Plans. For the first time since she’d risen this morning—and promptly tossed her cookies—she felt happy. She blinked back tears. “We’re going to have a baby.”
He cut his eyes toward her. “Appears so.”
“I need some time for it to soak in. Then we can start making decisions.” Like how she traveled to and from appointments and how much of her body he saw. “My work schedule is more flexible than yours. Let me know when you’re free next week, and I’ll be there.”
“Thanks. And I’ll have my accountant deposit money in your checking account tomorrow so you can put in your two weeks’ notice.”
She sat up bolt right. Surely he couldn’t have meant what she thought. “What did you say?”
“You already miscarried once.” He paused for a yield sign, calm-as-can-freaking-be, as if he hadn’t just ordered her to quit her job. “You need to take things easy.”
Stay cool. Try not to think about his jealousy of her boss in the past. They only had a few more yards until she could escape into the house. “That’s for the doctor to decide, not you. And I lost the first baby because of an ectopic pregnancy. We already know from the ultrasound that isn’t the case this time.”
“I have enough money—more than enough—so you don’t have to work.” He charged ahead with his plan as if she hadn’t spoken. “Why risk it?”
Flashbacks of that frightening miscarriage rolled through her head. How she and Sebastian had gone to the mountains for their honeymoon after eloping, both of them realizing their relationship was starting on shaky ground and hoping to cement their feelings with a getaway.
Instead, four days in, the excruciating pain and scary bleeding had started. Then she’d endured the interminably long drive down the mountain road to find a hospital. The surgeon had told her if they’d arrived an hour later, she could have hemorrhaged to death.
She understood full well how quickly things could go wrong.
Marianna gathered her portfolio off the floor mat. “This is the very reason I wanted to wait until next week to discuss anything with you.”
“Seven days to line up your arguments.”
“Seven days to shore up my defenses against being bullied.”
“You’re right.” He glanced over at her with a curt nod. “You shouldn’t be upset.”
“I’ll take that as an apology.”
He stayed silent beside her, slowing the car to turn onto her street. He never apologized. After arguments, he analyzed how they could have chosen their words differently. He left extravagant gifts. He bought her a day at the spa.
But he never said those three magic words: I am sorry.
Staring into the night sky, Marianna blinked fast against the moisture stinging again. Sebastian put the car into Park outside their brick home with white columns and leaned across the seat. He pulled her close, and she let herself rest against his chest even if she didn’t actually touch him back.
She sniffled, scrubbing her wrist over her damp eyes. “It’s just the hormones, understand?”
“Got it.” He gave her shoulders a quick squeeze then stepped out of the car.
She opened the passenger door, steeling her will to stop him at the steps. Marianna’s hip bumped the door closed and she turned only to slam into Sebastian standing stone still. All tenderness left his face as he stared at the front porch—where her boss, Ross Ward, waited in a rocking chair.
Four
B lood steaming, Sebastian resisted the urge—just barely—to launch up the steps and pitch Ross Ward off the porch on his Italian-jean-clad ass. The bastard apparently wasn’t wasting any time making his move on Marianna now that she was a free woman.
Boy, did Ward have a surprise coming his way.But not now. Marianna had been through enough drama for one day, so Sebastian reined himself in. Hell, a divorce, surprise pregnancy and decision to win her back rocked even him on his heels.
Sebastian pivoted slowly to face her again, sculpting control into his voice given her boss had been a sore subject between them in the past. “What’s he doing here?”
“I have no idea.” Marianna shrugged, hitching her portfolio under her arm and brushing by him toward their sprawling porch.
Ward shoved up from the white rocker, smoothing his casual jacket and tie. “What is he doing here?”
Sebastian had done his level best to be polite to the guy in the past. Her boss owned the interior decorator firm where she worked, after all. Ward handled the more masculine designs, making a name for himself as the decorator for sports stars across the Southeast. Marianna had been placed in charge of the homes for the Southern Living crowd.
He’d been okay with her boss at first, but over the years, he just couldn’t get past the sense that Ward harbored feelings for Marianna. He even seemed to schedule her buying trips around the few times Sebastian had free.
His instincts had been validated often enough in the courtroom that he did not doubt himself for a second when it came to Marianna’s boss.
Sebastian kept his hand on her shoulder as they walked along the decorative stepping stones winding around patches of flowers and a stone bird feeder. “Why am I here? I’m Marianna’s husband.”
“Ex-husband.” Ward lounged against the porch column with a proprietary air that set Sebastian’s teeth on edge. “I thought Marianna might need some cheering up after court.” He stroked his close-trimmed blond beard as he faced her. “I’ve made dinner reservations. If we leave now, we can make still make it.”
“Oh,” she responded, looking flustered for the first time since they’d stepped from the car, “thank you—”
A low bark sounded from inside the house, growing louder and louder until a thud sounded on the other side of the door. Buddy. Marianna hurried past, and Sebastian wanted to dispense of this poaching jerk and go about normal life—walking on the beach with Marianna and talking about their baby, while their dogs bounded through the surf. And yeah, he was being semi-delusional given the workload weighing down his briefcase since he’d been forced to take half a day off for handling the mess his personal life had become.
Sebastian stopped on the porch, topping Ward by at least two inches. “She’s already had supper.”
Hanging baskets of ferns creaked in the evening breeze as Ward glanced at the half-eaten hoagie in Marianna’s hand with ill-disguised disdain. “So I see.”
She placed the sandwich on the rocker and unlocked the front door. Buddy bounded out as she knelt to greet the pug-faced mutt. “Hey there, fella. Did you miss me? I missed you—yes, I did.”
Marianna adored that dog and by God, so did he. An image blindsided him of a little girl one day dressing Buddy up in a tutu, and damn, but the mental vision sucker punched him hard.
He was a father again.
The reality of it rolled over him fully for the first time in a day that had moved too fast to let him think. All his lawyerly impulses revved to maximum velocity. He had a case to put forward, a family to win back. Losing was not an option.
Marianna rubbed her face against the dog’s short fur, pitching her portfolio onto the hall floor, the long stairway up to the bedrooms beckoning. She reached to grab Buddy’s leash draped over the rocker.
Sebastian quirked a brow at Ward. “Looks to me like she’s settling in at home. Guess you’d better pull out your little black book and find someone else to share your grilled grouper.”
“Hell-O.” Marianna waved her hand between them, holding on to Buddy’s leash as the dog leapt toward Sebastian. “I’m here, and I can speak for myself.”
Ward stepped back from the bounding dog—all twenty-five pounds of “threatening” energy. “Of course you can. You’re a single woman now.”
Kneeling to scratch Buddy’s neck, Sebastian didn’t even bother holding back his smile over sharing this with Marianna. As much as they enjoyed their dogs, how much more awesome would it be when they saw their child for the first time? A connection that could never be broken.
Sebastian looked at her stomach, then over at Ward who was busy wiping dog drool off his Prada penny loafers. What would the guy think of Marianna’s pregnancy?
She jabbed her finger in the middle of Sebastian’s chest. “Don’t even think about saying it.”
He leaned over Buddy to whisper in her ear. “Shouldn’t your boss know?”
She hissed between gritted teeth, “When I’m good and ready. You would be wise to remember it’s in your best interest to stay in my good graces.”
He didn’t think for a minute that Marianna would keep his baby from him, but he wanted the whole package—wife and kid. This called for diplomacy on his part.
Ward looked from one to the other, his smugness faltering for the first time. “Was there some hitch in the proceedings?”
Marianna passed Buddy’s leash over to Sebastian and turned to Ward. “The divorce is official.” She stepped closer, a smile curving her soft lips. “Thank you for the dinner offer—that was thoughtful—but how about a rain check? I’m really tired.”
Concern for her health mixed with relief over Ward being given his walking papers. As she escorted Ward to his low-slung Jaguar, Sebastian looped the leash around his hand, remembering late-night walks on the beach, memorable, but not all that frequent now that he thought back.
Juggling his workload while winning Marianna over would be difficult, but then he’d always thrived on a challenge at work. And who needed sleep anyway?
The Jag’s growling engine drew Sebastian’s attention back to the manicured lawn and Marianna coming up the decorative stepping stones she’d picked out. She’d asked his opinion, but he left that sort of thing to her. She’d chosen well.
Marianna flattened a hand to a fat column. “Thank you for not saying anything about the baby. I’m not ready to tell the world yet. I need time for the news to settle in and some reassurance the pregnancy will go to term.”
“Understood.” The thought of her miscarrying again—the hell of her almost hemorrhaging to death all those years ago—clenched through him. And he refused to think of the daughter they’d lost a few short months ago. He couldn’t even bring himself to think her name with the fresh slice those two syllables would bring.
Marianna scraped a fingernail along a smudge on the pillar with undue concentration. “Would you please hold off on telling your family?”
“I think it’s something we should do together. But whenever you’re ready.” It was an easy enough concession, especially since his goal was keeping her even-keeled.
Confusion shadowed through her eyes in the dim porch light. “I can’t believe how reasonable you’re being about all this. That means a lot to me.”
“Your peace of mind is my number one priority.”
She looked down and away. “Of course. The baby’s wellbeing comes first.”
He skimmed knuckles along her arm. “I still care about you, too.” And he meant it. He wanted her. Even though she seemed to have some pie-in-the-sky idea of what he should be able to give her, they had made some amazing memories together. That and their baby would be enough this time. It had to be. “It’s impossible not to care after nine years of marriage.”