Having Gabriel's Baby. Kristin Morgan

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СКАЧАТЬ in his hands, Gabriel Lafleur didn’t answer her. Finally she nudged him in the ribs with her elbow. “Lafleur, I need you to answer me. What does the note mean?”

      “Hell, if I know,” he grumbled, suddenly crumpling up the piece of paper in one hand and tossing it like a basketball toward a nearby trash can. It fell inside like a dead ringer, and he said, “Bingo. See, now we’re off the hook. It’s in the trash.”

      “Are you sure?” Joelle asked, still somewhat stunned from just awakening and finding Gabriel Lafleur in her hotel room, much less the rest of it. She sat down on the edge of the bed in the hopes of giving herself a moment to pull herself back together.

      “Look,” he said, turning toward her and placing his hands on his hips. Joelle found herself following his every move. He had such wide, sensuous-looking hands.

       Those hands had made love to her body last night.

       Over and over, again.

      She was breathless at the thought of it.

      Swallowing hard, Joelle flicked her eyes back up to his. “What were you saying?” she asked.

      “I was saying, surely you saw for yourself that piece of paper wasn’t anything legal. No minister or government official would’ve given us a handwritten note like that.”

      “I know that. So, what’s your point, Lafleur?” Joelle stated.

      “My point is, that piece of paper doesn’t prove anything. Certainly it doesn’t prove that we’re married.”

      “I understand perfectly. But who could’ve written it?”

      “I haven’t the slightest idea,” he replied. “Any person on the street, for all I know.”

      “Then, it wasn’t you.”

      “Me,” he said, sounding surprised. “No, of course not.”

      Then he narrowed his eyes. “Was it you?”

      “Dream on,” she replied, and for the first time since awakening that morning, she actually considered laughing.

      “Well, was it?” he asked, skeptically, and suddenly Joelle realized that the man was actually serious.

      “No,” she answered.

      “Well, in that case, we’re back to square one. We still don’t know what we did last night.”

      Suddenly, recalling something very critical in her plans for that day, Joelle gasped. “Oh, my God! What time is it?”

      Gabriel glanced over to where his wristwatch lay on a bedside table. “Almost eleven-thirty.”

      “Oh—my goodness. How could I be so dense? I must be losing it. My flight back home to San Diego leaves in less than an hour—and I’m not even dressed, yet.”

      She raced to where her luggage sat, all packed up and ready to go—thank goodness—and picked up the outfit folded on top that she planned to wear today. “Do me a favor,” she said. “Call a cab and have them waiting for me at the entrance to the hotel in ten minutes.” Within seconds of saying that, she was closing the bathroom door behind her.

      Minutes later she emerged, showered, dressed and ready to go. At first she thought that Gabriel Lafleur had skipped out on her and the whole messy ordeal— which she quickly decided would’ve probably been the best way to end this nightmare. But, unfortunately, though the weakening in her knees proved she actually felt otherwise, she saw him a second later, standing at the window with his back to her. He was now wearing the same dark gray pants he’d worn last night.

      Without comment, Joelle quickly gathered her personal effects that were still on top of the dresser and dumped them into her cosmetic bag. Then picking up a piece of her luggage in each hand, she cleared her throat in the hopes of getting his attention. Like he hadn’t already heard her rummaging around in the room. He turned around to face her with his hands in his pockets. “I’m leaving now,” she said.

      She saw him take in a deep breath. “Look, I don’t know what I’m supposed to say at this point.”

      “Then don’t say anything,” she replied. Her heart was galloping around in her chest as if it were a wild, caged stallion.

      A lopsided, sheepish grin slid up one side of his face. “But I feel like I should say something. I feel like I owe you that much.”

      “You don’t owe me anything, Lafleur. I’m a big girl.”

      “Somehow I feel that this is all my fault. I’m sorry.”

      “Look, it just happened, okay? So let’s be modern thinking adults about this and just get on with our lives.”

      “Hey, if you can live with it, then I sure can,” he replied. “It’s just you seemed to be upset earlier, so I was trying to make you feel better.”

      Joelle sighed deeply. Truthfully she didn’t know if she was ever going to be able to live with herself, again, but, at the moment, she saw that she had no other choice than to try. “Look, for my own peace of mind, once I get back home I plan to have my attorney look into this matter and see if he can come up with anything. If he does, then I’ll give him the okay to resolve whatever problem we may have created for ourselves.”

      Gabriel nodded his head. “That’s probably a good idea.” He walked to the bedside table where his wristwatch was, picked up a notepad and pencil and jotted something down. “Here,” he said a moment later, tearing off a sheet. “This is my telephone number just in case your attorney needs to get in touch with me.” He shrugged. “You can never tell.”

      Joelle hesitated only a second before taking the piece of paper from him and stuffing it inside a pocket of her purse. Then, pulling out one of her business cards, she gave it to him. “Just in case,” she said.

      “You never know,” Gabriel replied.

      “True,” she said, and for some reason she felt breathless. “I guess we just as soon make this as easy as possible on ourselves.”

      “I agree.”

      Joelle turned for the door.

      “Hey—Ames,” he said in a softer tone of voice. “Wait a minute.”

      Pivoting around to face him, she lifted her eyebrows in question.

      “What do you think? Did we actually get married?”

      The question startled her and, for a brief moment, Joelle had no idea how to answer it. But, at the same time, it immediately brought a few things into focus for her. For one thing, she wasn’t going to part from this man and have him worry that perhaps she would show up at his doorstep one day, saying they were husband and wife and that he owed her something. He didn’t owe her anything.

      Gabriel Lafleur didn’t know it, of course, but in her everyday life, she was a fully dedicated career woman and was quite capable of taking care of herself under any circumstances. “I—uh—no, I honestly don’t think we did.”

      “Yeah,” СКАЧАТЬ