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He grinned. “You, too, babe.”
Babe!
She should be thinking of what was between his ears, not his legs. Even more pertinently what was in his heart! Would being a father mean anything to him?
“Here you go, Leo!” Dylan announced, sliding the plate with its steaming appetiser straight onto the weighing machine beside the cash register.
Leo sniffed appreciatively. “Love that sauce, Dylan.”
“Combination of honey, sesame oil and soy sauce,” Dylan confided proudly.
Teri took the printout of the weight, stapled on a customer number, gave the matching number to Leo, then spiked the bill for later payment. “Enjoy,” she said with an encouraging smile.
“Back soon,” he warned both of them and headed for his usual table against the wall from where he could watch all the action.
Dylan set to work grilling the lamb kebabs and Teri did the rounds of the tables, removing used plates while having a bit of chitchat with regulars. She was acutely conscious of Leo’s eyes following her. It was almost like the caressing touch of his hands, shaping her body to his, or that was how it felt to her fevered imagination. His close presence made her so sexually aware, she escaped to the kitchen to sort herself out on some kind of sensible level.
“I’ll do those.” Mel Hudson, her kitchenhand, who was working his way through university, whipped the tray of dirty plates out of her hands. “You go and enjoy yourself with Leo.” And the nineteen-year-old lanky boy winked at her!
Teri huffed and muttered, “He’ll keep.”
Mel proceeded to load the dishwasher, a knowing grin on his face. “The guy’s on toast for you, Ten. You ought to put him out of his misery.”
“When I want your advice, Mel,”—cheeky boy—“I’ll ask for it.”
“It’s your birthday. Give yourself a break.”
She frowned at him. “Who told you it was my birthday?”
“Dylan figured it had to be. The post came when you were out this afternoon and he said there was a whole stack of cards for you.”
Which she’d taken upstairs to the apartment, out of sight, out of mind. Of course, her family meant well, but what woman wanted to be reminded of her thirtieth birthday? “Some people ought to mind their own business,” she remarked darkly.
Mel shrugged. “So what’s the big deal? Take the rest of the night off. Have fun. Dylan and I will finish up and shut up shop.”
“I’m not ready,” she muttered truculently.
“Ready for what?”
“Never you mind.”
She banged some pots and pans around to indicate the conversation was over. Her mind chewed over her state of readiness. Was she ready to go to bed with Leo with him still in ignorance of his fatherhood? Ready to tell him she was pregnant? Ready to suffer his shock, dismay, rejection? This was extremely difficult to sort out.
She liked the man. She liked having him in her life, even if it was on a casual basis. In fact, if she was still a starry-eyed teenager she’d probably say she was in love with Leo Kingston, though from a more mature outlook, that was probably only chemistry. After all, she didn’t know him through and through. Only that he was nice to people, nice to her, fun to be with, and great in bed.
Both Dylan and Mel liked him but that was a manto-man thing. Leo, in their opinion, was a good guy. However, not one of them had any claim on him. Leo breezed in and out and he was much more out than in. Even so, was she really ready to say goodbye to him?
She’d been able to think much more clearly this afternoon. Somehow, Leo’s being here, hitting her with so much vital attraction again, completely muddled her.
“Teri...customer leaving,” Dylan called out.
She hastily pasted a smile on her face and went to handle the departing customer’s payment for dinner. Leo was at the serving counter and Dylan was transferring the lamb kebabs from the grill to a plate that was already piled up with various salads chosen from the buffet table. Teri managed the money transaction smoothly, bade good-night to the family of four who appeared well satisfied, then went through the routine of weighing Leo’s main meal.
“Join me now?” he pressed hopefully.
“Sure she can,” Dylan popped in. “The grill’s off for the night so I can handle the cash takings and Mel will do the rest.”
A birthday conspiracy, Teri concluded, which was really nice, but not exactly timely when she wasn’t ready for the outcome. “Something I’ve got to do upstairs first,” she quickly excused. “Sure you don’t mind filling in for me, Dylan?”
He grinned. “Piece of cake.”
“You look perfect as you are,” Leo remarked warmly, his eyes more than warm. The fire of desire was well and truly kindled.
She gave him a droll look. “If you think I’m going to titivate for you...”
He laughed. “That’s what I love about you, Teri. Always au naturel.”
“Hmmph,” she said, and feeling a blush coming on, made a swift exit.
Love...she ruminated frenziedly over that as she headed upstairs. It was most probably a throwaway word, she argued, like Leo saying he loved Dylan’s sauce. He couldn’t mean he actually loved her.
Was real love ever held at the kind of distance Leo kept? Not in Teri’s understanding of it. However, tagged on to the au naturel remark, it made sense. Oh yes! No doubt about how much he loved tangling with her naked.
And she loved tangling with him naked!
Which was what was making everything so difficult.
She reached her small and rather cluttered living room and raced over to the mantelpiece where she’d lined up her birthday cards. If...if she invited Leo upstairs tonight, she didn’t want him to see them, didn’t want him asking how old she was or bringing out the telling fact that neither of them knew each other’s birthdays.
She bundled them up and was about to shove them into the drawer of her writing desk, when the one on top caused her to pause. It was the big pink flowery one from her parents with the gold inscription—To Our Darling Daughter.
A daughter...
She hadn’t thought past...baby. Even a baby wasn’t quite real to her yet, not enough to put either sex to it. A daughter...or a son...her heart turned over.
Slowly, she laid the cards in the drawer and slid it shut. Then she turned around and leaned back against the desk, her hands creeping up to spread across her flat stomach. As flat as it was, a baby was somewhere in there growing...a little girl or boy...her child...Leo’s child.
She had to tell him.
And it had to be done tonight.
Impossible to make love with this huge secret swimming around in her mind, Leo touching her where their child was actually forming, not knowing about it.
The decision was very clear.
She was ready now...ready to tell Leo she was having his child.
CHAPTER FIVE
IT STARTLED Teri to see the dining room almost empty when she returned. There were only two couples left, eating their choice of sweets. Dylan was cleaning the grill and Mel was chatting with Leo who’d obviously finished his main course since Mel had cleared his table. A glance at her watch showed 9:15. Time had flown since Leo had arrived.
“Ah, here you are!” Mel said with satisfaction, and held out the chair opposite Leo’s for her.
“Thanks,” she said, her eyes quizzing this unanticipated gesture of gallantry from her teenage employee.
Mel grinned. “No problem. Leave you to it now.”
Teri rolled her eyes to Leo who looked most amused at this little byplay. “Why do I feel I’m being pushed at you tonight? Are they up to no good behind my back?” she dryly remarked.
He laughed, his eyes twinkling like brilliant sunshine on blue water. “They like you, Teri. They like working for you. You make this a good place to be. They want to give you some time off. That’s all.”
She sighed. Leo really was a gorgeous man. “You know you’ve never told me how many people work for you.”
He had explained his business as software conversions, but Teri hadn’t probed much, not wanting Leo to think she was interested in how big his income was. That didn’t matter to her. However, she needed a safe, impersonal kind of conversation until they were absolutely alone together.
He shrugged. “Small team. Four crack computer programmers and one administrative assistant.”
“Any females?”
“The assistant.” He gave a crooked little smile. “Mavis is in her early fifties, frighteningly efficient while sort of mother-henning the rest of us.”
She hadn’t been checking out possible female competition, but it was interesting to know the kind of woman he’d hired. “Do you prefer your programmers to be men?” she asked, aware there were many women in computer fields these days.
Something negative flicked across his face. “It’s easier,” he said flatly.
“How so?” she asked curiously.
He sighed. “You’ll probably accuse me of being some kind of male chauvinist, but the truth is most whiz-bang computer programmers are fairly young and a lot of young women trade off their sex appeal.” An icy hardness flashed into his eyes. “They can bring tensions into a workplace I simply don’t want. Guys start competing for their attention and an atmosphere of camaraderie is suddenly shot to pieces. It’s just better avoided.”
“You’ve seen this happen?” Teri asked, uneasy with his explanation which did smack of male bias.
He nodded. “Married women are usually okay but unmarried ones can play havoc with productivity and team spirit.”
So it wasn’t exactly a bias against women, more a pragmatic choice to guard against hormone battles. But he certainly didn’t care for women who traded on their sex appeal. Teri couldn’t help wondering what his ex-wife had been like. They’d never swapped marriage stories. Raking over that particular part of her past had not appealed to her. Still didn’t. And she didn’t have the right to poke into his.
Besides, even the mention of marriage might be misinterpreted when she had the highly sensitive subject of her pregnancy waiting in the wings.
She smiled. “I guess you consider Mavis safe.”
He relaxed and returned her smile, pleased she wasn’t critical of his employment policy. “Absolutely safe. Mavis is great. Reliable, responsible, has a place for everything and everything in its place.”
Teri wondered if Leo applied some of those headings to herself...like safe and in her place. She certainly didn’t constitute a distraction from his work. She suspected she was his break from it.
The big question was...how would he view a baby?
The shifting of chairs alerted her to the imminent departure of the remaining diners. She glanced around. Yes, all of them up, ready to go. Dylan was at the cash register, waiting to take their money. Mel had cleared the buffet table and was hurrying out of the kitchen to clean up the tables being vacated.
“Do you want dessert, Leo?” Teri asked, swinging her attention back to him. There’d still be leftovers in the kitchen.
He gave her a whimsical look. “It’s being taken care of.”
She raised her eyebrows. “More special service?”
“I think I’ve won special status by winning your favour.”
“Leo, I suspect you’d win any woman’s favour if you worked on it.” And that was the plain truth, Teri thought.
“You miss the point,” he argued, his eyes dancing at her again. “It’s you who’s special, Teri.”
How special? Was he prepared to accept her as the mother of his child?
“Well, thanks,” she said as graciously as she could manage when her nerves were getting strung out like piano wires. “It’s nice to be appreciated.”
“Oh, you are! Very much,” Leo asserted, desire flowing from him in electric waves that instantly screwed the piano pegs up another notch or two and caused her stomach to go into spasms.
Fortunately Dylan provided distraction, escorting the last of tonight’s customers to the door and locking up behind them. “You and Mel can go, too, Dylan,” Teri instructed. “If there’s anything left to do, I’ll do it in the morning.”
“Okay. We’ll be off in a minute. Just got to hang up my apron,” Dylan returned cheerfully.
One more minute and she could start unburdening herself of this dreadful suspense. A sixty-seconds countdown to desertion or togetherness or a continuation of their sometime relationship into sometime fatherhood. And the strange part was, Teri had no idea which outcome would be best in the long run.
“Is something wrong, Teri?” Leo asked.
It forced her to meet the quizzical concern in his eyes. “Not really,” she answered, wishing the boys would hurry up.
“You look a bit strained.”
“Sorry.” She tried a rueful smile. “There’s nothing wrong.” An innocent baby on the way could hardly be called wrong. “It’s just...well, I have a lot on my mind”
“Anything I can do to help?”
The offer was genuine. She could see nothing but sincerity in his expression. Maybe...
“Happy birthday to you...”
Dylan’s and Mel’s voices raised raucously in song, instantly jerked her attention away. Her two young employees were marching out of the kitchen, Dylan carrying a cake with a single candle burning on it, Mel bearing a tray with two flute glasses and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket.
“Happy birthday to you...”
Leo rose from his chair to join in.
“Happy Birthday, dear Teri-i-i...”
They were all grinning like Cheshire cats.
“Happy birthday to you!”
She almost burst into tears. She quickly propped her elbows on the table and covered her face with her hands. Let them think she was embarrassed. Let them think anything as long as she had a few seconds to fight back this awful flood of turbulent emotion.
