* * *
Darcy woke slowly, her senses coming back online one at a time as she registered the hard mattress of the hospital bed beneath her, the dimmed overhead light and the deep rumble of a voice she hadn’t been expecting. One which shouldn’t have been coming from anywhere near her.
Jeff.
“...Dehydration, fatigue, low blood pressure, weight loss... No, they say both she and the baby will be all right, but there’s no way in hell I’m leaving without—”
She shifted in the bed, remembering too late about the needle threaded into her vein and letting out a short gasp when she put weight on it.
Whatever Jeff had been about to say, she missed and now the conversation was over. Jeff was suddenly in her room, filling up the small space with his enormous presence. Dropping his phone into the inside pocket of his suit jacket, he crossed to her bed like he was going to slide into the open chair beside her. But instead, he reached for the call button and signaled the nurse before taking a step back. Fixing her with a serious look. “Do you need anything? How are you feeling?”
“Tired still, but, Jeff, you didn’t need to come. I told Charlie, they just wanted me to get some fluids and an antinaus—”
“You told me you were fine.” It wasn’t exactly accusation she was getting off him, but the intensity was like a palpable thing. “I spoke to your doctor already and hyperemesis gravidarum can be dangerous and severe. You are not fine, Darcy.”
Guilt washed over her in a wave. She’d thought it was just morning sickness in an all-day, extended package, which she’d heard was normal, too. Though she’d planned to speak to her doctor at her next checkup about the extremity of it, she’d had no idea her body had begun turning against her, threatening what she’d been struggling to protect.
“I didn’t know it had gotten so bad. I don’t own a scale so I didn’t know how much weight I’d lost. My clothes fit a little differently, loose, but I’d heard lots of people lose weight early on.” She felt a burning pressure at the backs of her eyes and blinked to defend against the emotions trying to slip free.
She was supposed to be the one who took her responsibilities seriously and made the right decisions. She was supposed to be able to count on herself. Her child’s life depended on it.
She swallowed and looked up at Jeff.
The man who was all laughter and easy good times hadn’t shown up at her bedside. This Jeff was serious. No-nonsense. And he was here because the woman responsible for protecting his child hadn’t even realized she was at risk of failing.
This Jeff had every reason for making an appearance. If the tables were turned, she’d be looking at him the same way.
“Jeff, I’m sorry.”
He nodded, but the look in his eyes was hard. “Here’s the deal, Darcy. I know you’re tough and I know you’re independent. But I’m uncomfortable with you alone like this. From what I understand, it was a fluke your boss happened to be walking by when you passed out. You work in isolation for hours at a stretch. Take public transportation home alone to the apartment you don’t share with anyone else. You don’t have anyone here looking out for you, so what I’m asking, is does it really make sense for you to still be up here?”
She looked down at her hands, at the plastic tube snaking its way up her arm, feeling more alone in that moment than she could ever remember feeling before.
“I’ve got a job here, Jeff.”
He stepped closer to the bed, and after a pause, dropped into the chair beside her. His hand moved to her belly and rested there for a beat. “You’ve got our baby in here. And he’s kicking your butt. Come back with me and I’ll take care of you. We’ll get through this together. You don’t have to be on your own.”
Darcy couldn’t take her eyes off the sight of his hand against her stomach, couldn’t think about anything but the heat radiating from his touch and how good it felt, when nothing had felt good, since the last time—the first time—he’d put his hands on her.
Which she couldn’t think about. Not like this. Not with him touching her in a way that was so totally not about her at all, but about the child they shared together. About his concern.
Jeff cleared his throat. “We could get married.”
Darcy stiffened. “We don’t even know each other.”
“I don’t mean permanently. Just until the baby is born, so he’d be legitimate.”
The breath leaked from her lungs, as she shook her head, trying to ignore that pinch of disappointment there was no justification for. “Legitimacy isn’t any reason to get married, Jeff.”
“I know. Forget it.” Jeff let out an impatient growl, pulled his hand away and then ran it through the mess of his hair going on as if he hadn’t dropped that bomb. “You’re determined to work?”
He couldn’t understand, but he needed to accept it. “Yes.”
“Fine.” He stood, stared down at the spot where his hand had been and nodded.
Then heading for the door, he looked back with a frown. “I actually know of a position that might be the perfect fit.”
EIGHT
“You low-down, dirty liar,” Darcy accused, her color looking better than Jeff had seen it since Vegas.
Catching the finger she was jabbing into his chest with a gentle hand, he eased her back into the deep leather seat of the limo and clarified. “I never lied.”
Omitted, evaded and manipulated? Yes.
Definitely.
But he’d taken one look at her lying in that hospital bed, and decided the moral hit was one he’d gladly take to ensure he got Darcy out of San Francisco and down to L.A. where he could make certain she was getting what she needed.
“False pretenses, Jeff,” she hissed, her head working like a spindle as she shot nervous looks out one window after another as they rolled through the immaculately manicured upscale neighborhood of Beverly Hills.
“I told you, it was a part-time position as a personal assistant—”
“Oh, you told me all right,” she snapped. “Flexible hours, excellent benefits including room and board, assisting an elderly widow with her social and charitable obligations—”
Her words cut off with a squeak as they turned into a private community where security waved them through.
“Hey, I never said elderly. I said older. Which is true.” That’s all he needed. The wrath of both his pregnant non-girlfriend combined with the wrath of his—
“Your mother, Jeff!”
The key here was to remain calm. Not to reach over and haul Darcy into his lap and yell into her face about all the things he didn’t like about their situation. About his lack of say. And her stubborn mule streak and the fact that she wasn’t going to need a damn job for the rest of her damned life and why the hell wouldn’t she just take one of the damn checks he kept trying to give her.
So instead, he blew out a controlled breath and met her enraged stare. Turned up his palms and shrugged. “She needed an assistant.”
Okay, so his mother hadn’t actually needed the assistant until Jeff called her and told her she did. But then, she’d rather desperately started needing one. Had been downright giddy about it, truth be told.
“Oh, does she? Your mother is so very busy, so lonely and desperate for help, she needs a woman she doesn’t know moving into her home with her. A high school dropout, Jeff, who grew up in a beat-down trailer on the wrong side of the park. A Vegas cocktail waitress who went home with a virtual stranger, got knocked up and then—surprise!—showed up three months later. You think that’s the woman your mother needs assisting her with her charitable endeavors?”
Jeff stared, wondering who was in this car with him. Because the woman he’d met in Vegas, the one who’d shown up at his office, and he’d been talking to every few nights for the past few weeks knew her own worth and would never i
n a million years let anyone undervalue her the way she’d just undervalued herself.
He understood pregnancy hadn’t been a part of her plan, and he expected the loss of control for a woman who’d been all about the ironclad of it, had been a tough pill to swallow. He was certain it had shaken her confidence. But the words that had just come out of her mouth angered him.
“I don’t know who to be offended for first, my mother, myself, my kid or you. Look, I don’t come from a family of snobs. Yeah, we’ve got money and have had for a long time. But it doesn’t mean we don’t know the value of hard work, or respect people who’ve had to overcome challenges different than the ones we’ve faced. And here’s something else. My mother respects me. That I took you home the night I met you will tell her something about you, too.”
Darcy let out bitter laugh. “My measurements?”
“What the hell is wrong with you, Darcy? If it was just about your body—” And then he was right where he shouldn’t be. Inches from Darcy’s face, his eyes searching hers for any sign of the understanding he couldn’t believe wasn’t there. “Damn it, you know that wasn’t how it was. I wanted you!”
As soon as the words left his mouth he cursed himself for saying them. Going forward as they intended would be easier without the acknowledgment of an attraction that was more than physical driving the hot pursuit he hadn’t been able to shut down their first night together. But listening to Darcy sell herself short, he hadn’t been able to stop himself.
Only now, as he saw the surprise in her eyes—the flash of hurt or remorse, maybe?—he realized she didn’t know. Or at least hadn’t been sure.
How could she have missed it? Why hadn’t she believed him?
And what the hell difference did it make now? None.
Except perhaps to underscore yet another way in which he’d misperceived their initial connection. As much as he sometimes sensed that they were, he and Darcy weren’t on the same page. He needed to remember that.
Jeff cleared his throat and sat back.
What mattered now was getting Darcy to agree to getting out of this car when they arrived, moving into his mother’s house and if she was going to be bullheaded about the damn job thing, accepting the make-believe position of his mother’s assistant.
Which meant getting her to settle down in the next thirty seconds before they reached the turnoff for his house.
“Couple things we need to get straight, Darcy. Here’s what I know. You’ve got your G.E.D., have a clean credit history, no criminal record, pay your own rent on time every time and until the past three months when you ran into some unexpected health issues, have had an exemplary work record. You don’t fool around with customers...except that once, and you don’t appear to do much dating. None of which is going to matter to my mother at all. The only thing she cares about is you are going to have her grandchild. That and someone else is going to be confirming the floral arrangements for her luncheon next week.”
When she just stared at him, he stared right back. “You’re the mother of my child. So yeah, I did a web search on you.”
“All that came up?” she asked quietly, her brows inching up in a way that had the corners of his mouth twitching.
“No. It didn’t. Now, stop putting yourself down. I don’t like it.”
The car pulled to a stop at the foot of the flared stone stairs leading to the front door.
Darcy shot a tentative look toward the house. “It’s not like that’s the way I see myself,” she said quietly. “But I just don’t know how someone who hasn’t even met me yet could see anything else. And I don’t want— If I’m living under the same roof—”
Jeff reached across the car and took her hand. “It won’t be.”
And the reason why, had just flung open the front door.
* * *
Darcy’s heart began to thump, as Mrs. Norton, decked out in formfitting yoga gear and a disheveled ponytail, jogged down the stairs with a beaming smile and wide wave.
“Older?” she asked Jeff incredulously, wondering whether his father should have served time for taking a child bride. The woman couldn’t be fifty.
Helping her out of the car, he answered, “She’s older than we are.”
“Jeffrey! Darling, it’s so good to see you,” Mrs. Norton said, opening her arms wide to pull her six-foot-something son into her diminutive embrace. Then just as quickly as she’d pulled him in, she pushed him back, redirecting her focus on Darcy. Eyes that were the same warm hazel as Jeff’s met hers as she held out a hand in welcome. “Darcy, thank God you’ve agreed to help me. This couldn’t be more ideal. I was absolutely desperate and now we have the perfect opportunity to get to know each other. Ooh, I want to throw my arms around you, but Jeff would probably dive between us to protect you from my overzealous embrace. He’s twitchy about you. If you haven’t figured it out already.”
Darcy shot a surprised look over at Jeff, standing there, hands hooked into his pockets, totally at ease in this bizarre situation.
“Mrs. Norton, thank you very much for opening up your home to me.” She wanted to stress she wouldn’t be staying long, but there was something in the open, welcoming smile on her face that made Darcy feel to do so would somehow be an insult.
“Oh, please, not Mrs. Norton. It’s Gail. Believe me, five years from now when you’re hearing Mrs. Norton every time one of this little guy’s friends looks up at you, you’ll know what I mean.”
Darcy blanched at the reference to nuptials, but it was Jeff who jumped in to make the clarification. “Not Mrs. Norton, Mom. Ms. Penn.”
Gail’s cheeks went pink and her eyes squinched shut, but then she just laughed. “Oh, hell.”
With a deep breath she waved her hand about dismissively. “I know. It’s just the idea of having a little grandbaby— And as to Ms. Penn?” She shook her head conspiratorially. “In five years. Not a chance.”
“Mom.” This time Jeff’s voice was more serious. “Don’t—”
“Don’t worry, darling I won’t be pushing anyone in front of her until I’ve gotten to know her better. Why waste time with bad matches. Okay, come along now, kids. We’ll get Darcy settled and then after a bit of rest, give her the tour.”
“Honestly, Mrs. Nor—”
The arch look sailing over Jeff’s mother’s shoulder had her in place in a beat.
“Gail. You don’t need to go to any trouble for me.”
“Thank you, dear. But it’s no trouble at all. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier to have you here and just want you settled and comfortable as soon as possible.”
“All right. Then thank you.”
Gail nodded, her brisk steps taking her up the wide curving stairs to the still open front door. “I’m putting her in Connor’s old room.”
Darcy coughed, her eyes going wide as she looked over at Jeff. “Wow, Connor had a room to himself, huh.”
Jeff was walking beside her, the strap of one bag slung across his chest. The handles from the other duffel hanging from his hand. “He spent a lot of time here when we had breaks from school.” He answered distractedly, looking a bit tense all of the sudden. Was he having second thoughts about her being here? Or more likely he simply didn’t remember the line he’d used to pick her up. The joke about his ego named Connor. But in truth, it was probably better there not be some collection of inside jokes between them.
The connection she felt to this man was dangerous enough without the added intimacy.
NINE
Up in Connor’s old room, a space Jeff knew nearly as well as his own, he looked around wondering at what Darcy would make of it. The walls were still sage-green. The trim the same white that ran through the rest of the house. But somehow every bit of lingering high school boy and college man had been stripped from the space within the past day. The shelves emptied of
all but a few items—and those last few he was certain remained just to ensure Darcy didn’t walk into a space that felt barren and stark.
A gesture he appreciated after seeing how few belongings she actually owned.
He set the bags on the bed Darcy would be sleeping in. He’d never paid much attention before, but now, couldn’t help but notice it was king-size. Huge for a single woman sleeping alone.
Which despite his mother’s apparent desire to marry her off to someone—Darcy would be.
Mrs. Norton.
Not going to happen. Slip of the tongue or Freudian slip... His mother had been completely off base with that.
Darcy Norton.
He didn’t know her middle name.
He blinked. What the hell was he thinking? He didn’t need her middle name. Didn’t want to know it.
Because even if there was some lingering bit of attraction between them, it wasn’t the stuff Mrs. Nortons were made of.
Yeah, she was beautiful, and fun, and having his baby. But Darcy was one giant no trespassing sign. And not in some sexual sense—but, damn, he needed his head to stop going there, too.
She was just so unavailable. Different than he’d believed that first night.
“It’s bigger than my apartment.”
He turned to where Darcy stood in the doorway, her arms wrapped across her belly signaling her stomach wasn’t doing well, but hadn’t reached critical levels yet.
“And it comes furnished, too. You’ll have this room. The bathroom connects through there and you’ve got a sitting room with desk and computer on the other side.”
“Okay, so it’s a lot bigger than my apartment.”
“Think you’ll feel okay staying here?” It was such a strange question to ask, after he’d all but railroaded her into making the concession, swearing up and down she’d be comfortable.
Only now that she was precisely where he’d wanted to get her—the idea of actually leaving her here unsettled him in a way he couldn’t reconcile.
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