by Natalie Ann
“He’s being attended to. If you could fill these forms out for us, that would be helpful. Maybe take your mind off of it?” the nurse asked, smiling softly.
“Yeah. I’ll try.” She grabbed the clipboard and sat down in a chair. Surprisingly, she could actually answer most of the questions on the forms. She didn’t know a ton of his parents’ medical history, but she knew most about his.
They seemed to talk about everything in the beginning. Now they didn’t talk at all. And even that didn’t stop the love she felt for him. It seemed feelings and emotions for her fake husband were greater than an addict not being able to avoid the back alley with his friends.
When she was done she handed the papers back and didn’t even get a chance to sit down before Michael came out and saw her. “I thought you might have been caught up here. Follow me to another waiting room.”
“What’s going on, Michael?” She felt her eyes starting to water. Michael was the only one who knew the situation between her and Gabe, so at least she could be open with him.
“Not sure. We were going over some contracts.”
“Our contract?” she asked, interrupting him, feeling her heart breaking yet again. The end was near and it was just another reminder.
“I’m not at liberty to say,” he said, but she knew the answer by the look on his face. “Gabe put his hand to his chest a few times and just said it must be a muscle twitch or heartburn.”
“He’s had a lot of heartburn lately. I noticed antacids in the bathroom.” Why hadn’t she asked him about it? She hadn’t thought anything of it.
“The third time his face went white and he passed out. I called 911 and here we are.”
“Have they given any indication of what it could be? Do they really think he is having a heart attack?”
“I’m not sure. The doctors were asking me all sorts of questions on if he was stressed, what was going on in his life.”
“And of course you couldn’t tell them the truth.”
“I don’t know what’s going on other than the contract between you two,” he said whispering. “But Gabe has been under some stress at work lately.”
She hadn’t known that either. “We haven’t been getting along. Or I should say we are doing what we said we would. There’s been a distance lately and he’s probably just waiting for me to move. I was signing papers on a lease for an apartment when you called.”
“You look miserable,” he said, eying her hard.
“Thanks for that,” she said, snorting. “My husband is in the back room and I have no idea what is happening to him.”
“But he won’t be your husband much longer,” Michael reminded her.
“We’re friends,” she argued.
“Really? I thought it was more. If we can be honest, I’m surprised to hear you’re moving out.”
“Why?” she asked. “You drew up the papers. You know what they say.”
“True, but I just thought all along you guys felt more for each other. I figured you would have worked that all out by now.”
“I’m not sure why you’re saying that,” she said, looking confused.
“Leah. I’m not blind. I married you guys. I saw what I saw. I’ve been seeing it a lot for a year. I just don’t understand what is going on now.”
“We had an agreement. He’s had women after him for his money for years. That’s why he approached me. I can’t turn around and tell him I don’t want to end things now. That makes me no different than them.”
“Do you want to end things?” Michael asked her.
“What I want doesn’t matter,” she said miserably.
Keeping From Me
Gabe woke up to the sound of beeping machines and tried to figure out what was going on.
The last thing he remembered was sitting in Michael’s office and seeing if there was a way to void his and Leah’s contract if he could convince her to stay.
Michael had laughed at him and told him he was a lovesick fool and that he better decide now before it got out they were separating. Then it might make things even messier in the public eye.
He was thinking of Leah leaving, grabbed his chest, took a breath, and then there was blackness. Talk about a sign that you didn’t want to end things. Or was he suffering from a broken heart?
Now he was in what he assumed was a hospital room. When he looked over, he saw Leah in a chair sleeping curled up in a ball. It sure didn’t look comfortable at all.
“Leah,” he whispered. She didn’t move so he said it louder. “Leah.”
She jumped and all but fell out of the chair.
“Gabe, you’re awake. Let me get the doctor.”
“No, wait. How long have I been here?” he asked, not sure what day it was.
“About eight hours. You’ve been sleeping. Are you in pain? You had surgery.”
“Surgery?” He took inventory of his body and realized he wasn’t feeling much at all other than a medicine haze. “I’m fine. I think. What’s going on?”
“You passed out in Michael’s office. I guess when you got here they ran a bunch of tests and discovered you’ve got a clogged artery. You’re lucky they found it actually. They put a stent in and you should be fine now.”
“How the hell did I get that?” he asked. He took great care of himself.
“They said your blood pressure was through the roof. Did you know that?”
He looked away trying to hide his guilt. For the longest time he hadn’t hidden anything from her, but lately it wasn’t worth letting her know he hadn’t been feeling well. Why burden her with something when she was leaving him anyway? It wasn’t anything different than how he felt before he met her.
And he sure the hell didn’t want her pity if she thought he was ill.
“It’d been high for a while. But in the past year, it’s been good.”
“You don’t take any medication for it though, right? I’ve never seen anything.”
“No. I changed my diet and started to exercise more. I brought it down on my own and was trying to manage it. My last check-up six months ago was the best it had ever been.”
Six months ago was the most relaxed he’d ever been too. He was sure that had a part in it, but saying that now might make the machines start beeping again. Might put some guilt on Leah that she was causing this.
If he could convince her to stay, he wanted it to be for the right reasons. Not because he was in the hospital.
She reached for his hand and held it. “Why didn’t you tell me you’ve been stressed lately?”
“We haven’t exactly been talking much in the past month or so,” he said.
Her eyes filled with tears. “I still can’t believe you wouldn’t have told me what was going on. I thought we were friends at least. I care for you, and thought you cared about me. I feel horrible you felt you couldn’t come to me with this.”
“Why are you crying?” he asked. The guilt on his shoulders was overridden with the fear of her pity.
“Are you kidding me?” she wailed. “My husband has high blood pressure and he’s hiding it from me. He passed out because his artery is so bad that they said if you hadn’t and they didn’t catch this and put a stent in you could have had a massive heart attack.”
“I won’t be your husband much longer,” he pointed out. She’d been the one reminding him of that lately. Why not give it back to her a little?
“That doesn’t mean I don’t still love you,” she said, then slapped her hand in front of her mouth. “I didn’t mean to say that.”
“But you did,” he said quietly. Holy cow. How could he not have seen this? Was he so lost in misery over her leaving him that it was there all along that maybe she wanted to stay too?
The thoughts of convincing her they could work this out now were mounting in his brain. His ever present skill at negotiating and tact wasn’t present though.
“You don’t want to hear that. You don’t need to hear that. Just forget it. We’ve got an agreement and my f
eelings don’t change that. You don’t need to worry or stress about me wanting more from you. Really, I’m sorry I said that.”
She stood up and started to pace around his room, looking for tissues, then blowing her nose with her back to him. The smile was spreading across his face, but she couldn’t see it. That’s what she was worried about? That she was afraid he’d think she was using him for his money because he’d experienced that in the past?
The beeping of the machine had her turning back around fast. “Relax, Gabe,” she said, moving over. “Take a few deep breaths. The nurse is going to come in here soon if you don’t stop that thing from beeping.”
He burst out laughing. “It’s a good kind of beeping.”
She looked up at his face now. “Why are you smiling?” She grabbed his hand and started to stroke it. Then his face. He saw what he wanted to see. He saw her love was real. That it was as real as what he felt for her.
“Because what you’ve been keeping from me is what I’ve been keeping from you,” he said, feeling as if thousands of tiny balloons were carrying away the weight of his secret.
“What? What do you mean?” Was that hope in her eyes? He prayed to hell it was!
“I mean,” he said, threading their fingers together and tugging her closer, almost on the bed with him, “that I’ve been stressed that you’re leaving me. That our agreement is coming to an end and I didn’t want it to.”
“Why haven’t you said anything to me?” she all but screeched.
“Because every time I turn around you’re talking about how we are going to handle things when the contract ends. You’re leaving brochures on the counter for apartments that you’re looking at. The entire time you’ve talked about the end. Never once have I brought it up. I even mentioned a few times that there was no rush, but you were fast to say you wanted to honor the contract. What was I supposed to think?”
“Urgh!” she said, throwing her head back. “I can’t believe we’ve both been so stupid. Even Michael pointed it out in the beginning that it didn’t seem like it was all about the contract. Everyone said we were perfect for each other. I just thought you were good at acting.”
“I thought the same.” What idiots they were.
“Now what?” she asked. “Could this really work? I mean do you really want it to?”
“I sure the hell want it to work. Do you?” He figured they should clear the air, even though it seemed he knew the answer now.
“I do. I really, really do. I can’t believe this is happening,” she said, grinning from ear to ear, her eyes moist. “I never thought it was possible.”
“It sure is possible. First thing I need to do is get out of this damn hospital bed. Then I’m going to take you home and put you back in our bed and show you how much I missed you.”
“You need a doctor’s clearance first,” she said, laughing.
“Are you going to be a mean nurse?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. Already they were getting back to the way they were before. The way he’d wanted them.
“I can be if it means getting you better.”
“I want you by my side, Leah. I don’t want what we have to end, ever. Second thing we’re doing, once I’ve taken you to bed, is getting a hold of Michael and burning that contract.”
She let loose a little giggle like a young schoolgirl. “It’s a nice thought, but we should just draw up a prenup or something else. It’s the responsible thing to do. You just have so much more than me.”
Exactly what he’d figured she’d say. Back to the businesswoman he’d met in the beginning, but he was going to put an end to that. She wasn’t the same person she was a year ago and he sure the hell wasn’t the same man.
“Don’t go there. Responsible or not, it’s what we want. And it doesn’t matter because we can’t,” he said. “I already talked to Michael about this. I was in his office discussing my options.”
“So you did want me to sign a prenup if you somehow talked me out of leaving?” she asked.
She wasn’t listening to what he’d said. “No. I didn’t. I don’t want to. I asked what would happen if you brought this up and he said we are already married.”
“What about amending the other contract? I don’t want you to think I was after your money, Gabe. I don’t ever want you to worry or wonder in the future that that was my motivation. It never was. Not really.”
“I know, Leah. I approached you with the offer, not the other way around. And people who are in love don’t do prenups because they don’t plan on divorces regardless of your experience with wedding planning and divorce parties. My parents never had one and I’m not going to either.”
“How are you going to explain that to your board?” she asked.
“You know what?” he said. “I don’t give a shit. It’s not their company, it’s mine.”
“What about your parents though? Will you tell them?”
Was she looking for walls to put up or just clearing the air? He was going to give her the benefit of the doubt that her logical mind wanted as many things resolved or covered as possible.
“No. At some point I’ll tell my father it was only good for a few years, after that made-up period of time is over though.”
“Whatever you decide, I’m good with,” she said, leaning over to kiss him. “I don’t care about anything other than staying by your side forever.”
“That’s exactly where I want you.” He pulled her closer, hugged her tight, and the beeping machines started up loud enough for him to figure the nurses would be rushing in any minute.
Epilogue
One year later
“We never got to celebrate our one-year anniversary last year,” Gabe said. “I’m glad you were willing to take the time off for a long weekend here this year.”
“It’s hard this time of year,” she said, “as I’m crazy busy with weddings, but coming back to Lake Placid for the weekend makes sense for us.”
“It does,” he said, pulling her into his arms and kissing her.
“We haven’t been here since we said our vows. I actually thought of trying to recreate some things again, knowing it’d mean more, but decided against it.”
“It meant just as much to me then as it does now,” he confessed to her. “I found myself already developing feelings for you and had to remind myself to hold it back. To not let you know or see it. I never thought I could actually get to have you as my wife after those fourteen months.”
“Well, you do. I’ve been your wife for two years now. And in eight months I’ll also be the mother of your child.”
“What?” he asked, lifting her high and swinging her around. “Are you kidding me? Seriously? We just started trying a few months ago.”
“Guess your little swimmers hit home fast. But I’m positive. It’s been hard not telling you, but I wanted it to be special, as I felt we didn’t have as many special moments as we should have due to our arrangement.”
“No more talk of that arrangement. And we’ll never tell our kids of that. I’m kind of embarrassed over it now, if you want to know the truth.”
He couldn’t believe he never thought there was someone out there just for him. That only wanted him for him and not his money.
Proof of that was when Leah found out he deposited the million dollars into her account, she lit into him and said if he didn’t take it out, that she’d donate every penny of it to charity. That she didn’t want it being held over her head at all. She wanted no reminders of what they’d done.
The compromise was half to charity, the other half put aside for her business ventures when she was ready. Not in her account, but a joint one there for the taking. She still hadn’t touched a dime of it and he was guessing she never would.
“I’m taking it to the grave with me. No one needs to know how we met other than I ran into you on Central Ave.”
“And I’m going to tell everyone I was so taken with your poise and beauty that I asked you to lunch and the rest was history.”
“You work for me,” he said, slanting his mouth over hers. His wife. Forever.
The End!
Want to read more of the Love Collection?
Secret Love:
Vin Steele has always been in control. Always been a leader. Failing at what he always did was a bitter pill for him to swallow, sending him into an isolation…of sorts. A new life and a new career, trying to find the person he lost.
Piper Fielding spent her life putting on a good face. Looking for the positive in the light of all the negative in her world. When a threat forces her to face the ugliness she always avoided, she finds herself running to the only person she can trust. Her sexy neighbor that has mystery and complications written all over him.
True Love:
Shattered dreams vs a new beginning. Can they help each other heal?
Jared Hawk thought he had it all. Until he didn’t. Until a bomb exploded bringing a building down around him and his unit, leaving him less than the man he was. Broken and disabled, he needed to figure out a new plan of action hoping to find a glimmer of the happiness he’d had before.
Shelby McDonald wanted a fresh start. A new life. She didn’t expect to be a single mother—a widow—at just twenty-three. She was strong enough to start over once, she could do it again. She had to. She had no choice. It may not have been the life she envisioned, but she’d be damned if anything was going to hold her back…including the sexy Navy Lieutenant trying to find his way again.
Finding Love:
What happens when a hopeless romantic falls for a cynical romance writer?
Sheldon Case spends her days writing about romance and love. Only she doesn’t believe in it herself. Happy ever after…nah. It only exists in books and movies.