her emotions—Beth paused momentarily to regroup. “Uh... It can wait until after we have dinner.”
Jack narrowed his eyes in concern. “I-don’t think so. You’ve made it sound too serious for that.”
Beth cleared her throat. “Look, it’s no big deal. Certainly it isn’t anything that you’re probably imagining,” she said, hoping to somehow stall him for as long as she could. She simply wasn’t ready to tell him about her idea. Besides, she had a wonderful evening planned for them. If she got lucky, by the end of it Jack would be willing to help her with her dilemma. But if she jumped the gun on everything and told him her plan now, there was no telling what might happen. The truth was, she liked to stick to a game plan. It made her life predictable... stable.
Beth glanced up and found Jack frowning at her. “Frankly, Beth,” he said, “I don’t know what to think. Are you sick or something?”
“No,” she said, giving her head a hardy shake.
“Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“No, of course not.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” Jack said. Then he deepened his frown. “Look, whatever it is, it can’t be that bad. I’m here now, I can help.”
Suddenly tears sprang to Beth’s eyes. “Oh, Jack, I knew I could count on you,” she said.
Taking her by the shoulders, Jack looked deep into her eyes. “Of course, you can count on me,” he said, giving her a reassuring smile. “So stop worrying. Everything is going to be just fine.”
Somehow, Beth managed to give him the smile she knew he wanted from her. “As a matter of fact, it’s starting to look that way already,” she said, suddenly experiencing a wave of deep, unbridled emotion. Emotion that had suddenly taken a detour from its normal path and was now channeling its way through her heart. She loved this guy more than anyone else in the whole world. So why shouldn’t her feelings for him come straight from her heart? She pressed her body against his and for a brief moment reveled in the comforting thought that he was near. “And it’s all because of you, Jack.” Gazing up at him with wide, soulful eyes, she gave him the brightest smile she could possibly muster under the circumstances.
A silly-looking grin slipped up one side of his face. “See,” he said teasingly, landing a playful blow to the side of her jaw. “Your Knight in Shining Armor has arrived. He’s just packaged differently than you thought he would be.”
Beth was captivated by the thought. But she quickly reminded herself that she had strict rules of conduct against such things happening between them. For heaven’s sake, Jack couldn’t be her Knight in Shining Armor. He was her best friend.
With that in mind, she shoved aside her disturbing thoughts and forced herself to laugh out loud—which, needless to say, was as much for her benefit as it was for his. “Yeah, right,” she said, teasing him back.
Widening his grin, he glanced over his shoulder as though in search of something. “Well, I don’t see anyone else lined up for the job. I guess I’m all you’ve got—at least for the time being. You know the old saying,” he said laughingly. “Beggars can’t be choosers.”
Beth was smiling at Jack’s silly attempt to make her laugh when suddenly she sobered, reminding herself of what she had planned. “Oh, Jack, this is no laughing matter. This is one time I’m in desperate need of your help.”
Placing his hands on his hips, Jack came to an immediately standstill. “Okay, Beth,” he said, with a slow shake of his head. “I can’t take any more of this. I need to know what’s going on here. It’s time you level with me.”
Beth was trembling on the inside. Clearly it seemed her moment of truth had arrived. “I want a baby, Jack.”
Chapter Two
Suddenly Beth found herself at a loss. Now that her carefully laid plan for a perfect evening with Jack was lying in shambles at her feet, she didn’t know where to begin her story. She hated when something she had planned so meticulously went haywire. She felt stripped of her confidence, and her stomach was in knots.
After taking in some badly needed oxygen, she suddenly found herself wondering how she was ever going to explain in no uncertain terms to her very best friend in the whole wide world that she wanted him to compromise a small portion of his future for the sake of her own.
In that moment she wondered how she—or anyone—could even think of being so selfish.
But then, in almost the next second, the thought of never having her very own child shrouded over her like a cloud of doom, making her feel sick to her stomach and more than ready to do just about anything to have that one goal in her life come true.
Oh, God, wouldn’t it be all right if she asked Jack to do her just this one, big favor?
Besides, if he didn’t want to, all he had to do was say no. She would accept that. She would have to.
Taking a deep breath, Beth mentally prepared herself for the battle ahead. “Jack, you know, of course, how I’ve always said I wanted to have a child of my own.”
Keeping his hands placed on his hips, he gave her a hesitant grin. “Sure,” he said. “It’s been your dream in life since... well... since forever. Why?”
“I’m not getting any younger, and that dream still isn’t a reality. Therefore, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands,” she continued, pausing briefly for a breath. “I’ve come up with this terrific plan—”
Jack rolled his eyes. “Oh, no. Not another one of your plans. I knew it. I bet it involves me, right?”
His abrupt manner stunned Beth and she looked him square in the face. Finally, in a voice held tight with emotion, she said, “Yes. You could say that.”
“I knew it,” he exclaimed. “I knew the moment I walked through your front door that you had me involved in something. What is it this time?” he asked. He seemed so proud of himself for having been one step ahead of her.
Beth couldn’t really blame him for being so skeptical of her motives. Over the years her ideas had gotten him involved in some pretty wild schemes. But convincing him to let her tag along with him and his date the night of their senior prom when her own date had come down at the last minute with a bad case of poison ivy paled enormously in comparison to what she now had in mind for them. So did the time ten years ago when she’d convinced him to let her go along with him and a couple of other guys on a whitewater rafting trip. She’d almost drowned them all—or so Jack had said at the time. All she’d done was accidentally knock one poor guy out of the boat, but they’d gotten him back inside right away. He had forgiven her ages ago. It was time that Jack did, too.
Still, she grimaced at the thought that he was on to her already. “This time is different, Jack, really it is.”
He had dropped his hands down to his sides, but he immediately brought them back up to his hips and gave her an impatient glance. “Okay, Beth, I’ll take the bait. What exactly does different mean?”
Anyone else would have probably been intimidated by his cocky manner, but not Beth. In fact, she found herself following his movements and thinking of what nice hands he had. His palms were wide, his fingers long and lean and, of course, his nails were trimmed neatly. Knowing Jack as she did, she had little doubt that they were the kind of hands that were strong, yet gentle when he made love to a woman. She had always secretly hoped that her Knight in Shining Armor would have hands like Jack.
She took a deep breath after swallowing the sudden lump in her throat. “I’ve decided I want to get pregnant.”
“Pregnant?” he replied, dumbfounded. A moment later, he smirked. “You’re kidding me right?”
“No, I’m not,” she replied.”
A stunned expression framed his face. Tucking his hands