"He's an active little guy." I withdrew my hand.
"He is." She smiled proudly. "He's going to be a handful, like I was."
We sat in contented silence a moment, watching the gulls and the boats on the sound.
The lazy silence was too much for me. I couldn't keep my suspicions in any longer. "You killed him," I said. "Bob. Medicinal herbs and treatments are a hobby of yours. I saw you with the foxglove. And noticed the way you brought Bob tea. It would have been so easy to sprinkle the seeds on his cereal. Or brew his tea with the stems and flowers.
"His heart was weak. Give him the digitalis and a male enhancement pill to give him an erection. Excite his heart with sex. Or fake the sex. I'm unclear on that part."
"He was going to die soon anyway." She smoothed her blouse over her baby bump, and smiled at me, pleased with herself. And me for bringing the subject into the open. "I sent him out with a climax he wouldn't forget. I'm not heartless."
She was very clever. Never trust anyone. I could be wearing a wire. I wasn't. But I could have been. She wasn't exactly admitting to anything. And yet she was admitting to everything.
"He was jealous of me spending so many hours with Dan. Jealous of my research. He was going to turn off his support. Shut off his funding to the hospital and my project."
She watched a seagull fly over. "I couldn't let that happen. Too many lives depend on it." She turned and looked at me. "You understand, don't you?"
"I understand there's always another way."
She laughed and shook her head. "You're so naïve."
"And the baby?" I said. "It's Dan's, isn't it? The sex with Bob served a dual purpose."
She pursed her lips and shrugged. "You're very sharp, Blair. And lovely to talk to. With such a vivid, creative imagination. These theories of yours." She sounded amused. She leaned close and whispered in my ear, barely audible, "You're the only person who can never betray me. And I like you, too. That's a bonus. I have so few true friends, people I can really count on. I'm in your debt."
I pulled away. "Does Dan know?"
"In the eyes of the law, the baby is Bob's. For inheritance purposes, that's all that matters." She rubbed her bump and cooed something to it.
"And if one of Bob's nephews contests the will and demands a DNA test?"
"As the widow, I'm entitled to a large settlement. Bob was very generous about that. And as the mother of this child, I'll refuse to let them take a sample. Why should I subject my child to the pain?"
I cocked my head. "You're too confident. The courts could demand it."
She smiled very sweetly. "And if they did, they'd discover that Bob is the father. Of course, he was cremated. There's none of his DNA left. So they'd have to go to a male relative for a sample to check the family connection."
I frowned at her, wondering what, besides the obvious, she was telling me. Erica, being a doctor who dealt with genetics and tissue matches, was familiar with the properties of DNA.
She laughed. "You really are too naïve. Take off your white hat, Blair." She patted her stomach again. "This baby's a boy. Fathers pass their Y chromosomes to their sons. Those Y chromosomes are identical. It's very difficult to identify paternity between a father and son. Especially if the DNA of one of them is unavailable."
It took me a second before I got it. "No. But how?"
"That's a story for another time. Or maybe never. All I can really say is that Bob slept with a lot of women in his youth. Make of that what you will."
"And Dan knows?"
"No, of course not," she said, clearly pleased with her cleverness. "I trust you won't tell him. And if you do?" She shrugged. "There's no definitive way to prove that either, other than to say, by the same means of testing a male relative of Bob's, that he's related to Bob."
"Erica, this is a dangerous game—"
She put a hand on my arm. "I appreciate your concern. You're a good friend, Blair. My one true friend. But I'm in no danger. None at all. I love this baby. Surprisingly so. I'll raise him to be a good man." She leaned in and whispered, "Eventually I may even marry his…father? Uncle?" She laughed. "I'm forever in your debt for not giving away what you saw. Anything I can do for you, anything at all, I will."
There was no way to argue with her. Nothing I could say. I would keep her secrets. Who would believe me if I told them?
As if I'd conjured her by thinking about her, I bumped into Erica as I raced to my car to meet Austin.
She waved cheerily to me. "Happy house hunting! I hope this is the one."
I did, too.
And as for the guys, Ashley had set up matches for all three of them. Very promising matches, according to her. She was under a tight deadline to find them wives very soon or risk losing the bonus Lazer had promised her. She was motivated. And so were they. In fact, they all had dates coming up this weekend.
Who was my bet on finding true love and getting married next? It was so hard to choose, wasn't it? I loved them all. But there was one I thought would be easier. One Ashley seemed more confident of. But I can't say which one. I really can't. I don't want anything to jinx it. Superstitious? Maybe. But since that tealeaf reading, I'd become slightly less skeptical about things like that.
My phone buzzed with a text from Austin. At the house with the realtor.
I texted back, On my way. I slid into my car and tossed my purse on the passenger seat. Life is good. In fact, life is perfect.
Thank You!
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Also by Gina Robinson
The Jet City Kilt Series
Almost Jamie
Almost Elinor
Simply Blair
Simply Austin
The Billionaire Matchmaker Series
Lazer Focused
Harte Strings
Pair Us
Dating Lazer
Match Point
The Billionaire Duke Series
The Billionaire Duke
The Duchess Contest
The Temporary Duchess
The American Heir
The Switched at Marriage Series
Part 1—A Wedding to Remember
Part 2—The Virgin Billionaire
Part 3—To Have and To Hold
Part 4—From This Day Forward
Part 5—For Richer, For Richest
Part 6—In Sickness and In Wealth
Part 7—To Love and To Cherish
The Billionaire’s Christmas Vows
Gina Robinson’s Contemporary New Adult Romance Series
The Rushed Series
Rushed
Crushed
Hushed
The Reckless Series
Reckless Longing
Reckless Secrets
Reckless Together
About the Author
Gina Robinson is the bestselling and award-winning author of the popular Switched at Marriage, Billionaire Duke, and Billionaire Matchmaker romantic comedy series, featuring a billionaire in a surprising marriage of convenience, a billionaire who inherits a British dukedom, and a billionaire who partners with a matchmaker, the Reckless and Rushed contemporary new adult romance series, and the Agent Ex series of humorous romantic suspense novels. Her books have delighted readers and received praise in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and Romantic Times Book Reviews.
She writes romance and women's fiction across a wide variety of subgenres--romantic comedy, new adult, contemporary, historical, and romantic
suspense. Her love stories are infused with a blend of romance, adventure, a bit of mystery, and humor. Readers are drawn to the light touch she gives even serious topics and the fast, fun, easy-to-read pace of her books.
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