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She must love those girls almost as much as he did. The situation was tearing her apart.
It tore at him, too. The last thing he wanted was to hurt Gina. Couldn’t she put up with him, even for a few months? She would gain not only more time with Lily and Daisy, but, as he’d promised, regular visitation afterward.
Of course, while they were married, he would keep his distance, especially now that he’d seen from her expression that she had no desire to become his wife. He would respect her reticence completely.
While Mason might be unpolished compared to the doctors at the clinic or to his brother-in-law, Stuart, he possessed an old-fashioned sense of honor. If Gina didn’t already know that, he would simply have to prove it to her.
He was finishing the last document when Elly Maitland returned from an errand. “As I suspected, some of the press has gathered,” she said. “There are a couple of newspaper reporters, and Chelsea Markum from Tattle Today brought a camera crew.”
“This could be awkward.” He’d almost forgotten that the media would be on hand. “I’m not used to giving press conferences.”
“If you like, I’ll ask Dr. Abby to speak to them. With your permission, she could answer questions about the babies’ medical condition.” Abigail Maitland, Elly’s older sister, was chief of obstetrics and gynecology at the clinic and had delivered Lily and Daisy.
“That would be fine,” Mason said distractedly. He’d intended to spend more time with Gina. How was he going to win her over and cope with reporters at the same time?
“I’ll get a couple of volunteers to escort the babies when they’re released,” Elly added.
“Excuse me?”
“We have a policy of not allowing the babies to be carried outside. Just imagine if a parent tripped and dropped one!” she explained. “We arrange for a volunteer to wheel the bassinet out front and wait until the parents bring the car around. Also, we can lend a car seat if they don’t have one.”
He didn’t want a volunteer to assist him. He wanted Gina. “Would you mind if Miss Kennedy was the one who escorted them?” Mason asked. “It would mean a lot to me.”
“What a lovely idea!” the administrator said. “That way, someone’s sure to take her picture with the babies. I know she’s grown fond of them these past few months. I’m sure she’d like to have a souvenir clipping.”
Mason wished he’d come up with the idea of photographing Gina with his daughters. He’d have to make sure he got a copy of whatever ran in the newspaper.
But then, he intended to have plenty of pictures taken. At their wedding.
I’M SORRY. I’ve thought your offer over carefully, but I can’t accept. I do love Lily and Daisy, and I want what’s best for them. But becoming their mother, then having to give them up—well, I’m not sure I could handle it.
No, she didn’t dare give him wiggle room. I can’t handle spending months as Lily and Daisy’s mother, and then leaving and only seeing them on rare occasions. Please, let’s not argue about it. Let’s stay friends.
Gina sighed. She’d been going over and over in her mind what she was going to say to Mason. If only he would hurry back so she could stop torturing herself!
Freshly changed and cute as kittens in their springlike dresses, the two little girls were ready to go. Each was accompanied by an apnea monitor slightly smaller than a VCR.
The Velcro chest belts didn’t need to be attached while the girls were awake, although they should be put in place for the long ride home. Mason had been instructed in their use yesterday afternoon and, unlike some parents, had mastered the correct degree of tautness right away.
As for Bonita, the housekeeper, he’d called her yesterday and she’d promised to come in for CPR training next week. Gina hoped there wouldn’t be any need for emergency resuscitation before then—or ever.
Katie stopped by, holding one of her charges. “What did you decide to do about Mason? I saw the roses on the counter, by the way. They’re gorgeous!”
On the verge of answering, Gina decided it wouldn’t be right to disclose her decision to someone else before she informed Mason. “I’d like to tell him first.”
“You always do things so discreetly!” Katie said. “You’re what people call a real lady. I aspire to be like you, Gina, although I’m not sure I’ll ever make it.”
“Please don’t use me as a shining example of anything!” she protested. At the moment, she felt more like a squashed cabbage leaf than a lady.
Eleanor Maitland’s assistant poked her head into the room. “Nurse Kennedy? They’d like you to wheel the Blackstone babies to the lobby, please.”
Gina froze. The girls were being released already? But Mason hadn’t returned to talk to her!
“She’ll need someone to push the second bassinet,” Katie pointed out. “Oh, good, Susan’s here!” Susan, a nurse assigned to the intermediate nursery, had been delayed by a flat tire. “I’m supposed to assist Dr. Carrington in half an hour, so I can spare the time to push the other one.”
“Thanks.” The assistant ducked out, then stuck her head in again. “By the way, there’s press all over the front steps, and Abby and Megan Maitland are out there, too, so make sure you’ve got lipstick on.”
Press? And Megan Maitland, the family matriarch who had founded Maitland Maternity nearly twenty-five years ago and still served as its CEO? This was getting more and more complicated.
Gina needed help. “Katie, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I need to talk to Mason.”
She was on the brink of confiding her decision to turn down his proposal when Susan bustled over. “So these cuties are leaving us, huh? We’re all going to miss them, not to mention that heartthrob uncle of theirs. How’d you let him slip through your fingers, Gina?”
She didn’t know how to answer, even though the question was meant in jest. Fortunately, Katie intervened. “Don’t make assumptions, Sue!”
“Just stating the obvious.” The nurse bustled off to take care of her own charges.
The possibility of having a private conversation with Katie had vanished, Gina saw, when Elly Maitland appeared outside the glass partition and waved to them to hurry. She would have to figure out what to say to Mason by herself.
Was it possible he assumed he already knew her answer? Last night, Gina recalled, he’d brushed away her objections and insisted that a sham marriage made perfect sense. Perhaps, overnight, he’d convinced himself that his logic was so irrefutable that she couldn’t possibly say no.
The last thing she wanted was a painful public confrontation with Mason. She preferred quiet discussions that preserved everyone’s self-respect. They simply had to find a moment together.
WALKING THROUGH THE LOBBY toward the hospital’s front entrance, Mason saw Dr. Abby standing outside talking to half a dozen reporters and a camera crew. Beside her, beaming, stood the proud figure of Dr. Abby’s mother, Megan, head of Maitland Maternity.
The press gathered around them weren’t nearly as numerous as he’d expected. He hoped they wouldn’t be as obnoxious as he’d feared, either.
“…demonstrate one of the reasons I established this clinic,” Megan was saying. At a well-publicized sixty-two years, she had a vigor and presence that dominated the scene. “Getting babies off to a healthy start is the most important job in the world.”
“Here’s Mr. Blackstone now,” Abby said. “He can tell us about the twins from his perspective.”
The moment he reached Dr. Abby’s side, an attractive woman thrust a microphone toward Mason. He didn’t watch much television, so it took a moment to place her as Chelsea Markum, a local reporter who specialized in gossip and human interest stories.
“Mr. Blackstone, who’s going to take care of the twins while you’re working on the ranch all day?” she demanded.
Did she have to ask that question right off the bat? “I’ve made arrangements for them to be well cared for, and I’ll be spending every possible moment with them,” he said.
“Taken care of by whom?” she asked.
“I’m not at liberty to…”
From the corner of his eye, he noticed a taxi pulling to the curb. The instant the wheels stopped, the doors flew open and two people hurried out.
Even if she hadn’t been his sister, his attention would have gone first to Margaret. She was a striking woman, tall, with vivid dark coloring. Stuart, stockier and blander, could have been cast as a lawyer in the movies, as in real life.
“Just in time!” Marge called, striding toward him. “Where are my little darlings?”
The camera swung toward her. Chelsea Markum frowned. “Who’s this?”
“I’m Margaret Blackstone Waldman, the babies’ aunt.” The knot of reporters parted and his sister marched through their center. Her husband, who had stopped to pay the cabbie, rushed to catch up. “Stuart and I will be taking them home with us to Dallas.”
Mason struggled against a flare of anger. He loved his sister, but right now he could cheerfully have stuffed her into a box and mailed her to Siberia.
Leaning forward, he spoke into Chelsea’s microphone. “I’m afraid you’ve caught us in the middle of a family disagreement. My sister and I are both offering our homes to Lily and Daisy. But as you may be aware, I’ve been the one who’s been supervising their care and bonding with them.”
Margaret snatched the microphone from Chelsea’s hand. Mason could have taken it back, but he was loathe to stage a tug-of-war in public. This entire situation was undignified enough already.
“I’ll give my brother credit for good intentions,” she said. “But babies need a mother as well as a father. Stuart and I can provide both. Not to mention our experience in raising three children of our own.”
A stir among the press and the crunch of small wheels behind him told Mason that the babies had arrived. Turning, he saw Gina standing behind one of the bassinets, staring at Margaret and Stuart. She must have guessed who they were, even if she hadn’t heard their comments.
Her lips parted in dismay. In the sunlight, the translucent clarity of her skin made her look even younger than she was. He wanted her so much, he nearly forgot where they were.
“Mr. Blackstone?” Chelsea pressed, having reclaimed her microphone. “How do you respond to your sister’s points? She tells us she has parenting experience, which I understand you don’t. Furthermore, you never answered my question about who was going to care for the girls while you’re working on the ranch.”
“I’ll tell you who.” Marge, who had worked herself up into what Rance used to call a “bossy fit,” seized the mike again. “He’s got a housekeeper, a perfectly competent woman. She never had children of her own, though, and she’s certainly not the twins’ mother. That’s who’s going to take care of these girls if my brother has his way. Is that the mark of a man who loves his nieces? I’d say he was thinking more of himself than of them.”
The unfairness of this remark brought gasps from several people, including Dr. Abby, who had witnessed Mason’s devotion over the past two months. Megan Maitland glowered. But what could she or anyone else say?
“That’s not true.”
Gina’s sweet voice carried over the crowd with surprising strength. Before anyone else could react, and no doubt before Margaret even figured out who had spoken, Chelsea snatched back her microphone and hurried over. “What makes you say that, Nurse?”
“I’m the one who’s going to take care of Daisy and Lily,” Gina announced. “Mason and I are getting married.”
Chapter Four
She hadn’t meant to say that. Until a minute ago, Gina had had every intention of declining his offer.
However, as Katie had pointed out yesterday, she couldn’t help flying to the defense of people she cared about. And after hearing for herself how ruthless Mason’s sister was, Gina had made the only move that could preserve his right to the girls.
On Mason’s face she saw relief. If only he would put his arms around her and tell her that he cared about her, she would feel so much better. However, she reminded herself, he had proposed a practical arrangement, and she’d just agreed to it for practical reasons.
Her statement rang in her ears, through the buzz of congratulations from Katie and Abby and Megan Maitland. It took a moment to realize that Chelsea Markum was asking another question.
“When did this come about?” the reporter said.
“Very recently. We weren’t going to announce it quite yet.” Gina wasn’t exactly lying. “Mason and I got to know each other over the past two months. I’ve been the primary-care nurse for Lily and Daisy.”
She could hear reporters’ pens scratching, and besides, the camera had captured every word. There would be no going back. She swallowed hard, a little afraid of the events she’d impulsively set into motion.
“Well!” Even the imposing Margaret, who looked as if she normally brooked no opposition, seemed at a loss for words, “This is a surprise!”
“I wish someone had told us sooner,” her husband grumbled. “I’m missing an entire day’s work.”
“Stuart!” his wife reproved. “Just because—that is—we don’t know anything about this young lady. Or how qualified she is to take care of our nieces.”
“You’re doubting the qualifications of a neonatal-care nurse?” Chelsea Markum asked. “Mrs. Waldman, how much experience do you have with premature babies?”
“That isn’t the point!” Margaret blustered, and stopped, unable to define exactly what the point was.
“I’d like to know more about the upcoming nuptials,” said one of the print reporters, finally getting a word in edgewise. “When and where are you two going to be married?”
Oh, help. “We hadn’t discussed…”
Margaret butted in headfirst when Gina hesitated. “Exactly my point! Who’s going to care for the girls in the meantime? Obviously, my kid brother hasn’t thought far enough ahead to plan his wedding. Why, it could take months!”
“We don’t need anything formal. I don’t have any immediate family,” Gina said wistfully. She’d always dreamed of a big wedding, with lace and flowers and lots of friends and relatives. It was hardly appropriate under the circumstances, though.
“Nonsense!” When Megan Maitland spoke, everyone else hushed. “Since there’s no time to arrange for a facility, they’ll be married at my mansion. The grounds are beautiful, and it’s high time we used them for such a joyful purpose!”
The Maitland mansion, ten blocks from the clinic, was a stately white structure out of Gina’s dreams. She’d often strolled past the four-story house, sneaking peaks at the Southern-style building and luxurious gardens.
The prospect of having a wedding there filled her with excitement. But what about Mason? Wouldn’t he be upset, since he intended to stay married only long enough to adopt his nieces? Their marriage would be enough of a sham, without dragging so many other people into it.
He was smiling broadly, she saw through the crowd. Probably the implications of having a big splashy wedding hadn’t dawned on him. Well, he appeared to have won at least the first round against his sister, and that was reason enough for elation.
MASON WAS ALMOST GRATEFUL to Marge. If she’d spoken with more diplomacy, Gina might not have felt compelled to declare that she was marrying him.
He didn’t harbor any illusions about her being in love with him. It was the girls she cared about, and that was fair enough.
“So,” he said to the press, “where does a guy rent a tux around here?”
“I’ll tell you if you promise to invite me!” Chelsea Markum said.
He shook his head ruefully. “This isn’t a media circus, it’s a wedding. However, I’m happy to invite as many private guests as Mrs. Maitland is willing to accommodate. Including the staff of Maitland Maternity.”
“Most of them will be working, but I think we can make a few exceptions,” Megan said. “Starting with Gina, who is on paid vacation as of this moment.”
“When is this event going to take place?” his sister asked suspiciously. “Despite your generous offer, Mrs. Maitland, it could be weeks!”
“Would tomorrow be soon enough?” asked the CEO. “It’s all right with me if it’s all right with our happy couple.”
Mason heard Gina’s sharp intake of breath. Was she regretting her decision, or simply worrying over logistics? As for him, the sooner the better. It gave her less time to change her mind.
“Suits me,” he said. “How about you, Gina?”
His bride-to-be had gone pale, or perhaps it was the effect of bright sunshine on her ivory skin. “I don’t know. I’ve never been married before. I mean…don’t we need a license? And I’ll have to buy a dress. Not to mention arranging for a minister and flowers.”
“I’ll put my staff on it immediately.” Megan Maitland beamed at the prospect. “Don’t you worry about the details. Just get the papers and the gown, and we can even assist with that if you like.”
“Can I be your maid of honor?” Katie asked.
“Of course! I was just about to ask you!”
Mason had to admit he hadn’t considered how complicated weddings were. His cousin Ed, the ranch foreman, and his wife, Linda, had gotten married on the Blackstone spread twenty years ago, when Mason was fourteen. All he remembered was a lot of music and colorful clothing.
Marge, who had been unaccustomedly silent, found one more tiny point to seize on. “And where are my precious nieces going to sleep tonight?” she cried. “In some hotel room where they won’t even have proper cribs?”
