tinkled sweetly from the music box. Melissa’s eyelids drooped.
“Well, I’ve always considered Adam an honorable man—”
“Ha! If he’d been honorable that night after Missy’s christening party, I wouldn’t be pregnant right now.”
Joy placed her hand on Blythe’s shoulder. “It takes two, you know. You were a willing participant in what happened that night.”
“Too willing!” Gritting her teeth together, Blythe huffed, then closed her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t marry Adam.” She rounded the corner of her work counter, removed her purse from the top and slid it onto a bottom shelf.
“I don’t think you should make such a hasty decision,” Joy said. “After all, you haven’t had time to think things through.”
“I don’t need any time to think about it. I’m not going to marry Adam. We’ve already made one stupid mistake. It would be ridiculous to make another one.”
“Why would marrying Adam be a stupid mistake?”
“How can you ask me that?” Picking up the stack of morning mail and a silver letter opener off her corner desk, Blythe ripped apart the first envelope. “You know how we feel about each other, how we’ve felt about each other ever since we met. He doesn’t approve of the type of woman I am and I certainly don’t approve of the type of man he is. In short, Adam Wyatt and I have nothing in common. We’d make each other miserable.”
“Well, I will admit you two always did seem to strike sparks off each other. Adam is one of the most old-fashioned guys I know and you’re certainly a modern woman. But y’all definitely have something in common now.”
“What?”
“A child you created together.”
“Oh, that.” Blythe sighed. “But I still can’t marry him. He’s already issuing me orders and we aren’t even engaged. I’ve spent my entire adult life steering clear of entanglements that could lead to marriage and slavery to some chest-beating Neanderthal. You understand why I can’t marry Adam, don’t you?”
“I understand your reasoning, and I agree that it’s usually a mistake to marry someone without love, but you are pregnant.”
“So?” Shrugging, Blythe opened another envelope, glanced at it and tossed it into the wastebasket. “Single women all across the country are having children alone. There’s no reason why I can’t do it. After all, I’m a mature woman of twenty-eight, the owner of a fairly successful business and my best friend will be at my side throughout the entire pregnancy. Right?”
“Yes, of course, but what about after the baby’s born?” Joy asked. “Craig and I share all the responsibilities of caring for Missy.”
“I can take care of a child without a husband.”
“Well, don’t forget that I’m only working here two days a week now. Who’s going to help you take care of the baby when you’re at work? You could bring her with you, I suppose, the way I do Missy right now, but doing that every day would be difficult. Could you afford good day care?”
“I’ll handle those problems when the time comes. And somehow I’ll figure out a solution.”
“You’re forgetting several important things.”
“What things?” Blythe asked.
“Remember where you live and who you are,” Joy said. “This isn’t New York or L.A. This is Decatur, Alabama. We’re living in the heart of the Bible Belt and upstanding citizens who patronize your florist shop don’t approve of unwed mothers.”
“I know.” Frowning, Blythe clicked her teeth and shook her head. “Adam has already pointed out that we have reputations to uphold and an innocent child’s future to consider.”
“Adam is the other important thing you’re forgetting. He’s going to want to be a part of the baby’s life. Just because you aren’t married to him, doesn’t eliminate his rights as the child’s father.”
“Just what are you advising me to do?” Blythe separated the bills from other business correspondence, wrapping a rubber band around each stack.
“Agree to a marriage in name only until after the baby’s born. Then get a divorce. Let Adam give the child his name and you two work out child support payments and visitation rights. If you and Adam can learn to get along, it will be the best possible gift the two of you could give your child.”
“That’s exactly the solution Adam suggested. But maybe we could work things out without getting married. If we get married, he’s going to want me to change, and I know I’ll want him to change. Each of us will try to make the other become what we want in a mate. Besides, I don’t know if it’s possible for Adam and me to get along.”
Joy smiled. “I think you and Adam have already proved that you can get along. At least for one night.”
“Joy!”
“And what’s wrong with people changing a little? I know that Adam tends to be a bit old-fashioned, but with some effort on your part, I’ll bet you can modernize his thinking.”
“I seriously doubt that.” Blythe picked up the two stacks of correspondence, handed one to Joy and carried the other toward the small office space at the back of the store.
Flipping through the mail, Joy followed Blythe. “If you’ve already made up your mind, I don’t understand why you agreed to have dinner with him.”
“I couldn’t think straight after he said he wanted to marry me. He took me off guard. I didn’t expect him to take the blame for what happened. It just never occurred to me that he really would want to be involved with the baby.”
Shaking her head, Joy sighted. “You really don’t know Adam at all, do you? Because he’s big, good-looking, very masculine and a real take-charge kind of guy he’s always reminded you of your stepfather. You never gave him a chance. Surely the night the two of you made love, you realized that Adam’s not like Raymond.”
Blythe tossed the stack of bills atop the desk beside the adding machine and computer printer. “I don’t think he’s just like Raymond. I know Adam would never verbally abuse his wife or dominate her so completely that she couldn’t think for herself, but—”
“But what?”
“But Adam and I are total opposites. He’d probably expect me to cook dinner every night and do his laundry and things like that. Marriage would be a mistake for us.”
“Are you sure?” Joy asked.
“I’m sure. There’s no way I’ll ever agree to marry Adam.”
“Blythe is pregnant, and you’re the father?” Craig Simpson’s eyes widened, his lips twitched and he coughed a couple of times trying to keep from laughing.
“What the hell’s so funny?” Adam paced around his office like a caged tiger. “I got a woman pregnant. And not just any woman, but Blythe Elliott.” Rolling his eyes heavenward, Adam shook his head. “The one woman on earth who hates my guts!”
“She must not have hated you the night y’all made love,” Craig said.
“I don’t know how she felt about me that night.” Adam raked his fingers through his thick, silver-streaked black hair. “I’ve gone over that night a thousand times in my mind. Even before Blythe’s revelation today, I’ve thought about what happened, trying to figure out why we wound up making love. One minute we were arguing, like we always do, then the next minute, a summer storm came up. She’d been crying a lot that day. I wanted to comfort her, and—”
“And the comforting got out of hand?”
“Something like that. It was as if we’d both become two different