“Poor thing, Luke really has you snowed,” Anne Marie said, not unkindly. “But if you—”
“This conversation is pointless.” Brenna stood up. “I don’t want to be ungracious, but I would appreciate it if you would all leave now.”
She stalked out of the kitchen, an unmistakable cue for them to follow her to the door. It didn’t matter how well-meaning they thought they were or how rude they thought she was, Brenna just wanted them gone.
It was quite a shock to find herself face-to-face with Luke in the hall. His winter jacket hung open, revealing a light-gray sweater and a pair of dark-gray cords.
Brenna came to an abrupt standstill. Her heart seemed to stand still, too.
“What are you—how did you—” she stammered.
“The door was unlocked so I let myself in.” Luke reached out to touch her, but Brenna quickly stepped back, out of range. “After I’d talked to my brother Matt, I thought I ought to head over here, although it’s a little early for our dinner date.”
By now his mother, sister and sister-in-law had crowded into the small hallway with them.
“Looks like this particular triumvirate beat me here though,” Luke added. His smile, his tone, were undeniably baiting.
Brenna gazed at the wicked gleam in his blue eyes, at the way his teeth flashed white against his shadowed jaw, which had been clean shaven in the morning.
He’d once mentioned that if he were going to some special function in the evening, he had to shave twice a day. Brenna found the notion exotic—sexy and virile, too.
And when she realized the path her thoughts were taking—while three outraged Minteer women stood there looking at Luke as if he were a vampire they’d like to stake—she wondered if she was beginning a slow descent into madness.
One thing was certain. Though Brenna felt herself beginning to succumb, his relatives were plainly not charmed by his teasing or by that devilish grin. Cold-eyed and scowling, they did not stop glaring at him.
“How long have you been here, Luke?” Anne Marie demanded crossly.
“Long enough to hear the sperm bank story,” admitted Luke. He closed the gap between him and Brenna, and this time when he reached over and laid his hand on her shoulder, she didn’t move away.
“I told you they’d never buy it, honey. The sperm bank part alone stretched credibility—but placing it in Philadelphia?” He made the city sound as remote as an outpost in Siberia. “That boosted it into the realm of the preposterous, Minteerwise. Nah, I knew that tale wouldn’t play in this town—and especially not in this family.”
For the first time since she’d met them, Brenna saw doubt and bewilderment on the Minteer women’s faces.
“Luke Minteer, if you knew about—” his mother said, then gave her head a shake and started over. “Why in the name of God would you—” She broke off again, this time focusing those intense blue eyes of hers on Brenna rather than Luke.
“Is he saying he didn’t make up that…that sperm-bank-in-Philadelphia nonsense?” Rosemary directed her question to Brenna, as if she didn’t trust Luke to answer honestly.
Brenna felt a flare of resentment on Luke’s behalf, and momentarily forgot she was annoyed with him herself for his faux I-told-you-so. “Mr. Big Shot Storyteller himself,” his mother had called him. And she was 100 percent wrong!
“Of course he didn’t make it up. Luke wouldn’t do that.” A reluctant smile quirked the corners of Brenna’s lips. “He’d rather rub the unpleasant truth in someone’s face than make up some face-saving lie.”
“One of the many reasons it was best that I exit the political world,” Luke said dryly. “How well she knows me,” he added, using his hand on her shoulder to draw Brenna even closer to him.
“But if Luke didn’t make up that sperm bank story, then…then you were the one who did, Brenna?” Lisa gasped at the implication. “But why?”
“I didn’t—” Brenna began.
“She didn’t want to marry me,” Luke cut in smoothly. “She still doesn’t. Nor does she want my name on the baby’s birth certificate. But I’m not giving up. Brenna is going to be Mrs. Luke Minteer, if not before the baby is born, then afterward. Count on it.”
“No,” cried Brenna, feeling tears burn in her eyes and chiding herself for them.
This sudden urge to cry at the drop of the clichéd hat had to stop. But just hearing Luke talk about marriage, something she’d never aspired to—because she felt it was out of reach for someone with her past?—made her want to weep.
“I won’t take no for an answer, honey. You know us Minteers, Ma.” Luke flashed a grin at his mother. “You didn’t raise us to be quitters.”
“Oh, Luke, we thought—we were sure—” Lisa was chagrined. “I’m so sorry. I’ll call Cassie right away and set the record straight.”
“Why don’t you want to marry my brother?” Anne Marie demanded of Brenna at the same time Rosemary was asking her, “Why don’t you want to marry my son?”
Brenna felt the way she had on that long-ago night in the hospital, when the nurse had given her a shot of something “to calm her nerves.”
Everything seemed unreal. Voices floated around her, but nothing being said made much sense. Faces seemed to morph wildly from one expression into the next, and it was hard to interpret them quickly enough to keep up.
The strength of Luke’s arm holding her tightly against his solid, warm body was real, though. He was her anchor in this sea of confusion; his smile and his warm blue eyes were like a touchstone.
She’d had no one to cling to on that drugged night in the hospital so long ago, but today she had someone. She had Luke Minteer—who claimed he was going to marry her?
“Mom, Anne Marie, don’t badger Brenna, that’s my job,” Luke said dryly. “Anyway, it shouldn’t be any mystery why she doesn’t want to marry me. Why would any woman want to marry a snake like me? I’m a cruel, big shot storyteller, I’m the family disgrace. Hardly the man of your dreams, right, Brenna?”
An uncomfortable silence descended. There was regret written all over the faces of the three Minteer women.
Brenna glanced up at Luke, who was grinning broadly, clearly on the verge of laughing out loud. Obviously, he’d heard everything his relatives had said about him and was thoroughly enjoying using their own arguments against himself.
She contemplated this glimpse into Luke’s relationship with his family. They took many things very seriously, and he was a natural-born teaser who couldn’t pass up a chance to needle them. They loved each other, but the chemistry was wrong.
Sometimes that happened within families, the nuns had said in an attempt to explain messed-up familial relationships to the girls back at the Denver school. Though the girls couldn’t choose their relatives, they could wisely choose partners who fit with them in all the right ways. A simple message, but the words had apparently struck a chord with Brenna, because they were playing in her head right now.
She thought of her own responses to Luke. When he teased or baited her, she needled him right back. Sometimes she mocked him first. Their senses of humor were in tune. The chemistry was right.
Luke met her eyes, and their gazes locked. Brenna felt herself being drawn into his sensual blue depths and was instantly flooded with memories of making love with him. How he’d felt inside her, smooth and hot and hard, filling her up…
Oh, yes, the chemistry between them was right in ways the good sisters had never mentioned. And now Luke was talking about marrying her—to spare her from becoming Today’s Big News on the gossip grapevine? He knew how she felt about that.
And though she loved him even more for his quixotic gesture, she couldn’t take him up on it.
Brenna pulled away from him and moved quickly into the entrance foyer.
“Time to go.” She opened the front door and held it open, impervious to the cold air rushing in. “’Bye, everybody. Thanks for dropping by.”
Ten
“She’s kicking us out,�
� Luke explained to his mother, Anne Marie and Lisa. All of them had followed Brenna into the foyer. “You three had better go, since you don’t enjoy making unwelcome pests of yourselves. Since that’s never bothered me, I’m staying.”
“I have to ask Brenna one question before I leave.” Anne Marie planted herself directly in front of Brenna. “You’re obviously in love with my brother. You flew to his defense, you said he’s kind and loving and patient and understanding. Believe me, you’d have to be madly in love with Luke to see him that way. And you’re having his baby, so why won’t you marry him?”
“Maybe it’s the likes of us that are keeping her from marrying Luke,” Rosemary said sorrowfully. “After all, there are so many Minteers and we’re too nosy, too opinionated, too close—maybe too much of everything for this quiet little girl. Our reputation has scared her off, and she doesn’t want her or her baby to be Minteers. We’ve only ourselves to blame.”
“Oh, no, that’s not true at all!” exclaimed Brenna, aghast that she’d hurt the older woman’s feelings. “It’s just the opposite, in fact. You wouldn’t want me to be a Minteer!”
“And why not?” pressed Rosemary.
“You didn’t approve of Luke’s dirty tricks, and you hated his book,” Brenna said nervously. “And if…if you think he’s a disgrace, well—”
“We don’t condone bad behavior, and we don’t like reading about immoral criminals, that’s true,” his mother agreed. “But that has nothing to do with you, dear.”
“Disgrace and bad behavior and criminals have everything to do with me. My mother is in prison for murder,” Brenna blurted out.
“Brenna, Brenna, Brenna.” Luke pulled her away from the door with one hand and pushed it shut with the other.
She was shivering from the cold, and he wrapped his arms around her swollen belly, and held her back against him. “I can’t believe you fell for Ma’s sad-eyed, guilt-inducing routine. That hasn’t worked on me since I was about three years old.”
“Two,” his mother corrected. “And it’s not a routine. I am sad that Brenna feels we would judge her, based on her mother’s actions. There’s certainly been a murderer or two among the Minteers.”
“There has?” Anne Marie’s ears perked. “Who? When?”
“Over in Ireland, before the grandparents came to this country, and it’s not up for discussion, miss,” Rosemary replied so quickly that Brenna knew she was making the whole thing up to put Brenna at ease. There’s a murderer in your family? No problem, we’ve got them, too. Doesn’t everyone?
Brenna gave Luke’s mother a tremulous smile. Unconsciously she relaxed against Luke. His body surrounded her, warming her with his male heat.
He spread his fingers wide, and they spanned nearly the entire circumference of her belly. The baby began to turn and roll and kick, as if acknowledging Luke’s presence.
He kneaded gently, and Brenna almost sighed with contentment. If there hadn’t been witnesses, she knew she would have sighed. But the presence of the Minteer women was effectively inhibiting.
“Brenna would like to keep the whole matter about her mother private, Anne Marie,” Luke told his sister sternly. “She doesn’t want it blabbed all over town. That goes for you too, Lisa. Both of you, keep your mouths shut. I know you’ll convince them to keep this confidential, Ma,” he urged his mother.
“Of course. We respect Brenna’s privacy and won’t say a word,” Rosemary promised.
“He makes us sound like horrid gossips and we’re not!” complained Anne Marie, shooting her brother a baleful glance. “You can trust us, Brenna. We wouldn’t dream of telling anybody anything.”
“Except I am going to tell Cassie Walsh that Luke wants to marry Brenna,” Lisa put in. “And that he’s just waiting for her to set the date. It’s not fair to brand Luke as a rat who won’t accept responsibility when it’s not true.”
“My family’s staunch support of me is touching.” Luke smiled sardonically. “Now, the sooner the three of you are on your way, the sooner Brenna and I can go out to eat. Baby X is starving in here.” He rubbed her belly.
The trio trooped out to their car, and Brenna and Luke stood in the foyer, the door open, watching until the vehicle was out of sight.
Luke released Brenna from his hold. “I thought they’d never leave! Get your coat and we’ll—”
“We can’t just casually go out for dinner and act as if nothing’s happened!” she exclaimed. “Your family thinks my baby is yours! They expect you to marry me!”
“And your point is?”
“Luke, we’re not getting married.”
“Sure we are, sweetheart. And my name is going to be on the baby’s birth certificate on the line that says ‘father.”’
“Luke, your family might’ve thought the sperm bank in Philadelphia story was far-fetched, but it’s the truth,” Brenna reminded him.
“It’s also irrelevant, because I’m the only father the baby is going to know. I’ll be a very good father, Brenna,” he added seriously.
“I know you will, Luke. Someday, to your own child. But this is my child, and I can’t stay here and have your family try to pressure you into marrying me and then condemn you when it doesn’t happen. I—I’m moving back to Denver. I have to.”
“Listen to yourself, Brenna,” Luke said sharply. “Planning to run away. Dragging your child off to somewhere else because suddenly things aren’t going exactly the way you wanted. Doesn’t that strike you as a familiar pattern? One you promised yourself never to follow?”
“Luke, that’s not fair. This situation is nothing like—”
“Here’s something else to think about, Brenna. If a man wanted to stick around and try to work things out, your mother took off because she felt trapped. Is that how you feel now, Brenna? Trapped?”
Brenna swallowed hard. She felt weak and weepy and tried to work up some indignant wrath to bolster herself. “You’re badgering me,” she said huskily, failing to stir up either indignation and wrath.
“Of course I am.” Luke laughed softly. “Didn’t you hear me tell Ma and Annie that was my job?”
“You really are incorrigible.” Brenna grimaced. “And you’ve been this way since the age of two? Your poor mother!”
“I was a hellion, all right. The family is convinced that I still am. But that’s not how you see me, is it, Brenna?” Luke’s voice lowered. “I was standing in the hall when I heard you defend me. I heard everything you said about me, calling me kind and loving and patient and understanding. Saying that I would never shirk responsibility for a child. You told my family they didn’t know me but you did, and the person you described—”
“I described you, Luke,” Brenna assured him.
“Anne Marie is right. You must be madly in love with me if you see me like that. Are you going to admit it or play it cool, Brenna?”
Brenna heaved a resigned sigh. “Oh, what’s the point in trying to play it cool? I’ve never been cool. Yes, Luke, I love you. You know perfectly well that I do.”
A wide smile crossed Luke’s face, and he swiftly yanked her into his arms. “So why are you giving me such a hard time? Spouting this nonsense about going back to Denver, about not marrying me.”
“Until a very short while ago, you’d never even mentioned marrying me,” Brenna pointed out. “You didn’t ask me to marry you, and I certainly didn’t expect you to. After all, you don’t love me and—”
“Oh, what’s the point in trying to play it cool? Though I’ve always been cool, there are times when I don’t need to be. I love you, Brenna,” Luke paraphrased her own declaration, his blue eyes warm with humor. “And after I got that call from Saraceni, I decided to speed things along even more, so I called my cousin Patrick and told him to tell his mother that I had a pregnant girlfriend. Aunt Eileen and my mom were best friends before they were sisters-in-law, so I knew how fast that news would fly.”
“Speed things along when everything has been moving at the sound of light, any
way?’ Brenna smiled as tears slowly trickled down her cheeks.
“And if you didn’t know it before, I want you to be sure of it now, my love,” he murmured, his lips brushing her forehead. “I want to be the man I am in your eyes. I want to be the father to our baby. This one,” he patted her stomach, “and whoever comes next. Say yes, Brenna. Say you’ll marry me.”
She was laughing and crying at the same time. “I’m an emotional basket case right now,” she warned him.
“All the better to take full advantage of you, my sweet.” Luke swept her up in his arms.
She clung to him, holding on tight. “You sound like the Big Bad Wolf in a fractured fairy tale.”
“And didn’t Big Bad and Little Red end up in somebody’s bedroom?” Luke fractured the fairy tale even more.
They made it the whole way to Brenna’s bedroom before Brenna told him, Yes, she would marry him.
“I wasn’t going to go back to Denver,” she admitted. “Not really.”
“I know. You were panicking but I had to let you know how serious I am about you. I knew it wasn’t the time to toss off a glib, ‘Denver? Cool! I’ll help you pack.”’
“You know me so well,” she borrowed his words, and they both laughed.
Very quickly the laughter turned into kissing. Deep, lingering kisses accompanied by caresses that grew more intimate as they took turns removing every item of clothing from each other.
Their passion was burning hot, their actions tender and desultory, and before long they were both naked.
Together they lay back on the bed.
“I love you, Brenna,” Luke murmured huskily, kissing her swollen belly. He smoothed his cheek over it, feeling the movements of the baby within. His baby. “I love both of you.”
“I love you, Luke,” she heard herself say, and the words evoked an emotional power that emboldened her.
His tongue explored her navel, and she combed her fingers through his hair, feeling the springy thick texture, tracing his scalp.
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