0373659504 (R)

by Brenda Harlen

  She should have been satisfied with what had happened in the closet, because being with him like this made her believe they could have more, made her want more...

  But for now, at least, they had this. So for now, this would be enough.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Avery fell asleep naked in Justin’s arms and awoke the same way. She wondered if she should feel embarrassed about her request to share his bed, and maybe she would have if he’d turned down her entreaty. But in the warmth of his embrace, she didn’t feel anything but contented. Maybe even happy.

  And while she suspected that she could easily get used to this, she knew she had to be careful. Whatever was happening between them now, she couldn’t let herself hope that it would last. Justin had been great since he learned of her pregnancy and he seemed committed to being a father to their child. But his recent behavior didn’t change the fact that he didn’t do long-term relationships, and it would be foolish to expect that his commitment to their baby extended to encompass her.

  But right now, she wasn’t going to worry about any of that. Right now, he was with her, and she was going to enjoy the status quo for as long as it lasted.

  His hand skimmed over her torso, from her thigh to her hip to her breast. He found her nipple and rubbed his thumb over the taut peak. She sighed softly.

  He snuggled closer to her, so she could feel the rigid length of him pressed against her backside. “I love the sounds you make when I touch you.”

  “I love the way you touch me,” she admitted.

  “I love touching you,” he said, nibbling on her earlobe as his hands continued their leisurely and sensual exploration of her body.

  She turned in his arms so that she was facing him. “I want to touch you, too,” she said, wrapping her fingers around the hard length of him and stroking gently.

  His throaty groan signaled his appreciation and further stirred her own blood.

  “I haven’t had morning sex in a long time,” she admitted. “Actually, I hadn’t had any sex in a long time, prior to New Year’s Eve.”

  “New Year’s Day,” he reminded her.

  “So it was technically morning sex,” she realized. “But not sleepy morning sex.”

  “Is that what we’re having?” His mouth, warm and moist, closed over her breast, and waves of sensation flooded her body.

  She gasped and arched. “I don’t know,” she said. “Suddenly I’m not feeling so sleepy.”

  “Me, neither,” he admitted, parting her thighs with his knee.

  She opened for him, embracing him fully and completely as he slid into her wet, welcoming heat.

  Yes, she could definitely get used to this.

  * * *

  George Wallace lived with his second wife and her two daughters in a newer two-story brick home in North Fulton. Justin and Avery rented a car so that they’d be able to leave directly from there to the airport for their flight back to North Carolina.

  Sharon met them at the door, her eyes lighting up with genuine pleasure as she hugged Avery close.

  “It’s so good to see you,” she said. “George is upstairs on the phone. Just before you pulled up, he got a call from some cardiologist in England wanting to discuss a patient’s treatment.

  “I told him he could have ten minutes. If the call required more time than that, he had to call back later because he wasn’t going to spend your entire visit on the phone.” She turned to Justin. “I’m sorry—I’ve been rambling on and on without even introducing myself. I’m Sharon Wallace.”

  He offered his hand. “Justin Garrett.”

  “Come in,” she invited. “I’ve got a pot of coffee on, or fresh juice if you prefer, and everything is ready to go on the table as soon as George comes down.”

  While Justin drank his coffee and Avery sipped her juice—because she was trying to cut back on her caffeine intake—Sharon set another place at the table to accommodate the unexpected guest.

  “Where are Molly and Ruby?” Avery asked, referring to Sharon’s daughters.

  “They’re with their dad this weekend.” She moved the chairs around the table. “Another reason why the timing of your visit is so perfect—the house is far too quiet without them.”

  Avery knew what it was like to be shifted from the house of one parent to the next, but she’d never considered how it might feel from the other side, as a parent who only got to be with her child for half of the time—and she didn’t like thinking about it now.

  Footsteps sounded on the stairs and Sharon immediately started putting food on the table. There were scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages, home-fried potatoes and pancakes—and that was in addition to the fresh fruit, yogurt and pastries that were already on the table.

  Avery introduced Justin to her father. She could tell George wanted to ask who Justin was—to inquire about his relationship to her—but didn’t feel as if he had the right. Over the past several years, their relationship had faded so there was little tying them together aside from biology.

  “I hope you’re hungry,” George said instead. “Sharon’s been cooking all morning in anticipation of your visit.”

  His wife waved a hand dismissively. “We don’t get to see Avery very often—I just wanted to be sure she didn’t go away hungry.”

  “The buffet breakfast at the conference didn’t look this good,” Avery said to Sharon. “Thank you.”

  Her stepmother smiled. “You’re welcome—dig in.”

  “How was the conference?” George asked, latching on to a topic of conversation that seemed safe for both of them.

  “No shoptalk at the table,” Sharon interjected before Avery could respond.

  Her husband sighed. “She doesn’t have a lot of rules, but she’s strict with that one.”

  Sharon offered a further explanation. “The difficulty with both of us being doctors is that we often get caught up in our work and forget that there’s a whole world outside of the hospital.”

  “Some people would say that’s only one of many difficulties,” Justin noted, slanting a look at Avery.

  A phone rang in the other room, prompting Sharon to push her chair away from the table. “Excuse me,” she said.

  They continued to eat more than talk while she was gone. The problem with Sharon’s no-shoptalk rule was that Avery didn’t have a lot of other things in common with her father—and she wasn’t quite ready to share her big news just yet.

  “I’m so sorry,” Sharon said, returning to the dining room with her purse and keys in hand. “That was Molly on the phone. I need to go pick her up now.”

  “Davis is supposed to bring both of them back after dinner,” George reminded her.

  “Molly asked me to come now.”

  “But Avery’s here and we were—”

  “George,” she said patiently. “I’m sure Avery understands that there are certain times in a preteen girl’s life when she’d rather be with her mother.”

  “Oh,” he said, his cheeks turning red as he finally clued in to what she wasn’t saying.

  “If you’re gone before I get back, it was really good to see you, Avery. And to meet you, Justin.”

  “I’m sorry Sharon had to rush off,” George said when his wife had gone. “She was really looking forward to spending some time with you.”

  “I’m sorry, too,” Avery admitted. “But I’m glad Molly and Ruby can count on her to be there when they need her.”

  “She’s a great mom,” George agreed. “Certainly a much better parent than I ever was.”

  “Molly posted pictures on Facebook of her science fair,” Avery noted.

  “She won first prize,” her father said proudly.

  “It’s nice that you were there with her.”

  He didn’t have any trouble deciphering the subtext. “And I never was when you were growing up, was I?”

  “Water under the bridge,” Avery said.

  “Is it?” her father challenged.

  She shrugged.

 
George glanced at Justin. “Did she tell you what a lousy father I was?”

  “No, sir,” he said. “She told me that you were an excellent cardiac surgeon.”

  “Same sentiment, different words,” her father acknowledged. “And I’ll confess, I wasn’t sure anyone could be a good doctor and a good parent until I met Sharon.”

  “She’s a pediatric oncologist,” Avery told Justin. “And she’s never missed a school play or gymnastics competition.”

  George nodded, his attention shifting back to his daughter. “You can’t know how many times I’ve wished I could go back and do things differently—be a better father to you and your brother.”

  “Maybe you’ll be a better grandfather,” Avery suggested.

  Her father paused with his coffee cup in the air. “Am I going to be a grandfather?”

  She nodded.

  He took a moment to absorb the news. “Well, this is...unexpected,” he finally said. “When?”

  “September twenty-fourth.”

  “Are you planning to be there when the baby’s born?” he asked Justin.

  “Of course.”

  George sipped his coffee. “I was there when Avery made her grand—and loud—entrance into the world,” he confided.

  That was news to Avery. “You were?”

  He nodded. “I hadn’t planned on it and certainly wouldn’t have rearranged my schedule to accommodate it, but afterward, I was so humbled and amazed and grateful that I’d had the opportunity to share the experience. Because there is absolutely nothing more incredible than seeing a child come into this world, especially when that child is your own.”

  “Why did you never tell me that before?” she said.

  “It’s not the type of thing that usually comes up in conversation,” George replied.

  “Maybe it should have,” Justin suggested.

  The older man nodded. “You’re right. There are a lot of things that should have been said and done over the years and, as a result, I’ve had to live with the knowledge of everything that I missed out on.”

  “You know, Charisma isn’t that far away,” Avery told him.

  George seemed surprised by her statement. “Are you inviting me to visit?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “If you need an invitation. And if you can fit it into your schedule.”

  “I’ll figure out a way,” he promised, his eyes growing misty. “My baby girl’s going to have a baby of her own, and that is something I definitely don’t want to miss.”

  * * *

  The whole weekend had been physically and emotionally exhausting, and as Avery settled into her seat on the plane beside Justin, she was grateful to finally be going home.

  “I know I already said it, but thank you again, for everything.”

  He flipped up the armrest that separated their two seats so that he could take her hand. “It was my pleasure.”

  “You have an odd definition of pleasure.”

  He smiled. “Come on—it wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  “The second act was much better than the first,” she told him.

  “And the intermission?” he prompted.

  Thinking about the night they’d spent together, she couldn’t help but smile. “The best part of the show.”

  He smiled back. “I certainly thought so. And, as a bonus, your dad did acknowledge that he was a lousy father.”

  “Mostly because, I realize now, he didn’t have the first clue about what he was doing.”

  “It does make you wonder,” Justin mused. “They won’t give anyone a driver’s license until they’ve proved they can operate a motor vehicle, but there aren’t any restrictions on who can be a parent.”

  “Pretty much any two people willing to get naked in a supply closet can make a baby,” she agreed.

  “I wasn’t talking about us,” he chided. “I happen to think we’re going to make pretty good parents.”

  “I appreciate your optimism, though I’m not sure it has any foundation in fact.”

  “We both want this baby and are committed to doing what is best for our baby.”

  “Okay, that’s true,” she acknowledged.

  “Plus we’ve got the whole sizzling sexual chemistry thing happening.”

  “I’m not sure that’s going to help us be good parents.”

  “Maybe not, but at least you didn’t deny the sizzling sexual chemistry. And since I don’t have to work until two o’clock tomorrow, when we get back to Charisma there will still be a lot of hours that we could—”

  “I do have to work in the morning,” she interjected.

  “Okay, so I won’t keep you up all night,” he said, his eyes and his voice filled with wicked promise.

  She was more tempted than she wanted to admit, but she was wary of setting a precedent. Making love with him, even sleeping with him in Atlanta hadn’t made her uneasy, because they were outside of their usual world. If she invited him to spend the night in her apartment, in her bed, that would be too much like letting him into her life. And then she’d be all the more aware of how empty her life was when he was gone.

  She shook her head. “I’ve got some reading to do when I get home.”

  “Reading?” he echoed.

  “All the materials I picked up at the conference.”

  He sighed regretfully. “I guess back to Charisma means back to normal again.”

  “I didn’t think our normal was so bad.”

  “No,” he admitted. “But last night was a hell of a lot better.”

  * * *

  It was good to be home and in her own bed, but it was funny how the same mattress she’d been sleeping on for years suddenly seemed so big and empty. After only one night in Justin’s arms, she felt as if she didn’t ever want to sleep without him, and that was a very dangerous road to go down. Especially with a man like Justin Garrett.

  He claimed that he’d never been with a woman that he wanted to be with long term—until her. And as much as she wanted to believe him, she wouldn’t let herself fall into the trap of thinking that he could change. Despite his assertion that he wanted only her, she didn’t know how long that would last.

  But maybe she could just enjoy being with him for a while. Her body was certainly an enthusiastic supporter of that plan, but her brain—now that it was capable of functioning again—warned her of the danger to her heart.

  She decided to heed the warning, knowing that she’d never been able to enjoy a purely physical relationship without wanting more. And it wasn’t just her own heart she needed to worry about. In just over six months, they would have a baby, and she had to consider what was best for their child.

  She was preoccupied with these thoughts so that when her phone rang Wednesday morning, she didn’t even check the display before connecting the call. “Hello?”

  “Avery, hi. It’s Ellen Garrett calling.”

  “Hello, Mrs. Garrett.”

  “I thought we agreed you were going to call me Ellen.”

  “Right,” she said. “Sorry, Ellen.”

  “I’ll forgive you,” the other woman said. “So long as you agree to have lunch with me.”

  “Lunch?”

  “Is one o’clock good for you?”

  “Oh, um.” Her mind was a blank as to her schedule. “I guess one o’clock would work.”

  “That’s wonderful,” Ellen said. “What do you like to eat? Have you been craving any particular kinds of food?”

  “Hamburgers,” she admitted. “Big, thick, juicy hamburgers.”

  The other woman laughed. “How about the Grille?” Ellen suggested. “They have burgers on the menu but plenty of other choices, too, if you want something different when you get there.”

  “The Grille sounds good,” she agreed.

  Ellen Garrett was already seated in the restaurant waiting for her when Avery arrived.

  “Am I late?” she asked, slipping into the chair across from Justin’s mother.

  “No, I was early. I was so eage
r to see you that I couldn’t wait to get here.”

  “I was pleased you invited me,” Avery said politely.

  “And wondering why I did,” Ellen guessed.

  She nodded.

  “My motives aren’t complicated or nefarious,” the other woman assured her. “I just wanted to spend some time getting to know the future mother of my grandchild and the woman my son hopes to marry.”

  Avery didn’t know exactly what Justin had said to his mother, but she mentally cursed him for getting Ellen’s hopes up—and making her be the one to deflate them again. “Justin only suggested that we get married because he thinks it’s the right thing to do.”

  Ellen smiled. “You don’t know my son nearly as well as you think you do if you believe he would be motivated by a sense of propriety.”

  “Actually, I don’t know him very well at all,” she acknowledged. “Which is one of the reasons that a marriage between us would be a mistake.”

  “One of the reasons?” his mother prompted curiously.

  Avery looked away. “We’re very different people—I’m not sure we’d be compatible.”

  Of course, Ellen was a very astute woman and she had no trouble reading between the lines.

  “I can understand why you’d have concerns about marrying a man with Justin’s reputation,” she admitted. “He hasn’t always been discriminating or discreet when it comes to his personal life, but he is unfailingly honest. He doesn’t cheat and he doesn’t lie and he has little tolerance for anyone who would.”

  “He has many wonderful qualities,” Avery agreed, because she was talking to his mother and what else was she supposed to say?

  “Have you met Nora Reardon?” Ellen asked. “Justin’s half sister who works in PT at the hospital.”

  She nodded.

  “Then you must have heard—or figured out—that John had an affair. It was more than twenty-five years ago and a tremendous betrayal of our vows and our family. It took me a long time to forgive him, to realize that I could.”

  Ellen unfolded her napkin and laid it across her lap, taking a moment to gather her composure. “When he told me about the affair, he didn’t tell me—because he didn’t know—that his mistress was pregnant. It was only last year that he found out he had a daughter, and though he immediately shared the news with me, the boys didn’t learn about Nora until she showed up at our house on Father’s Day.”