by Debra Webb
“Marry me,” he said flatly. “I’m the child’s father. It makes perfect sense.” He planted his hands at his waist as if she should see his suggestion for what it was: the only right thing to do.
To say his reaction took her by surprise would have been a vast understatement. She mentally pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.
This was insane. Totally crazy.
Joe Ripani proposing marriage?
Impossible.
Admittedly, the proposal left a lot to be desired by any standards, but the sheer idea that he would ask made it almost—almost being the key word—endearing.
“Let me think about it.”
Now they were even. Because her answer had just shocked the hell out of him.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHEN JOE HAD GONE, Lisa wilted back into her chair.
How was she supposed to do this?
The choice had been so much easier when only one option was available besides doing this on her own. Greg would make a great father and a caring husband. Over the past twenty-four hours, she’d come to terms with her decision.
Now, the future she’d seen so clearly was muddied by Joe’s proposal.
Joe didn’t want to get married. She knew that with complete certainty. So why would he make such an offer?
For the baby, of course.
That’s why she had insisted on taking some time to think about his proposal. She’d done it for his sake. He needed to think about it. He’d likely rushed over here and made the offer as soon as he discovered she planned to marry Greg. If, as he said, he’d overheard Dr. Winslow confirming her pregnancy, he certainly hadn’t asked her then.
Anger simmered inside her. No. He hadn’t been worried then. It wasn’t until he heard that someone else had moved in on what he perceived as his territory that he came running over here to make his mark.
Men! She rolled her eyes. They could be such primitive jerks.
A light rap on her door dragged her from the male-bashing session she had mentally begun.
She sighed. Greg wasn’t like that. He had just appeared in her door, waiting to be invited in. Greg would never attempt to mark anything as his, especially not another human being. He acted on intellect rather than instinct.
And she felt so relaxed when she was around him.
Why, then, was she even considering Joe’s offer?
Because he was the father of this child. Like it or not, he would be involved. Not that she had wanted to exclude him. It was easy to sit here and pretend she might have kept him in the dark for his own good, but her conscience would have gotten the better of her eventually.
Unfortunately, she’d taken on the role of good girl in this life. Keeping his child a secret from him wasn’t something she could do—even if it would make life a hell of a lot less stressful.
“He knows about the wedding, I take it,” Greg guessed as she motioned for him to come in.
“He knows.”
“About the baby, too?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Now that the adrenaline rush of Joe’s abrupt visit had receded, she felt on the verge of tears. She gave herself a mental shake. All these tears were not like her. She’d thought she was stronger than this. Pregnancy hormones. And hers were likely amplified by her predicament.
“He overheard the doctor tell me at the hospital.”
Greg quirked an eyebrow. “And he didn’t mention this to you until now?”
A part of her felt guilty talking about Joe this way behind his back, especially with Greg. But the rest of her felt he deserved this and more.
“He heard about our…plans.”
Greg settled into one of the chairs flanking her desk. “From the tone of his voice, I’d say he wasn’t pleased.”
“Not at all.” Her partner had obviously returned from his house call in time to hear part of Joe’s outburst.
Greg leaned forward, his green eyes filled with concern. “I hope he didn’t upset you too much. If you need to go home for a while, I understand.”
This was too much. How was she supposed to deal with all this? Joe insisting she marry him and Greg being so kind. Too kind. The two men were polar opposites.
Anxiety surged, making her heart beat faster. What was the right thing to do? She thought of the baby’s need to know his or her biological father, but it was equally important for her child to have a stable home life. Then she thought of her own happiness.
She closed her eyes. She just didn’t know what to do.
“Take some time, Lisa.” Greg stood, and she looked up at him. “Don’t try to make a decision now. Consider the facts and what you feel will make both you and the baby happy.” His expression was full of tender concern. “Don’t let either of us push you into a decision that isn’t what you really want.”
Was he for real?
She watched Greg walk out of her office, leaving her more confused than before. How would she ever make this decision?
JOE PULLED INTO the driveway of his childhood home and sat there for about ten minutes before he worked up the nerve to get out. He needed to talk to someone about this. Someone he could trust—someone who had the right experience to draw upon.
Who better than his own mother?
He rapped on the kitchen door and waited for her to call out a familiar come in.
He smiled when her pleasant voice echoed through the brick rancher just as he’d known it would. He could always count on his mom.
The mouthwatering aroma of cookies baking had him peeking into the oven. Chocolate chip, his favorite. As if she’d known he was coming. He shook his head. How was it mothers always knew when their kids were in need? He wondered if that gift came automatically. And then his thoughts instantly went to Lisa and his child. Would she sense when his baby needed her?
Sure she would.
Lisa would make a wonderful mother. Why hadn’t he noticed that before? Because a wife and kids hadn’t been in his five-year plan.
“Hey, Ma.” He bent down and pressed a kiss to her temple before she could get out of her chair to greet him.
“I had a feeling you’d be coming this morning,” she said knowingly. She assessed him with one thorough glance, using that schoolteacher scrutiny that seemed to be second nature to her, even though she was retired.
“Is that so?” He settled onto the sofa opposite her and surveyed the strewn scrapbooks and related paraphernalia. Since retiring, his mother had gotten into scrap-booking. She insisted that it was for posterity. Joe wondered if it was more about not getting bored. She had her weekly bridge game and the garden club, but those activities didn’t appear to be enough to keep her mind off the fact that her life’s mate was gone. Teaching had done that for a long time, but Joe sensed that retirement had brought too many empty hours to miss his dad.
“Quite,” she affirmed. “Your friend at the firehouse—Shannon, I believe her name is—called and said you might need a shoulder to lean on.”
Ire shot through Joe so fast he almost jumped to his feet with the force of it. What the hell was O’Shea doing prying into his affairs? And how the hell had she known how upset he was?
Joe had a sneaking suspicion that a lot of people at the station would see Lisa’s sudden nuptials to another man as a blow to his ego, even though he’d been the one to end their relationship. Did people really see him as that shallow?
He didn’t like the answer—or the guilt—that echoed all the way through him. O’Shea would be worried about him. As annoyed as she was at him for hurting her best friend, she still cared for and respected her captain. He knew that. Still, that she had anticipated his feelings on this matter irritated him. Maybe he was shallow when it came to this kind of thing.
“Damn,” he muttered.
His mother’s eyebrows rose. “Pardon me?”
“Sorry.” He flared his hands uncertainly. “I was just thinking aloud.”
“You know, son, going to church now and then wouldn’t hurt. Y
our brothers come every Sunday with their wives. You’re the only one in the family who doesn’t seem to find the time.”
Oh, Lord. He should have known that talk was coming.
“But then, you didn’t come here to discuss your spiritual needs.” She set aside the pictures she was attempting to arrange on a page. “It’s about our lovely veterinarian, I’m told.”
He clenched his jaw and made a mental note to have a long talk with O’Shea. Even if she thought she’d done him a favor, this was pushing it. “In a roundabout way,” he said.
His mother waited patiently for him to say more. That always drove him crazy. She could outwait Job when she knew one of her sons was withholding information.
Finally he broke down and gave her what she wanted—the truth. “Lisa’s partner at the clinic asked her to marry him. I have a problem with that.”
“I thought the two of you broke up,” his mother ventured. “The way I hear it, you weren’t interested in getting serious and Lisa was.”
If O’Shea had told his mother that little detail, he was going to—
“That’s true,” he responded when she gave him one of those pointed looks that meant she expected an answer posthaste.
“Well, I just don’t see the problem then. You weren’t interested, Dr. Seaborn is.” She shrugged. “There’s an old saying, son, that’s quite appropriate in this case. You snooze, you lose.”
He couldn’t believe his own mother had just made such a smug, heartless remark to him!
“It’s not that simple,” he snapped before he could catch himself.
She studied him a moment, those dark eyes boring into him as if she had X-ray vision. She probably knew his next thought before he did. “Why don’t you elaborate, since, God knows, I’m not psychic?”
Could have fooled him.
“You heard Lisa was trapped in that parking garage and I rescued her, right?” His mother nodded. “I wanted to make sure she was okay, so I took her by the E.R. afterward. I overheard Dr. Winslow when he gave her the results of all her tests.” Now for the hard part. He blew out a heavy breath and blurted the rest. “Hetoldhershewaspregnant.” He didn’t even pause between the words.
Now, that got his unflappable mother’s attention. She opened her mouth to utter some profound statement just as the oven timer dinged.
“That’ll be the cookies.”
She got up and headed toward the kitchen before he could gather his scattered wits.
Knowing she would take the cookies from the oven and transfer them to the cooling rack before she returned, he pushed himself up from the sofa and wandered toward the kitchen. He needed her advice, no matter how much her disappointment in him would hurt.
He’d never let his mother down. He’d always managed to keep his grades up and behave himself—or at least be smart enough never to get caught. Now, here he was a grown man and he’d done the unthinkable.
Standing there in the kitchen he’d eaten breakfast in every day of his life until he graduated high school, he felt six years old again. And utterly helpless at the prospect of being forced to go to school. He’d hated kindergarten and felt certain first grade would be no better. His mother had known all the right things to say to set his mind at ease and boost his confidence.
He sure as hell hoped she had some pearls of wisdom to share now.
When the cookies were safely on the cooling rack and the baking sheet in the sink, she turned to her youngest son and totally blew his mind in very much the same way Lisa had when she’d told him she needed to think about his offer.
“No wonder Lisa agreed to marry Greg,” she said.
“What is that supposed to mean?” His mother should be on his side! There were some things a guy should be able to depend on.
“It means that when you learned about the pregnancy, you should have told her then and there that you knew and were fully prepared to accept responsibility for your actions. Not in those exact words, of course, but you should have made her aware that you were there for her.”
Joe grunted in exasperation. “I was waiting for her to tell me. She didn’t even know I knew when she accepted Seaborn’s proposal.”
“My point exactly,” his mother retorted. “You didn’t care enough to let her know that you knew. Rather, you allowed her to stew in her own pot of worries until desperation forced her to take the only offer on the table.”
This was his fault? How did she get to that twisted conclusion?
“She should have told me,” he insisted.
“Joe.” His mother patted his shoulder as if he were a slow learner for whom she felt sympathy. “I love you. You’re my son, but as far as I can tell, you haven’t given Lisa or any other woman the first indication that you’re interested in settling down. She likely assumed that a life with a reliable man like Greg was better than an unhappy marriage with a man who didn’t care for strings of any sort.”
And therein lay the crux of the whole issue. Much as he hated to admit it, his sage mother was right. As he had known she would be.
Lisa had no reason to see him as the husband-and-father type. She knew how he felt about strings and long-term commitment. She’d made the only choice she thought she could.
This was his fault, and somehow he had to make it right.
No way was Seaborn raising his child…no way was he having Lisa, either.
Joe would give her the time she asked for, but one way or another, he would show her that she could count on him. He could do the commitment thing. He could be a good husband, a reliable husband, just as easily as he could be a father.
All he had to do was prove it to her.
If she gave him the chance.
IT TOOK ALL of Lisa’s courage the next morning to act on the decision she had reached.
She knocked on Greg’s door long before she knew he would leave for the clinic. She didn’t want to do this at work. The issue was far too personal.
He opened the door, his usual smile in place. “Good morning. You’re out early.”
“I need to talk to you, Greg.”
His smile dimmed at her somber voice. “Come in.” He stepped back and allowed her inside.
Lisa wrung her hands together, praying she was making the right choice for all concerned. When he’d closed the door, she moistened her lips and began her well-rehearsed speech.
“Greg, you don’t know how much your proposal meant to me. I can’t tell you—”
He held up a hand. “Don’t do this to yourself, Lisa,” he said, letting her off the hook. “I know why you’re here.”
A feeling of relief combined with a sense of defeat made staying vertical next to impossible. Her stomach roiled, forcing her to swallow.
“I…I don’t want to hurt you,” she said, knowing it was too late for that. This decision wouldn’t be easy for Greg to accept.
He shook his head. “You haven’t, not really. I knew from the moment you told me about the pregnancy that you’d end up with Joe.” He lifted one shoulder in a resigned shrug. “It’s where you belong. I can’t compete with true love.”
His statement startled her. “How…how did you know?”
He smiled. “Anyone could see how much you cared about him when the two of you were together. I knew. I just didn’t want to admit it. When he walked away, I thought maybe I might have a chance after all. And then you learned about the pregnancy and I hoped I could be the knight in shining armor you would learn to love.” He gave a slight grimace. “But that wasn’t fair of me. I knew you were in love with him. I wanted you to know you had other options, but I don’t want you to feel as if the choice you’ve made is wrong just because it’s not the one I want to hear.”
Tears spilled past her lashes. She just couldn’t help it. “Greg, I’m only trying to do the right thing for this baby.”
“You are doing the right thing. This is Joe Ripani’s child. You should try to make a marriage to him work. It is the right thing to do.”
She couldn’t s
top herself—she had to hug him. He felt so steady, so caring. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with Greg?
“Just so you know,” he murmured. “I’ll be watching to make sure he treats you right.”
She drew back and smiled up at him. “Thanks. That means more than you can know.”
With that behind her, there was only one thing left to do.
Talk to Joe.
“I’LL HAVE ANOTHER,” Joe said to Larry Goodman, the owner of the Courage Bay Bar and Grill. The place wasn’t really open yet, but Larry allowed the emergency-services personnel to come in as early as they needed to.
Joe’s gaze lingered on the banner across the far wall and the endless rows of photographs hanging there of those who’d given their lives in the line of duty. Lest we forget their selfless acts of courage, the banner read.
Larry poured Joe another cup of strong, fresh-brewed coffee. “You look a little down in the mouth this morning.”
“Had a bad night,” Joe admitted. He’d tossed and turned, unable to sleep. What if Lisa turned down his proposal? What if it was already too late for him to make things right?
Larry reached across the bar and slapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll be all right, boy—you come from good stock. The Ripani boys always hold their own.”
Though his brothers hadn’t ventured into the field of firefighting, they were well known in the community as upstanding citizens. Darryl, the oldest of the Ripani clan, was a school principal. Bill, two years older than Joe, was in retail as their father had been. He traveled frequently, promoting the latest in software products for the company he’d created. Both had stable lives, unlike their younger sibling.
Bearing that in mind, Joe appreciated Larry’s encouraging words. If Joe’s brothers could do the marriage thing and make it work, so could Joe. Though the youngest, he would be the first to experience fatherhood.
And he intended to give it his best shot.
