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“No,” she said quickly, that wary look on her pretty face again. “Don’t.”
He frowned at her. “Why not?”
She ran her tongue across her lower lip nervously. “The neighbors will see you.”
“The neighbors?” He stared at her incredulously. “So what?”
“They’ll talk.”
“They’ll talk? Just because I act like a gentleman and—”
“They don’t know from gentlemen around here.” She pulled her things together and released her seat belt, ready to fly. “The men they see around here are no gentlemen.”
His eyes narrowed. “Are you telling me—?”
She glanced at him. “Yes. They’ll think—” She shrugged and looked away. “Just let me go alone. I don’t need to be fodder for gossip.”
He bit down on his tongue. Anger was threatening to take over if he didn’t smother it fast. Taking a deep breath, he turned and challenged her.
“Annie, what the hell are you doing living in this kind of neighborhood?”
She lifted her chin defiantly. “The rent’s cheap.”
“Sometimes cheap is the most expensive of all.”
“Listen, Matt. I don’t come from money. I was raised by a single mother who did what she could, but couldn’t do much. I’ve lived in places like this lots of times in my life. I can handle it.”
Giving him a reassuring look, she slipped out of the car and walked quickly toward the entrance to her building.
He sat where he was, staring after her. He didn’t like it. This was no kind of neighborhood to bring a newborn baby back to. He shrugged away the fact that she was considering putting her baby up for adoption.
Assuming, for the sake of this argument, she would be bringing a baby home from the hospital, how was she going to cope in a place like this?
Well, maybe she had some friends.
No. She’d only been in town a month, so she couldn’t possibly have built up the sort of friendships that went with providing for a baby’s needs.
He thought of her, of her pretty face and those dark, beautiful eyes. She didn’t belong here. He wanted to throw caution to the wind and stomp in after her, grab her and—
Yeah, then what? He didn’t know anything about housing here in Chivaree. For all he knew, she was right and this was all that was available. On the other hand, once he got her installed at his office in the Allman building, once he started paying her a decent wage, maybe she would be able to afford a better place. He knew that was a better course. If he tried to go in and force her into doing things the way he thought they should be done, he was going to put her back up permanently.
He almost grinned, thinking of how fierce her pretty face would get, how her perfect little chin would jut out as she defied him. She was a charmer in her own way. Funny how hard she tried to resist that.
Still, the more he thought about it, the more he knew this was just an unacceptable place for her to live. No employee of his should live like this.
He grimaced. Who was he trying to kid? Annie wasn’t going to be just any employee. That baby she was carrying was taking on larger than life proportions in his mind—and it was no mystery to him why that was.
It had only been a few weeks since he’d found out he had a child himself. Out there in the world somewhere was a baby he’d never known about. That was a completely mind-blowing concept and he still wasn’t used to it. So many questions remained unanswered.
It made him sick to think that Penny, the ex-girlfriend who’d had his child and never told him, might have had to live in places like this dump where Annie was staying. But from what he’d learned so far, she’d been on her own when she was getting ready to go through delivery…and preparing to put the baby up for adoption, just as Annie was thinking of doing. So chances were, she’d had to take what she could get at the time.
It was hard thinking that while he was casually going on with his life, laughing, dating, getting a residency in family practice in Dallas, Penny had been taking on all the responsibilities he should have been sharing with her. And that she had made the solo decision to give up her baby—his baby—to someone else.
He should have been there.
Maybe he thought helping Annie would make amends to a certain degree. Could that be part of his interest in Annie and what was to become of her? Sure, he knew it was nuts to get involved. And maybe he was crazy. But babies had to be protected. Absolutely. A no-brainer. And if he had to take on the mantle of guardian angel, he would.
He switched the engine on and started slowly down the street, but his mind was still back at the grungy apartment building with Annie.
Chapter Three
Annie’s eyes shot open. She stared into the dark, wondering what had jolted her awake this way. Had it been a scream? A gunshot? She’d heard plenty of both those things since she’d moved into this dank, dark room.
There was a thump and someone began yelling in the hallway. She tried to relax. Them again. It was just the couple next door. The woman was always throwing her partner’s things out the window and then he would storm up the stairs, yelling and pounding on the door she’d locked against him. The yelling would go on, back and forth, for what seemed like hours. Finally she would let him back in the apartment and then dishes would crash into walls and he would yell and she would scream. The ridiculous thing was, once they made up, the lovemaking was just as noisy as the fighting had been.
Meanwhile, the people in the apartment on the other side of her had turned on some strange foreign music, very loud. She knew they were doing it to drown out the fighting, but it was almost worse. Pulling her pillow up over her head she groaned. How was she going to start a new job in the morning with no sleep at all?
Something hit the wall hard and she jerked in response, adrenaline surging. This was impossible. But more than that, it was scary. One of these days she had a feeling something worse than her peace being disturbed would happen. Matt had been right. She had to find another place to live. But how? With no money beyond just enough to feed herself and pay for this place, life was tough.
The woman screamed again and Annie winced. This was just too awful. And the worst was not knowing whether she should call the police again or not. Was the screaming for real? Or just a weapon the woman used against her boyfriend? Annie didn’t know how much more of this she could stand.
Suddenly there was a new voice and she raised her head, listening intently. The yelling was more hysterical and the thumps sounded more like a real fight. And then, there was nothing. Silence.
She sat up, frowning. What the heck was going on? The fights were never over this quickly.
Someone banged on her door. She jumped a foot into the air and cried out softly.
Her heart was thumping so hard it felt like it might burst. She closed her eyes for half a second to catch herself, then slipped from the bed and ran softly to the door, just listening, trying to figure out what kind of monster might be on the other side. Was it the man who had been yelling? The woman looking for refuge? The new voice she’d heard?
“Annie? Are you in there? Are you okay?”
It took her a moment to realize it was Matt Allman, and once she did, joy burst inside her.
“Matt?” She tugged on the multiple locks, sliding each back in turn and opening the door. “What are you doing here?”
He looked very good standing there—all tall and dark and strong and male. Just what she needed right now. Relief swept through her and she did something completely unexpected and totally ridiculous. She threw herself into his arms.
It only lasted for seconds, and she jumped back away from him again so quickly, he might have thought he’d imagined the whole thing. But for those few seconds, his warm arms had felt so good against her almost-naked body, her head was spinning.
“Where did you come from?” she asked, backing into her apartment again. A strange fuzzy place in her sleepy mind seemed to think he might have appeared in a puff of smoke. But the strong, protective arms around her had been so real, she might never get that short but sweet memory out of her head.
“I came to get you,” he responded calmly. “Get your things together. Let’s go.”
She stared at him blankly. “I—I can’t go. It’s after midnight,” she added irrationally.
“It’ll only get later the longer you procrastinate,” he told her gruffly. He glanced down the hall, then looked back at her, his gaze taking in the lacy nightgown and her slender body showing through it. “Let me in. I’ll help you get your things ready to go.”
She knew she was probably crazy for letting him into her lonely apartment in the middle of the night. After all, the way he’d looked at her had reminded her of just how nearly transparent her nightgown was in the light from the hallway. Not good. Even a pregnant woman might look enticing in flimsy lace in the middle of the night.
“Oh,” she said, looking down. Maybe she could ask him to wait in the hall until—
But he wasn’t waiting any longer. And suddenly there he was, inside her apartment, closing her door.
“Come on. I’m getting you out of here.”
She shook her head, then glanced around for her robe. “No. Where would I go?” she said, lifting it off a chair and slipping it on, hugging it close to her chest. “This is where I live, I—”
He grabbed her arm. She looked up at him, startled. He obviously meant business.
“Look, if you want me to get all caveman on you, I will. Bottom line, I’m not going to let you sleep here one more night.”
“But—”
“Annie, be reasonable. It was like World War Three in your hallway when I got here. I had to kick some butt to get them to quiet down. There’s no way you can live with this stuff going on.” He glared at her. “Don’t you ever call the cops on these people?”
She nodded. “I’ve tried that. They came once, but they don’t like to come over here to this neighborhood.”
He groaned. “Annie, I mean it. You’re coming with me. You have no other option.”
Looking in his eyes, she knew there was no point arguing. Turning, she looked at her closet. “Okay. Let me change and—”
“No time for that. Grab your toothbrush and let’s get out of here. We can get the rest of your things tomorrow.”
Matt took charge. In no time at all she was sitting in the passenger seat of his car, cruising through the dark streets. She was wearing her robe over her nightgown, but her hair was billowing wildly around her head and her feet were in thongs. She did have her toothbrush clutched firmly in her hand. At least there was that.
“I don’t know why I’m letting you do this,” she said, shaking her head at her own folly.
He glanced at her and a half smile softened the hard edges of his face. “I don’t know why either. But it’s probably because you know I’m right.”
She sighed. “I’ll bet you’re right a lot of the time, aren’t you?” she said.
He shrugged. “Pretty much all the time if you want to know the truth.”
She was quiet for a moment, thinking about what might be coming next. She supposed he was taking her back to his place. Where else was he going to take her in the middle of the night? She had to be out of her mind for going along with this. After all, she might have to listen to fights at her place, but at least she was just a spectator, so far. At Matt’s apartment she would probably be one of the main combatants. Because if he thought her gratitude for his concern was going to get him anything, he could think again!
She bristled, ready to hate him. Men were all alike, weren’t they? A pregnant woman with no man around seemed to act like catnip on the average male. She’d better get ready to let him know just what she thought of lechers. Bracing herself, she waited for him to turn down the street where all the new apartment buildings stood.
But he didn’t turn there. He just kept going and she looked at him in surprise.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked.
“Home,” he said shortly, not taking his gaze off the road.
She frowned, looking out at the simple frame houses they were passing.
“Whose home?” she countered.
“We’re here,” Matt said instead of answering her question. He pulled the car up a driveway to stop in front of a house that had obviously once been just like all the other simple frame houses on the block, but had since morphed into something much more grandiose.
“The Allman homestead,” he said, squinting as he looked through the windshield at it.
She leaned forward to stare at it, too. The place looked huge, three stories tall, with gables and a round tower, as though someone had taken a liking to the Queen Anne style somewhere along the way. To Annie it looked like a fairy-tale house, with windows for princesses to lean out of and dark recesses for villains to hide in.
“The reason it looks sort of odd is that Pop keeps putting on additions,” Matt said. “If he had his way, every Allman would marry and keep his family right here, so there’s got to be plenty of room.”
“That seems very…” She was about to say generous, but she had second thoughts. Controlling was probably a better word. “Wait a minute. You live here with your family?”
“Sure.”
She looked at the house with alarm. “Are you going to tell me this place is full of Allmans of all shapes and sizes?”
“Yup.”
She swallowed hard. She was a McLaughlin, even if he didn’t know it. The Allmans and the McLaughlins were like the Hatfields and the McCoys. They didn’t mix, didn’t speak, didn’t tolerate each other at all. And here she was being ushered into the belly of the beast. Yikes! Was this really a good idea?
She was stalling for time and he made an impatient gesture.
“Come on, Annie,” he said, sliding out of the driver’s seat and coming around to help her out. “Keep it kind of quiet, though. Everyone’s in bed.”
“So who all’s here right now?” she asked, looking nervously up at the second-floor windows.
“Let’s see.” Leading her across the lawn, he started counting on his fingers. “Pop, two sisters, Rita and Jodie, my brother David…and me.”
She came to a dead stop, horrified, as the magnitude of it all rose up in front of her. “I can’t go in there.”
He frowned at her. “Why not?”
“Because…what is your family going to think?”
He groaned. “You care too much what other people think. Don’t worry about them. I’ll explain it all to them in the morning.” She still didn’t move and he added, “Look, where else are you going to go?”
Well, that was it, wasn’t it? She had no choice. How the heck had she let this happen to her again? He was right. She looked at him, feeling frustrated and a bit angry. She hated being in this position. But she knew she was going to have to give in to the inevitable. Unless she wanted to sleep in the car.
“Listen, don’t worry about it,” he said, still trying to convince her. “We’ve got a lot of extra rooms.”
She blinked. “There will be a room just for me?” she asked incredulously.
“Sure.”
Touching his arm, she looked up at him searchingly. “So—let me get this straight. You’re not trying to smuggle me into your bedroom?”
He opened his mouth to say something, closed it again, then half laughed. “Annie-girl,” he said in his best Texas drawl, “you’re nervous as a cat in a dog pound. Don’t you ever drop the suspicions? You’d think you’d never met a stranger who didn’t turn out to be a horse thief.”
She shrugged. “The good ones are rare as hen’s teeth,” she muttered, turning to look at the house again. “But I’ve still got hopes for you.”
He grinned. “You and me both.” He tugged on her arm to make her face him and looked down earnestly. “Annie, I’m interested in two things. Number one, getting a good employee. And number two, making sure your baby is okay. Got that?”
“My baby is fine,” she said, knowing the words sounded defensive. Again.
