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But he was already drawing back, reaching into his pocket. “Here’s my home phone number,” he said, jotting it down on the back of one of his business cards. “And my address.” He handed her the card. “Let me have your number.”
“Why?” she asked suspiciously.
“So I can harass you with crank calls from dusk till dawn,” he said, giving her a look of pure exasperation. “Come on, Gayle. I need your number.”
Sighing, she wrote down her number on another of his cards.
“There,” she said, handing it over. “See how I trust you?”
A faint smile played with the corners of his mouth as he pocketed the card. “Trust is a precious thing,” he said. “Precious and rare.”
For the first time, she recognized the streak of bitterness in him, the source of the wary distrust that so often filled his eyes even when his lips were smiling. She wondered if his ex-wife had turned him into such a hard man, or if it was a trait he’d always had.
“Why did you decide to have the artificial insemination?” Jack asked her suddenly.
She looked at him, startled. The question seemed too blunt, too personal.
“Why did you?” she countered.
He hesitated. “I wanted a son,” he said at last. “And I didn’t want another wife.”
She opened her mouth to ask more, but he was already shaking his head. “I told you I would explain it all to you at some point, but I don’t want to go into detail right now.” He raised one eyebrow. “Your turn.”
She took a deep breath. “We decided on artificial insemination for the usual reason. We tried the routine way. It didn’t work.” And she set her lips. If he could withhold details, so could she.
But he wasn’t asking for any. “So you thought you’d let professionals handle it,” he commented casually, sitting back with his elbows hanging over the back of the bench, looking at the fountain. His legs were stretched out in front of him, the wool fabric of his slacks pulled taut by the muscles of his thighs.
Gayle noticed, then silently scolded herself for noticing.
“How did you get the name of these clowns across the street?” he asked.
“Through work. We have a health representative who does referrals.” She sighed. “They came very well recommended.”
He nodded. “I researched the field extensively before I decided upon that clinic. They have a very good reputation.” He gazed at her speculatively. “But I thought you said you were unemployed.”
“Laid off.” She pushed her hair back behind her ear. She didn’t want to think about that. She had enough problems on her plate right now. “Just recently.”
“Sorry. But you would have had to quit, anyway. The baby…”
“I also have to eat,” she said crisply. This situation wasn’t like it had been when her father died and the debts were piled to the ceiling. Still, she didn’t have a lot in savings. She had been planning to spend this afternoon job hunting, but that window of opportunity was fast closing. “I’m signed up with Top Techs, a temporary employment agency, but they haven’t called me with anything yet. I’m going to have to find something soon, though.”
“Listen,” he said, turning toward her on the bench. “I can help you. Money is no object. Just—”
“No!” She stared at him as though he’d suggested something horrible. “Never. I will not take money from you.”
“Gayle, I’m the baby’s father.”
She wanted to close her eyes and cover her ears. “How do I know that? I don’t have any proof that anything you’ve said about all this is true. For all I know, you made it up.”
“You can check with the clinic. They’ll have to let you see the documentation. Your husband’s sample was accidentally destroyed and mine was taken out of turn. You’ll be convinced. I was.”
He was quiet for a moment, then he turned toward her and gazed into her eyes. “You know something? I’m sorry things didn’t work out for you and your husband. But for me, I have to admit, things have worked out pretty well.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You. I think you’re just about what I would have ordered up as a mother for my child, if you had been in the mix when I had to make a choice.”
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he went on anyway. “You’re smart, courageous, compassionate.” His eyes darkened. “And you’re very beautiful.”
She gasped. “Beautiful?” He hadn’t said it as a casual compliment. He’d said it with conviction, as though he really meant it. Just the way he’d said it made her tremble inside.
“Yes. Beautiful.” He took a strand of her hair and curled it around his forefinger, and the way he moved as he did so, slowly, provocatively, left her breathless. “Hasn’t anyone ever called you beautiful before?”
“Never,” she whispered. And it was true.
“What? Didn’t your husband speak English?”
She felt she had to defend him. “He…well, he wasn’t very verbal about things like that.” Hank had never been very romantic. He’d loved her. He’d put her on a pedestal. But he hadn’t wanted to touch her very often.
She knew without having to analyze it that Jack would have been a very different husband. She barely knew him and already she sensed he could be a passionate lover. Her heart was beating a wild dance in her chest. He was too close. She could feel the heat from his body. And his fingers tugging on her hair made her think of things she shouldn’t be thinking.
“Gayle,” he said softly, “you’re an exceptionally beautiful woman. And what’s more, even though you’re seven months pregnant, you’re sexy as hell.”
She felt as though she were drowning in his dark eyes. He was going to kiss her. Oh, she hoped so! She held her breath, waiting for his mouth to cover hers. She wanted to feel his lips so badly, she thought she would die without it.
But luckily that was a delusion, because he didn’t kiss her at all. For just a moment, his gaze devoured hers, and he came ever closer. She waited, heart beating like a drum. But after a few excruciating seconds, he drew back and suddenly was acting as though nothing had happened.
“Anyway,” he said casually, looking away, “the point is, we’ve got a mutual interest here. We both want you to have a calm, happy pregnancy. We both want our baby to be as healthy as possible. Agreed?”
Our baby. The words shocked her back to reality. She looked at him, wondering if she’d imagined everything that had happened in the last few moments. He didn’t seem to think a thing of it. A flash of anger spiked through her, but she would die before she’d let him see how disappointed she was. “Yes,” she said faintly. “Now I’ve got to get home….”
“All right,” he said agreeably. “It is getting late.”
They rose and he walked with her into the parking structure at the edge of the plaza. She avoided looking at him. She was going to go home and forget she’d ever met him! If only she could…
“There’s my car,” she said, pointing out her elderly blue compact as they approached it.
Jack frowned. “Are you sure this thing is safe?” he asked, running his finger over the faded hood.
“It’s fine,” she told him, unlocking the door. “I’ve had it for years.”
Shoving his hands into his pockets, he watched her get into the car. “That’s what I’m afraid of,” he said grumpily. “Cars only have so many miles to give, you know. This one looks like it’s about hit its limit.”
He was worried about the baby, she knew. She gave him a patient look and started her engine, rolling down her window so that she could say goodbye. He bent down, leaning his hand on her car door.
“Have you named him?” he asked softly.
Her hand went protectively to her rounded belly. It felt odd to answer his question. She’d never told anyone other than Hank. “Yes,” she said. “His name is going to be Michael.”
“Michael,” he said, pronouncing it slowly, rolling the name on his tongue as though to savor it. “I like that.”
So glad you approve, she wanted to say, spiced with plenty of sarcasm. But she bit back the retort and found herself saying instead, “I call him Mikey right now.”
Jack grinned, and she frowned, wishing she’d kept that to herself. He rose from his position against the door and she put the car in reverse.
“Thank you for lunch,” she said formally, backing out of her parking space. “Talk to you soon.”
“You can bet on it,” he told her, standing with his hands in his pockets and watching her from under dark brows.
With a wave of her hand, she drove off and left him gazing after her.
There was still part of the afternoon left, but it was useless trying to get anything done. Gayle couldn’t bend over well enough to work on her gardening. She couldn’t read or listen to music or watch television. Her mind was stuck in overdrive, thinking about nothing but the situation she’d found herself thrust into. And the baby seemed to be running on a treadmill. She’d never known him to be so active.
In the evening, she thought of calling Chareen Wolf, her one good friend who had children. She’d been talking to Chareen a lot over the last few months. Gayle’d often needed advice and some morale boosting. Chareen’s blunt attitude struck just the right note for her. Yes, she would call Chareen, tell her about what had happened, get her down-to-earth advice. She went to the phone with a feeling of relief, dialing quickly. But no one answered the telephone, and then she remembered that Chareen was out of town on a business trip.
Suddenly Gayle felt even more isolated than she had before. There was no one she could call, no one she could talk to. Her other friends had never been pregnant. Only one of them was even married. They really couldn’t understand what she was going through. She had no one she could tell about what had happened, about the situation she was in…about Jack Marin and his powerful effect on her. She had never felt so alone.
She was dealing with so many things that she felt like a swimmer going down for the third time. Besides the issues with the baby, there was something else. Why had she reacted so strongly to the man? Why had she wanted him to kiss her?
Because she had wanted exactly that. She wanted it now, when she thought about him, about his handsome face, his strong mouth. It was as though she’d found out something she hadn’t known about before, as though she’d awakened to a need that had been slumbering inside her all these years. She’d never had real passion with a man.
But even thinking about it felt wrong. After all, she was beyond that, wasn’t she? She’d been married. She was pregnant. This wasn’t the right time. And Jack Marin definitely wasn’t the right man.
She sat in the living room for the next hour and flipped through a magazine, but a new thought was tormenting her like a pesky fly. Was this the way it was going to be? Was she really going to be alone with every decision, every new worry about her baby once he was born? She had no family to fall back on. She couldn’t bother Chareen all the time. As the night got later, her mood grew darker, and she began to see the future as a deep, black emptiness yawning before her, filled with demands and decisions.
The only thing she could think of to lift her spirits was to call someone. Maybe Kyra Symington was home. Gayle called the number her friend shared with her new husband, but she only got the answering machine. She tried Ann Marie Hope’s, and then Tracy Martin’s, with the same result. She began to wonder if all her friends had gone somewhere together, forgetting all about her.
Suddenly the phone rang while her hand was still on the receiver, making her jump. Quickly she answered, grateful for the promise of human contact.
“Hello?”
“Hi.”
It was him. She knew his voice immediately, and for some crazy reason, her pulse began to race.
“Hi,” she said. “Is something wrong?”
“No. I just wanted to check if this number was correct.”
There was a hint of amusement in his voice, but she wasn’t sure what that meant. “Why would I give you a wrong number?” she asked, feeling a bit defensive.
“To avoid hearing from me?”
She hesitated, still not sure if he were goading her or laughing.
“How are you feeling?” he asked casually, before she had time to think of something to say.
It would be nice to think he cared about her, but she knew he only cared about the baby. And she couldn’t blame him. It was only natural and logical. Still…
“Fine,” she said, but again she knew she sounded defensive. And she really didn’t mean to.
“Good.” He paused, then continued. “I’d like to see you tomorrow.”
She shook her head, even though he couldn’t see that. “No, impossible. I’m busy tomorrow.”
“All day?”
“Well…” The truth was, she was only hoping to be busy. “I told you, I’ve signed up with Top Techs. I’m expecting a call first thing in the morning, and then I’ll be working all day.”
“Top Techs, huh?” His voice sounded ironic, but perhaps that was just her being overly sensitive. “They’re a good agency. I’ve used them in the past.”
“How interesting.” There wasn’t anything else to say, was there? She tensed, hoping he wasn’t going to start in again on how she should give up her baby to him. But he didn’t do that.
“Okay,” he said. “I just want to let you know I’m here if you need me. Really. Any time of day or night. I will make sure you can always get hold of me.”
For the baby’s sake, of course. “I’m not sure if I feel comforted or threatened by that,” she said dryly, then immediately regretted sounding churlish. After all, he was being very nice. And that was a good thing, even if it was for an ulterior motive.
He was silent so long, she wondered if he’d hung up and she’d missed it. “Gayle,” he said at last. “Are you sure you’re okay?’
She sighed. “Yes. Yes, I’m fine. It’s just…well, it’s been a rough day.”
He was silent for another minute, then he said, “Gayle, I’ve got a question for you.”
Her fingers tightened on the receiver. “What’s that?” she asked him, trying not to let him hear the apprehension in her voice.
“How do you know when an elephant’s been in your refrigerator?”
She blinked. “What?”
“You can see the footprint on your pizza,” he said, his voice impassively earnest. “How can you tell that an elephant’s getting ready to charge?”
She shook her head in wonder. “Jack…”
“Your first clue is when he takes out his credit card.”
Jokes. He was telling elephant jokes. She gaped in astonishment.
“What did Tarzan say when he saw the elephant working in the coffee bar?”
He didn’t wait for her to answer. Putting on a gruff voice, he said, “I didn’t know the hippo had sold the place.”
She laughed. She couldn’t help it. She put her hand over her mouth to try to mask it, but she was laughing nonetheless.
“You smiling yet?” he asked her. “Or do I need to torture you some more?”
“I’m smiling,” she admitted, and the laughter was still in her voice.
“Good,” he said. “See you tomorrow.”
