Riley studied the contents of her refrigerator while Sam unpacked the food. “I have caffeine-free soda, milk, lemonade, and water. Sorry, there’s no caffeine in the house. I cleaned it all out. The less temptation, the better.”
Actually, tossing her tea bags and the coffee had been rather traumatic. She loved her iced tea and her morning coffee, but from what she’d read the science was mixed as to how good it was for the baby. If she could give it up, she probably should. It wasn’t forever. It just felt that way.
“I’ll have whatever you’re having.”
That would be lemonade. It was a poor substitute but it would have to do.
She poured two glasses and sat down at the table across from Sam, who was parceling out fries onto their plates. She’d ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and her stomach was gurgling with anticipation. She was starving. She’d scarfed down half of her lunch before she realized they hadn’t talked yet. Food was becoming increasingly important in her life.
“So…”
Placing his cheeseburger back on the plate, he wiped his mouth before speaking.
“I gave this a lot of thought after you left, and I’m sorry if I seemed so surprised last night.”
“You were shocked. I was too when I found out, so it’s okay.”
“I was shocked,” he conceded with a grimace. “I probably should have handled the news better, though.”
“You were fine.”
Her expectations and fantasies weren’t his problem. He’d reacted like a normal human being.
“I want to be part of the baby’s life. I know that. I don’t know if I’ll be a good father, but I can’t turn my back on this child.”
The room spun for a moment as relief suffused every nook and cranny of her body. She hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath waiting for his answer. She was fully prepared to do this alone, but honestly, she hadn’t wanted to. However, the question still remained as to how involved he wanted to be. Just because he wanted to acknowledge his child didn’t mean he’d be going to birthing classes with her and reading baby name books.
“That’s good,” she replied, getting her lips to work finally. “I think we can do this, Sam.”
They’d been friends before, they could be again. She was sure that eventually she’d stop being attracted to him. Once she got to know him better. There were probably dozens of annoying habits that she didn’t know about. She did know he snored and that was pretty annoying, although she’d been so exhausted she’d fallen right asleep.
There seemed to be relief in his expression. “I think we can, too. I know it’s going to take some compromises on both our parts but I’m willing if you are.”
“I can do that.”
It might mean some travel for her, taking the baby to see Sam, but it would be doable.
Sitting back in his chair, he appeared happy for the first time since she’d first seen him at the hospital.
“Mom is going to be so excited. She’s wanted grandkids for years and is always bugging me to settle down. She’s going to be thrilled it’s with you. She already loves you like a daughter.”
Wait…what? He was settling down with her? Riley must have spaced out and missed something in the conversation. Something really important.
“I’m not following you. What do you mean?”
The pregnancy book had warned her about feeling foggy at times because of the fatigue, but right now Riley felt wide awake.
“She’s going to be thrilled about us. You have to know she was trying to push us together.”
Riley knew and she’d assumed that Paula was nudging her son as well, this was just confirmation. But his statement raised more questions than it answered.
“Together? Sam, why don’t you describe for me how you see us doing this.”
Us. That word was powerful. They’d both been throwing it around but what did it actually mean to Sam?
“I think we should do what’s best for the baby.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, his gaze intent. “I think we should create a family for him or her. A real home where he can feel safe and secure.”
“A home?”
He nodded, obviously warming to the topic. “A mother and a father. Hell, when the baby is older we can get a dog, too. If I travel you and the baby come with me. I don’t know what the rules are in Florida about getting a marriage license, but I can find out. If you want a big wedding, we can do that as well. I’m open to that. But we should probably do it before the baby is born.”
She ran his words through her brain over and over again but kept coming up with the same conclusion. He wanted to get married.
Now that was something she hadn’t expected.
“You think we should get married?”
She was acting like a parrot, repeating what he said but she was having trouble forming words and sentences.
Sam Collins wanted to marry her.
Those people in hell might want to put on a parka.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“I do think we should get married,” Sam pressed. “It makes everything so much easier.”
Be still my heart. The romantic fool.
“I’m not sure that’s a valid reason for a wedding.”
Jumping to his feet, he paced the area between her coffee table and the front window.
“Think about what it will be like if we don’t. The poor kid will be shuttled between us constantly, spending way too much time on airplanes and with nannies. Is that what you want for our child? Because that’s what it’s going to be like. I don’t want to be a father that only sees his kid a few weeks every year. If I’m going to do this, I want to be involved.”
Be careful what you wish for. It might come true.
She’d hoped that Sam would want to be a father to the baby, and now he did. The devil, however, was in the details.
“I don’t want our child pulled from pillar to post,” she conceded with a heavy sigh. There was no clear-cut answer here. “Frankly, the idea of putting my baby on an airplane to you with some nanny is horrifying. I’m not sure I could even make myself do it. But marriage? That’s a huge commitment. We don’t love each other.”
The elephant in the room had to be acknowledged. They weren’t a couple and there wasn’t love between them. They had respect and friendship and a whole lotta lust but was that enough to build a life on? She wasn’t so sure.
“We’re committed for life already, Riley. We have a child between us now, which means we’re stuck with each other for a good long while whether we like it or not.” He came to sit next to her on the couch. “Don’t reject this right away. I’ve spent most of the night thinking about this and it’s the perfect solution. If you’re my wife, you’d be legally and financially protected if anything happened to me. You once told me that you were sensible and pragmatic. You have to admit that the most practical solution is that we get married.”
She couldn’t deny it. He’d made a great argument. If she wasn’t sort of a romantic at heart.
“That’s true…”
“But?”
She wanted to marry for love and romance and passion and all that girly stuff. She wanted to believe that her marriage would last forever and that her husband couldn’t live without her.
That wasn’t a rational argument, though.
“If you want me to be pragmatic then I need to think about my job and my house. I can’t just up and leave. I have responsibilities here.”
“I figured we could keep your house and I can just pay it off. We’ll want to visit Mom quite a bit and your family is close by, too. The rest of the time we can make our home wherever you’d like, although I do a great deal of business in Los Angeles and New York. If we don’t live there I might have to travel more, but if they’re just short trips you wouldn’t necessarily have to come along unless you wanted to.”
Apparently, he’d anticipated all of her arguments. “We would keep my house?”
“Absolutel
y,” he assured her. “And wherever we decide to make our home we can buy a house with a guest cottage so my mother or your parents can visit as often as they like.”
“A guest cottage. That’s…handy.”
He’d thought of everything, essentially knocking the pins out from under her. All she had to do was give in and go with the flow.
“My friend Tyler has one and it’s great for when family come and stay. But we’ll worry about that when the time comes. I think our main focus needs to be on getting married as soon as possible and then preparing for the baby.”
Riley took another long drink of her lemonade, draining the glass and wishing it were vodka.
“Do you want some more lemonade?”
She blinked a few times and then nodded. “I think I do.”
What she really needed was more time and space, but they appeared to be in short supply.
Sam refilled both of their glasses but didn’t sit down, instead resuming his pacing that was beginning to get on her nerves.
“Listen, you’ll have to take time off once the baby comes, right? Math was never my best subject but I’m pretty sure that you’ll give birth this winter in the middle of the school year. So you’d only be going back for part of the year, anyway. You won’t even need to work. Whether we get married or not, I’ll make sure that you’re taken care of financially. You’ll be able to stay home full time with the baby for as long as you like.”
He didn’t get it. He’d been so busy making plans, he hadn’t stopped for a minute to think about what she wanted. He’d only thought about what was convenient for him.
Finally. She’d found a flaw in the man. He was a tiny bit self-centered, but then he had good reason to be. People had probably been catering to his every whim for years now.
“You certainly have it all planned.”
He stopped pacing and turned to her, his brows pinched together in a frown.
“You don’t make that sound like a good thing.”
“It could be but you kind of forgot one tiny detail.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Such as?”
“Me.”
“You? I didn’t forget you. This is all about you.”
Riley shook her head sadly. He really believed what he was saying. “No, it’s about you. It’s all about me and the baby fitting into your life. There’s nothing in there about you fitting into mine.”
He opened his mouth but then shut it again. From his expression, it looked like he desperately wanted to say something but for some reason he didn’t.
“No reply?”
Shuffling his feet, he shrugged. “People are always complaining about their jobs. I didn’t think it would be a big deal if you quit. I thought you’d be glad.”
“Have I ever complained about my job? Because I love what I do, and I’ve worked hard for the reputation I have as an excellent, caring educator. You’re just assuming that I want to throw it all away.” She was well aware as to why. “Because you make millions and I make peanuts. Automatically you assumed that your work was far more important than mine.”
“No–”
“C’mon, Sam. You’ve always been honest with me. You just assumed that I would make all the compromises because you’re the big Hollywood star and I’m just the knocked-up kindergarten teacher. I should just be grateful that you don’t throw a little money my way and go back to your life, right?”
His cheeks were red and he couldn’t look her in the eye. Bingo.
“I was trying to make everything easy for you.”
“And you,” she shot back. If they were going to make this work, she had to set boundaries right out of the gate. She couldn’t let him and his fame take over her life. “Let’s not forget that all of this would be easier for you.”
He looked up then and their gazes clashed, sending a jolt through her all the way to her toes. There was pain and anguish in his eyes, but she didn’t know where it came from. As quickly as she saw it, it was gone as if it had never been, but she couldn’t forget the haunted expression he’d worn if only for a moment.
“Trust me, nothing about this has been easy for me.”
Riley wanted to ask why but nothing about him invited that question. He held himself stiffly. His body language foreboding. The openness he’d exhibited earlier was gone.
She decided to start again and perhaps he would relax.
“I’m willing to discuss what’s best for the baby but we need to do this together. No going off on your own and making all the plans, expecting me to just fall in line. If you want us to be a team, let’s start now.”
He nodded, his entire body seeming to loosen up. “Fine, you’ve had a lot longer than me to think about this. How did you imagine it would be? What’s your vision?”
It was her turn to blush. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure how involved you wanted to be, Sam. You have a busy career and you’re always traveling.”
“Okay, but that doesn’t answer my question.”
No, it didn’t, but then answering wasn’t so simple. However, she’d asked him to be honest with her so she had to be as well, no matter how difficult.
“Part of me thought you might offer money.”
Sam didn’t look angry or insulted. Maybe that idea had crossed his mind.
“And the other part?”
“I guess I thought that you’d be a sort of drop-in dad. You know, come to town when you had time or maybe I’d bring the baby to you now and then.”
He sat down in the chair opposite her and took a gulp of his lemonade. “You must have a terrible opinion of me, Riley.”
“I don’t,” she protested. “I actually think you’re a good man.”
“Who ignores his child?” Sam shook his head, that look of pain back in his eyes. “You know how I was brought up. It was just me and Mom and she did great. She was the best mother I could have ever hoped for, but you actually thought I would walk away from my own child after growing up without a father? I want to be a dad to this baby and I want to care for you, too. I doubt I’ll be any good at it, but I want to try if you’ll let me.”
She remembered the look on Paula’s face when she’d spoken about wanting a father for her son. Riley wanted that too, but everything in life had a cost. How much was she willing to give to have a loving daddy for her son or daughter?
Everything. She was willing to give it all.
“Sam, I think I might have an idea we can both live with.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
It was the best deal Sam was going to get, at least for now.
Riley had agreed to spend her summer with him in New York City while he finished his latest picture. At the end of July, she’d make a decision as to whether to give up her job and marry him. With Riley living with him, he could take care of her and the baby. If he’d pushed for more, she would have certainly rebelled and he couldn’t watch over her. Now all he had to do was make living with him so wonderful she wouldn’t want to return to her old life.
Not a small task.
If his ex-wife was to be believed he was difficult to live with and a real pain in the ass, and he’d assumed that he hadn’t become any better in the ensuing years since his divorce. If anything, he was probably a hell of a lot worse. Spoiled, set in his ways, and stubborn as hell, he was used to living alone and getting what he wanted pretty much all of the time. If he wanted Thai food for dinner, he called up his favorite restaurant. If he wanted the thermostat set at seventy-two, then by God that’s where it would be. If he wanted to stay up all night and watch bad horror movies while eating pizza then he did that, too. Those days were officially over. He had someone else to think about now and that – as Riley had painfully reminded him – was something that didn’t come naturally.
He’d handled the situation like he handled most things, by issuing orders and plans to her like she was part of his staff. If things worked out, she was going to be his wife and that required an immediate attitude adjustment. From what he’d s
een from his friends’ marriages, they needed to become partners and work together.
“How are you feeling, Mom?”
Paula was stretched out, her feet propped on an ottoman while she read one of the books Sam had bought for her. He’d managed to keep her home today but tomorrow was a whole new battle. She was insistent that she was fully recovered.
“Fine, and if you ask me again I won’t be responsible for my actions. You’d think I had major surgery the way you’re acting. I forgot to drink some water. No big deal.”
“It could have been a big deal. You could have died.”
Snapping her book shut with a sigh, Paula placed it on the table next to the chair. “Aren’t you a bundle of sunshine? Is the movie you’re making sad and depressing by any chance?”
“It’s a comedy,” he deadpanned, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “Seriously though, dehydration is nothing to mess with, Mom.”
“I know, and I will take it seriously from now on.” She nodded to the glass of water on the table. “I’m drinking one of those every hour. I could float around the room like a balloon. Stop worrying.”
“You’re my mother, I’ll never stop worrying about you.”
“I have so much to look forward to in my old age. Did you come here to tell me you’re leaving? I’ll be fine, son. Riley and Tara will check on me and report back to you, I’m sure.”
About Riley…
He sat down on the couch and rubbed at his chin, trying to figure out a good way to break the news. He should have planned this better.
“Actually, Riley won’t be in New Hope this summer. She’s going to spend it in New York with me.”
Paula’s face lit up with the biggest smile he’d seen in a long time. “Darling, that’s wonderful. Just what I’d hoped for you two. She’s perfect for you. I think you’ll be very happy together.”
“Slow down.” He held up his hand before she could go too far. “It’s for the summer. She wants to see how things go before she makes any more of a commitment so let’s take this one step at a time.”
Paula clasped her hands together in delight. “It’s a step forward and that’s the important thing. How did you convince her?”
Love in the Spotlight Page 13
