Part 9 (1/2)
”The green suitcase?”
She managed a smile. Her lucky suitcase. ”It hasn't failed me yet.”
He smiled, too. ”If you say so.”
When he came forward, she knew he was going to kiss her. A gentle kiss. A goodbye.
Suddenly she wanted to cry. His lips touched hers, as magical as moonlight, as tender as the rose he'd given her. She would never forget him.
”Be good,” he told her.
”You, too.”
He didn't offer to stop by in the morning to see her off, but she hadn't expected him to.
He reached for herhair, let it slip through his fingers. ”You better get some sleep.”
”I will.”
She wanted to release his hair from the braid, but somehow that seemed an invasive thing to do, so she curled her fingers into his s.h.i.+rt instead. If only he would ask for her phone number, offer to keep in touch, make some sort of promise.
A second later he kissed her again.
And then left her room, and her life, without another word.
Chapter 5.
Amonth later Julianne paced her apartment inClearville,Pennsylvania. She'd been fighting a debilitating illness for nearly a week. Only now she knew it wasn't a virus or bacterial infection that had been upsetting her stomach every day.
It was a baby.
Julianne McKenzie, the woman who couldn't conceive a child, was pregnant.
”Is the doctor sure?” Kay asked.
Julianne stopped pacing to acknowledge her cousin. Kay sat on the printed sofa, wearing a pair of jeans
and an oversize T-s.h.i.+rt. Her dark hair was clipped in a rooster-style ponytail, making her look younger
than her thirty-two years. ”Yes, the doctor is sure.” She'd seen him two days ago and she'd argued with him then, insisting his diagnosis was wrong, that the nurse must have mixed up her urine sample with someone else's. But a blood test indicated the same results.
She was pregnant.
Kay picked up her soda. ”Has Bobby called you back?”
”No.” Julianne glanced out the window. The weather was hot and muggy, stifling. ”But I didn't leave urgent messages.” All she'd done was give her name and phone number to the receptionist at the lodge. Twice.
”Urgent or not, he should still give you the courtesy of returning your calls.”
But he hadn't, which meant he wasn't interested in talking to her. Yet she couldn't let it go. She was carrying his child and she had to tell him.
She sat next to her cousin. ”I hope he doesn't think I tricked him. He is a wealthy man and I'm-” Nervous, she thought. Worried about his reaction. She couldn't bear for Bobby to think that she'd gotten pregnant on purpose, that she was trying to manipulate some money out of him.
Kay reached for hand. ”Don't do this. Don't blame yourself.”
”But I told him I couldn't have kids.”
”You didn't lie, Jul. That's what you believed at the time.”
”What if he never returns my calls? What am I supposed to do then? Fly toTexasand confront him?”
”Sounds like a plan to me.”
Julianne fought the tears gathering in her eyes. ”I've always wanted a baby. But why did it happen now?
And why with Bobby?” A man she barely knew. A man who still wore the wedding band his dead wife had given him.
Kay squeezed her hand. ”I don't know. But just think of it as G.o.d's plan. As something that was meant to be.”
Would Bobby accept that reasoning? Or would he see this as Julianne's trick? Would he be angry with her? Or infuriated withhimself for sleeping with her? ”I should have mentioned the condoms. I should have said something.”
”So you made a mistake. A judgment in error. It happens.”
”But the condoms were right there. Just a few feet away.” She'd even had a foil packet in her purse.
”And you considered them. Rationalized why you didn't need them.”
Maybe, but that didn't alleviate her stress. Or the stress Bobby would endure. ”How long should I wait for him to call me back before I head toTexas? A few days? A few weeks?”
”I'd leave another message,then opt for a few days. A few weeks are too long, Jul. You've got to get this settled before then. Besides, I know you haven't quit thinking about him.”
That was true. Even before she'd discovered she was pregnant, she'd lain awake each night, recalling every moment she'd spent with him. His voice. His smile. His touch.
”I'm so scared, Kay.”
”About having a baby? Or about telling Bobby?” ”Both.” After all, she was a forty-year-old who'd conceived a child out of wedlock. A child with a man who haunted her dreams. A man who hadn't even bothered to return her phone calls. * * *