all right.” He frowned. He always felt a little guilty about not being happier in his profession. “It’s a good living. And I’ve been able to help them out from time to time, pay them back for my education.”
She nodded. “That’s too bad. That you’re not happy, that is. My sister Savannah manages the store on the ranch, and she loves it. You can see it in her face when you walk in, she’s smiles from ear to ear. I might not be quite that open with my feelings, but I always wanted to work with Dad at Baron.”
“And you like Human Resources?”
“Sure. I like people. I like thinking about their personalities, strengths, weaknesses, how they interact with other people, seeing who’d make a good fit on a team. I think I get a good sense of things and it made me good at my job.”
“Made?”
“I’m not quite as hands-on as I used to be. Most of that is left to my manager and his staff.”
Chris nodded. “And now you’re looking at having to step into the driver’s seat.”
She raised her eyebrows in a “what are you going to do?” look. “It appears so. I guess the one good thing about it is that Dad should be back before the baby’s born.”
He hadn’t even thought to ask about a due date. A quick calculation in his mind put him at mid-October. “What is the official date, anyway?”
“October twelfth.”
An autumn baby. His parents would be thrilled.
She checked her watch. “I suppose I should get to the hospital.”
“I’ll get ready,” he suggested. “I don’t want to hold you up.”
She looked surprised. “I don’t expect you to hang around there again, you know. Yesterday you went way above and beyond.”
There she was, pushing him away again. “Wouldn’t it be easier to go with you, and then we can leave right from the hospital instead of backtracking?”
“People will get the wrong idea.”
He pursed his lips. “So what? Eventually they are going to know we had sex. You said it yourself. Showing up together makes it look like there was more to it than a one-nighter. Unless there’s another reason why you don’t want me around?”
She blushed.
“Is there another reason, Lizzie?”
“Like what?” She lifted her chin and he saw the spark of defiance in her eyes. He liked it. Liked her when she got a little fired up. She’d been this way before, too. A little on edge. Exciting.
He moved closer to her, saw her pupils widen and that’s when he knew. The cool, calm demeanor wasn’t completely real. Oh, he had no doubt that she wanted it to be, but it wasn’t. Another step put him directly in front of her, close enough he could smell the light floral scent of her shampoo, see the way her pulse beat heavily at her throat. Pounding the way his was pounding. The pull between them was still there, strong as ever.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“Shh,” he ordered, as he contemplated his next move.
Chris touched his lips to hers, testing, and felt a familiar jolt rush through him, zinging from his fingers through to his toes. What was it about this woman that fired his passion so completely? Yesterday there’d been too much to take in, too much information to process, but today was different. Today was slower. Less of a shock. And to his surprise, the taste of her lips was achingly familiar even though he’d only tasted them once before.
She opened to him a little, shyly at first, and he put his hand along the small of her back and drew her closer. Her arms lifted around his neck and he deepened the kiss by degrees until his tongue touched hers and the flame flickering inside him threatened to ignite completely. Reluctantly he pulled back, leaving his hands on her hips as the kiss broke off.
“What the hell?” she whispered, a furious tone in her voice. “That is not part of the plan!”
“We don’t even have a plan. Every time we go to talk about it, the subject changes.”
“Well, excuse me.” She wiped her hand across her lips. “I haven’t exactly been in this position before.”
“Well, neither have I! You’re the one who likes to have everything organized and tied up with a ribbon, aren’t you? And every time we get close to saying what we want, one of us backs away.”
She pursed her lips.
“Do you want to raise him or her alone, then?” he persisted. “And me completely out of the picture?”
“I don’t know!” She raised her voice, and he could see she was not in the calm control she longed for.
“That’s right. You don’t know. Neither do I. And this baby isn’t coming for several months yet. Why do we need to decide right now?”
“Because I...because...” She floundered, running a hand over her neat hair. “Because we should start as we mean to go on.”
“Says who? We barely know each other. Maybe we should work on that before making written-in-stone decisions.”
“I don’t see how kissing me fits into a...a custodial arrangement.”
“Lizzie,” he said quietly. “There was something between us because otherwise we wouldn’t have made this baby. If there’s still something between us, we should address it, don’t you think?”
Her gaze slid away. “I can’t think about this right now. My dad’s in the hospital. I’m going to have to manage the company while he’s out and I have to focus on that.”
“That and taking care of yourself,” he reminded her.
“Well, of course that!” She backed away from him. “You’re just mixing me up, Chris.”
He’d been thinking how he was dealing with an overload of information, but now he realized that Lizzie was dealing with even more. Her emotions were being pulled in several directions. Maybe she could only handle one thing at a time.
In which case she was right. Kissing her hadn’t been fair, even though it had been very enlightening. The spark was still there.
“Let’s go then, and leave the rest for another time.”
Her face softened with a sliver of gratitude and she reached for her purse and briefcase.
* * *
NO ONE SEEMED surprised to see Chris with Lizzie at the hospital waiting room. Savannah had come in early before opening the store for the Saturday crowd, and Carly had gone for coffee for everyone. Julieta and Alex were there already, Alex looking bored as he listlessly colored in a coloring book. The boys had gone off to wherever, not competing this weekend but not at the hospital either.
Конец
