by Gina Wilkins
Andrew smiled a bit sheepishly. “I’m sure he would. Just needed to check again for myself.”
As she’d expected, he followed her inside without waiting for an invitation. She tossed her keys on a table and turned to look at him. “You know, there’s really no need for any of you to worry about me now. Patricia won’t be back.”
“I know. You should probably file a restraining order against her, just in case.”
“Yes, I will.”
“Aaron knows how to go about that if you need help with it after I leave,” he fretted.
“Trust me, I know how to file a restraining order,” she said, irked to hear the unintended hint of bitterness in her own tone.
After a moment, he nodded. “Yes, I suppose you do.”
She sank to the couch, her hands clasped in her lap. She should probably offer tea or something, but she was just too wiped-out by the events of the day to make the effort.
Andrew sat beside her, covering her tightly gripped hands with one of his own. “Are you okay?”
“I’m tired,” she replied candidly. “It’s been a long day. A long week.”
He nodded. “You should rest.”
“I will. I think I’ll turn in early tonight.”
“Good plan. You’re sure you won’t come to Dallas with me? You could rest there while I’m at work. My place is comfortable, and there’s a nice, cool patio with padded furniture where you can put your feet up and work from a laptop.”
She had to admit it sounded tempting, especially when she thought of Andrew joining her on that patio for a cold iced tea after work. The image made her heart ache, which made her protective barriers snap into place again. She withdrew her hands from beneath his and shifted a few inches away from him on the couch.
“Sounds lovely,” she said lightly, “but I really can’t. Just as you need to be back in your office tomorrow, I need to be here.”
She could tell that he wanted very badly to argue. She imagined that Andrew was unaccustomed to being turned down when he presented an argument so logically and persuasively.
“I’m disappointed,” he said, sounding sincere, “but I’ll accept your decision. Maybe you can come with me another time soon to meet my family.”
She replied noncommittally, “Maybe.”
“So, I’ll be back next weekend. I’ll stay in touch by phone in case you need anything. I’ll leave all my contact information with you, though of course you can always reach me through Aaron, too.”
She nodded, thinking that it would be unlikely that she would need to contact him in the next week, but it would be good to have the information anyway.
“When I get back, I’d like to continue the conversation we tried to have earlier,” he continued. “About our options for the future. Maybe we’d rather do that in person than over the phone.”
Remembering that he’d casually listed marriage as one of those options, she swallowed hard. “Yes.”
As if he’d read her thoughts, he said, “I wish you would think about what I said. Marriage could be a good solution for us, both logistically and financially. It would allow us to raise our child together without worrying about visitation agreements and the problems inherent with long-distance parenting. I’ve got a nice apartment, but we could buy a house with a big backyard for her to play in. You could continue to work as the marketing and scheduling director for the resort of course. You’d be only four hours away, so you could make the drive as often as you want or need to, though much of your work can be done online.”
He had it all thought out, she mused dully. He might as well have read his talking points off a checklist. She lifted a hand to her temple, feeling a low throb begin there.
Andrew followed the movement with his eyes. “Do you have a headache?”
“Yes. Like I said, long day. It’s nothing a good night’s sleep won’t fix.”
“You should rest, then. Can I get you anything?”
She shook her head, relieved by the change of subject. “No, thank you. But I think I’ll just turn in.”
“Would you like me to stay with you? Just in case you feel worse later?”
“I’m sure I’ll be asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. You should go.”
His expression inscrutable, Andrew nodded and stood. “I’ll be right across the street if you need me.”
Even though originally he’d planned to leave that evening, he’d decided to wait until morning to head out. Maybe he was tired from the chaotic events of the past couple of days, or maybe he was a little reluctant to leave. He hadn’t said, and she hadn’t been quite brave enough to ask, uncertain that she was prepared for his possible answer.
“I’ll be fine on my own,” she said.
He studied her face as if trying to decide whether those words held deeper meaning. “I’ll see you in the morning before I leave,” he said at length. “And I’ll call you from Dallas.”
She nodded.
“And you’ll think about what I’ve suggested?”
She drew a breath. “We’ll discuss many things when you get back, but you might as well know now that marriage is off the table. That’s not an option.”
“Don’t just reject the idea out of hand. Take some time to think about it.”
“That’s not necessary.” She rose then to fully face him. “I’m not interested in being married again. I was married before for all the wrong reasons, and I’m not going to go through that again.”
A muscle jumped hard in Andrew’s cheek. “You’re comparing me to your ex-husband?”
“Of course not.” She couldn’t blame him for being insulted if he believed that. “You’re nothing like Wade. Not in any way. But I’m still not going to marry just because I got pregnant. I prefer to remain single. As for our daughter, she’ll have two large, loving families who will always put her best interests first. She won’t lack for anything she needs.”
“Hannah—”
She walked past him to open the door. “I really need for you to go now, Andrew. I’m very tired.”
He studied her with narrowed eyes, then nodded. “We’ll talk later.”
She remained silent.
Andrew moved toward the door, pausing directly in front of her. Before she could prepare herself, he reached out to snag the back of her neck and plant a hard kiss on her lips.
“Get some sleep,” he said gruffly when he released her.
As if that would be possible now, she thought as she closed the door behind him and leaned her throbbing forehead against it. She wished there was a pill she could safely take to soothe both her headache and her broken heart.
Chapter Ten
“Andrew, you big dummy.”
In response to Shelby’s disgusted condemnation immediately after he’d answered his phone, Andrew frowned in bewilderment. “What did I do?”
“For a very intelligent man, you can be such a dummy.”
Standing on the rock patio of his parents’ suburban Dallas home Monday evening after dinner, he drew a deep breath of warm night air and held on to his patience with an effort. “Okay, we’ve established that you think I’m a ‘dummy.’ Now, maybe you’d care to explain why?”
“Just how badly did you screw up your proposal to Hannah? You must have really made a mess of it.”
He grimaced. “Hannah told you I proposed?”
“Well, no. I sort of guessed. She wouldn’t even confirm whether you did or didn’t, but you just let me know I was right. And you must have screwed it up big-time.”
Shelby and her uncanny theories. Andrew shook his head, thinking that her family really should take her more seriously, as he and Aaron had learned to do. “Why do you say that?”
“I guessed because of the look on Hannah’s face every time Mimi hints about her marrying you, which hasn’t been as often as I expected, by the way. Someone must have ordered her not to nag, probably Aunt Linda. Anyway, I got the feeling that you did propose and that Hannah turned you down. Probably
because you made a complete mess of it.”
“I didn’t propose,” he almost growled, growing increasingly uncomfortable with her barrage of blame. “Well, not exactly. I just suggested to her that marriage should be an option we consider for the future. With the baby coming and all. I told her it made sense financially and, uh, logistically.”
“Oh, my God.”
Suddenly hearing his own words in his head, he frowned. Surely he hadn’t worded it quite that awkwardly. “It sounds worse now than it did then.”
“It would have to.”
Going on the defensive, he said, “Not that this is any of your business really, but I would think you’d approve that I want to do the right thing by Hannah and the baby.”
“Do the right thing? Oh, Andrew, you just keep making it worse.” Despite the words, Shelby’s tone had warmed and softened now, sounding almost pitying rather than critical. Which didn’t make him feel any better.
“She made it clear that she wasn’t interested in remarrying for any reason, practical or otherwise. She said she married for the wrong reasons before and didn’t want to do it again. I have to respect that decision.” He’d talked to Hannah that morning, he remembered glumly, having taken a few minutes out of an insanely busy morning just to hear her voice. Maybe he’d hoped to hear that she missed him, if only a little. Instead, she’d blithely assured him that she was doing very well, and that there was no need for him to hurry back to the resort.
“Think about it, Andrew. She was married to a man who lied to her, used her, ran around on her, obviously never loved her. Of course she doesn’t want to be married next to a man who considers it a sound financial and logistical decision.”
He cleared his throat. “Look, I know you have your cousin’s best interests at heart, but I don’t think she’d appreciate our talking about her this way. Suffice it to say that I suggested marriage, she shot me down—hard—so we’ll just concentrate on working together in the future for our daughter’s best interests. As Hannah pointed out Sunday evening, we’d appreciate the family’s support and respect.”
“Just think about the things I said, okay? And maybe ask yourself if finances and logistics were the only reasons you asked her. Oh, and by the way—” he heard her clear her throat before she added “—maybe you won’t mention this call to Aaron? He, um, suggested I should probably mind my own business.”
Despite that suggestion, Aaron would quite likely be highly amused that Shelby had contacted Andrew just to call him a “dummy.” Twice.
Shaking his head, Andrew slipped his phone into his pants pocket, then turned to find his aunt Michelle D’Alessandro standing behind him, two margarita glasses in her hands. Still pretty and deceptively fragile in her late fifties, his father’s younger sister had always held a special place in his heart. He’d spent a lot of time with her growing up; Michelle and his mom, Taylor, had been best friends long before his parents had even met. He loved all his aunts, both by blood and marriage, but he and Michelle had a special bond.
“Your mom made her famous frozen strawberry margaritas for dessert,” she said, approaching him with one of the frothy pink confections extended. A thin slice of lime decorated the sugar-encrusted rim of the glass. “I thought you might like one.”
“Sounds good. Thanks.”
Michelle and her husband, Tony, had joined Andrew, his parents and his uncle Joe and aunt Lauren for dinner. During the meal, Andrew had finally announced that he was soon to be a father. Responding to the seemingly million surprised questions that had followed, he’d told them about Hannah, about the events that had brought her into his life, about her family and the resort. After the initial shock, his family had accepted the news well.
Reassured that he would be active in his daughter’s upbringing and that they would see her often, his parents seemed pleased to think of themselves as grandparents. Unlike Hannah’s family, his didn’t ask about the possibility of marriage—probably because they knew he’d have told them if such plans were in the works. Still, he had a feeling his mom would get around to asking in private. He wondered if his dad would feel compelled to remind him of all those pregnancy-prevention lectures he’d given his sons through the years.
“Your mom and Lauren are in there discussing possible grandmother nicknames,” Michelle said with a smile. “The more Taylor thinks about it, the more excited she is by the thought of having a granddaughter. She knows how much fun I’ve had with my two grandsons and how besotted Joe and Lauren are with their little Madelyn.”
Michelle and Tony’s daughter Carly and her husband, Richard Prentiss, had two sons, Dexter and Liam. Cute kids; Andrew saw them often at family events. The third generation so far ranged from his cousin Brynn’s eighteen-year-old son, Miles, to his cousin Casey’s three-year-old daughter, Madelyn. Claire Elizabeth, as he was already starting to think of his daughter, would have plenty of playmates when the family gathered.
“I’m sorry for eavesdropping, but I couldn’t help overhearing something you said when I came out,” Michelle said as Andrew took a savoring sip of the tart, icy margarita. “Feel free to tell me to butt out, but did I hear you say you proposed to Hannah and she turned you down?”
After only a momentary hesitation, he nodded. Avoiding any mention of the word logistics, he gave a quick summary of the situation to his aunt. She listened intently, sipping her drink, asking no questions but seeming to understand.
When he finished, she slipped an arm beneath his and leaned her head companionably against his shoulder. “Andrew, did I ever tell you that I was once engaged before I met your uncle Tony? I was swept off my feet by the guy—Geoff—and I was convinced he adored me. He certainly told me often enough that he did.”
“No, I haven’t heard about Geoff. What happened?”
Looking out at the moon-bathed lawn beyond the patio fence, she sighed lightly. “Turned out he was much more interested in my adoptive parents’ money than he was in me. He wanted a high-ranking position in my father’s company and a guaranteed spot in Dallas society, and he thought marrying me would get him those things.”
Orphaned very young, Michelle and her six siblings had been separated for almost twenty-five years. Several of the siblings—Andrew’s father and his twin included—had spent years in foster care. Michelle had been adopted by a wealthy couple here in Dallas and the youngest, Lindsey, by a family in Little Rock, Arkansas. After the death of her adoptive parents, Michelle had been the one to initiate the search to bring the siblings back together, hiring private investigator Tony D’Alessandro to find them. By the time they’d all been happily reunited, Michelle and Tony had fallen in love and married.
“You said Hannah told you she doesn’t want to be married for the wrong reasons,” Michelle continued. “I can understand that.”
“Yes, but your situation doesn’t apply here. Hannah works for the family business, which is reasonably successful but hardly an empire. I make a good salary myself.”
Michelle shook her head with a soft laugh. “No. Even though it sounds as though Hannah’s ex wanted a large piece of her family business, I’m sure she knows you aren’t after money. But she’s been badly burned, and those scars take a long time to heal. Tony certainly had his work cut out for him when he courted me. As gun shy as I was, he had to convince me he wanted to marry me for the right reasons, not for the wrong ones.”
“Tony was smart enough to know you were the real treasure.”
She hugged his arm fondly. “That’s very sweet, thank you. So, there are some questions I think you need to ask yourself before you talk to Hannah again. Don’t answer me, but just think about them, okay?”
“What questions?”
She hardly hesitated to make a mental list before speaking. “First, do you really want to marry her or do you just think you should because of the baby? And if you do want to marry her, why? And finally, would you still want to marry her if she wasn’t carrying your child? Your honest answers to those crucial questio
ns should tell you whether you asked her for the right reasons.”
“And if I did? And she still says no?”
His aunt reached up to pat his cheek. “Then she doesn’t know a treasure when she sees one. I’m afraid that’s just a risk you’ll have to take, my darling.”
She took a step backward. “And now we’d better go inside before my friend Taylor fusses at me for monopolizing all her son’s time and attention when I’m sure she wants many more details about her grandbaby.”
He turned with her toward the door. Just before entering the house, his aunt paused to glance up at him. “This Hannah, is she a treasure, Andrew?”
He kissed her cheek. “Yes, Aunt Michelle, she is.”
She smiled. “Then maybe you should figure out the answers to those questions sooner rather than later.”
* * *
Hannah pressed a hand to her aching back and looked in her fridge without enthusiasm Wednesday evening. She had little appetite but knew she needed to eat. It wasn’t that she lacked food. On the pretext of making more than they could possibly eat themselves, her mother, aunt and grandmother had all dropped by with covered dishes during the past few days. Pasta salad, bean burritos, lasagna and homemade vegetable soup sat on the refrigerator shelves in covered plastic bowls. Not one of them appealed to her at the moment. With a sigh, she took out the pasta salad, primarily because she could eat it cold.
She ate at the kitchen table, doggedly chewing and swallowing the pasta, cheese cubes, cherry tomatoes and olives tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette. It was good, she supposed. Filling anyway, which was all that counted at the moment.
Her laptop lay open on the table beside her plate. She’d promised her grandmother she’d work on a gift registry for the baby shower, but she was having trouble concentrating. It made her a little uncomfortable to list things she wouldn’t mind getting as gifts. Had she not worried that Mimi would probably just register for her, she might have skipped the task altogether.
Her phone lay beside the computer. Her gaze continued to be drawn to the dark, silent screen. It wasn’t that she was expecting any calls exactly, but she had to admit she’d thought Andrew would check in with her today. She hadn’t talked to him since a quick call from his office Monday morning, when he’d told her that he was crazy-busy and would probably not get back to the resort until Saturday at the earliest. She’d assured him she was fine and told him there was no need to come back so soon. They still had plenty of time to make all their plans.