The Only Solution(37)

"Stupid question, Mack. As a matter of fact, I do."

"Makes me feel a bit better to know you were suffering with me."

She smiled and relaxed against him once more, luxuriating in the sudden  confidence that now she could say anything she liked to him. Of course,  at the moment, she wasn't inclined to use words; there didn't seem to be  any need.                       
       
           



       

After a while, Mack said, "Do you really think I couldn't have convinced my parents to make you Rory's guardian?"

Wendy was too absorbed in the luscious sensations he was rousing to be listening. "Hmm?"

"What do you suppose my mother was saying, anyway, when you thought she was giving me orders?"

Color crept into Wendy's cheeks. "I never doubted that you had a mind of your own, Mack. It was just … "

"That's beside the point. She was saying, 'Rory already has a mother, Mack.'"

"That's when you told her you were working on it?"

"Yes. And I wasn't angry, I was frustrated because nothing was going the  way I thought it should. I actually thought for a while you were eager  to hand Rory over and get rid of her."

"What?"

"Well, you plopped her in my father's arms readily enough that first night."

"I was doing my best not to make things tougher on everyone."

"I figured that out soon enough, but then I was left with the conviction  that you couldn't stand me  –  because if you'd found me attractive in  the least, surely the only solution to the problem would have occurred  to you. It did to everyone else  –  Mother, Tessa, even Mitch."

"Wait a minute. The only solution? You just said you could have arranged for me to be Rory's guardian."

Mack smiled a little. "The only perfect solution, I meant. It's far better for Rory to have two parents, don't you think?"

Wendy slanted a look up at him through her eyelashes.

"All right," Mack admitted. "It was a whole lot better deal for me, too. Now are you satisfied?"

"Very." She buried her face in his shoulder. "If it hadn't been for Rory … "

"Terrifying, isn't it, to think how much we owe to a baby who can't even talk yet?"

Wendy nodded. "Let's go home to our little girl, Mack."

"Do you mean right now? Or maybe a little later?" he said lazily, and kissed her once more.