“I have a question for you two,” Craig said when he placed his empty dessert plate back on the tray. “If you’re married, why doesn’t Callie wear a wedding band?”
Sitting beside Hunter on the love seat, she had just taken a sip of milk from the glass she’d brought with her from the kitchen and it was all she could do to keep from choking at his blunt question. Panic seized her. She’d been right. Craig knew they were only pretending. Now what were they going to do?
“She had to take her wedding ring off when her fingers started getting a little puffy,” Hunter said without missing a beat. He took her left hand in his and brought it to his lips to kiss her ring finger. “Once she has the baby, it will be right back where it belongs.”
A wave of tingling heat traveled up her arm, then spread throughout the rest of her body at the loving gesture. She was glad that Hunter had been able to think fast because at the moment she wasn’t sure she could think at all.
“When and where did you meet?” Craig asked.
Hunter held up his hand. “See that little scar on my palm? I had to go to the emergency room in Houston when I had a run-in with a fish hook. As soon as I saw Callie, I knew she was the woman for me.” Giving her a smile that made her insides feel as if they’d turned to warm pudding, he lightly kissed her cheek. “We were married a few days later and pregnant a few weeks after that.”
“Why the rush?” Craig asked, sounding more than a little suspicious.
“Once I see what I want, I don’t let it get away from me.” Hunter put his arm around her shoulders and held her close to his side. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to face facts, Culbertson. She’s with me now and I’m not about to let her or our baby go.”
Callie watched Craig. She knew him well enough to know that he wasn’t entirely convinced. There was a huge hole in their story, and although he hadn’t asked again why she’d failed to tell her mother about her marriage to Hunter, Callie knew it was on his mind. But gaining strength from the man holding her so possessively against him, she decided that if the matter came up again, she’d simply tell Craig that she didn’t have to explain herself to him or anyone else.
“Well, I suppose I should be going,” Craig said as he rose to his feet. “As always, your cooking was delicious, Callie.”
When Hunter stood, then helped her up from her saggy love seat, she began to believe they might have pulled off the ruse. Craig would be leaving town and, with any luck, she’d never have to see or hear from him again.
“Have an enjoyable trip back to Houston,” Hunter said as they all walked to the door.
Craig shook his head. “Oh, I’m not leaving the area for several more days. While you two were finishing dinner, I checked the phone book and found a little bed-and-breakfast just up the street.” His smirk made Callie want to scream with frustration. “I thought I’d stick around for a while and take in the sights.” He laughed as he opened the door. “It’s been my experience that you can learn a lot from talking to the locals in a town the size of Devil’s Fork.”
As Craig walked down the steps and out to his sleek red sports car, Callie felt like crying. How could her life have gotten so out of control in such a short time?
Turning to Hunter, she sighed heavily. “Any more bright ideas?”
He didn’t look any happier about the turn of events than she was. “The way I see it, we don’t have a whole lot of choice. I’m going to have to move in with you until that sorry excuse for a human being leaves town.”
Chapter Six
Two hours later, after helping Callie clean up the kitchen, Hunter found himself trying to fold his six-foot-three-inch frame into a comfortable sleeping position on her lumpy love seat. Muttering a word he reserved for extreme situations, he sat up, propped his elbows on his knees and cradled his head in his hands. What the hell had he gotten himself into? And why?
If he’d kept his mouth shut, he’d be sleeping on a fairly comfortable, albeit narrow, bed at the Life Medevac hangar instead of torturing himself on the most uncomfortable piece of furniture known to man. And he for damn sure wouldn’t be locked into playing house for the next week with a woman that he was already finding it all but impossible to keep his hands off.
But even as he castigated himself for getting involved, he knew he’d done the right thing. After meeting Culbertson and listening to Callie explain how he and his parents had used their money and influence to take the baby away from the first girl Craig had gotten pregnant, Hunter knew as sure as he knew his own name the Culbertsons wouldn’t think twice about trying to do the same thing to Callie.
Shaking his head, Hunter couldn’t believe how arrogant they were. What gave them the right to take a baby from his mother simply because Culbertson blood ran through the child’s veins? What kind of people thought that it automatically made the mother unfit just because their bank account dwarfed hers?
As he sat there thinking about how ruthless and selfish they were, he realized that if Emerald Larson had wanted to, she could have taken him and his brothers away from their mothers at any time. She certainly had more money and power than the Culbertsons ever dreamed of having and she would have had very little trouble gaining custody of her grandsons.
But instead of viewing the three of them as possessions, Emerald had cared enough to content herself with watching Hunter and his brothers grow up in pictures and P.I. reports in order to ensure they turned out to be as normal and well-adjusted as possible. And for the first time since learning the details of his parentage he began to appreciate the sacrifices that had been made by Emerald on his behalf.
Any lingering traces of anger he still carried from being denied the right to know who his father was dissipated. Although Hunter would always have a problem with any man walking away from a woman when she needed him most, he came to the conclusion that Emerald and her philandering son weren’t entirely responsible for the anger and confusion he’d grown up with.
It had been Marlene O’Banyon’s choice to agree to Emerald’s terms. And although Emerald hadn’t required that his mother remain single, Hunter sometimes wondered if she’d signed the confidentiality agreement secretly hoping that one day Owen Larson would come to his senses and return to Miami for her and Hunter. But Owen had never laid eyes on any of his children, nor had he seen their mothers again. And with his death in a boating accident somewhere in the Mediterranean eight months ago, it was never going to happen.