How To Hook A Husband (And A Baby)

by Carolyn Zane

  “And so you’re gonna hafta ask her to marry ya pretty soon.”

  “Mmm,” Travis hummed as his eyes scanned the various windows at her house. Perhaps he could just wander over and take a little listen. If nothing was wrong, he’d just go back to trimming the hedge.

  “You could get married on Christmas,” Dusty continued, warming to his plan. “I wouldn’t want any more presents than that,” he promised solemnly.

  “Rightttt,” Travis exhaled the word slowly as he thought. Dusty was right. It was getting dark. No one would notice if he did a quick perimeter check of her property. No big deal. Maybe she left the drapes open at the other side of the house.

  “So, you’re gonna do it?”

  “Yep.” Travis nodded with determination. Military maneuvers from his National Guard days swam in his head. That’s just what he’d do. He’d protect her from another of her less than suitable suitors one last time. After tonight, there would be no next time. After tonight, Wendy would be his. Permanently. End of story. No more of this wacky husband hunting plan of hers. She already had a husband for the taking. Him. He grinned broadly. Damn. It felt good to have that decided.

  “Yeah!” Dusty cried, jumping into the pile of laurel branches that lay in the middle of the driveway and spinning with joy.

  Travis’s gaze shot to his jubilant son. What on earth was that all about? he wondered as he watched his happily cavorting son. Whatever it was, Dusty was on cloud nine. He smiled fondly at the boy. He loved to see him so happy like this. He’d do anything to keep that look of sheer, unadulterated rapture on his sweet, baby face.

  “Listen, kiddo,” Travis said, still grinning. “I’ve got a few things I’ve got to do out here. Why don’t you go get ready for bed, and I’ll be in after a while to check on you.”

  “Okay!” Dusty shouted with unaccustomed good nature. Rarely did he capitulate so easily when it came to getting ready for bed. As he tripped and skipped across the yard and up the stairs to the front door, Travis heard him singsong, “Wendy’s gonna be my mom on Christmas! Wendy’s gonna be my mom on Christmas!”

  Where the heck did he get that idea? Travis wondered, scratching his jaw. Heading over to Wendy’s yard, he ducked low and, glancing around to make sure no one was watching, proceeded to sneak into her backyard in hopes of getting a glimpse of…well, something.

  Larry had been drinking.

  That much was obvious. Wendy stood in the kitchen, wringing her hands and fussing as long as she dated with her new recipe. The new recipe that Travis loved so much. Oh, Travis. She sent a frantic, silent plea for help in his direction. Help.

  “Can I do anything to help?” Larry’s voice, rough and slurred and filled with disgusting innuendo, reached her from where he sat impatiently waiting in her dining room.

  “No, everything’s ready,” she chirped nervously. What would he do to her if she asked him to leave? Probably wouldn’t take too kindly to it, she decided. Oh, how she wished this evening was over. Maybe she wasn’t as worldly as she liked to think she was these days, because she didn’t have a clue as to what she should do with this man. This man she’d taken a sudden and intense disliking to.

  Travis would know what to do. Travis would take care of everything. If only Travis were here. Of all the days for him to decide to stop spying on her, she thought, agitated. For weeks now he’d been sneaking around, watching her every move. He thought she hadn’t noticed. But she had. And where it had irritated her before, now she would kill for a glimpse of those curious gray eyes.

  Taking a deep breath, Wendy picked up her casserole dish, pasted a smile on her face and headed out to the dining room. If she was lucky, maybe Larry would pass out in his plate and she could call a cab to take him home.

  As she caught sight of his craggy, leather-yellow complexion, his greasy, thinning hair, his stooped-over posture and his soiled and wrinkled clothes, there was one thing she knew for sure. There was no way in hell she was going to kiss this toad. The husband hunt was officially over. If she couldn’t have Travis, she didn’t want anybody. Especially not a sleazebag like Larry.

  Breezing to the table, she set her dish down and tucked a serving spoon next to it.

  Larry peered at the dish, his lip curling with disdain, then swung his leering gaze up to her.

  “Help yourself, Larry,” she urged, trying to still her shaking hands. “I’m just going to go get us…some—”

  “Don’t mind fie do,” Larry slurred, cutting her off as he bared his crooked yellow teeth at her and pulled himself to his wobbling feet. Lurching wildly against the table, Larry inadvertently tilted and cleared the table of her entire afternoon’s labors

  She stared in shock as her clear glass casserole dish bounced off the wall, sending Travis’s favorite dish splattering across the floor. The rest of the table accessories, the centerpiece, the salt and pepper shakers, the long, tapered candles, spun and rolled crazily across the hardwood. Wendy’s heart leapt to her throat and lodged there, cutting off her supply of oxygen. Paralyzed with fear, she stared at him as he staggered toward her.

  “Oops.” He burped, stupidly thumbing his handiwork. “Don’t worry about a thing. We’ll jusss clean thad up later. But firsss, how ‘bout a li’l kiss for ol’ Larry, huh, sugar?”

  Wendy gave a quick, rapid shake of her head. “No,” she whispered.

  “Oh, c’mon now, sugarlips, I know you’re lookin’ for Mr. Right, and—” he pounded triumphantly on his hollow chest, then reached out and grabbed her arm “—I’m here to apply for the job. So, pucker up, baby, and less get this show on the road.” His gurgly laugh was raspy from years of smoking his own hand-rolled cigarettes.

  “No, thank you, uh, Larry,” Wendy squeaked, trying to wrench out of his grasp.

  “Ah, a little hellcat. I like that,” Larry rasped woozily, then belched again. “Ya know, Wednesday, everybody in town’s sayin’ what a looker you are these days. So I’m thinkin’ to myself, Larry old boy, she’s the one you’ve been waitin’ for. Come to Papa, honey doll.” His yellow lips loomed at her, puckered and gaping like a dying carp.

  His nauseating breath filled her nostrils, sickening her. She was going to faint. No, she was going to vomit. No, she was going to scream.

  No.

  She was going to beat the stew out of this…this…scumbag, she thought, taking aim and letting him have it where it counted with her knee. As he stumbled back toward the wall, shock and pain causing his eyes to bulge in a most satisfying manner, Wendy pulled back and let him have it in the nose with her fist, screaming like a banshee all the while.

  She would never be able to remember exactly what happened next. She only knew that shortly after Travis came crashing through her back door, she found herself sitting in a dining room chair watching as he knocked Larry cold with one swift punch to the jaw.

  Bounding easily over Larry’s inert frame, Travis rushed to Wendy’s side and swept her into his arms. “Are you all right?” he breathed, his voice cracking with emotion as he pulled her into the living room, away from the mess and the drunken lecher who’d caused it. Once there, he crushed her to his chest where his heartbeat echoed in her ear and, cradling her head against his shoulder, murmured noises of comfort.

  Wendy nodded mutely, her eyes squeezed tightly shut against tears of relief and stood trembling like an autumn leaf. “Oh, Travis,” she sobbed. “Thank God, you’re here. I didn’t know what I was going to do.”

  He sighed and a low, rueful chuckle rumbled in his throat. “Looks to me like you were doing a pretty good job of handling the situation,” he praised, admiration tingeing his voice along with something Wendy couldn’t identify. Something that sounded vaguely like possessiveness. “I don’t think I’ve ever been so afraid,” he admitted. “When I heard you scream, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack.” He tightened his hold on her. “I don’t know what I’d have done if that creep had hurt you.” His jaw worked convulsively against her temple.

  Crystal tear
drops spiked her lashes as she looked up at him through the dim light that filtered from the hall. “Where were you?” She sniffed plaintively. “What took you so long, anyway?”

  An uncertain frown tugged at Travis’s brow. “I’m not sure I know what you’re getting at.”

  Wendy’s smile was soft. “Oh, come on, Travis. I know you’ve been spying on me for weeks now.”

  His grin was sheepish. “You knew?”

  “You were pretty obvious.” She exhaled tiredly. “You’ll be happy to know that you can hang up your magnifying glass, spy boy,” she informed him, nestling into the comforting crook of his arms.

  “I can?”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “The husband hunt is officially off. As of midnight tonight, I’ll be thirty, so…” She took a deep breath and shrugged haplessly. “I lose.” Darting a quick glance up at him, she smiled wryly. “No big deal.”

  Feeling suddenly weak in the knees, Travis sank to her couch, pulling her alongside him. The husband hunt was off.

  The husband hunt was off!

  Wait a minute. Did that mean she didn’t want a husband anymore? His heart sank like a bowling ball in a swimming pool as his mind whirled with the ramifications.

  Okay. She didn’t want to get married. At least he and Dusty would have no more competition for her affection. For a while, anyway.

  Although, how long could that last? he wondered, his eyes straying out to where Larry still lay sprawled out on her dining room floor. If he didn’t make his move now, sooner or later she would be back in the middle of the dating scene and eventually hook that husband. And in the meantime, how was he supposed to keep his sanity?

  There was no way in hell he could take another episode like the one he’d just had to live through. Worrying about her safety, worrying about her having to leave Dusty and concentrate on her own family, worrying about her sharing her kisses with another man, worrying about how he could face the coming years without her companionship…Hell, he was even worrying about how much he’d be worrying.

  Nope, he decided grimly. She couldn’t give up on the idea of marriage yet. Not before he’d had a chance to propose.

  He was going to propose whether she liked it or not. A sense of exhilaration so powerful it nearly knocked him out of his work boots swept over him. He was ready. He was ready! He drank in the poignant sight of her sweet, tearstreaked face as she nestled against his shoulder. It was so clear. They belonged together. They were made for each other.

  What could the single life possibly have to offer him that a life as Wendy’s husband and lover couldn’t? Nothing, he thought vehemently. Not a blasted thing.

  He stroked the soft hair at the top of her head. And they could have that baby. Soon. A little brother or sister for Dusty. Yeah, he thought, studying her velvety brown eyes as she dabbed the tears from her splotchy cheeks with a black-and-white polka-dotted sleeve. A little baby that looked just like her. He’d like to get started on that right away. In fact, he couldn’t think of a single thing in his entire life that he’d rather do.

  “Wendy?”

  “Hmm?” She sighed deeply and angling her head slightly back, smiled a watery smile up at him.

  “Did the article say you had to be married before you were thirty, or just engaged before you were thirty?” he asked, shifting in his seat slightly so that he could face her. Reaching out, he took her hand in his.

  “Um…” She stared absently at their hands, locked together so comfortably. “I think it said being engaged was okay, as long as an official date was set. You know, so that the engagement doesn’t become an excuse for not getting married.” The steady tick-tock of her mantel clock drew her eyes. “Not that I have to worry about that anymore,” she said with a small, stilted laugh. Wendy threw a quick glance over her shoulder at Larry, who had begun to snore peacefully beneath her table, a bit of her new recipe curdling beneath his onerous breath. “I only have a few hours left before I’m officially over the hill.”

  Travis tipped her chin up with his thumb. “Hey,” he teased, “it’s not so bad on the other side. I’m here.”

  Wendy’s gaze clung to his. That was a nice thought. It made the downhill slide a tad more tolerable.

  “Besides,” he continued, “if you wanted to, you could be engaged by your thirtieth birthday.” He looked at her with a curious mixture of uncertainty and hope.

  A sharp laugh squeaked past Wendy’s lips. “No, thank you,” she demurred, casting another disillusioned glance over at the slumbering Larry.

  “Would you decline my proposal, then?”

  Wendy’s head spun back around to Travis, her heart beginning to pound beneath her breast. What was he talking about? “What proposal?”

  “Marriage.” A light flared in his eyes as he took her hands in his and placed them flat against his heart. “Will you marry me, Wendy Wilcox?” As if suddenly nervous, Travis touched his tongue to his lower lip and ran his palms back and forth over her wrists.

  Stunned, she glanced around the room, as if he could be speaking to another Wendy Wilcox. One that he loved. One that he wanted to marry. “Me?” she whispered, barely daring to believe. Travis Donovan, diehard single, was proposing to her? Light-headed, she blinked up at him. He wanted to marry her?

  “Yes. You.” His liquid gray eyes swept tenderly over her face. “The way I see it, you need a husband and Dusty needs a mother. And.” Pausing, he tightened his grip on her hands. “Sweetheart, I need you. I can’t stand the idea of losing you to another man.” His eyes narrowed as he darted a disgusted glance in Larry’s direction. “And since I’ve fallen head over heels in love with you, getting married just seems like the natural thing to do.”

  Her jaw went slightly slack as she tried to digest this latest turn of events. Could she be dreaming? No, she mused as Larry snorted loudly and rolled onto his back. This wasn’t exactly the romantic setting of her dreams, but the result was the same.

  Travis was in love with her, she thought, her breath catching with sudden wild excitement in her throat. He loved her! How wonderful! He knew every boring, embarrassing detail of her simple life, yet he wanted to sign up for a lifetime. With her.

  “I’d like to set a date, right now, too.” His smile dimpled down at her. “That is, if you’re willing?”

  Eyes flashing, she searched his face. “Could, you…uh, say th-that again?” she stammered, weak with delirious delight.

  Travis grinned. “I’d like to set a date?”

  “No.” She shook her head, clutching his hands, feeling the erratic pounding of his heartbeat as he pressed them to his chest. “The part before that.”

  “It just seems like the natural thing to do?” he teased.

  “No, no, no!” she cried gleefully. “You know what I mean.”

  “I’m hopelessly in love with you,” he said solemnly as the embers of hope and love flared to life in his eyes. He brushed his lips lightly across hers. “I may not have always realized what it was we’ve had all these years together,” he murmured, “but, Wendy, ever since you moved in next door, I’ve been busy tangling my life with yours. Depending on you for everything from someone to laugh and talk with to someone to give my son a much needed mother’s touch. It just took nearly losing you to someone else for me to see it.”

  “I can’t believe it,” she whispered in awe.

  Travis frowned slightly, puzzled. “Why?”

  “Because I love you, too.”

  “You do?” The lines between his eyes eased and a wide smile transformed his handsome face. “Why didn’t you say something?” he breathed as relief shuddered through him.

  “Because you were so down on marriage. And I wanted a family. A little boy just like Dusty, and a husband to love, just like you. But…” She sighed. “I didn’t think you’d ever consider me.”

  Travis laughed. “I’ve been driving myself crazy, thinking the same thing. I didn’t think you could see me as the marrying kind.” He passed a hand over his jaw. “After all, I’
ve loved and lost before.”

  “Better than never loving at all,” Wendy said ruefully. Taking his cheeks between her palms, Wendy drew his face down to hers for a kiss that was a promise of the joys to come. “We’re quite a pair,” she murmured, smiling against his lips.

  “Mmm,” he agreed, and pulled back slightly to look deeply into her eyes. “So. Will you marry me?”

  Tenderly, she traced the curve of his mouth with her fingertips. “Yes,” she whispered. “I’ll marry you.”

  “Yeah!” The joyous shriek came from Wendy’s entry hall. Dusty burst out from behind the front archway where he’d been hiding ever since he’d heard his dad crash through Wendy’s back door. “On Christmas, right, Dad?”

  Travis shrugged loosely and arched an eyebrow at the woman both he and his son loved so dearly. “You got any plans for Christmas?”

  Beaming, Wendy gave her head a slight shake and tugged Dustin onto her lap. “Looks like I’ll be getting married.”

  “All right!” Dustin crowed, wriggling happily.

  “Happy birthday,” Travis whispered over his son’s head, and kissed Wendy softly on the lips.

  “The happiest,” Wendy murmured, eagerly returning his one of a kind kiss.

  Larry snored contentedly in agreement.

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss the next book in Silhouette’s exciting

  DADDY KNOWS LAST series.

  Here’s a sneak preview of

  DISCOVERED: DADDY

  by Marilyn Pappano

  available in November from Silhouette Intimate Moments

  Discovered: Daddy

  Faith Harper ignored the chair behind the counter and paced restlessly around the shop. It was the day before Thanksgiving, and the store was quiet. She had planned on going home early but it was five-fifteen, only fifteen minutes before her regular closing time, and Faith was still there. She’d done the usual closing-up chores and now all she had to do was flip over the sign on the door from Open to Closed, shut off the lights, lock up and leave.