A Baby in the House

by Pamela Bauer

  “Yes, but I’m not sure he even realizes it was yours. At the time I told him it could belong to any one of a number of your friends who’d stayed with you. Don’t forget. He’s lived upstairs so he knows how popular you are.”

  “I usually do have people coming and going, don’t I?” she said, hoping Dena was right about Quinn.

  “Yes, but if you’re worried, I can speak to him about it.”

  “Would you mind?”

  “No, not at all. Now, back to my request,” Dena said with an endearing smile. “Will you be my bridesmaid?”

  As tempting as it was to decline her request, Krystal could see by the look on Dena’s face how important it was to her. “If you’re sure you want me, then yes, I’d love to be in your wedding.”

  Dena leaned over to give her a hug. “Thank you. It’ll be so much easier for me to do this whole wedding thing knowing you and Maddie will be there.”

  Easier for Dena maybe, but more difficult for Krystal. “How many people are coming?”

  “We wanted to keep it small, but that’s not easy to do when your fiancé is a professional hockey player.” She flipped open her day planner. “Here’s what’s been decided so far.”

  They spent the next two hours discussing everything from what music should be played at the church to what lingerie Dena should take on her honeymoon. It was exactly the kind of girl talk Krystal needed and she appreciated the fact that Dena made no other references to her pregnancy.

  “So now you know why I’m so nervous,” Dena said as she stacked her day planner on top of the bridal magazine. “By the time this wedding is over, I’m going to be a basket case and you are going to be happy to be rid of me.”

  “I most certainly will not be. I hate the thought of you leaving,” Krystal said sincerely. “I’m glad you decided not to move out until after the wedding. Do you know if Leonie has found someone for the third floor?”

  “You haven’t heard?” When Krystal gave her a blank look, she continued. “I thought you would know all about it. You see more of Garret than I do.”

  Krystal frowned. “Know what?”

  “Your plan worked.”

  Krystal was puzzled. “What plan?”

  “Going with him to the hospital ball to make his old girlfriend jealous. It must have worked.”

  Krystal had a bad feeling in her gut and it had nothing to do with morning sickness. “He’s seeing Samantha again?”

  “He must be. Why else would she be moving in here?”

  Krystal gasped. “No! Oh please, tell me it isn’t true!” she begged.

  “Isn’t she the one you said had so many ruffles on her dress at that party that she looked like she could set sail if a gust of wind came up?” Dena asked.

  “Yes, and it’s too bad it didn’t,” Krystal retorted.

  “Wow! You really don’t like her, do you?”

  Krystal could see the curiosity in her eyes and knew she needed to give an explanation. She would have liked to have told Dena the real reason she hated to see Samantha Penrose move into the house, but the bride-to-be didn’t need to get drawn into the melodrama her life had become.

  So instead she said, “Don’t pay any attention to me. I’m just in a witchy mood. This early stage of pregnancy is like having PMS 24/7.” She brushed the hair from her forehead and sighed.

  “It’s all right, I understand,” Dena assured her.

  “Will you please just forget I made a fuss, because I shouldn’t have said anything. That night of the hospital ball I hardly spoke to Samantha. For all I know she could be a very nice person.”

  “I don’t think Leonie would have rented the apartment to her if she didn’t think she would fit in here. You know how she is about her tenants,” Dena pointed out.

  Krystal nodded. “I’m just surprised she gave her Quinn’s old place. I didn’t think Leonie liked her because of what she did to Garret. You do know that she was the one who left him.”

  Dena nodded. “If Leonie had any hard feelings toward her, they’re gone. She spoke very highly of Samantha when she mentioned her to me. Said she was lovely and that she thought we’d get along with her just fine.”

  Krystal had to stifle the laughter that nearly spilled out of her. Fortunately Dena’s cell phone rang at that moment.

  “I’m sorry, Krys, but I have to take this. It’s Quinn. You don’t mind, do you?”

  Krystal shook her head, excused herself and went up to her room. As she climbed the stairs, her legs felt like undercooked pasta. The first thing she did when she got inside her apartment was to collapse on to her bed and stare at the ceiling, stunned by what Dena had told her.

  Samantha Penrose would soon be living above her.

  If it weren’t so tragic it would be funny, Krystal thought. She threw her shoe at the ceiling and groaned in frustration. This couldn’t be happening to her. Was fate so cruel or had her life suddenly become a black comedy?

  She could only wonder what the lovely Samantha was going to say when she found out her new neighbor was pregnant with her boyfriend’s baby.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “WHAT DO YOU THINK? Wing collar or lay-down?” Quinn Sterling held two pleated shirts up for Garret’s inspection.

  Before he could answer, Shane Donovan leaned close to them and said, “Whichever one doesn’t make you feel like you have a rope around your neck.” He made a choking gesture with his hands.

  “He does have a rope around his neck,” Dave Duggan was quick to add with a cocky grin.

  Shane’s and Dave’s kidding brought back memories of their teenage years when the four of them had been the best of friends and someone was always making a wisecrack. Garret pointed to the shirt on his right. “Go with the wing collar and don’t pay any attention to these guys. Marriage is going to be a good thing for you and Dena.”

  “So speaks my brother, the bachelor,” Shane drawled sarcastically.

  “Hey—his turn will come. Some woman will get her hooks into him sooner or later,” Dave warned.

  Quinn put one of the hangers back on the rack of starched white shirts. “My money’s on later.”

  “I’d say sooner, judging by the way women eye him once he puts on that white coat,” Dave teased.

  “Quinn has you on this one, Dave. Come the first of the year, Garret’s going to be overseas practicing medicine,” Shane said.

  “That doesn’t mean he can’t get married,” Dave pointed out.

  Garret would have preferred not to have his bachelor status be the topic of discussion, but he knew you couldn’t put a group of men in a wedding wear shop and not have the usual banter involving women and marriage. Since the only other single guys in the wedding party were hockey players and everyone apparently expected them to be bachelors, Garret was the prime target for their quips.

  “Just for the record, as happy as I know married life can make a man, I think I’ll stay single for a while…like five or ten more years,” he added with a huge grin.

  “I hope you told that to Samantha Penrose,” Dave remarked.

  That had Quinn asking, “Who’s Samantha Penrose and how come I haven’t met her?”

  “She’s just a colleague,” Garret answered.

  Dave elbowed Shane. “Did you hear that? Just a colleague? Is that any way to talk about your old girlfriend who’s hot for you?”

  Quinn shot Garret an inquisitive look. “All right, out with it. What did I miss?”

  “Nothing important,” Garret answered. “Samantha and I dated while we were in medical school. Then she left to do her internship, but recently she moved back to take a position at a hospital here.”

  “She’s not the doctor who’s taking over my apartment at 14 Valentine Place, is she?” Quinn asked.

  It was the first Garret had heard of it. He turned to his brother. “Has Mom rented the third floor to Samantha?”

  “Yes and I can tell by the look on your face she didn’t ask you about it before she did,” Shane answered.

&nb
sp; No, she hadn’t, and it annoyed him. He wondered what his mother was up to. First she’d finagled him into going to the hospital ball so that he would see Samantha again, now she was moving her into the boardinghouse. It wasn’t like his mother to meddle in his personal life, so just what was going on?

  Dave slowly shook his head and whistled through his teeth. “It’s not a good sign, Garret…your old girlfriend moving into a house where there’s a matchmaker.”

  “She’s not a matchmaker,” Garret corrected him. “She’s a romance coach.”

  Dave shrugged. “Same difference. She hooked Quinn up with Dena, didn’t she? And Dylan with Maddie. Has she had any tenants move out who weren’t getting married? I mean, they move into that place single and the next thing you know…” He clapped his hands. “Bang. There’s a wedding in the works.”

  Shane shoved his hands to his hips. “I hadn’t thought about it before, but you’re right. All of her previous tenants are married.”

  When Dave began to hum a funeral dirge, Garret stopped him with a raised palm. “You can cut the music. If I ever get married, it will be to someone of my choice, not my mother’s. And I say if because I’m telling you guys, my plans at this time don’t include marriage.”

  It was the truth. Right now all he wanted to think about was his career. To finally have the freedom to choose what he wanted to do with his medical training was exhilarating. It made all the struggles he’d been through the past ten years worthwhile.

  “Come on, buddy. Are you going to say you don’t have any time for women in those plans?” Dave asked him on a note of disbelief.

  “Women yes, marriage no,” Garret said with a sly grin.

  Quinn clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s exactly what I said right before I met Dena.”

  Garret was relieved that a wedding specialist chose that moment to arrive, and for the next half hour, talk was of tuxedos and accessories. While they were measured and fitted for the formal wear, they discussed their roles as ushers and groomsmen at the wedding and reception.

  When a question arose regarding which groomsman would be escorting which bridesmaid down the aisle, Quinn said, “I’m not sure. That’s Dena’s territory.”

  “I’ll take the hot redhead who lived downstairs from you,” one of the hockey players offered with a huge grin.

  “You mean Krystal.”

  Upon hearing her name Garret’s blood stirred. It had always been that way, even before he’d spent the night with her. Someone would mention her name and he’d be aroused. He blamed it on the fact that the first time he’d seen her she’d been half-naked. He could still remember the look of surprise that had been on her face when he’d pushed open the laundry room door at 14 Valentine Place and found her sorting her dirty clothes clad only in a lacy bra and pants.

  Ever since that day he had fantasized about what it would be like to see all of that delectable body un-clothed. Never had he expected it to happen, and certainly not on the night of the hospital ball. Only it had happened and now he was having trouble forgetting how she had looked lying naked in his bed.

  “Is she seeing someone?” the hockey player asked.

  “Are girls that hot ever not seeing someone?” Dave wanted to know. “She probably has guys lining up halfway around the block to take her out.”

  “I bet I could get to the front of the line,” boasted the hockey player.

  Garret didn’t doubt that he could. He looked like the kind of guy Krystal would find attractive. She liked men who looked as if they spent more time at the gym than they did at a job and dressed as if they were on their way to a GQ photo shoot.

  He wondered what everyone would say if he announced that he had been to the front of the line. That he’d spent the night with her and she was everything a fantasy should be and then some.

  He chuckled to himself. They probably wouldn’t believe him. Not that he could blame them. He and Krystal were as different as night and day. No one would expect that someone as fun loving and outgoing as Krystal would be attracted to a man who spent most of his free time reading medical journals.

  “Knowing Krystal, I bet she already has a date lined up for the wedding,” Quinn commented.

  Garret suspected he was probably right. There was no shortage of men in her life. He only hoped that the man she did bring wouldn’t be Roy Stanton. After the way Roy had betrayed her, Garret didn’t want to think she would ever let the creep back into her life. Yet he knew the possibility existed. History had proved that she’d forgive him for almost anything.

  “Will you be bringing this Samantha as your date to the wedding?” Quinn interrupted his thoughts.

  “Ah…I’m not sure,” he said evasively. Until now he hadn’t considered taking anyone, but if he needed a date, Samantha would be a sensible choice. She was, after all, more his type than someone like Krystal.

  Again his thoughts returned to the beautiful, impulsive hairdresser. He wondered if she ever thought about their night together, or had she simply written it off as a night she wanted to forget. Judging by the way she’d avoided him whenever he’d stopped in at 14 Valentine Place lately, he guessed it was the latter. He knew he should do the same. Forget about her, forget about that night.

  Only he couldn’t. He’d messed with a fantasy and his life would never be the same.

  “I’M SO GLAD YOU WERE OFF today and you could help me move,” Samantha told Garret as she filled a shelf with books.

  Because she’d hired professional movers, there was little to do except help her unpack boxes. To someone as organized and as efficient as Samantha, it was a task that didn’t take long to accomplish.

  “I believe that’s the last of it and just in time,” she told him as she dusted her hands off on her blue jeans. “I’m ready for lunch. Where do you recommend, since this is familiar territory to you?”

  “Dixie’s is good and it’s close.”

  “Great, I’ll just make a couple of phone calls and we’ll go.” She leaned over to grab her phone from her desk.

  “I’ll wait for you downstairs. It’ll give me a few minutes to talk to my mom,” he told her, then headed down to the first floor.

  He found his mother in the kitchen seated at the large round oak table. She wasn’t alone. Krystal sat across from her, a pair of scissors in her hands. Her expression was one of concentration as she cut clippings from a magazine.

  Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans with her hair pulled back from her face and held in place by a barrette, she looked like an innocent and very different from the woman who’d seduced him the night of the hospital ball. She’d been all glitter and glamour and his body tightened as he remembered what had happened after they left the party.

  “All finished?” his mother asked when she noticed him.

  “Yes.” He didn’t miss the way Krystal kept her eyes lowered and focused on her task. Usually she greeted him with a grin and started a conversation, but not today. He’d expected that after the way they’d parted the next morning, things would be awkward between them, but not this awkward.

  As he moved closer to her he saw what had her attention. Spread out on the table were what looked to be paper dolls, only they were all men wearing swimsuits and none of them had heads.

  “What’s up with that?” he asked, gesturing to the clippings. “Are you venting your frustration with the opposite sex?”

  “We’re working on a game for Dena’s wedding shower,” his mother answered.

  “What kind of game has headless male swimsuit models?” he asked.

  “A fun one,” Krystal answered, cutting around a pair of men’s legs.

  His mother used her scissors to point to a small stack of paper heads. “The object is to match the celebrity’s head with the body. Each match is worth a point. The person with the most points wins. It’s as simple as that.”

  “But Quinn is five points,” Krystal corrected.

  “Quinn? You have his body in here?”

  “Of course. He is
a celebrity,” his mother reminded him. “Although it wasn’t easy finding him in a swimsuit. He’s usually photographed in his hockey gear.”

  Garret peered more closely at the headless paper men on the table. “Which one is he?”

  “You can’t tell?” his mother asked.

  He chuckled. “No, Quinn has clothes on when I’m with him.” That comment caused Krystal to smile, but she didn’t look up at him. “Won’t this give Dena an unfair advantage? She’s probably the only one who’s seen that much of Quinn’s skin.”

  “That’s part of the fun…seeing if she can identify her own fiancé without his clothes,” Krystal answered.

  She glanced up at him then and, from the look in her eyes, he knew she was remembering what he looked like without his clothes. If his swimsuit-clad body was in the game, he wondered if she would be able to identify it.

  She looked away and he knew that what had happened the night of the hospital party had definitely changed how she felt toward him. The old Krystal would have flirted with him and made a comment regarding the two of them sharing a secret. The new Krystal looked as if she wished he wasn’t in the same room with her.

  Just then Samantha appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. In her usual take-charge manner, she strode in and greeted his mother.

  “I’m glad you’re all settled,” Leonie said. “Have you met Krystal?”

  “Yes, at the hospital ball,” Samantha extended a hand, but Garret could see her smile was forced. “It’s nice to see you again.”

  Krystal stiffened and for a moment Garret thought she might bolt right out of her chair, but to his surprise, she smiled brightly, shook Samantha’s hand and said, “You’re right. You had on the dress with all the ruffles.”

  The two women made small talk about the food and music at the party. Garret tried to remember Samantha’s ruffled dress, but all he could recall was the slinky dress that Krystal had worn. It had been a bright blue and cut to a vee in the front revealing a generous cleavage that had drawn the eyes of every man in the place. Then there had been the slit up the side that had spread whenever she walked, revealing a thigh that was ever so…