“Neither would I,” Becki said, rising. “Except you’re not getting it,” she added, nudging Savannah back down to her chair. “Mandi and I will get the drinks.”
“Yeah, and Andi and I will get out the cards,” Lindsay said, as she rose from the sofa. She looked at Ethan. “You do play poker?”
“I play poker,” Ethan said cautiously.
“Good,” Andi said, more or less directing everybody to a game table in the back of the room.
But when Andi and Lindsay were out of hearing distance, Savannah stopped Ethan by placing her fingers on his forearm. “You don’t have to play. This is just how we amuse ourselves since Thurmont’s not exactly a bustling metropolis.”
“I don’t mind,” Ethan said, and realized that he didn’t. Wacky thoughts were running through his mind. He had just butted heads with four women who should be thanking him for coming up with a plan that protected everybody, but he almost didn’t care. The fierce loyalty Savannah inspired touched Ethan because he knew it proved something. Savannah Groggin was a genuinely good woman.
“Ethan?”
“Yes?” he said, then, forced out of his reverie, saw Andi was losing patience with waiting for him to accept the cards from her. Through the course of his musings, the sodas had been distributed, and everybody was waiting for him to deal.
“Sorry.” He took the cards and began to shuffle, but he couldn’t stop his gaze from wandering over to Savannah. He should be pleased to constantly get confirmation of her virtue, but it only complicated the attraction he felt for her. He knew the genesis of his feelings was her pregnancy—because she was carrying his child he felt intimate with her. The puzzling, almost alarming part was that with confirmation came the realization that she was the same woman he had worked with two years ago. And realizing she was the same woman, he felt closer to her—which deepened the sense of intimacy.
Worse, as the intimacy deepened, his feelings about their impending marriage were changing. Suddenly he was thinking that it would be okay to sleep together…and he meant sleep, at least he had initially. He just wanted to lie cuddled together, with their baby between them. But that need was growing into a desire to touch all the wonderful velvet skin he had sampled when she let him touch her stomach to feel the baby…and more.
As the poker game progressed, he unsuccessfully tried to fight the sexual turn of his thoughts by taking them into neutral territory. He reminded himself that she was sweet and innocent and that this made her beautiful, and vulnerable in a way that hit him right in the heart, and he wanted to protect her. And that was bad.
Bad.
Bad.
Bad.
Because that meant his feelings were transcending typical lust and even infatuation and rolling into territory that could become love.
The only anchor he could mentally hold on to to save himself was that Savannah might not be drawing these same conclusions. But even if she was, if he didn’t say something first, odds were she would keep her emotions to herself because she was shy.
Plus, theirs wouldn’t be a real marriage. As long as he stopped entertaining these crazy ideas, there would be no inappropriate touching, so both of them would be safe.
That thought comforted him through the rest of the card game. It comforted him as he waved goodbye to her friends. It comforted him through the awkward minute when he insisted she go to bed and let him turn out the lights and lock the doors for her.
But when he was climbing the stairs to his room, congratulating himself on his determination to keep both of their hearts safe, he suddenly realized that he would be touching her. He would be kissing her, and he would be pretending to be madly in love with her every time he was around his parents, or in the public eye.
If he wanted his parents and the press to believe this was a love match, he was going to have to pretend to be in love with her, which included touching, kissing, living together, being friends, sharing a child.
Boy, he was in big trouble. He had a sneaking suspicion that Savannah Groggin was the one woman he could trust enough to really make another honest stab at marriage. Except he didn’t want to make an honest stab at marriage. The first shot almost killed him. He didn’t want to risk his heart or his sanity again.
And the whole heck of it was, he couldn’t even run like hell in the opposite direction to protect himself as he promised himself he would do if he ever met another woman who tempted him to let his guard down.
In seven days, he would be married to her.
Chapter Three
Standing in the small alcove off to the right of the courtroom in which he and Savannah would get married, Ethan turned at the sound of a side door opening. When he saw his parents, Penny and Parker McKenzie, he drew in a quick breath.
“Mom! Dad!”
Josh Anderson, the coconspirator who had been pressed into service to be Ethan’s best man, and Olivia Brady, Josh’s fiancée, both froze in surprise.
“Ethan McKenzie,” his mother scolded, sounding exactly as she had when he was ten. Slim and beautiful in her teal-blue suit, with her blond hair pulled in a severe chignon, Penny McKenzie looked every bit the part of a Washington hostess. “How could you possibly get married and not tell your parents?”
“I—I—I don’t know,” Ethan said, too shocked by their appearance to quickly come up with a suitable lie.
“Hilton told us about the baby,” Ethan’s father, Parker, said. In the sophisticated black suit that complemented his salt-and-pepper hair, he looked as rich, powerful and polished as his wife. He reached around Ethan to shake Josh’s hand. “Hi, Josh, good to see you again. Who is this?”
“This is my fiancée, Olivia,” Josh said, as Olivia stepped forward.
While Josh introduced Olivia, Ethan realized how odd this relationship must look to his parents. Even Ethan had never suspected Josh and his secretary had more than a professional relationship, but it was clear now that they loved each other and were happy. In spite of being dressed in a tuxedo Josh was more relaxed than Ethan had ever seen him, and Olivia, wearing a bright-red dress that complemented her sunny yellow hair and peaches-and-cream complexion, simply glowed.
“Nice to meet you, Olivia,” Parker and Penny said, both shaking Olivia’s hand.
“Hilton also explained that when you told him your girlfriend was pregnant,” Penny said, picking up the account her husband had started. “He spilled the beans about your father’s impending vice presidential announcement, and the two of you realized you needed to get married as soon as possible so the pregnancy didn’t detract from the campaign.”
“And I appreciate that,” Parker said sincerely, catching Ethan’s gaze. “However, you still should have invited us to the wedding.”
“I’m sorry, Dad,” Ethan apologized contritely, but inside he was marveling at Hilton’s brilliance. Having the family friend leak that Ethan was getting married gave the first breath of life to the story that would keep Parker’s career safe, and Ethan’s parents’ involvement innocent. They were here, they were participating, but they didn’t really know anything. Yet they believed they were privy to the bottom-line secrets. It would play perfectly in the press. “Everything just happened so fast—”
“Because you’re going to have a baby!” Penny interrupted, reaching up to lay her palms on her son’s cheeks. “My baby is going to have a baby.”
Once again overcome with his own emotion about having a child, Ethan knew exactly what his mother was feeling. “I almost can’t believe it myself, Mom.”
“We couldn’t be happier,” she said, then hugged Ethan fiercely. “In this day and age, the timing means nothing.