Книга - Billion Dollar Bride

Billion Dollar Bride
Muriel Jensen


Austin Cahill had parlayed his business savvy to the point that he had everything he wanted out of life. Except, of course, a child. And Caroline Lamont had happily agreed to provide him with one.Event planner Anna Maitland was a pro at themed extravaganzas. Medieval knights and ivy-draped bowers were right up her alley. So Caroline Lamont had to have her orchestrate Texas's wedding of the year.Landing the account for the Cahill-Lamont nuptials had an unexpected fringe benefit. Anna's son, Will, got to meet his idol, Austin Cahill. The problem was, the charismatic Mr. Cahill was proving pretty irresistible to Will's mom, too, even though she was doing a bang-up job of arranging his wedding to another woman!









From Megan Maitland’s Diary


Dear Diary,

Less than a year ago, I despaired of ever seeing my brood settled, and suddenly they’re falling like flower petals. A mother’s prayers answered!

Anna, bless her, may put a stop to my run of success, however. She defines the “once burned, twice shy” maxim. I’ve seen her give men a longing glance, then turn away as though convinced she’ll never find happiness in a relationship and has decided not to even try.

She uses her son, Will, as an excuse, but I think he should be her reason to round out their family. He’s brilliant, all right, but he’s still a little boy. His uncles do their best to give him their attention, but now they have wives and are planning families of their own. Will needs some kind man’s undivided attention.

Isn’t it ironic that Anna’s been hired to plan Austin Cahill’s wedding, when he’s just the man whose business genius my stock-market-savvy grandson holds in such awe? I consider the man quite a catch myself. Sigh! If only Anna could have gotten to him first! But now I’m getting greedy. Even a mother can’t have everything!


Dear Reader,

There’s never a dull moment at Maitland Maternity! This unique and now world-renowned clinic was founded twenty-five years ago by Megan Maitland, widow of William Maitland, of the prominent Austin, Texas, Maitlands. Megan is also matriarch of an impressive family of seven children, many of whom are active participants in the everyday miracles that bring children into the world.

When our series began, the family was stunned by the unexpected arrival of an unidentified baby at the clinic—unidentified, except for the claim that the child is a Maitland. Who are the parents of this child? Is the claim legitimate? Will the media’s tenacious grip on this news damage the clinic’s reputation? Suddenly rumors and counterclaims abound. Women claiming to be the child’s mother are materializing out of the woodwork! How will Megan get at the truth? And how will the media circus affect the lives and loves of the Maitland children—Abby, the head of gynecology, Ellie, the hospital administrator, her twin sister, Beth, who runs the day-care center, Mitchell, the fertility specialist, R.J., the vice president of operations, even Anna, who has nothing to do with the clinic, and Jake, the black sheep of the family?

Please join us each month over the next year as the mystery of the Maitland baby unravels, bit by enticing bit, and book by captivating book!

Marsha Zinberg,

Senior Editor and Editorial Coordinator, Special Projects




Billion Dollar Bride

Muriel Jensen







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


Muriel Jensen is the award-winning author of over sixty books that tug at readers’ hearts. She has won a Reviewer’s Choice Award and a Career Achievement Award for Love and Laughter from Romantic Times Magazine, as well as a sales award from Waldenbooks. Muriel is best loved for her books about family, a subject she knows well, as she has three children and eight grandchildren. A native of Massachusetts, Muriel now lives with her husband in Oregon.


To David Charbonneau and Diane Dezielle

and our special connection.




Contents


CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN




CHAPTER ONE


ANNA MAITLAND turned in the swivel chair at her desk to keep Caroline Lamont in sight as she paced the lavender and cream office.

“I see a medieval English theme,” Caroline said, her voice hushed as though she were describing a vision. “Ivy-trimmed bowers, costumed knights, the wedding party dressed appropriately and arriving on horses.”

Anna smiled and nodded. When a Wonderful Weddings client planned to “perform” rather than be married, there was little she could do but give her what she wanted. Anna had always considered fulfilling dreams her business, but her work wasn’t half as much fun when a client insisted on making it “theater.”

“And when we turn around to leave the church,” Caroline went on, “I’d like butterflies to be released!” Her voice rose a little in her excitement over the idea, and she spread her arms wide to suggest a cloud of monarchs fluttering around her.

“I’m afraid I can’t provide that, Caroline,” Anna said, continuing to smile.

Caroline came to sit on the edge of Anna’s desk. She was tall and coltish and absolutely gorgeous. She had chin-length dark blond hair framing gray eyes that widened or narrowed with the intensity of her mood. It was early April in temperate Austin, Texas, and she wore a casual sweater and pants the color of early-blooming lavender crocuses.

“Sure you can,” she said, her glossy lips curving in a smile. “They’re the rage now. I think you get them from a nursery or something.”

Anna nodded. “Or an insect farm. They’re shipped overnight in a special, refrigerated container, individually boxed for each guest. You can do that if your heart is set on it, but you’ll have to make the arrangements, and you’ll have to accept delivery and handle every part of it.”

Caroline blinked in apparent mystification. “They don’t sting or anything. There’s no need to be afraid of them.”

It was difficult for Anna to maintain a serious look. She hadn’t expected to like Caroline Lamont when they’d been introduced at Maitland Maternity Clinic’s twenty-fifth anniversary party last month. Caroline had a reputation in the press and among Texas society as a fun-loving party girl who enjoyed her family’s oil money. Her sister, Camille, worked hard for charity, but from all indications, Caroline did nothing worthwhile but appear front and center at every social event Texas had to offer.

Anna had expected a frivolous snob. But Caroline seemed to be more of a frivolous nice person. Eager to indulge herself, she was nonetheless pleasant and courteous, seemingly unaware that there was a world outside the rarefied one she occupied.

“I’m not afraid of butterflies,” Anna said patiently. “But I could never do anything that would result in one being put in a box.”

“But they’re not hurt. They fly away.”

“Would you like someone to put you in a box, just so that when you stepped out of it, you’d look pretty for that person?”

Caroline considered a moment and did not appear to find the idea disagreeable. “I suppose it would depend upon who was opening the box.” She smiled thoughtfully then shook her head. “Guests could toss rice or birdseed instead, but that’s so mundane—not to mention messy.”

“What about flower petals. They’d be in keeping with your theme, I think.”

That pleased her. Then she asked gravely, “Do you think we’ll have to go to London for the armor and the costumes?”

Anna struggled with her expression again. She’d indulged many extravagances in the years that she’d been in business, but she’d never traveled out of the country to outfit the wedding party.

“I…think we can find everything we need here,” she said. “I know Mr. Cahill has given you a considerable budget for the wedding, but think of the fun you’ll have shopping on your honeymoon if you conserve a little here and there.”

Caroline batted that notion away with a pen she’d picked up off Anna’s desk. “Oh, there’ll be no real honeymoon. Austin and I aren’t a love match. Everyone knows that. We’re going straight to his place on Kauai after the wedding to make a baby.”

Anna stared at her. “Really,” she said.

“Really.” Caroline waggled the pen between her thumb and forefinger as she explained. “He’s one of the richest men in Texas, you know, and I don’t know what brought it on, but he just got to thinking one day that he had no one to leave everything to. He has a mother, but that’s it.”

“He’s never been married?”

“Never. He can’t take his mind off business long enough. Anyway, we’ve been friends since we met at a Junior League dinner three years ago. We both have a lot of money, and neither one of us believes in love. Austin was jilted by his fiancée a couple of years ago when she used her position in his company to help a rival firm take him over.” Her grim expression suggested Cahill’s reaction. “They failed, but since then, he’s had it with women.”

“But what about you? Don’t you want love in your marriage?”

Caroline smiled wryly and shook her head. “I had parents who took vacations without me and regularly forgot my birthday. But that meant I could do whatever I wanted, and I rather like that now. I’d hate to have to change for someone. So our arrangement will be perfect. No one interferes with our lives.”

“Marriage,” Anna suggested mildly, “will interfere with your life.” It had almost ruined hers, but she kept that to herself. “A baby will play havoc with it.”

“All I have to do is produce the baby.” Caroline shrugged gracefully and looked around the office, as though happy with her lot in life. “Then I can stay or not, depending on how I feel. The baby’s for him.”

Anna continued to stare at her in disbelief. “You probably don’t understand this now,” she said, “before it’s actually happened to you. But you won’t be able to carry a baby for nine months, deliver it, then just go your merry way.”

Caroline nodded with a gravity Anna found both distressing and sad. “I will,” she insisted. “I don’t stick to anything. Not school, not work, not friends. Austin’s the longest relationship of any kind I’ve ever had. I don’t know how to do them, so it’s easier not to try.”

Anna felt desperate to reach her. She’d had a loveless marriage herself when she’d been Caroline’s age, and it had shaken something deep down, some belief in the world’s underlying goodness, in the nobility of man.

She’d been able to go on, even to be happy again, because she was part of a large and wonderful family. But she’d been changed forever.

And she’d carried and delivered a baby. She knew walking away would not be as easy as Caroline imagined, despite her claims of never having known love.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked, putting a hand to Caroline’s knee. “For a man to marry a woman solely for the purpose of creating an heir to a fortune is medieval!”

Caroline laughed musically and pinched Anna’s fingers, the serious moment erased. “That’s what gave me the idea for the theme!”

“Ms. Maitland?” The office door opened, and Eden Ross, Anna’s part-time secretary and occasional baby-sitter, peered around it, her dark eyes wide and her cheeks flushed. “Mr., um, Austin… No, no,” she corrected herself, her usual high-school-senior sophistication wobbling precariously. “That’s his first, um…Mr….”

“Cahill,” a helpful male voice offered quietly from the other side of the door.

Eden closed her eyes in mortification, but she regained her professional demeanor. She drew a breath and squared her shoulders. “Mr. Cahill is here for Ms. Lamont.”

“Show him in, please.” Anna smiled to let Eden know the occasional slipup was never fatal. The girl was smart, responsible and determined, but she took herself too seriously.

When Eden pushed the door open, Anna immediately understood her confusion.

A tall, well-built man walked in and unconsciously took control of the room. The quiet, feminine office with its striped silk wallpaper, lavender carpet and Hepplewhite desk took on a decidedly masculine mood.

In a finely tailored gray suit that covered broad shoulders and long legs, he walked to Caroline’s side. He had dark brown hair cut very short, blue eyes the color of dusk, a strong, straight nose and a jaw that probably won him arguments before he ever said anything.

Anna felt as though she should stand—not out of courtesy, but because the room suddenly hummed with energy and sitting down seemed unacceptable.

Besides, he was worth a bundle, and his fiancée was apparently determined to spend a significant portion of it on a Wonderful Wedding. Anna rose as Caroline began introductions.

“Austin, I’d like you to meet our wedding planner, Anna Maitland,” Caroline said as she stepped comfortably into his arm. “Anna, this is my fiancé, Austin Cahill.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, Mr. Cahill.” Anna extended her hand, feeling small. It wasn’t just his size, she decided as he told her with a brief smile that the pleasure was his. It was his stature, a sort of presence that said, I can do anything, and I’m different from other men because of that.

She couldn’t help but wonder while her hand was swallowed in his why such a man would find it necessary to make a deal with a woman to get a child.



AUSTIN CAHILL would have given anything not to have to deal with all the fuss and feathers that went with a society wedding. But Caroline had agreed to his unorthodox request to give him a child, and the least he could do was give her the wedding she wanted.

He could afford to be generous today, anyway, emotionally as well as financially. He’d just made a deal for prime land outside of Austin. Eventually the site would accommodate a mall that included an indoor children’s playground in an atrium, a library, conversation areas and athletic courts for bored husbands. Several of his peers had laughed at the notion, but he had faith in his plan.

One day his child would inherit a fortune in nine figures. He took great pride in that knowledge.

His child, he thought as he glanced around an office that looked like an eighteenth-century drawing room. Would he sire a boy or a girl? It didn’t matter, really. The child would be made up of his genes, and that just about guaranteed a good business head.

He wrapped his arm more tightly around Caroline, grateful she was willing to be part of such an unusual marriage. And for her “beautiful” genes, which their child would undoubtedly inherit.

She hugged him briefly and he held on, ignoring the small pinch of disappointment that tried to cloud his vision at these moments. They were good friends. He felt great affection for her. She didn’t want love from him. So why did his heart insist on reacting to the fact that it wasn’t there?

They had fun together, enjoyed each other’s company, but whenever they touched, he got that pinch, and though it didn’t deter him, it unsettled him.

“I’m telling you, Austin,” Caroline was saying, “we are so lucky to get Anna. She has a dozen other clients right now, but she’s taking us on because she and Camille worked together on that project for the hungry. You remember? We went to the dinner.”

And because she’s going to charge me a fortune, he thought, to fulfill all your wild ideas. She’ll probably be able to retire on what you have in mind.

He reached across a small desk to shake hands with this paragon. The woman was strikingly beautiful, if a man had a preference for brunettes. Personally, he’d sworn off them since Lauren. It was a senseless prejudice, he realized, but since he’d been unable to see what was inside his former fiancée and protect himself from her deception, it was a sort of defense mechanism to stay away from women who had her outward appearance.

Still, this woman had none of Lauren’s petite fragility.

She was five-seven or maybe five-eight, with a woman’s maturity in her breasts and hips. His mind took her out of the silky white blouse and cranberry suit and put her in black lace. Accustomed to Caroline’s slender, leggy proportions, he’d forgotten how much he’d once appreciated roundness in a woman.

She had eyes the color of dark ale, and rich, deep brown hair, bundled up in a knot at the back of her head. It was side-parted and glossy in the sunlight shining through the window, and he could imagine how glorious it would look if she wore it loose.

This was the kind of woman who should bear a child, he thought. One who seemed all warmth and soft curves.

Then he noticed that the expression in her eyes was pitying and sad. That snapped the moment back into place.

“Ms. Maitland,” he said, drawing his hand away, erasing his previous thoughts. “The pleasure is mine. Carrie has some pretty wild ideas. Do you think you’ll be able to accommodate them?”

She nodded. “All except the butterflies.”

He’d been against that one himself, though he hadn’t said much about it. He didn’t want to do anything to discourage Caroline from going through with their arrangement.

“We can manage without butterflies,” he said.

“Good. Then I’ll contact a costumer and an armorer first thing tomorrow.”

He wasn’t sure he’d heard that correctly. “An armorer?” he asked.

“For the knights who’ll line the entrance to the church,” Caroline said.

Knights? “I thought you had a Regency period theme going? Carriages, maypoles…”

Caroline shook her head then rolled her eyes indulgently. “I told you about it last night in the limo, but you were reading stock reports and probably didn’t even hear me.”

He had to do better in that regard, he knew. He did tune her out sometimes because she tended to go on and on about details in which he really had no interest. He wanted a marriage in order to have a baby, but he didn’t care at all about the wedding.

“We’re doing medieval.” Caroline hooked an arm in his and winked at Anna. “I was thinking it’d be more dramatic, more exciting. We’re bound to get a couple of pages in Vanity Fair.”

“And that’s a goal of ours?” he asked wryly.

“I think it’s a given, darling. Austin Cahill is marrying Caroline Lamont. Two stars of Texas royalty getting hitched. Nothing cliché, nothing less than first class. Everything magical.”

God, he hated this. But he made himself smile. “Well, I’m sure you’ll make it spectacular. But…where are we going to find new armor?”

Caroline shrugged. “That’s Anna’s job. And afterward you can put it in the garden or something. Or I can take it with me. They’re bound to make spectacular conversation pieces.”

He had to grant her that. “Okay. Are we finished here?”

Caroline turned to Anna. “Can I call you as I get ideas and come up with questions?”

“Of course.” Anna handed Caroline a business card. “This has my cell phone, my e-mail and my fax.”

“Great.” Caroline tucked the card in a tiny lavender bag slung over her shoulder. Austin always wondered what was in there that could be important enough to carry around and still be small enough to fit in the four-by-four-inch space. She turned to him and giggled. “Anna thinks you’re medieval.”

Austin was surprised to learn that this beautiful woman had any opinions about him. But he was interested, also. “Have we met before?” he asked Anna.

She’d closed her eyes at Caroline’s statement, apparently in dignified mortification. She obviously hadn’t known Caroline long enough to learn that she expressed aloud every thought that came into her head.

Anna opened her eyes, and with a sigh and a fatalistic smile, she replied, “No, we haven’t. I…”

“She wanted me to save money on the wedding,” Caroline said, laughing, “so we could go shopping on our honeymoon, but I told her about our arrangement.”

He didn’t know why he should feel embarrassed in front of a wedding planner. Most of his close friends and several of his staff knew why he was getting married—they’d even suggested Anna as a consultant. Some praised his practical approach and others told him they thought he was crazy, but none of them had looked at him with such condemnation in their eyes.

“I didn’t realize,” he said a little stiffly, “that you were concerned with the reason for a wedding. I thought your job was to insure everything goes smoothly.”

She nodded, as though she’d expected him to say just that. “You’re right, of course,” she agreed. But before he could feel too righteous about having put her in her place, she added quietly, “I guess I thought the face of a woman being married solely for the purpose of producing a baby might reflect a less than joyful expression as she walked down the aisle. There should be something blue at every wedding, but it’s not supposed to be the bride.”

Smart-mouthed and quick. Not necessarily desirable qualities in a woman. Particularly when he couldn’t think of a comeback that wasn’t rude.

Then Caroline came to his rescue.

“So I explained that I was doing this willingly,” she said, squeezing his arm, “and that there was no problem.”

“Thank you, Carrie.” He turned a look on Anna intended to intimidate. “I assure you I’m not a villain, Ms. Maitland. But I realize you know nothing about me. Perhaps you’d prefer not to…”

“I know a lot about you, Mr. Cahill,” she said, clearly unaffected by his glare. He must be losing his touch. “You went to Harvard on a scholarship and hold a master’s degree in business administration. You’d made a million dollars in the hotel business by the time you were thirty and added mall development to your ventures, along with a few odds-and-ends companies like…” She narrowed her eyes as she obviously worked to recall a name. “Gordon Maps and Books,” she finally said with a little smile of triumph, “and Bronson Builders. Today you are the head of a multibillion-dollar company, Cahill Corporation, and—” she sniffed the air and smile devilishly “—your fragrance is Brooks Brothers.”

He was more fascinated by her knowledge than annoyed by her one-upmanship. “You read Forbes?” he asked. The magazine had done a piece on him several months before.

“My son does,” she replied. “You’re his idol.”

The compliment took him by surprise. “Me?” he asked incredulously.

She nodded, a soft light coming into her eyes. “Will is ten, and he isn’t into athletes or rock stars, but business moguls. He intends to be one himself one day.”

He had to laugh. “Good for him. I had a lucrative lawn and garden care business going when I was ten.”

“He takes care of my sisters’ and my stock portfolios,” she said, “and has formed a Fuzzy Buddies clearinghouse for his friends so they can buy, sell or trade to keep their collections complete.”

“Fuzzy Buddies?”

“Those little plush toys everybody’s collecting,” Caroline said in clarification. “I’ve got the flamingo hanging from my rearview mirror.” She turned to Anna, her eyes bright. “That’s so cute! You should meet Anna’s son, Austin. The little guy would probably love that!”

Austin tried to imagine a ten-year-old boy being as enthused about business as most kids that age were about sports, but couldn’t. Anna Maitland was flattering him for the sake of his business.

But she did know all about him. Maybe she’d read the Forbes article?

“There’s a lot going on while we’re here, Carrie,” he said. “And I am trying to run a business by remote control.”

“But you can make time.” Caroline frowned at him.

He tried to usher her toward the door. “I’m sure I’d prove to be a disappointment in person.”

“Austin…”

“So you can work with us, Ms. Maitland,” he asked, pulling the door open, “even while offended by the reason for our marriage?”

Anna followed them to the door, and Caroline stepped into the hallway. “I wasn’t judging, Mr. Cahill,” she said. “I was just offering an opinion. And if you’re offended by that, you might want to hire another consultant.”

“I have no problem with other people’s opinions,” he said, “when they relate to business. But I don’t like interference in my personal life.”

She held the door while he passed through it. “It was an opinion on Caroline’s life. She is the bride, after all, and seeing that the bride has everything she wants on her special day is my job.”

“Good,” he said. “You take care that she has everything she needs for the wedding, and I’ll worry about her mental and emotional well-being.”

No large undertaking, he knew. Caroline had shut off her deepest feelings long ago, and her mental well-being was just fine because she skimmed along the surface of her emotions fearful of rekindling the ones she’d disconnected.

He could see from the expression in Anna Maitland’s eyes that though she might not know the details, she’d already grasped the obvious about Caroline.

With a patronizing subservience he didn’t trust for a moment, she inclined her head.

“You’ll have a wonderful wedding,” she assured him, stepping back through the doorway as Caroline led him toward the elevator. “And Caroline will be a beautiful bride.” She waved at Caroline, then closed the door to her office.

He wanted Caroline to be the bride all women dreamed of being so she would never feel that she’d sacrificed anything to give him his baby.

They stopped to wait for the elevator.

“My word!” Caroline exclaimed with a shake of her head. “Are you two going to argue until the moment I walk up the aisle? Why is her opinion so important to you?”

“It isn’t. I just didn’t want her upsetting you.”

“Oh, we were just talking, one woman to another. Don’t worry about it. I know what I’m doing.”

“But are you happy about what you’re doing?”

She shrugged noncommittally. “I’m never happy, you know that. But I agreed, didn’t I? I have nothing going on for a year or so. We may as well make a baby.”

He felt that pinch again and gave the down button an impatient jab. Why did he want her to be happy, he wondered, when they didn’t love each other? It didn’t make sense.

“And I’m not upset,” Caroline went on. The light over the elevator blinked its arrival and a buzzer sounded. The doors parted on an empty car and they stepped inside. “In fact,” she said as the doors closed, “I’m pretty excited about the prospect of a medieval wedding.”

She smiled at him coaxingly. “You can ride a horse, can’t you?”

Austin forced himself not to shudder.




CHAPTER TWO


“MOM! WHERE ARE YOU?”

Will always came through the office door shouting for her, just as he did at home. The school bus dropped him off outside the building, and he did homework in a corner of her office until they went home together.

She sat behind her desk, in plain sight, not ten feet from the doorway in which he stood. She’d often wondered if his father’s absence made him want to keep close tabs on her.

“Right here in front of your face, Will,” she said, gesturing him to come to her. “Where else would I be?”

He dropped his backpack on her desk and wrapped her in a sturdy hug. She relished it, knowing that the next ten years would pass with the speed of the last ten and he’d soon be in college somewhere thinking about business and women and forgetting to give his mother the time of day.

She studied him as he drew away and leaned against her desk, his white sweater smudged and his jeans muddy at the knees. He had her dark hair and eyes, though he’d inherited his father’s aristocratic nose and chin. He wore wire-rimmed glasses and a usually serious air, though he did have a wry sense of humor and a sunny smile. He smiled at her now.

“You’re always saying that one day Michael Keaton’s going to come and take you away to the Batcave. I thought he might have come while I was gone.”

“As if I’d leave for the Batcave without you. Did you eat all your lunch?”

“Except for the carrot sticks I traded to Ashley Bates.”

“Traded for what?”

“A cupcake.”

Anna groaned. “Will, I try to balance your lunch so that you get all the nutrition you—”

“Mom,” he interrupted reasonably, “if someone wanted to give you a cupcake for your carrot sticks, you’d have to be brain-dead not to make the deal. It was like getting Microsoft stock for railroad shares.”

Anna laughed and hugged him again. He was the best thing in a life filled with pretty good stuff, and she never took that for granted for a moment.

“What did you have for lunch?” he asked, falling into her client’s chair.

“Caesar salad with shrimp.”

“Ah. Austin Eats again, huh? I know it’s only across the street, Mom, but you’re in a rut.”

She nodded and pushed to her feet. “And if you don’t mind digging yourself in there with me, I noticed they had chicken and dumplings on the dinner menu.” It was one of his favorite meals—and the cook-housekeeper’s day off. “Want to eat there tonight?”

“Please. Anything’s better than those frozen chicken and spinach calzone things we had last week.” He crossed his eyes and made a terrible face. “Even your cooking would be better than those.”

She chased him to the elevator.



AUSTIN EATS was a small diner with a circular counter in the middle of the room and square tables and chairs all around. It served fifty or so customers and was busy for every meal and most times in between.

Framed photographs of local events lined the pale yellow walls, and a large bulletin board behind the cashier was a rotating gallery of new babies, birthday-party photos and postcards from vacationing patrons.

It was like eating at home surrounded by friends and not having to cook.

Two glasses of ice water were placed on the table the moment Anna and Will settled in one of the window booths.

“And how are my two favorite customers?” Mary Jane Potter asked with a bright smile. She was in her early twenties and small but buff, her curly brown hair caught up in a casual topknot. She wore her Austin Eats uniform with great style and a very serious-looking pair of athletic shoes. She took a pad and pen from her apron pocket and winked at Will.

“How’s my Scully Sports Equipment stock, Will?”

“Up two-thirds of a point,” Will replied with a proud smile. “Slow growth is good.”

Mary Jane grinned at him. “Then how come you’re getting so tall?”

“He’s a blue-chip stock,” Anna said. “We’re here for the chicken and dumplings, Mary Jane. Is Shelby cooking tonight?” Shelby Lord owned Austin Eats.

“No, Sara’s cooking.”

“Does she make it as well as Shelby does?” Will wanted to know.

Mary Jane scribbled on her pad. “Maybe even better. She must have worked for Wolfgang Puck in her other life. Salads or soup? The soup’s tomato rice today.”

“Soup!” Will said with enthusiasm.

Anna shook her head. “Neither, thanks. Just some coffee.”

“Right. And milk for Will.”

“Pepsi,” Will corrected.

“Milk.” Anna overruled him. “Thanks, Mary Jane.”

As Mary Jane left to place their order, Will pulled the napkin dispenser toward him and gave Anna two napkins, taking two for himself.

“I don’t need strong bones,” he argued good-naturedly while replacing the dispenser. “I’m going to run a big company, not play professional basketball.”

“All smart companies today have in-house gyms to help reduce employee stress. Thank you.” Mary Jane delivered their drinks and was gone again. “Your employees will expect to see you there.”

He grinned. “I’ll just show up in the sauna like Uncle R.J.” Will looked in the direction of the kitchen, then leaned conspiratorially toward Anna and asked quietly, “Where do you think Sara came from, Mom? I mean, it’s weird that she’s been here seven whole months and she still doesn’t remember anything.”

Anna took a sip of her coffee, then shook her head as she replaced the cup. “I don’t have an answer to that, Will. No one can say when she’ll get her memory back. All we know is that she sustained a head injury that probably caused the memory loss. Even the specialist the hospital brought in from Dallas said she could get her memory back tomorrow, or it could take months. I guess those things are unpredictable.”

Sara had wandered into town, dazed and unable to remember her name. She’d been taken to a women’s shelter, and Daisy, the director, had brought her to Maitland Maternity Clinic, the hospital run by Anna’s family, because it was closer than the hospital across town.

When Sara had finally been declared healthy except for the memory loss, Daisy had pleaded with Shelby to give her a job. Sara had proven to be a good waitress—and a good cook.

She had golden blond hair and blue eyes with a questioning look in them that Anna noticed every time she saw her. It was almost as though she expected a clue to present itself at any moment, a revelation that would answer her questions.

“Imagine not knowing who you are,” Will speculated, sitting back in the booth. “Not knowing your mom or your dad or your friends. I wonder how she remembered she could cook.”

“Shelby said the cook had a family emergency a few weeks ago and couldn’t come in to work. Sara started cooking. It was probably instinctive.”

“She just knew she could do it?”

Anna nodded. “That even happens to people who know who they are, but don’t know what they’re capable of,” she said, unable to resist making a life lesson out of their serious conversation. “When put to the test, they do things they didn’t know they could do.”

“Sort of like discovering they have super powers.”

Anna was about to nod, but her maternal radar spotted the danger in doing so without qualification. “Internal super powers,” she specified. “I wouldn’t try to fly or see through lead or anything.”

Will rolled his eyes at her. “I know what you mean, Mom. I wasn’t planning to leap tall buildings.”

“Good.” She never knew for certain with him. He was extremely intelligent, unusually gifted, but still a ten-year-old boy. His sense of daring and adventure occasionally overruled his common sense. “I’d just prefer not to have a repeat of the gunpowder incident.”

He frowned, distracted by the memory of the experiment that had given her a few of the worst moments of her life. “I still don’t understand why that didn’t work,” he said absently. “According to the book, sulfur and potassium nitrate should have been a perfect launching fuel.”

Fortunately, he’d tried to launch a teddy bear and not himself, but in the process he’d blown out the bathroom window and the glass on the medicine cabinet, and ignited the shower curtain. The teddy bear had gone to his reward.

If R.J. hadn’t been there, Anna wasn’t sure what she’d have done when she heard the explosion and opened the bathroom door to find her son covered in soot and glass and lying motionless on the floor.

Will had come to immediately, and R.J. had gotten the glass off him and out of his hair with a Dustbuster. Then he’d taken him to the emergency room, where they’d found nothing wrong with him except singed eyebrows and hair and rampant inquisitiveness.

R.J. had talked her out of locking Will in his room until college and made an effort to spend more time with him. Even now that R.J. was married, he made Will a part of his life.

Will shrugged off the incident. “I guess it showed that science isn’t my thing.” He sat back as Mary Jane delivered his soup and Anna’s coffee. “Money is.”

As Mary Jane left again, he asked seriously, “Do you think I get that from my father? Even though I never see him?”

Anna shook her head, eager to rid him of that notion. “You get it from the Maitlands,” she said, pushing the pepper toward him. “Almost all of us are into some kind of business. Besides the clinic itself, there’s Lana’s baby shop, Shelby’s restaurant—” she spread her hands to indicate Austin Eats “—and Aunt Beth’s day-care center in the hospital.”

“And you.”

“Right.”

“But Shelby and Lana are Lords,” he corrected, “not Maitlands.”

Anna nodded, pointing to his napkin to remind him to put it on his lap. He did, then pulled his soup closer and picked up his spoon.

“But we Maitlands sort of think of them as cousins,” she explained, “because Grandma found Garrett and the triplets on the doorstep of Maitland Maternity not long after she opened it. She found a loving home for them close by and we had parties and picnics together. Our interests rubbed off on each other.”

“I just wonder why he doesn’t like me,” Will said candidly.

They were back to his father again. Anna preferred not to think about her ex-husband, but she knew that understanding his rejection was important to Will’s peace of mind.

“He doesn’t dislike you,” she assured him quickly. “He doesn’t even know you well enough to make any judgment about you. He just thinks of himself first. Life always seems easier if you never have to consider anybody but yourself.”

“It must get lonely,” Will observed.

She was pleased he understood that. “I’m sure it does. Guess what client I took on today.”

He spooned soup into his mouth with enthusiasm, pausing to add more pepper and take a guess. “Um…that lady that’s the mother of that baby Grandma has? The one that’s your new cousin Connor’s girlfriend?”

“Janelle?” Anna shook her head. “Nope. I took Janelle and Connor on last month. This is a client I officially got today.”

Will shrugged, more interested in eating his soup than trying to guess.

“Caroline Lamont,” she said.

“Who’s that?” he asked between spoonfuls.

“A nice lady who has a lot of money. But guess who she’s marrying.”

“Who?”

“Austin Cahill.”

She watched with delight as Will dropped the spoon into his empty bowl and stared at her in wide-eyed disbelief.

“Mom,” he said gravely, “you’re kidding, right?”

She shook her head. “I’m not. They want a medieval English wedding, and I have to find costumes and armor and horses.”

His mouth fell open.

“You can help me with that part if you like,” she said.

He still didn’t believe her. “No way!” he challenged.

“Way,” she assured him.

Hero worship blazed in his eyes as he finally realized she spoke the truth. “But…he lives in Dallas!”

“Right. But Caroline lives here in Austin.”

“Wow.” He pushed his bowl aside and leaned toward her pleadingly. “You think I’ll get to meet him?”

She remembered Cahill’s resistance to Caroline’s suggestion. “He’s pretty busy right now,” she said gently. “He’s involved in getting ready for the wedding and trying to run his business from here.”

He absorbed that information, then seemed to dismiss it, as though the notion that he could be this close to his hero and not meet him was unthinkable.

“Did he say anything about the RoyceCo takeover?” Will asked eagerly. Before she could answer, he added, “Did he say what he’s going to do about the pet stores in their subsidiary company?”

“Didn’t you just buy us RoyceCo stock?” Anna frowned in puzzlement. “I thought it was a grain company.”

He nodded. “I bought it because I knew Austin Cahill was looking at it seriously. I think RoyceCo bought a dog-food company as a place to use some of their grain, and those guys had pet stores. Anyway, those stores—I think they’re called Dogdom—have been in violation of Texas animal protection laws. Somebody has to make them change.”

“He didn’t say any—”

“I’ll bet that’s why he bought it!” Will beamed. “’Cause he heard the animals weren’t being treated right and he wanted to fix that!”

Anna was willing to let him believe that. It reminded her again that although her son had a keen, almost adult mind, he was still a little boy. He understood the workings of business, but not the motivations of those who made the deals.

She doubted seriously that Austin Cahill had purchased RoyceCo to see that the animals owned by the subsidiary pet stores were better treated. He was taking a wife for the sole purpose of producing an heir. With so little regard for a human being, he couldn’t possibly care that much about animals. He was in it for the profits in grain.

“Maybe we’ll run into him,” Will said hopefully, “while I’m helping you with the armor and the horses.”

“Maybe. We’ll have to find a way to work it out when his schedule loosens up.”

Mary Jane brought their dinners, and conversation stopped while Will consumed his, then finished off the second half of Anna’s.

“Sara’s a really good cook,” he said appreciatively as he contemplated the last bite. “I’ll bet she cooked for the president or somebody.”

Anna had to agree that her chicken and dumplings were delicious. The seasoning was perfect, the biscuits light, the mashed potatoes creamy. An hour on the treadmill tonight, she thought, might save her hips from retribution.

“I can stay up late tonight,” Will boasted as he pushed his plate aside, “’cause I don’t have school tomorrow. Can I have peach cobbler?”

“Sure.”

“A là mode?”

“Is there any other way?”

Anna beckoned to Mary Jane, who brought Will’s favorite dessert without being asked.

“Aunt Beth wondered,” Anna said casually, “if you could help out at the day care tomorrow, since you have the day off.”

Will gave her a direct look that changed subtly to one of disapproval. “Mom, I’m on to you. You think if you make me feel like Aunt Beth needs my help, I won’t get mad about having to spend the day with a bunch of little kids. I thought I was going to spend the day with Uncle R.J.”

She hadn’t been able to skate anything past him since he was four. She didn’t know why she continued to try.

“It helps her a lot when you read to the little ones,” she insisted. “And Uncle R.J. and Aunt Dana have an appointment he’d forgotten when he said you could stay with him.”

He looked disappointed. “Why can’t I just go over to Eddie’s?”

“Because no one’s home at Eddie’s house.”

“Mom, we’re ten years old.” He said it as though they were twenty-one.

“I know that, Will,” she replied patiently, “but I’m more comfortable knowing that you’re nearby, and that someone I trust has an eye on you.”

“But it’s embarrassing to have to stay at a day care!”

“You’re not staying there, you’re assisting.”

“I’ll bet Austin Cahill never had to stay at a day care when he was ten,” he grumbled, then finished his cobbler in silence.

Anna put an arm around him as they walked to the cashier. “We’ll stay up late and scarf brownies while we’re watching Leno, okay?”

That earned her a tentative smile. “Okay. But you owe me big for this, Mom.”

She squeezed him to her and kissed the top of his head. “I owe you big for a lot of things, kiddo.”



WILL LAY on the sofa, covered with a throw, and watched television. Curled up near his feet, Anna checked her source catalogs for the unique requirements the Lamont-Cahill wedding would call for.

She’d made a few notes when there was a knock at her door just after nine. She walked from the family room at the back of her rambling ranch house, through the kitchen, the dining room, then the living room, wondering who would be calling at this hour.

Her brother and his wife stood on the doorstep, their cheeks flushed and their eyes alight with their love for each other.

Anna smiled to herself. That love had come as such a surprise to her brother R.J. As president of Maitland Maternity Clinic, he’d hired Dana as his secretary years ago and had worked closely with the beautiful blonde every day without noticing what had grown between them.

“Hi!” Anna greeted them. “What’s up?”

“My hormone level!” Dana replied without trying to ease into the reason for their visit. Her green eyes were alight with excitement. “We’re going to have a baby!”

R.J. turned to his wife, laughing. “Oh, that was well done. What happened to ‘Let’s be subtle and mysterious?’” R.J.’s hazel eyes could often be difficult to read, but tonight they were as revealing as Dana’s.

“I couldn’t stand it another moment!” Dana cried as she wrapped her arms around Anna. “Oh, Anna. We’re so excited!”

“What?” Will demanded, racing to the door in his Dallas Cowboys knit pajamas, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

“You’re going to have a cousin!” Anna exclaimed to Will as she drew his aunt and uncle inside and closed the door. “Well, I’m excited, too! That’s wonderful! Have you told Mom?”

“Not yet,” R.J. replied. “I wanted to tell you first.”

“Will,” Dana said, “I hope our baby is half the sweetheart you are.”

Will blushed furiously. “Sweetheart?” he questioned, glancing at his uncle.

“Dana means she hopes he’s a great guy like you.” R.J. shook his head at Dana. “Guys don’t like to be considered sweethearts, my love. Only women appreciate that.”

Dana hugged Will. “I’m sorry, Will. I mean that in the most complimentary way.”

Anna left Will to entertain them while she excused herself to make a fresh pot of decaf.

Even now that they were adults, Anna worried about R.J.’s sense of disconnection from the family.

She and R.J. had been born to William Maitland’s brother, Robert, then abandoned when their mother died and Robert left, unable to cope. R.J. had been three and Anna just six months old.

William and Megan had adopted them and raised them with the same love and attention they gave their own children, but R.J. had struggled with the knowledge that he wasn’t really their child and that his father had abandoned him.

Though he’d always been protective of Anna, he’d also thought of her as William and Megan’s daughter, because he remembered their natural parents and she didn’t.

It was a defense mechanism, she knew. He’d been afraid that genes would win out and someday, despite all his efforts to the contrary, he’d find in himself the same irresponsible qualities their father had shown.

Even after he’d become president of Maitland Maternity, he’d held himself a little apart from everyone—except her—for fear he would fall short of what was required of him.

While Anna loved and counted on their closeness, she worried about the subtle distance he kept between himself and their family.

Now, though, as she heard R.J. and Dana laughing together in the other room, she felt sure that Dana’s love would go a long way toward bridging that distance.

And he had once vowed never to have children, afraid he’d be the kind of father their natural father had been. But now his wife was pregnant, and he looked as though he couldn’t be happier.

There was hope for him.

“You understand, of course,” Anna said, carrying out a tray filled with a pot of her favorite flavored decaf, three cups and a mug of cocoa, “that I’ll have to throw you the biggest, most elegant Boston shower known to man.”

“What’s that?” Will asked.

Anna set the tray on a carved bench she used as a coffee table and sat on the edge of the doe-colored leather sectional where they were all gathered.

“It’s a shower that isn’t restricted to women. Men can come, too.” She poured and distributed cups.

“We just want you to be happy with us,” R.J. said, leaning back and sipping his coffee. “You aren’t required to do anything else.”

“I’m not required to do anything at all.” Anna scolded him with a look. “But I happen to love both of you, so I’d like to do it for your baby. What’s your due date?”

“October seventeenth,” Dana replied. “I’m just about nine weeks along.” She sighed dreamily and turned to smile at R.J., her eyes alight with love and excitement. “I can’t believe we’re sitting here, talking about our son—or daughter.”

“Can’t they tell you what it is?” Will asked.

R.J. shook his head. “We want it to be a surprise.”

“But what if you get a lot of pink stuff, and it’s a boy?”

Dana laughed. “People usually give you yellow or green when you’re not sure.”

“Or we’ll just save it for the second baby,” R.J. said, wrapping his arm around Dana and pulling her toward him to kiss her temple. “God, I’m happy.”

“Me, too, darling,” Dana mumbled brokenly against his throat. “Me, too.”

Will, sitting on the other side of his aunt and uncle, rolled his eyes at their prolonged hug and smiled happily.

Anna nodded, jealousy at work deep down where she hid all private thoughts. But she smiled brightly, forgetting everything else and telling herself she was fortunate to have her son.

When she’d learned she was pregnant with Will, her husband, John, had been unenthused, and for the first month or so her happiness had felt hollow because he hadn’t shared it.

Then her family’s excitement and her reading and research began to thrill her despite John’s lack of interest. The first time she felt the baby move, she realized she already had a relationship with him, and nothing would ever diminish the miracle of that for her.

And nothing ever had. Even when she’d been about to deliver and John had chosen to support a client through a tricky deposition rather than his wife at the birth of their son, she’d approached labor gleefully, eager to see this child she’d come to love so much.

From the moment she first rested her eyes on Will, he’d been everything she’d ever prayed for.

She was delighted that her brother would support his wife throughout her pregnancy. Anna had never regretted a moment of hers, but she imagined it would be wonderful to have a husband’s hand to hold through it all. She had never and would never experience that.

“I know it’s early,” she said as R.J. and Dana drew apart. “But have you thought about names yet?”

“We bought a book that’s in the car,” Dana said, “But you’re commissioned to watch for great names as new clients come through your office.”

“How about Austin for a boy?” Will asked eagerly. “Mom’s going to do Austin Cahill’s wedding to… Mom?”

“Caroline Lamont,” she provided.

“I know Cahill.” R.J. nodded, as though expressing approval. “Nice guy. Smart. But a cool customer. I met him when I was on the board of Texas Charities, and then I saw him at the gala last month. Nothing gets by him.”

“He’s buying RoyceCo,” Will informed him. “I’d buy some shares, Unc. It’s about to go up.”

R.J. smiled at his nephew, his expression half affection, half attention. “No kidding. I’ll have to look into that. Did you tell Drake?”

Drake Logan was Maitland Maternity’s vice president in charge of finance, and he and Will met regularly to talk stocks.

Will shook his head. “I’ll tell him when I see him.”

“I imagine that’ll be quite a wedding,” Dana speculated. “I had to call Caroline Lamont when I was soliciting donations for a silent auction your mother was chairing for the Lone Star Ladies, and she sent a litter of wolfhound puppies. They made a bundle on those pups! They’d all had their shots, too, as I recall.”

Anna remembered that. “She thinks big. We’re doing a medieval English theme complete with armor and horses.”

R.J. laughed. “Don’t forget to hire someone to follow with a shovel. We’d better move, sis, if we’re going to see Mom before she goes to bed.”

He stood and pulled Dana to her feet. “Thanks for the coffee, but please don’t plan a party. You’ve got enough to do already.”

She hugged him tightly. “It’s what I do best, brother mine. And I’d love to throw a shower for you two. I’m sure I’ll have more than enough help from the family. We’ve all waited a long time to see you married and walking the floors with a teething baby.”

He held her away from him and frowned teasingly at her. “That’s sadistic.”

She smiled shamelessly. “I know. Let us have our little fun.”

“So, don’t you think Austin’s a cool name?” Will asked as R.J. wrapped an arm around him and headed for the door. Anna and Dana followed.

“It is,” R.J. agreed. “I like it. We’ll put it on the list we’re collecting. Of course, Will’s a pretty good name, too.”

Will grimaced. “It’s too ordinary.”

“But you, and the grandfather you were named for, have made it special.”

They stopped at the door, and Dana patted Will’s shoulder. “Names mean different things to different people,” she said. “Sometimes you dislike an otherwise beautiful name because you associate it with someone you can’t stand. Personally, I think Robert William would be a perfect name for a boy.”

“Not Robert,” R.J. said.

“But it’s your name,” Dana insisted.

“You just explained why we hate some names. And I have reason to hate that one.”

She sighed wearily. “It’s time to put that away.”

He opened the door. Though he didn’t dispute her statement, something in his stance, in his manner, said he would never forgive his long-missing father. His love for Dana had resolved many things in his life, but not that. Never that.

Anna hugged her sister-in-law. “Congratulations, Dana. I’m so happy for both of you. Start thinking about a list of invitees for the shower because I’m going to begin planning it right away.”

Dana kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Anna. I’d love that. We’d love that.”

As she headed for the car, R.J. lingered an extra moment and asked Anna quietly, “You’re okay?”

“Of course,” she replied, pretending she had no idea why he asked the question. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“I’m sure it’s…hard for you to be happy for us.”

She punched his shoulder playfully. “A lot you know. I’m thrilled that the two of you have it all. Go! Dana’s waiting for you.”

R.J. honked the horn as they backed out of the driveway, and Anna closed the door and looked into her son’s concerned expression.

“I should probably learn something about sports,” he said as they walked to the sofa.

“Why?” Anna asked in surprise.

“Because if they do have a boy and I’m going to be his older cousin, he’ll probably want to learn things from me.”

Anna withheld a smile, afraid he’d misunderstand. “I imagine he will.”

“And I don’t think the stockmarket is going to thrill a little kid.”

“Probably not.”

“Maybe Uncle R.J. will take me to the gym when he and Drake and Michael and Uncle Mitchell play basketball.”

“You’ll have to ask him.”

They settled onto the sofa again, and Will reclined against his pillows, pulling the throw over him. He continued to look concerned. “You think I’ll get killed on the court?” he asked worriedly. “I’m not very fast. That’s why I don’t play sports.”

She tried not to make an issue of it. He rode his bike all the time, so she was sure he got enough exercise, but it was a relatively solitary activity, and she often wished he’d get involved in team sports for the social benefits.

“I suppose you could try it. Practice might make you quicker. But if you still don’t like it or don’t feel comfortable playing, you don’t have to. I’m sure your cousin will love you anyway and will have lots of other things to learn from you.”

Will sighed, and she felt his feet resting against her relax.

“My father was really a jerk to not love you,” he said, turning his face to the television. “You know everything.”

Later, when he was asleep in his bed and she walked through the house turning off lights, checking that the doors were locked, Anna thought maybe she should have recorded that statement to play back to him when he was a teenager and inevitably came to doubt her knowledge and experience.

She felt oddly restless. She was thrilled about her brother’s baby, but it would put a little more distance between them, just as his marriage had.

After her divorce, she and R.J. had supported each other in their single lives. She’d accompanied him when he needed a woman on his arm at some function or other, and he’d been her escort when she’d required one. He’d cheerfully gone with Will to father-son functions at school.

But now he had his own family to think of. He had all the things she’d hoped to find with John and failed.

Having glimpsed the possibilities of a marriage based on shared loved made contemplating her single status that much more difficult.

With a toss of her head, she walked upstairs, reminding herself how much she’d hated living with John. The only good thing to come out of their relationship was Will.

She walked into her pink and green bedroom, redecorated last year when she’d been in a mood like the one she was in tonight. Leaning in the doorway, she reflected how perfect it looked, bed linens layered and coordinated, window treatments matching, family pictures hung on the walls and interspersed with beautiful wreaths and swags from Hope Logan’s gift shop at the hospital.

She folded her arms and allowed her irrepressible sense of humor to slip into her melancholy mood.

What she needed was an arrangement like Caroline’s. She needed some kind, intelligent man to want her simply for sex.

She laughed out loud at that thought. A kind man would never want a woman simply for sex, but she couldn’t help but think that it would suit her needs right now.

It was impossible to deny that she was lonely and getting older. There hadn’t been time for serious relationships since John had left, and she didn’t believe in casual ones. With Will aware of everything, she’d thought it easier to be celibate than to be careful.

But, strangely, that was becoming more difficult as she grew older. She was very aware that soon her chances at finding love would disappear altogether, and it was hard to face the reality that she would never—ever—know what it was like to lie with a man who loved her for herself.

So maybe she should look around for someone who was only interested in sex.

With a sigh, she accepted that she would never do that with Will just down the hall.

She flipped the light off and climbed into her perfect bed, an unbidden image taking shape in her head. It was Caroline Lamont and Austin Cahill standing at the foot of a bed somewhere in Kauai. Long sheer curtains fluttered into the room on the night breeze, revealing a sliver of moon in the sky.

Anna closed her eyes against the picture, annoyed and ashamed that it had come to her. But it persisted.

He was a little cool, she remembered, and he admitted that he was a busy man. Would he take his time? She wondered idly, then hated herself for entertaining the thought. What was wrong with her? She felt like a voyeur.

But she couldn’t help it. Then an odd change took place. The naked feminine body in his arms was familiar—hips a little too wide, breasts a little too full. It was her!

While that vision was even more horrifying, it also made it somehow more acceptable to watch as Austin Cahill did everything that she’d dreamed a man would do to her—for her.

Her breath grew shallow as the image became real enough for her to feel his touch against her skin, his breath on her cheek, the graze of his knee against her thigh as he rose over her.

With a growl of disgust at herself, she sat up in bed, turned on the bedside light and simply sat there, heart pounding in her chest, fingers trembling.

She experienced a moment of real shock as she realized how deeply she was affected by an adolescent daydream.

Maybe a cold shower would help, she thought half-seriously. She opted instead to go downstairs and give some serious thought to R.J. and Dana’s shower.

Planning someone else’s party always helped her forget her own deprivations.




CHAPTER THREE


AUSTIN AWOKE to the ringing of the telephone. He squinted sleepily at the travel alarm on the hotel’s bedside table as he reached for the receiver. Three-twelve.

His first thought was that something had gone wrong with the deal. But common sense reminded him that it couldn’t be that. He’d closed it already.

Then he remembered that his mother was traveling in Africa with her best friends, Dorothy Churchill and Emily Pratt. She’d returned from Ireland the previous year with a knot on her forehead after being lowered by her ankles to kiss the Blarney Stone. What could she have done this time—enraged a rhino or caused an elephant stampede?

“Hello?” he said urgently.

“Hi, Austin! Did I wake you?” It was his mother, and the question sounded hopeful rather than apologetic.

“Yes, you did,” he answered, relieved at the sound of her voice. “It’s just after three here.”

“Well, it’s ten-fifteen here in Nairobi, and Dot and Emmy and I are having breakfast on our sunporch. Wish you were here.”

He propped up on an elbow and laughed lightly. “Oh, you do not. Having a man along would just cramp your style.”

“That’s true. The gigolo I’m looking for would think I already had a young man. Are you still getting married?”

He’d stood firmly against her disapproval since he’d announced his plans just before she’d left for Africa. When he’d driven her and her friends to the airport, she’d lectured him on the necessity of marrying for love.

“You married for love,” he’d told her, “and look at what happened. You held everything together, and if my father hadn’t killed himself by driving drunk, you’d still be supporting him.”

“It apparently wasn’t love on his part, because love gives you comfort and the ability to endure. Austin, I wish you wouldn’t think of marriage as just another merger.”

“Mom, I’m doing what’s right for me.”

“You’re doing what’ll get you a child. That’s all.”

“A child is all I want.”

“That’s insane, Austin!”

He’d framed her face in his hands as her flight was called. “Mom,” he’d said gently. “You don’t exactly set the standard for sanity, so don’t judge, all right?”

He’d tried to turn her toward the boarding gate, but she’d taken hold of his lapels and held on, her dark eyes gravely serious.

“Darling, don’t do this to yourself,” she’d pleaded. “I like Caroline. She’s a good friend to you. But don’t miss the chance for a love relationship just to have things your way. Please.”

Then her friends had tugged on her, and the three of them had disappeared past the gate.

He sat up in the cool bed and said firmly, “Yes, Mom. I’m still getting married.”

“You know what’ll happen,” she predicted. “You’ll be married two weeks, and you’ll meet someone you’ll want to spend the rest of your life with. But it’ll be too late.”

“That wouldn’t happen to me, Mom.”

“Austin, everyone is skeptical of love until it happens to them. You think because you saw it fail that it fails all the time. But it doesn’t. Dorothy had a wonderful marriage for half a century. Emily was married to Ray for thirty-seven years. And they were happy.”

That wasn’t precisely the point, but explaining required too much thinking, too much analyzing. And it was three in the morning, for God’s sake. “That’s great. It’s just not for me. You have enough money?”

She emitted a high-pitched sigh, which he recognized as surrender. It was her signal that she was tired of arguing with him.

“You gave me enough money for my birthday to allow me to buy Africa. Money isn’t everything, you know. I thought I taught you that.”

“You did. It’s just more reliable than people. Except for you, of course. I love you, Mom. Be careful, okay?”

She made that sound again. “Okay, Austin. But I give you fair warning. When the day comes and the minister asks if anyone has a reason the wedding shouldn’t take place, I’m going to speak!”

“Mother…”

“Bye, dear. Dorothy and Emily say hi.”

The line went dead, and he cradled the receiver, the room suddenly very dark and very quiet.

Lying back and pulling the covers up, he rested his hands behind his head and listened to the sounds of his loneliness. Quiet, distant traffic, the ticking clock, the nighttime sounds of the hotel—furnace, plumbing, soft steps walking past his door.

He remembered how quiet their Dallas apartment had been at night when he was a child. His father had been out drinking or home sleeping it off. He’d died when Austin was eight, but the house remained quiet because Austin’s mother had slept in exhaustion from working twelve hours a day, six days a week just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.

Austin could clearly recall lying in bed and worrying about his mother, worrying about himself. He’d loved his father and hadn’t understood his need for the booze that rendered him unconscious. And like most children in similar situations, he’d been convinced that something he’d done had made his father unable to cope.

He used to wonder if it would drive his mother away one day.

When he felt bold enough to share that worry with her, she’d wept and assured him that nothing in the world would ever separate them until he was old enough to make his own life. He was everything in the world to her, she’d said, and she would always be there for him.

And she had been. She’d slaved with overtime and extra part-time jobs all through his childhood, until he was old enough to help and finally take over responsibility for their household.

What he’d liked best about money, he thought now, was that generating it created noise and activity. It filled the awful silences where fears bred and worries accumulated.

And so he’d dedicated himself to making money. He had a gift for it and eagerly learned all that he could to turn the gift into a skill.

Was he really missing something, as his mother insisted?

It didn’t feel as though he was. He had everything he wanted and, probably within a year, he would have a child. If Caroline chose to stay with him, that would be fine because they were good friends and she was pleasant company.

If she chose to leave, that would be fine, too. Although he liked having her around, he didn’t really need her. And he would be there for their baby. He’d learned parenting skills from the very best.

He closed his eyes, relieved to have heard from his mother and to know that she was safe. He was also satisfied with his analysis of his life. He had things perfectly balanced at the moment, and the love his mother was so sure he needed would only unsettle that balance.

Yes. Life was good as it was.



“MOM THINKS this would be the perfect setting for your wedding,” Anna said, stopping in the middle of her mother’s garden and gesturing around her. “Of course, not all the flowers are in bloom yet, but they should be beautiful in time for your wedding. What do you think?”

She turned to face the couple following her through the garden. The path spilled into a broad expanse of velvety green lawn.

Connor O’Hara and Janelle Davis came toward her hand in hand, he a tall, well-muscled man and she a slender brunette with watchful eyes and an effusive manner. Both looked around appreciatively at the setting.

Their story was one for the soap operas, Anna thought.

Their baby had unwittingly invaded the lives of Anna’s mother and her children last September, the day Megan invited the press to Maitland Maternity Clinic to talk about preparations for the hospital’s twenty-fifth-anniversary celebration.

The infant lay in a Moses basket on the back step of the hospital, fragile and beautiful, causing a commotion among the hospital staff and the press.

Connor arrived in October, and the Maitland siblings eventually learned that he was their cousin, the adopted son of their father’s sister, Clarise.

Janelle came to Austin in January, claiming that she was the baby’s mother and Connor his father. She’d explained that she’d abandoned her relationship with Connor because he’d been a workaholic. When she discovered she was pregnant, she’d tried to contact him, only to learn that he’d sold his ranch and moved on.

When she’d given birth to the baby, she had no job, no money and no family, and she’d heard about Maitland Maternity Clinic.

Anna’s mother believed them, but Social Services insisted that Janelle produce the baby’s birth records before he could be removed from Megan’s foster care. Apparently the records were in New Mexico, and bureaucratic red tape and a fire were interfering with their journey to Texas.

Meanwhile, Megan kept the baby in the hospital’s day care while she was at the office, and at home with her at night. Janelle and Connor visited him regularly.

Anna had been suspicious of them at first, but Janelle’s sincerity was becoming difficult to question. Anna knew some of her siblings still had doubts, but Megan’s happiness at discovering her nephew was all Anna needed to convince her that Connor was genuine.

“This would be perfect!” Janelle said, clutching Connor’s arm in her delight. “I can’t believe this is happening to us! To think that just seven months ago, I thought I had nothing. I’d given up my man and my baby and I was sure I’d end up spending the rest of my life behind the counter of some fast food restaurant, thinking about what I was missing.”

Her voice broke, and Connor drew her closer, smiling apologetically at Anna as Janelle broke down.

She did that a lot, Anna noticed, but then it was an emotional time for all concerned. And it must be killing her not to be able to take her baby home.

“When you make the right decisions,” Anna said, “like coming back to claim your baby, things usually turn out well. So let’s not waste energy on what you thought the future would be when it now includes a newfound family, a wedding to plan and—as soon as the records arrive—the right to take your son home.”

Janelle reached out to pull Anna into her embrace with Connor.

“We’re so grateful to you!” she said.

Anna shook her head. “I didn’t do anything.”

“But you’re planning our wedding as a gift!”

Anna shrugged. “You’re just lucky enough to have a fiancé whose cousin is in the business. Now, come on. Mom wants us to have coffee with her while we plan the menu for the reception.”



ANNA MAITLAND was everything Janelle hated in another human being—in a woman particularly.

She was all grace and good manners and good intentions. And it didn’t hurt that she looked like some supermodel who now had better things to do.

It helped soothe Janelle’s feelings of hatred and resentment that Anna didn’t have a husband. It was nice to know that her privileged life had left her needing something.

And it was also satisfying to know that though she was smart enough to have had that brilliant kid and to own and run her own business, she was still gullible enough to have swallowed the story, hook, line and baby.

She believed that Petey Jones, Janelle’s husband, was Connor O’Hara, Megan’s long-lost nephew. And she believed that Janelle had really given birth to the little stinker in the house and had turned her life around to reclaim him and give him a loving home.

Ha!

She couldn’t wait for the day Miss Grace and Beauty learned the truth.



“HELLO!” Megan Maitland opened the back door, baby in her arms, and called, “Coffee’s ready!”

Anna hurried her step. Her mother was the only sixty-two-year-old woman she knew who could run a corporation, know what was going on with every member of her family, happily cope with the daily care of a seven-month-old baby and still look as though she’d never lifted a finger.

She wore a gray-blue wool dress today that lightened her dark blue eyes. Her soft white hair was drawn into her favorite French twist. She had an air of serenity Anna had always wanted to acquire but never quite mastered.

“Hi, Cody,” Anna said, reaching out for the baby and settling him on her hip. With her free arm she hugged her mother.

“Chase, Anna,” Megan corrected. “Not Cody. You are having a hard time with that.”

Anna groaned as she kissed the baby’s plump fingers. “Sorry about that. Chase is really a good name for you,” she said to the baby, who watched her with big eyes, “because I could just chase you all over then eat you up!” She nibbled at his fingers, and the baby laughed.

When he’d been found on the hospital doorstep, her mother had called him Cody because of the initials C.O. on a baby bracelet he wore. When Janelle came to claim him, she explained that the initials stood for Chase O’Hara.

“I swear, Mom,” Anna said, bouncing the baby. “This child must be gaining a pound a day.” Janelle and Connor approached, and Anna handed the baby over to his mother.

Megan patted Anna’s shoulder. “And we thought that was a quality relegated to Maitland women,” she teased.

Anna frowned at her mother. “Not funny, Mom. I did an hour on the treadmill last night.” With playful resentment, she turned her frown on Janelle. “You never seem to gain an ounce, Janelle.”

The baby reached for Anna with outstretched arms, but Janelle took one of his hands and kissed it and drew him to her. “Now, come on, baby,” she said. “Aunt Anna has work to do. You have to sit with me.” She disappeared into the house, and Connor followed.

“I swear,” Anna said quietly to her mother as they, too, walked into the house, “that baby remembers she left him on your doorstep and refuses to warm up to her.”

Megan frowned as she closed the door. “It’ll just take time,” she said. “He’s gotten used to me, and you’ve helped a lot, so you get the smiles she doesn’t get. Poor Janelle. It isn’t easy to right that kind of wrong.”

“I know.” Anna wrapped an arm around her mother’s shoulders and walked with her through the sunporch and toward the kitchen. “I’m sure they’ll be more comfortable with each other by the time the records prove her parentage.”

Megan smiled suddenly, stopping Anna on the threshold to the kitchen. “Isn’t it wonderful about R.J. and Dana?”

Anna laughed and hugged her. “Will’s so excited. He’s going to take up sports so he can teach the baby. I’m planning a Boston shower. You’ll have to help me.”

“Of course. You’re welcome to have it here, if you like.”

“That’d be perfect. We can do it in August and have it on the lawn. I still have all those sun umbrellas from that Spalding wedding that never happened. The bride’s mother was so upset, she refused to pay for the garden party things her daughter ordered, so I kept them. I have thirty green-and-white-striped umbrellas in my guest bedroom.”

“Closed, I hope, or you’re in for a lot of bad luck.”

“Not me,” Anna insisted. “All my bad luck turns to good.”



ANNA REMEMBERED what she’d said two hours later when she went to the day-care center at Maitland Maternity to surprise Will by picking him up for lunch. She stopped in confusion when she realized that members of the staff were huddled on the lawn in nervous little groups. Her brother Mitchell stood at the door, shaking his head adamantly as an older man tried to gain entrance.

“Anna!” Hope Logan, who managed the hospital’s gift shop, emerged from one of the groups to intercept her as she headed for the entrance. “Anna, you heard! Isn’t it awful?”

Dread trickled down Anna’s backbone. “Heard what? What’s happened?”

“A man’s holding the kids in the day-care center hostage!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide with horror. “He thinks Jake’s got his wife or something. Or she’s run away with him. I didn’t get all the…”

Jake was Anna’s younger brother, and he had appeared at Christmas with a pregnant woman who still remained a mystery. This wasn’t the first time the woman’s husband had shown up at the clinic. Anna tore across the lawn, straight for the entrance.

Her brother Mitchell caught her by the shoulders. “You can’t go in, Anna. What are you doing here?”

“Will’s in there, Mitch!” She tried to shake him off. “There’s no school today! And Beth! Let me through.”

“Nobody’s getting through, Anna.” He held her firmly, lowering his voice to reason with her. “Mike and Max are talking to this guy, and the police are on their way. R.J. and Mom were at a meeting, but they’re on their way in. I promise you we won’t let anything happen to Will, or Beth, or to any of the kids. But we’ve got to be cool.”

Mike was Michael Lord, head of Maitland Maternity’s security, and Max was Max Jamieson, a private detective.

Her heart was beating so hard she could hardly form a thought. But she did understand that Mitchell wasn’t letting her through.

Mitchell was two years younger than she was, and the oldest of Megan and William’s natural children. So close in age, Anna and Mitchell had fought throughout their childhood, but found a common ground as teenagers and had been good friends ever since. She knew he wouldn’t deliberately cause her grief, but at that moment she’d have willingly knocked him unconscious and walked over him to get to her son.





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