by Adam (lit)
Footsteps, the door swung open, and he faced a tall blonde woman, dressed in a bright yellow fleece warm up suit, hair wound around her head in a thick braid. She was laughing. For a moment, she merely looked at him, and then, she opened the door.
“You must be Adam, and if you’re carrying food, you’re welcome. Come inside out of the cold.”
Adam stepped inside and hesitated. He heard giggles coming from the living room.
“I’m Trish. Let me help with those.” She took two bags from him and sniffed. “Smells great. I’m starved. Taking care of a lively little one gives me a healthy appetite. Not that I need anything to give me one.” She turned. “Lyn. Food’s here. And a good looking man brought it.”
So this was the mother of the baby. Did she live with Lyn? He wanted privacy when he got Lyn alone to talk with her. If she ever allowed it.
Lyn stuck her head out the door and grinned. “Be right there.”
Adam followed Trish into the kitchen. He hadn’t been in that room since all the furniture had been set up. It was a huge country kitchen, walls a pale green, counter and floor tiles were green ceramic, pale green Priscillas at the high windows over the double sinks. A brass copper wheel full of new pots and pans hung from the ceiling. A small ceramic Christmas tree, with blinking lights, sat on the breakfast bar.
There was an island in the center of the room with stools around it. Trish placed the bags she carried onto the island and motioned Adam to do the same.
“We’ll eat over there,” she said, pointing to a wide bay window with a pedestal table. A large bowl of Poinsettias graced the center of it. There were three place settings with Christmas decorated napkins and paper plates.
“Drinks,” Trish said. “What do you like with Chinese food, Adam?”
“Beer.”
She flashed him a grin. “So happens we have several brands.”
His eyebrows lifted. “Quite a collection just to have moved into the new house.”
“Oh, we’re celebrating, and Lyn insisted we go all out.”
“Light beer, if you have it.”
“We do.” She reached for a bottle, took a chilled mug from the refrigerator, and passed it to Adam. Her gaze went past his shoulder, and she grinned.
“Ah, here come our guests. Hi, Sweetie.”
Adam turned to see who she was calling ‘Sweetie.’ Lyn stood a few feet from him holding a beautiful baby, big gray eyes framed by sinfully thick, curly lashes. A red bow nestled in the curly black hair. It was like looking into a mirror of his own eyes.
He blinked, his heart turned over and thumped painfully.
Hell, was all he could think at the moment.
“Say hello, Alexa,” Lyn said.
As if she understood, the baby blew bubbles and the rosebud mouth spread in a toothless grin. A tiny fist waved, and then found its way into her mouth.
“Christ.” Adam couldn’t say anything else. He held the beer in front of him like a shield while he stared from Alexa to Lyn.
Trisha moved to the end of the counter, pulled a high chair from the corner, pushed the tray up, and pulled it up to the table. Lyn settled the baby in the chair and fastened a belt around her. Alexa was dressed in a one piece romper set of Christmas red with reindeer and snowmen dancing around a Christmas tree. Tiny boots of red fleece covered her feet.
Adam backed up and dropped into a chair. He couldn’t take his eyes off Alexa. Lyn sat next to the high chair.
“You want a glass of wine, Lyn?”
“Sure.” She looked at Adam who gaped at her. “Would you get the paper plates from the counter, Adam?” Her innocent look and question startled him.
He gulped. “What?”
“Never mind,” Trish said. “I’ll get them.” She was trying not to laugh at the dazed disbelief on Adam’s face. Lyn had said he would be surprised, and Lyn was right, as usual, and in spades. Adam was stunned beyond comprehension.
Trish put plates and utensils on the table, opened the boxes and sniffed appreciatively.
“You want some of everything?” She looked at Adam.
Bewildered more than anything else, he nodded. Cautious now, he sipped the beer without taking his eyes off the baby. Alexa was playing with a row of plastic keys, rattling them against the high chair tray.
“Chardonnay, Lyn?” Trish stood at the refrigerator and was still smiling at Adam’s evident confusion.
“Sure.” She looked at Adam. “Would you pass the hot and sour soup, please, Adam?”
His glazed eyes turned to her, and he blinked rapidly. “What? Oh, yes, sure.” He picked up the carton of soup and passed it along. Lyn watched him from beneath her lashes as she helped herself.
“How about some teriyaki chicken?” Trish said and placed the carton in front of Adam. “Or sweet and sour shrimp?” She figured he wouldn’t know if he were eating mud or steak.
He put the mug down with a loud thunk. “Dammit, what’s going on?”
Alexa stopped rattling her keys and stared at him. Lyn and Trish stopped what they were doing and fixed their eyes on him.
“The baby.” His voice rose, and he swallowed hard. “Alexa looks like me.”
“Strange, isn’t it?” Lyn said.
The dark gray eyes, black now with his thoughts, fastened on her. “You haven’t had time to have a baby, my baby, since.” He stopped. Alexa was at least six months old. Lyn had been gone for a year. If she was pregnant when he sent her home from the mountains, that would only give her six months of pregnancy.
“If she’s yours, it seems I have had time.”
It was the first time Lyn had ever seen Adam at a loss for words. She hadn’t been around him in what she considered ‘real’ life, so perhaps he did stumble occasionally. But she wouldn’t bet on it.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” His throat had grown tight as realization hit that he was a father, that Lyn had had his baby. But how? It takes nine months to have a baby, at least it did the last time he’d heard about it. Alexa was too old for Lyn to have had time to have a baby since she was with him.
“Oh? And have you accuse me of getting pregnant on purpose? Worse yet, tell me I was pregnant before you kidnapped me? Would you have listened to me? Hell, no. You hadn’t listened to me in three weeks, why would you suddenly decide to hear what I had to say, especially if I said I was pregnant.” She bit into a coconut shrimp and chewed while she watched him. “For one thing, I’m sure you’d think I was after the Mabry money. Perhaps, after Aaron and Kara’s deaths, you’d think I was after their inheritance.”
“You don’t think much of me, do you?”
She snorted. “Give me just one tiny reason why I should.”
Trish listened to the exchange and continued to eat. She had opened a jar of baby food and put a tiny spoonful into Alexa’s mouth. The baby blew bubbles and pureed peaches dribbled down her chin. Trish wiped it away. She looked back at the couple dueling verbally.
“You’re right. In your place, I’d probably hate me, too.” He leaned forward, his eyes on Alexa. “Will you tell me what happened?”
“Nothing spectacular. I was pregnant. I had a baby.”
“Lyn.” Trish gave her a reproachful look. “Tell the man.”
Adam turned. “Thank you, Trish. I’d really like to know what happened, when it happened, and what now?”
“I slept with you and got pregnant, Adam.”
“I used protection.”
“Well, Adam, one time it didn’t work. If you want to say Alexa isn’t yours, go ahead. It won’t change anything.”
He tried to recall if he’d been careless. During her amnesia, that last night in her arms, that night he’d gone completely crazy with wanting her. She had been so sweet and responsive.
He shook his head. “No. She’s mine. All I have to do is look at her.” He placed his beer mug on the table. “Lyn?”
“I didn’t know I was pregnant until a month after I got home and had gone back to work. So much had happened. I wa
s upset over Kara and Aaron’s death. I was recovering from their deaths and the shock of being held prisoner for three or more weeks. I tried not to think of the despicable way you had left me, not even a goodbye, just the order to go home once you found Aaron. Dozens of roses with a note that said: With Regrets. A chilly notice of a memorial service, should I want to attend.”
Adam watched her, his expression showing nothing.
That infuriated her. He didn’t have any real feelings; he was just upset because he didn’t know everything that was going on.
“The cashier’s check was a nice touch.”
He had the grace to flinch as she continued.
“I’m sure you and Garth thought I’d tear it up, and I guess just being contrary, I didn’t. I invested it along with a little savings I had, and finally, I have a real house. It’s in my name and my name only, so you can’t claim it even though it was purchased with a lot of your money.”
“It’s your money.”
“Now it is.”
“When you found you were pregnant, what did you do?”
“The usual.” She dipped a piece of chicken into a sauce.
“I don’t know what the usual is when someone discovers she’s pregnant.” He was trying to control his temper, but he was beginning to lose it. “And not married.”
“Denial first. How could I be pregnant? You had used protection, not because you didn’t want me to get pregnant, but because you were afraid of a sexually transmitted disease.”
“That isn’t true.”
“What part isn’t true?”
“I wasn’t afraid you had a disease. After all, you were married to Aaron and.”
“No, I wasn’t married to Aaron.”
“I mean.” He wiped his hands on a decorated napkin and looked back at her. “You know what I mean.”
“Unfortunately, I do, Adam. Back to what I did. After the denial, I was curious. I had no doubt who the father of the baby was because it had been years since I’d been exposed to sexual cohabitation.”
“Years?” Adam’s voice was incredulous.
“Not since my marriage failed. I decided I didn’t need any further complications in my life, so I concentrated on work. Then you came along.” She turned to Alexa who was banging away with the keys. “Here, Sweetie.” She put the tiny spoon up to Alexa’s mouth and watched her swallow. “Good girl.” She held out the spoon and Alexa grabbed for it.
“Years,” she said. “Anyway, I was pregnant, there was no denying that in less than a year, I’d be a mother. A mother without a husband. That’s not unusual these days, but it was a little upsetting for me because I hated thinking of raising a child without a father.”
“You could have called me.”
“And if you’d rejected me?” She shook her head. “That would have crushed me. I didn’t have any desire to tell you about the baby. I went along until I figured out the baby might be just what I needed. What I didn’t know was that Alexa was going to get in a hurry to be born and wasn’t going to wait nine months. I was just over six months’ pregnant when she decided she’d had enough inside occupation.”
“Six months? What happened?” Lyn alone, having his baby. He trembled at the horrible pictures of what she went through all alone. “Why did you have her so early?”
“No one actually knows. She was turned so that if she stayed that way, she’d suffocate. If they left her there, both of us would likely die. So the doctors, three of them, made the decision to take her at that time. One of us might live, but they didn’t have much hope they could save both of us.”
The terror she must have lived through hit Adam hard. At that time, he had been wallowing in self-pity, alternately cursing Kara and feeling sorry for her. And wondering how in hell he could ever make up to Lyn the damage he’d done.
“Six months? But they don’t live when they’re that small, do they?” He’d read a lot of magazines with articles on premature births.
“Alexa was tiny, about three and a half pounds.”
“Three and a half? That’s impossible.” He swallowed. “I mean, I thought babies had to weigh about five pounds before they could live.”
“Years ago, that was true. Preemie care has improved a lot in recent years.”
“Preemie?”
She smiled. “That’s what we call premature babies.” The smile faded as she recalled the agony of seeing Alexa lie there day after day with tubes in every part of her tiny body. “It was touch and go for several days, and then suddenly, she just seemed to grasp what she needed to do, and she started improving. There were down days, of course, but the doctors and nurses were determined Alexa would make it.”
Adam couldn’t imagine what they had gone through to help the struggling infant. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You must have been really ill also.”
“Not really. I.”
“Lyn,” Trisha said. “Adam wants to know how you managed, what you went through, how long it took you to recover.” She wiped Alexa’s face and took her from the high chair. “I’ll put this one to bed for her nap. You tell Adam what he needs, and wants, to know.”
Adam didn’t speak until she had left the room. “She’s right. I want to know all of it. I’m not really the cold hearted bastard you think I am.”
“That’s up for debate.” She leaned back in her chair and sipped her wine. She was about wiped out, tired from days of packing and checking to make sure she had everything ready to move into the new place. And excited. Yes, excited about moving into a real home with Alexa. She did not want to deal with Adam Mabry on top of everything else.
He nodded. “I certainly see your side of it.”
“That’s doubtful.”
“Please. Will you tell me what happened after you left?”
“What about the past year would you like to know, Adam?” She leaned forward, put her wine glass down, and propped on her elbows.
“The baby. Lyn, I had no idea. Believe me, if I’d known you were pregnant, I wouldn’t have waited a year to see you. I’m stunned. I don’t know what to say, how to apologize. Hell, I don’t even know if apologize is the word I should use.”
“Odd for Mr. Adam Mabry, world-wide entrepreneur, multi-millionaire, not to have the correct words to describe a situation.” She gave him a tired smile. “We have a situation here, do we not, Adam?”
“Dammit, you’re poking fun at something I can’t even imagine the ramifications of, and you won’t give me a definite answer to anything I ask.” Reeling from the realization he was a father, from seeing Lyn again, just seeing her, he wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to know how she’d managed a pregnancy by a man who had kidnapped her, one who had given her every reason to hate him. And Alexa. What a lovely baby he and Lyn had created.
“None of the past year has been funny, if you mean comical. It’s been a year of horrible ups and downs, physical and mental pain, emotional overload, and a lot of happiness.”
“Lyn.” His voice was quiet, his gray eyes fastened on her face, hands tight around the mug. “Talk to me. Just tell me. And when you’ve finished telling me about the past year, let me talk. Will you do that?”
She thought about it. Would she be able to tell Adam what he wanted to know in a way that wouldn’t reveal her once bitter thoughts of him? Could she describe the utter loneliness of knowing she was having his child, and he didn’t know or care? Drowned in his own grief, he wasn’t interested in the world where he’d left her afloat.
Before she spoke, she brought him a glass of wine and topped off her glass, brought crackers and cheese and placed in front of them.
“It’s going to take a while. Do you have time?”
“Yes. All the time you need.”
“All right.” She turned the wine glass, watching the sparkling liquid. “When Garth told me about the bodies being found, I came unglued. Not only did I relive the nightmare, but I felt a pain I could never explain. Becaus
e of Kara, I’d been threatened and made to feel like a prostitute. Because of her, I was held hostage. She had never liked me, had caused me trouble for years and still was, but I couldn’t help but grieve over the waste.”
Adam made a sound, but he didn’t speak.
After a moment, she went on. “It was my damned luck to fall in love with you, and those few days when I remembered nothing of my former life were heaven. You were so sweet and thoughtful. I didn’t know those feelings were from guilt, not because you were thinking of me. So I fell desperately in love with you.” She sucked in her breath. “It was a very rude awakening to find you thought of me merely as a means to an end, the only way to find where Aaron was. I was only in your arms long enough to be questioned about Aaron’s whereabouts and to satisfy your sexual desires. One of those times, I became pregnant.”
She looked at him then, surprised to see pain in the dark gray eyes. He watched her, lips pressed into a thin line. He hunched his shoulders and then straightened to sit back in the chair.
“Go on.” His voice was muffled as though he had trouble speaking.
“Garth and Hana didn’t know what to say to me after Aaron and Kara were found. Hana unbent just a little, but she really didn’t know how to talk to me.” She smiled a little. Hana hadn’t liked Kara and had a difficult time finding it was Lyn she had disliked instead. “When Garth stopped to get flowers and I saw the card.” She swallowed hard, recalling the moment. “I finally figured out that was all I was to you: A regret.”
“Lyn.”
She shook her head. “I was all but destroyed by that realization. And the cashier’s check was the finishing touch. After Garth dropped me off, I cried. I cried for hours just sitting there on the floor. And when I’d finished crying, I decided the pity party was over, and I needed to get on with my life. I didn’t know I was carrying another life inside me.”
* * * *
Adam wasn’t certain he could bear thinking of what she went through. If he thought he couldn’t live with his grief, what about Lyn? His body felt as though it weighed a ton, and his heart was the heaviest part. What had he done? In his singular quest to find Aaron and to blame Kara, he’d ruined another young woman’s life. There was no way on earth he could ever make it up to her.