a secret. It had made perfect sense to both of them all along—after all, each time it happened was supposed to be the last time. And since Crystal hadn’t told either Mitch or Kelly about the baby, chances were the other couple was still in the dark about the two of them.
It was just too damned weird to try to explain to the family that he and Crys didn’t want to go out with each other, that they had nothing in common, didn’t want to get anything started when it was so clear it was going nowhere—and yet somehow they couldn’t help ending up naked together every time they saw each other.
He suggested, “Maybe we should wait until they get back from their trip to say anything about this.”
“Agreed,” Crystal said. “And I think I’ll wait to mention losing my job, too. After all, it’s their honeymoon. It’s a time that’s supposed to be all about them.”
Kelly and Mitch—recently reunited after years apart—were leaving the next day for two weeks on an island paradise somewhere east of Madagascar. Though they’d tied the knot a month earlier, it had taken Kelly several weeks to clear her calendar at work for the trip. Crystal would be staying at the house while the newlyweds were gone, looking after Tanner’s niece, DeDe. Tanner, whose job often took him away from Sacramento for days at a time, was supposed to be helping out Crystal whenever his schedule allowed.
Crystal stared glumly at the dark TV again. “Strange. For two weeks, all I’ve thought about is how I had to tell you. And now that I have, I feel…I don’t know. Limp. Numb. Like I don’t know what to do next.”
“It’s—” he almost said okay, but stopped himself just in time “—all right.”
She looked at him, forced a smile. “Just think. If I’d only kept my mouth shut, we could be having great sex right now, instead of sitting here on this futon not knowing what to say to each other.”
“I’m glad you told me,” he said gruffly.
Another silence fell between them. He heard her sigh. She stared across the room again as he considered the question of what to do next.
To Tanner, family was everything. And now this woman was having his baby. She wasn’t the woman he’d planned to settle down with. Whenever he thought of getting serious with a woman, which he’d always imagined would happen eventually, he’d pictured a quiet, steady kind of person at his side, a practical, thrifty woman—in short, a woman nothing like the one slumped next to him on the futon now.
Then again, he was thirty-one, and where was this ideal woman he’d always told himself he was looking for? Now and then over the years, he’d met women like the one he’d always told himself he wanted. He’d asked each of those admirable females out. They’d all bored him silly.
Crystal never bored him. Also, she was already more or less a part of his family. Not to mention the only woman he’d had on his mind—or in his bed—since she came rolling into town in that dusty red Camaro of hers two and a half months ago.
Most important, he had to think of the baby’s welfare. Yeah, he wanted his kid to have his name. What man wouldn’t want that? But even more than his name, Tanner wanted him to grow up in a real family, the kind he’d never had as a kid.
Crystal heaved a sigh. “Oh, well. It had to be done. You needed to know. And I’m glad I’ve finally told you.”
He stared at her profile, thinking that even in rippedout jeans and a red-and-white striped T-shirt she looked like a princess in some old-timey fairy tale. Her features were even and delicate, her skin that classic peaches and cream. And then there was all that gorgeous, curly hair. He liked to bury his face in it when they were making love, to wrap it around his fist….
She rolled her head his way again. “And one thing I really do want to make clear to you—I mean, I know how you are….”
He gave her the lifted eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? How’s that?”
“You’re a total traditionalist at heart.”
He already knew he wasn’t going to like whatever was coming next. “So what if I am?”
She reached across and put her hand on his arm, as if to steady him for what she was going to say next. And then she laid it on him. “I need you to understand, right now from the first, that marriage is not on the agenda.”
Should he have known that was coming? Probably. He lowered his arm out from under her touch. “So there’s an agenda, huh?”
“It’s only a figure of speech—meaning ‘in the plan.’ Marriage is not in the plan. I want us to learn to work together to make the best life we can for the baby. I’m hoping that over the months and years to come our…connection as single parents will evolve.”
Evolve? She wanted them to evolve? Like something that crawled up out of the ocean and eventually learned to stand on two legs? Though he had a fine poker face and used it at that moment, it irked him no end that she said ‘in the plan,’ as if there was only one plan—the plan, meaning her plan.
However, it was enough for the moment that she’d gotten the truth out of that beautiful mouth of hers. There would be plenty of time later to discuss the marriage issue. For now he said, in the same neutral tone he’d been using most of the evening, “Well, all right.”
“Great.” She straightened up and gave him a bright smile and a brisk nod, as if their single-parent future was all settled.
It wasn’t. Not by a long shot. True, the two of them were no match made in heaven. But still, maybe the marriage angle deserved at least a little consideration….
The shining black limousine was waiting at the curb in front of Kelly’s house when Crystal arrived the next morning at ten. The windows of the big car were tinted, so she couldn’t see the driver, but she knew there was one in there.
Mitch, an entrepreneur who owned companies in Dallas and in L.A., must have ordered the car to drive him and Kelly to the airport. He often used limos to get around, so the sight of it was no surprise.
Tanner’s car was there, too, parked in the driveway. Not surprising, either. Of course, he’d want to be there to wish the newlyweds a great trip.
Crystal pulled in next to the black Mustang. He’d been so great about everything last night, so gentle and sweet and accepting. And so agreeable, too.
Agreeable. She smiled to herself. It wasn’t a word she would have associated with the tall, dark and devastatingly sexy Tanner—until now. How wrong she had been.
She got out of the car and strolled up the front walk, enjoying the bright May sunshine, so warm on her back, admiring the red roses in bloom near the porch. Such a fine, fine day. And her life seemed to be shaping up. No, she didn’t have a job. But she would find one, soon. And Tanner knew about the baby.
Things could be worse.
Then a harried-looking Kelly pulled open the front door. “You’re here. Good.” Her smooth brows were drawn together in a distracted-looking frown.
“What’s going on?” Crystal stepped up into the entry hall.
“It’s DeDe.” Kelly shook her head. Deirdre was Mitch’s natural child, the result of his and Kelly’s high school love affair. But when Kelly had left town to live with her newfound brother, Mitch had broken off their relationship and disappeared—after which Kelly had discovered she was having his baby.
Ten years had passed before Kelly had found him again. Now Kelly had the man she’d never stopped loving. Mitch had the family he needed more than anything. And DeDe had her father, at last. Everything should have been perfect.
Kelly added softly, “She used to be the most levelheaded, easygoing kid around. But sometimes lately, I just don’t know….”
“Where is she?”
“In her room. Throwing one hell of a