The Pregnancy Surprise

why she wanted to, except Reece wasn’t acting like the solicitous, smitten lover she’d hoped for. In fact, he was acting the same as he always did.

Did that mean it was over? Had he cured his temporary insanity?

She haphazardly folded sheets while she lectured herself not to overreact. One day at a time, one hour at a time. Yes, in weak moments she let herself believe that Reece might be different from the rest, that they could somehow carve a relationship that would last. Like, forever. But she knew her hopes were unreasonably high.

She carried a stack of messily folded sheets-Miss Greer, queen of the hospital corners, would have a fit-upstairs to the linen closet. Hers was the only bed she hadn’t made up today, so she grabbed a set of sheets and headed up to the third floor.

A white shopping bag was propped against her bedroom door.

Her heart pounded, because she knew it hadn’t been there earlier. Therefore, it came from Reece. She dropped the sheets and reached for it, peeking inside, where she spied…a pair of shoes?

She pulled them out of the bag. They were Mexican huaraches, almost identical to the ones she’d lost last night. She slipped one onto her bare foot. It fit perfectly.

Flowers would have been nice. Dreamily romantic. But shoes? The best present from a man, ever. It meant he was paying attention to her. He’d seen that she was sad over losing her favorite shoes, and he had made the effort to give her a gift he knew would make her happy. He’d even gotten her size right.

She ran down the stairs, wearing one shoe and carrying the other, not stopping until she reached the kitchen, where Reece sat in the breakfast nook with his sandwich halfway to his mouth.

She launched herself at him and threw her arms around him, not caring if it was the wrong thing to do or whether she got mayonnaise everywhere. She nearly knocked his chair over.

“You are the best! What a thoughtful gift.”

He looked a little embarrassed. “Are they the right size? I had to guess.”

“They’re perfect. Where on earth did you find them?”

“At the drugstore, believe it or not. I went in to buy shaving cream, and there they were.”

So he hadn’t spent all day scouring import shops and shoe stores, looking for just the right shoe. Didn’t matter. It was still thoughtful. She kissed him on the cheek, then reluctantly let him go.

“Those saucers you ordered arrived today,” she said.

He shook his head grimly. “We’re going to have to tell her, you know. There’s no way we can replace everything by the time she comes home.”

“Oh, that reminds me-Allie gave me a lead. She said she saw those exact dishes at one of the antique shops downtown.”

“Really? Which one?”

“That’s the problem. She doesn’t remember. But I was thinking of heading out there this afternoon. I could hit most of the stores in a couple of hours, before they close.”

A grin lit his face. “I’ll go with you. Then we can go to the hospital.”

“Sounds good! I’ll get my purse.” She shoved the other shoe onto her foot, then ran upstairs to grab her purse and put on lipstick.

She realized, as she spritzed on perfume, that she was acting as if this was a date, and she was as excited as if Reece had invited her to a symphony and dinner at the Ritz-Carlton.

“Whoa, girl,” she said as she used a tissue to wipe off the perfume. “Don’t try so hard.” If she wasn’t careful, she would scare him so bad she would ruin whatever time they had left.

Chapter Nine

“Oh, look at these hats!” Sara grabbed the biggest, gaudiest one of the display, a blue velvet number with an enormous ostrich plume, and plopped it on her head, then searched for a mirror so she could see herself. She swiveled and found one right behind her. “What do you think? Is it me?”

Reece couldn’t help but laugh. She looked like a nineteenth-century strumpet. “Very fetching, Eliza Doolittle, but we have work to do.” He snatched the hat off her head and placed it back on the mannequin’s head. “Let’s find the dishes.”

“I just love antique stores. I never buy anything because, well, I don’t have anywhere to put stuff, and the Sunsetter has all the antiques it needs. But I love to look. Oh, I see some dishes.”

They were white. They had pink roses. But they weren’t the right pattern.

Unfortunately, the first store they’d entered was not well organized. Victorian picture frames were displayed right next to a 1930s radio; vintage Mexican pottery sat on a French walnut table. Dishes were strewn all over the store.

“I see some china over there.”

Sara didn’t answer, so Reece turned around and found she had darted off to another part of the store, where she examined some rather ordinary-looking sheets.

He joined her. “What are you doing?”

“These are hundred-percent cotton sheets and they’re a steal,” she whispered. “I have to get them.”

“We need to focus.”

She sighed. “All right. But aimless roaming is much more fun.”

They asked the store’s owner if she had any of the prized dishes, but the woman had no idea. So they hunted. Twenty minutes later, they had finished with their first store and left empty-handed.

“Let’s try that one over there,” Sara said, darting across the street and nearly getting run over by a bicycle. She seemed unfazed by the near-collision and headed resolutely toward the store she’d spotted. Reece saw a perfectly good antiques store right next door to the one they’d just exited, and it seemed reasonable to check it first. But Sara was already gone.

They probably should split up. They could cover more territory. But then he would miss watching Sara’s delight as she discovered some useless froufrou-a single eggcup shaped like a chicken, for example. Her uninhibited joy reminded him of a kitten that sees every object in the room as a toy to pounce on.

What must it be like, he wondered, to see the world as an endless array of delightful possibilities? He couldn’t even imagine it. He’d never been like that, not even as a child. In fact, as a little kid on Christmas morning he would open one present, thoroughly study it, read the instructions if there were any, and play with it until someone reminded him he had more gifts to unwrap.

“I have to look at the books,” she said in their third store, distracted once again. “Look at this one! It’s an illustrated Huckleberry Finn from the 1930s. I know someone who would love to add this to his library.”

His library? A guy she knew well enough to buy a personal, meaningful gift? He supposed he shouldn’t feel jealous. Sara obviously made friends wherever she went. In fact, she selected a few more purchases as they went along, all of them gifts for friends, some she intended to hoard until a birthday came along months down the line.

He didn’t even know his friends’ birthdays. For that matter, he didn’t have that many friends. Except for Cooper and Max, who dragged him out for a beer or a hamburger every so often, he didn’t socialize that much for the reasons he’d mentioned the night before-crowds, noise and meeting new people weren’t on his list of favorite things.

Reece figured they had time for one more shop before they had to head for the hospital in Corpus. It was a dusty, cramped cubbyhole of a store, the merchandise piled so haphazardly he didn’t hold high hopes.

Until he saw them, stacked in a box in a corner.

“Yes!” Sara, who had also spied the prize, dropped to her knees beside the box. “Look at them all. And they’re in good condition!”

Reece was awash in relief. He’d been dreading confessing the dishwasher mishap to Miss Greer, of seeing the hurt and disappointment in the normally formidable woman’s eyes.

He pulled the list from the back pocket of his jeans, joining Sara on the floor so they could sort through them.