The Boss and the Baby

by Leigh Michaels

  The secretary nodded and withdrew, and Luke toyed with his correspondence for a little longer, accomplishing nothing. He went to the door.

  She stood the moment she saw him, and he let his gaze drift over her jade green suit. He’d thought she had the best set of legs in Minnesota, but he’d been wrong—it was more like the North American continent. With regret he stopped looking and said, “Come in, Molly.”

  Deliberately, he didn’t indicate where she should sit. But without hesitation she chose one of the straight-backed chairs across from his desk and settled herself with a leather portfolio on her lap. “I’d like you to look over my proposals for the video portion of the history project, Luke.”

  Business as usual, he thought, and told himself he was neither surprised nor disappointed. Molly was obviously having no trouble separating business from personal affairs—and there was no reason he should, either.

  “I actually overestimated the costs,” she said, “so we can do a no-frills package and use the rest of the cash for something else, or add some extras. I’ve put some suggestions together to give you an idea of what I’d like to do. When you’ve had a chance to review this, perhaps we can discuss it.” She took a neatly bound document from her portfolio and set it on his desk.

  He reached for the folder and flipped through it slowly.

  She didn’t move, and he wondered if she was waiting for some sort of dismissal or if the video been only an excuse after all.

  “There’s one more thing,” Molly said finally.

  A curl of anticipation ran through him.

  “When you hired me, Luke, we talked about recommendations to other firms. The book project is well underway and the video soon will be, so I’m starting to look for additional clients. It would be very helpful if I could use Meditronics as a reference.”

  Meditronics. Not you, Luke, just your company.

  “Of course.”

  Molly slid to the edge of her chair.

  There seemed nothing else to say, and he called himself foolish for groping for a subject, not wanting to let her go. “Megan called me last night. She said Rand finally showed up and they’d reached an agreement.”

  “That’s one way of putting it.” Molly’s voice held a dry note. “It turns out the golden girl had her eyes on Rand all along. He’s planning to marry Melinda.”

  She was watching him very closely, he thought. Was she hoping that Melinda’s plans would upset him? Or hoping that they wouldn’t?

  “After that, it got pretty funny,” Molly went on. “Mother told Rand she didn’t think he was being cheap at all, just very wise to choose a second wife with the same first initial so he didn’t have to change the monograms on the towels.” She stood. “But I shouldn’t take up your time with gossip. You’ll let me know, won’t you, when you’ve had a chance to review my suggestions?”

  She crossed the office so quickly that there was no point in going after her to hold the door. Instead, he stood by his desk and watched the enticing sway of that slim skirt. “Molly—”

  She turned, eyebrows raised.

  He hadn’t meant to call her name. He wasn’t certain why he’d done so, and he was embarrassingly tonguetied.

  “Is there something else, Luke?”

  “No. I mean... If you don’t have plans this evening, I’d like to take Bailey home with me.”

  “Of course. Do you want to pick her up from day care?”

  He nodded, and she was gone with a friendly little wave.

  She was as casual, he thought, as if there had never been anything between them. No evening of passion years ago. No sultry, seductive kisses. No less-than-a-day-long engagement.

  Why had she changed her mind? It was none of his business, she’d said. An absolutely foolish statement, of course. If her reasons for rejecting him weren’t his business, what in hell was?

  What was it she hadn’t been able to stomach?

  Of course, it was a terrible sacrifice he’d asked her to make, he thought sardonically. To live at Oakwood with its elegance and its devoted staff. To work only if she wanted to, not because she had to put food in her daughter’s mouth. To have every day with her child. To wear his ring...

  He took the velvet box from his desk drawer and watched the stones flash fire as he turned the ring.

  There was certainly nothing wrong with the ring. She hadn’t even bothered to look at it.

  To marry me. That, of course, was the crux of it.

  He put the ring on the desk blotter and rubbed his temples.

  And he wondered if someday he’d be able to forget the taste of her.

  Bailey had crept into bed with Molly in the middle of the night, and still sound asleep, she was taking up far more than her fair share of space. What a way to start Mother’s Day, Molly thought as she yawned and got up.

  Her father was in the kitchen, stirring his special pancakes. “Be a good girl and take your mother coffee, will you?” he asked.

  Molly got a bone china mug from the cabinet and carried the steaming coffee down the hall to the master bedroom where Alix was sitting up in bed, propped with pillows, reading Vogue.

  “Your coffee, madam,” Molly said. “Happy Mother’s Day.”

  Alix laid the magazine aside. “I suppose Bernie’s being silly about pancakes?”

  “Well, please don’t stop him. I love his pancakes.” Molly sat on the edge of the bed. “Mother, I just wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I know I’ve been a huge disappointment.” And now that I’m not going to marry Luke, I’m no doubt shaming you all over again.

  Alix sipped her coffee and stared across the room until Molly wondered if she was going to ignore the apology altogether.

  “I wasn’t disappointed with you,” Alix said slowly, “but with myself. You frightened me—your depth, your independence, your intelligence...”

  “My stubbornness?”

  Alix smiled. “Maybe that, too. Megan was so easy as a teenager, so open. She had to wait till now to turn into a mystery. No doubt the struggle she’s having is because of the way I raised her—to be too sensitive to what others would think. But you—even when you faced the worst time of your life, you wouldn’t let me in. I know I didn’t go about it very well—”

  “You did what you thought was best, Mom.”

  Alix shook her head. “No. I’m sorry, Molly, for the stories I told. I even managed to convince myself that I honestly intended them for your protection, when all the time... Now I don’t know if I should correct all my lies, or if that would only make things worse for you.”

  “Leave it alone, Mom.” Molly leaned over to give Alix a hug, and her mother held her tightly for a very long time.

  Bailey came in, dragging a stuffed lion by the tail, and climbed into Alix’s lap. “Gramma, I drew you a picture for Mother’s Day.”

  “Did you, darling? I’ll frame it.” Alix nestled her close. “I am so very proud of you, Molly—and of my granddaughter.”

  Bailey snuggled into Alix’s arms and yawned.

  At least, Molly thought, something was turning out right.

  After breakfast Molly took Bailey for a drive and pulled her car off the road near the child’s favorite beach. You’re asking for heartache, she told herself. Coming here, where she’d told Bailey about her father, was guaranteed to be painful—but if she lived in Duluth she couldn’t stay away from this stretch of shoreline forever. And it was hardly the lake’s fault.

  “Daddy lets me bring Lucky,” Bailey pointed out. But she took off down the beach, tromping along the edge of the water and now and then sending up a giant splash when a bigger-than-usual wave surprised her.

  Molly sat on the driftwood log where she’d broken the news and started drawing patterns in the pebbly beach. She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there when a red-gold streak flashed past her and toward the water, barking wildly. She jumped up, panicked, helpless to get between Bailey and the dog that threatened her—until she realized it was Lucky.

 
Which meant, of course, that Luke was very near. She closed her eyes to try to gather strength.

  His jeans and running shoes contrasted oddly with the gold foil wrapping and enormous ribbons on the box he carried under one arm. “Hi,” he said. “Your dad told me you’d come up this way, and then I saw the car.” He held out the box. “Happy Mother’s Day.”

  She didn’t want to open it. But he meant well, and she could hardly fling his gift back in his face. So she sat on the driftwood log once more and slowly began to pull the tape loose.

  Luke sat beside her, a careful foot away. He leaned forward to scoop up a handful of pebbles and let them sift slowly through his fingers.

  As soon as she saw the box, Molly’s stomach churned in protest. It wasn’t only unfair and manipulative, she thought, it was absolutely tasteless of him to buy her a gift at Milady Lingerie. Even if he’d chosen something innocuous, just the suggestive simplicity of the box sent a message that she didn’t want to hear.

  The gift inside was far from innocent. She folded back the gold tissue paper to reveal a satin and lace teddy in a soft shade of emerald green—exactly the color to make her skin glow and her eyes shine. It was even, she noted, precisely the right size.

  She stared at it for a moment and gritted her teeth against the pain. As if she was shallow enough to let a sexy bit of lingerie affect her judgment! Didn’t he even begin to understand that physical attraction wasn’t enough, that feelings were overwhelmingly important?

  “This isn’t funny, Luke.” She folded the tissue in place, her hands trembling. “It’s inappropriate and insulting.”

  As soon as I can keep my voice from shaking, she thought, I’ll call for Bailey, and we’ll leave. Only a moment more...

  “I’m sorry,” he said.

  She didn’t look at him, but she nodded, in acceptance though not agreement. He’d never truly understand, she knew. So she might as well not break her heart over it—or waste her time trying to explain.

  “Not for the lingerie,” he said. “For... a long time ago.”

  Molly sat very still.

  “My mother,” Luke said slowly. “I adored her, you know. Two weeks before she died, I came home for her birthday and she was—appeared to be—in perfect health. Then in a moment, she collapsed. They told us she was dying. And I couldn’t do anything to save her. My time in med school had been worse than useless—I only knew enough to understand how bad it was.”

  Molly put out a hand to him, but he seemed too enclosed in his mind to see it.

  “That night in the treehouse was the worst as I struggled to accept that I was losing her. Then suddenly you were there, only trying to help.... Molly, I felt so guilty for taking advantage of you.”

  “You didn’t. I threw myself at you.” Bitterness crept into her voice. “That was painfully clear when you couldn’t bring yourself to go through with it, to actually make love to me....”

  “That was never the problem. What terrified me was how much I wanted you—when I knew you had no idea what you were doing.”

  A cool breeze stirred Molly’s hair and made the gold foil paper rustle. “I was already embarrassed and ashamed, and when you took me aside a few days later and made it clear what you thought of me...” She bit her lip. “When I found out the impossible had happened and I was going to have your child...”

  “I understand why you didn’t tell me.”

  “Oh, you’ve finally figured it out! What was I supposed to do, Luke? You’d made it absolutely plain that you didn’t want to see me ever again, that there was nothing about me you found attractive—”

  “There were lots of things even then. Now...” He drew a deep breath. “Your dignity in the face of uncertainty and trouble. Bailey—and the fact that you brought her into the world with the situation you were in. There were easier ways.”

  Molly shook her head. “Not for me.”

  “Then there’s my father—I wouldn’t be surprised if he proposes to you yet when he discovers that you’ve turned me down. The staff would lie on the floor and let you clean your shoes on them. In fact, the only living creature at Oakwood who isn’t totally in love with you—”

  Is the one I care most about, she thought sadly.

  “Is the dog, and that’s only because you scold her adored playmate once in a while.”

  Every muscle in Molly’s body tightened like an overwound spring. Did he realize what he’d said? And if so, did he—could he—actually mean it?

  “And then there’s me.” Luke cleared his throat. “I said all those years ago that you were too young to know what love was. And I still think I was right. But I didn’t recognize love, either. When you refused me last week, I was furious. To throw aside an opportunity like the one I’d offered you...”

  Molly wanted to say, And what an opportunity! All the material things and nothing that really mattered.

  “I tried to be logical, to figure it out. Obviously, it wasn’t Oakwood that you disliked. And though you weren’t greedy when it came to money, I didn’t think you hated the stuff enough to refuse me on the grounds that I had too much of it. And it was apparent there was very little you wouldn’t do for Bailey. So that left marriage itself—or rather, marriage to me—that you found so distasteful.”

  She wanted to say, Not if it could be a real marriage. But she had lost control of her voice.

  “And that was when I realized I wasn’t angry, after all. I was hurt, and terribly sad that you didn’t care about me. That even for Bailey’s sake you couldn’t face sharing a life with me. And yet when you kissed me...”

  “There’s more to being married than sharing a bed, Luke.”

  “Yeah.” He picked up the lingerie box. “This was really a bad idea, wasn’t it?”

  “I don’t know,” Molly said carefully. “It depends on why you did it.”

  “To tell you that the reason I want you isn’t that you’re Bailey’s mother But I miscalculated, didn’t I? Because I don’t just want you to be my wife in the bedroom, either, but everywhere. All the time. Forever. I love you, Molly.”

  Her hands were squeezed so tightly together that her knuckles were white.

  “Yes, I want Bailey,” he said. “I don’t want to be a part-time father to my little girl. That’s fact, and there’s no sense dodging it. But it wasn’t Bailey I thought of last Sunday when you so much as told me to go jump off the aerial lift bridge. I thought of myself—and how empty my life was going to be. Not because I wouldn’t have Bailey...but because I wouldn’t have you.” He fitted the top on the lingerie box. “I’m sorry, Molly. For everything.”

  He was ten feet away before she found her voice. “What are you going to do with my Mother’s Day gift, Luke?”

  He didn’t look back. “Probably start by ripping it apart with my bare hands. Then I might—Do you mean you want it?”

  “I didn’t turn you down because I found you distasteful, Luke. I did it because I knew it would tear me apart to live with a man who didn’t love me when I loved you so much I drove myself crazy trying to find any reason to believe we could make it work.”

  The box went spinning to the ground. Luke seized Molly’s hands and pulled her into his arms, and she discovered that kisses were even better when there were no secrets left between them.

  “You were so casual.” Luke sounded a little breathless. Molly wasn’t surprised. “So cool—in the office. As if you’d forgotten...everything.”

  Molly shrugged. “Acting that way wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had, that’s sure. But we were going to have to deal with each other for years to come—till Bailey grew up, at least. And I knew if I slipped and let you see what I was going through, and if you felt sorry for me—”

  “I wouldn’t have had time to feel sorry for you, I was too busy staring at a ring you wouldn’t wear and feeling sorry for myself.” He pulled the velvet box from his pocket. “Want it?”

  The box looked dingy and a bit the worse for wear, Molly thought, as if he’d been
carrying it for days. “Yes.” She reached for the box, but Luke held it out of her reach while he extracted the ring and used one hand to shield it from view till he’d slipped it into place on her finger.

  Molly held out her hand. She’d never seen an emerald so brilliant, so richly colored, so perfect.

  “It’s the color of your eyes,” he said. “Only I was too deluded when I bought it to know why that was so important.” She started to cry, and he kissed her tears away. After a while, he said, “Now are we going to set a wedding date, or shall I call Rand for his preferred list of love nests and carry you off to one of them and make love to you so often you can’t remember your name, much less your objections?”

  “I’ll bet your choice would be better than his.”

  “Is that a challenge, Ms. Matthews? I’ll see what I can do.”

  “You weren’t surprised about Melinda, were you?”

  “Of course not. I’d thought for a long time that she and Rand were just a little too formal with each other to be real.”

  “But you were dating her anyway?” Molly sounded doubtful.

  “Only in the spirit of collecting information for Megan. It wasn’t difficult, because Melinda always had an eye out for an extra man, and she must have thought I’d make especially good cover since I was Megan’s friend.”

  “And that’s why you and Megan were meeting in out-of-the-way ice cream shops? You were reporting?”

  “I wasn’t going to go into detail where her maid might be able to hear. But how’d you know that?”

  “Bailey spotted you.” Molly shook her head. “Next time you try to go undercover, Luke, you might drive something besides a Jaguar.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind. The final confirmation was that Rand made the reservations for their little weekend in Melinda’s name and sent the tickets to her with a very juicy note.”

  “And I suppose she told you all about it?”

  “I snooped,” Luke said cheerfully. “But I didn’t have to work very hard at it. She’d left the package right on her desk, and I had plenty of time to browse while I was waiting for her to finish dressing for the opera.”