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At this point, all she wanted was to have the Blakemores out of her life. She regretted sending the letter in the first place. All she’d wanted was for her baby to have a chance to know his father’s family. But their reaction to her efforts wasn’t only insulting—it was frightening.
What would they want next, once she’d complied with their demands for the tests? Would they demand she move to Austin, where Walter could dominate every aspect of her child’s life?
She couldn’t let Walter do to her baby what he’d done to Ben. She needed to get away from Garrett Blakemore, and think.
Problem was, he wasn’t budging.
“I’m leaving now,” she announced as she breezed past him toward the front door, “so you’ll have to—oh!” Pain—very real pain—gripped her lower abdomen again, pulling her up short.
“Lanie?” She felt Garrett come up behind her, supporting her as she bent forward. She grabbed her swollen middle, not realizing exactly when he slid his arm around her waist, only knowing that by the time the pain passed and her breathing returned to normal, he all but held her up. His arms were strong and secure...and gentle. So gentle. How could this hard man be so gentle?
She extricated herself from his support. He let go, but his eyes held hers. She saw gentleness there, too, then it was gone and his eyes were cold again.
“My car’s out front,” he repeated.
Tears stung at Lanie’s eyes. She’d give anything if she didn’t have to accept this man’s help. She was afraid of giving him any power over her. She was afraid to need him. But she knew she had to think of her baby, put her baby first.
The pain of the last contraction had receded, but there were no two ways about it now. She could really be in labor, and she was scared.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, she moved to the door. “Okay. You can drive me.” She blinked back the tears and met his gaze head-on. “But right after that, you’re leaving.”
The general practitioner’s office, located in a small, one-story professional building, was neat and modern, at least from what Garrett could see of the place. A harried-looking woman stood writing out a check at the receptionist’s counter, several toddlers clinging to her knees. Another patient, a white-haired lady who looked like she could have been in her early eighties, sat flipping through a women’s magazine. She glanced up and smiled as she observed Lanie’s condition.
After the mother and toddlers left, Lanie spoke to the receptionist while Garrett sat down. He noticed how, from the back, Lanie didn’t even look pregnant. The lines of her figure were slim as a teenager’s—long legs, slender hips, fragile-looking shoulders.
When she’d looked at him with pain, her eyes so huge and vulnerable, Garrett had wanted to just wrap her up somehow and promise her everything would be all right. It was a reaction that made no sense. Garrett crossed his arms and stared at Lanie as she came toward him and settled in the empty seat beside him.
“It’ll be just a minute,” she said.
“How are you feeling?” The one thing he was sure she wasn’t faking was the pain. The terror on her face back at the house had been real.
“I’m fine. No more contractions.” She smiled shakily, and Garrets realized two things. One, that she was a lot more relieved to be at the doctor’s office than she’d been letting on.
And two, that she had the smile of an angel. Achingly vulnerable. Completely kissable.
Garrett forgot for a second where they were or that Lanie was eight months pregnant. All he could think was that he wanted to kiss her, right then, right there. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d wanted to kiss a woman this badly. It was insane.
Why did she have this effect on him? Was this the effect she’d had on Ben? Did the woman weave some sort of magic spell?
She picked up a magazine from the table on the other side of her and began perusing the table of contents. Garrett leaned back, blankly studying the painting of a mother and child in a field of brilliant bluebonnets on the wall opposite them.
Bewitchment would certainly explain the irrational behavior that had characterized the last months of Ben’s life. Ben had given up everything—his position in his father’s company, his home, wealth, even his very place in the Blakemore family. All for a pretty little innkeeper he’d rear-ended at a traffic light and married a month later—against his father’s orders.
Walter had cut Ben off in an effort to bring his son to his senses. Unfortunately there hadn’t been time. An aneurysm had claimed Ben’s life within six months of the marriage. He’d died without ever speaking to his father again. Or to Garrett.
It was still hard for Garrett to believe Ben was gone. Ben had been so full of life.
And he’d been young—even naive, perhaps. He could have been easy prey for a con artist
Garrett snapped his gaze to Lanie, sitting quietly beside him. She was no sorceress, he reminded himself fiercely. This was no magic spell she weaved. She was a con artist, plain and simple. The shocked innocence she’d put on when he’d broached the testing of the baby was part of her act. If the baby wasn’t Ben’s, if all she’d ever wanted from the second she’d latched on to Ben was a piece of the Blakemore fortune, she was hardly going to admit it right off the bat. He couldn’t let big eyes and a sweet smile deter him from his purpose.
“Lanie Blakemore?” the nurse called.
Lanie stood, then disappeared through the door into the inner office.
Garrett stared determinedly out the narrow window, watching the occasional car pass outside the doctor’s office. He tried to think about a land development company in New York he’d been considering buying for the Blakemore Corporation. He tried to think about his upcoming trip to Japan to consult on an overseas merger.
But no matter what he did, his mind kept drifting back to Lanie.
What if he was wrong, what if Walter was wrong? What if Lanie was innocent?
And then he had to wonder if she was really a sorceress, after all.
After what seemed like an eternity, he checked his watch, frustrated. Where was she? Was she really in labor? What was going on? He wanted to pace, but the idea sounded too corny, so he stayed put.
“Is this your first?”
Garrett looked up. The elderly lady across the waiting room watched him. Her cheeks were pink and lined, her eyes bright with curiosity.
“Excuse me?”
“You and your wife must be very excited. It looks like that baby will be here soon.” She smiled.
His wife?
Garrett stared at the elderly woman. It took him a full minute to realize she was actually talking about him and Lanie.
How would he feel if Lanie were his wife and she was having his baby? Proud was the first word that popped into Garrett’s mind.
Then he thought about Vanessa. He and Vanessa had discussed having children, once or twice. That was as far as things had gotten.
That was as far as their marriage had gotten before Garrett had figured out that he’d been the biggest chump on planet Earth. Nothing like finding your wife in bed with another man to drive home the fact that trust was for idiots.
He wasn’t going to make that mistake again. Not with anybody. And for sure not with Lanie. She might have eyes like a newborn foal’s, but Garrett wasn’t going to be taken in that easily.
“That’s not my wife,” Garrett said suddenly, sharply. “In fact, I barely know her.” A fact he’d be well advised to remember, he added to himself.
The older woman looked startled.
Garret picked up a newspaper from the table next to him and held it in front of his face, discouraging any further communication. He struggled to concentrate on the black-and-white print. And he wondered why he hadn’t told Walter to send his sixty-year-old, stuffed-shirt personal attorney, Richard Houseman, on this little mission to Deer Creek.
“Now, remember, rest tonight, Lanie. And try not to worry.”
Lanie thanked the nurse as she slipped through the door between the inner and outer offices. Her gaze went straight to Garrett. He folded up the newspaper he held and dropped it on the table, standing as she approached.
“Are you all right?” he asked immediately.
“I’m fine.” Really, she wasn’t. She was worried sick. The examination’s conclusion was uncertain. Her pains had been erratic and had emanated from her lower abdomen rather than her back, leading Dr. Furley to suspect it was merely false labor. However, he had also reminded her that everyone’s experience was different, and she could well be exhibiting very early labor, after all. Only time would tell.
Dr. Fursley had reassured her that the baby was healthy and big enough to be born, and had performed another sonogram to reassure her. Still, Patty wouldn’t be back until Sunday night. Lanie was scared to death of going through labor without her coach.
“You’re sure you’re fine?” Garrett probed. He looked suspicious, as if he didn’t quite believe her.
“Yes, of course.”
She made an appointment with the receptionist for a regular prenatal visit the following week, determined not to tell Garrett any details. She wasn’t going to have this baby before at least Sunday night, that was all there was to it, and she had no intention of sharing the doctor’s warnings with Garrett. The information might up the coercion level for getting her to go back to Austin with him immediately, and as vulnerable as she felt, she didn’t think she was up to the confrontation.
She had to admit she was glad to have him there to drive her home, though. She was definitely feeling a little weak and shaky. And thankfully, he seemed to have accepted her assurances. He was quiet as he escorted her out to the car again.
Starting up the engine, he turned to look at her. “Nothing’s wrong? What about the pain you were having?” Garrett didn’t move the car as he waited for Lanie to answer.
So much for accepting her word for anything.
“I told you, I’m fine,” Lanie repeated, working to make her voice firm. Garrett’s piercing dark gaze, so much like Ben’s—and yet so different, unsettled her. She wasn’t used to having anyone worrying about her.
For just a moment Garrett’s attention and concern felt nice. Kind of warm and fuzzy, with just the right dash of the unknown.
Ben had certainly never worried about her. He’d always been too busy worrying about himself, angry and obsessed by his bitter emotional struggle with his father.
How would Walter Blakemore feel if he knew he was right about at least one thing about her—that his son’s marriage to her had been a mistake?
Reality reared up, ugly and painful. The Blakemores hated her. Garrett wasn’t worried about her. His concern and attention was not for her. He was worried about the possible Blakemore heir.
“It was just false labor, like I thought,” she forced herself to say blithely. “Now, please, I really have to get home. I have guests coming in tonight.”
She remembered suddenly she didn’t even have the room made up. Just thinking of the evening ahead made her bone weary. She’d had a full house the night before—and had intended them to be her last guests for a while. She’d taken care not to allow bookings for the month preceding her due date and for six weeks afterward, the most time she could afford to close the struggling B&B. But she’d been feeling chipper this morning when a couple had called for last-minute reservations.
She regretted the impulse that had made her accept the booking. She wasn’t feeling nearly so chipper now.
Garrett backed the car out of the parking space, but he wasn’t through with his questions.
“How do you know it’s false labor?” he asked as he swung the car into the street, heading in the direction of the B&B.
“The contractions were erratic,” Lanie explained briefly. “And they went away. Also, the pain began in my lower abdomen, rather than my lower back—which is where real contractions usually start.” She looked out the window, as if intensely interested in the scenery passing by, discouraging further conversation. She had no intention of elaborating.
They passed through the town square, complete with a courthouse surrounded on four sides by active businesses that clearly appealed to Hill Country tourism—a hotel, several restaurants and antique and novelty shops. In a few minutes they arrived at the Victorian B&B. Lanie unhooked her seat belt and shoved open the passenger-side door.
“Thank you for taking me to the doctor.”
“No problem.” Garrett removed his keys from the ignition.
“I’m sorry you made this trip out here for nothing,” she said with almost painful civility. “I really don’t think there’s anything else for us to talk about.”
“Lanie—”
“I’m not going back to Austin with you,” she said, cutting Garrett off. “And I don’t even want to discuss those tests.”
“Lanie—”
“Walter can believe whatever he wants to believe. I merely felt it was my duty to inform him about Ben’s child. That’s all. I don’t want anything from him—not his help, and certainly not his money, if that’s what he’s afraid of. Tell him he can relax.”
Salty pinpricks stabbed at Lanie’s eyes. What a time to get hormonal! she cursed inwardly, determined to put the emotion down to her pregnancy rather than to the idea that she might give a hoot about what Ben’s father thought. Or Garrett, for that matter.
“Lanie—”
“Goodbye,” she managed, and got out of the car. She slammed the car door shut, wishing she could make a more graceful departure than that of a lumbering elephant, which was what she felt like at the moment.
She heard Garrett’s car door shut behind her and knew he’d gotten out, too. “Lanie, I’m not leaving. Not tonight, at least.”
Lanie’s shoulders drooped at Garrett’s words. She stopped in the middle of the street and swiveled to face him, wishing desperately that he would disappear. She was far too tired to deal with him.
“Look, I’m not going to press you about the tests. Not tonight.” Garret approached Lanie. She looked tired, and he knew the decision he’d just come to was the right one. Her golden waves shifted in the wind as she stood there, the long tresses swinging softly around her small shoulders. The afternoon sun caressed her bare cheeks, the warm light loving her smooth skin. Again Garrett experienced an oddly protective sensation.
He put it down to the fact that the baby Lanie carried might be Ben’s. This was about the baby, he reminded himself. Not Lanie.
“I heard what the nurse told you,” he went on. “You’re supposed to rest—and you have guests coming. I could stay and help.” He didn’t know what work this would entail, but he couldn’t see leaving her alone right now.
He wasn’t entirely convinced she was telling him everything about her visit with the doctor. Besides, nothing had been settled. He had to find out the truth, for Walter’s sake. For Ben’s sake.
And for his own, he realized abruptly. He had to know if Lanie was an innocent—or a liar. He didn’t even want to think about why that was suddenly so important to him. It simply was.
Lanie blinked. “You—help?”
She looked so shocked he didn’t know whether to laugh or be insulted. He was getting tired of her looking at him like he was Attila the Hun.
Not that he cared whether she liked him or not. Not at all. It was just that as long as she disliked him this intensely, he was going to have a hard time getting her to cooperate.
He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Of course I can help. Why not?”
Chapter Three
Lanie noticed Garrett looked kind of nice when he smiled. Less like a power broker, and more like a human. He even had a dimple, just on the left side, which she hadn’t noticed before. Perhaps because the man didn’t seem to smile all that much.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to stay here tonight.” As tempting as his help sounded, she didn’t think having Garrett around, any more than necessary, would be a good idea at all. He hadn’t been in town five minutes before he’d started trying to take charge of her life—demanding tests on the baby, commanding her to go to Austin and live under the Blakemores’ thumbs until the baby’s birth, insisting he drive her to the doctor’s office.
Of course, driving her to the doctor’s had been a good idea, but none of the rest of it was. She didn’t want the Blakemores running her life—or worse, taking control of her baby.
“It’s a great idea,” Garrett persisted. “You need to rest, and I need a place to stay.”
“You could drive back to the city,” Lanie pointed out, pushing back the temptation he offered.
Help sounded awfully good, whether she wanted it to or not. She was just so tired.
She pulled herself together. “It’s not that far to Austin,” she dismissed. She turned her back on him and his help, trudging up the walk.
He came up behind her. “Are you always this stubborn?” he asked.
“Stubborn! Me?” Lanie stopped long enough to cast Garrett an arch look as he reached her side. “You’re the one who can’t take no for an answer.”
She arrived at the front door and scoured her handbag for her housekeys. She found them, then immediately proceeded to drop them on the ground.
Garrett started to retrieve the keys for her, but Lanie knelt, awkwardly, and snatched them before he could.
“Please leave me alone.” Tears stung at the back of her eyes again. Bending wasn’t her best event these days, but she shook off Garrett’s arm as he tried to help her straighten.
She felt as if she were teetering on the edge. Her exhaustion combined with the stress of the afternoon had been too much, and the last thing she wanted to do was break into one of those sudden bouts of hormonal tears that had plagued her throughout her pregnancy—right in front of Garrett.
She fumbled with the key, wiggling it into the hole, struggling with the old lock. Blinking back traitorous tears, she gratefully pushed the door open. A few more seconds and she could shut it in his face.
“Are you crying?”
She tried to ignore him as she moved through the doorway. He stuck his foot in the door and prevented her from closing it.
She didn’t want to look at him, but he reached out and turned her face toward him, the touch strong and gentle at the same time. Lifting her eyes, she met his reluctantly. She dashed a hand at the moisture on her cheeks and lifted her chin a notch.
“You are crying.” He sounded confused. He dropped his hand from her face, but not his stare. “Look, I don’t know if this is pride or stubbornness or just that you don’t like me much.” An odd, almost painful light flickered in his eyes for a second, then disappeared. “But I think you need some help tonight.” His voice was soft. “Will you let me stay?”
Lanie thought about going to the backyard and dragging the sheets off the line, hauling them upstairs and making up the bed, then greeting the guests with the customary refreshments. Her feet, her knees, her hips—every place where the baby’s weight put unaccustomed pressure—ached like she carried a two-ton truck instead of a tiny human being.
She wanted nothing more than to drop into bed and let someone help her. But it wasn’t safe for Garrett Blakemore to be that someone. She knew that.
But she said, “All right,” anyway.
Garrett knocked lightly on the closed door to Lanie’s bedroom. “Lanie?”
“Come in,” she called.
He poked his head around the doorjamb in time to see her sitting up in bed, a fat pillow propped behind her back. She was still dressed, her long legs stretched out on a colorful quilt decorated in a pattern of interlocking rings. A white lace curtain blew softly at the open window, bringing the warm afternoon inside.
Despite the obvious reluctance with which she’d agreed to let him help her out for the evening, she’d acquiesced with surprising ease when he’d insisted she go straight upstairs to rest. He knew this was more likely an indication of the true state of her exhaustion than any sign of surrender on her part.
She’d given him brief instructions about making up two rooms with sheets from the line outside, and had explained where to find the refreshments she had prepared She’d asked him to call her when the guests arrived so she could come down to greet them. But before he tended to any of the other preparations, he’d decided to fix her something to eat.
“I brought you a sandwich and a glass of milk,” Garret said. He came around the side of the antique spool bed and placed a tray on the end table near her. Her wary gaze never left him. “And some cookies.” He held out the glass of milk.
“You shouldn’t have done that.” Surprise widened her eyes as she took in the tray.
“Of course I should have,” Garrett said. Her aversion to his assistance was really starting to annoy him.
He kept holding out the glass, and she finally took it, her slender fingers lightly brushing his in the exchange. A small electrical charge zinged up Garrett’s arm, filtering through his irritation.
He backed up slightly in reaction, putting a little distance between himself and Lanie. It was just the oddness of being in her bedroom, he told himself. The situation was overly intimate, considering they’d only known each other a few hours.
“I don’t want you waiting on me,” Lanie protested. She set the glass down on the tray.
Garrett shrugged. “It’s just a little something to eat. It’s not a big deal. You need to keep up your strength.”
She looked wan, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like how it made him feel. He didn’t like how he was worrying about this woman he’d only just met and had no reason to trust or even like.
Of course, he reminded himself, he did have one good reason for caring. The sooner she rested up, the sooner he could tackle the business at hand—getting her to agree to come back to Austin with him. He worked to focus on the reason he was in Deer Creek, and to forget how pale and defenseless Lame looked, propped in bed, surrounded by all this soft lace and patchwork simplicity.
The scene was a false picture, making her seem more maternal than small-town schemer. The whole setup was what was throwing him off balance, he decided. The sooner he got out of her bedroom, the better.
He strode to the door, determined to get the sheets and make up the guest rooms. And put as much distance as he possibly could between himself and Lanie’s sweet, vulnerable eyes.
“Garrett?”
He stopped in the doorway and turned to look at her. She chewed her lip, hesitating, the glow from the sunset lighting her fine features. Her hands moved over the rounding of her belly in a seemingly unconscious gesture.
Garrett’s gaze followed the movement of her hands, lured by the slow caressing motion that spoke of tender care for her unborn child. He wondered if the baby was moving, what it would feel like to place his hand there and feel the tiny life inside her kick....
He jerked his attention back to her face. “What?” he prompted curtly. He really needed to get out of her bedroom.
“I—uh...” She glanced at the tray, then back at him. She bit her lip again. “Thank you,” she said finally, as if the words came with great difficulty. “I hope I didn’t sound rude. I didn’t mean to.”
She sounded so sincere. Her hand moved over her stomach again. The light from the window settled around her like a halo.
Garrett swallowed tightly. “No problem,” he answered, and made good his escape.
Lanie watched Garrett through her open window as he crossed the backyard, heading for the clothesline. The curtains fluttered about as the light breeze infused a warm, comfortable breath of fresh air into the room. She took a big gulp of it. She needed it. She needed something, anyway—something to stop her from making a complete and total fool of herself.
She felt touched by Garrett’s thoughtfulness in bringing her supper. He’d even brought her cookies. It was such a simple yet considerate gesture. The sort of gesture she wouldn’t have expected from the hard, cold businessman who’d all but accused her of trying to defraud his uncle.