After Tate left, she bundled Marie into her arms and kissed her sweet neck, kissed her little cheek. Anita had never been more scared than she was at that moment.
But the idea of marrying Tate almost made the fear go away.
As Tate made his way through the house the following evening, he thought about how a man’s life could change in a few days. Last night, before turning in, he’d assured Anita again that he’d meant his proposal. But she hadn’t grabbed at the opportunity to marry him. Her hesitancy led him to trust her a little more. At work today, he’d been convinced they should get hitched. He hadn’t made the offer to marry Anita just out of a sense of nobility. Once he’d thought of it, it seemed like a great idea and now he intended to convince her that marriage was the best course.
When Tate walked into the laundry room and spotted Anita folding his underwear, he knew he’d asked her to marry him because he wanted her in his bed. But also, he’d asked her to marry him because he wanted to be a father to her kids. With Anita, he knew what he was getting, plain and simple. That beat having to fence and duck and maybe even sic a private eye on any woman he intended to have a serious involvement with.
He’d seen the look on Anita’s face when he’d mentioned the prenuptial agreement. There was a decided lack of trust on both their parts. Maybe they could earn each other’s trust slowly. He knew what fidelity was and didn’t intend to step out on her as her husband had. Maybe in time she’d learn he kept vows he made.
When he glanced at the underwear and then at her, her cheeks reddened. Moving toward her, taking a T-shirt in his hands and folding it himself, he said, “Sorry I’m so late. It couldn’t be helped. Problems seem to be a dime a dozen this year.”
“You don’t punch a time clock with me, Tate.”
“No, I don’t. Have you come to any conclusions about my proposal?”
Avoiding his gaze, she just kept folding. “I got another letter today. It came by overnight courier. A court date’s been set.”
Tate whistled low. “That was fast. Somebody’s got clout.”
She lifted worried eyes to his. “Yes, and we know who, don’t we? Before that letter came, I was thinking I could take awhile to make a decision. But now, I don’t see that I can.”
“What have you decided?”
“If I marry you, I can keep my children. But I need to know something. What kind of marriage would you expect to have?”
“I already told you the nights would change. I’m not doing this out of the goodness of my heart, Anita. I want the real deal. I want all the advantages of marriage, which means having you in my bed every night. I also want a ready-made family. That’s the point of this whole thing.”
Stepping close to her, he took his underwear from her hand and laid it on the dryer. Then he enfolded her into his arms and brought her close—so close his breath met hers. “Don’t you want a real marriage?”
“My experience with a real marriage wasn’t the best,” she admitted breathlessly.
“I know it wasn’t. But we can be partners in this.”
Gazing into his eyes, she said, “You don’t trust me. That’s why you want me to sign a prenuptial agreement.”
He couldn’t deny it. “A prenup will safeguard both of us. You’ll know exactly what you’ll get if we split up. And I promise you, if you’re straight with me, I’ll provide for your kids, no matter what.”
As he raised the stakes, he realized why he had. Her answer meant more to him than he wanted to admit.
“You mean you’d help them through school?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. If something happens and this doesn’t work out, their education would be part of the settlement. What more could you ask for?”
There were shadows in Anita’s eyes. Anxiety. Concern. He’d give half his bank account to know exactly what she was thinking right now.
“So this will be like…a business arrangement?”
“With lots of benefits,” he added slyly.
One more thing would push her over the edge and convince her. Bending his head, he gently set his lips on hers.
After a bit of pressure and settling in, he pulled her closer, slid his hand down her back, then breached her lips. With a soft sigh, she gave into the kiss and surrendered to him. He wanted her to not only need this marriage but also to want this marriage. Letting the passion grow, he stoked the flames until he was ready to strip off both their clothes. But then he stopped. If he pushed too hard, if he went too far, a woman like Anita might back away. Although his body was screaming for satisfaction, he knew courting was part of this whole process. Theirs had to be rushed, but it could still be done. By the time she slept with him, she’d want sex as much as he did.
When he broke the kiss and pulled away, she looked surprised. “I won’t rush you into anything you’re not ready for. I can promise you that. I’m a patient man when I want to be. But we’ll get married as soon as we can so we can get that court date canceled.”
“How are we going to do that?”
“By retaining a lawyer and notifying the Suttons that we’re man and wife. Once they know that, they’ll back off because there won’t be any basis for them to take over custody.”
Her expression was clouded with worry. “I hope you’re right.”
“You still haven’t officially given me your answer.”
He could see she was torn, that this wasn’t what she had planned at all. That gave him some hope. Maybe she’d never had ulterior motives.
Finally, she declared, “I’ll marry you, Tate.”
The knot of tension in his chest eased and he was filled with a jubilance he hadn’t experienced in years. “Great! I’ll call my lawyer and get the ball rolling. Maybe you can ask Inez to stand up for you.”
“Maybe I can.”
But Anita didn’t look happy when she said it, and he wondered exactly what kind of marriage they were going to have.
Anita wore her one good dress to her wedding. It was an all-season dress in a pretty green with three-quarter sleeves and a sweetheart neckline. She’d had it for a few years. Tate was dressed in a Western-cut charcoal suit and wore a bolo tie, the slider in the shape of Texas. With an ash-gray Stetson, he was more handsome than any man she’d ever seen. Even so, as they stood before a justice of the peace—Inez to her right, holding Marie and the twins beside her, Tate’s friend Garth, who Anita had met at the barbecue, beside him—she wondered if she was absolutely crazy. What did she really know about Tate Pardell?
A lot, she had to admit, and she was learning more every day…falling more in love with him every day. That was the main reason she was doubting this wedding. How would this marriage work with her loving him but him not loving her? When she thought about the prenuptial agreement, Tate’s lack of trust saddened her.
Still, as she said her vows, she knew she was protecting her children and her right to be their mother. That was all that mattered right now.
Since Garth was a doctor with a busy family practice, they had decided to get married in the evening. As the justice of the peace declared, “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” Tate took her in his arms to kiss her. The kiss was a solid, no-nonsense one, and when they broke apart, she realized everyone was staring at them.
“That’s mushy,” Corey mumbled.
“That’s romantic,” Inez debated him with a smile, jiggling Marie, who was becoming restless.
With a grin, Garth clapped Tate on the back. “Congratulations, buddy. I never thought it would happen.”
A look passed between the two men that Anita didn’t understand.
“Can we have wedding cake now?” Jared asked.
Anita had to smile. When Tate had picked up Inez, she’d been carrying a large cake holder.
“Are you all going to come over to the house and have some with us?” Tate asked.
“I think you should go home, put the kids to bed and have a private celebration,” Garth suggested. “To add to that, I brought a bottle
of champagne for you. I can take Inez home, if you’d like.”
“There’s no need,” Anita said quickly, not knowing if she wanted to be alone with Tate just yet, not knowing what was going to happen after the children were in bed for the night.
“Sure, Garth, you can take me home,” Inez agreed. She transferred little Marie to Anita’s arms. “There’s no use you two wasting one minute of your wedding night.”
Anita felt decidedly embarrassed about the whole subject.
“Mom, your cheeks are gettin’ bright red,” Corey pointed out, to Anita’s chagrin.
“Kids see everything,” Tate murmured. “For that reason, we’re going to have to do a good job with this marriage.”
A good job, Anita thought sadly. That’s the way Tate thought of it.
Half an hour later, back at Tate’s house, the boys sensed something different in the air. While Anita got Marie ready for bed, Tate fed the boys slices of wedding cake. As she gave Marie a bottle and rocked her, she could hear Corey and Jared chattering with Tate in the kitchen and heard his deep voice answering them. He was so comfortable with them and talked to the twins as if they had some sense. Larry hadn’t known how to relate to them and had been awkward, barking orders, expecting them to be seen and not heard. Tate seemed to understand that boys needed to be rowdy now and then.
After Anita kissed her daughter and settled her in the crib, she found the twins dressed in their pajamas, sitting on their beds. Tate had discarded his suit jacket and tie, and was sitting at the foot of Jared’s bed, reading them a story.
Standing just inside the doorway, she waited until he finished.
Afterward, she crossed over to her sons, pulled up their covers and kissed each one on the forehead, aware all along that Tate’s eyes were on her.
“Mr. Pardell says we can call him Tate now,” Jared announced.
“He says your name’s different than ours. Is that so?” Corey asked, looking confused.
“Yes, my name’s going to be different now. I’m Anita Pardell.”
“But we want the same name as yours,” Jared complained.
“Oh, boys….”
“Maybe we can do something about that,” Tate said, his eyes holding hers. “But it’ll take a while.”
“How long?” Corey asked.
“I’m not sure. I’ll look into it. But it can be a year or so, I bet. The thing is, boys, if you get the same name as mine, that means I’m officially your dad. Is that what you guys want?”
Corey and Jared’s silent consultation took a few moments, then both of them looked at him and nodded.
Tate cleared his throat. “Your mom and I will talk about it. For now, you get some shut-eye.”
A few minutes later, Anita followed Tate down the hall and into the kitchen. “Tate, I never expected you to adopt them.”
“Don’t you want me to?” he asked.
“I hadn’t really thought about it. All of this happened so fast. Maybe you should wait and make sure you want to be a father.”
“Maybe what you’re really saying is, you want me to wait so you have time to see if you want me to be their father.”
“I guess we all need time to absorb this.”
Instead of answering her, Tate went to the bottle of champagne and popped the top. The cork landed on the counter with a thump. “Garth bought the best,” Tate noticed.
Because she was feeling nervous, she needed something to do. Taking two dishes from the cupboard, she cut them each a slice of white cake with coconut icing. “He seems like a good friend.”
“He was a couple of years ahead of me in high school, but we were friends anyway. When he and Sandy came back to Clear Springs last year and he opened up his practice, we got reacquainted.”
After Tate handed her a glass of champagne, she offered him a plate of cake. Aware of each other and the vows they’d made tonight, they sat at the table and ate in silence until Tate informed her, “I made another appointment with the lawyer tomorrow at one. The boys are in school and we can take Marie.”
At the beginning of the week, when they’d seen the lawyer to finalize the prenuptial agreement, they had taken Marie along. “If I bring her bottle and a couple of toys again, she’ll be fine.”
“We’ll probably have to answer lots of questions. Just thought I’d warn you. He’ll need some background.”
“I know.” Finished with her plate and seeing that Tate was finished with his, she took the dishes to the sink, rinsed them and was just going to load them in the dishwasher when she dropped one of them.
Picking it up from the floor, she said, “I’m glad it didn’t break.”
After he rose from his chair, Tate came over to her, took it from her hands, placed it in the dishwasher and closed the machine’s door. Then he faced her. “There’s nothing for you to be nervous about.”
“I’m not—”
He took her hand in his. “Yes, you are. You’re trembling. This is going to be okay, Anita. I’m not going to rush you into anything you don’t want, tonight or any time.”
She couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, and he heard it. Still holding her hand, he suggested, “I’ll walk you to your room.”
All the emotions inside Anita were tumbling around, and she couldn’t seem to settle them down long enough to get a good look at them. Just Tate’s fingers on hers excited her. Just the thought of going to bed with him was thrilling. Yet before that happened, they needed some kind of understanding—some kind of sharing of feelings, some kind of bonding that just hadn’t happened yet.
At the sitting room door, he took her face into his hands, tipped her chin up and kissed her. It was slow and sweet and sensual.
Before she had time to respond, he stopped it and stepped away. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he said in a low voice.
“In the morning,” she breathed, and then slipped inside the door.
When she closed it, her heart was racing. Loving Tate Pardell was going to shake her world.
Each day that went by frustrated Tate more. He wanted Anita in an elemental way that was turning his stomach upside down and his brains to mush. He found himself thinking about her when he should be thinking about work. Over the weekend, he’d supervised the move of the boys into a bigger room at his end of the house and Marie into the one next to that. He’d wanted to move Anita into his bedroom, but instead, she’d hung her meager wardrobe in the third guest bedroom.
At least she was closer.
Yet not close enough.
Since the boys had full run of the house now, they were as happy as could be. In the evenings, Tate became part of their bedtime ritual and made an attempt to cut off his workday at a decent time so they could have supper as a family. The family part of everything was working out just fine. The husband and wife part…
On top of everything else, they hadn’t heard a word from the Suttons’ lawyer, although Tate’s lawyer had informed him of Anita’s marriage. That was making both him and Anita edgy.
As he helped tuck Marie in for the night, Anita’s vanilla scent made him even more aware of his desire for her as he breathed it in. When he stepped close to the crib, no longer in Anita’s bedroom but in a room of its own, he could hear his pulse pounding in his ears.
Running his hand down Marie’s fine, curly hair, he said, “She’s going to be walking soon. Did you notice how she walked all the way around the coffee table tonight while she held on?”
“I noticed. She’s been doing more of that—pulling herself up and using the furniture to get from one piece to the next.”
“You know, once she walks, it won’t be long until she runs.”
Anita laughed. “With a toddler around, I don’t have to worry about joining a gym.”
“Is that something you’ve been thinking about doing?” He couldn’t keep his gaze from passing down her trim figure in her T-shirt and jeans.
“It was on my wish list once. Not so much joining a gym as just having the time to
exercise.”
“If you want to join the gym in town, go ahead and get a membership.”
“No. It’s expensive and—”
“Anita, I can afford it.” When they’d signed the prenuptial agreement, Anita had said he’d been more than generous.
“Maybe you can. But I still don’t know how much I’d use the membership, and I don’t want to be wasteful. Instead, maybe I could just get an exercise bike.”
“You know what we could do? We could set up one of the bedrooms in the housekeeper’s quarters as an exercise room.”
“That’d be great. Do you think you’d use it, too?”
“I’d make time. Maybe we could do it together.” The thought of her in one of those stretchy little outfits…
He could see she was thinking about him working out, too. Her cheeks flushed and her breath came faster. Maybe tonight, if they hurried up and put the boys to bed, he’d give into temptation, kiss her long and hard and see where it led.
As if he’d conjured them up, the twins ran past Marie’s room, laughing and giggling.
“I wonder what they’ve been up to,” Anita said, worrying her lip. “They were awfully quiet while we were putting Marie to bed.”
“They were probably watching TV again. They look at it as if it’s a movie screen.”
“They’ve only been to the movies a couple of times. It’s a novelty for them.” She checked her watch. “I’ll round them up.”
A beep-beep and a buzzing sound came from Tate’s office down the hall.
“Is that the fax machine?” she asked.
“Sure is. I’m expecting some specs on a house I’m going to build. I’ll go pick them up and then read the boys a story.”
Still thinking about Anita sliding between his sheets with him, Tate went to his office. The fax lay in its tray. He was about to pick up the paper when something on his desk made him take a second look. Before supper, he’d been studying preliminary sketches of a new model home. Now, he realized, those sketches had been colored in, over and around. The architect’s preliminary drawings were absolutely ruined!
To Protect and Cherish Page 10
