by Kara Lennox
“I wanted to see you again,” he said. “Honestly. You’ll never know how much. We had the start of something good and—” He took a sip of coffee and forged ahead. “Look, before I go on and make a jerk of myself, I just have to ask you one thing. Are you married?”
“No.” She avoided his gaze.
“Then…is it mine?”
Gwen looked around worriedly and lowered her voice to a whisper. “We do need to talk, but not here. Can you meet me at the Tanner Boardinghouse in a few minutes? We can have some privacy there.”
He took that as an affirmative answer to his question. His stomach swooped. He was going to be a father. He felt strangely elated at the news.
Ironic, given his origins.
“The boardinghouse is on the corner of Main and Ashland—or, rather, Main and Lottery Lane. Mayor Larson has changed some of our street names.”
“I’ll see you there, then.”
She started to get up, but he stopped her. “Gwen?”
“Yes?”
“You look really fantastic. That dress is a very nice color on you.”
“Oh. Thank you.” Again, she wouldn’t meet his eyes. This time she made good her escape, not even paying for her pie and lemonade.
Eli took a bite of his hamburger, but found he had no more appetite for it. He took his check to the register, where Shelly rang him up. “I’ll pay for Gwen’s bill, too,” he said. “She seems to have forgotten.”
Shelly’s expression was distinctly unfriendly. “Don’t worry about it. Gwen can eat here on the house any time she wants. Folks in Jester look after each other.”
Her message was clear. He’d better not do anything to hurt Gwen. But maybe it was too late for that. He’d gotten her pregnant, then abandoned her. How much more hurtful could it get?
Chapter Two
Though it was only a couple of blocks between The Brimming Cup and the boardinghouse, Gwen drove her car. She didn’t walk anywhere these days, except for the mandatory thirty minutes she walked every morning when it was still cool, ordered by her doctor. Now it was pushing ninety degrees, and Gwen felt limp as the faded Montana flag that hung in front of the Jester town hall.
Why, of all times, did Eli have to show up now? Just when she’d gotten used to the idea she would never see him again, he waltzes back into her life, twice as sexy as she remembered.
And she was bucking for a prize for best imitation of a water buffalo.
She might have been prepared to believe his story about the smeared ink and his frantic, months-long search for her. Down deep she was a romantic, and he wouldn’t have had difficulty convincing her he was smitten. But then he’d revealed how he’d found her. He’d seen her picture in the paper, which meant he knew she was worth over a million dollars.
He’d capped it all off by telling her she looked good. If she’d been skeptical at first, that comment had sealed Eli Garrett’s fate. There was only one adjective to describe her—huge. Fantastic was way out of the ballpark.
She pulled her Mercedes into the carriage house. She still wasn’t up to facing Eli. She wished she could have told him to go away and come back next week, when she would be better prepared. But her grandmother hadn’t raised her to be rude. He’d come all this way, and she supposed she owed it to him to find out what he wanted.
You know what he wants, her grandmother’s voice rang inside her head. A million dollars can make any woman beautiful.
She climbed the front porch steps of her frilly Victorian house, glad she’d asked Eli to meet her here on her home turf. She was queen here at the Tanner Boardinghouse. She felt her strongest here, where her grandmother’s memory was a constant, comforting presence.
She started to open the front door, then hesitated. At least a breeze was blowing across the front porch. Inside it would be stuffy. She’d already hired a company from Pine Run to put central air into her house, but they were backed up and hadn’t yet started the job.
She decided she would meet Eli here on the porch. Relieved not to have to walk one step farther, she sank into a delicate white-wicker rocker and waited for Eli, rehearsing what she would say to him.
She would be firm, businesslike and unemotional, she coached herself. She would be appreciative of his interest in her, but insist that he need not trouble himself. She had gotten on with her life, she would say, and he probably should get on with his and not give her another thought.
No doubt he’d figured out that the offspring in her belly was his. She hadn’t denied it. But once she made it clear she wouldn’t be easy pickings—and neither would her bank account—he probably wouldn’t be thrilled by his impending fatherhood.
She intended to give him an easy out.
Less than five minutes after she’d sat down, she spotted Eli walking toward her down Main Street, and her mouth went dry. Even from a distance, he was just about the most handsome man Gwen had seen. He had a loose-limbed walk, not brisk but not ambling, either. Like he had somewhere to go but he was going to enjoy getting there.
He smiled at the guys in front of the barbershop, then stopped to pet Buck, the stray shepherd mix Jack Hartman and his wife, Melinda, had adopted. Buck had his head stuck out the window of Melinda’s green-and-white Dually, which was parked outside the hardware store.
Everyone stared at Eli without trying to look like they were staring. Before the lottery win, few strangers crossed Jester’s town limits. Now all kinds of people came to get a look at the so-called richest town in America, and not all of them were harmless. A few months ago, Amanda had been accosted by a drunk drifter outside The Heartbreaker Saloon.
Eli crossed the street and mounted the steps to Gwen’s house.
Gwen gave him a little wave. “I hope you don’t mind if I don’t get up.”
“Please, don’t.” He sat gingerly on another wicker chair. His imposing height and muscular body challenged the delicate piece of furniture, but it held him. He took in Gwen’s view of the park.
“Nice town you have here.”
“It’s special,” she agreed. “I’ve lived here all my life. Even in hard times, when the boardinghouse was barely squeaking by, I never considered leaving.”
“I’ve never lived outside of Denver. I always thought I’d be bored in a small town.”
“Probably not this one,” she said. “Not lately, anyway.”
“I guess the lottery has brought some pretty big changes.”
“You could say that.” In fact, it was an understatement. “The whole town has gone crazy. First, we were inundated with nosy reporters. Then our mayor, Bobby Larson, tried to turn Jester into a tourist attraction. He wants to build a hotel on the park property. Can you imagine?”
“I heard something about that—just this morning. One of my customers knows someone who actually invested in the hotel.”
Gwen gasped. “How can Bobby solicit investors for a hotel that doesn’t exist?”
Eli shrugged. “Sounds like your mayor is involved in some shady dealings.”
Gwen sighed. “If Bobby manages to push this project through, it’ll ruin my view. Then there’s the noise, the traffic—shoot, maybe I should sell after all.”
Eli looked horrified. “Sell this beautiful old house?”
She shook her head. “No, I wouldn’t really do that. But someone’s been trying to buy it from me. Over the past few months I’ve received several anonymous offers, each higher than the last.”
“This is a great house,” Eli said, looking around. “You’ve restored it beautifully.”
“You should have seen it last year. It looked more like that one next door.” She nodded toward her neighbor’s house. Another enormous Victorian, it was all but falling down. Her neighbor, an elderly widow, had moved out a couple of years ago to live with her children in Florida. The house had been on the market, but no one had bought it, and it continued to deteriorate. “But I guess you didn’t come all the way to Jester so we could talk about house restoration.”
“No.” He clea
red his throat. “Gwen, the baby is mine, isn’t it?”
“Well…” She swallowed, her throat suddenly thick. “Okay, Eli, I’ll give it to you straight. I don’t know who the father is. I had a rather…wild winter. I guess I went crazy along with everybody else.”
“I see.” He didn’t look particularly relieved over her lie. “You could find out the father’s identity. DNA testing has become fairly routine for that sort of thing.”
“I’m not the messy-paternity-suit type. Anyway, what end would that serve? Make some guy feel guilty and resentful, give him a responsibility he doesn’t want? I don’t want any child of mine to have to deal with a less-than-committed father.”
“I see,” Eli said again. His words were soft, but his nostrils flared.
Gwen didn’t understand this at all. She was giving him an out, an escape hatch. Didn’t he realize that?
“I didn’t mean to get pregnant,” Gwen said, “but now that I am, I’m very happy about it. I have plenty of money to raise a child alone, so that’s not an issue. I’m prepared to move on with my life, and I certainly don’t want to tie myself and my offspring to some guy I met in a bar. Or wherever,” she added quickly.
“I see.”
“Stop saying that. I get the feeling you don’t see at all. Why should a man have to pay the rest of his life for one passion-induced moment of insanity in a hotel room—or wherever?”
“Why should a woman?” he countered.
“But I want a baby,” she said.
“Maybe the guy wants a baby, too. You won’t know ’til you ask him.”
“How can I ask him if I don’t know who he is?”
“You can find out.”
“We’re talking in circles.”
Eli stood and walked over to the railing. “How many…candidates are we talking about?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she said breezily. “I wasn’t keeping count.”
He watched her through narrowed eyes. Well, great. Now Eli thought she was a slut.
“And are any of these guys still on the scene?” he asked, sounding like a prosecuting attorney browbeating a defendant.
“Oh, heavens no. None of them were from Jester.”
“I s—I understand.”
“Then you understand you’re under absolutely no obligation to me. You’re free to leave, and you’ll never hear from me again.”
He turned suddenly fierce. “Maybe I don’t owe you anything. But I don’t make it a habit to litter the countryside with my illegitimate children. So until the baby’s born and you can do a DNA test, you’re stuck with me.”
Oh, dear. This wasn’t working out at all as Gwen had planned. She thought Eli would be relieved to be given his walking papers. Certainly her father hadn’t cared to stick around long enough to see his child born, and her parents had been married.
“All right,” Gwen said. “If you leave me your number, I’ll call you when the babies are born.”
Eli’s face paled. “Babies? As in, plural?”
“Twins. I just found out.”
One corner of his sexy mouth turned up in a half grin. “Well, I’ll be damned.” But the smile quickly faded. “I don’t think I trust you to call me.”
“You know where to find me. Due date’s October tenth. Um, Eli, suppose you are the father. What did you have in mind?” She had a strong feeling his plans didn’t include paying child support.
“A wedding, of course.” He tipped an imaginary hat. “I’ll be seeing you.”
Gwen just stared, her mouth gaping open, as he stood and walked across her porch, down the steps and out onto the sidewalk. She watched as he walked down Main Street and climbed into his car—the classic Jaguar that had passed her on the highway earlier.
A wedding, huh? Very noble of him. For a few moments, she let herself think about that. White lace—well, maybe not white, she amended—and promises, just like the old song. Her friends around her. Cake and champagne, the bride and groom dancing. His Jaguar, painted with shoe-polish quips about the wedding night.
A honeymoon…the best part.
She sighed. That was some far-out fantasy. She might be willing to marry Eli Garrett. But the moment she mentioned the prenuptial agreement she would require, he would probably run for the hills. A prenup might seem cold, but she wasn’t going to make the same mistake her mother did.
AS HE DROVE back to Denver, Eli tried not to be angry with Gwen. But he was, dammit. She’d been trying to get rid of him, and that stung.
Eli was a businessman. Among other things, he bought and sold cars, and some of the wiliest liars in the world joined him in that occupation. So Eli had gotten very good at telling when someone was lying to him.
Gwen Tanner had been lying through her pretty white teeth. For some reason she hadn’t wanted him to believe he was the father of her child—children, he corrected himself.
Perhaps she just didn’t want a man around. Maybe she’d approached him at The Wild Mustang for the sole purpose of getting pregnant. He’d heard of stranger things.
But that scenario didn’t fit the woman he’d spent the night with. Granted, he couldn’t claim to really know her after only a few hours together. But they’d connected on some elemental level. She’d been sincere that night—he was sure of it. She’d left him her number, and she’d wanted him to call.
Two explanations for her behavior occurred to him. One, she didn’t want to “trap” him. Maybe she sincerely believed all that stuff she’d told him, that a man shouldn’t have to be responsible for one lapse in judgment. Kind of cockeyed reasoning, but plausible.
The second possibility—that Gwen didn’t want him anywhere near her money—also made sense. She didn’t know him, after all. He might be some male version of a gold digger.
Neither problem was insurmountable, Eli decided, his habitual optimism coming to his rescue. Once Gwen got to know him, she would realize that he didn’t want or need her money. And he would make her see that being a father wasn’t some huge price he was being forced to pay. He wanted—no, insisted on—a role in his children’s lives. He might not have a clue how to be a good father, but surely a clueless father was better than none at all.
Eli didn’t remember either of his parents, didn’t even know who they were. He’d been abandoned as an infant. But he was somewhat of an expert on foster parents. He’d lived in sixteen different foster homes during his childhood. Sometimes the surrogate parents meant well. Some had been indifferent, interested only in the money they received from the government for his care. A few were downright cruel. He’d never bonded with any of them, never kept in touch after he moved on.
He was partly to blame for that. He’d been a difficult kid with a chip on his shoulder. He’d resented the parents who had abandoned him. That resentment had fueled his ambition. Early on he’d decided to make something of himself, to prove how wrong his foolish parents had been to reject him. He’d mostly stayed out of trouble, learned a trade, started his own business and achieved success beyond his wildest dreams. But the resentment had kept everyone at arm’s length.
Well, his kids weren’t going to resent him. They would have to find some other motivation to succeed in life. He was going to be there, dammit.
He pressed harder on the gas, pushing the Jag to seventy-five. He had a lot to accomplish in the next couple of weeks.
THE SUMMER HEAT WAVE finally broke as September rolled around. With the high temperature only reaching the seventies, Gwen felt a renewal of her customary energy. She baked with a vengeance in her new, modern kitchen, delivering more pastries to the bookstore than the patrons could possibly eat. She tried out new recipes on her boarders and she finished the nursery—now with two of everything. Today she was serving afternoon tea on the porch. She’d bought more wicker furniture, enough to accommodate a dozen people, and she’d invited a few people over. She’d even invited Wyla Thorne. Poor Wyla—the woman was just consumed with bitterness over the fact that she’d quit the lottery pool on
e week too early.
As she set the wicker table with a cabbage-rose cloth and matching napkins, she counted the days and realized she hadn’t heard a peep out of Eli in two weeks, which was a mixed blessing. Her rational side was sure he was attracted to her money. After all, men had never exactly flocked around her when she was slender and moderately attractive. Well, she didn’t have two noses or anything. Now that she was the size of a Goodyear blimp, men ran the other way when they saw her coming.
Sylvia said it was because men got a little nervous around a pregnant woman. But Gwen suspected the men in Jester were terrified of being roped into surrogate fatherhood. It wasn’t just that she was pregnant, it was that she was single and pregnant.
Eli had apparently come to his senses and joined the crowd. He’d probably decided her fortune wasn’t worth playing dad to twins. The price was too high.
But her romantic side craved his presence. All his talk of weddings had made her skin tingle with awareness. Would he really want to marry her if he knew the twins were his? Even with a pre-nup, married to her he could still live a life of ease. For the tenth time that day, she conjured up an image of her and Eli living as husband and wife.
Gwendolyn Garrett. That was a very nice name. Although she might keep Tanner, since she couldn’t change the name of the boardinghouse. That would be an insult to her grandmother.
“Yoo-hoo, hi, Gwen!”
Her fantasy bubble burst, Gwen looked up to see Mary Kay Thompson waving at her from the yard next door. Mary Kay dabbled in real estate sales, though Jester wasn’t exactly a hotbed of activity in that industry.
“Guess what?” Mary Kay called out. “I finally sold this house!” She made a show of hanging a SOLD! placard on the bottom of the fading For Sale sign.
“That’s great!” Gwen called back. “Who bought it?”
“Some guy from out of town.” Mary Kay minced over in her high heels and joined Gwen on the porch. “And I’ve got something for you.”
“Not another offer.”
“’Fraid so.” She reached into her voluminous, flowered purse and produced a thick manila envelope, handing it to Gwen.