by Tina Cambria
“A kickoff to the holiday season? I can get with that.”
Thirty minutes later, Kyle parked his Explorer downtown, and he and Danielle walked a couple blocks to the town square, now lined with artists’ booths. “Beautiful weather for this event,” he said. “I understand they hold it whether or not it snows.”
“The leaves that have turned yellow look gorgeous.” She motioned to the backdrop of the mountain.
“We better enjoy the fall colors while we can. I’ve been told the first snowfall is late this year and could be any day.”
“You’ll have to get used to it, California Boy.” Danielle grinned.
“California by way of Texas, you forget.”
Danielle’s face darkened. “I’ve forgotten a lot of things lately.”
“Oh man, I don’t know why I keep making jokes about you forgetting things.” What was wrong with him? He needed to strike the words forget, remember, and memory from his vocabulary for a while.
“I get it. You sometimes use expressions that people say without thinking.” She shrugged. “No offense taken.”
“C’mon, let’s check out what these artists have for sale.” He clutched her hand and steered her toward a crowded booth where a man in weathered jeans and a vintage Led Zeppelin t-shirt offered photographs of local scenery.
“Beautiful,” Danielle murmured.
“Yeah, we could consider something like that to decorate our apartment.”
“There are too many to choose from.” She crossed her arms across her chest. “I couldn’t decide right now.”
Kyle scanned the surrounding booths and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “I want to see what that vendor’s selling.”
They ambled across the square to a booth filled with hand-made jewelry. He was instantly drawn to a heart-shaped sterling silver locket on a chain. A blue stone glittered from the center of the ornately-carved heart.
A slender, pony-tailed woman in jeans behind the counter stepped toward them. “You have good taste. It’s all hand-made. By me,” she said to him, and then turned to Danielle. “Would you like to try it on?”
“Oh, I’m not sure.” Danielle glanced at him, her eyes looking nervous.
He ran a finger over the locket and turned to the woman in the booth. “What’s the blue stone in the middle?”
“Topaz. It’s considered the gemstone for the fourth wedding anniversary.” The woman glanced at Danielle’s left ring finger, which was bare of jewelry.
“We haven’t even reached the first anniversary yet.” He laughed and turned to Danielle. “Do you like it?”
“It’s exquisite, but—”
He dropped his voice. “While you’re waiting to put that wedding ring back on, this would be a nice piece of jewelry for you to wear.”
Danielle tilted her head toward the woman. “But she said it’s for the fourth wedding anniversary.”
“So, when did we ever do anything in the right order?” He motioned for the woman behind the booth to take the necklace from the display. “Let’s see how it looks on you, darlin’.”
The woman undid the lobster claw clasp, fastened the necklace around Danielle’s neck, and held a mirror in front of her.
“Oh, my goodness,” Danielle gushed. “It really is beautiful.”
“The topaz is the same color as your eyes,” the woman said, and then discreetly showed Kyle a card with the price.
“It does light up your eyes,” Kyle said to Danielle, who placed her right hand atop her breasts as she stared at the necklace in the mirror.
“I can take ten percent off the price,” the woman said, leaning closer to him.
“We’ll take it, and she’ll wear it right now.” He squeezed Danielle’s shoulders and planted a light kiss on her mouth. “You look gorgeous.”
“Thank you—for that compliment and for the stunning necklace.”
Her eyes sparkled, and he wondered if love—for him—was behind the gleam.
They spent the next hour wandering from booth to booth, taking in displays of carved wood, copper pieces, paintings and drawings, blown glass, sculptures, ceramics, and elaborately-styled handbags. “There’s so much talent around here,” Kyle said.
“It must be an artistic community,” she agreed.
He couldn’t help noticing a few times when Danielle caught sight of her reflection in a mirror or shop window and focused her gaze on the new necklace around her neck. Even if she wouldn’t wear the wedding ring he’d given her in Vegas, he felt good seeing her wear a piece of jewelry he’d picked out just for her.
And he was going to make sure she would willingly put that wedding ring back on her finger soon.
Why was it taking her so long to figure out what she’d pretty much nailed in the first week they’d met? They were meant to be together.
He was sure her indecision played into his delay in letting his parents and sister know about the baby. He fully expected them to be furious when they found out he’d been married for about three months…and had been a father-to-be for that same amount of time.
Maybe fury wasn’t the exact emotion he’d expect them to display. Shock would be more like it.
But he expected they’d soften up over the prospect of a new baby in the family. Especially his mother. He wouldn’t be surprised if she hired a skywriter to announce the happy news to the good citizens of Austin, Texas.
He expected his sister Samantha to be thrilled as well. There might be some initial resistance from his father. Particularly after that broken engagement when Kyle’s fiancée had decided he wasn’t quite worth marrying if he wasn’t willing to move right into a high-paying executive position with his parents’ company. That had made his dad a little gun-shy around prospective daughters-in-law. “Watch out for gold diggers,” he’d warned Kyle on more than one occasion.
Danielle wasn’t doing any gold digging. At least not with him. Look at the way he’d had to convince her to accept a necklace as a gift from him.
Even so, he wasn’t ready to go into full-disclosure mode about the size of his parents’ business empire. If she decided to make a go of things with him, Kyle wanted to be sure it was because she was so in love with him that she couldn’t imagine herself with anyone else, and not just so she wouldn’t have to worry about the bills getting paid.
The next evening, Kyle returned from work exhausted. When Danielle greeted him at the door in a tiered top that concealed her growing tummy but not the increasing mound of her breasts, he was desperate to hear her say that she’d realized—beyond a doubt—that he was the love of her life.
Ping! An announcement that, just like that, the fog had cleared from her brain, and everything had become clear. All the sweet things he had been doing for nearly a month had dislodged whatever had blocked her memory of their time in Vegas. She’d connected the dots, put two and two together, had a light bulb go on in her brain—however you’d describe that moment of epiphany when Kyle emerged in her consciousness as her true love.
Instead, her face lit up as she fingered the heart pendant with the topaz stone. “Thank you again for this beautiful necklace,” she said. “That was super thoughtful of you.”
“I like giving you pretty things.” He kissed her, and she returned it, letting the kiss linger a little longer than the light one they’d exchanged yesterday at the art show. His senses filled with her fresh scent, and he couldn’t help wishing she would excitedly announce she’d had a grand awakening of her forgotten memories.
But when she broke the kiss, Danielle didn’t declare that she’d had a memory breakthrough. “I sincerely appreciate the gift,” she said, stroking the pendant again and then biting her lip. “And I was wondering today if you’ve come up with a good way to inform your family about me. And about our baby.”
“No, but I guess it’s time that I got around to that.” To be honest, the time had come and gone, and each passing day where he didn’t come clean to his parents ramped up the likelihood that the announcemen
t wouldn’t go smoothly.
“Do you think they’d like to come here to meet me and see where we live?”
“I’m sure they would. It’d just be a matter of their schedules. They’re a couple of extremely busy folks.”
“Right, what with their restaurant and everything.” Danielle nodded in understanding. “It’s probably hard to even take a day off from making sure everything’s running smoothly in the kitchen and all those kinds of things.”
“Well, um, yeah.” He still didn’t think it was the time to tell her that his parents were more concerned with corporate-level operations than the day-to-day management of a single restaurant.
Make her fall back in love with me first, and then I can spring the multi-millionaire status of my folks on her.
Glancing down the hallway in the direction of the spare bedroom that he still occupied, he wondered how his parents would react if they dropped in and realized their son wasn’t even sleeping with his bride. His pregnant bride.
That would be some kind of visit.
CHAPTER TEN
The next morning, Danielle was pleased when Kyle dusted her cheek with a friendly kiss before leaving for work and promised to call his parents later that day.
She expected it would be a difficult phone call. To say the least.
Telling Nana Rose about the whirlwind marriage and unexpected pregnancy had been about as easy for Danielle as turning a backflip with her newly-blossoming tummy would be at that very moment.
And she’d been less than two months along when she’d given Nana the news. Plus, she’d only found out about it herself that same day. So, she hadn’t specifically been keeping a secret from her grandmother for a long time.
But Kyle was in a different situation with his family. He’d been married for almost three months now. And he’d known he was going to be a dad for a good part of that time.
His parents might not take too kindly to the late-breaking nature of the news. And whose fault was that? She had to admit that she was the one who said she needed time to decide if she wanted to make their marriage permanent.
But she couldn’t be blamed for getting hit by an out-of-control vehicle and ending up a victim of partial amnesia.
It suddenly occurred to her that the longer she and Kyle lived together, the harder it might be to get the marriage annulled. If that’s what they eventually decided to do.
A real live baby and several months of living together sure looked like a legitimate marriage.
Maybe not the part that took place in the bedroom. Or didn’t take place in the bedroom. Or had taken place one time in the bedroom since they’d moved to this apartment.
Gentle prickles of pleasure teased her with the memory of Kyle’s blazing touch.
Why am I thinking about him that way? I made up my mind that we need to forge a solid emotional connection first. Molten sex is not going to form the foundation for my marriage.
She involuntarily shivered, almost trying to shake off the tingles skittering through her. When her cell phone rang, it yanked her back into the moment. Expecting to see the name of Leslie or Nana…or maybe even Kyle…on her smartphone display, she was surprised when a different name appeared on the screen.
Mark Zanderman. Her agent from back in L.A.
The guy who’d landed her the small part in the movie. The one where the only acting skills required were to give the impression of being bored while reclining totally nude in a floating lounger.
What could he want with her? A miniscule glimmer of hope that she might get paid for showing up on set that day—even though she’d left before going through with getting naked and hopping in the swimming pool—made her answer Mark’s call.
“Danielle!” Mark’s booming voice assaulted her eardrums. “Hey, I’ve got good news for you.”
What? No asking how she was or anything so trivial as social niceties? That’s right, Mark was a busy Hollywood agent, locking down deals for all kinds of big players in the movie industry.
Like a quick peep at a young woman’s breasts…and other body parts usually reserved for a lover…while she was partially submerged in water. Real Oscar-worthy material.
“Nice to talk to you too, Mark,” she said, not sure whether she wanted to disguise or flaunt the sarcasm that most likely was filtering into her voice.
“Oh, right.” Mark hesitated for something like a nanosecond before launching into his spiel. “Yeah, remember that part you didn’t get?”
“Which one? There were so many, I’m having trouble keeping track.”
“Working title was Her Bottom Line. Kind of a double entendre there. Romantic comedy about a—shall we say—model who takes over a huge business in a mistaken identity thing.”
“How could that even happen?”
“I’m not talking about a documentary. It’s a classic fish out of water story. And it ends with the—like I said—model ending up being smarter than all the MBAs in charge of the company. She increases the bottom line—the profits—more than any of those other Einsteins ever did.”
“Heartwarming,” Danielle responded, not even trying to hide her sarcastic tone. “But why are you calling me about it? I didn’t get the part.”
“You weren’t even up for the lead role, Darlene.”
“Danielle,” she corrected.
“Right, right,” Mark mumbled.
And was she supposed to feel better because she couldn’t lose out on the lead role, since she hadn’t even been considered for it in the first place? Mark was rubbing in that she couldn’t even get hired for bit parts. Unless they required stripping for the camera.
“What’s your point, Mark?”
“I’m telling you they’re interested in you. You auditioned for the part of the model’s best friend from the old days. She’s a hot-looking thing who never went to business school either but has a lot of common sense about how things should be done. And she kind of keeps the lead actress grounded when there’s a danger all the money she’s making might go to her head.”
“They want me to play the hot-looking best friend who’s also brilliant but doesn’t have an MBA either?”
“That’s almost it. Their original choice for the role didn’t work out. Then they reviewed the audition tapes, and you’ve got a callback. Tomorrow morning at ten. Can you get here?”
She’d need to be in L.A. in less than twenty-four hours. This could be the break she’d been dreaming of. But could she even get there in time?
Her sarcastic tone turned regretful. “I’m not sure…”
“What do you mean, you’re not sure? Honestly, I think you’ve got this one in the bag. It’s not a huge part, but it could lead to something bigger.”
“Mark, I don’t—”
“Look, you have the acting chops.” He cleared his throat. “Full disclosure, the character wears tight-fitting, skimpy outfits. But there’s no nudity. It’s absolutely perfect for you.”
Tight-fitting, skimpy outfits.
Without needing to think, her hand went to her abdomen. The baby. Growing bigger each day. Even if she somehow managed to get to the audition the next day, she doubted she’d be able to hide the swelling of her tummy in the skimpy outfit they’d surely want her to wear before they made their final decision.
And if she somehow actually got the part, by the time filming was underway, every scene would reveal her baby growing larger with each passing day.
“It sounds great, Mark,” she heard herself saying. “But I guess you didn’t know I was in a pretty bad car accident about a week after I left L.A.”
* * *
Kyle had barely gotten in the door after work that evening when Danielle started talking about wanting to get a job while she awaited the baby’s birth.
“How come?” He couldn’t imagine what had popped that idea into her head. But he was relieved that she didn’t immediately grill him about revealing their situation to his parents and sister.
“I’m not someone who likes to have
nothing to do,” she explained to him. “I’m used to being active. Teaching, advising the high school drama club, auditioning for acting parts… I’ve spent way too much time the past couple of months taking things easy.”
“Do I need to remind you that you were in a serious car accident that wiped out a portion of your memory?”
“No reminder necessary.” Danielle shrugged. “But I’m dealing with it.”
“On top of that, then you had to deal with feeling all worn out and nauseous from the pregnancy.” He approached her where she sat at the dining table with several books and magazines about pregnancy spread before her, and squeezed her shoulders. “You more than deserve a little break from concentrating on lesson plans and standing on your feet a good part of the day.”
“That’s what I’ve had—a little break. And now I’m feeling better, and I need to be more active.” She flipped one of the books shut. “All of these books and articles say it’s good to keep on the go while you’re expecting.”
“But the school year is well underway, so I doubt you’d find an opening for an English teacher at the local high school.”
“You’re probably right, but teaching isn’t the only thing I can do. I worked as a waitress while I was in L.A.—in between auditions and rejections.” A hint of a smile appeared on her face, and she motioned for him to look at a picture of an adorably chubby-cheeked infant on the cover of one of the magazines.
“Aww, I hope our baby is that cute,” he said.
“Have you looked in the mirror?” Danielle winked at him. “This baby can’t help but be cute.”
He snorted and then said, “Okay, I’m officially taking all the credit for any good looks.”
“Anyway, there has to be some kind of work in this town for me. Even part-time would be fine.”
Kyle had to admit that she had a point. It was close to six months before the baby was scheduled to arrive. Straightening up a two-bedroom apartment and cooking dinner every night left a whole lot of room for other more fulfilling undertakings.
As long as whatever it was didn’t adversely affect her pregnancy or take away from his efforts to improve their relationship. It was already enough of a struggle to restore it to full-blown romance instead of this on again-off again deal they seemed to have going.
