by SUE FINEMAN
He held her until she rolled away from him, and then he went to find his mother. Maybe she knew what was wrong. She was reading Katie a bedtime story.
“Mommy doesn’t feel good,” said Katie.
“She’ll feel better tomorrow, Katie Bug.”
Al went in to use the bathroom and spotted the pregnancy test in the trash can. It sure as hell wasn’t there for his mother. He fished out the little wand and saw the plus sign. After reading the instructions to be sure it meant what he thought it did, he dropped it back in the trash can. Now he understood why Jenna was so upset. She was pregnant with his baby, and he’d treated her like shit.
It should be a time for celebrating, and he’d ruined it. If not for that phone call from Gerry, he wouldn’t have known about the check, and they’d be picking out baby names and toasting with glasses of sparkling cider. Or milk.
He not only had to get some plans drawn for Nick’s customers, he had to get busy designing his own house, because he wanted a home for Jenna and their children, a home they could share for the rest of their lives.
<>
Al worked most of the night finalizing the first of the house plans and then he took the same plan, flipped it, and made significant changes to create a new plan. It was a time-saving technique he’d used on other plans in the past. The buyers would probably want to customize to suit their own personal tastes. On a million-dollar plan, it was to be expected, and these would sell for well over a million each, probably closer to two million with the view at Dead Man’s Point. They’d have all the luxury touches that people in the high tax bracket had come to expect.
On the second plan, he left off the basement, moved the sun room to the other side of the house, changed the entry and staircase from square to round, and put a Jack and Jill bathroom between two bedrooms instead of the two small bathrooms. He also added built-in desks with shelves over them in both bedrooms.
Since the view on this house would be in the front, he repositioned the living room and dining room, so the living room had the best view. And he put a big window seat in the family room. When he finished this plan, it wouldn’t look anything like the first one.
Vinnie could work his magic on the landscaping. He’d have fun with waterfalls and ponds in this development.
The sun was coming up when Al finally went to bed. He’d accomplished a lot tonight, and he was pleased with the results. A few more days of work, and he’d have something to show Nick’s buyers.
<>
Jenna went to work the next morning with Sophia and Katie. Sophia was going to help with the kids again.
As soon as she was alone with her boss, Jenna said, “Cara, I need to talk with you about something personal.”
“Okay.”
“I took one of those pregnancy tests last night, and it was positive. I know you hired me because you were pregnant and needed help, and I’ve been so sick I can’t keep much down.”
Cara’s smile took over her face. “But that’s wonderful. Did you tell—”
“Sophia knows, but I didn’t tell Alessandro. Things haven’t been good between us since… It doesn’t matter why. I want to see a doctor first, and my last obstetrician was in Seattle.”
Flipping through her address book, Cara said, “I’ll get you in to see my doctor. I have an appointment tomorrow, so we’ll see if we can’t go together. Okay?”
“Sure, that’s great.”
Cara made the phone call while Jenna munched on a cracker to control the nausea. At least she knew what it was. She wasn’t sick. She was pregnant.
<>
On Tuesday, Nick came home early to be with the kids while the women went to their doctor’s appointment. Al met him there as Jenna and Cara were leaving. He caught Jenna’s eye. “Are you feeling better?”
“I’m fine.”
Al walked into Cara’s office with Nick. “Is she fine?”
Nick shrugged. “All I know is that they both have appointments with the same doctor. Is there something I should know?”
“I found a pregnancy test in the bathroom trash can, but nobody told me anything.”
Nick slapped him on the shoulder. “Congratulations. Does Aunt Sophia know?”
Al opened his hands in a questioning gesture. “How in the hell should I know? Does Cara talk to you about these things?”
“Yeah, sure, but we’re married, and from what I hear, you made an ass out of yourself in California.”
Al shook his head. “Is anything ever private in this family?”
“Come on, Al. All the women in this family knew Cara and I were having Max before I did.”
“Sneaky creatures, these women.”
Nick laughed, infecting Al. “Before your kids come in here screaming, look at these plans and tell me what you think.”
Inspecting one plan, Nick said, “Hey, I like this. It’s big and comfortable, and it doesn’t scream money. I could live in this myself.”
“What about this one?” Al put the other plan on the desk on top of the first one, and Nick examined it closely.
“The footprint isn’t that much different from the other one, yet it looks different inside and out. No basement on this one?”
“No, this one is for the back side of the road.”
“The surveyor will be out next week and we’ll see how many view lots we can get out of the property. I want every house there to have a view. It’s the only way we’ll get top dollar on everything we build.”
They talked about specific features and then a baby cried.
“Daddy duty calls,” said Nick. “Be right back.”
He returned a few minutes later with Johnny. The kid wore training pants and a shirt. “We gave up trying to keep him dressed while we’re potty training. By the time we get down to skin, his pants are wet.”
Al motioned Johnny over and leaned down. “I hear you’re a big boy now. Can you use the potty instead of going in a diaper?”
Johnny nodded solemnly and Al raised his hand for a high five. Johnny grinned and slapped it as hard as he could, and then he ran off to play with the other kids.
Katie came in holding up her finger. “Max stepped on my finger.”
Al kissed it to make it better. “How does Cara get anything accomplished?”
“They take care of the kids and keep right on working. It’s amazing. If I worked at home, I’d never get anything done except change wet pants and kiss booboos.”
Al wondered if he could work at home with a baby in the house. When would Jenna tell him she was pregnant? He didn’t want to tell her he knew and spoil her surprise, but they had things to talk about, plans to make.
Nick snapped his fingers. “Hey, Al. Where are you?”
“Hell, I don’t know.”
If he was this distracted, how must Jenna feel?
Chapter Fifteen
The women returned from the doctor, and Al stood to face Jenna. “What did the doctor say?”
She didn’t answer.
Cara stepped into the silence. “You two are welcome to stay for dinner. Sophia is cooking tonight, and she always cooks enough to feed a dozen people.”
Jenna shook her head. “Not tonight, Cara.”
Al cleared his throat. “I’ll take Jenna out for dinner, if you’ll keep Katie for a couple hours. I have something I want to show her.”
As soon as they were outside, Jenna asked, “What was that all about?”
“I want to show you the profits from the sale of the inn.”
He drove her down the street a few hundred feet and stopped in front of the five-acre parcel Nick was giving him in the deal for the inn. It was a deep lot with three hundred feet across the front, plenty of room for a nice house with a view, an office, a big garage with a workshop, and a nice play area for their kids. There had once been an old house on it, but Nick had already had it torn out. “This is it.”
She stared out the window. “Looks like an empty lot.”
“It won’t be empty forev
er.” He got out and walked around the car to open her door. The parcel was on the corner with the road wrapped around two sides. As they walked up the gentle slope to the building site, he said, “I thought about putting our house right about here.” He stopped and pointed at the view across the street and down the hill. It was a breathtaking view of Puget Sound surrounded by green hills bathed in glorious sunshine.
“Most of the family lives right here on Beach Road. Nick was talking about building my mother a small house of her own along here, but she won’t leave her old house. Not yet anyway.”
“She might if you’re here.”
“Yeah, that’s what we were thinking. She likes spending time with her kids, but she wants her own space, especially now that she’s seeing someone. I have a two-bedroom cottage designed for her, and we’ll put it on the lot between Blade’s house and Nick’s house when she’s ready.”
He gazed into her eyes and wanted to kiss her so much he knew he couldn’t stand here in the open and be polite much longer. Taking her arm, they walked back into the trees.
“Why are we going back here?”
“So I can kiss you. If you’re going to slap me, I don’t want my family watching.”
She choked on a laugh. “You’re intimidated by your family?”
“I’m not intimidated. I’m getting tired of them knowing everything about my love life before I do.”
Her eyes widened. “Did your mother tell you—”
“She didn’t tell me anything.”
“But you know.”
He gently brushed a strand of hair off her cheek. “Know what, honey? Is there something you want to tell me?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Mr. Know-it-all, why don’t you tell me?”
“Because I’m not the one who went to the doctor today.”
Silence settled around them until all he could hear were the birds singing and the leaves rustling in the summer breeze. And then she turned and walked away. He caught up with her and walked her back to the car. “Hungry?”
“No.” She whipped around to face him. “How did you find out?”
“You left the test in the bathroom.”
“That’s why you held me last night?”
“No, I didn’t know about the test until after. Honey, we need to—”
“I’m not your honey,” she snapped.
“You were when we made this baby, and I want—”
“I don’t care what you want.” Jenna hurried back to the street and walked back to Cara’s house to get her car. As soon as she stopped shaking, she’d go shopping for an apartment. The sooner she moved out of Sophia’s house the better.
An hour later Jenna pulled into the parking lot at the Harvester. Alessandro pulled in beside her. Seconds later, he pulled the car keys from her hand. “We’re having dinner, and then we’re going out to the inn to talk.”
Jenna wanted to tell him to go to hell, but she was hungry, and she hadn’t found a decent place to live. The only available apartment was upstairs, and she could hear the neighbors talking through the thin walls. A kid in the parking lot was revving his old car, sending out clouds of exhaust fumes that made her stomach revolt, and the landlord looked her over like she was a popsicle and he wanted a bite. No thanks.
She ordered a hot chicken salad and stared out the window.
Aside from giving the waitress his order, Alessandro hadn’t spoken since they’d arrived. After the people at the booth next to them left, he asked, “Find an apartment?”
“Nothing I’d want my kids living in.”
“You can come back to the inn. We’re a couple months away from tearing it down, and there’s plenty of room there.”
She sipped her water. “I don’t think so.”
“What if we bring my mother out to chaperone?” His eyebrows raised in a questioning look, and he looked so innocent she wanted to laugh. She pictured him fully aroused and naked except for a condom. Innocent? Not this guy.
“Isn’t it a little late for a chaperone, Alessandro?”
The waitress walked by with another couple, and he waited until she was gone before asking, “Are you sorry we made a baby?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Are you?”
“Honey, I’m a proud father-to-be who can’t wait to hold my child. And her mother, if she’ll ever let me touch her again.”
“Her? You think I’m carrying a girl?”
“Girl or boy, I’ll be happy either way.”
His enthusiasm caused a smile to pull at her face. Alessandro Donatelli would make a wonderful father. There was a time when she thought he’d be a good husband, but that was before he assumed the worst of her. She didn’t want a husband who didn’t trust her. It wasn’t a good way to start a marriage, and it definitely wasn’t any way to keep a marriage going. Besides, he hadn’t asked her to marry him. He’d just asked her to move back to the inn.
The waitress brought their dinner, and after Jenna ate, she said, “You know what I’d like for dessert? An old fashioned ice cream cone.”
“What kind of ice cream?”
“French vanilla.”
Alessandro stood and threw some money on the table. “Okay, let’s go out for ice cream. How about that little place down by the water?”
Al felt like whistling. Things were going better than he’d expected. He drove her down the hill, and they sat at a little bistro table on the sidewalk eating their ice cream. Jenna got some on her nose, and he wiped it off with his finger.
He held out his chocolate mint cone and she took a bite. “Mmm. That’s good, but not as good as mine.” He brought her hand over so he could take a bite, and he couldn’t take his eyes off hers. He wanted her so much he could hardly stand to be here in public with her where he couldn’t kiss her and love her.
But he wasn’t sure she’d ever let him love her again.
Jenna was carrying his baby, and he intended to be a fully involved father whether the baby’s mother wanted to share his bed or not. But he wanted them both, and Katie, too. He wanted to marry and have a real family, with a house, a dog and a couple cats, and a houseful of babies to love.
All he had to do was convince Jenna it was the best thing to do.
<>
Mattie didn’t want to wait any longer to go home, so while everyone was down in the dining room having their dinner, she borrowed the phone from the nurse’s station and called the boy who’d bought her car. She told him she was going out to the inn for dinner, and she needed a ride.
She strolled out to the front door, the gate opener in one pocket and the cash the boy had given her for the car in the other. They’d locked her purse up somewhere and she didn’t know how to find it, but she didn’t need it anyway. She knew how to get inside without her keys, and she’d send for her purse and clothes and other things after she got settled at home in the inn.
Ten minutes later, the boy pulled around the circle drive and opened the passenger door for her. He helped her with the seatbelt and drove her out to the inn. The gate was closed, as she knew it would be, but one push of the button on the control made the gate swing open. The kid helped her out of the car and she told him to go on, so she could close the gate before she went inside. So he did.
Mattie closed the gate. The doors were locked, so she walked around to the back of the inn. There was a stairway there, an emergency door they never kept locked. She struggled with the door and it finally gave. It took her several minutes to grope her way up the stairs in the dark, but the door near the linen closet on the second floor opened easily.
Exhausted from so much physical activity, Mattie sat on the nearest bed until she could find the strength to walk downstairs to her room.
Her bedroom chair was gone, so she went to the living room to sit down. Half the furniture in the room was gone. What was going on? The chair and television from her bedroom were still at the nursing home, but where was the furniture from the living room?
Bandit and Albert came to investigate.
Bandit jumped on her lap and purred, and Albert rubbed against her legs. “My sweet babies,” she crooned. Her cats were her children. They didn’t scream and sass, and they wouldn’t send her to any old nursing home. They gave unconditional love.
She heard a car outside and wondered if it was Jenna. The lock clicked and the door opened. Mattie sat still and listened. It was the young man who’d bought the inn, the one who told her she couldn’t stay without someone to take care of her. Well, she didn’t need anyone to take care of her now, and this was still her home. But she didn’t make her presence known, and he clumped up the stairs whistling as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Mattie slept in the big overstuffed chair in the living room for a few hours and then went in to her bed. The sheets had been stripped off and there were no towels in the bathroom, but she’d take care of that in the morning.
She lay on top of the spread and pulled the other side over her. And she slept.
<>
Al worked for several hours before he went to bed. He’d been working on another plan for the Dead Man’s Point development, but his mind was spinning with ideas for his own home. He wanted to talk with Jenna and find out what she wanted, because he intended to share his new home with her and their children.
Bandit curled up beside him and purred, and Al left him there. He heard a noise and lay wide awake, listening for someone prowling around, but it must have been a cat.
He was nearly asleep when the phone rang. He grabbed it, wondering who was calling at this hour of the night.
“Mr. Donatelli, this is Captain Rogers from the Gig Harbor Police Department. Mattie Worthington walked out of the nursing home a few hours ago. One of her nurses claims Mrs. Worthington sold her car recently, so we know she doesn’t have transportation. The nurse was trying to reach the kid who bought the car to see if he took her somewhere, but he’s out with friends and he’s not answering his cell phone.”
“Hold on a minute.” Al jumped into a pair of jeans and walked downstairs, where he found Mattie sleeping peacefully on her bed, with the spread wrapped around her. How in the hell did she get in here?