Authors: Susan Mallery
The girl made an attempt to smile. “It's me. Emily.”
“Okay.”
“Emily. We met a couple of months ago at Jo's Bar. You bought me a drink. Well, more than one. Then we came back here⦔ Emily glanced at Charity. “Who are you?”
“His date.”
Emily looked startled for a second, then squared her shoulders. “Whatever. This is private. Maybe you should come back later.”
“Not a chance,” Josh said, sounding certain.
Charity did her best to keep from racing to the worst conclusion.
“Why don't you both come in?” Josh said.
Emily pushed past him and entered the suite. Charity hesitated.
He held out his hand, his gaze steady. “It's not what you think.”
She was remembering him telling her how long it
had been since he'd been intimate with anyone. At the time, she'd believed him. Did she now? Did she go with the evidence, or trust her gut? Because right now her gut was saying that Josh was someone special. Someone she wanted to get to know better.
She put her hand in his. He pulled her close.
“Thank you,” he murmured in her ear, then led her into the suite.
Emily stood behind the sofa. She looked less certain and a whole lot younger. Her hair fell in dark curls. Her eyes were wide and carefully made-up.
“Are you sure you want her here?” Emily asked, looking only at Josh.
“Yes.”
“You'll be sorry.”
“A risk I'm willing to take.”
Emily drew in a breath and tossed her head. “I'm pregnant.”
Charity pulled back her hand. Josh didn't let it go.
Her mind whirled and spun. Pregnant? Meaning she really
had
had sex with Josh?
“I've never slept with you,” Josh said calmly.
“You were drunk but I didn't think you were that drunk.” Emily's large eyes filled with tears. “I can't believe you don't remember. You do it with everyone. I know that. But that night meant something to me and now I'm pregnant.”
The tears began to fall in earnest. “I was supposed to go to college in the fall. How can that happen now?
This is your baby. You need to take responsibility for it.”
Charity felt sick to her stomach. She jerked her hand free and was grateful Emily had shown up before dinner. If she'd eaten a big meal, she would be throwing up right about now.
“How far along are you?” he asked.
“S-seven weeks.”
“Do you remember the date we had our special night together?”
There was a hint of annoyance in his voice. Not concern or worry. He obviously didn't believe Emily. Josh was a lot of things, but he wasn't irresponsible. She knew that much. So if he was certain the baby wasn't his, then she would guess he hadn't been with Emily at all.
She drew in a breath and reminded herself she was going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
“It was a Tuesday,” Emily said, still crying.
Josh folded his arms across his chest. “Here's what we're going to do. The three of us will walk downstairs to the gift shop where we'll buy a pregnancy test. Then you and Charity are going to come back here where you'll pee on the stick.” He narrowed his gaze. “With Charity watching.”
“What?” Emily demanded.
“I want confirmation that you're the one doing the peeing.” He glanced at Charity. “To make sure she's the one who's pregnant. I had a woman do this a few years ago. She came back with a positive pregnancy
test, but it turned out she'd brought her friend's urine in a container. The friend was pregnant.”
“You've been through this before?”
Weariness invaded his eyes. “You have no idea.”
Any lingering doubt faded. She moved next to him and put her hand on his back. “Let's go get the test.”
“I'm not peeing in front of her,” Emily said.
“Would you rather pee in front of me?” Josh asked.
“Fine.” Emily marched past them and out the door.
They all walked to the elevator and rode down. The three of them entered the gift store where the clerk, a woman in her thirties, took one look at Emily and rolled her eyes.
“Hi, Josh,” she said.
“Lisa. We need a pregnancy test. Please put it on my bill.”
“Sure thing.”
Lisa turned around and studied the collection of sundries. She grabbed a box and passed it to Josh.
They made the return trip to the third floor and walked back into Josh's suite. He handed the pregnancy test to Charity. “Do I know how to show you a good time or what?”
She took the test.
Emily glared at them both. “I'm not doing this.”
He shrugged. “Then I have nothing to say to you. Come back when the baby's born and we'll do a DNA test.”
Emily's determined expression crumbled. Tears
filled her eyes, then began to pour down her cheeks. She dropped to the sofa and covered her face with her hands.
“I'm sorry,” she said with a sob. “I'm sorry.” She looked up. Her makeup stained her skin, making her look like a little girl. “You win. I didn't sleep with you. I'm not pregnant.”
While Charity wasn't exactly surprised, everything about the moment was still surreal.
“What do you need the money for?” Josh asked.
Emily sniffed. “College. My dad took off years ago and I have two younger brothers. Mom does the best she can, but there's nothing left over. I have a partial scholarship. Enough to pay for tuition, but I need living expenses, too.”
“You thought I'd be an easy mark?” Josh asked, sounding more conversational than angry.
“Everybody says you've, you know, been with a lot of girls. I figured I could pretend and you'd pay me off.” She glanced down at her hands. “It was pretty stupid, huh?”
“It's not a moment you're going to remember with pride,” he said. “What's your major?”
Emily glanced up, frowning. “What do you mean?”
“What were you going to study in college?”
“Oh. Nursing. I want to be an RN. Pediatrics.” She smiled. “I like kids.”
“Have you looked at grants?” he asked.
“A couple. It's confusing. I really don't want to get a bunch of loans, if I don't have to.”
“You take the SATs yet?”
“Uh-huh.” She smiled again. “625 on English and 630 on Math.”
“Impressive.” He was silent for a minute. “After school on Monday, I want you to go to my office. You know where it is?”
“Sure.”
“You're going to talk to a lady named Eddie. She's my assistant.” He hesitated. “She sounds a lot meaner than she is, so don't let her scare you off. She'll help you with the grants. As for the rest of it, you can work for me this summer. Part-time. I'll pay you minimum wage, if you want. Or I won't pay you anything, but I'll put away twenty dollars for every hour you work. At the end of the summer, I'll send that money to the college of your choice. But if you start and then quit, you get nothing.”
Emily's eyes widened. “You're really going to help me, even though I lied to you?”
“You have to do the work. If you'll see it through, I'll know you've learned your lesson.”
Charity felt as surprised as Emily looked. She'd figured Josh would lecture the girl, then let her go. Instead he'd offered her a way to get everything she wanted, while still having to be responsible and show initiative.
Emily stood, rushed to Josh and hugged him. Then
she stepped back. “I'll be there,” she promised. “I'll do whatever you say. I swear. I'm so sorry.” She turned to Charity. “I am sorry. I was desperate and that's not an excuse. Please don't be mad at him.”
“I'm not,” Charity told her.
“Thank you,” Emily said again. She hurried to the door and let herself out.
Josh walked over to a small cabinet by the wall, pulled out a bottle of Scotch.
“Want some?” he asked.
“I'll wait and have wine with dinner.”
He poured himself a glass, then set down the bottle and took a long drink. “Welcome to my world.”
“Does that happen a lot?”
“Every now and then, in different forms. People get desperate, I'm an easy target.” He looked at her over the glass. “You know I didn't sleep with her, right?”
“Of course. I knew it before she confessed everything.”
He put down the glass. “How?”
“You told me there hadn't been anyone for a while and I believed you. Plus, she's not really your type.”
He crossed to her and put his hands on her waist. “What's my type?”
“I'm not sure exactly, but I'm confident you're not into girls still in high school.”
“You know me well.”
He kissed her.
As his mouth claimed hers, she realized that tonight
she knew him a little better than she had before. He could have simply thrown Emily out after her confession. There was no reason for him to help a girl he didn't know who'd tried to blackmail him. Josh was a complicated man. He was also someone she liked. A lot.
The thought terrified her. Not only did she have to worry about the stupidity of falling for a man like him, she had her own hideous track record looming. Still, it was too late to run for cover now.
He drew back and smiled at her. “How hungry are you?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him. “Dinner can wait.”
“That's my girl.”
* * *
J
OSH WARMED UP WITH
the high school team. They rode slowly for a couple of miles, mostly talking and laughing without paying attention to anything beyond getting ready for the real workout.
Josh didn't listen to the conversation. He couldn't. Every bit of his attention, every ounce of self-control, was focused on not freaking out like a kid at a monster movie.
The students rode in a pack, which wasn't unusual. What made the event incredibly different for Josh was the fact that he was part of the pack. Not in it, exactly, more on the outside, but still riding with the others. At least he was doing it.
Maybe the slow pace helped. There was no sense of being out of control. He knew nothing bad was going to happen. At this speed, the worst result of a fall would be a skinned knee or elbow.
One of the students maneuvered his bike closer to Josh's. The boy, tall but skinny with that awkward, lanky look of an adolescent who hasn't figured out what to do with his new body, smiled tentatively.
Josh smiled back. “Brandon, right?”
The kid nodded. “I can't believe you're riding with us. I'm on a loop with some other guys who ride around the country. They think I'm lying.”
“Then you should bring your camera next time and we'll take pictures to prove it.”
“You'd do that?”
“Sure. For a hundred bucks a pop.”
Brandon's mouth dropped open.
Josh laughed. “I'm kidding. Yes, I'll take pictures with you and the other guys. You can load them on your Facebook page.”
“Sweet.” Brandon glanced at him, then away.
Josh wondered if he had more he wanted to say.
The pace picked up a little. Josh easily kept up with everyone.
“You, um, work out, right?” Brandon asked.
“Sure.”
“Coach has me doing some weight lifting, but I'm not⦔ He looked around at the other guys, as if
judging how many of them could hear. “I need to put on some muscle.”
“How old are you?” Josh asked.
“I'll be seventeen in three months.” Brandon sounded excited by the fact.
Josh tried to remember the last time he'd been thrilled to be getting older. It had been a while.
“In the next couple of years, you'll start to put on some serious muscle,” he told the teen. “Don't push too hard on the weight training until you're done growing. A lot of guys do that, but what they don't realize is all that muscle keeps the bones from growing as much as they should. They can lose a couple of inches of height that way.”
“I'm already six feet,” Brandon told him. “But my dad says the men in our family stop growing early.”
“When you've stabilized your height, you'll start picking up muscle. Don't forget there are more ways to get strong than just lifting weights. Off-season riding is all about conditioning. This winter you should ride inside a few times a week. Alternate between high rpm workouts and low rpm workouts. High-cadence workouts help you learn to contract and relax your muscles quickly. You'll move in the pack better and be able to dig deep for a sprint. Low-cadence workouts on a high gear build muscle.”
Josh grabbed his water bottle and took a drink. “You also need to work on your whole body. Use the winter months for different kinds of sports. Skiing is
great. Take a yoga class once a week. You'll stretch your muscles, improve your balance and it's a great way to meet girls.”
Brandon laughed. “Yoga?”
“I'm serious. It will help with your riding and girls love a cyclist's ass.”
Brandon's cheeks turned red. “Good to know,” he mumbled.
Josh held in a chuckle.
One of the other guys dropped back to join Brandon and asked Josh his opinion on a bike he was thinking of buying. They discussed equipment until Coach Green drove up and blew his whistle.
Conversation immediately stopped as the guys rode faster. The pack spread out a little as they turned onto a mountain road and headed straight up. Josh stayed on the left rear, watching the other riders. But this time, instead of feeling the panic, he noted their technique. One guy jerked his bike back and forth, wasting energy and adding distance. Brandon was an intense rider, but he was late with his gears, taxing himself more than necessary. Most of the other riders did the same.
Without thinking he yelled, “Everybody stop. Stop where you are.”
The guys looked at each other before slowing to a stop. They straddled their bikes and looked at him. He pointed at the teens one by one and gave each of them a critique. When necessary, he demonstrated the wrong way, then the right way.