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Pregnant! Joelle closed the door to her doctor’s office as she walked out and stepped into the bright light of another typical California day. She didn’t smile, or breathe deeply of the crisp, clean breeze as she normally would have. Instead she got into her car and drove straight home. Once inside, she wandered aimlessly from room to room, her nerves too fidgety for her to think of sitting down for even a moment.
Oh, God, how could something like this be happening to her? She, of all people, who as a dutiful daughter had never once forgotten her moral upbringing when dealing with the opposite sex. It wasn’t fair that she was going to have to pay such a high price for her one failure in doing so.
She was suffering from a form of shock, she knew. Her doctor’s unexpected diagnosis for her malaise had come as a real blow. Actually she supposed that she should’ve considered the possibility that she was pregnant all along. But, the truth of the matter was, she hadn’t. Or, rather, she’d had her suspicions deep, down inside but she hadn’t wanted to believe them. But now she had no choice. According to her doctor, she was four weeks pregnant with Gabriel Lafleur’s child.
It was just so difficult for her to believe.
A real life shocker.
She was absolutely terrified.
How could she, of all people, be carrying a child, when, in fact, she was the last woman on earth meant for motherhood?
Maybe her doctor had made a mistake.
No—actually, she thought a moment later, the mistake was all her doing. No one had forced her into sleeping with Gabriel Lafleur. Therefore, it was up to her to deal with the crisis that had resulted. And, needless to say, she would do it alone. Without help from anyone. Not even her father.
Especially, not her judgmental father.
Still, Joelle knew her own limitations and was terrified at the prospect of being a single mother. How would she manage to juggle her time between her career and a baby? The fact was, right now, she didn’t even have a job. But even if that wasn’t a part of the problem, her lack of knowledge about kids and motherhood was. She didn’t know an iota about what it took to be a good parent. Her mother had died soon after giving birth to her, and her strict, disciplinarian father had raised her without ever remarrying. Therefore, she’d never had a female role model in her life. Not only that, but her continuous efforts to achieve leadership in a competitive business world had long ago forced her to program out that part of her feminine nature. She had never allowed herself to feel as though she needed a husband and children to be fulfilled as a woman. All she’d ever felt she needed was to have her father’s undying respect and had known instinctively that the only way to gain it was by being totally committed to her career.
But now all that was changing.
Now she was going to have a baby.
Dear God, what in the world was she going to do with a baby?
That night, Joelle went to bed and worried herself to sleep. She dreamed of Gabriel and Acapulco and woke up feeling worse than ever.
For the next several days, Joelle thought of little else. But in the end she knew that there was only one option for her and that was to have her baby, and that’s all there was to it. Later on, in the coming months, she would deal with what was the best solution for raising her child while still maintaining a fulltime career. But for now, her mental plate was overflowing. Though her decision to have her baby had settled her emotions down somewhat, they still weren’t anywhere near normal. The truth was, she still had several immediate problems facing her. San Diego was her hometown. She knew lots of people here. Her father was the social climber of the century and worried continuously about his spotless reputation, as if he were an old mother hen. Her pregnancy was going to be an embarrassment for him—and for her, too, no doubt about it. Somehow, she was going to have to find a way to keep her delicate condition a secret from him and everyone else in San Diego, although, deep down inside, she knew that it was going to be virtually impossible. Worse, not only was her father going to be shocked and embarrassed by her pregnancy, but undoubtedly he was going to ridicule her judgment in wanting to keep her baby and she simply couldn’t deal with that kind of criticism from him right now.
Which was exactly why, she supposed, that she had automatically tossed aside any thought of telephoning Gabriel Lafleur to tell him about the baby. Like her father, she didn’t want him to think that she was needy—clinging—and expecting him to assume responsibility for her problem. After all, she still had her goal of proving to her father—and to the entire world—that she was quite capable of taking care of herself.
Besides, what good would it have done her to call Gabriel? She knew for a fact that he didn’t want a wife any more than she wanted a husband. At least, he’d said as much in Mexico, several times, in fact. And according to her attorney, Smith Jamison, thus far, he hadn’t been able to find any documented proof that she and Gabriel had gotten married on her last night in Acapulco. She had absolutely no reason in the world to think that Gabriel Lafleur wanted to hear from her, again, under any circumstances. Therefore, it was ridiculous of her to want to call him simply to appease some deep down need in her to hear his voice, again. Absolutely ridiculous.
Still and all, several nights later, in a moment of extreme weakness, when a sudden loneliness swooped down on her and the thought of carrying her child for nine long months without having anyone on her side became unbearable, Joelle found herself dialing his telephone number. Of course, she had no intention of telling him about the baby. She simply wanted to hear his voice, make small talk for a while and then hang up. That would be enough to fill the sudden emptiness in her. She was sure of it.
His telephone rang once…twice…three times.
By now, Joelle was having second thoughts about what she was doing. Maybe it would only make things worse.
Suddenly someone lifted the receiver, and Joelle stopped breathing.
“Hello,” a woman said, her distinct Cajun accent being very similar to what Joelle remembered of Gabriel’s. Only hers was more pronounced, and she sounded much older than Gabriel. Old enough, in fact, for Joelle to wonder if it was his mother. It was the only thing that kept her stomach from bottoming out at the sound of a female voice answering his telephone. After all, she was only assuming that he’d been telling her the truth in Acapulco when he’d said he was single and unattached.
Suddenly Joelle realized that there was always the possibility that the information that Gabriel Lafleur had told her about himself in Mexico was, in fact, a lie. Maybe he was married. Maybe he even had kids. The thought nearly paralyzed her and her mouth went dry.
“Who is this?” the woman asked, indignantly. “Is this some kind of a prank call? ’Cause if it is…”
Joelle swallowed. “No—this is not a prank call,” she finally said after finding her voice. “I’m sorry if I gave you that impression.”
“Then, who’s this?”
“I—I’m Joelle Ames.”
“Are you selling somethin’? ‘Cause if you are, I ain’t buyin’.”
“Uh—no. I’m not with a telemarketing service.”
“Hmm…Is that so? Then, who do you want to speak to?”
“W-well, actually…” Joelle said, stammering her words. The woman was certainly intimidating her. “I think I may have dialed the wrong number.”
“What number did you want?” the woman asked, briskly.
“Uh…” Shaken Joelle glanced down at the telephone number Gabriel had given her. With trembling fingers, she lifted the piece of paper and read off the ten-digit number, area code included.
“Well, you got the right number,” the older woman said. “So, if it ain’t me you want, then I guess it’s Gabe.”
Gabe? Short for Gabriel. Well, at least he’d given her his correct name and telephone number. Her stomach settled down—somewhat. Hopefully everything else he’d said about himself was true, too. Otherwise, she was going to hate herself even more for what she’d done with him.
Joelle cleared her throat. “As a matter of fact, I did call to speak to Gabriel,” Joelle replied.
“Well, he ain’t come in from the fields just yet. I’m Big Sadie, his housekeeper. I’ll tell him you called.”
Joelle already knew she’d made a mistake in phoning him and decided that this was her last chance to pull out.
“That’s quite all right. In fact, I’d prefer if you didn’t even tell him anything. Please, just forget that I called. I’m sorry to have disturbed you. Goodbye.”
“Now wait a minute, cher. I think I know who you are.”
“I doubt that,” Joelle replied.
“Well, let me see, now…I bet you, you’re that woman he met on vacation.”
Joelle’s grip on the receiver tightened. “He told you about me?” she asked, in truth, awed down to her toes that Gabriel would even do such a thing.
His housekeeper smirked. “Well, that ain’t exactly how it was. See, I saw them pictures he took of you, and he said that you were his tour partner—or somethin’ like that. Anyways, I ain’t never seen Gabe take so many pictures of anyone.”
Joelle frowned to herself. Funny, but she didn’t recall Gabriel taking any snapshots of her in Acapulco. Oh—well, yeah, maybe one or two that she’d noticed. Mostly she’d seen him taking pictures of the scenery. Sometimes that scenery may have been located behind her. Therefore, if by chance she ended up in any of those snapshots, then it was purely by accident.
“Oh—look—don’t hang up,” the housekeeper said. “I think I hear Gabe comin’ in now.” A fraction of a moment later and much too soon for Joelle to have stopped her, Joelle heard when the older woman laid the receiver down and said, “It’s for you, Gabe.”
Joelle’s insides froze.
“Who is it?” he asked.
“That woman?”
“What woman?” Joelle heard Gabriel ask.
“The one in the pictures.”
“Pictures?”
“The ones from your vacation.”
“Oh—those pictures.” There was a long pause and then finally Gabriel said, “I’ll take it in my study.”
Joelle’s heart began to pound once again.
She certainly had plenty of time to hang up and even thought of doing so. But then she realized it would only make her look like an even bigger fool, so she took a couple of deep breaths and waited anxiously for him to answer. Finally she heard him say, “Hello.”
Air rushed from her lungs. “Gabriel?”
There was a momentary pause. “Yes.”
“This is Joelle. Joelle Ames…” Actually there was always the chance that he wouldn’t remember her. Or, at least, her name. The sudden thought that he might not caused something in her to shrivel up like plastic wrapping in a hot oven.
“Hello, Joelle,” he said, his tone of voice even and unemotional. “I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to hear from you, again.”
She tried swallowing down the lump in her throat.
“Look, maybe my calling you like this wasn’t such a good idea, after all,” Joelle replied. “I probably should’ve let my attorney do this.”
“But you called instead,” he said.
“Well-yes-but-”
“But, what?”
“Nothing,” Joelle replied, suddenly realizing that she was getting paranoid for nothing. Sure, if she were to tell him about the baby, he would probably freak out. But she wasn’t going to do that. She’d just called to talk to him…to hear his voice one more time. She didn’t plan to ever call him, again.
“Look,” he drawled, “I’ve been meaning to phone you. In fact, I was wondering if your attorney had turned up anything about—well, you know—about that night.”
Joelle took a deep, steadying breath. “Well, actually, that’s why I called.” Liar. “I wanted to let you know that he hasn’t been able to find anything, no documentation that we got married. No nothing. Lately he’s been saying that we might not ever know what really happened that night.”
“I see,” Gabriel replied, hesitantly. “In that case, what do you suggest we do?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “What do you think?”
“Well, it’s been well over a month now. If there is still no documentation to be found, I don’t see the point in either of us pursuing the matter. It looks to me like we obviously backed out of what we had planned when we left the cantina.”
Yeah, they’d just ended up in bed together, instead. And she had the proof of what they’d done growing inside of her.
“I think you’re probably right. I sure hope so,” Joelle said, coolly. But, in spite of her indifferent answer, her stomach sank to the floor.
“I hope so, too,” he replied. “Look, I think it’s time we just consider the whole incident dropped.”
“Sounds good to me,” Joelle said, forcing herself to sound as elated as he. “Besides, if a problem should result, I’ll have my attorney take care of it right away.”
For a long moment, Gabriel was silent. Finally, he cleared his throat. “Listen, now that I’ve had a moment to think about it, just to put both of our minds at ease, maybe we should sign some kind of an agreement, naming each other blameless for that night.”
Joelle stiffened. It wasn’t that she wanted anything from him, because she didn’t. It was the fact that he was suddenly so suspicious of her. As if he thought that she had some underlying motive in all of this. In truth, she could’ve been thinking the very same thing of him, but she wasn’t. “Look, Lafleur, let’s get one thing straight. I’m not one to cause you any problems, okay?”
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