“Would you like that?”
She threw herself at him. “When we went to church on Easter I asked God to send me a new daddy, and he did!”
Her small arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Her weight settled on his body. He hugged her back. With a fierceness that surprised him, he vowed to himself he would always keep this precious child safe. If that wasn’t love, it was the best he could do.
“So you’re okay with this?” Ashley asked. “You’re happy that I’m marrying Jeff?”
“Daddy,” Maggie said, planting a sticky kiss on his cheek. “You’re marrying Daddy.”
Tears filled Ashley’s eyes. She wrapped her arms around them both.
For the first time in many years, Jeff felt as if he was a part of something important and special. Daddy. The word felt both odd and right.
He shifted so he could reach his suit jacket, hanging behind him on the chair back. In the right outside pocket was a small box. He’d stopped to pick it up on his way home. Now he grabbed the box and held it out to Ashley.
Both females stared at the square of dark blue velvet.
“What is it?” Ashley asked.
“What do you think?”
She shrugged, then lightly touched the top of the box. “Maybe an engagement ring?”
“Got it in one.”
He was suddenly nervous. Should he have waited and asked her if it was all right to buy her a ring? Should he have taken her shopping with him? He’d actually just stopped to look when he’d seen the elegant design and had known right away that it was perfect for her.
“Open it,” he told her.
She took the box and did as he requested. Both Ashley and Maggie gasped as she drew out an emerald-cut diamond on a platinum band. Smaller baguette-cut diamonds were set into the band. Light caught the larger gem and made it glow.
“It’s gorgeous,” Ashley breathed.
“Do you really like it?”
She looked stunned for another second or two, then threw her arms around his neck and hugged him close. “Jeff, it’s so beautiful and way too expensive. You didn’t have to do this for me.”
“I wanted to.”
“Thank you. You’ve made me very happy.”
Her scent, the feel of her body, the pressure of her mouth on his were all familiar. They filled him with a confidence that he’d never felt before. In that moment he knew he could take on the world and win.
*
“Oh, Jeff.”
Ashley snuggled against him in his bed. She curled herself around him, resting her head on his shoulder and gazing up at her engagement ring.
“I still think you spent way too much money.”
“I don’t, and it’s my money. At least until we get married.”
She turned and looked at him. “No. It will always be your money. I want you to keep everything you made before the marriage separate. That way it’s not community property.”
He frowned. “Why would you want that?”
“Because I’m not marrying you for your money. I love you. But if I start asking for things or taking what’s yours, you’ll start to question me, and I don’t want that. Everything has happened so fast. Your last experience with marriage wasn’t exactly positive. I want this to be different. I want it to be forever. So I need you to trust me.”
He smoothed her hair off her face. “I trust you with my life,” he said. Didn’t she know that trusting or not trusting wasn’t the problem?
“Good. Then keep everything you have now in your own name and it will never be an issue between us. Besides, in a couple of years I’m going to be the one making the big bucks, and then you’ll be worried about me thinking you’re in it for the money.”
She grinned and he couldn’t help smiling in return. What twist of fate had brought this beautiful, giving woman into his life? How had he gotten so lucky as to have won her heart and that of her daughter?
“Speaking of my career, or the training thereof, I have finals in a couple of weeks.” She rested her hand on his chest and her chin on her hand. “I have to really buckle down and study, so I was thinking we could get married after that. Or did you want to wait longer?”
“I will marry you whenever you say,” he told her. “After finals works for me. What do you want to do?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Something small is fine with me. Maybe just a couple of friends with a justice of the peace and then we all go out to dinner?”
“What about a honeymoon?”
She arched her eyebrows. “What did you have in mind?”
“A couple of nights somewhere by ourselves. Maybe San Francisco. Then a week or so with Maggie.”
She sighed contently. “This is why I want to marry you. You’re such a great man, Jeff. Thoughtful and caring. It means a lot to me that you’re willing to bring Maggie.”
“I wouldn’t want to leave her behind.”
“I agree.” She hesitated, then ran her free hand through the hair on his chest. “Do you think we did the right thing, not telling her about the baby? I mean, there’s plenty of time. I won’t really be showing until I’m well into my fourth month.”
“The wedding is enough for her right now.”
“Okay. That’s what I thought, too.” She looked at him. “What about your family? Do you want to tell them about us? You’ve never said very much about them. Are you seriously estranged?”
His family? He hadn’t thought about them over the past few years. “No one got angry and stalked out,” he said, “if that’s what you’re asking. My visits made my folks uncomfortable so I stopped going.”
“Why?”
“For the same reason Nicole divorced me. I was different.”
“I bet they’d like to see you now,” she told him. “It’s been a long time and I’m sure they miss you. Maybe you could give them a second chance.”
He shrugged. He didn’t have an opinion one way or the other.
“You’re their son,” she persisted. “You matter. They love you.”
“Do they?” he asked, because he wasn’t sure. “What does that mean? What do you feel when you say you love me? How can you be sure?”
She laughed and rolled onto her back. “I’m sure because it’s written in the stars. Because I hear the sound of the ocean when we’re together, not to mention a choir of angels.”
“No. Seriously. What do you feel? How do you know?”
She sat up, leaning against the headboard and pulled the covers up over her bare breasts. Her humor faded and her eyes darkened. “You’re not joking? You really want to know what I feel when I say I love you?”
He nodded.
“Jeff?” She paused and licked her lips. “Why are you asking me that?”
Her voice sounded very small. He could see her pulse beating in her throat. As she watched him her heart rate increased and her skin paled.
He knew then that he’d made a huge mistake pursuing that line of questioning. He wished he could call back the words and talk about something else.
“You don’t love me,” Ashley breathed. Her hands tightened around the covers she held in front of herself. “Dear God, why didn’t I see it before? You don’t love me. You want to marry me because of the baby.”
“No,” he said quickly, even though it was true. “I care about you and Maggie very much. You’re both important to me. More important than anyone has been in a long time. Maybe ever. I want to keep you both close and take care of you. I want to be there for you, your daughter and our child. I want to learn to be a good husband and father.”
Tears filled her hazel eyes. “But you don’t love us.”
Deep inside of him something began to ache. He knew that if he told her the truth, he risked losing her. But he couldn’t lie.
“I don’t know how. I don’t know what love is. I feel something,” he said, touching his chest. “I want you. I miss you when we’re apart. I want the best for you, Maggie and the baby. Is that love?”
Ashley felt the tears on her cheek. She told herself to say something, to scream, to run, but she was immobilized by disbelief and shock. All her life she’d wanted only one thingto be loved by someone who would love her more than anything else in the world. Foolishly she’d given her heart to Jeff even knowing that he wasn’t likely to care about her that way. When he’d proposed, she’d allowed herself to believe that he was more than she’d imagined.
She thought she’d finally found everything she’d ever wanted in the world, but she’d been wrong. It was all just an illusion.
“I can’t,” she murmured, not sure what she was saying she couldn’t do. Stay? Marry him? Keep breathing?
Feeling returned to her limbsa tingling pain as if they’d been asleep for a long time. She forced herself to climb out of bed and reach for her robe. Her body ached and it was difficult for her to walk.
“Ashley, where are you going?”
“To my room. I have to think.” She had to figure out how everything had gone so terribly wrong.
*
Jeff lay in the darkness, listening to the silence in the house. Ashley had left him several hours before. While he knew what had gone wrong, he didn’t know how to fix the situation. Was he supposed to go after her? Should he try to explain? Except what was there to say?
She wanted a piece of his heart. He’d figured out that much. He would have offered all of it, had it been his to give. But that tender organ had long since died, leaving him only a hollow shell of a man. There had been no other way to survive the horrors of what he’d seen and experienced. He’d ruthlessly cut out any delicate feelings because they were dangerous. He’d had to become a machine to survive. Now he was in a situation that required him to be a tender man and he no longer remembered how.
He rose and walked to the window. The night sky was surprisingly clear. He studied the stars as if the answers could be found there. Cold seeped in through the glass. He shivered.
Suddenly the coldness came from within. It was thick and dark and froze him to the center of his being.
She would leave him now.
Jeff leaned his forehead against the cool glass and held in the cry of anguish. No, he thought. She couldn’t go. If she left, he would not survive. He could not. Without her he would turn into the robot of his nightmares. Without her he wouldn’t have a chance.
Hurrying, he left his room and found his way to hers. The light was off, but she wasn’t asleep. He could hear the soft sound of her weeping. Without saying anything, he climbed into her bed and pulled her close. She came to him willingly, holding him tight, pressing her cheek against his chest.
“Stay,” she whispered.
“I will. Just don’t leave me.”
He breathed in the scent of her, the heat of her, needing her to chase away the chill. But the ice lingered, fueled by her tears and his knowledge that nothing had been resolved.
Ť^ť
Three days later Ashley was just as hurt and confused as she’d been when she first realized that Jeff didn’t love her. What was she supposed to do? Stay with him? Marry him anyway, knowing that he didn’t love her? They were going to have a child together, which meant something to her. She thought it meant something to him. And Maggie adored him.
She pushed aside her accounting theory textbook and rose to her feet. With all the emotional conflict in her life, she was having a difficult time studying. Maybe a break would help.
She went in search of Jeff and Maggie. He’d offered to take care of her daughter for the evening, giving Ashley time to study. She’d appreciated the offer and had accepted. Not only so she could hit the books, but because she found it difficult to be with Jeff these days. She kept trying to figure out what he was thinking and feeling.
As far as she was concerned, the formula was simple. If he didn’t love her, she wasn’t staying. They could work out some kind of arrangement for their child later, but she wouldn’t be married to a man who didn’t love her. So why was she still here? What was she waiting for? Was it inertia, or something more? Was she stalling for time because she was hoping for a miracle, or did she really believe that Jeff’s feelings were deeper than he realized?
Ironically, while her life before Jeff had been more difficult financially, in other ways it had been a whole lot easier. Her choices had been simple. Now she found herself deciding one minute to stay because she couldn’t imagine life without Jeff, then the next minute, telling herself they would leave in the morning.
She walked into the family room. Jeff and Maggie sat on the floor, her daughter on his lap, his back pressed against the sofa. They were watching a cartoon movie based on the Tarzan legend.
Maggie was draped across Jeff, her head leaning trustingly against his chest. One of his big hands rested on her belly and she absently tugged on his fingers. On the floor lay a half-dozen dolls in various stages of dress, surrounded by scattered clothes. Obviously they’d been playing one of Maggie’s favorite games of pretend: Fashion Show.
Ashley couldn’t help smiling as she imagined Jeff fumbling with the miniature fastenings of the small but intricate clothing. Yet she knew without having been in the room that he’d been patient with Maggie, following her lead and making her feel special. She knew that he would have little interest in the Tarzan movie, yet he would watch it as if it was a matter of world peace. That next week he would willingly watch it again.
She leaned against the doorframe and folded her arms over her chest. She wanted answers. Ashley shook her head. No. She wanted a sure thing. She wanted to know that Jeff was the one. As if there were only one perfect person. She didn’t want to make a mistake; she didn’t want another loser in her life.
She wanted him to promise that he would love her forever. And when he couldn’t say the words, she wanted to leave him. But what about his actions? What about the fact that when it had really counted, he’d show up for both her and Maggie? What about every kind thing he’d done? What about how he’d taken her into his world, afraid it would drive her away, yet needing her to see the truth of what he did? What about him wanting to marry her because he’d made a baby with her?
He was, she realized, the most honorable man she’d ever known. How could she have doubted him?
Jeff might not know how to tell her how he felt but he showed her every day. And wasn’t that what mattered? Wasn’t it all about actions rather than any slick words? He might not know the state of his heart, but with every kindness, every moment of caring and patience, he demonstrated what he felt.