?”

  She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” she said formally. “I’ve disturbed your work. I’ll go back to my room.”

  Without warning, Gavin stood up. Suddenly the office shrank in size. His personality and masculine presence sucked up all the available oxygen. Pacing so near her chair that he almost brushed her knees, he muttered beneath his breath.

  “What did you say?” Probably something uncomplimentary about his unexpected houseguest.

  He shot her a look laden with frustration. “We need some ground rules, Cassidy. First of all, we’re going to forget that we’ve ever seen each other naked.”

  She gulped, fixating on the dusting of hair where the shallow V neckline of his sweater revealed a peek of his chest. “I’m pretty sure that’s going to be the elephant in the room. Our night in Vegas was amazing. Maybe not for you, but for me. Telling me to forget it is next to impossible.”

  “Good lord, woman. Don’t you have any social armor at all?”

  “I am not a liar. If you want me to pretend we haven’t been intimate, I’ll try, but I make no promises.”

  He leaned over her, resting his hands on the arms of the chair. His beautifully sculpted lips were in kissing distance. Smoke-colored irises filled with turbulent emotions locked on hers like lasers. “I may be attracted to you, Cass, but I don’t completely trust you. It’s too soon. So, despite evidence to the contrary, I do have some self-control.”

  Maybe he did, but hers was melting like snow in the hot sun. His coffee-scented breath brushed her cheek. This close, she could see tiny crinkles at the corners of his eyes. She might have called them laugh lines if she could imagine her onetime lover being lighthearted enough and smiling long enough to create them.

  “You’re crowding my personal space,” she said primly.

  For several seconds, she was sure he was going to steal a kiss. Her breathing went shallow, her nipples tightened and a tumultuous feeling rose in her chest. Not nausea. Something far more volatile. For the first time, she understood that whatever madness had taken hold of them in Las Vegas was neither a fluke nor a onetime event.