“Michael, you haven’t…” Shelby was staring at him as if he’d been caught walking naked at midday. “Of all the… No. Tell me you haven’t.”
“Surely there were alternatives,” Garrett said uneasily. “Ellie said the woman’s life is in a mess, but…”
“You know, Garrett,” Dylan said conversationally from the sofa, his arm holding Lana comfortably against him, “if I were you, I’d stop calling Michael’s new wife ‘the woman.’ I’m watching Mike from down here, and every time you say it his face turns blacker.”
That stopped them dead. Garrett and Shelby stared at Dylan, then turned to stare at Michael.
His expression was like a thundercloud.
Lana made a noise that was somewhere between a squeak and a gasp, then somehow collected herself. She hauled herself out of her husband’s arms and bounced up to stand before Michael. She took his hands in hers and fixed him with the Lord look-the look that told him he wouldn’t get away with anything but the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
“Of course she’s not ‘the woman.’ She’s Jenny and she’s really, really sweet,” she said warmly. “And you’ve married her. So tell us all about it, Michael. Don’t leave a single thing out, and don’t tell us any lies. Just tell us.”
Michael looked at his sisters’ troubled faces and gave an inward shrug. What the heck? They needed to know. These guys were his family. And somehow…so was Jenny.
So he did as ordered. He told them everything, while they stood and took it in with various degrees of disbelief and incredulity.
“Well,” Lana said at last, plonking herself down at Dylan’s side again. “Well.”
“She’s eight months pregnant?” Shelby asked in a distant voice. “You mean, she’s found herself a father for her child? When you had nothing to do with it? Of all the conniving-”
“Sort of like me and Lana,” Dylan said softly, holding his wife. “Like me finding a mother for Greg when Lana had nothing to do with it. Conniving like that, do you mean? Careful, Shelby.”
“It is
Michael’s brows lowered. “I offered, Shel.”
“But you don’t love her?” she demanded, wheeling on Michael with anger. “Of course you don’t love her! Where is she now?”
“I don’t know. Home, I guess.”
“Your home?”
“No, her home.”
“You don’t plan on living together?”
“Not yet.” He frowned. Not until he could make her see sense. Tomorrow maybe?
“Well, that’s something.” Shelby looked relieved, but Garrett was shaking his head.
“Mike, do you have any idea what sort of legal minefield you’ve put yourself into?”
“I can handle it.”
But Lana’s mind had gone off on another tangent. “You’re married to a woman who’s eight months pregnant and you don’t know for sure where she is?” she demanded, bouncing up from her husband’s hold again to face Michael head-on. Her indignation was palpable. “What if she goes into labor?”
“She has a phone.”
“She knows where you are?”
“I have the cell phone.”
“She’ll call you?”
“I…yes.” He fell silent. Would she? She’d promised.
Maybe she wouldn’t.
She would.
“You’re worrying about her, aren’t you?” Lana said triumphantly. “You care about her.”
“Lana, she’s my secretary. She might have been hired as a temp, but she’s the best assistant I ever had. This way…this way I get to keep her.”
“As your secretary?”
“Yeah. Why else would I want her?”
She stared. “How about as a wife?”
He sighed. “How often do I have to say it, Lana? This is a business arrangement. She needs to stay in the country, and I appreciate her secretarial skills. There’s no way I want to marry anyone else, so what’s the problem?”
“Does she have anyone else?” Lana demanded. “Friends? Family? Or is she completely alone?”
“I guess she has friends.” He didn’t know. Hell, he didn’t know!
“Are you bringing her to the wedding?” Lana had moved into organization mode.
“Wedding?”
“Camille and Jake’s wedding,” Lana said patiently. “It’s here. Tomorrow. Remember? Don’t tell me you didn’t notice the marquee on the front lawn.”
“Yeah, but…” Okay, he’d forgotten. After all, Jake and Camille had had a civil ceremony a few months ago, but Megan had convinced them to hold a formal ceremony so the whole family and their friends could attend. A wedding. Heck, why had he ever accepted the invitation? He hated them. He’d barely gotten over Lana’s wedding. Or his own.
“Bring her, Mike,” Lana said firmly. “Let us all meet her. I know her a bit from popping in to see you at work, but I don’t know her well. She’s always friendly, but just efficient friendly, if you know what I mean. We need to get together.”
“Why? Lana, she’s not my wife.”
“Is that what you’re going to tell the authorities?”
“No, but-”
“And if immigration asks questions, and Garrett and Shelby have never even met her?”
“There’s no real need-”
“She’s alone, Michael. I’m assuming she’s finished work until the baby’s born, so what’s she doing for the next few weeks?”
“I have no idea.”
“In my shop I see heaps of pregnant women,” Lana told him. “They all say the last few weeks of pregnancy seem endless. They’re full of fears and anxieties-and you’re just leaving her by herself.”
“I told you, Lana, she has nothing to do with me. That’s the way she wants it.”
“You’ve married her, Michael,” she snapped. “For better or for worse, she has everything to do with you.”
“Lana…”
“Enough! We’re going home now,” she said, bending to scoop her small son from the floor. “Come on, Greggykins. Let’s take your daddy home to bed. And tomorrow…tomorrow you and me and Daddy are coming back here to see Camille marry her Jake and meet your new aunty Jenny and make your first contact with your new cousin.”
“Cousin?”
“Greg’s my son, Michael, and your new wife’s about to have a baby,” she said serenely, standing on tiptoe to give Michael a sisterly kiss on the cheek. “Like it or not, brother mine, you’ve just expanded our family. So shut up and get on with it.”
THERE WAS nothing else to say.
Lana and Dylan left, Lana giving Michael her unsolicited advice, Dylan following with amused pride.
“Go with the flow,” he told Michael as he passed him on the way out. “You can’t fight City Hall.”
“City Hall meaning Lana?”
“One and the same.” He grinned and headed out the door.
That left Shelby and Garrett. Unlike Lana, Shelby was close to tears.
“I don’t know how you could do it,” she said. “Oh, Michael, I wanted you to marry-but not this way.”
“Shelby, you know I never intended to marry.”
“Yeah, but I’d hoped you’d meet someone who would change your mind.”
