“Where’d you come up with all that?”
“I did some research on the internet this afternoon. I ordered some books but they won’t be here for a couple of days.”
God, she really was a mess. She hadn’t even bought a pregnancy book yet. How could she be so successful in her professional life and a bitter failure at everything else? She’d gotten through college and graduate school magna cum laude, but she couldn’t bother to buy her own pregnancy book. Of course, buying a book would mean she’d accepted the inevitable, and she’d barely gotten her brain around the fact that she was pregnant.
Michael pulled out a pair of glasses from his shirt pocket and slid them on. Damn, that was sexy. She nibbled on her brownie and imagined him wearing those glasses… and nothing else. “First off, what’s your due date?”
“May twenty-eighth.”
He scribbled on the pad. He had to write that down? That date had been running through her mind every minute since the doctor said it.
His head tilted as he studied the paper for a minute. “That puts you right where you said. Twelve weeks. Have you had any morning sickness?”
“Some.” Almost every day, but really, did he need to know that? She’d been embarrassed enough that she’d had to interrupt a couple of sessions to go get sick. And that she’d ducked behind bushes a couple of times on the way to her car.
He scribbled more. “Now that it’s the end of the first trimester, the queasiness should be almost gone.”
“Thank God,” she mumbled under her breath.
“What was that?”
She plastered a bright smile on her face. “Nothing.”
“Okay, next. This one web site I found talked about prenatal vitamins and getting enough calcium. Are you taking those?”
She thought about the slip in her purse. The pharmacy had been closed by the time she’d finished work and she didn’t have the energy to drive to the superstore in Cedar Hill. “Not yet. The doctor gave me a prescription.”
His eyebrows raised. That was the first show of any kind of emotion she’d seen since he’d started this grilling. “Did you fill it?”
“I haven’t had a chance yet.”
He extended his hand. “I’ll be happy to take care of that tomorrow. I’ve got time.”
She headed into the living room to grab her purse. It gave her a chance to escape Michael’s piercing stare. She wasn’t sure she liked Lawyer Michael as much as she liked Friends-with-Benefits Michael.
She handed the paper to him and slid back into her chair. He tucked the slip into his pad quite efficiently. Is this how she appeared to her patients? Stoic and stuffy? If so, she was lightening up. She didn’t want to be like this stern, serious Michael.
She took a bite of brownie and swallowed it before she spooned another taste of couscous into her mouth. If she alternated, at least the couscous went down easier. She wasn’t opposed to eating healthier, but she’d been craving a burger and couscous just didn’t make a suitable substitute.
Michael scribbled a few more notes. “Okay, next.”
She couldn’t stand another minute of this interrogation. She held up her hand. “Michael, stop. What is all this?”
He looked up from the pad, his gaze studying her from over the top of those sexy glasses. “What do you mean?”
“What’s with the third degree? All these questions.”
He finally looked up from the neat lines he was writing and slid the glasses off his nose. “I’m just trying to learn everything I can. I want to be able to support you. I want to do the right thing, but I feel like I’m flying blind here.”
She raised her eyebrows. “And you think I know any more than you do? Why? Just because I’m a woman? All I know is what I found out at my appointment today, which we’ve already covered.”
“No, not exactly. But you are the one who’s pregnant so I just figured…”
He had a point. Shouldn’t she be more natural at this? When it came to her career, she’d succeeded at everything she set out to do. The same should apply to her personal life. You would think so. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been so short with you.”
He flipped a couple of pages on his pad. “That’s okay. I read that hormones can be pretty crazy during pregnancy. Why do you think I subdued you with the brownie?”
He winked. The little stinker winked at her. There was a bit of the Michael that she knew. The one who had her spine tingling just by touching her arm. The one who turned her on just by kissing her. That Michael she knew how to deal with. Serious Michael, not so much.
“Thank you for the brownie. And for dinner. I’d been sitting on the couch, thinking that I was too tired to get up and make something.”
“I figured. I read that—”
“Let me guess, an internet article that said pregnant women get tired easily.”
“Yeah!” A boyish grin split his face. He looked so innocent, like everything he’d learned was new and exciting. She’d passed new and exciting and moved straight into exhausting and sickening a while ago.
Speaking of exhausting, she had about two hours of charting and transcribing to finish tonight. No way would she survive without caffeine. She shuffled to the counter and grabbed a pod for her individual coffee maker. She loved being able to change up the flavors each time. Right now, a dark French roast was going to hit the spot.
Michael stretched over her shoulder and covered the buttons on her coffee maker. “Oh, no, you don’t. No coffee. Caffeine isn’t good for the baby.”
He pulled out a box of tea from the bag. Caffeine-free tea? What in the hell good was tea if it didn’t have caffeine in it? She wasn’t some little old woman, sitting down with her friends drinking from china cups and eating crumpets. Hell, that was probably what her mother was doing in Europe right now.
Maggie thumped her head against his chest and groaned. “How am I going to finish all the work I have to do if I can’t have caffeine?”
Michael rested his hands on her arms and spoke softly in her ear. “It’ll be all right. I’ll help you. Before long, you’ll get your energy back and you’ll be rushing around the condo, straightening everything in sight.”
If only. Her condo could use a good cleaning about now. Nothing new there. If only to get the cat hair off the couch. “I wish. Where’d you hear that?”
That huge grin returned to his face. “The internet.”
He eased her back into her chair and busied himself making that blasted tea. She nibbled on the rest of her sandwich until he brought two mugs to the table. She raised her eyebrow in question. They’d always been able to carry on a conversation without words.
“If you can’t drink coffee, I won’t either. I told you, I want to support you.”
She snatched up the mug so hard that some of the light-colored liquid sloshed onto her hand. The tea was so clear she could see the bottom of the mug. At least if it had been dark like coffee, she could have lied to herself. She brought the mug to her mouth and took a sip. Then another. The hot liquid soothed her raw throat and settled easily into her stomach. And she didn’t need to rush to the bathroom to throw up. Another bonus. “It’s actually not bad.”
“See, you’ll get through this.”
“Why are you being so nice to me?” He’d always been considerate and thoughtful, but this was a different Michael. Even when she’d gone to Philly to visit, they’d gone out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, maybe dancing at a club, and back to his place for a few hours in the sack. Glorious hours where she lost herself in every sight and every sound of being with him. With Michael she got to be the sexy, sophisticated woman she wanted to be instead of a hot mess that she was in the rest of her personal life. Only Cheryl had seen this side of Maggie. Well, now Michael too, as much as she tried to fight it.
“Because I care about what happens to you. You’re pregnant with my baby, and you need someone to take care of you.”
She spit out the sip of tea she’d just drunk. He
had some gall. “You don’t know me very well, Michael Bennett, if you think I ‘need someone to take care of me’, as you say. I’ve been taking care of myself since I was sixteen years old. No one, no man is going to come in here and tell me what to do.”
A stricken look crossed his face. Damn, she shouldn’t have overreacted. He meant well. He’d just hit upon a sore spot. She’d worked hard for everything she had. Her friends in college and grad school had accused her of growing up with a silver spoon in her mouth, of having everything handed to her on a silver platter.
Those girls didn’t know shit. If anything, Maggie had had the opposite. Her parents couldn’t be bothered to check on how she was doing. Even when she got into trouble, which she did a lot, they didn’t interrupt their busy lives just because the school called. Her nanny had been more of a parent than her mother or father. But when she’d turned sixteen, they fired Nanny Sharon, saying Maggie was old enough to take care of herself. She’d never forgiven them for chasing away the closest thing she’d had to a parent. But none of that was Michael’s fault.
“I’m sorry, Michael.”
He nodded and scanned his notepad again. She got that he had a lot of questions, but she’d had plenty of his cross-examination for one day.
When he opened his mouth, she pinched his lips closed and shook her head. “Enough questions. I’m tired. Please, just talk to me.”
He slid the pad into his bag and threaded his fingers together on the table. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I don’t know. Instead of asking me questions, why don’t you tell me how you feel about this?”
He quirked his mouth and looked away. Finally, his gaze returned to hers. “I’m happy. Really happy.” He covered her hand. “I know you didn’t plan this—we didn’t plan this. Hell, I wasn’t sure I ever wanted kids. In that way, we were perfect together. But now this has happened, now that I’ve had a little bit of time to adjust to the fact that I’m going to be a father, I’m ok with it. I’m gonna be a father…”
A sense of awe filled his words when he repeated them. He was going to be a father. She was going to be a mother. What in the hell were the two of them going to do about it?
“What about you?” His gaze bored into her.
“I’m scared shitless.”
He laughed. “Don’t hold back on my account, Doc. Tell me how you really feel.”
Every five minutes, she felt something different. At times, she was confident she had a handle on what she’d have to do to be a working mother. Other days, like tonight, when she didn’t even have the energy to feed herself, she questioned how she could care for a baby who would depend on her for everything. “I’m scared and I’m happy and excited and did I mention scared?”
He wrapped his hands around hers trembling ones. “You aren’t in this alone anymore. I’ll be right beside you every step of the way.”
And that was what scared her the most.
Chapter Six
“HEY, MICHAEL, WHERE do you want this?” Rachel stumbled through his front door carrying a huge box. She tripped and he reached for her just before she fell flat on her face. She chuckled as she righted herself.
“In the back bedroom. Thanks.” That was the last of the boxes from his car. In the driveway, the movers were rolling up their straps and stowing the dollies after situating the last of his furniture. Boxes were stacked from floor to ceiling in every room, his bed frame was in pieces in the master bedroom, and he couldn’t find a drinking glass in the three boxes he’d already unpacked in the kitchen.
He loved it.
“Here, catch.” Joey flung a water bottle at him.
Michael caught it in one hand and twisted off the cap. A few gulps later and his body started to cool. “Thanks.”
He stared at the walls of his new home. He hadn’t lived in a house with a yard since growing up. He’d always lived in apartments and condos in Philly. If he only spent a few hours a day at home, a two bedroom condo in a high rise was perfect. And one of those bedrooms had been his workout room. He didn’t have time for company.
When he’d first looked for places in Oak Grove, he’d considered a condo in Maggie’s building. Hers was close to his office, and a single flight of stairs between him and Maggie would have been an added bonus. In the end, he’d opted for the cottage with a big back yard. Turns out, that had been the right decision. Now he’d have somewhere for his son or daughter to play. He could almost picture the swing set tucked in the back corner under the large oak tree that provided shade for a good part of the yard.
Lucas and Sarah lived just around the corner and had clued him in to the house before the owners put it on the market. He didn’t have much savings after buying Old Man Taylor’s firm, but he’d plopped most of it down on this house. He’d saved a bit by handling the closing himself, but still. He’d be running lean for a couple of months until he got his practice off the ground.
Now that he was his own boss and could set his own hours, he’d have time to mow his lawn and take care of the house. Free time would be even more important to him now that Maggie was pregnant. He couldn’t wait to tell his parents—they’d be over the moon. They fawned over Lily, Sarah’s daughter, every time she came over, hinting that Lucas shouldn’t wait long to add to his family. Who knew that it would be Michael to give them their next grandchild?
Joey smacked him on the shoulder. “What put that stupid grin on your face?”
“Nothing. Just thinking about…” Shit, he couldn’t tell Joey yet. He and Maggie hadn’t agreed on when they were announcing her pregnancy. One of the sites he read mentioned waiting until after the first trimester, to make sure nothing happened. But Maggie was more than twelve weeks along now and she should be past any of those routine risks every woman faced, right? He’d ask her when he went over there later. “Just happy to finally be settled and have everything here.”
“I’d hardly say settled. But all in one place, surely.” Rachel hurried into the room and handed him a box. “Delivery man pulled up right as I was closing up the car. He gave me this.”
The box had the familiar smiley plastered on the side of it. The pregnancy books he’d ordered. He snatched the package and dug into one of the moving boxes for scissors. Joey laughed and pulled out his pocketknife. Michael started to slice at the tape and then stopped. He couldn’t open this now. Rachel and Joey would have questions he couldn’t answer.
He slid the box on the counter and returned the knife to Joey. He rubbed his hands together. “I’d better wait until I have somewhere to put this. In the meantime, I’m starved. Who’s up for some pizza?”
Rachel bounced on her toes. “Original Pizza?”
Tony, Michael’s buddy from high school, had recently opened a new restaurant in town. Not one of those frou-frou Italian restaurants like Michael frequented in Philly, but a real, honest-to-god joint, serving big, greasy pizzas. Joey had been worried at first about another restaurant in town, but after the initial excitement had worn off, everything had settled down and J.J.’s and Original Pizza both maintained a steady flow of diners. This town definitely had room for Tony. Michael wished he’d stayed in touch with his friend while he’d been living in Philly and looked forward to reviving that relationship.
Michael slid his arm around Rachel’s waist. “Yes, we can go to Original Pizza.”
Rachel squealed. “I’m gonna give Sawyer a quick call. I’ll meet you there, okay?” She rushed out of the room before Michael could even respond.
The grin that Michael was sporting earlier now split across Joey’s face. “She’s happy.”
“Finally. I didn’t think we’d ever see that Rachel again.” Michael inwardly sighed. She showed no physical evidence of her ex’s abuse, but a person’s wounds could be hidden deep inside. Thankfully, Maggie had been counseling Rachel since right after she left Shane. Michael didn’t know the details of their sessions, but the sister he’d grown up with was back.
Counseling wasn’t the only
thing that helped Rachel. Sawyer had been by her side as she’d healed, and in turn, she’d brought him out of his shell and chased away some of the shadows he’d brought home from Afghanistan from his eyes.
In the meantime, they fell in love.
“You okay, man?”
“Sure. Got a lot on my mind, I guess.”
Joey pretended to fling a towel over his shoulder and rested his hands in front of him. “Wanna pull up a stool and tell me all about it? I hear I’m a pretty good listener.”
Michael laughed. Joey’s wit shook Michael out of the funk that came over him any time he thought about Rachel’s situation. Was she going to tell the rest of them about her paternity? He wasn’t sure he could keep this secret much longer.
Once Joey and Lucas knew, they could talk about it. As brothers.
In the meantime, maybe he’d talk to Maggie. She could help him with ideas to support Rachel. At least as much as was allowed without revealing private information about their sessions. He understood about client privacy—he dealt with the same as an attorney.
Joey nudged him. “What’s going on with you today? It’s like you’re a thousand miles away. This little bit of hard work wear you out, big brother? You get soft living in the city all those years?”
Michael chuckled and slugged Joey in the shoulder. “Yeah, right. Just wait until the next time I get you on the basketball court. Let’s close up and get some pizza.”
“Sounds good to me. Brittany’s taking a break and she’ll meet us there. If Lucas can get away from the station, he’ll pop in, too.”
TEN MINUTES LATER, six of them were squeezed around a table at Original Pizza. They didn’t bother to look at the menu—they ordered two large pies and a couple of salads on the side.
As soon as they placed their order, Tony popped his head out of the back. Michael raised his hand, and his friend smiled and waved. He said something to the brunette beside him and rushed to their table.
“Michael, man, when did you get back into town? Good to see you.” Tony gripped Michael’s hand and clutched his shoulder as Michael stood to greet him.
One Last Objection_A Small-Town Romance Page 5