Книга - Married Right Away

Married Right Away
SUSAN MEIER


MEDICAL CHART SPERM DONOR CLINIC patient: SAVANNAH GROGIN signature: Savannah Grogin donor: ETHAN McKENZIE signature: Ethan McKenzieTECHNICIAN: Barry GoginNOTES: I know I shouldn't forge Ethan’s signature…but I know how badly my sister wants a child. Plus, I promised that I’d find her a "good father."Only problem is, the best candidate that I know of is Ethan McKenzie–Savannah's former boss…Ethan hasn’t been heard from in years–so nothing could happen if I just go ahead without his permission, right? Savannah will get her precious baby…and Ethan will never findout.Unless…









“We’re married, Ethan. We want to make our commitment permanent.” She took a short breath for courage. “We both know the only way to do that.”


Savannah faced him, her fingers immediately going to the top button of her blouse.

Ethan almost ran to stop her. “No,” he said, clasping her fingers to remove them from the button.

“No?” she asked, wide-eyed, frightened and so incredibly beautiful in her innocence that he almost shook with gratitude.

“If we’re going to do this we’re going to do this right,” he said.

Then he bent his head and kissed her….


Dear Reader,

Calling all royal watchers! This month, Silhouette Romance’s Carolyn Zane kicks off our exciting new series, ROYALLY WED: THE MISSING HEIR, with the gem Of Royal Blood. Fans of last year’s ROYALLY WED series will love this thrilling four-book adventure, filled with twists and turns—and of course, plenty of love and romance. Blue bloods and commoners alike will also enjoy Laurey Bright’s newest addition to her VIRGIN BRIDES thematic series, The Heiress Bride, about a woman who agrees to marry to protect the empire that is rightfully hers.

This month is also filled with earth-shattering secrets! First, award-winning author Sharon De Vita serves up a whopper in her latest SADDLE FALLS title, Anything for Her Family. Natalie McMahon is much more than the twin boys’ nanny—she’s their mother! And in Karen Rose Smith’s A Husband in Her Eyes, the heroine has her eyesight restored, only to have haunting visions of a man and child. Can she bring love and happiness back into their lives?

Everyone likes surprises, right? Well, in Susan Meier’s Married Right Away, the heroine certainly gives her boss the shock of his life—she’s having his baby! And Love Inspired author Cynthia Rutledge makes her Silhouette Romance debut with her modern-day Cinderella story, Trish’s Not-So-Little Secret, about “Fatty Patty” who comes back to her hometown a beautiful swan—and a single mom with a jaw-dropping secret!

We hope this month that you feel like a princess and enjoy the royal treats we have for you from Silhouette Romance.

Happy reading!






Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor




Married Right Away

Susan Meier





www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


Books by Susan Meier

Silhouette Romance

Stand-in Mom #1022

Temporarily Hers #1109

Wife in Training #1184

Merry Christmas, Daddy #1192




In Care of the Sheriff #1283




Guess What? We’re Married! #1338

Husband from 9 to 5 #1354




The Rancher and the Heiress #1374




The Baby Bequest #1420




Bringing up Babies #1427




Oh, Babies! #1433

His Expectant Neighbor #1468

Hunter’s Vow #1487

Cinderella and the CEO #1498

Marrying Money #1519

The Boss’s Urgent Proposal #1566

Married Right Away #1579

Silhouette Desire

Take the Risk #567


SUSAN MEIER

is one of eleven children, and though she has yet to write a book about a big family, many of her books explore the dynamics of “unusual” family situations like large work “families,” bosses who behave like overprotective fathers, or “sister” bonds created between friends. Because she has more than twenty nieces and nephews, children are also always popping up in her stories. Many of the funny scenes in her books are based upon experiences raising her own children or interacting with her nieces and nephews.

She was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and continues to live in Pennsylvania.










Contents


Chapter One (#ue1576f8d-78b6-56c8-81ce-436e7b32131b)

Chapter Two (#u3854b0e1-aa80-52e6-9d4f-bc2110cb9746)

Chapter Three (#u3e440169-199f-5f9d-8ed1-0d2c67341388)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)




Chapter One


When Savannah Groggin opened the door of her Thurmont, Maryland, bed-and-breakfast to Ethan McKenzie, she wasn’t surprised to see her former boss, the in-house counsel for an Atlanta-based company where she had worked as a paralegal.

“Savannah, I’m so sorry,” Ethan said, as he entered her foyer. His short black hair was combed in the usual neat style she remembered from two years before. His brown eyes were serious, concerned. But wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt and not dressed in a suit, he looked much younger than she remembered. Also, the casual clothes made him seem more approachable than he had been when she worked for him, which was the first and only good thing she had noticed all day.

“You’re sorry?” Savannah said, looking at the floor because she couldn’t meet his eyes. In just twelve short hours, all the joy her pregnancy had brought her had been lost. Not only had she learned from the Georgia State Police that the sperm donation used to create the baby she carried belonged to her ex-boss, but also that her brother was a fugitive from justice. She bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling, then said, “My brother and I are the ones who should be sorry.”

“I know you didn’t have anything to do with this,” he said urgently. “From the way this thing was set up, the police deduced you’re innocent. But even if they hadn’t told me you weren’t an accomplice, I worked with you long enough to realize, well, that you hadn’t known—”

“That my brother falsified records at the clinic where he worked and stole your sperm?”

Ethan grimaced at her frankness, then nodded. “Yes.”

Confused and tired from a long, difficult day, Savannah rubbed her hands along the small of her back. “Since we have a lot to talk about, could we sit in the living room?”

Ethan’s expression became distressed and his gaze fell to her stomach, which wasn’t yet huge with child, but was obviously swollen.

Suddenly, it hit her full force.

The baby in her belly belonged to both of them.

He cleared his throat. “Savannah, I’m sorry. I should have thought of that,” he said as he took her hand and led her into her quiet living room. Furnished with aging blue French provincial furniture trimmed in walnut, with thick navy velour drapes in front of white lace sheers, the room was dark and quiet.

Savannah turned on a lamp, shedding some much-needed light into the room, and sat on the sofa.

Ethan sat beside her and took her hand again. “Is there anything I can get you?”

“No. I’m fine.” Part of her almost wished he wouldn’t be so nice because it made her feel incredibly guilty. The other part was glad he was handling this better than she was. It was hard enough to come to terms with the fact that her brother had forged someone’s name, falsified records and stolen property all because she was concerned about getting a good father for the in vitro fertilization. It was almost too much to bear that Barry felt the only way he could fulfill his promise to her was to cheat a man she knew and respected.

Tightening his hold on her hand, Ethan said, “Savannah, though your brother had no right to do what he did, I also have to take some responsibility. I should have destroyed that sample two years ago when my wife and I divorced.”

“It’s very nice of you to say that,” Savannah said. “But you entrusted your property to a reputable clinic. You shouldn’t have had to worry that someone would steal it.”

“True. But I didn’t do what I was supposed to do, so I’m accountable, too,” Ethan said, sounding logical yet kind.

Immediately Savannah’s instincts went on red alert. She remembered that as an attorney this man was sharp and intelligent. There was only one reason he would take responsibility. He wanted it. And if he wanted responsibility that meant he wanted the baby.

In all the confusion about her brother, her fear of being thought of as an accomplice and her hours of being questioned by the police, Savannah hadn’t forgotten the real issue wasn’t the crime, but the baby. A man didn’t cryogenically preserve his sperm unless he wanted to assure he had a child someday. Though she probably wasn’t the mother he would have chosen, and this might not be the time he would have preferred, the deed was done. He had his child on the way. And he would get it.

Ethan might genuinely believe Savannah hadn’t been in on the scheme, but her brother’s misdeeds would cast a shadow of doubt on her credibility in court. Plus, Ethan was a wealthy man from a prominent, well-respected family. His father had been a senator forever. His mother had served on a president’s cabinet. Her baby, the baby she had been carrying for five months, the child she wanted more than her next breath of air, was as good as lost to her.

Desperately trying not to cry, she nervously fingered the long strawberry blond curls that fell across her shoulders to her bosom. “You want custody of the baby, don’t you?”

“Custody is one of the things we need to talk about.”

“Okay,” Savannah said, nearly paralyzed with fear. Tears threatened beneath her eyelids. She had gone through the tests, the processes, the first five months of pregnancy filled with so much joy that she could barely contain it. She wasn’t ready to let her unborn baby slip through her fingers. Not yet. “What are the other things you want to talk about?”

For several seconds, Ethan said nothing, then finally, quietly, he said, “I’ve been told my father’s friend, Sam Ringer, has decided to run for president of the United States and my father is his vice presidential choice. But Sam isn’t waiting around for his party’s convention to announce it. He’s announcing it in the fall so he can use my father’s pull to help him win the primaries and assure he gets the nomination.”

“Oh, my God,” Savannah said, feeling all the blood drain from her face, as the situation continued to worsen. Her baby had been created without permission. Her brother was a fugitive. The McKenzies were rich and powerful and would probably take her to court to get this child. And her custody battle with the son of a vice presidential candidate would probably start around the same time as the first primary, so every unhappy fact of her life would be fodder for the national news.

The picture of it flashed in her mind. She could see microphones and cameras shoved in her face, and vans with satellite dishes parked in her yard.

She shook her head in dismay. “This is going to be a circus.”

Ethan shifted on his seat. “Not really. I mean, it doesn’t have to be,” he said softly. Still holding her hand, he lightly tugged on her fingers and forced her to look at him. “Savannah, the only thing that makes this news is that your brother falsified records and you were impregnated without my knowledge. But if everybody thought you were pregnant because we were lovers, it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

Remembering again how cunning this man could be, a chill snaked through her. “So you want me to pretend we’ve been dating?”

He shook his head and said, “No, I want you to marry me.”

Savannah’s heart felt like it stopped beating. She laid her free hand on her chest. “Marry you?” she whispered.

“If you don’t marry me, and this story leaks to the press as it is, your brother will be the most popular, most sought-after fugitive in the world if only by the tabloids, and my father will be answering more questions about this baby than about real campaign issues. This story could overshadow every point he and Senator Ringer try to make and render their campaign irrelevant.

“But if you marry me,” Ethan continued, “I won’t press charges against your brother. He won’t be a wanted man anymore and our pregnancy and wedding will be a blip in the human interest pages of a few newspapers. Nothing more.”

“I see,” Savannah said, though she could hardly believe what she was hearing. Yesterday she was the simple, humble owner of a bed-and-breakfast that she had inherited when her parents were killed. Today she was receiving a proposal of marriage from a man considered one of the most eligible bachelors in the nation—because she was pregnant with his child and that child had been created in an unorthodox way, a way that involved forgery and theft.

“Before you agree,” Ethan said, again catching her gaze. “I have to tell you that if this is going to work we’ll also have to make everyone believe we’re a love match. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to fawn all over you, or that I’ll expect you to be my wife for real and forever. But it does mean that we’ll have to pretend to be in love for the general public, including my parents, and that you’ll need to move to Atlanta with me until after the baby is born. We’ll wait a month or two after that to make everything seem legitimate then we’ll quietly divorce.”

Savannah swallowed hard. “I need to move to Atlanta?”

“Yes. It’s where I live. It’s where you lived until two years ago. We worked together. It won’t be a stretch for people to believe we had a relationship.”

Overwhelmed with facts and possibilities, most of them bad, Savannah drew a long breath. “If I marry you, does this mean you won’t fight me for custody?”

“If you marry me I won’t fight you for custody, but visitation is an entirely different thing. I don’t want to be a weekend dad. I will be a big part of this child’s life.”

Well, the cards were on the table, Savannah thought, not entirely pleased, but at least relieved that Ethan wouldn’t take away her basic right as a mother. She knew she could probably use the marriage as further leverage to push him into some kind of visitation agreement right now, but she also recognized that she had more immediate concerns.

She couldn’t handle a cub reporter on a good day. Even though leaving her bed-and-breakfast posed an enormous problem for her, if only because she had bookings, getting her friends to take over for a few months was easier than defending her brother, herself and her baby in the court of public opinion.

She also had to take a share of the responsibility for Barry’s forgery and theft because she had made him promise she would get a good father for her baby. She had to take some responsibility for that, too.

Ethan again squeezed her fingers gently. “Savannah, I didn’t expect you to answer today. But I will need an answer first thing tomorrow.”

Glad to have a reprieve to think this through, Savannah tried to smile, but failed miserably. “Okay.”

“Just remember that the longer you take to decide the less possible this scheme becomes,” he said quietly. He studied her, then rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. “Today, the clinic and a handful of police know. By tomorrow night, you can add a hundred people to that list. This time next week, you can add millions. But with the right word from me, I can have that police report filed away or destroyed as if it never existed.”

“What about the people at the sperm bank?”

Ethan smiled. “Since I could sue the clinic into bankruptcy for this, once I tell the owner I’m not pressing charges, a smart man would shove the paperwork so far back in the corner of his filing cabinet that it would never again see the light of day. Even if one of the employees sold the story to a tabloid, with that paperwork ‘lost’ there would be nothing to back it up and we could easily deny it.

“But if we let another twenty-four hours go by,” Ethan continued, “then this window of opportunity is gone because too many people will know the truth. You need to agree before seven tomorrow morning or all bets are off.”

Savannah nodded.

“Okay. I’m going to let you alone now to think about this because I can tell by looking at you that you’ve had enough excitement for one day.”

His voice softened marginally and Savannah recognized that though he was pushing her into making a huge decision, he was doing it gently, like a man taking care of her. Only then did it fully register that he was still sitting beside her, holding her hand. And only then did the knowledge that she was pregnant with his child completely sink in. Her body flushed as the heat of embarrassment spiraled through her. Though they hadn’t been physically “intimate” with each other, they were none the less sharing the most intimate experience any two people could share. Together they had created a child, a child who was growing inside her.

Savannah felt strange and awkward and suddenly faint.

Grateful that he was leaving, she cautiously slid her hand from his and took a slow breath before she said, “You’re right. I’ve had so much news in the past twelve hours that I need time to digest at least some of it before I can make this decision.”

“You rest then,” he said, rising. “And I’ll be back early tomorrow morning.”

Savannah nodded and rose from the sofa, too. As she did she noticed the way the lamplight glistened off Ethan’s shiny black hair. Though she didn’t want to be making these kinds of observations, she realized that her child could look exactly like him. He or she might have Ethan’s eyes and Ethan’s hair. Their baby could have his brains and his talent, or, better yet, their baby could really be somebody important like Ethan’s father….

Reminded of the prominence of Ethan’s family, the queasy feeling in her stomach turned into full-fledged nausea. She had just been asked to marry the son of a man who might become the next vice president of the United States. Worse, he was one of the most eligible bachelors in the world because he wasn’t merely rich, he was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. She’d noticed before, of course. She would have been blind not to, but working with him and being married to him were two different things.

“We will be getting divorced, right?”

“As soon as reasonably possible after the baby’s born,” Ethan agreed, walking to the door. “But that gives us time to talk about visitation.”

Ethan smiled at her and Savannah returned his smile, but Ethan didn’t for one second believe she was okay with all this. Which suited him just fine because he wasn’t a hundred percent sure he was okay with it, either. In fact, having her wary rather than excited at the prospect of becoming his wife was actually a point in her favor. He meant it when he said he didn’t think she had any knowledge of this scheme to use his sperm, but now that the baby had been created, he had to take steps to ensure she didn’t get any crazy ideas. Like blackmail. The shy, sweet paralegal he worked with two years ago would never think to use his child as a ploy to get money but he wasn’t so sure about the new Savannah he had found here this evening.

She didn’t even look like the woman he remembered. Instead of having short unruly red hair, she now had long tresses that cascaded all around her so that the riot of curls was flattering, not disheveled. Though her pregnancy concealed it, she must have lost some weight because her face was thinner…prettier. She wasn’t wearing an ounce of makeup, yet she looked beautiful in a way she never had when she worked at Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods. The past two years had matured her into an absolutely stunning woman.

A stunning woman swollen with his child, Ethan thought, then swallowed hard. She wasn’t merely a beautiful woman to whom he would be attracted if circumstances were different, she was somebody he had worked with, a wonderfully innocent woman he had liked and respected, and the baby she carried was his. He wanted to hug her. He wanted to take care of her. He wanted to forget that this situation had repercussions and allow himself to tumble headfirst into the magic of becoming a parent. He wanted to bask in the knowledge that finally—after thirty-five years—he was about to become a father!

But he couldn’t. He knew he couldn’t. He wasn’t entirely sure how this situation was going to play out. So he had to be ready for whenever Savannah decided to make her move….

Still he allowed himself one tiny father-to-be indulgence and asked, “Are you okay to be alone tonight?”

“I’m fine,” Savannah said. “I just need to get accustomed to all this.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Ethan agreed, because he was sure that once his own astonishment and excitement abated, he wouldn’t have to worry about being attracted to her or overwhelmed with the joy of becoming a father. His common sense and logic would return and he would be just fine.

But when he again caught her gaze, he saw sadness in her eyes and suddenly recognized that while he was fighting the desire to rejoice over getting a child she was being forced to adjust to having to share her child. From the pain in her eyes it was a devastating blow.

Again he remembered her as she was when she worked with him. Shy. Sweet. Vulnerable. Guilt tightened his chest and made him draw a deep breath.

“I know this has been an awful day for you. I don’t feel right leaving you by yourself.”

“I’m not going to be by myself. I have friends coming over in a few minutes,” she said, backing away from him. “Since I got pregnant, we’ve made Friday night our poker night.”

“Poker?”

The question in his voice must have amused her, because she smiled. “What? You think women don’t like to gamble a little or get together for a weekly gossip session?”

He wished she hadn’t told him she liked to gamble, but in some ways he was glad she had because it brought him back to earth with a hard thump. He didn’t know how much she had changed in the past two years. She might not have had any part in stealing his property, but now that she knew he was the father of her baby it wasn’t a stretch to realize she would soon see she could make this work in her favor.

Before Ethan had a chance to say anything, there was a quick knock at the door. Her guests didn’t wait for an invitation to enter, and Ethan had to jump out of the way as the women he assumed were her poker pals entered around him. Redheaded twins, a blonde and a brunette made up the quartet. Each of the women was in her early twenties. All wore simple jeans and colorful T-shirts.

“Hi, Savannah!”

“Hi.” She paused, glanced at Ethan and drew a quick breath. “This is Ethan McKenzie. Ethan, these are my friends, Andi, Mandi, Becki and Lindsay.”

Ethan said, “How do you do?”

“How do you do…?”

Four pair of eyes eagerly assessing him might have cowed another man, but Ethan held their gazes steadily, making his own quick assessment of things. Just from the cornered expression on the face of the brunette, Ethan knew her poker buddies weren’t simply here for a night of playing cards. He would bet his last dime they came here every Friday night more to check up on Savannah than to gamble and they would take care of her. The smartest thing for him to do would be to get the hell out of here and regroup before he said or did something that he regretted, if only out of compassion for the woman carrying his child.

His child.

He almost couldn’t believe he was about to have a baby. The knowledge overwhelmed him. Took his breath. Which was exactly why he had to be careful. The last time he let an emotion control him, it cost him much more than he could afford to risk.

He looked at Savannah and forced himself to see her objectively, honestly and through the filter of unhappy possibilities. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

The second he was out the door, Savannah turned to her four friends. Protectively placing her palm on her stomach, she said, “I’m in big trouble.”

“What?” Becki, one of the twins, groaned. “Please don’t tell me that good-looking guy is suing you or something.”

“Or something,” Savannah said, leading her friends into the living room, where they sat on the sofa and round-backed chairs, tucking their feet beneath them and getting comfortable, though they continued to stare at Savannah with rapt attention.

“He’s the father of this baby,” Savannah said, then looked from blond-haired, blue-eyed Lindsay, to the red-haired twins Mandi and Becki, to dark-haired, dark-eyed Andi. “I didn’t know it. He didn’t know it. But Barry did. Ethan had sperm cryogenically frozen for some reason when he was married. Apparently, my fear about getting a good father for the baby led Barry to search the banks of people who had sperm stored but weren’t donors. When he found Ethan’s name he knew we had our father because we knew Ethan to be a good man since I had worked with him. So Barry forged Ethan’s signature to get his sample mainstreamed into the donor banks to be used for my pregnancy.”

“Oh, boy,” Mandi said slowly, her blue eyes widening with each word.

“Yeah, oh, boy.”

“So, is this guy pressing charges?” Lindsay demanded.

Savannah licked her lips. “Not if I marry him.”

“You’re kidding!” Becki gasped, flopping back on her chair as if flabbergasted.

“It gets worse. His father is…”

“Parker McKenzie,” Andi said. A reporter who was part of a team that covered the Washington beat for several newspapers, Andi knew everybody on Capitol Hill. She had facts at her disposal that the general public wouldn’t have. She also knew backgrounds that frequently got forgotten. “He’s a senator who had to live down the pasts of a starlet mother and drug-using pro-football player father. His son’s sperm theft would be the final embarrassment of his career. But his son’s marriage, even a hasty marriage, would go virtually unnoticed.”

“That’s approximately what Ethan said,” Savannah confirmed.

“He’s right,” Andi said, combing her fingers through the mop of thick, blunt cut sable hair that fell to her shoulders. “A marriage would make this ‘problem’ a nonissue.”

“So you think I should marry him?”

“I don’t know what you should do—” Andi began.

“Marrying him virtually guarantees legal standing in a custody suit,” Mandi interrupted.

“He doesn’t need to marry her to get legal standing,” Lindsay said, as all eyes turned to the law student. “He has legal standing. He is the baby’s father. Actually, it’s probably more documented than if you had gotten pregnant because you were lovers. He doesn’t even need DNA tests. He has papers that prove his sperm created your baby.”

All eyes then turned to Savannah. “Does he have papers?” Becki asked.

“The Georgia State Police told me Barry forged Ethan’s signature to mainstream his sperm for use by the clinic. So, that’s one paper. They also had search warrants that let them roam the entire bed-and-breakfast looking for clues of where Barry might be. Since police don’t get search warrants from judges without a good reason, I’m assuming it’s all documented somewhere and that’s why Barry went into hiding.”

Becki caught Savannah’s gaze. “Do you know where Barry is?”

Savannah shook her head. “No. All I know is he called me and told me that he was leaving for a new job in Canada. Though he avoided telling me where the job was, I knew something was wrong. Then eight hours after he called, the police arrived and told me that when the clinic was auditing their procedures, they randomly chose my pregnancy to follow to make sure everything had been done properly. Apparently, Barry only got away because he saw what case they were going to audit and he left before they began pulling files. No one noticed he was gone until after they called Ethan. Because he had not originally been a sperm donor, they had to confirm he had reclassified his sample. Ethan, of course, had not. When they started putting two and two together with my pregnancy, Ethan’s reclassified sperm and Barry’s absence, it was already too late.”

“He does look guilty,” Becki said sadly.

“Yeah, he does,” Savannah agreed. “The ironic thing is that I don’t even know where to find him to tell him Ethan is dropping the charges if I marry him.”

“And just like that Barry can come home?” Mandi said skeptically. “No punishment, no problems.”

“He didn’t really do anything wrong,” Savannah insisted. “I’m the one who said I couldn’t do this without a guarantee that I would get a good father. He promised me a good father. He delivered.”

“Yeah, he delivered, all right,” Becki said. “He could have delivered you to a jail cell.”

“That’s not what he intended.”

“Savannah, you’ve got to quit defending that kid,” Mandi said.

But Lindsay stopped her with a look. “Barry is Savannah’s brother,” she quietly reminded Mandi, but Savannah knew what she was really saying.

“He’s my only family,” she said, not needing to remind everybody of past tragedies. “Besides if I don’t marry Ethan, he could sue for custody. And he’ll win because I can’t fight the McKenzie money.”

“Oh, Savannah,” Andi said, jumping from her chair to rush over and hug Savannah. “I don’t think you need to worry about him suing for custody. These people can’t afford bad press. Even if you don’t marry him, I don’t think he’s going to try to take this baby away from you.”

“You think the baby’s safe?”

“I think that if you stand your ground, the McKenzies will settle for whatever you are willing to give them to keep this out of the papers.”

“I agree,” Lindsay said, obviously thinking this through from a legal perspective. “Fathers have more rights than they used to, but if the McKenzies try for custody it will end up as a lawsuit. And if what you’re saying is true, Ethan McKenzie can’t afford an ugly lawsuit any more than he can afford for this story to leak. You’ve got some leverage here, too. If nothing else, you can expose the truth.”

“Except you don’t have the papers that prove any of it, do you?” Becki asked.

Savannah shook her head. “No.”

“Then get them,” Lindsay said. “Don’t wait until the evidence is mysteriously lost or destroyed. Call tomorrow. Because whether you marry him or not, the papers that prove you used in vitro fertilization are your best bet for making sure Ethan sticks to any deal you guys make.”

“You mean I’m going to have to resort to blackmail?”

“It’s not blackmail,” Andi said, placing her hand on top of Savannah’s in a gesture of support. “Just insurance.”

“Yeah, insurance,” Becki said, putting her hand on top of Andi’s in a show of solidarity.

Though Savannah smiled and nodded, she wasn’t convinced this was the right thing to do. She was pregnant because of a forgery. She was getting married to cover up a theft. And she would be getting the papers to prove it all.

She couldn’t help but think that if the original two wrongs didn’t make a right, getting the papers that proved them would do nothing but cause more trouble. Still, she saw what her friends were getting at.

“I’ll call tomorrow.”

“Early,” Mandi insisted.

She nodded and tried to smile, but couldn’t. In spite of the fact that it seemed like the right thing to do, she had a really bad feeling about this. Particularly since Ethan said he could have the paperwork shoved to a back corner of a filing cabinet by seven o’clock tomorrow morning. Saturday morning. They were about to enter a weekend where offices would be closed and police would be busier than normal. It was no wonder Ethan was so confident he could quash this story. By Monday morning the paperwork would be gone and everyone’s memory would be dulled by rapes and murders and drug busts.

“I think I’ll call Barry’s boss at home. Tonight.”




Chapter Two


The next morning, when Savannah opened her door to Ethan McKenzie, birds chirped in the trees in the front yard of her yellow Victorian home. The flowers lining her sidewalk and in the beds surrounding the wide gray porch seemed to be yawning and stretching in anticipation of the new June day. The sun was in the final stages of rising, leaving a band of pale reds and muted blues along the charcoal horizon, but there was sufficient light that Savannah noticed the strain in Ethan’s face, the tautness of his muscles, the caution in his approach.

“Good morning, Savannah.”

“Good morning, Ethan,” she said, motioning for him to enter.

She didn’t blame him for being tense. A great deal was at stake in this bargain. Not just his father’s career and her brother’s future, but also the future of their baby. Fortunately for her, she had spoken with Barry’s boss and with her own attorney in Thurmont, so she also wasn’t worried about custody anymore. Within a few days, she would hold the trump card in her hands. Though the proof of how their child was created had originally hurt her, it would now protect her. Even if she didn’t make any deal with Ethan, those papers were her insurance that he wouldn’t take away her baby.

Knowing her child was safe, she now had to do whatever she could to free Barry and protect Ethan’s father.

“I’ve decided getting married solves both of our problems,” she said immediately, if only because Ethan’s expression indicated he had worried about her answer. “I appreciate that you didn’t push me last night. But even after a few hours to think about the situation, I couldn’t come up with a better solution. So I’m in.”

To her amazement, he seemed to sag with relief. “And today we can finalize everything?”

“I think so,” she said, leading him into her kitchen. She wouldn’t tell him that after a short discussion with the clinic director about the right of an accused to see any evidence presented against him, he had agreed that she and Barry should be allowed access to the records once they secured legal authorization. She also wouldn’t disclose that she had contacted her attorney, Wallace Jeffries, who was in the process of drawing up legal documents. She was sure that behind the scenes Ethan was doing his level best to protect himself, too. He would be crazy if he wasn’t. And he would be naive to think she would go into this without precautions of her own. There was no need to discuss it. No need to threaten him. No need to tip her hand. Besides, if Ethan stuck to whatever bargain they made, she would never even use the information.

She led Ethan through the swinging door into her kitchen. Delicious aromas from freshly baked cinnamon rolls and coffee greeted them.

“Would you like something? Coffee? Maybe a cinnamon roll?”

Savannah watched Ethan glance at the syrupy rolls sitting on a plate in the center of her round table. “Did you just bake those?”

She grinned. “This morning.”

“Oh, God, please,” he said with a groan of pleasure. “Coffee and one of those rolls sounds like heaven.”

“Coming right up,” she said and gathered a plate, cup, saucer and appropriate silverware for her guest. For the first time since his arrival at her house the night before, she heard a tone of normalcy sneaking into their conversation and she desperately wanted to keep it. They didn’t merely need to be comfortable with each other to negotiate visitation fairly. They also needed to relax because they would be living together until after the baby was born. Somehow, they had to break through the awkwardness between them once and for all to make their lives bearable until they divorced.

Trying to lighten the mood, she said, “Marrying me is going to have some hidden advantages. I bake like no one you know.”

“So it seems,” he agreed, but his voice was oddly quiet. Almost reverent.

She turned and caught him staring at her stomach and recognition of what he was thinking sent a ripple of unease through her and breathed new life into the tension she had hoped was dying. Though they had both had less than twenty-four hours to acclimate to the fact that they were having a baby together, she had had five months to adapt to being pregnant. For him, all of this was still new and until he got accustomed to her pregnancy he would not be comfortable with her.

She licked her dry lips. “Pretty amazing isn’t it?”

His gaze didn’t move from her tummy. “Fascinating.”

“As my stomach grows, I realize the baby is getting bigger, becoming more developed, and it just sort of blows me away.”

“I can understand that,” Ethan whispered.

Savannah took a long breath and set the plate and utensils on the countertop. He sounded like an outsider looking in, and she realized that was the problem. As the baby’s father, he had as much right to be part of this experience as she had. Once he got those rights, once this pregnancy became as much his as it was hers, the awkwardness would vanish.

“Would you like to touch?” she softly offered.

Though he wore jeans and a simple shirt, he straightened in his chair as if he were wearing a three-piece suit and carrying a briefcase. “No. No. That’s not necessary. I’m sorry, Savannah. I don’t mean to be staring.”

She took a few steps closer to the table. “Ethan, this is your baby, too.”

His gaze fell to her stomach again. “I know.”

“And it’s good for you to want to be a part of things.”

He raised his dark brown eyes until they met hers. “You think?”

“Sure,” she cheerfully agreed, though her heart was beating a million miles a second because they were face-to-face with the intimacy that was actually the catalyst of their nervousness. When they worked together they hadn’t even been friends, just acquaintances. They never expected to be intimate, and didn’t want to be intimate, but they now couldn’t avoid it. So it was better to hit it head-on, because once they faced this, there would be nothing to be tense about anymore.

She lifted the loose T-shirt she wore over maternity jeans, exposing the smooth porcelain mound containing their baby.

But Ethan didn’t move. It hardly seemed as if he were breathing.

Savannah reached down and took his hand and placed it on her warm stomach. The baby picked that precise second to move. Slowly, gently, the tiny body shifted, causing a soft ripple across her tummy. Not something you could see, only something you could feel. Ethan’s gaze shot to hers.

“That’s him?”

Savannah inclined her head and suppressed a smile. “Or her.”

The baby moved again and Ethan grinned. “Or her,” he agreed, then laughed out loud. “My God, I can’t believe it. I’m going to have a baby,” he said, his voice dripping with awe.

“Technically I’m going to have the baby,” she said, stepping away because she was experiencing weird sensations, none of which had anything to do with her pregnancy. Staring into Ethan’s affection-filled brown eyes, she had felt as if she were bathed in warmth. Her skin felt silky and tingly at the same time, and she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in the moment.

Which wasn’t just wrong, it was dangerous. She didn’t really know Ethan’s full intentions about their child, but she did know he wasn’t marrying her because he loved her. With all the hormones floating around in her system and the loneliness that often consumed her, it would be very easy for her to misinterpret his affection for the baby as affection for her. She had to keep up her guard. Not lose her head. Not do something foolish.

She lowered her top to cover her tummy and turned to the counter again to retrieve the dishes and utensils. Quietly, she took them to the table. When she turned again to get the coffeepot, Ethan stopped her with a hand on her forearm.

Again, the silky feeling floated through her.

“You don’t have to wait on me. I can get my own coffee. You sit.”

Their gazes locked and, once again, Savannah felt she could get lost in his eyes. Almost black and warm with emotion, they held her as surely as the grip of a hand. She reminded herself that their baby inspired the tenderness she saw in Ethan’s eyes. She told herself it had nothing to do with her, but that didn’t stop the flood of recognition that flowed through her. Whether it was wise or not, at this precise moment she wasn’t thinking about the baby. She was thinking about how attractive he was. How awful his divorce had been. How genuinely kind he had been to her when her parents died. What she was experiencing was an appreciation for him as a man.

Tall and lean, he had the structure and solidness of someone upon whom she could depend, and his behavior backed that up. He hadn’t demanded she marry him. He hadn’t waved his family’s money or position to threaten her. He had asked her to marry him and given her time to think it through because he was intelligent, responsible and fair. For Savannah that was every bit as sexy as his compelling dark eyes, beautiful black hair and the cute little cleft in his chin.

Perhaps if the situation were different, if she had met him on the street and didn’t have any prior association with him, she might want to flirt with him, wishing he would ask her out, wondering what it would be like to be his wife. Instead, they did have a connection, she didn’t dare flirt with him. And in a few days or weeks, whatever timeline they decided this morning, she would be his wife.

The thought shot a shiver through her and she backed away from the table. If she didn’t watch herself, she could end up in big trouble here. She could easily fall in love with this guy and end up completely brokenhearted.

When Savannah stepped away from the table, Ethan rose to get his coffee from the pot on the counter. Lifting the container, he noticed his hand was shaking and he knew why. When he put his palm on her abdomen, he felt a zing that had nothing to do with the baby he was touching and everything to do with Savannah. Logically he knew that was because he hadn’t really touched a baby. He had touched her. He had stroked the soft skin of her tummy. And he felt a hundred emotions he had no right to feel. Appreciation. Wonder. Awe. And affection. He could put his genuine affection for Savannah down to having worked with her for two years, and he did, but he wasn’t so foolish as to not realize that with very little help his feelings for this woman could explode.

And that would be trouble.

He had exonerated her, and he wasn’t pressing charges against her brother. In return, she was helping him cover the problem so that the press didn’t hurt his father. They were working together amicably, but that didn’t mean he should relax with her. He didn’t really know that she wouldn’t take advantage of this situation to extort money. But even if she was sufficiently cleared of that, he couldn’t afford to get emotionally involved with another woman.

Unfortunately, if he got any more appreciative of Savannah, he wouldn’t merely be involved, he would be smitten. Then he would give her anything she wanted when they divorced, and that took him back to his bottom-line suspicion. Savannah might not have helped her brother cook up the scheme to get a part of the McKenzie money, but now that she had her foot in the door there was no telling what she could demand. Though he didn’t believe Savannah was greedy, he couldn’t completely leave himself and his family unprotected, either. Which meant he couldn’t act upon any feelings he had for Savannah beyond what was appropriate.

“So, when do you want to get married?” he asked, taking his coffee to the table.

She shrugged. “I need two weeks to help my friends create a schedule and train them so they can run the bed-and-breakfast for the months I’m gone. Plus, we’ll need time to get a license and do whatever else is required to get married in Maryland.”

“That makes sense. How about the Saturday after next, then?”

She nodded. “The Saturday after next,” she said, playing with her silverware as Ethan helped himself to one of her delicious-looking cinnamon rolls, if only to give her a few seconds to acclimate. He knew her entire life was being turned upside down, but there was no help for it. Getting married was the only way to protect his father.

“So…have you told your parents?”

He glanced at her. “I’m not going to.”

She gasped. “You’re not?”

“Not on your life. I discussed this with Hilton last night,” he said, referring to Hilton Martin, family friend of the McKenzies, owner of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and a man Ethan knew Savannah very much liked and respected. “And he agrees that there is no reason for my parents to know. Actually, their not knowing will help keep the scenario safe for them. Because they don’t know the truth, they won’t ever be lying to the press.”

“That makes sense,” Savannah agreed quietly.

“Yes, it does. The fewer people who know, the better,” he began, but he suddenly realized something he should have thought of immediately and he almost groaned. “Savannah, did you tell anyone how you got pregnant?”

Obviously realizing why he had asked, Savannah grimaced, “This isn’t something you share with the general public, so I only told the four women you met last night and Olivia Brady.”

“Olivia Brady? From Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods?” Ethan said, stiffening with fear that his perfect plan had a big hole in it.

“I didn’t actually tell her everything when I had lunch with her in March. I tried, but she thought I was only considering getting pregnant and she never let me finish the story.”

Ethan relaxed. “So, that’s good, then. At the very least it’s manageable. We can say we bumped into each other while you were in Atlanta, realized we were head over heels in love and keep the story as pure as the driven snow.”

“I wouldn’t call this story as pure as the driven snow,” Savannah said, again playing with her silverware. “It’s a lie.”

“Yes, but it’s a necessary lie,” Ethan insisted. “What about your friends?”

“What about my friends?”

“What did you tell them?”

For this she looked him right in the eye. “I told them exactly what you told Hilton Martin.”

Understanding the comparison she had deliberately made, Ethan sucked in his breath. He couldn’t criticize her for telling her friends because he had confided in Hilton. “Do you trust them?”

Savannah gaped at him. “Of course, I trust them! I trust them enough that they’ll be running my business for six months.”

“This is different….”

“I don’t see how. Besides, even if I hadn’t wanted to talk with them about this last night to get my bearings, I would have had to tell them something to give them a reason for why I was marrying somebody they didn’t know and pulling up stakes. But only for six months. Not forever. Which immediately would alert them that something was wrong. There was no way I could have lied to them.”

“Right. You’re right. And I’m sorry.”

“Okay.”

Looking at Savannah’s angry face, Ethan suddenly felt like the villain. And he wasn’t. Her brother was. He wouldn’t be coercing her into marriage if it weren’t for her brother.

Nonetheless, guilt swamped him because he was asking a great deal of this woman. Then concern for her safety struck him next. What the hell was he doing upsetting the mother of his child? But continued fear about her friends hit him last and when that wave came it was a tsunami because it was a deal breaker. He wasn’t afraid one of them had already leaked her secret. Up to now the details of her pregnancy were highly personal for Savannah, a secret easily kept among friends. But now that the information had real value in the tabloid marketplace, Ethan knew any one of those four women could decide to sell this story. Which would make getting married pointless. If even one of them wasn’t as trustworthy as Savannah believed, this plan was dead in the water.

Still, not wanting to upset her with any more questions about her friends, and knowing she would be biased anyway, Ethan decided he wouldn’t say another word, but would check out her friends on his own.

“Why don’t you go change while I call my attorney to see what we have to do to get married in Maryland.”

“We have to see an attorney for that?”

“Well, we’re also going to need to have a prenup drawn up. Nothing extravagant, just one that says what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours.”

“Okay,” she said, then licked her lips.

Ethan’s gaze was drawn to her mouth. He noticed her lips were lush and pink. Full. Very kissable. If he hadn’t already reminded himself of all the reasons he couldn’t encourage his attraction to her, he would have been very tempted to at least wonder what it would be like to kiss her. But he wasn’t. He couldn’t take the risk.

“Okay. We’ll hash out the details at Gerry Smith’s office,” he said. “You go ahead and get changed.”

He watched her walk out of the kitchen, and after she was gone, he combed his fingers through his hair in frustration. It bugged the hell out of him that she made him feel guilty for pushing her into this scheme when she could be planning to turn around and blackmail him. Before he could enter into this marriage, he had a lot of backgrounds to check out….

On the drive back from Gerry Smith’s office, they decided that since they were entering this partnership “together,” he might as well move into the bed-and-breakfast for the two weeks before their wedding. Then, thinking this as good a time as any, he casually asked Savannah to let him meet her friends again and from the expression on her face he realized she suspected he was going to check them out. For a few seconds it appeared she might get angry, but, instead, she simply told him she would invite them to the house that night.

Within seconds after their arrival, he found himself seated on a stiff-backed chair across the sofa from four very curious, not-too-pleasant women, and for the first time since he made up his mind to interrogate them he wondered about the wisdom of it.

“So, Savannah tells me that she told you all the specifics of our marriage,” he said, opening the conversation with truth since there was no way around it.

Not one of them smiled. Not one gave him an even semi-friendly look. His gaze moved from the two blue-eyed redheads to the blonde, to the last woman with the dark hair and serious eyes.

Though all four of them stared at him as if he were the angel of death, only Lindsay, the blonde, replied. “Yes. She told us that she was marrying you to preclude bad press which might hurt your father.”

Though he tried to fight the ludicrous urge to defend himself, since it was her brother who had put them in this precarious position, he failed. “I could press charges against Barry, you know.”

“Except that would be trouble for your father,” Lindsay said. Her eyes were sharp, observant and her tone was clearly adversarial. If he were taking guesses, right now he would put money on the bet that this one would be an attorney someday.

“Yes, it would. But that doesn’t negate the fact that I’ve made some concessions, too.”

“Not as big as Savannah’s concessions. If you look at this situation objectively,” Lindsay said, “Savannah is giving up much more because she’s forced to leave her home, which also happens to be her place of business, and ask her friends to run it while she’s gone so she can live with you.”

“I don’t mind,” Savannah said, unexpectedly jumping into the conversation on his side.

Ethan cast her a sidelong glance, glad she spoke up. Her quick agreement proved she understood his logic, but it was also the first time they were on the same side. And it felt right. Good. Unfortunately, it also gave him a tingly feeling in the pit of his stomach, which he liked a little more than he should.

“Her living with me is the only way this really works.”

“That may be true,” Becki said. “But I can’t help but feel that you’re somehow punishing Savannah for a crime her brother committed.”

Not one to let a good opportunity pass, Ethan leaped on that. “Which is my point exactly. Her brother is the one who committed this crime, but my father is the one who will suffer if word of this gets out. Can I trust you?” he asked, looking from one woman to the next until he was sure he had their complete attention. “Can I trust that none of you will sell this story to a tabloid?”

Becki gasped, “Sell this story to a tabloid?”

“That’s exactly what I said.”

“It appears, Mr. McKenzie,” Andi said, “that you don’t have a clue how friendship works.”

“I know how friendship works, but none of you is my friend. And it’s my father who is in trouble. I need to know that I can trust you or there’s no reason for Savannah and me to get married. And if there’s no reason for Savannah and me to get married, all bets are off on this baby.”

Silence covered the room like a cloak. Though Ethan hadn’t come right out and made a threat, everybody knew what he referred to when he said all bets are off on this baby. He glanced at Savannah, who sat perfectly still and silent. Though she wasn’t trying to sway the opinion of the four women in her living room, she wasn’t condemning him, either. She seemed to understand that he had no choice but to use the power at his disposal. And though she could have argued or cried, or even made her own threats, she did nothing. Said nothing. Which gave Ethan another odd tingly sensation. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

Finally, Mandi said, “We’ll keep your secret, as long as you’re fair with Savannah.”

Ethan nodded. “I never had any intention of being anything but fair. But there’s a lot at stake here, and I’m taking some pretty big chances, too. This is the deal Savannah and I struck. You guys are just going to have to trust me the same way she does.”

Even as the words were coming out of his mouth, Ethan couldn’t believe he said them. Not only had he admitted that he knew Savannah trusted him, and that’s why she hadn’t said or done anything when he made his threat, but also he had switched from making sure they kept the secret, to pleading his case because he wanted their approval. Why? Because it was obvious they loved Savannah and he didn’t want them to worry about her.

“Does anybody want coffee?” Savannah asked, bouncing from her seat.

Ethan guessed she had done that hoping that if she disturbed the group at this point in the conversation they might consider it closed. And closed on a satisfactory ending—with him telling them they could trust him. Since they had already said they would keep his secret, he couldn’t think of a better way to end it himself.

“It’s a little late in the day for coffee for me,” Ethan said, doing his part to close the discussion. “But I wouldn’t mind something cold.”

“Neither would I,” Becki said, rising. “Except you’re not getting it,” she added, nudging Savannah back down to her chair. “Mandi and I will get the drinks.”

“Yeah, and Andi and I will get out the cards,” Lindsay said, as she rose from the sofa. She looked at Ethan. “You do play poker?”

“I play poker,” Ethan said cautiously.

“Good,” Andi said, more or less directing everybody to a game table in the back of the room.

But when Andi and Lindsay were out of hearing distance, Savannah stopped Ethan by placing her fingers on his forearm. “You don’t have to play. This is just how we amuse ourselves since Thurmont’s not exactly a bustling metropolis.”

“I don’t mind,” Ethan said, and realized that he didn’t. Wacky thoughts were running through his mind. He had just butted heads with four women who should be thanking him for coming up with a plan that protected everybody, but he almost didn’t care. The fierce loyalty Savannah inspired touched Ethan because he knew it proved something. Savannah Groggin was a genuinely good woman.

“Ethan?”

“Yes?” he said, then, forced out of his reverie, saw Andi was losing patience with waiting for him to accept the cards from her. Through the course of his musings, the sodas had been distributed, and everybody was waiting for him to deal.

“Sorry.” He took the cards and began to shuffle, but he couldn’t stop his gaze from wandering over to Savannah. He should be pleased to constantly get confirmation of her virtue, but it only complicated the attraction he felt for her. He knew the genesis of his feelings was her pregnancy—because she was carrying his child he felt intimate with her. The puzzling, almost alarming part was that with confirmation came the realization that she was the same woman he had worked with two years ago. And realizing she was the same woman, he felt closer to her—which deepened the sense of intimacy.

Worse, as the intimacy deepened, his feelings about their impending marriage were changing. Suddenly he was thinking that it would be okay to sleep together…and he meant sleep, at least he had initially. He just wanted to lie cuddled together, with their baby between them. But that need was growing into a desire to touch all the wonderful velvet skin he had sampled when she let him touch her stomach to feel the baby…and more.

As the poker game progressed, he unsuccessfully tried to fight the sexual turn of his thoughts by taking them into neutral territory. He reminded himself that she was sweet and innocent and that this made her beautiful, and vulnerable in a way that hit him right in the heart, and he wanted to protect her. And that was bad.

Bad.

Bad.

Bad.

Because that meant his feelings were transcending typical lust and even infatuation and rolling into territory that could become love.

The only anchor he could mentally hold on to to save himself was that Savannah might not be drawing these same conclusions. But even if she was, if he didn’t say something first, odds were she would keep her emotions to herself because she was shy.

Plus, theirs wouldn’t be a real marriage. As long as he stopped entertaining these crazy ideas, there would be no inappropriate touching, so both of them would be safe.

That thought comforted him through the rest of the card game. It comforted him as he waved goodbye to her friends. It comforted him through the awkward minute when he insisted she go to bed and let him turn out the lights and lock the doors for her.

But when he was climbing the stairs to his room, congratulating himself on his determination to keep both of their hearts safe, he suddenly realized that he would be touching her. He would be kissing her, and he would be pretending to be madly in love with her every time he was around his parents, or in the public eye.

If he wanted his parents and the press to believe this was a love match, he was going to have to pretend to be in love with her, which included touching, kissing, living together, being friends, sharing a child.

Boy, he was in big trouble. He had a sneaking suspicion that Savannah Groggin was the one woman he could trust enough to really make another honest stab at marriage. Except he didn’t want to make an honest stab at marriage. The first shot almost killed him. He didn’t want to risk his heart or his sanity again.

And the whole heck of it was, he couldn’t even run like hell in the opposite direction to protect himself as he promised himself he would do if he ever met another woman who tempted him to let his guard down.

In seven days, he would be married to her.




Chapter Three


Standing in the small alcove off to the right of the courtroom in which he and Savannah would get married, Ethan turned at the sound of a side door opening. When he saw his parents, Penny and Parker McKenzie, he drew in a quick breath.

“Mom! Dad!”

Josh Anderson, the coconspirator who had been pressed into service to be Ethan’s best man, and Olivia Brady, Josh’s fiancée, both froze in surprise.

“Ethan McKenzie,” his mother scolded, sounding exactly as she had when he was ten. Slim and beautiful in her teal-blue suit, with her blond hair pulled in a severe chignon, Penny McKenzie looked every bit the part of a Washington hostess. “How could you possibly get married and not tell your parents?”

“I—I—I don’t know,” Ethan said, too shocked by their appearance to quickly come up with a suitable lie.

“Hilton told us about the baby,” Ethan’s father, Parker, said. In the sophisticated black suit that complemented his salt-and-pepper hair, he looked as rich, powerful and polished as his wife. He reached around Ethan to shake Josh’s hand. “Hi, Josh, good to see you again. Who is this?”

“This is my fiancée, Olivia,” Josh said, as Olivia stepped forward.

While Josh introduced Olivia, Ethan realized how odd this relationship must look to his parents. Even Ethan had never suspected Josh and his secretary had more than a professional relationship, but it was clear now that they loved each other and were happy. In spite of being dressed in a tuxedo Josh was more relaxed than Ethan had ever seen him, and Olivia, wearing a bright-red dress that complemented her sunny yellow hair and peaches-and-cream complexion, simply glowed.

“Nice to meet you, Olivia,” Parker and Penny said, both shaking Olivia’s hand.

“Hilton also explained that when you told him your girlfriend was pregnant,” Penny said, picking up the account her husband had started. “He spilled the beans about your father’s impending vice presidential announcement, and the two of you realized you needed to get married as soon as possible so the pregnancy didn’t detract from the campaign.”

“And I appreciate that,” Parker said sincerely, catching Ethan’s gaze. “However, you still should have invited us to the wedding.”

“I’m sorry, Dad,” Ethan apologized contritely, but inside he was marveling at Hilton’s brilliance. Having the family friend leak that Ethan was getting married gave the first breath of life to the story that would keep Parker’s career safe, and Ethan’s parents’ involvement innocent. They were here, they were participating, but they didn’t really know anything. Yet they believed they were privy to the bottom-line secrets. It would play perfectly in the press. “Everything just happened so fast—”

“Because you’re going to have a baby!” Penny interrupted, reaching up to lay her palms on her son’s cheeks. “My baby is going to have a baby.”

Once again overcome with his own emotion about having a child, Ethan knew exactly what his mother was feeling. “I almost can’t believe it myself, Mom.”

“We couldn’t be happier,” she said, then hugged Ethan fiercely. “In this day and age, the timing means nothing. I’m glad you’re not letting it concern you because it certainly doesn’t concern us. I’m ready to shop for the nursery with your new wife….”

Ethan saw Olivia and Josh exchange a quick look and he knew why. The comment underscored the fact that Savannah was going to have to deal with Ethan’s mother for the next few months, but more than that, it reminded Olivia and Josh—and now Ethan—of something they should have thought of from the minute they laid eyes on his parents. Savannah wasn’t expecting to meet his famous family today. She was on the other side of the courtroom, in her new white suit, probably getting rid of last-minute jitters by talking with her friends, completely unsuspecting of her fate.

He prayed a silent prayer that she didn’t mind surprises. “You’re going to have to talk to Savannah about the nursery, but right now,” he said, glancing at his watch, “you better go into the courtroom and take a seat. The judge will be here any minute. He said we’d start at three o’clock sharp and I have no reason to doubt him.”

At that his mother’s expression changed marginally. “Honey, did you hire a photographer?”

“No,” Ethan said, glad that at least this much of his explanation wasn’t a lie. “We threw this wedding together on short notice, Mom. Savannah and I figured we could pose for pictures at a studio later or you could have someone at the reception you’re undoubtedly going to host.”

Penny had the good grace to laugh and not try to pretend she wasn’t already planning some kind of party for the newlyweds. “Studio photos are fine,” she said. “But I wanted pictures of the ceremony. I knew you were pressed for time. I also knew you weren’t thinking about details, so I called someone. He’s probably out front now.”

“Mom!” Ethan gasped. Not only was he about to force Savannah to meet his family long before she was prepared, but he was also about to ask her to endure an impromptu photo session. “I can’t just…we can’t just—”

“Savannah will be fine with it,” Penny assured Ethan with feminine confidence. “All women want photos of their wedding. Trust me, she will thank me.”

“Yeah, it’s okay, Ethan,” Olivia said, sending Ethan the message with her expression that it would be better for Ethan to trust that Savannah could handle this than to argue and raise his parents’ suspicions.

“Okay,” Ethan said.

“Now that that’s settled…” Josh said, taking over the way Ethan knew a best man was supposed to when the groom was nearly on the verge of panic from unexpected complications. “Olivia, why don’t you take Ethan’s parents out to their seats and we’ll catch up with all of you after the ceremony?”

“Great,” Parker said. He held his wife’s elbow to escort her to the courtroom and Olivia led them out the door.

When they were gone, Ethan sagged. “What the hell am I doing?”

“You’re fixing a problem,” Josh said simply. “Keeping a secret that needs to be kept.”

“You see, that’s just the trouble,” Ethan said, pacing now. “For something that’s supposed to be a secret, a hell of a lot of people are involved.”

“Who?” Josh asked sweeping out his hand in a gesture of dismissal. “The only people who know are me, Hilton and a couple of Savannah’s friends.”

Ethan caught Josh’s gaze. “And Olivia.”

“Olivia is Savannah’s friend. So she goes into that general category. But more than that if you hadn’t found out the real details and told us, Olivia wouldn’t know. When Savannah was in Atlanta three months ago and she started leaking bits and pieces of this story she didn’t tell Olivia she was already pregnant. Olivia thought she was only considering the procedure not in Atlanta for an exam.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Ethan said, the speed of his pacing increasing.

“You’re just nervous.”

“Because I suddenly realize how much I’m asking of Savannah.”

“From what I remember of her, Savannah is very resilient.”

“She better be because I have a sneaking suspicion that my mother might have also called the press.”

Josh burst out laughing.

“Oh, funny. Very, very funny!”

Before Ethan could have a full-scale tirade, the side door of the courtroom opened again. The judge’s secretary poked her head in. “Judge Flenner says to tell you we’re ready.”

“Okay,” Ethan said. He took a long breath and straightened his shoulders.

Josh slapped him on the back. “You’ll be fine.”





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