Having Leo's Child

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She heard the plate with the cake being plonked on the table in front of her. “Come on, Teri. Got to blow the candle out,” Dylan cajoled.

“Make a wish, too,” Mel pressed.

A wish...

Please God, let Leo want our child!

And why that suddenly meant so much she didn’t know!

She took a deep breath, dropped her hands, and blew out the candle. It wasn’t difficult to blow out one candle. If there’d been thirty...but they didn’t know about that milestone and she wasn’t about to tell them.

Her effort was roundly applauded.

“Thank you,” she managed huskily.

“It’s an orange cake with lemon icing. Your favourite. Made it myself,” Dylan said proudly.

“You shouldn’t...” She stopped herself from shaking her head and aimed a wobbly smile at him. “It’s very kind of you, Dylan.”

“Pleasure. You have a good time, Teri. Everyone should celebrate their birthday.”

“Yeah,” Mel agreed. “We’re nicking off now so you can have a great celebration. Good night, Teri...Leo...”

“I’ll lock up after you,” Leo offered, and they all set off for the door, leaving Teri staring at a cake she couldn’t possibly eat and a bottle of champagne that was utterly wasted on this occasion.

They meant well.

Any other birthday she would have been delighted at being given such a sweet surprise. She must thank Dylan and Mel again tomorrow. Her eyes misted over again and she blinked furiously, clearing the moisture as best she could. Getting choked up was not going to help anything. She took several deep breaths and was more or less in control of herself by the time Leo returned to the table.

Her hands fluttered in a dismissive appeal. “I didn’t realise they had anything like this planned. I didn’t even tell them it was my birthday.”

“I know.” He leaned down and picked something off his chair. “This is from me,” he said, handing her a slim, rectangular packet, wrapped in expensive silver paper. “Happy birthday, Teri.”

His voice was a warm caress, stroking her heart into pumping with the wild hope that tonight might not be the parting of the ways she feared. She stared down at the packet as Leo slid back onto his chair. It raised a host of questions that clamoured to be answered.

“How did you know, Leo?”

“Dylan told me when I rang this afternoon.”

“He had no right...” A painful flush burned into her cheeks as she imagined Dylan suggesting to Leo that he surprise her, too. Her eyes flashed an anguished apology. “I didn’t expect you to...”

He reached across the table and stilled the agitated wave of her hand by capturing it and pressing reassurance. “I wanted to, Teri. In fact, it’s because you don’t expect anything that it’s a very real pleasure to buy you a gift.”

“But...”

“No buts. Open it,” he commanded softly, releasing her hand so she could do so.

She wavered, wanting to, yet not feeling right about it, not in these circumstances. “I don’t even know your birthday,” she temporised.

“First of December,” he tossed off carelessly.

Their baby would be born in October.

She barely caught herself back from saying it. Too bald a statement. Better to lead into it so at least he understood how it had happened.

“It won’t bite,” Leo dryly advised. “And you won’t owe me anything, Teri. It’s simply a birthday gift, no strings attached. Please...enjoyed buying it.”

A child was a big, big string, Teri thought, as she tore open the wrapping paper, hoping Leo had picked up something simple and relatively inexpensive. He’d probably ducked into one of the airport shops and bought the first thing that caught his eye...except the long flat box emerging from the silver paper was a white leather case on which was stamped in gold, the high-fashion designer name—Escada.

Her heart wobbled as she clicked open the lid. Sunglasses—streamlined class—the elegant black-andsilver frames suggesting a space age design.

“Put them on and let me see,” Leo urged, eager to judge if his choice was right.

Teri had never owned or worn a designer label anything! The temptation—just to try—was too seductive to deny. Her hands trembled slightly as she lifted the beautiful and undoubtedly ruinously expensive glasses from their black suede nest and fitted them on her face.

“Yes!” Leo cried triumphantly. “I knew they were you the moment I saw them. Take a look in the mirror, Teri. They look fantastic on you!”

She couldn’t resist, just to see. A mirror was positioned on the wall so most of the dining room could be watched from the kitchen. It only took a few moments to get up and view her reflection. The sunglasses were wonderful; chic, classy, perfect for her face and cropped hair, giving her an ultra modern, sophisticated look that instantly took away any angst over being thirty.

She couldn’t help smiling at Leo for giving her this lovely gift, despite the deep reservations she held. “They are fantastic,” she agreed wholeheartedly. “But they must have cost a fortune, Leo.”

He shrugged, still grinning at her. “Worth every cent. All you need now are black leathers and a Harley-Davidson.”

Laughter bubbled up from somewhere and spilled out. Teri tried to get a grip on herself as she resumed her seat at the table and returned the glasses to their plush case. She had to speak—had to—before she was drawn so far into Leo’s charm-circle she’d want to forget the unforgettable.

“Time to open the champagne,” he said happily.

“No...wait!” she blurted out, halting his movement to lift the bottle out of the ice bucket. She met his quizzical eyes anxiously. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you, Leo.”

“Okay,” he invited good-humouredly.

Where to start? How to start? Why hadn’t she given this more thought?

“Remember last month when you were here and I had a bit of a queezy stomach?” she plunged in, desperate to have him understand there’d been nothing planned about it.