As he explained what had recently happened in his life, telling Marian about how Casey and Mia had come to be living with him, she stood there looking at him as shocked as if he’d ridden a camel into the family home. Her brown hair swept to her shoulders in a smooth, turned-under style, and when she shook her head in disbelief, he saw that hair swing out, then settle back perfectly into place again.
He blew out a breath and turning, walked a few steps to the window overlooking a formal garden. Lines of hedges neatly trimmed, trees twisted into caricatures of what they should be and flowers so rigid they marched in line like an army battalion. Hell, even the rain seemed to be falling more neatly here than anywhere else.
Nothing relaxed or easygoing about the Cornice household. The interior was just as rigid and unforgiving as the gardens. Here, stately antiques reigned. Uncomfortable chairs, spindly tables and glass knickknacks that looked so fragile, it made a man uneasy just being in the room.
Jackson turned his head to look back at the woman he was supposed to marry and tried to remember why it had seemed like such a good idea at the time. But he couldn’t. Because looking at Marian with her designer clothes and her stick-figure body made him think about curvy, luscious Casey in her worn jeans and oversized T-shirts.
He must be losing his mind.
“Her name is Mia,” he said. Marian hadn’t been taking the news well, but then he hadn’t really expected her to. Why should she? “She’s ten months old, I have a picture if—”
Marian held up one perfectly manicured hand. “No. Thank you. I’m not interested in your illegitimate child.”
He bristled, fought down his temper and told himself she had every right to be pissed off. But if she took another dig at Mia, all bets were off.
He’d put off telling Marian about Mia for too long, he knew that. He should have been up front with her about the change in his life right from the beginning. But the truth was, he hadn’t been looking forward to this conversation for a couple of reasons. One being that he’d known how Marian would react—not that he could blame her, and secondly, he hadn’t wanted to admit even to himself that there was a part of his life that didn’t include Mia and Casey.
That was a dangerous path for a man like him. He’d never thought to get tied up in knots over anyone or anything. But there was no going back now.
“And you say the child and its mother—”
“Hermother—” Damned if Mia would be dismissed as an “it.”
“—are ensconced in your house?”
“They’re living there with me, yes.” He walked back to her and as he got closer, noticed the pinched tightness around her mouth. Was she just mad, or was she hurt? He’d rather not think about having hurt Marian. Hell, he’d never hurt any woman he’d been involved with. There was never a reason to go out of your way to bruise hearts. You went into a relationship, you had as much fun as you could together, then as two adults, you said goodbye. No hard feelings. No regrets.
Something slithered through his mind at that thought though and he wondered how parting from Casey was going to go. She was so deep into his blood, into his mind, she was the only woman he’d ever been with who refused to leave his thoughts. She haunted him day and night. At odd moments, her image would pop into his brain to tease him, taunt him, remind him just how badly he wanted her.
Like now, for instance.
He shut down that train of thought and told himself it wasn’t wise to deal with one woman while thinking about another one.
“I need some time with Mia—my daughter,” he said.
“I’ve missed too much already and I don’t want to miss any more. I have to have some time, to figure out how we fit into each other’s lives.”
“I see,” Marian said and walked slowly toward a sideboard where she poured herself a splash of brandy and then tossed it down her throat like medicine. “And the mother?”
“Well of course she moved in too, I couldn’t very well separate them, could I?” Frustrated now, because it seemed she was deliberately making this harder than it had to be, Jackson said, “It’s only for six months.”
“And you want us to wait to get married until they’re gone.”
Gone. Well, hell. He didn’t really want to think about that yet. How the hell could he live in that house, walk past Mia’s room and know she wasn’t in there? How would he be able to walk down that hall and not see Casey pinned up against the wall whimpering in ecstasy?
Damn, this was a mess. But, one problem at a time.
“Marian, I know we had an agreement—”
“Yes, we do,” she said, turning around to face him again, one long pale hand resting on the curved neck of the Baccarat crystal decanter. “One I have every intention of honoring. The question is, will you?”
That was the question, he supposed. He’d come here this afternoon fully intending to go through with the marriage merger—all he’d wanted to do was wait six months. Now, he wasn’t so sure. In fact, the longer he thought about it, the less inclined he was to honor the deal they’d made what now seemed like another lifetime ago. But he’d already thrown Marian a hardball this morning. Wasn’t one enough at the moment?
“We’ll talk about it again in six months,” he said smoothly, not exactly answering her.
She looked him dead in the eye and for a second there, Jackson was sure he was going to see her finally lose her temper. Finally see some real honest-to-God emotion coming from the woman. But true to form, she backed off, did a mental count to ten and smoothed herself out again.
“I’m not happy about this, Jackson.”
He nodded. “I can understand that. But there’s no way around the situation.” He pushed both hands into his slacks pockets and offered, “In fact, I’ll understand if you’d prefer to call the whole thing off.”
Something sparked in her eyes, but it was gone before he could identify it. “Of course not,” she said. “An agreement was reached and I’ll certainly do my part to honor it. As you said, we’ll discuss this again in six months.”
It would have been so much easier all the way around if she had simply ended their arrangement then and there. But maybe she wanted a little space to do it in her own way. And if that’s what she needed, Jackson would give it to her.
As for him, the relief that welled and rippled through his body at the thought of postponing a marriage to Marian Cornice was enough to tell him that when they had their next discussion, if she hadn’t ended their arrangement, he would.