sputtered. “What? What do you take me for?”
“Just a woman who’s in love with a jerk.” Adam cringed. That just slipped out. He couldn’t help it. “Just tell him if he loves you, mac-and-cheese shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Oh, my God, Adam,” Molly said slowly. “If I didn’t know for a fact you’re smart, I’d call you an idiot. Zach’s not here. He dumped me when that weekend was barely over.”
“Molly, I’m—”
“Adam, I’m pregnant. It’s Zach’s.”
Adam opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and found he couldn’t stop doing it.
“I can’t believe I told you that. Actually, I’m glad I did,” Molly amended. “I’m sick of keeping it to myself. No one knows.”
“About the baby?”
“Well, it’s kind of hard to hide a baby when you’re six months pregnant. No one knows about where the baby came from. Everyone around here, all my neighbors and friends, sort of quietly assumed I went to a sperm bank.”
“And you sort of quietly didn’t correct them.”
“What’s your point?”
“No point. Getting it all straight.” So Molly, my-life-is-a-well-oiled-machine Molly, was single, pregnant and financially shaky. That would be all of it straight.
“So you were right,” Molly said. “Zach is a jerk.”
For some reason, Adam was missing the deep satisfaction he’d expected to have upon hopefully hearing those words.
“So,” Adam said, “what’s your plan for this? Molly Jackson has an answer to everything.”
A long pause. “I know. But my best answer is far from a sure thing.”
“What’s the plan?”
“Well, there’s this Dutch chemical company called ALCOP that’s ready to open up a big plant here in Rosewood in a couple of weeks. They’re looking for a consultant to implement their human resources needs.”
“That’s right up your alley.”
“I’ve got great experience, sterling references—including the firm who just fired me, by the way, because they actually did like me—and I know I’d be the best local person this chem company can find. And it will be about six times the size of any other firm I’ve done work for. It’s a yearlong commitment, so I can count on the money being good for at least that long.”
“What’s not the sure thing?”
“Well, see, I heard about ALCOP not too long ago, and I decided then not to go for it. I had that other big client and besides, I’ve heard that the company president, Pieter Tilberg, is notorious for not hiring women for key positions.”
“Isn’t that illegal?”
“Illegal or not, the glass ceiling hangs in too many places to count. That’s the way it is. That’s part of the reason why I struck out on my own in the first place.”
“You are woman. I hear you roaring.”
“Funny, Shibbs. So I figured, I’m doing fine, I don’t have the time, and besides, if this ALCOP guy’s got an issue with women, I can only imagine the issues he’d have with a single, pregnant one. But now—”
“Now you’ve got to take that chance?”
“I got fired at four o’clock. And I’ve now spent about five hours putting together a proposal,” she said. “And you know what? It’s flawless. Anyone would hire me. Even I would hire me. But when I walk in there, Tilberg won’t see my brain. He’ll see my big belly. And he won’t want to see it again. I’ll lose this chance, not because of my résumé but because of my private life.”
She broke down again, sobbing hard. “I’ve hardly even had a private life,” she managed to add.
Adam’s mind raced to take Molly-like control. “All right. You have to calm down. Freaking out is not useful. It’s not on the to-do list.”
Molly, a historical fan of lists, ceased her sobs a bit. When he could count to at least five between them, Adam said, “Did you get yourself an interview?”
“At the very last second,” Molly said shakily. “By the time I pulled myself together and made my decision, it was nearly six o’clock. I think I caught the HR director as she was leaving for the day. I hope I didn’t sound too desperate.”
“You’re not desperate.”
“The hell I’m not.”
“You’re not. Desperate people are people without resources. You have plenty of those. You have your brains, your résumé, your references…and me.”
“Oh, you, huh? You work for Gibraltar Foods, which has nothing to do with what I do. And besides, you don’t even care about work. You’re not much help to me right now. No offense.”
“Listen,” he said, “you’re a woman, and although in this day and age you could certainly change that, you don’t want to. And you’re pregnant, and that’s not changing, either. But one element of your situation is changeable, flexible. Masqueradeable.”
“I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about your being single. Why does anyone have to know that? Just during your big meeting, casually mention your devoted husband, Adam Shibbs.”
“What?” She pitched the word so high, she sounded like one of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
“Just tell the chem company honcho that you happen to be married. I’ll give you a ride from the interview and you can say your husband’s picking you up.”
“Adam, that’s not going to work. I appreciate the innovation behind the idea, but this place will undoubtedly do a background check. Then not only will I be exposed as single, but a big old liar on top of that.”
Adam blew a breath out from his bottom lip, and he felt the air on the tip of his nose. “So get married.”
Molly laughed an unamused, sharp laugh. “Oh, sure, no problem. Let me just run out right now and grab a man off the street.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Adam said, his heart beginning to pound a little faster even as his own words were falling out of his mouth. “I told you, you have resources, and I’m one of them.”
His heart was shocked at the decision his brain had made so hastily. Or, maybe his heart had made the decision without any brain input. Either way, Adam was not all together. He couldn’t be, or his ears wouldn’t have just heard his mouth say what it said.
There was an extended silence. Before Adam could use the empty time to question his own wisdom, before he could remind himself that Molly was precisely the kind
