The Millionaire's Marriage Demand(28)

He owed Leonora an apology, he supposed. He might even be able to have a  civilized conversation with her at some point in the future. But how  could he ever revive the instinctual love a child has for his mother?  Hadn't that died, all those years ago? He and his mother were strangers  to each other.

One thing he would do. He'd visit Charles very soon, and have it out  with him. That would give him considerable satisfaction. As for Jenessa,  once Leonora had contacted her, he'd phone and find out how she felt  about this revelation.

Another thing he needed to do was visit Julie's parents. With or without  her consent. Although he still didn't know if he was in love with  Julie, less and less could he contemplate being without her. Whatever  that meant.                       
       
           



       

The last three weeks had felt like three years.

The miles rolled by, the shadows lengthening across the road as it wound  along the coastline. He started watching for the signpost that  indicated Bryce's driveway. Yesterday, when he'd been almost sure he'd  act on the invitation, he'd phoned the couple who kept an eye on the  cottage for Bryce; by now, they'd have cleaned the place for him and  stocked it with groceries. He was glad he'd done that. He didn't want to  have to leave the cottage for something as mundane as groceries. He  wanted to spend every minute of its peaceful seclusion with Julie.

When he turned off the highway a few minutes later, Julie woke up. "Are we there?" she mumbled.

"Just about."

He pulled up beside the cottage, letting the view speak for itself: a  private beach, the curl of waves on the sand, a scattering of islands  skirted with foam and then the open ocean. Nearer to hand, he and Julie  were enclosed by tall pines and stands of young maple. A couple of times  since Bryce had bought the property seven years ago, Travis had come  here on vacation. It was, he supposed, as near to Manatuck as he could  get.

Julie said softly, "How beautiful … "

"You are, yes," he said.

She flushed, ducking her head. Then she looked straight at him. "I don't want separate rooms. Do you?"

His heart leaped in his chest. "Nope."

"Well," she said with a grin, "that was easy. And even though I lust  after you, Travis, I'm also very hungry. Is there anything to eat in  this utterly marvelous place?"

"Besides you, there's a refrigerator full of groceries."

"Refrigerator first," she said. "Me afterward."

He captured her hands in his, smiling into her brilliant green eyes. "Promise?"

"You bet."

"If you're afraid of ending up like your mother," he said dryly, "I don't think you have a worry in the world."

"I don't want to talk about mothers. Yours or mine."

"What, no fights?"

"One of the things I like about you-apart from your body-is that you catch on fast."

"You know what?" Travis said huskily. "Right now I wouldn't change places with anyone in the world."

"Neither would I," she said, almost inaudibly.

Julie wouldn't say what she didn't mean. Feeling lightheaded with  happiness, Travis said, "Let's grab our stuff, raid the refrigerator and  light the barbecue. Or else, dearest Julie, you're going to find  yourself in the bedroom."

"Steak-or even a hamburger-takes precedence," she said primly, and scrambled out of the vehicle.

Travis got out, too. "Come here," he said.

She walked around the hood of his car, flung her arms around him and burrowed her cheek into his chest. "Okay. Now what?"

"Now this," said Travis, and kissed her with all the passion and skill  he was capable of. When he finally raised his head, his heart was  thumping as though he'd run the Boston Marathon. He said unevenly, "I  won't need a match to light the barbecue."

"I don't care if it's hot dogs," she whispered.

"One of these days I'll have to thank Brent for inviting you to Manatuck."

Julie laughed. "I'm sure he'll be impressed."

"You and I wouldn't have met, otherwise."

"I'm glad we did," Julie said with sudden intensity.

"So am I," said Travis, and kissed her again.

Somehow this interchange set the tone for the next two days. He and  Julie spent a good deal of that time in bed, although they also made  love up against the pantry door and, rather uncomfortably, underneath a  pine tree. They swam, cavorting in the chill waves. They washed dishes  together, discussing the politics of dictatorship and the perils of  guerilla warfare. They barbecued shrimp, smothered pancakes in fresh  strawberries and cream, and hiked in the woods. Travis sang in the  shower; Julie taught him a Tanzanian tribal dance. They laughed a lot.

When they were loading their bags into the car on Sunday evening, Travis  put a hand on Julie's arm and said forcibly, "This weekend wasn't just  about sex, Julie."                       
       
           



       

She glanced over at him. "No," she said uncertainly, "it wasn't."

"When will I see you again?"

"Thursday?"

"Not until then?"

"Monday I'm taking my mother to a movie that she wants to see and my  father thinks isn't worth the price of admission. On Tuesday I'm meeting  my friend Kathy after work-remember her, Andrea's mother? And every  Wednesday I work late."

He quelled a flicker of unease. "I'll meet you at the clinic on Thursday around five-thirty?"

"That'd be fine." She took one last look around, adding with a touch of  desperation, "I hate to leave here, Travis. I'm not ready for the real  world."

"This is the real world. You and I together, there's nothing more real  than that. Anyway, we can come back. Bryce won't be needing the cottage  for a while."

She made an indeterminate sound and climbed into the car. Travis  accelerated up the driveway. He'd purposely not suggested she stay at  his place tonight. He'd rushed her last time; he wasn't planning on  repeating that mistake. But he wanted her to stay. He wanted her to move  in with him, he thought with a tiny lurch of surprise; even though he'd  never lived with a woman in his life. More than that, he wanted some  kind of commitment from her.

He was only here another three weeks, while her contract expired in the  middle of September. Then what? She'd mentioned the possibility of going  to a clinic in Thailand, while it looked more and more likely that he'd  be heading off to Mexico.

Was that what she meant by the real world?





CHAPTER FIFTEEN





By ten o'clock the next morning, Julie had lost her breakfast twice  over. Leaning on the basin in the washroom nearest to her office, she  stared at her paper-white face in the mirror. The flu. It had to be the  flu. It couldn't be morning sickness.

She splashed cold water on her face and went back to work. Apart from  the tiredness that had been dogging her for a couple of weeks, she felt  fine the rest of the day. The movie was about the mishaps of a family  wedding and made both her and her mother laugh, a brief intimacy that  felt very precious to Julie. That night she slept as soundly as a baby,  cautiously ate a bowl of cereal the next morning and didn't even make it  to the apartment door before she had to rush to the bathroom.  Afterward, not giving herself time to think, she picked up the phone and  was lucky enough to get an appointment with her doctor during her lunch  hour the following day.

When she saw him, he only confirmed what Julie already, in her heart, knew to be true. She was pregnant.

She walked out of his office like a woman in a daze. If she had to be  pregnant, why couldn't the father have been some shadowy, insubstantial  character who'd fade into the wallpaper now that she'd conceived? But  Travis wasn't like that. Travis was flesh and blood, all too real, with  an incisive intelligence and a temper to go with it. It was difficult to  imagine him fading into anything.

What was she going to do? She had a date with him tomorrow night. She had less than thirty hours to come up with an answer.

The baby wasn't the issue. It was quite clear to her, and had been ever  since the doctor had pronounced the word pregnant, that she would have  the baby and rearrange her life to take care of it. If she had to trade  off her wandering work habits with a real, live baby, the baby won hands  down. It was interesting, Julie thought slowly, what a visit to a  doctor's office could teach you about yourself.

The problem wasn't the baby. The problem was Travis.

She had to tell him. Didn't she?

Eventually, she thought. With a bit of luck, she wouldn't start to show  until late September, by which time he'd be in Mexico. That gave her a  few weeks' grace. She'd have to be utterly discreet about the morning  sickness; she knew from experience how gossip flourished in clinics and  hospitals, whether they were in Maine or Calcutta.