The Oilman s Baby Bargain

by Michelle Celmer

  She crossed to his office area, running her fingers across the back of his chair, wondering if she should take a peek inside his desk. Just to annoy him, of course.

  “I should have known I would find you up here.”

  She turned to find Mitch standing at the top of the stairs, arms folded over his chest.

  “I thought we agreed you wouldn’t come up here.”

  She shrugged. “I believe you issued an order. I never agreed to it. This is nice, though. Very macho.”

  “Is there a particular reason you’re up here?”

  To annoy you. “I was looking for you.”

  “Really? Because I told you I would be in my room, unpacking.”

  “I must have forgotten.”

  “What did you want?”

  “To warn you that my father has invited us to dinner at the Cattleman’s Club tomorrow night at seven.”

  “I’ll have to check my schedule.”

  “That’s what I told him. He said that if you want his support, you’ll be there.”

  “Well, then, I guess I’ll be there.”

  “That’s what I told him.”

  “My brother left me a message. He said that Kate would like you to join her for a welcome-to-the-family lunch on Thursday.”

  “Family?”

  “She is your sister-in-law.”

  Oddly enough, Lexi hadn’t even thought about that.

  She had a family now—someone other than her father, that is. But she couldn’t help wondering if it would be weird going out to lunch with the woman who had stolen her fiancé. “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”

  His expression darkened. “You think you’re better than her?”

  “Of course not! Kate seems wonderful. I just thought it might be awkward.”

  “Fine, I’ll tell Lance you don’t want to go.”

  “I didn’t say that. I’ll go, okay?”

  He shrugged, as though it didn’t matter either way to him, yet she had the distinct feeling it did. “She said to meet her at the Cattleman’s Club café at one.”

  She nodded, wondering how she was going to get there. If she asked Mitch to send a car for her, he would probably just accuse her of being spoiled. Unfortunately, her father had never allowed her to learn how to drive. Having his driver take her everywhere was just another way for him to keep track of her every move. Maybe Tara could drive her. And maybe, if she asked Tara nicely enough, she might teach Lexi to drive. She was twenty-four years old. It was high time she began asserting her independence.

  “I talked to the real estate agent. We have a 10:00 a.m. appointment tomorrow. He said he has several properties to show us.”

  “That was quick.”

  “I called him last week and told him we’d be looking. The state of the economy being what it is, he said if we decide to buy, there’s a huge selection right now. Building new would take considerably longer.”

  She shrugged. “Whatever you want. As long as I’m free by four.”

  “Why?”

  “I have an appointment with my gynecologist.”

  His expression darkened. “Speaking of that, I think it would be best if we kept the…situation to ourselves.”

  She was tempted to tell him that the situation had fingers and toes and a beating heart, but she didn’t see the point. He obviously wasn’t ready to acknowledge the life growing inside of her. “Fine.”

  “Also, I think it would be best if people are led to believe that we’re happy.”

  She pursed her lips. “Then maybe we should forget those cooking lessons and get me some acting lessons, instead.”

  “You don’t give yourself enough credit. In Greece you had me snowed.”

  That’s because I wasn’t acting, you moron, she wanted to shout. But what good would it do? His mind was made up about her and she would never forgive him for it, so they were more or less at an impasse.

  “Define happy,” she said.

  “I think we should act like newlyweds, show each other affection.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “How much affection?”

  “I’m not suggesting we publicly maul each other. I’m talking about little things like holding hands, and maybe occasionally smiling at each other.”

  “But no kissing,” she clarified. Not that she didn’t enjoy kissing him. Quite the opposite. Every time his lips touched hers she got so hot her brain short-circuited. If that happened she might do something stupid, like sleep with him again. And because he did amazing things to her body, she knew once wouldn’t be enough. If she slept with him too many times, she might begin to forget how awful he was.

  “No kissing,” he agreed.

  Good.

  So why did she feel disappointed that he hadn’t put up at least a tiny fuss?

  His cell phone rang and he looked at the display. “It’s Lance. I have to take this.”

  “I’ll be in the kitchen getting something to eat.”

  She brushed past Mitch and headed downstairs, hearing him call after her, “The fire extinguisher is in the pantry.”

  Smart-ass. She should burn the place down just to spite him.

  “Welcome home,” Lance said when he answered. “Did you get my message?”

  “Yeah. In fact, I just talked to Lexi. She’ll meet Kate for lunch.” He didn’t mention that Lexi hadn’t looked all that thrilled with the idea. Mitch knew that she and her father looked down on people of Kate’s past station in society.

  “I’m glad,” Lance said. “Kate is pretty excited about having a sister-in-law.”

  “Seriously?”

  “The truth is, she credits Lexi for us finally getting together. If I hadn’t planned to marry Lexi, Kate probably never would have quit, and I would still be walking around with my head in the clouds, not realizing how important she is to me.”

  That was an interesting way to look at it.

  “Speaking of marriage,” Lance said, “how was the honeymoon?”

  “It was okay,” Mitch told him, which wasn’t a total lie. It had gone pretty well, right up until the moment Lexi showed her true colors. Unfortunately, if Mitch was honest about how truly miserable he was, not only would Lance feel guilty as hell, he might want to know why. It would be best for everyone involved if even Lance believed Lexi and Mitch were happy.

  “Just okay?” Lance hedged.

  “Better than okay,” Mitch said. “I think this just might work out.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” he said, sounding relieved.

  Mitch wasn’t yet sure how he planned to handle the news of Lexi’s pregnancy. Lance wasn’t stupid. He would do the math and realize when she’d conceived. Mitch would just have to admit to his brother that he and Lexi slept together in D.C. He could lie and say they were drunk, claim they had been so out of it they had forgotten to use protection. He just hoped Lance wasn’t too pissed at him, although Mitch wouldn’t blame him if he was.

  But that could wait a while, at least another month or two, until Lexi started to show.

  “Any news about the fire?” he asked his brother.

  “Whoever set it knew what they were doing. Darius hasn’t been able to trace a thing.”

  “What does he think about Montoya? Is he even capable of pulling something like that off?”

  “If he is, we’ll find out.”

  Mitch couldn’t help wondering if Lance was so determined to pin the fire on Alex Montoya that he would wrongly accuse an innocent man. “What if it wasn’t him?”

  “He’s the only one with motive.”

  “We don’t know that for sure, “ Mitch countered.

  “Hey, by the way,” Lance said, “Darius asked that we meet him at his office next Wednesday evening.”

  “Did he say what for?”

  “He said we had some business to discuss, but he wouldn’t say more than that.”

  “Does it have something to do with the fire?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Su
re, I’ll be there.” He was sure that by then he would need a night away from his wife—if they hadn’t already killed each other.

  Nine

  T he following morning Mitch and Lexi drove to the real estate agent’s office to begin looking at houses. And though she still felt like death warmed over from a bout of kneeling to the porcelain gods, she put her best face on. The agent, Mark Sullenberg, was a friend of the family, which meant she and Mitch had to act happily married.

  Unfortunately, he was really good at it.

  There was barely a minute when he wasn’t touching her, either holding her hand or casually draping his arm across her shoulders. He was so good, so charming and sweet to her, she started to forget they were only playing a role. It made her think of that week in D.C. and how perfect it had been, how naturally they had connected, which in turn made her feel depressed and lonely, because she knew she would never feel that way again.

  She just prayed they would find a house soon, so they could go back to hating each other. But after looking at half a dozen homes, they hadn’t found a thing either of them even remotely liked. They were all ultramodern in exclusive gated communities with lots of BMWs and luxury SUVs in the driveways. And they all looked the same. Lifeless and boring. By the sixth house, she could see that Mitch was getting frustrated and she was beginning to think that building new might be their only option.

  “Can you show us something different?” Mitch asked Mark. “Something a bit more…”

  “Traditional,” she finished for him.

  “Exactly,” he said, looking surprised that she’d nailed it right on the head. “Something with some character.”

  “There is one property that recently came on the market,” Mark said. “It’s just outside of Maverick County. A renovated plantation house. The only problem is that it’s located on ten acres of land, and you said you wanted to look in more of a suburban setting.”

  “How big is it?” Mitch asked.

  “Fifty-five-hundred square feet. It used to be a horse farm, so there’s a barn and stables.”

  That caught Lexi’s attention. Her uncle on her mother’s side had kept horses when Lexi was a child. Though she had always wanted to learn to ride, her father would never allow it. Too dangerous, he’d decided. But her uncle would let her brush the horses and help feed and water them. The idea of owning a horse or two thrilled her.

  She glanced over at Mitch, thinking she would reduce herself to begging if that was what it took to make him agree to at least look at it, but he appeared as intrigued as she was.

  He shrugged and said, “Couldn’t hurt to look at it.”

  They piled back into Mark’s car for the twenty-minute ride, Lexi feeling uncharacteristically excited. For some reason, she had a really good feeling about this one.

  “I’ll warn you that it’s a little run-down and overgrown,” Mark told them. “When the owner died, there was a dispute with the will so it’s been sitting empty for a while. It has a lot of potential, though.”

  They pulled off the road into a long, tree-lined driveway. He hadn’t been kidding when he said it was overgrown. It would take a lot of work to get the yard in order. But Lexi couldn’t keep her eyes off the house itself. It was…amazing. A huge, white Greek revival with pillars and balconies and black shuttered windows. She could just imagine herself in the evenings sitting on the long front porch drinking lemonade and watching the sun set, or playing with the baby in the shade of the trees.

  She knew without a doubt, this was the one. This was home.

  Mark pulled to a stop and they all climbed out. As he’d done before, Mitch took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. But this time it was different. This time he really held on, as though he was brimming with pent-up excitement.

  “It was built in 1895,” Mark told them, “and completely remodeled about thirty years ago. It’s a little rough around the edges, but an excellent investment.”

  She and Mitch stood there for a moment, side by side, hands clasped, gazing up at the remarkable structure. Lexi didn’t know about Mitch, but she felt as though this was meant to be. As if, for the first time in her life, she’d finally come home.

  “So, what do you think?” Mark asked.

  “We’ll take it,” they said in unison, then looked at each other, startled that they were in complete agreement.

  Mark laughed. “Wow, how’s that for a consensus? You haven’t even seen the inside.”

  “Well, then,” Mitch said, giving her hand a squeeze, “let’s see it.”

  Lexi knew at this point that it was only a formality, but they followed Mark up the porch and through the front door. The interior was a bit shabby and outdated, the kitchen and bathrooms in particular desperately needed updating, but all Lexi could see was the potential. Mitch must have felt the same way. When they concluded the tour he told Mark, “Let’s write up an offer,” and when they got back to the office to fill out the paperwork, instead of bidding low, he offered several thousand above the asking price.

  Though she didn’t let it show, she felt almost giddy with anticipation. They were buying a house. A house whose renovations she would help plan, and whose rooms she would decorate however she chose. She could hardly wait to get started.

  She had never felt so…alive. As though an entirely new and amazing world was opening up to her.

  “I’ll submit this right away and hopefully we’ll hear something in the next day or two,” Mark told them as they were leaving. “I’ll be in touch.”

  Though she was practically bursting with excitement when they were in the car on the way back to the townhouse, Lexi tried to hide it. An automatic defense mechanism she’d learned from dealing with her father. If he knew something was important to her, he would use it against her as leverage. A true politician.

  Then Mitch asked, “So, you liked it?”

  She could no longer contain herself. She blurted out, “I knew I wanted it the second we pulled into the driveway. If I had every house in the world to choose from, that’s the one I would have picked.”

  “It’s going to need a lot of work. It’ll probably be months before we can move in.”

  “I would be happy living in it just the way it is.”

  He shot her a sideways glance. “The interior is a disaster. We’re going to have to gut it and start from scratch. The renovations will go much faster if it’s unoccupied.”

  Although she would be happy moving in there today, he made a good point. Especially with the baby coming. The sooner it was finished, the better.

  “I’ll start calling contractors today,” he said.

  “Shouldn’t we wait until we know for sure that we got it?”

  “Don’t worry,” he said, his tone a little smug. “We’ll get it.”

  There were definitely advantages to being married to a man who was used to getting what he wanted.

  “I’d like to get a horse or two,” she said, prepared for an instant argument.

  But Mitch said, “We could do that.” Then he added offhandedly, “It would be a good atmosphere for raising kids.”

  It was the first time since she’d told him she was pregnant that he’d acknowledged the baby. She wondered how he would react when she told him the truth. Would it change his feelings for her? Make him dislike her a little less?

  Probably not. Knowing Mitch, he would be even angrier, and hold it against her for the rest of her life. It would probably be in her best interest to at least wait until they had signed a mortgage to tell him the baby was really his. Just in case.

  “Did you want to go to my appointment with me today?” she asked, unsure of what his reaction would be, and wondering how she would feel if he refused.

  He was quiet for a moment, eyes on the road, then asked, “Do you want me to?”

  She realized that yes, she did. Even though he didn’t know it yet, this was his baby and he shouldn’t miss out on anything. From the first prenatal visit to the birth, she wanted him to be there for
every minute of it.

  He hates you. He thinks you’re selfish and spoiled.

  But if she denied him this opportunity, wouldn’t she be proving him right?

  Before she could talk herself out of it, she told him, “I want you to.”

  “Then I’ll come,” he said.

  He reached over and turned the radio on to a country-western station, ending the conversation, yet she couldn’t help but feel as though they had made some sort of progress today. Although progress toward what, she wasn’t exactly sure.

  The doctor’s appointment wasn’t at all what Mitch had expected. In fact, he hadn’t known quite what to expect.

  He figured they would take her temperature and blood pressure, which they did, and she was asked to pee in a cup. Typical doctor-visit stuff. What he hadn’t been expecting was the internal exam.

  Though he’d seen Lexi intimately on more than one occasion, and his first instinct was to do or say anything to annoy her, this just didn’t seem the place, so he turned his back while she stripped from the waist down and got up on the table.

  Even though the process went quickly, he gained a whole new respect for what women had to endure during a routine exam. Between all the poking and prodding and the giant cotton swab the doctor used for God only knows what, he felt grateful to have outdoor plumbing.

  Then the doctor pulled out a piece of equipment that looked a lot like some recreational sex apparatus. It was long and narrow with a cord coming out one end that was attached to a monitor.