Lana had been thrilled with the news. Joe and Meredith had once shared a relationship that had been the envy of half the town. They’d worn their love for each other on their faces.
The news also brought with it a bittersweet pang in Lana’s heart as she wished she and Chance had somehow managed to find the same kind of relationship.
Within an hour the parade of fairy princesses, cowboys, bewhiskered kittens and devils began. Lana had always enjoyed Halloween, but this Halloween seemed even more special as she thought of the babies she carried inside her.
The babies. That was what she had to focus on. Although she didn’t have and never would have Chance in her life, at least she’d have his children to love and to raise.
“Trick or treat,” a boyish voice yelled through her door.
She opened the door to see a youthful pirate complete with eye patch and hook hand.
“It’s really a trick,” the boy said, then stepped aside. Chance suddenly filled the doorway.
“Go away,” Lana said at the same time her eyes drank in the sight of him. He looked so achingly handsome in a pair of charcoal-gray dress slacks and a long-sleeved striped shirt.
“I’m not going away until we talk,” he replied as he stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind him.
“We have nothing to discuss. Our deal is over, our bargain is fulfilled.” She looked away from him, afraid that if she looked into his eyes, gazed at his beloved face, she’d acquiesce to whatever he wanted.
“Lana—” He broke off at the series of knocks on her door.
“Trick or treat. Trick or treat,” a chorus cried.
Chance stepped out of the way as Lana opened the door. She quickly gave each child their treat, then once again closed the door and turned to face Chance.
“Please, Chance. Go home. Sell your ranch and follow your dreams.”
“Sometimes dreams change.” He frowned in obvious frustration as another knock sounded on her door.
Lana once again took care of the trick-or-treaters.
“Come to the ranch with me, Lana. We can talk without interruption there.” He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder.
She stepped away from him, finding his touch painful. “I told you, we have nothing to talk about.”
He raked a hand through his hair and his eyes were stormy seas of turmoil. “Thirty minutes, Lana. All I want is thirty minutes of your time. But it has to be at the ranch. Please.” The word was a mere whisper and his face held a naked vulnerability she’d never seen before.
“Okay,” she heard herself say and instantly wanted to call the word back.
A moment later they were in Chance’s car, both silent as they drove toward the ranch.
Lana wanted to kick herself for agreeing to this madness. She’d said her goodbye, to the ranch and to him. What could possibly be gained by thirty minutes spent with the man—and at the ranch she’d wanted to call home?
“I would have never opened the door if I’d known you were there,” she said, breaking the silence.
“I know that. It cost me ten bucks to get the kid to knock on your door, then disappear. He drove a hard bargain.”
A hard bargain. No, the real hard bargain had been the one she and Chance had made. The bargain that had, on the surface, appeared to be an answer to both their dilemmas.
They didn’t speak another word until Chance pulled up in front of the house. “I’m here, so talk,” she said, not moving from the car.
“Don’t be difficult,” he chided. “Come inside and we’ll talk over coffee.”
She didn’t want to go inside. She didn’t want to step into the place where she’d been so happy. She didn’t want to smell the familiar scent of Chance everywhere, remember the moments they’d spent together.
“Thirty minutes,” she reminded him as she reluctantly got out of the car. “And then you take me right back to my apartment.”
“It’s a deal,” he replied.
She followed him into the house, but paused as he headed down the hallway. He turned and looked at her, his expression unreadable. “I want to show you something in the spare room,” he said in explanation.
Curious despite her hesitation, she continued to follow him. When they reached the doorway to the spare room, he opened it up and she gasped in surprise.
The cribs. The beautiful cribs she’d seen in the store. Someplace in the back of her mind, she also registered that the wall had been fixed.
“They belong here, Lana,” he spoke softly from just behind her. “And you belong here.”
She turned to him, tears of pain, tears of anger welling up in her eyes. “Why are you doing this to me?” She struck out at his chest with her fists. “Why are you making this so hard?”
She shoved past him and down the hallway, needing to escape the scene of the beautiful cribs her babies would never sleep in.
He caught up with her in the living room and grabbed her by the shoulders to stop her from running out the front door. “I can’t let you go, Lana.”
“You have to let me go,” she cried. “We agreed. We made a bargain.”
“So, sue me for breaking it,” he exclaimed, his voice thick with frustration. “Sue me for changing my dreams, for realizing how empty my life was before you. Sue me for wanting to be a father to my children. But for God’s sakes just don’t cut me out of your life!” He dropped his hands from her shoulders. “I can’t figure out how this got so screwed up.”
Lana knew how things had gotten so screwed up. She’d fallen in love, and despite the fact that she was carrying Chance’s babies, she would not, could not sacrifice herself to a man who didn’t love her back. She sank down on the sofa. “I don’t know, Chance. When I first proposed this whole thing, it seemed incredibly simple. You get what you want, I get what I want, then we both walk away.”
He sat down next to her on the sofa and expelled a deep, long sigh. “Lana, I want you here. I want my children to be raised here, where they’ll have room to grow and play. If you won’t stay here with me, then I’ll deed the ranch over to you and the children and you can live here without me.”
She looked at him in shock. “You can’t do that,” she protested. “The whole reason for us getting married in the first place was so that you’d have this ranch. Sell it, Chance. If you don’t sell it and use the money to start your own business, then what will you do?”
He shrugged. “I can always continue to sell tractors and combines.”
“But that’s not what you wanted,” she protested.
“Lana, I don’t want to sell the ranch. I want you to have it.” He broke their eye contact and stared down at the top of the coffee table. “If all my dreams came true, then we’ll all live here together. You, me and our children. But I don’t know how to make that happen. I don’t know how to tell you how much I need you.”
“What?” Her heart seemed to stop beating in her chest at his unexpected words.
He looked back at her, his eyes tortured pools of emotion. “I need you, Lana.” The words seemed to seep out of him reluctantly. “I need you in my life. I love you, Lana.”
Once again tears sprang to her eyes. “You’re confused. You mean you love the babies. They are the reasons you want me in your life. They are the reasons you want the marriage to continue.”
“That’s not true, Lana.” He took her hands in his, holding tight so she couldn’t pull away. “You want to know the truth? When you told me you thought you might be pregnant, I was disappointed. I wasn’t ready to give you up.”
His words stole her breath away, but still she was wary. “Chance, I don’t want you to stay with me and then grow resentful and angry. I couldn’t bear if I thought that I had ruined your life.”
“Lana, the only way you can ruin my life is if you leave me.” His eyes shimmered luminously, like green mists in the moonlight. “I love you, Lana, and it’s you I want to spend my life with. I want to grow old with you, and watch our children and our g
randchildren grow. I want you in my bed every night and sharing all my days with me.”
“Chance Reilly, if you don’t kiss me this very moment, I think I just might die,” Lana gasped.
He didn’t disappoint her. His mouth captured hers in a kiss that was a combination of hunger and love. Lana responded with all the passion that burned inside her for him, all the love she’d tried so hard to deny.
“I love you, Lana. You’re everything good in my life,” he said when the kiss ended.
“Oh, Chance, how I love you,” she said as she swiped at the happy tears that filled her eyes. “I loved you when I was thirteen and I still love you with every ounce of my being, every beat of my heart.”
He gathered her against his side and pulled the pins from her bun, releasing her hair from its confines. “I was afraid to love you, afraid that somehow I wouldn’t be the man you needed in your life.”
Lana opened her mouth to protest, but he placed a finger against her lips, then continued. “All my life, my old man told me I was worthless, not good for anybody. I wasn’t a keeper. And for most of my life, I believed him.”
His eyes radiated love as he gazed at her. “But somehow you managed to dig out the poison of those old feelings. You made me realize who I really am, what I’m really capable of, and what I want from life. And what I want is you.”
Lana’s heart filled with the glory of his words, the wonder of his love. She placed a hand on his cheek and gazed into his gorgeous eyes. “You are a keeper, Chance Reilly. And I intend to keep you for the rest of my life.”
Again his mouth claimed hers and in it was the hope for their future, the joy of their desire, and the dreams on which they’d build a marriage for years to come.
This time when he broke the kiss, his eyes shone with a distinctly heated glitter. “You know it’s Halloween night,” he said. “And if you come into the master bedroom with me, I think I might just be able to arrange a treat.”
She smiled. “Are you sure this isn’t another trick?”
He laughed and stood, then pulled her up into his arms. “You can tell me later.”
As he carried her down the hallway, Lana wrapped her arms around his neck. Her thoughts drifted to Meredith and Joe, together again after all the years. Lana felt as if it had taken years for her to gain her heart’s desire. She’d fallen in love with Chance years ago and had dreamed of being his bride.
It had been a young girl’s love and a young girl’s fantasy. But the love that blossomed in her heart for him now was that of a mature woman. She knew that they would fill this house with children and laughter, and most of all love.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Carla Cassidy for her contribution to THE COLTONS series.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8418-4
PREGNANT IN PROSPERINO
Copyright © 2001 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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