“I understand you have a lot on your plate, and I don’t want to add to the pressure,” he said. “I just want you to know where I’m coming from. I don’t see the baby as an obstacle.”
She frowned. “And it bothers you that I do,” she guessed.
“A little bit, though I certainly can understand that the circumstances are complicated. Bottom line, though, if I don’t have a problem with you being pregnant, why should you?”
“How can you not have a problem with it?” she asked with exasperation. No man could possibly be as accepting of another man’s child—a child still in the womb—as he seemed to be. Could he?
“Because when I see you glowing like the expectant mother you are, when I feel that baby’s kick, all I can think about is how amazing any child of yours is bound to be.” He held her gaze. “That is all I think about, Gabi. It’s the only thing that matters, not how the baby was conceived, how complicated it’s made your life.”
Though there were tears in her eyes at the sweet thoughtfulness of his words, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from saying, “When it’s real, when it’s flesh and blood and screaming in the middle of the night, all of those things will most definitely matter.”
Surprisingly, Wade looked oddly angered by her candid reply. “That’s some other man talking, Gabi. Not me. Don’t sell me short.”
The intensity of his reaction, the fire burning in his eyes when he spoke, almost convinced her. Almost.
The irony, of course, was his claim that his mission to seduce and make her his was his own very personal one. Instead, she knew all too well that it was exactly the one Grandmother and her sisters had had in mind for months. How could she trust that they hadn’t worked their very persuasive magic to tempt this sweet, gallant, vulnerable man into doing something he’d never do if his common sense had time to kick in?
And wasn’t that exactly what Louise, who knew him best, had been worried about, that Wade was in way, way over his head, perhaps for reasons even he didn’t fully comprehend?
Seizing what he was offering would be so easy. She was desperately in need of unconditional backup and here it was, in the form of a man who had a whole lot going for him. But those complications she’d mentioned were real, and if she cared for him, even a little bit, she had to weigh his happiness as well as her own.
“Wade,” she began.
He cut her off. “It’s too soon. I’m pushing too hard. I know everything you’re going to say.”
“This habit you have of reading my mind is really exasperating,” she complained.
He gave her a wry look. “You’re into clueless men?”
She laughed at that. “Hardly. I believe I’ve had my fill of those.”
He nodded. “That’s something, then. We’ll table this conversation for a later date. In the meantime, I’ll see what I can do to convince you that I know exactly what I’m doing.”
She studied him for the longest time, saw the total sincerity in his eyes, and wanted desperately to believe him. As she’d just thought, things would be so easy then.
But hadn’t she learned all too recently that life was almost never easy and miracles were in short supply?
8
Not until Wade had dropped her off back at Cora Jane’s did Gabi realize that she’d gone off with him without her cell phone. Since it hadn’t been out of reach for more than a minute or two for years now, it was a shocking discovery.
“What is happening to me?” she muttered as she stared at the cell phone sitting in the middle of the kitchen table where she’d obviously left it after reducing a slice of toast to crumbs earlier this morning.
Emily walked into the kitchen in time to overhear her. She grinned. “It’s a shock the first time you realize your phone is not the most important accessory you own, isn’t it?” she commented.
“You’re telling me,” Gabi said.
“You might want to check for messages. It’s been ringing ever since I got over here. I didn’t want to answer for you.”
Gabi picked up the phone and noticed there were indeed half a dozen messages, including one from her father. As if that weren’t shock enough, there were two from the woman who’d fired her, Amanda Warren.
“Dad called,” she murmured incredulously. “That has to be a first. I can’t think of one single time in my entire life when he’s initiated a conversation with any of us, can you?”
“Maybe Grandmother put some sort of magic potion in his food when he was over here Saturday,” her sister suggested. “We certainly saw a different side of him then than I’d ever seen before.”
“You mean warm and funny and human?” Gabi said.
“Yep, those were the surprises,” Emily confirmed. “Are you going to call him back? Or at least listen to the message?”
“I’m almost afraid to,” she admitted. “What if he’s turned back into regular Dad?”
Emily grinned. “Well, better to find out now, don’t you think? At least he hasn’t stopped payment on those checks he wrote for the wedding. I deposited them this morning and made sure they all cleared.”
Gabi stared at her in shock. “You actually asked the bank to make sure they cleared?”
Emily nodded. “I still couldn’t quite get over the sudden generosity. I was afraid he might have second thoughts as soon as he left here.”
Even though she thought Emily’s lack of faith was appalling, Gabi couldn’t entirely blame her. “You do realize Grandmother’s going to hear about that next time she stops in to do her banking,” Gabi said. “I doubt she’ll be pleased.”
“I told her I was going to do it,” Emily said, then sighed. “But you’re right. She wasn’t happy. I got a ten-minute lecture on giving Dad
