by Sara Orwig
“I’ll put all this away,” Tracie said, standing to gather up the discarded ribbons and wrapping paper. Maddie stood and offered to help, and together they finished picking up and left the room.
He knew Maddie had gone so he could have time alone with Rebecca. He got down on the floor. “Let’s see Gabrel,” he said, pronouncing the name as Rebecca had. Instantly, she was in a world of make-believe, with the doll and the bear.
While they sat on the floor and chatted, he tried to keep some of his attention on the conversation, but his focus was on Rebecca, who played with her new doll and teddy bear and obviously loved them.
He couldn’t stop looking at his daughter, wanting to watch everything she did. He played with her, talking for the teddy bear while she earnestly held the doll and made conversation.
“Do you like to play with dolls?” Gabe asked when there was a lull.
“Yes. Want to see all my princess dolls?” Rebecca asked. “I cleaned my room for Mommy, since she was coming home. I’ll show you.”
Gabe followed her into a hall and past one bedroom. He could hear Maddie and her mother talking in the kitchen.
“See my dolls,” Rebecca said, running across a room that was obviously hers. It had white furniture, splashes of pink in the pillows, cushions and bedding. There was a large dollhouse on one side of the room. On the other was a glass cabinet filled with beautiful dolls.
Maddie entered the room. “Are you looking at all the dolls?”
“Yes. We’ve been playing and talking,” he said, wanting to put his arm around Maddie’s waist, but holding back because of Rebecca.
He spent the next half hour looking at dolls and teddy bears and talking with Rebecca while Maddie hovered in the background and occasionally entered into their conversation.
Finally, she told Gabe they would get ready to go to dinner, and he returned to the living room to wait.
When everyone joined him, they got in a limo leased from a national agency he used when away from Texas.
Rebecca was fascinated with the limo and Gabe showed her everything, letting her climb around and touch things before the driver ever started the motor.
Dinner was long and Gabe tried to charm all three females. He had known Maddie’s mother all his life, but not well, and it wasn’t until dessert that he wrung the first full smile from her.
It was half-past ten and Rebecca had fallen asleep when they finally dropped off Tracie and the limo drove to Maddie’s house.
Gabe carried Rebecca inside while Maddie switched on lights and locked the doors.
“I can drive my car tomorrow, Gabe,” Maddie said.
He shook his head. “I have a limo at my disposal. You might as well let me provide your transportation this time.”
“Very well. It will complicate your schedule.”
“Not so much. You can go wherever and whenever you want. Just tell the driver. My schedule is flexible.”
“Thanks,” she replied.
He placed Rebecca in bed carefully. She was tiny, fragile and totally fascinating to him. As Maddie slipped off the girl’s shoes, Gabe looked up at the mother of his child.
“She’s beautiful, Maddie,” he said, wanting them to be together, to be a family. “Forgive me. I shouldn’t have left you. Unfortunately, I can’t take it back now. I know you did what you thought was best, too.”
She hugged him, closing her eyes. “I hope you do,” she said. “She likes you, Gabe.” She looked down at him. “I think I can tell her tomorrow who you are.”
“That scares me more than anything else that’s happened in my life.”
“She’ll love you. You did fine with her. Let me tuck her in, and we can go in the living room to talk.”
He leaned down to brush a kiss on Rebecca’s forehead, watching her sleep. He walked away, stopping at the door as Maddie tucked Rebecca in and kissed her lightly. When Maddie joined him, he put his arm around her waist.
They went to the front of the house to a living room that was filled with rattan and wicker furniture, plank floors and framed watercolors of seascapes and landscapes.
“See, we’re not so different when it comes to decor,” Maddie said. “Want anything to drink?” she asked.
He gazed down into her big, brown eyes and wanted her with all his being. “Maddie, come here,” he said, ignoring her question. He drew her close to kiss her, forgetting everything else.
After a startled moment, she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung tightly to him, kissing him in return.
He didn’t know how much later it was when he picked her up to carry her to her bedroom by way of her pointed directions.
Taking time, they made love. Gabe wanted her more than he ever had. Later, as his heartbeat returned to normal, he held her close and combed her hair from her face with his fingers. “This has been one of the greatest days of my life—to see and begin to know my daughter. But I don’t think I’ll ever win over your mother.”
“I don’t know. She’s just scared she’ll lose Rebecca.”
“I’m not taking Rebecca away from her grandmother!”
“Mom thawed some. Thanks in part to that spectacular gold and diamond necklace. You turning on the charm at dinner helped, too. She’s scared of the changes that must happen now. So am I, Gabe,” Maddie said solemnly, looking at him.
He gazed down at her. “I don’t have answers yet. But I know we will work something out. I want to know my daughter. I want her in my life. I want to give her things, to do things for her.”
“Let’s see what we can do before we call in the attorneys.”
He nodded. “That’s fine with me. I want Rebecca to know me before we change any of her routines. She wouldn’t want to go anywhere with me right now because I’m a stranger to her.”
“You’re right. It’s going to mean a lot of trips to Florida for you, Gabe. I can take her back to Texas with me when I go, to help you both get to know each other.”
Maddie lay in his arms with her blond hair spread over his shoulder. She looked beautiful, warm, sexy. He wanted to forget the problems between them, forget everything except her.
“Gabe, I know I said we could tell Rebecca the truth tomorrow, but I’m thinking she may need more time.”
“You’re right. She needs to know me better, Maddie.”
“I agree. Tomorrow morning I have to go into the office until noon, then I’ll take off. We can spend the afternoon and evening with her here. When we return to Texas, I’ll take her with me. I want to tell her about you when the time seems right. It may be a while before I can bring it up. If it doesn’t seem okay tomorrow, I won’t tell her. I want her to know and like you first.”
“Whenever you tell her, it’ll be a shock. She’ll ask me why I left. That’s what you said you told her—that I left and didn’t come back.”
“Yes, that’s what I said. When she’s older, I’ll explain what really happened, but I think the full truth would be confusing to a five-year-old.”
“I agree. I’ll keep it simple and tell her I didn’t know about her birth until now or I would have come back.”
“And that’s the truth in the most basic manner. I think she’ll accept it. I don’t know whether we’ll have time on this trip, but when you do have time, I made scrapbooks and videos of Rebecca that I’ll show you.”
“We have time now,” he said, sitting up, and she had to laugh.
“It’s late, Gabe.”
“Not that late. Let’s see the scrapbooks.”
Within the hour, they sat at the kitchen table with a stack of scrapbooks. He saw that the dates covered the time from Rebecca’s birth to the present. Bare chested, Gabe wore jeans and Maddie had pulled on cutoffs and a shirt.
He lost awareness of time as he pored over the pictures, running his hand over some, feeling a knot in his throat several times. It hurt to know he hadn’t been a part of Rebecca’s life when the pictures were taken.
Next, Maddie got out DVDs she had made, and
he watched pictures and listened to Rebecca’s childish voice. He pulled Maddie onto his lap and held her close, trying in some small way to get back those years and be a part of their little family.
When the DVDs ended, she turned to him, nearly slipping off his lap. “Gabe, that’s all.”
He kissed her, a kiss that turned into passion, but when he began to unfasten her shirt, she stopped him and shook her head. “The rest of tonight, let’s sleep in separate bedrooms.”
He nodded, and she stood, moving away from him. “Gabe, it’s after four in the morning.”
“I know,” he said, standing and helping her put things away and turn off lights.
At the door of the bedroom she had given him, he kissed her again.
In minutes, he was in bed, staring into the dark and trying to sort out the depth of his feelings for Maddie. He loved her. He wanted the relationship between them to go back to the way it had been before they’d both made mistakes. He couldn’t stay angry with her, and he couldn’t get her out of mind. The most logical thing to do was to get married—a real marriage, not a paper marriage just to give Rebecca his name.
He thought about the past weeks and his feelings for Maddie. He was in love. Even if there had been no baby, no Rebecca, he would still love her. As for marriage, he couldn’t honestly say he wasn’t influenced by the reality of the situation. Under the circumstances, it was the best solution to their problems. He loved Maddie and he wanted Rebecca to be a Benton.
On the plane, Maddie had admitted she loved him. She’d even said he had been the only man in her life. Maddie had to love him with all her heart to continue to feel that strongly about him through all the years, the separation and the upheaval in their lives. They loved each other—he wanted to marry her and they would be a family.
She was so damned independent and so damned determined to live in Miami. Could he make a change? Maybe there was a compromise he just hadn’t figured out yet.
The next day they went to Tracie’s house for breakfast. She was solemn, but not as quiet as when he had first arrived. While they left Rebecca with her grandmother, he had the limo drop Maddie at her office. He would pick her up for lunch, and she would take the rest of the afternoon off work.
Gabe drove to a jewelry store. When he left, he sat in the back of the limo and looked at the six-carat diamond he had purchased for Maddie. He couldn’t guess her reaction.
At lunchtime, the limo parked in front of her building, and he waited, watching her step outside into the bright sunshine.
His pulse jumped at the sight of her. She had her hair piled on top of her head, pinned and looking businesslike. Her pale blue-and-white cotton suit and blue blouse also looked conservative, part of the business world. To his satisfaction, the suit skirt was short and her long legs were gorgeous. In her high-heeled sandals and short skirt, she turned heads as she crossed the sidewalk to the limo. The driver held the door for her, and she stepped inside, looking into Gabe’s eyes as she smiled and sat beside him.
“Hi,” she said.
He turned in the seat, pulling her into his arms and gazing into her eyes.
He kissed her before releasing her. “I want to see Rebecca, but I also want to be alone with you. I want it all.”
“For now, we’ll be with Rebecca.”
They had a quick lunch, then stopped for lemonade and cookies with Tracie and Rebecca before taking Rebecca back to Maddie’s house. They spent the afternoon together, and Gabe had a chance to talk and play with Rebecca all afternoon and early evening before Maddie declared it was bedtime.
Gabe got to read one bedtime story to Rebecca. Holding her on his lap, he read, letting her turn the pages. She smelled sweet, and he didn’t want to tell her good-night.
He hurt whenever he thought about leaving them. It was going to be hard to return to the ranch and not see them. At least he didn’t have to tell them goodbye this week because they would fly back to Texas with him, but too soon they would part. He’d been mulling it over all day, but as far as he could see, there was no way he could move to Florida. His business, his family—everything was in Texas. He and Maddie had some difficult decisions ahead.
Maddie sat across from Gabe and Rebecca, watching them read. Maddie’s heart twisted. Rebecca liked Gabe. She had rarely warmed to a stranger so quickly. Maddie wanted Rebecca to know the truth, but it had to be revealed carefully. She couldn’t rush into it.
When Gabe finished the story, he carried Rebecca to bed and tucked her in, brushing a light kiss on her forehead before leaving her with Maddie.
Maddie smoothed Rebecca’s hair from her face, gazing at her daughter, wishing she could hold her close for hours. Reluctantly, she tiptoed out of the room. She had changed to cutoffs and a T-shirt in the early afternoon and her hair was in a thick braid down her back. Gabe was relaxing on the patio by the pool.
She sat with him, and he settled her into his lap.
“You have the intercom turned on so you can hear Rebecca?”
“Yes. Usually, she’s a sound sleeper,” she said, looking into Gabe’s blue eyes, which were filled with desire. His gaze lowered to her mouth, and her heart beat faster. As she slipped her hand across his shoulder, his arms tightened around her and he drew her close.
Her heart thudded. She wanted him. They had spent such an idyllic day together, with Gabe pouring on the charm, looking appealing and sexy as he swam and played with Rebecca.
“Maddie, marry me. I mean, really marry me. I talked about marrying in name only, so Rebecca would be my legal heir, but this is different. I love you, Maddie,” he said.
She was consumed by his intensity. His declaration of love was more important at the moment than his proposal, but even while it was indelibly etched in her memory, joy and regret mingled.
“I used to dream of hearing those words from you, Gabe. I didn’t, so I went out and made a life for myself without you.”
He winced. “Maddie, I’ve done some things the wrong way, made some wrong choices. But I know what I want now. I want you and Rebecca in my life. I love you. I want us to be a family.”
She couldn’t catch her breath. These words were what she had dreamed of hearing—six years ago. Now her life had changed. “I love you, too, Gabe. I always have and probably always will, but life isn’t that simple. I can’t just marry you and—”
He placed his finger lightly on her lips to stop her arguments.
“If we can’t have a real marriage now, at least marry me for the legal reasons, for Rebecca’s sake. We’ll work out some kind of arrangement, but it will all be easier if we are husband and wife. Marry me, Maddie. We love each other and we both love her.”
Maddie’s heart pounded. Everything he said made sense and would be best for Rebecca, but without full commitment and compromise from both her and Gabe it would be a sham marriage. “Gabe, I can’t give up my career and my life here. I want to live in the city and enjoy everything I’ve worked so hard for. I’m not a rancher’s wife and never will be. You won’t move to Florida, will you?”
Anger flashed in his eyes. When his jaw tightened, she had her answer, the answer she had known she’d receive.
“No, I can’t give up Texas, my family, my roots and everything I’ve dreamed about all my life. But I still want to marry you, and I want you to accept my proposal, if only for Rebecca’s sake.”
She slipped off his lap to walk away from him and try to clear her thoughts. She turned around to find him standing by his chair.
“You still want to marry me, even when you’ll be in Texas and I’ll be in Florida?”
“It’s a start.”
“You can’t go through life with that kind of marriage.”
“I don’t expect to be separated from you. I want you and Rebecca to visit, and I’ll come see both of you. When I can’t stand living long-distance, I’ll let you know, but Rebecca will have my name forever. She’s a Benton and I want her to be part of the family.”
Maddie’s heart pou
nded, her mind racing over the problems and the possibilities of his proposal.
But in the end, her heart won out.
Ten
“All right, Gabe. I’ll marry you,” she said breathlessly, remembering all the times she had dreamed about this moment. Now that it was here, because of the circumstances, it was bittersweet.
“Ah, Maddie,” he said, striding across the patio, his blue eyes filled with desire. “That’s good. You’ll see. You’re doing what’s good for her, and what’s good for us. I want you in my life, Maddie, as much as I want Rebecca in my life.”
His kiss left no doubt about his wanting her.
He pulled away to look down at her, combing strands of her hair away from her face. “I have something here for you,” he said, withdrawing something from his pocket and handing it to her.
Surprised, she looked at the small black box in his hand. She gasped when she opened it and removed the dazzling ring.
“Gabe, this is gorgeous,” she said. He took it from her and held her hand lightly while he slipped the ring on her finger. “It’s magnificent. I’m stunned,” she said, all her tangled emotions intensifying.
“I love you, Maddie. I should have looked at my own feelings sooner.”
She met his direct gaze, wondering if they would ever work out the differences between them.
Gabe’s arms circled her and, for a moment, she forgot her worries and questions as she kissed him. He carried her to bed, and they spent the night in each other’s arms.
Early the next morning, Maddie was in his arms when Gabe turned to face her.
“I have a small horse, a little mare that’s gentle as can be. I want to give her to Rebecca. I’ll walk her around or I’ll ride with Rebecca if you’d prefer.”
“Sure, Gabe,” she said, amused that he had so many plans so quickly. “You taught me to ride, so you can teach our daughter.”