A Pregnant Proposal. Elizabeth Harbison

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СКАЧАТЬ things happen all the time. But not this time.” He stood and went to her, putting both hands on her shoulders. “You’re not going to lose this child. The Sedgewicks are not going to take the baby away from you.”

      She took a deep breath and placed a hand on her belly protectively. The baby didn’t move. She knew he wouldn’t. He—or she—always slept during her lunch hour. The baby wasn’t even born yet and she already knew more about her child than the Sedgewicks could ever know. She felt she knew the soul of the little person who tumbled around inside of her. She’d been given the job of loving and protecting him and that was just what she was going to do. Matt was right, the Sedgewicks were not going to take the child away from her.

      And they were going to get a tremendous battle if they tried.

      “Darn right they’re not going to take the baby,” she said determinedly. “Not while I have breath in my body.”

      “Good.” Matt nodded and gave her shoulders a final squeeze before taking his hands off. “That’s more like it.”

      Jen nodded. “I’ll just call Mr. Sedgewick and talk to him, make him see reason.”

      Matt snapped to attention. “Now, wait a minute, Jen. I’m not sure you should do that yourself. Better to hire a lawyer to do the talking so Sedgewick doesn’t take advantage of you.”

      “What do you mean?”

      Matt gave a half shrug. “Just that if you say one wrong thing he might jump on it and use it for his case.”

      “What could I say that he could use against me? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

      “No, you haven’t.” Matt’s voice was gentle but firm. “But if you get flustered—and he will be an expert at trying to make you feel that way—who knows what you might say?”

      Jen gave a laugh. “Think I might slip and make an arbitrary confession to smuggling or extortion?”

      Matt smiled, but his eyes remained fastened on hers. “Of course not. But people have been known to confess to things that weren’t true when the pressure was on them.”

      She shook her head. “Not me. The truth is on my side in this case.”

      “Sometimes that’s not enough.”

      She sighed. Matt could be right. On the other hand, maybe they were giving Dutch Sedgewick a lot more credit than he deserved. “Maybe he’s just a blowhard and the worst he can do is act the way he always has toward me—like I’m an irritating gnat flying in his face.” She waited a moment and added, “I promise this, if he maintains this suit, I’ll be a lot more trouble than a gnat.”

      Matt looked at her for a moment, then sat down, shaking his head. “You’re what my grandmother would have called a real pistol, you know that?”

      “This is a good thing?”

      “Sure. If you like giving fits to the people who care about you.”

      She bit her tongue before self-pity let her say that, apart from Susan and Matt, she felt like there were more people against her than for her. Of course, that was counting the messenger who had given her the papers and the kid at the coffee shop who she was sure was lying when he said they didn’t have any more chocolate macadamia biscotti.

      The baby moved, kicking Jen’s ribs, and her perspective came back to her in a rush. She no longer had the luxury of feeling sorry for herself, she had someone else to take care of now. Already her love for the baby took precedence over everything else in her life. Surely when the Sedgewicks saw that, they’d drop their suit.

      The telephone on Jen’s desk trilled.

      “Do you want me to have them hold your calls?” Matt asked, poised to take action.

      Jen shook her head. “It’s okay.” She picked up the phone. It was Leila, calling for Matt.

      With an apologetic smile, he took the phone and answered it. “I thought I told you to take messages,” he said into the receiver, then listened. “Oh. I see. Uh-huh.”

      Jen studied his profile as he talked. He was certainly handsome, she thought to herself. No wonder so many women were after him. She smiled to herself, remembering how he had once confided to Susan and herself that he was tired of shallow relationships, but that he didn’t want anything deeper. He’d rather be alone, he’d said, than play the games any longer. Privately she and Susan had agreed that a great guy was being wasted and that they should keep their eyes out for the perfect woman for him. Now, though she was loathe to admit it, she was glad they hadn’t succeeded. It felt nice to have him here for her, looking after her interests and reassuring her.

      “Sorry for the interruption,” he said, hanging up the phone. “It seems we just hired a mail-room clerk with a criminal past.”

      Jen raised an eyebrow, absently rubbing her hand across her belly. “So we’re an equal opportunity employer, what’s the problem?”

      “By criminal I mean two million bucks’ worth of mail fraud at a large accounting firm in Boston.” Matt shook his head. “He got off on a technicality.”

      “Ah.” She nodded. “I guess he didn’t mention that in his application.”

      “Nope.”

      She sighed and sat down heavily in her hard leather chair. “You’d better get down and take care of that, then.”

      “I hate to leave you alone with this right now.” He looked at her with so much concern, her chest tightened.

      But she didn’t want to be a burden to him, or to anyone. She waved him off with her hand. “Oh, I’ll be fine.”

      He didn’t look convinced. “How about dinner tonight?”

      “You don’t have to baby-sit me, Matt, honestly.” She looked into his eyes. “I’m really all right.”

      He put his hands up in surrender. “I believe you, I believe you. But I have selfish reasons for asking you to dinner. We still haven’t talked about the day care, and Kane’s breathing down my neck about it. I’d like to get your opinions and since we didn’t make lunch…”

      “Sold.” She was glad to have a good reason to accept because, the truth was, ever since he’d mentioned going out to lunch, she’d been hungry for a big juicy hamburger. Maybe she’d change it to a big juicy steak for dinner. The four doughnuts she’d had for lunch weren’t really very satisfying. “I usually leave around five-thirty, how about you? Should we go from here?”

      “Whatever you prefer, Jen, it’s your pick. After all, you’re the one doing me a favor.”

      In fact, she would have preferred to go home and get herself together first, maybe put on some makeup and a nicer outfit, but she didn’t want Matt to think she thought it was a date, so she said, “Great, then let’s go from here.”

      He gave a short nod. “I’ll come meet you here at five-thirty.”

      “Perfect.” She pushed her hair back off her face. “See you then.”

      He СКАЧАТЬ