She's Having My Baby! (Silhouette Romance) Read online

  His dark eyes were clouded, and she couldn’t read a thing in them.

  “Well,” he said at last, speaking slowly. “I guess…well, congratulations.”

  “Thank you very much.” She tried to peel away his fingers. “Now I’ve got to get home.”

  His grip on her only tightened. Maggie was pregnant. It probably had nothing to do with him. She had a husband, after all. And she was very unpregnant looking, so she couldn’t be very far along. He would have noticed. So this had nothing to do with his situation, nothing at all.

  “I suppose you’re anxious to get home to talk to your husband about it,” he said, his voice flat, his gaze probing hers.

  She opened her mouth to tell him she had no husband, then closed it again. He noticed the gesture and a frown darkened his eyes, and then, quickly, a decision.

  “Come on,” he said, turning and forcing her to turn with him. “I’m driving you home.”

  “Oh, no! I can drive myself.”

  “No you can’t. You’re too upset.”

  Something was very wrong, and he was going to take care of it. If it had something to do with her husband, she might need him there as a backup. He didn’t know why he was thinking along these lines. Some instinct was telling him to take care of her and that was what he was going to do.

  They reached his silver Mercedes and he used his remote to open the doors. “My car is right here. Hop in.”

  “I’m fine,” she protested, looking back down the parking structure at her own car.

  “No, you’re not. Get in or I’ll pick you up and put you in.”

  She got in. “The contract!” she cried, turning to look at him as he slid into the driver’s seat.

  “Hell with the contract, Maggie. Your well-being is much more important than any damn contract.”

  Their gazes held for a long moment, and then she looked away. But it wasn’t a surrender, and he didn’t take it that way.

  Still, he knew she was afraid of something. Was it her husband? Or something else? He didn’t know, but he was going to take her home and assess the situation for himself. Right now, making sure Maggie was safe and secure was the most important thing.

  Pulling out of the parking garage, he glanced at her sideways. Maggie was pregnant. He had to digest this, take it in and evaluate it. He was not going to jump to conclusions this time. He’d done that too often already with other women in his firm. It had been downright embarrassing when the truth had come out—that they each had perfectly rational explanations for their pregnancies that had nothing to do with him. He’d sworn he wouldn’t get caught up in something like that again.

  Besides, there was the husband. Was that what had her so upset? He’d brought up pregnancy and here she was, pregnant herself. Maybe her husband wasn’t happy about it. Maybe there was something wrong with the baby. Maybe…

  He glanced sideways at her and saw what he was looking for. She wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. He remembered that she’d had one once. He’d noticed, because it had looked very much like the one he’d bought for his wife, Crystal, all those years ago. But it was gone now. His pulse began to race.

  Don’t be a fool, he told himself. It doesn’t mean anything. A lot of women take off their wedding rings when they become pregnant. Sometimes it’s because their fingers swell, sometimes it’s because any kind of metal makes them itch during pregnancy. It’s a funny time for a woman.

  She gave him directions and they pulled into the parking garage of a high-rise apartment building.

  “I’m coming up with you,” he told her before she had a chance to dismiss him. “I want to make sure you’re okay.”

  She stared at him for a moment, but she didn’t ask why he thought she needed such help. Silently, she led the way through the security entrance, then up the elevator and on to her door, which she opened with her key. He followed her inside, looking about the room as though he expected to find something that would explain everything to him. He still had his car keys in his hand and he set them down on her dining table before turning to continue his scrutiny.

  It was a modest apartment, in a building that had seen better days. She’d decorated nicely, but right now the bookshelves were only half filled, and cardboard boxes were strewn about, some full of household items, some empty.

  “Are you moving?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “I need a cheaper place. And they frown on children here.”

  He winced, remembering the times he’d complained about children in the courtyard of his old apartment, before he’d bought the penthouse he had now. Looking around again, he noted the absence of any sign of a masculine presence in the place.

  “Maggie, you have to tell me the truth.”

  She looked at him pleadingly. “Do I?”

  “Yes. Where’s your husband?”

  “I don’t have a husband,” she said, chin high and eyes clear now that she’d had a chance to settle down. “He died two years ago.”

  He took a deep breath. He’d thought as much. “Boyfriend?” he asked.

  She shook her head.

  He looked down at her stomach and frowned. “How far along are you?” he asked.

  She started to turn away without answering, but he grabbed her arm. She felt so slim, so fragile, and his grip turned into more of a caress than anything else. Looking down into her tear-stained face, he repeated the question.

  “You can’t be five months,” he said softly. “Can you?”

  She looked up into his gaze and very slowly, she nodded.

  “The Lakeside Reproductive Clinic?” he asked, his voice like ground glass.

  She nodded again, her eyes shining bravely.

  His heart was full, and he looked down into her beautiful face and did the only thing he could think of. He kissed her. A soft, quick kiss, lightly touching her lips, but to him, it sealed their new bond in a way nothing else could.

  “We don’t know for sure,” she reminded him, drawing back. “Until Monday, when we can check with the clinic.”

  He nodded, and then he backed away from her a step or two.

  He felt elated. The mystery was solved. He’d found his baby.

  But at the same time, new questions were popping up everywhere, so many, his head was swimming. Maggie must have been feeling very similar doubts, because suddenly she was pressing his keys into his hand and guiding him toward the door.

  “Go home and think this over,” she told him. “On Monday, once we know for sure, we’ll talk.”

  He lingered, reluctant to leave. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked. “You have my home number, in case…”

  “Go,” she said, pushing him out. “Just go.”

  “Okay.”

  He went and she closed the door behind him. He shoved his hands into his pockets and grinned. His baby was real. He’d found the little tyke. And he’d found his baby’s mother. But as he made his way back down to his car, his grin faded. This wasn’t the end of a quest. This was only the beginning. There was no doubt that his life was about to make a radical change. Was he ready for that?

  Chapter Four

  “So what do I do now?”

  Kane hunched his shoulders under his rumpled suit coat and gazed at his brother across the kitchen table, his eyes intense, though bleary.

  Mark yawned and shook his head. “Your guess is as good as mine,” he said, pulling his robe more tightly against the cold morning air. The sun hadn’t risen yet, but at least Jill, his wife, had coffee perking and breakfast started. “What do you want to do?”

  Kane hesitated. He’d been in his car, out on the street, waiting for the first sign of life to come from Mark’s house so he could knock on the door, for the last hour. He had to bounce his ideas off someone and he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he’d come to some sort of decision.

  The minute the first light had flashed on, he’d been at the front door with his finger on the bell, and he’d had most of his story out to his brother before the
y’d reached the kitchen. Now that Mark knew the essentials, he was hoping for a word or two of wisdom. But Mark had asked what he wanted to do. And that was just the problem. He wasn’t sure.

  “Okay, look,” he said, leaning forward. “I’ve been thinking it over all night, and now I feel like I’ve got a hamster on a treadmill in my brain. I keep going over the same things, again and again. Give me something new. I need input.”

  Mark sat up straighter as Jill poured hot coffee into big mugs with large handles for each of them.

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” Mark grumbled as he wrapped his hands around the steaming mug. “You wanted to know who was carrying your baby. Now you know. End of story.”

  Jill made a harrumphing sound as she set the coffeepot down on the counter, but neither of them noticed. She put a large frying pan on the burner and began breaking eggs into a bowl.

  “I can’t believe it’s your administrative assistant,” Mark said for the tenth time, shaking his head. “That’s so weird.”

  “Maggie is anything but weird,” Kane told him firmly. “You’ve met her. You know that.”

  Mark nodded. He and Jill had both met her at a few company parties they’d been invited to, but only fleetingly. “So where were you all night?” he asked with a grimace at Kane’s crumpled clothing.

  Kane leaned back, frowning as he tried to reconstruct his movements of the previous evening. “I stopped in at that little jazz club on Grand. Had a few drinks. Went to another club…”

  “You drove in that condition?”

  Their eyes met and a memory flashed between them. Kane knew they were both thinking about his father and his drinking problem. Though Mark had never known him, he knew all about the way alcohol had destroyed him. He and Kane never brought it up, but it was an unspoken piece of Kane’s past that one had only heard of and the other had lived.

  “No, of course not,” Kane said quickly. “I took a cab at that point. And anyway, I didn’t drink that much.” He moved restlessly, pushing the mug from one place to another in front of him on the table. “So what am I going to do about this baby thing?”

  Jill harrumphed again, and this time they both turned to look at her. She narrowed her cool green eyes, shook her headful of auburn curls, and sighed. Making a quick decision to join them, she turned off the burner under the eggs and sank down into a chair at the table. From the set of her shoulders, it was obvious she thought their conversation needed a little managing.

  “Okay, Kane,” she said, getting right to the point. “Here are your options. In the first place, you can walk away and ignore the entire thing. After all, she didn’t ask you to get involved, did she? If you hadn’t been doing the sleuthing, you probably wouldn’t even know her baby was in any way related to you.”

  She paused to give him time to digest her words, and he frowned, slowly shaking his head.

  “Okay, second option,” she went on. “You can stay in the background but make sure she’s always provided for. That gives her support but leaves you both free from an entangling relationship.”

  He didn’t frown, but he looked uncomfortable, and she put her hand flat on the table with a decisive slap. “Or, you can do what’s right,” she announced firmly. “Step up to the plate and marry her,”

  “Marry her!” Kane blanched, rearing back as though to get away from the very concept. “I can’t get married. You know I’ve always said I never planned to get married again.”

  “Oh, come on,” Jill said, her green eyes steady. “You never planned to have a baby, either. Life is what happens while we’re making plans to do something else. But we deal with it.”

  Kane shook his head stubbornly, his dark eyes troubled. “No. No marrying. That’s no good.” His gaze met Jill’s and then skittered away again. “I don’t want all that upheaval that comes with marriage, and the unfulfilled expectations. I just want to be there for the kid if he needs me. I want to watch him grow up.” He looked at Mark for understanding. “Do you get what I mean?”

  Mark shrugged, looking wary.

  Kane sighed and looked back at Jill. “I guess that second option you were talking about comes closest to what I have in mind,” he said reluctantly. “But I don’t know….”

  She hesitated, biting her lip as though not sure whether to give her own opinion, then gave into the impulse and reached out to take Kane’s hand. “Okay, so you want to control her life and keep her nearby for your own reasons. Selfish, though understandable.” She fixed him with a probing look. “But what are you giving her in return?”

  He shrugged and answered a bit defensively. “A lot of money.”

  “Money!” Jill made a face, pulling her hand back. “Money is nothing!”

  Mark looked hurt. “Thanks a lot,” he said rather pathetically.

  Jill reached out and squeezed his hand, too. “Oh, honey, you are a very good provider and we all appreciate it. But we could live under a bridge and still be a happy family, because of what else you bring to this enterprise. The money makes life easier, but it doesn’t form the glue that keeps us together.”

  “No.” He smiled at Jill, his eyes shining. “You do that.”

  They gazed into each other’s faces like lovesick puppies, and Kane felt like snarling. Did they have to flaunt how happy their marriage was? He looked away, giving them a moment of privacy—kind of—then went on with his own problems. After all, that was what this meeting was supposed to be about.

  “This is so messed up,” he complained, sipping his coffee. “I thought that all I wanted was to find out who was having my baby. I had it all planned out in my head. I would be this smiling, benevolent person in the background, who would make sure the baby had a wonderful life, never asking for thanks or recognition…”

  “Sort of a male fairy godmother,” Jill broke in to offer, her eyebrows raised.

  He gave her a baleful look, not sure if that was sarcasm he heard in her tone. “Sort of.”

  “Kane, honey, do you think a woman like your Maggie will go forever without getting married again?” she said softly. “I don’t think so. She’ll find someone eventually. And when she does, they’ll be gone. They might move to California, for all you know. Japan. Tahiti. And what can you do about it?”

  “That might be the best thing,” Mark said, thinking he was being helpful. “I mean, if you just give her money and don’t get involved personally, that leaves her free to form a new relationship and get a father for that kid.”

  Kane looked at them both in confusion. That kid. That kid? His kid.

  “No.” He was startled to hear himself say the word aloud.

  “I am the father. I want to be his father.” Was that really coming from his mouth? He wasn’t even sure. Did he really want this? He’d never had a yen to have children before. Why was he feeling this way now?

  “But you don’t want to marry her.” Jill threw out her hands, palms up. “Your choice, Kane. But without a marriage license, you have no control at all.”

  Kane’s groan came from deep within his soul. “It all seemed so simple before I found out it was Maggie. Now that I know who it is…everything has changed. Nothing seems to fit together. There are too many questions.” He gazed at them both, appalled. “This is crazy. I didn’t realize that finding the answer would only open up a whole new can of worms. The decisions…the alternatives…the hopes and fears.”

  Mark and Jill looked at each other and laughed. “Welcome to parenthood,” Jill said with due sympathy. “Hang on tight, honey. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

  An hour later he was driving through the early-morning Chicago streets, still in a quandary. Mark and Jill had only managed to cloud the issues even further for him. What the hell was he going to do? He pulled over to the side, parking next to a bank of snow that had been shoved up out of the street, to give himself time to think.

  He’d thought he’d had it all worked out, but now everything was so different from what he’d imagined—even more different than
he’d let on to Mark and Jill. After all, Maggie was no unknown young woman married to a man whose privacy had to be respected. No matter how he might talk, this was not going to be a case of showing up once a year with goodies for the child and setting up a trust fund. This was his own Maggie who was going to have his baby, the woman who ruled over half of his life as it was.

  He seemed to have known her forever, but that was just because she was so very important to him. Somehow he hadn’t noticed as her influence over him grew and grew. Now he couldn’t imagine life without her. He hadn’t even begun to come to terms with what a difference that made.

  He’d always liked her and certainly had respected her work. But now it was as if she’d been wearing a thick winter coat all these years—and had suddenly taken it off to reveal a very appealing womanly body underneath—something that had always been there, but hidden, waiting for the right moment. And now he was looking at her in a whole new light.

  And that light was shedding more than illumination on the situation—it was laced with an erotic appeal that had been dormant but lurking beneath the surface all along. He thought of her sweet lips when he’d kissed her, and he took in a deep breath and held it. No, he could not walk away from this situation—but then, that had never been a real option. And since he had no intention of ever marrying again, that was no option, either. Which left…what exactly?

  He had to decide. He was a man of determination and action and it was about time he showed it. Okay. By the time he got to Maggie’s he would have his decision ready. And he would be prepared to handle the circumstances as they presented themselves. Setting his shoulders, he put his hands firmly on the wheel and began to drive.

  Maggie hadn’t slept much either. Her situation had become both dream and nightmare at the same time and she wasn’t sure what she was going to do about it. After all, this was pretty scary.

  How had this happened? She’d formed a deep desire, followed through on it, and now forces beyond her control were entering the picture. It was all so very spooky.