Trish Wylie - Her Unexpected Baby

‘What are you so worried about? Are you afraid he’ll find out you still love him or something?’ He waded on in with his size thirteens. ‘Is that it? Or maybe you don’t want him to know that you’ve stayed single all this time?’

On her way to the filing cabinet, Dana stopped dead and swung round with flashing eyes. ‘I am not still in love with him! And I’ve damn well had dates since I split with him. Not that that’s any of your bloody business either!’

Adam actually rocked back slightly. Little Miss Perfect had a temper? Since when? His mind moved more slowly than usual, distracted suddenly from simple thought by how her flashing eyes and flushed cheeks changed her usual cool exterior. She looked sexy. All she needed was to do the whole ‘remove one pin and shake her hair loose’ thing…

He recovered with, ‘You don’t have a date, do you?’

She placed a hand on her hip, cocked her head to one side and practically spat the word at him. ’What?’

‘For this reunion. You don’t have a date.’ He folded his arms across his broad chest and took a deep breath. ‘And you don’t want to see him with some sweet young thing on his arm while you’re doing the whole lonely-pint deal.’ Dana truly, truly hated him in that moment. If she hadn’t before, she did now. There was nothing more smug than an already arrogant male being proved right.

‘Whatever you think.’ She turned and marched the last couple of steps to the filing cabinet, wrenching the drawer open with too much force when she got there. Damn him. She hated losing her temper.

There was silence for a few moments, as Adam thought and Dana started counting inwardly to calm her temper.

Adam took another breath. ‘I’m right, then.’

‘Oh, gee.’ She turned and glared. ‘Aren’t you always?’

Adam recognised sarcasm. Even when it had all the grace of a hippo in high heels. Not that Dana was the teeniest bit over the recommended weight for her height. God forbid. That wouldn’t be perfect, would it? No, the woman curved where she was supposed to curve, both in and out. ‘Pretty much.’

Dana took a deep breath and moved around the office with silent grace, collecting files and errant pens and putting them back into their allotted places. ‘Now that you’ve managed to score a hit, can we drop this one?’

No chance. Adam smiled inwardly. She should know him better by now.

‘So why can’t you get a date?’

‘You tell me—you’re the one with all the answers.’

‘Have you tried—hell, I dunno—’ he shrugged and leaned back against his desk ‘—asking someone?’

She actually laughed out loud. ‘You know, I haven’t.’ With a small turn of her patent leather heel she looked him straight in the eye, folding her arms across her chest and leaning back against her own desk in an exact mirror of his stance. ‘Who would I ask, exactly?’

‘You’re bound to know someone.’

‘With my schedule?’

‘Well, you must have friends who know someone.’

She smiled mirthlessly. ‘Not someone who’d be suitable for the whole—’ she unfolded her arms to make speech marks in the air with her fingers ‘“—slap in the face, up yours, Jim” effect I’d want, no.’ She folded her arms again.

Adam’s eyes narrowed. ‘You need someone to irritate him?’ Her personality wasn’t enough? ‘What—someone to make him jealous or something?’

‘Not in the way you think.’

He continued to stare at her. ‘In what way, then?’

She took a deep breath and shook her head. ‘You wouldn’t understand, so what’s the point?’

‘Try me.’

It would be a new direction if she decided to take that path. It would mean telling him something private, something vaguely embarrassing—even a little, well, girlish in places. It would also be opening a small window into her life. Into the secrets and pain she carried with her, well buried, from her past. In giving him that information she would be giving him ammunition for their next argument. And, even if he didn’t ever use it, she would still know he knew. It was a big risk.

He watched the debate unfold in her eyes as she continued staring at him. They were the only part of her that she wasn’t able to mask with an air of remote coolness. When she was annoyed or irritated, amused or excited by something, it all showed in her eyes. It was why she wore sunglasses so often to hide them, or dropped her chin, or turned her head slightly. Oh, yeah, he knew those little tricks of hers—knew them well enough to know when he’d scored a hit.

‘How about if I promise not to use it against you at a later date?’

She was surprised by the offer. It almost seemed sincere. Adam Donovan trying to be nice? Nah. Not in her lifetime.

‘Why do you need to know?’

He shrugged again. ‘Maybe I might actually be able to help.’

A small smile twitched at the edges of her mouth. ‘Oh, really? How exactly would you see that working? And, more importantly, what would it cost me?’

‘You have a very suspicious mind.’

‘Around you? Yes, indeed I do.’

‘I just offered you an olive branch of sorts.’

‘Yes, you did, and that’s why I’m suspicious.’

‘Would it kill you to try trusting me just once?’ He frowned at her. ‘It’s not like you’ve tried it before, is it?’

He had a point. Trusting him was something she’d never done or considered since she’d met him. And there probably was an underlying reason for that, if she decided she wanted to look for it. But then, in fairness, she’d seen him in action. Apart from his business dealings, Dana had witnessed nothing that would lead her into trusting him with personal information. If she’d become anything in the last eight years it was a survivalist. But she was curious nevertheless.

‘Again: why do you want to know, exactly?’

Good question. Blinking at her questioning eyes, he decided not to search too deeply for a reason. He’d go with a sensible answer. He worded it carefully. ‘Maybe if you actually took the time to trust me with information occasionally, I might do the same thing.’

‘And that would be interesting to me because…?’

He pressed his lips together and managed to swallow a sarcastic answer. ‘It might improve the atmosphere in this office, for one thing. If we tried actually getting to know each other a little instead of this constant bickering.’

She took his words and mulled them over in her head for a few moments. The bickering could be tiring sometimes; that much was true. Other times it could be quite stimulating…occasionally a little fun, she admitted reluctantly.

But could she manage to give a little without ending up giving away too much? That was the question. It was a big step in their ‘relationship’. Maybe if she tried it the once, she could decide better what to do the next time…

Hell. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

She surprised them both with, ‘Okay.’

His eyebrows raised slightly. That had been a tad too easy, hadn’t it? He felt a need to look around for the catch. But he was a big guy. He’d play. ‘So, what is it with you and this guy, then?’

Taking a deep breath, she waded in. ‘I’m not prepared to let him get the better of me.’

‘In what way?’

She knew she had to be tired to be even having this conversation, but she was in it now. She sighed. ‘He has a new girlfriend.’

Adam waited patiently.

‘And from all accounts I’m led to believe she’s drop-dead gorgeous and highly successful at everything she does.’ She gritted her teeth and forced the words out. ‘I can’t let him do the whole…’

He unfolded his arms to mimic her earlier statement. ‘“Slap in the face, up yours, Dana” thing?’

‘Exactly.’

‘So it’s tit for tat?’ He nodded wisely. ‘I’m still going with my “That’s mature” response.’

Dana stood up and walked round her desk to retrieve her overcoat. ‘I knew you wouldn’t understand.’

‘Because there’s more, and I damn well know it.’ He blocked her way when she lifted her bag and tried to leave. ‘So what is it?’

Blue eyes glared at his chest for a moment before eventually looking up. ‘Since he walked out on Jess and me he’s become Mister Successful—Mister Everything-He-Wasn’t-When-He-Was-With-Us. And meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’ve just about managed to hold my head above water.’

From the emotion he saw in her eyes he knew she was being honest, and it affected him. His voice softened of its own accord. ‘You’ve done okay.’

That was how much he knew. ‘Yeah, sure—just okay. Nothing special, nothing amazing, nothing at all in my personal life. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to turn up at that reunion and have everyone talking about how poor Dana has only just coped without good old Jim.’

He mulled her words over. Somehow he knew there was more to this story. And he wanted to know what it was. Maybe there was more to Dana Taylor than the whole Little Miss Perfect thing she did so damn well.

She didn’t like him much. He knew that and was quite happy with it, in fact, because the feeling was mutual. But he could be a nice guy when he tried. And maybe, just maybe, if he tried being nice the one time she might be less of a nightmare to work with. She’d owe him, in fact. Adam liked that idea.

‘Okay. I’ll be your date.’

‘ADAM offered to be your date? Really?’

Dana blinked across at her sister-in-law. They’d become close incredibly fast, considering Dana’s lack of trust for new people. But it hadn’t taken long for her to see how much her brother Jack loved Tara, and within a short period of time it had become obvious why. She was special. If a tad…well, unusual at times.

At that precise moment they were curled up on the sofa in Jack and Tara’s living room. Tara, nearly five months pregnant, was wearing a huge T-shirt with an arrow that pointed down to her stomach and the words ‘Bun in the Oven’ emblazoned across her chest.

‘Yes, and my face must have looked exactly like yours does now when he said it.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I think I stood with my mouth open long enough to catch flies.’

‘And then you said…?’

‘I said he had to be kidding.’

‘And he said?’

‘That it was a genuine offer. And Wouldn’t it get me out of a hole?’ She mimicked his voice.

Tara grinned, her grey eyes wide. ‘So you said…?’

‘That in order for it to get me out of a hole it would have to be believable, and we weren’t exactly a match made in heaven.’

Tara waved her finger in the air. ‘You’ve got a point there.’

‘I thought so,’ Dana sighed. ‘I mean, who on earth is going to watch the two of us together for more than sixty seconds and not recognise the fact that we can’t stand each other? That man could make a nun commit murder.’

‘You’ve mentioned that. Jack finds it hilarious.’

‘He would.’

‘Though you have to admit…’ Tara looked thoughtful for a moment, then spoke over the rim of her cup. ‘Adam definitely fills the requirements for an “in your face, Jim” date.’

‘Possibly.’ She’d already admitted that fact to herself on the drive over, although it had taken ten miles before she’d allowed the thought to take root. In fact, she’d done the whole ‘pros and cons’ list again, as it happened. If there was nothing else about Dana she was at least logical. She thought things over. Assessed them carefully. Very carefully.