SUSAN MEIER - His Expectant Neighbor

“Where do you want these?” he asked, stepping into the kitchen again.

She pointed to the sofa in the small living room off to the right. “In there is good.”

He gave her a patient look. “And how do you plan to get these up the stairs?”

Ben saw her pause, taking note of dark-haired Nathan, who still wore his good jeans and T-shirt from school and was behind Ben, more or less peeking around his waist at Gwen.

“Nathan,” she said, “why don’t you go out to the car and make sure there aren’t any packages left?”

From the formal tone of her voice, Ben could tell her good mood was gone. Nathan must have sensed it, too, because he didn’t say anything, only grinned and nodded, then darted out of the house.

“Look, Mr. Crowe,” she said coolly, her once-smiling face now drawn in anger. “I’m pregnant, not sick. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”

“I’m sure you are,” Ben agreed, not quite understanding how a sweet disposition could go sour in the blink of an eye, but glad to have her mention the issue that troubled him about her. Since she brought up this subject, he felt permitted to pursue it. “Is that why you left your husband? To prove you could take care of yourself? Because if it is, you should be ashamed of yourself. Babies need two parents.”

He hadn’t expected her angry face to fall in dismay, but it did. He’d driven her from unreasonably happy, to angry, to sad so rapidly Ben immediately knew dealing with pregnant women wasn’t his forte. He also knew he’d made a big mistake.

Quiet, stricken, Gwen said, “I think babies need two parents, too, but it wasn’t my decision to get a divorce. It was my ex-husband’s. If the choice had been mine, I would have raised my child with its father.” With that she walked to the door. “If you don’t mind, I have to put all this stuff away,” she said, more than hinting that Ben should leave.

Confused because he was now more curious about her than before, but equally embarrassed because he’d upset her, he ran his hand across the back of his neck. Having been raised in foster homes, he understood his urge to confront her about not putting the welfare of her child first. But normally he had enough sense to stop himself from butting in if a problem wasn’t any of his business. And since her marriage, her ex-husband and even this baby weren’t any of his business, it puzzled him that he hadn’t thought this the whole way through before he opened his big mouth.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized contritely. “I didn’t mean to be so blunt, but when it comes to kids I know I’m overly protective since my own parents abandoned me.”

With a brief nod, she more or less conceded that she understood what he’d said, but Ben knew it was too late. Not only had he stuck his foot in his mouth, but he’d also hurt her.

Walking to his truck, he felt like a real idiot. A blockhead, too stupid to tread lightly with a woman who had enough to deal with without having to listen to his criticism. He shouldn’t have challenged her the way he had, but he quickly forgave himself because he truly was a person who cared about kids. Asking her that question, no matter how inappropriate, was second nature to him. So that took care of forgiving himself. Now all he had to do was figure out how he could get her to forgive him.

Though he was a loner, who didn’t really have a lot of contact with people and who definitely didn’t care what people thought of him, Ben recognized this situation was different. He’d made a mistake, and he needed to fix it. But even before he reached his truck he knew that asking her forgiveness would be awkward and complicated and much more intimate than he intended to get with this woman. Which precluded making another apology, but, still, he wanted to do something. There had to be a way to make this up to her.

He opened his truck door and called to Nathan. “Come on, Nate. It’s getting late and we’ve got to get going.”

As Nathan almost tumbled down the steps of the cottage, having delivered the last of Gwen’s packages, Ben realized that the perfect way to handle things without getting involved was right before his eyes. Because Nathan was too young to get a job and too energetic to stay in the house, his older foster parents encouraged him to leave the reservation and spend all his free time tagging along with Ben. Though Ben considered himself to be somewhat boring, particularly to a nine-year-old boy, Nathan never complained, confirming for Ben that he was incredibly lonely. Gwen needed someone, too, if only because she was by herself outside of town and no one would know if she got sick or hurt. She and the boy were a match made in heaven.

“Hey, Nate, how would you like to earn ten dollars a day?”

Climbing into the truck cab, Nathan turned his big brown eyes on Ben. “You know I would!”

Ben immediately reached into his wallet and pulled out a ten dollar bill. “All you have to do is stay with Mrs. Parker, help with errands and make sure she doesn’t do anything too difficult.”

“Today?” Nate asked, confused.

“Every day. Ten dollars a day, every day,” Ben said, exaggerating the word so Nate would see the significance. “When I get home, I’ll put this on the mantel in the den,” he said, showing Nathan the ten dollars. “I’ll put ten dollars on the mantel every time you spend the day with her. Then at the end of a week, if you go to her house five days, you’ll have fifty dollars. But if you can go all seven days, spend a few hours after school every day and stop by on weekends, you’ll have seventy dollars.”

From the way Nathan’s eyes grew wide with every word Ben spoke, it was obvious he couldn’t believe his good fortune. As if he wasn’t going to miss this opportunity by reacting too slowly, the very second Ben was done making his proposition, Nathan yelped, “All right! Seventy bucks!” then shoved open the truck door and scrambled out.

But Ben stopped him by catching his forearm. “You can’t tell Mrs. Parker I’m paying you to stay with her and help her.”

Nathan blinked at him. “Why not?”

“She won’t like that,” Ben explained. “She’s proud.”

“Oh,” Nathan said, nodding his understanding.

“So tell her that you were curious about her and her baby and that’s why you’re back. We’ll think up another story for tomorrow and the next day until eventually she’ll just get used to having you around and she won’t question you anymore.”

Recognizing that was what had happened when Nathan starting hanging around with Ben, Nathan grinned his agreement.

“But no matter what happens,” Ben said, “you are not to tell Mrs. Parker that I’m paying you to help her. In fact, don’t tell her you’re there to help at all. Just let her think you’re curious about the baby and that you’d like to be her friend.”

Looking like a boy who was confident he could do this job, Nathan nodded, slammed the truck door and ran across the short front lawn to Gwen’s porch.

Ben started his truck and quickly eased it onto the road, knowing it would ruin everything if Gwen saw him and that Nathan had enough common sense to return to the ranch if Gwen refused his offer. But he didn’t think she would. He hadn’t met a woman yet who didn’t melt at Nathan’s smile.

Driving home, Ben felt as if he was the smartest man on the face of the earth. If this worked, orphaned Nathan would be busy and happy, with a caring adult, as had been his foster parents’ intent when they sent him to Ben, and Gwen would have company. In case she fell or became ill, Nathan would know to contact Ben. And Ben didn’t have to feel guilty anymore. He was a genius.

Because Nathan didn’t return to the ranch, for exactly one afternoon Ben felt he had the world by the tail. He was even whistling when he jogged up the porch steps of Gwen’s cottage to retrieve Nathan and take him home, but when smiling Gwen opened her door to him and Ben felt an unexpected jolt of happiness seeing her, he started to reconsider everything.

“Hi,” she greeted, obviously not holding a grudge for his mistake that afternoon.

“Hi,” he said. An odd sense of something tingled through him. His first instinct was to think he was getting a crush on her, but that had to be wrong. Sure, Gwen was a beautiful woman. Actually, she was gorgeous. But she was also pregnant with another man’s child. Now that he knew the real story, he had to suspect that Gwen hadn’t yet had time to get over her ex—especially if she hadn’t wanted the divorce.

Besides, he’d seen her often enough when he showed her the cottage and they negotiated her lease that if he were really getting a crush on her he would have felt it sooner, right? Right. If he were experiencing anything more than a reaction to her good looks, he would have felt it before this.

“I’m here for Nathan.”

“Oh, yes,” Gwen said, flustered. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Ben said, stepping into her kitchen for the second time that day, but this time he noticed that her curtains were sunny yellow. She had a white lace tablecloth on the table and a bouquet of brown-eyed Susans. “I’m not in any hurry.”

At that she turned. “Really? Because if you have time I made a casserole for dinner. There’s plenty.”

Ben grinned sheepishly. “I don’t have that much time.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Gwen said, appearing flustered again.

Ben almost groaned at his stupidity. He knew he’d screwed up everything that afternoon by forgetting that pregnant women were emotional. Yet, he continued to hit all the wrong buttons with Gwen. Being too blunt. Speaking too soon. Not showing a little kindness.

“I’ll just go upstairs and get him.”

She turned to run up the steps, but Ben put his hand atop hers on the banister. Unfortunately, even though she stopped as he wanted her to, Ben also stopped. His heart stopped. His breathing stopped. And he was fairly certain all his brain cells stopped functioning.

The back of her hand was like satin. Smooth, warm satin.

Positive he must be getting sick or something, he cleared his throat. “Take your time,” he said, and when his voice came out hoarse and whispery, he had to stifle a grimace.

What the hell was wrong with him?

Gwen disappeared up the steps, and as Ben waited for her return he oriented himself back to sanity. But when she walked down the stairs, the fading rays of the late-afternoon sun framed her in a yellow glow. Spontaneously, he wished he had a picture of her like that, and he knew sanity was nowhere around.

“Nathan was a very good boy today,” she said, and Nathan beamed with pride.

“Well, that’s good,” Ben said, wanting only to get the heck out of this house before he said or did something else foolish. “When he said he was curious about you and the baby, I didn’t think you would mind if he spent some time with you.”

“Oh, I didn’t,” Gwen quickly said. “I loved the company.”

“Good,” Ben said.

Nathan tugged on his shirtsleeve. “She said I can come over anytime I want.”

Ben risked a peek at her. “Is that so?”

Gwen shrugged and smiled. “I like the company.”

That seemed to be all there was to say, but Ben didn’t want to accidentally insult her again by jumping to the conclusion that the conversation was over if she didn’t think it was, because he didn’t want to feel any more responsible for her than he already felt. When he realized things had grown so quiet he could hear the tick of the clock, he also realized he’d been standing by her front door like an idiot for at least a minute. Almost as if he didn’t want to leave.