by Ray, Francis
“I’m not putting you out of your bed.” She turned on her back and placed her arm over her eyes.
“You know you don’t have to,” he said, not sure whether he was teasing or hoping she’d take him up on his offer.
She grunted.
Lance smiled. “You could give me a complex.”
“You’re too self-assured for that.”
In business and with other people perhaps, but not with Fallon. “I’m up for the day, so you can have the other bed.”
“Lance—”
“Don’t argue.” Throwing back the bedcovers, he picked her up, congratulating himself for not staring at her bare long legs where her gown had ridden up over her thighs. “Wrap your arms around my neck so you won’t jostle yourself.”
She complied, and he started back to his bed. “I’ll get you your morning snack.”
“It used to be coffee, waffles, and sausages.”
He placed her in his bed and pulled up the covers. She looked perfect there. “I’m sorry you have to go through this.”
“Believe me, it’s a lot better than it was.” She yawned and closed her eyes.
He should let her rest, but he didn’t move. “Was it bad?”
She looked at him. “Not so much. I thought I had a bug until the food critic I was traveling with pointed out that it was only in the morning. I purchased a pregnancy test to prove she was wrong.”
“You should have called me,” he said.
“I could hardly accept it myself. I stared at that stick for a long, long time.” She glanced away. “I cried.”
Sitting on the side of the bed, he took her into his arms. “I wish I could have been there for you.”
She snuggled against him. “I-I think that was part of the reason. I wanted you there.”
His arms tightened. He kissed her forehead, then swept his hand down her slim back. “I’m here now, and I’m not going anyplace.”
“Your business is in Tucson. I travel,” she said unnecessarily.
“We’ll work it out. Go to sleep.” His hand continued to glide up and down her back. He wasn’t ready to let her go. He enjoyed holding her and their child. He’d find a way to keep both.
Chapter 13
Fallon stared from the bright yellow door of the spa back to Lance. She’d awakened a little past ten to find him gone and her snack waiting for her. He’d knocked on the door two hours later with another surprise. They’d driven into Santa Fe to one of the most luxurious spas in the country. “I don’t think I’m going to cry this time.”
“Good.” He slung his arm around her shoulders. “I booked you for the full treatment, but you can change anything. All of their technicians have at least ten years’ experience. They can also see you later.”
Fallon glanced down at her flat stomach in the sundress. “My mother gained fifty pounds with me. The doctors feared she would develop gestational diabetes.”
“What?” Lance took Fallon’s shoulders and turned her to him. “Did you tell your doctor?”
“I did.” She palmed his cheek to reassure him. “The way I’m going, I’ll be lucky to gain ten pounds.”
He studied her. “You kept your food down today and your color is better. We’ll just have to watch your diet.”
Her brows arched. “Lance, I love to eat and, once I really feel better, I’m going to indulge in all the food I missed.”
“We’ll see.” He reached for the doorknob. “Call when you’re ready for me to pick you up.”
“Then we can have lunch at the Red Cactus.”
“I don’t recall seeing baked chicken or fish on the menu.”
“Exactly.”
“Fallon! Cousin Lance!”
Fallon turned to see Kayla, her fat pigtails bouncing, rushing toward them. “Hi, Kayla.”
Hurrying to keep up with Kayla were Richard’s and Lance’s mothers. Fallon shot a quick glance at Lance. His lips were pressed together in harsh lines. She reached out to touch his arm in a gesture of comfort and a warning to be nice before bending to envelop Kayla in her arms. When Fallon began to lift the little girl, Lance scooped her up.
“Hi, Kayla,” he greeted.
Grinning, Kayla looped one arm around his neck. “We’re going to the park and I get to swing all I want.”
Her hand on Kayla’s pant leg, Fallon had to laugh. Naomi was right about Kayla being happy. Indulgent grandparents would put a smile on any child’s face.
“Hi, Fallon, Lance,” Richard’s mother greeted, a bit out of breath. “I don’t think I should have given up my exercise class.”
“Hello, Lance, Fallon.” Lance’s mother hung back, her hand gripping the white leather strap of her handbag.
“Hello, Mrs. Youngblood, Mrs.…” Fallon faltered and blushed. She couldn’t remember Lance’s mother’s married name.
“Banks,” Lance supplied, his mouth curled as if the word was distasteful.
Richard’s mother shot Lance a look of annoyance—which he ignored.
“Mrs. Banks,” Fallon said, reaching out to touch the woman’s arm. She found it trembling. “I apologize for not remembering.”
“That’s all right.” Mrs. Banks’s gaze kept sliding away from Lance as if she was starved for the sight of him and as the same time afraid to be caught looking at him. “I see you’re feeling better. You didn’t look well at the reception.”
“Were you ill, Fallon?” Mrs. Youngblood asked, her brow furrowed with concern. “I’m sorry, I didn’t notice.”
Fallon’s guilty gaze swung to Lance.
“She’s fine now,” Lance said to his aunt. “In fact, she was just about to go into the spa.” He placed Kayla on her feet. “Have fun at the park.”
Fallon wanted to kick Lance. He didn’t have to be rude.
“After the park, we’re going to Mr. Brandon’s restaurant for my favorite—hamburger. Once I’m finished, I’m having the brownie supreme with ice cream for dessert,” Kayla happily announced.
“Aunt Gladys used to take your new daddy and me to the park and then out to eat,” Lance told her.
Kayla looked at Mrs. Banks and caught her hand. “Aunt Irene said it’s her threat. When I got my new daddy, I got Aunt Irene and Uncle Jim, too. It used to be just me and Mama, but now I have other people to love and love me back. It’s nice having a big family, just like Mama said.”
“It certainly is, Kayla,” Fallon answered, since Lance’s expression was stony. His mother kept blinking her eyes, and his aunt looked as if she wanted to turn her nephew over her knee.
“We should be going.” Mrs. Youngblood sent Lance a stern look. “Expect a call from me.”
“Good-bye, Fallon. Cousin Lance,” Kayla said, reaching for her grandmother’s hand.
“Have fun, sweetie,” Fallon said. “Good-bye, Mrs. Youngblood. Mrs. Banks, I wish we had had a chance to get to know each other better.”
Lance’s mother’s eyes widened. Her gaze flickered to Lance. “I do, too.”
“Fallon, you’ll be late, and they won’t be able to see you.” Lance caught her arm.
She didn’t budge. “This is more important.”
“No. No,” Lance’s mother quickly said. “We won’t keep you. Good-bye.” Holding Kayla’s hand, she continued down the street.
Fuming, Fallon swung around on Lance. “You were rude to your mother.”
“Don’t judge what you don’t know,” he came back.
“People make mistakes, Lance,” she said. “We both know that.”
“But she didn’t try to correct hers. She shut me out of her life. Well, now I don’t need her,” he snapped. “Call when you’re ready for me to pick you up.”
* * *
Furious, Lance got into his car and slammed the door. What was his mother trying to prove? She didn’t care about him and her “poor me” act might fool his aunt and Fallon, but it wasn’t fooling him.
The passenger door opened and Fallon got into the car. “We haven’t finished talking.”
“I asked a nice-looking woman going inside to cancel it for me.” She reached for her seat belt.
Lance switched off the motor and stared at her. “Well, go uncancel. Besides the full-body massage, I scheduled you for a pampering manicure and pedicure with safe nail polish.”
Fallon folded her arms. “Not happening.”
He blew out an annoyed breath. “Why are you being so stubborn about this? You just met her.”
Fallon rested her hands in her lap. “She’s your mother, and you won’t even look at her. You can’t even bring yourself to call her Mother.”
He switched on the motor, checked the traffic, and backed out. “You want to stop someplace for lunch before we go back?”
“Now who is being stubborn?” Fallon lifted both hands in the air. “You might not want to hear this—”
“So don’t tell me.” He stopped at a red light. His mother really knew how to mess up his life.
“But I think your experience with your mother and then Ashley has colored how you perceive all women,” Fallon continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “They let you down, so you expect the next woman to do the same.”
A cold chill ran through him. He didn’t dare look at her for fear she’d know she’d guessed right. A car horn sounded behind him and he pulled off.
“I understand how an unhappy experience can shape your perception,” she went on to say. “Before we met for the second time, every time I heard the word ‘auction’ I was angry. You changed that for me.”
Unspoken but implied was that she hoped she’d changed how he viewed women. She probably expected him to say something about how she’d made a difference in his life, but he couldn’t. She hadn’t realized yet, the fault was in him and not her. He wasn’t ready to admit that he didn’t have what it took to make a woman happy.
Fifteen minutes later he turned into the driveway of the Yates house. He suddenly thought about the sex of his child. Lord, please let it be a boy.
“You don’t have anything to say?” she asked.
Lance parked the car in front of the house and stared straight ahead. “No.”
He felt her looking at him; then she got out of the car. He saw her go around the side of the house toward the cottage. He just sat there and watched her walk away. He knew what she wanted and he couldn’t give it to her.
He’d failed again. He wasn’t sure he was strong enough to watch her leave and not beg her to stay. Starting the car again, he drove off.
* * *
Lance didn’t know what to do with himself.
He’d left the Yates estate and driven around aimlessly until he decided to go to the only place he could think of where he wouldn’t be bothered, Richard’s ranch. The entrance gate was unlocked as it had been the day Lance had helped move some of Naomi’s and Kayla’s things there. Since Richard’s house was furnished, most of Naomi’s furniture remained at the apartment. Thank goodness, or Fallon would have had to sleep on the floor.
Lance parked and wondered where she was, if she felt all right. He opened the car door and followed the path around the single-level house to the back patio. There were colorful throw pillows on the cushion seats atop an outdoor rug with subtle color variation. Naomi’s doing, he thought as he sat on a cushioned bench, his long legs outstretched, and stared at the distant Sangre de Cristo Mountains. A woman changed a man’s life. Richard’s was obviously going to be better.
Lance wasn’t sure how long he sat there before darkness descended, obscuring his vision of the mountains. Overhead was a half-moon. The night was still and beautiful … and he was alone.
In the past, there’d always been work to chase away the loneliness, but he’d left the papers for the new auction he was working on at the cottage. Even if he had them, he was doubtful he could concentrate enough to do any worthwhile work.
Since Fallon walked into his life again, she had always managed to overshadow whatever he was doing. She had that mercurial ability to slip into his consciousness and tug.
His cell phone rang. Without much interest he pulled it from his pocket. Just what he didn’t need. “Hello, Aunt Gladys.”
“I’m disappointed in you, Lance.”
Join the club. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Don’t you ‘yes, ma’am’ me. How could you hurt your mother’s feelings that way?”
“What about my feelings? No one has ever considered me in this.” Too angry to remain seated, he came to his feet.
“That’s not the truth and you know it. Leo and I love you. Don’t you ever say we don’t,” she said, her voice unsteady. “We know it was hard on you growing up after you lost your father, but you have to let it go and move on. Forgiveness isn’t easy, but living with bitterness and anger is much worse.”
“So I’m supposed to forget she always took Jim’s side over mine, always deferred to him when he wasn’t anywhere near the man my father was.” Lance’s chest heaved with anger.
“Yes.”
The answer was so simple for his aunt and Fallon. “She gets forgiveness and what do I get?”
“Peace. It’s what I hoped and prayed for you to have.” Her voice trembled.
It was too late. Fallon was probably in Austin by now.
“Your mother is staying until Sunday. I’m having a cookout Saturday afternoon. I expect you and Fallon. No argument. Good night.”
He’d be in Tucson by then. “Good night.” He disconnected the call and headed for his car. He was going to the cottage to pack and catch the first available flight out the next day.
* * *
There was a light on in the front room of the cottage, but Lance wasn’t going to fool himself into thinking Fallon had stayed. Her mother and sister would take care of her.
Inside, he went straight to his room. It wouldn’t take—
“Don’t you know worry is bad for a pregnant woman?”
He whirled and saw Fallon in an easy chair, her feet tucked under her, a book in her hand. “You didn’t leave.”
“We decided you’re worth the aggravation.” She crossed her arms over the book. “Did you eat?”
“No.”
Coming to her feet, she placed the book on the nightstand. “I had baked fish. You get steak.”
Still a bit stunned, Lance followed her out of the bedroom into the small kitchen. On the round table for two was a single place setting. “I’ll get it; you rest.”
“Sit.” She pointed to a straight-backed upholstered chair. “I’ll do it.”
She wasn’t pleased with him. He sat and watched her take a platter from the refrigerator, place it in the microwave, and set the timer. “Are you angry with me about this afternoon?”
Removing the platter, she plunked it down in front of him on the beaded place mat. “You could have called.”
He caught her arm when she went to turn away. “I thought you had left me.” He didn’t care that she could hear the misery in his voice.
Her beautiful face softened immediately. “Nothing is ever solved by running.”
He released her and looked at the steak and mashed potatoes on his plate. “You think that’s what I do, don’t you?”
She placed a glass of lemonade on the table and took the seat across from him before answering, “What I think isn’t as important as what you think.”
His gaze lifted to hers. She stared back patiently. He’d given her enough reasons to leave, but she hadn’t. She deserved to know.
“My mother was the first woman to let me know I wasn’t enough. After Daddy died I needed her more than ever. She sold or gave away all of his things. Five months later, she started going out. She met Jim. She married him the same month my father died. He and I never got along even before they were married. One day he told me to take out the trash and I told him to take it out, he was the big man of the house.”
Lance’s hand fisted. “He took off his b
elt. He hit me a couple of times before she came running. She took his side and told me to apologize. I refused and was grounded for a week. School was out the next week. I used the money I’d been saving to catch a bus to Santa Fe to Aunt Gladys and Uncle Leo’s house.”
“Lance, no.”
“She and Jim came to get me, but I told them I’d just leave again, walking if I had to. Aunt Gladys and Uncle Leo talked them into letting me stay, and made me promise that I’d go back in the fall. I agreed if I could come every summer.” His fingers curled around the icy glass.
“I joined every club imaginable to stay away from the house as much as possible. As soon as I graduated from high school, I left for Tucson, where I was enrolled in college on a partial academic scholarship for the fall semester. My father left me ten thousand dollars for college, which helped a lot. I went home a few times. I guess hoping she’d be the mother I remembered. It never happened.”
Fallon’s hand covered his. “I’m sorry.”
“I won’t bore you with the details of Cissy, who dumped me in high school, or Melissa, who did the same thing in college. You know about Ashley.” He placed the glass aside, glanced down at his plate, then at her. “I don’t seem to have what it takes for women to stick.”
“Whatever happened in the past with your mother, I think she regrets it and wants to reach out to you,” Fallon told him.
“Aunt Gladys said the same thing.”
“I think you and your mother need to talk it out.”
“I’m not sure that’s possible,” he said.
“I do. You just have to find it in your heart to let it go. As for the women, you just picked the wrong women,” Fallon said, her voice unsympathetic. “I’ve had girlfriends in high school and college who always picked the losers instead of the good guys. Your picker was screwed.” She handed him his fork. “To be honest, I’ve dated a few duds myself. I think we both might have gotten it right this time.”
He took the fork and picked up his knife. “I know I’ve never met a woman quite like you.”
“I’ve certainly never met a guy like you. Now eat.” She motioned toward the plate.
Lance cut into his steak and began to eat. They still had a chance.