Billionaire's Island Bride(39)

She didn’t even wait for him to reply. She walked away, leaving Dare staring after her in confusion.

Now what had he said to upset her? He shook his head. If he lived a million years he would never understand women.

***





After her dinner with Dare, Erin went back to her old strategy - avoid him as much as possible. That seemed to have been working fine until Robyn came and spoiled everything.

She knew she was being foolish but she still hadn’t gotten over the shock of Dare’s last statement at the dinner table. It was like he’d been talking about her. The guilt would not let her sit still and she’d had to leave as fast as she could before she broke down and told all.

It was five days since Robyn left the island and she hadn’t heard a whisper since then. With each day that passed she breathed a sigh but she could guess that the girl would drop her bombshell at a strategic moment, at that point when it would hurt most. It was only a matter of time.

After a week passed and then two without any word from Robyn, the tension in Erin’s belly began to dissipate. The threat still hung over her head but how long could she remain on edge? She willed herself to be calm. She had her baby to think about and she would not let anything - neither high blood pressure nor negative emotions - consume her and jeopardize the health of her unborn child.

She signed up for classes at the local Mommy Yoga Center and fell into a comfortable routine of yoga and birthing classes in the mornings and daily swims in the pool in the cool of the evenings. Eventually she stopped thinking about Robyn and the threat she posed.

With the passing of time Erin grew rounder and rounder until she looked like she had swallowed a basketball. When Dare teased her, calling her his panda bear, Francine came to her defense and laughingly found names for him, too. It didn’t help that those names were in Spanish so Erin had no idea what she was talking about. She didn’t care, though. It felt good to have another woman on her side. She and Dare fell into a comfortable rhythm that made Erin sometimes forget that her marriage was not quite the norm. From observing them no one would guess that their marriage was in name only.#p#分页标题#e#

Their idyllic life on the island hit a snag when it was announced that a hurricane was on the way. At the news Erin became filled with a sense of dread. She tackled Francine in the kitchen.

“What’s a hurricane like? Will it destroy the island? Will we be in great danger?” The words shot out in rapid succession, clear evidence of her fright. She was not afraid to admit it. She’d never experienced a hurricane before and she was scared.

She’d heard horror stories of tidal waves taller than ten storey buildings and people getting sucked out to sea. She’d heard of heavy winds flattening houses, people getting electrocuted by downed power lines and people getting sick from contaminated water supplies. Nothing she’d heard about hurricanes was good.

“Ah, nina,” Francine sighed, “hurricanes are dangerous but we will survive. And you, in this well built house, you will be safe. I’m happy that you have a strong man to protect you.”

“But what about you, Francine? You will stay here with us, right? I want you to be safe.” Erin grabbed the older woman’s hand. Although Francine spent a lot of time in Dare’s house she also had her own home on the island. Erin was worried that she would go back there. She could not explain it but she felt an affinity with Francine that was far more than an employer-employee relationship.

“No, nina. Senor Dare, he arranged for me to go to Atlanta to be with my son. I will leave long before the storm hits.”

Erin breathed a sigh of relief. One less person to worry about.

Next day Erin accompanied Francine into the airport where they hugged and shared well wishes. The housekeeper waved goodbye as she stood at the entrance to the international departure lounge and her eyes glistened with tears. Erin, too, felt choked up but she bit her lip and held on. She would not give in to tears. She was not the emotional type and couldn’t figure out why tears seemed to come so easily these days. It must be the baby hormones.

Erin spent the rest of the day shopping. Like everyone else she was making sure to have adequate supplies in case the hurricane devastated the island. It was not unheard of that, following a natural disaster such as this, electrical power would be out for weeks. With that in mind she stocked up on flashlights, lanterns and batteries, canned and packaged foods and dozens of cases of drinking water. When the chauffeur bundled her into the car to take her home there was hardly enough room left for her to sit. She didn’t mind, though. She’d much rather be over prepared than in need.