her guardedly, he set a plate on the table. She grabbed a piece of apple and began to munch noisily as she admired his handiwork. He’d done rather a good job with the food actually.
Some of her anxiety drained away. It was suddenly too easy to remember why she’d fallen for Jake that night and gotten herself into this mess. Her father had confided to her that he was in terrible trouble, so she’d been worried even before Logan had disappeared with Cici at the party.
Then Jake had appeared, insisting he’d take care of her. He’d been so warm and attentive, and soon they’d been able to talk about anything. In no time she’d found herself having fun just drinking coffee with him and laughing at his stories about his adventures in the wild. Unfortunately, she’d confided her concerns about her father.
Jake place a fork, knife and napkin on the table and sat down across from her. His chocolate-dark hair fell across his brow and temple. He was so close, and he looked so sexy as he watched too intently.
She set her apple sliver down and avoided his gaze. But his having taken trouble with the plate pleased her—too much. Why did she always read more into small kindnesses than she should?
It was a plate of food, that was all. He’d fed Gus, hadn’t he? He didn’t like Gus, did he?
“Eat,” Jake said gently. “A single bite won’t do you much good.”
She thought about the baby that they might be having together and blushed. How to tell him?
“How can I, with you watching me?”
No sooner did he stand up than his phone rang.
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s my secretary. I left things in a mess. I’d better take this.”
He stepped into the hall and pulled the door shut.
After that Alicia could only catch bits and pieces of his conversation.
“Yes, I’m coming back—
“How can you think I could have forgotten them—
“No, she hasn’t told me why, not that this is any of your business—
“Damn it. That’s what I’m trying to determine—
“Pregnant? I suggest you get your mind out of the gutter and focus on your work instead of my personal affairs—which, by the way, are none of your business ….”
Pregnant.
The woman was an oracle.
Her appetite gone in the space of a heartbeat, Alicia knew she had to tell him the truth, and fast.
Thankfully, he was much too annoyed at his secretary to even glance at her as he strode back in.
“You’ve barely touched your food. Why?” he demanded, his voice colder as he set his phone down.
“Bad news, huh?”
“I have a life. Not that you probably give a damn what I was doing before the cops called me about you.”
“Try me.”
“I was just about to fire a lot of hardworking people, people who really need their jobs.”
“And your secretary thinks it’s all my fault.”
So many people blamed her for what her father had supposedly done. Some believed he’d stashed a fortune in a secret, offshore account in her name.
Her father said he was innocent and she wanted to believe him. Not that it was easy when everybody else thought he was guilty. And what did it matter whether he was innocent or not when her own bank accounts here in New Orleans and her credit cards were frozen? When two days ago Sam, her editor in chief, had caved in to mounting pressure to fire her from the editorial/writer job that she’d dearly loved. She had no money, no job, no reputation and no future. And four home pregnancy tests had been positive.
His anger crackled between them. “People distrust me now. Whatever I think about who’s to blame, I need to get back to the office. So, what do you say we cut to the chase? Why are you here?”
“You have an incredibly smart secretary.”
“What the hell does she have to do with anything?”
“I think I’m pregnant.”
He looked so dumbstruck, she truly felt sorry for him.
“What? No way!”
Three
His legs spread apart, Jake towered over Alicia as she silently hunched lower at his kitchen table. “Would you kindly repeat that.”
“You heard me.”
“Did you say you think … you’re pregnant. You don’t know? Why would you come here before you were sure?”
His glowering made her squirm uneasily. “I took four pregnancy tests, and they were all positive. I can’t eat. And I fainted, didn’t I? I’ve been nauseated the last two mornings. My period’s late. I could go on with the symptoms. Did I tell you I really like pickles right now? What do you think all that adds up to?”
A sledgehammer was pounding in his brain.
“Plus, because of you the feds kicked me out of my apartment, and I have nowhere to stay.”
“Have you had your condition confirmed by a doctor?” he asked.
She grabbed another sliver of apple. Shaking her head, she bit into it. “Not yet, but the way things have been going, I’d bet my miserable life that we’re probably pregnant.”
“We …”
“We!”
“Okay, but you could still be wrong about … us.” He looked sick to be using the plural pronoun.
“Right …. Four pregnancy tests can definitely be wrong on planet Earth. Anything in our magical realm is possible,” she said dully.
“Could be a bad batch.”
Shaking her head at him, she decided to try the white cheese he’d put out. In between bouts of nausea, she had a voracious appetite. What she really wanted was a dill pickle. Not that she was about to ask for one.
His face was hard and set as he watched her. “And you’re sure that if you are …”
Beneath his critical gaze, she lost her craving as a strange panic welled up inside her. She’d told him she couldn’t eat with him staring at her like that, but his mood was so bitter she thought maybe now wasn’t a good time to nag, so she laid the piece of cheese back on the platter.
“What? What is it? Why are you scowling at me like that?” she said. “What have I done now?”
He
