A Baby for the Boss(45)

Truth could hit as hard as lies.

“So don’t kid yourself. This isn’t about Dad. Or Jenny. This is all on you, Mike. You’re the liar now.” Sean turned and walked away, stalking across the patio and into the house.

Alone in the yard, Mike felt the ground he’d built his life on tremble beneath his feet. Sean was right, he realized. Which meant that Mike was wrong. About a lot of things.





Nine

Laughlin in February was pretty.

The summer heat was still a few months off and the river was quiet but for the inevitable tour boats and an occasional Jet Ski. There were a lot of snowbirds in town, older people coming in to escape snow country with a few months in the desert. Tourists were always there of course, and every day, pontoon boats full of visitors to the city slowed to watch the progress being made on the River Haunt.

True to his word, the contractor, Jacob Schmitt, was keeping to schedule. He had men working on both the hotel facade and the interior, where Jenny spent most of her time. There was the constant drone of saws and the slamming of hammers, not to mention shouted conversations and laughter ringing out all around her.

But she was still glad she’d come. Being in the desert, away from the office for a while, had been a great idea. In Nevada, she didn’t have to deal with the worry of having to face Mike again so soon after their confrontation. It hurt, knowing that their connection was over. But it would be even more painful if she had to see him every day. To be reminded of what they might have had.

No, what she needed was a little space, a little time, to get used to the idea that she was going to be a single mother.

She’d always wanted to have kids—lots of them. But in her secret dreams, she also had a husband who loved her. That little dream wasn’t going to come true, though. Remembering the look on Mike’s face when she told him she was pregnant was enough to convince her of that. Even if she didn’t also have the memory of him accusing her of trying to trap him into marriage.

Pain and anger twisted into a knot that sat like lead in the pit of her stomach.

“He really is an idiot,” she muttered, swiping a paintbrush loaded with deep violet paint across the entryway wall. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love with someone—anyone—else? Why did Mike Ryan have to be the only man for her?

Jenny sighed and finished covering the wall with the paint she’d chosen for the biggest impact. Once it was dry she’d lay out the lines for the forest, the moon and the hints of figures she wanted lost in the trees. It would take a few days, but that was okay with her.

She had driven out here with a plan to stay for at least a week. Heaven knew there were plenty of hotel rooms to choose from and she wouldn’t be lonely, either. Not with the security people and the hotel employees staying here, as well.

Besides, being on-site, she could oversee the other artists she’d hired to help with the murals. There were three of them, all talented, but artists were temperamental people and just as likely to go off plan and add their own visions to a design. But that couldn’t happen here. The designs had all been approved by Mike, Sean and Brady already, so there was no deviating from them.

“Hey, Jenny!”

She looked up at the friendly shout. Tim Ryerson, one of the hotel employees, stood at the front door. “What’s up, Tim?”

“Some of us are going into town for lunch. You up for it?”

They were all being so nice to her, but what Jenny really wanted was quiet and some time to herself. “Thanks, but I think I’ll stay here and get started on the dining room mural.”

“You’re allowed to have fun, too, you know,” he said with a sad shake of his head.

“Thanks, but for me, this is fun.”

“Okay, then.” He shrugged good-naturedly. “Can we bring you back anything?”

“A burger,” she said quickly. “And lots of fries.”

She was starting to get her appetite back—at least in the afternoons—and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. She was so short that if she kept eating like this, by the time the baby was born, she’d look like a soccer ball.

“You got it. Later.”

Once he and the others had gone, the hotel fell into blessed quiet. Lunchtime was the one time of the day she could count on a little peace. Even the crew’s ever-playing radio was silent as the men left to get something to eat. She had the place to herself for the next hour and Jenny relished it.

Leaving the main wall to dry, she walked into the dining room and studied the long partition that separated the room from the kitchen. She’d have Tony and Lena work this wall, setting out the characters and scenery from the “River Haunt” game that would bring the room to life. Christa could work on the vines that would trail around the windows at the front of the room. If they all worked together, they could knock this out in a few days and move upstairs to the hallways. According to the plans, there would be vines, flowers and a banshee or two in each of the long halls, and haunting trees, bent in an invisible wind, painted on to the elevator doors.