woman stood writing out a check at the receptionist’s counter, several toddlers clinging to her knees. Another patient, a white-haired lady who looked like she could have been in her early eighties, sat flipping through a women’s magazine. She glanced up and smiled as she observed Lanie’s condition.
After the mother and toddlers left, Lanie spoke to the receptionist while Garrett sat down. He noticed how, from the back, Lanie didn’t even look pregnant. The lines of her figure were slim as a teenager’s—long legs, slender hips, fragile-looking shoulders.
When she’d looked at him with pain, her eyes so huge and vulnerable, Garrett had wanted to just wrap her up somehow and promise her everything would be all right. It was a reaction that made no sense. Garrett crossed his arms and stared at Lanie as she came toward him and settled in the empty seat beside him.
“It’ll be just a minute,” she said.
“How are you feeling?” The one thing he was sure she wasn’t faking was the pain. The terror on her face back at the house had been real.
“I’m fine. No more contractions.” She smiled shakily, and Garrets realized two things. One, that she was a lot more relieved to be at the doctor’s office than she’d been letting on.
And two, that she had the smile of an angel. Achingly vulnerable. Completely kissable.
Garrett forgot for a second where they were or that Lanie was eight months pregnant. All he could think was that he wanted to kiss her, right then, right there. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d wanted to kiss a woman this badly. It was insane.
Why did she have this effect on him? Was this the effect she’d had on Ben? Did the woman weave some sort of magic spell?
She picked up a magazine from the table on the other side of her and began perusing the table of contents. Garrett leaned back, blankly studying the painting of a mother and child in a field of brilliant bluebonnets on the wall opposite them.
Bewitchment would certainly explain the irrational behavior that had characterized the last months of Ben’s life. Ben had given up everything—his position in his father’s company, his home, wealth, even his very place in the Blakemore family. All for a pretty little innkeeper he’d rear-ended at a traffic light and married a month later—against his father’s orders.
Walter had cut Ben off in an effort to bring his son to his senses. Unfortunately there hadn’t been time. An aneurysm had claimed Ben’s life within six months of the marriage. He’d died without ever speaking to his father again. Or to Garrett.
It was still hard for Garrett to believe Ben was gone. Ben had been so full of life.
And he’d been young—even naive, perhaps. He could have been easy prey for a con artist
Garrett snapped his gaze to Lanie, sitting quietly beside him. She was no sorceress, he reminded himself fiercely. This was no magic spell she weaved. She was a con artist, plain and simple. The shocked innocence she’d put on when he’d broached the testing of the baby was part of her act. If the baby wasn’t Ben’s, if all she’d ever wanted from the second she’d latched on to Ben was a piece of the Blakemore fortune, she was hardly going to admit it right off the bat. He couldn’t let big eyes and a sweet smile deter him from his purpose.
“Lanie Blakemore?” the nurse called.
Lanie stood, then disappeared through the door into the inner office.
Garrett stared determinedly out the narrow window, watching the occasional car pass outside the doctor’s office. He tried to think about a land development company in New York he’d been considering buying for the Blakemore Corporation. He tried to think about his upcoming trip to Japan to consult on an overseas merger.
But no matter what he did, his mind kept drifting back to Lanie.
What if he was wrong, what if Walter was wrong? What if Lanie was innocent?
And then he had to wonder if she was really a sorceress, after all.
After what seemed like an eternity, he checked his watch, frustrated. Where was she? Was she really in labor? What was going on? He wanted to pace, but the idea sounded too corny, so he stayed put.
“Is this your first?”
Garrett looked up. The elderly lady across the waiting room watched him. Her cheeks were pink and lined, her eyes bright with curiosity.
“Excuse me?”
“You and your wife must be very excited. It looks like that baby will be here soon.” She smiled.
His wife?
Garrett stared at the elderly woman. It took him a full minute to realize she was actually talking about him and Lanie.
How would he feel if Lanie were his wife and she was having his baby? Proud was the first word that popped into Garrett’s mind.
Then he thought about Vanessa. He and Vanessa had discussed having children, once or twice. That was as far as things had gotten.
That was as far as their marriage had gotten before Garrett had figured out that he’d been the biggest chump on planet Earth. Nothing like finding your wife in bed with another man to drive home the fact that trust was for idiots.
He wasn’t going to make that mistake again. Not with anybody. And for sure not with Lanie. She might have eyes like a newborn foal’s, but Garrett wasn’t going to be taken in that easily.
“That’s not my wife,” Garrett said suddenly, sharply. “In fact, I barely know her.” A fact he’d be well advised to remember, he added to himself.
The older woman looked startled.
Garret picked up a newspaper from the table next to him and held it in front of his face, discouraging any further communication. He struggled to concentrate on the black-and-white print. And he wondered why he hadn’t told Walter to send his sixty-year-old, stuffed-shirt personal attorney, Richard Houseman, on this little mission to Deer Creek.
“Now, remember, rest tonight, Lanie. And try not to worry.”
Lanie thanked the nurse as she slipped through the door between the inner and outer offices. Her gaze went straight to Garrett. He folded up the newspaper he held and dropped it on the table, standing as she approached.
“Are you all right?” he asked immediately.
“I’m fine.” Really, she wasn’t. She was worried sick. The examination’s conclusion was uncertain. Her pains had been erratic and had emanated from her lower abdomen rather than her back, leading Dr. Furley to suspect it was merely false labor. However, he had also reminded her that everyone’s experience was different, and she could well be exhibiting very early labor, after all. Only time would tell.
Dr. Fursley had reassured her that the baby was healthy and big enough to be born, and had performed another sonogram to reassure her. Still, Patty wouldn’t be back until Sunday night. Lanie was scared to death of going through labor without her coach.
“You’re sure you’re fine?” Garrett probed. He looked suspicious, as if he didn’t quite believe her.
“Yes,
