A Baby...Maybe? & How to Hunt a Husband (15 page)

Looking at him made her just want to smile all over. And get naked. And she could swear that he must be thinking the same thing, because his expression was one of a determined predator.

The closer he walked to their table, the more angry he seemed to become. His smile turned into a jaw-clenching frown.

His hands, so relaxed moments ago, were now formed into fists. Muscles that rippled under the cotton shirt, seemed tight and tense. She didn't know what had caused the change, but it didn't matter be
cause he was walking toward her and her universe was now totally focused on him.

“Rex. You're here.” She thought she sounded normal, she thought she could be understood. She didn't sound too much like a cottonmouth snake. “I thought I told you not to come.”

“I couldn't think of spending a night away from you.”

It took the kick on her shin, courtesy of Kate, before she realized Rex had asked, “Room for one more?”

Tony said, “Sure,” before Cara could formulate the words “Yes, come sit next to me so I can rub your leg.” He sat in the chair opposite her.

He stood halfway up, enough to reach into his pocket, and he pulled out a coin. A coin matching the necklace and bracelet she wore. He dropped it on the table. “Here. I believe this is yours.”

The table became silent as they all stared at the coin. Cara reached for it, “Yes, it is. And like I said before, I didn't leave it in your lab.”

“Who else could have?”

“You tell me.”

“You lied to me, and you know what I'm talking about.”

“I have not,” she said indignantly.

“Yes, you have. From the very beginning.”

“No, I haven't. I just haven't been telling the whole truth.”

“That's lying.” What was wrong with her?

“No,” she said, just as determined to have her say. “You're not seeing the big picture.”

“Excuse me.” He leaned back in the chair, his arms flung outward. “The only picture I see is your coin by one of my freezers and semen has been stolen.”

“I didn't steal your semen.”

“What about the pinpricks? And you know what I'm talking about.”

Her face turned ash white. Her eyes filled with tears. “I told you I was only thinking about it, I didn't do it.”

Kate turned to him and said, “That was low, Rex.”

“I'm not the one with the safety pin.”

“I didn't do that.”

“I found it.”

“What's he talking about?” Tony asked.

“Later,” Kate hushed him.

Tony, looking confused, shrugged.

“I didn't use it. Or you didn't use it,” Cara said, looking straight at him.

“How do I know?”

“You have to trust me.”

“Trust you? You lied to me. You've stolen from me.”

“No, I haven't. Anyway, if I did, it's your fault. I thought you were a semen bank for babies. Do you think I was going to confess how terribly wrong I was when I went looking for donor fathers and found catalogs of bulls?”

“Fathers?” Now he looked confused.

“Those old men, I thought they were semen donors. I thought I'd have a baby who came out ninety years old.”

“What old men?”

“In your semen bank.”

“They are donors. They're investors in the company.”

She took a deep breath. “I can't believe after all we've been to each other, you'd accuse me of lying and stealing your semen.”

Tony laughed. “Cara, you didn't have to steal Rex's semen, he's been known to give it away. Young men only dream of living the life of Rex.”

Kate slapped Tony's arm. “Shut up.”

Rex saw Cara's face and more tears and tried for damage control. “Tony, you know that's not true. Tell her it's not true.”

“I'm not lying.”

Now Cara was gulping for air. “All I wanted was to get a donor and to be a mother. I didn't want a husband. I just wanted a baby.”

“All women want husbands.” Tony and Kate made noises in agreement with Rex.

“You're wrong.” Cara was pointing her finger at the trio. “If you saw what my mother was picking out, you wouldn't be saying that.”

“Hey,” Tony said, sounding insulted. “I was one of those guys.”

“You were different. I've known you since before we were born.”

He nodded. “That's true.”

Rex was a man who had gotten where he was in business and in life by going with this gut. His instincts were usually uncanny. He could spot a person who was telling the truth a cornfield away. Cara may not be lying right now, at least about the baby she wanted and the husband she didn't, but she had totally disregarded the fact that the coin was by his freezer unit. And he reminded her of that fact.

“I don't know how it got there,” she said.

“Don't you?” He didn't believe her. He looked at Tony. “What about you? Did you send her to steal the semen?”

“What the hell are you talking about? My own semen was stolen.”

Kate grabbed both men by the hands and said, “You two stop it right now. You should be working together.” She looked at Cara. “Did you remember losing one of the coins?”

Cara shook her head, wiping her eyes with the back
of her hand. “No. There are so many of them. I know some are loose and one fell off that first time I went to the clinic. I kept thinking I needed to get the bracelet fixed.”

Rex took a deep breath. “I'm sorry. Maybe I was wrong.”

Her eyes looked stormy. “Just maybe?”

“That's as far as I'll go right now without more evidence.”

Cara stood. “I'm going home.”

“You haven't eaten,” Kate said.

“I'm not hungry.”

“We'll see you tomorrow then.”

“I'm going home. To Erie.”

“You can't leave yet,” Rex said, standing up. “You're not leaving until I know if you're pregnant.”

“Oh, Doctor, believe me. I'm not pregnant.”

“How do you know?”

“In order to get pregnant, you have to have sex, and you and I, we didn't have sex.”

Now he had been sucker punched. How dare she say that night of passion, many times, wasn't sex? What did she think sex was, anyway?

“What are you talking about? Of course we had sex.”

“You just don't get it. If you had been a gentlemen, you would have pretended I was telling the truth. You saw my humiliation.” She started poking him in the chest. “I explained it to you. You, Dr. Noble, should get your name changed from Dr. Noble to Dr. Nasty.” With her head held high she walked regally out of the restaurant and would have made it, too, if she hadn't been stopped by Clyde who dragged her back to the table.

“I have a confession to make,” he told them. “I stole the semen.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I had this plan, see, Doc. I like this little girl.” He nodded to Cara. “And you need to settle down, so I thought, if I plant one of her coins—they fall off your bracelet, dear, all over the place—that you two would find yourselves together and get married.”

Tigger came up to the table. “It's my fault,” he said contritely. “I planted the coin.”

Before long, Barbara, Cathy and Arthur had also come to the table. The amazing thing was that none of them knew the others were doing the same thing. They each dropped coins on the table, and each said they were sorry. “Where's the semen?” Rex asked.

Some had put it in other freezer units. Barbara had taken hers home and fertilized her African violet with it. “It died though. It must be too strong a fertilizer. In fact, I think you need to pay me for the dead plant and buy me another.”

Rex gathered Cara's hand. “Can you forgive me?” he asked.

“No.” She turned and left the restaurant, head held high, back straight, and she didn't look back.

Rex looked from Tony to Kate. “I don't know what she's so upset about. You eastern women are so sensitive.”

Kate stood, throwing her napkin on the table. “You deal with him,” she told Tony, then hurried after Cara.

Tony shrugged. “Women, go figure.”

Rex nodded, looking longingly at the door Cara had vanished through.

Tony signaled the waiter. “Tell the man what you want, Rex. It's on the house.”

C
ARA HAD GONE
straight from the airport to her apartment. She didn't call her mother, even though it would have been the right thing to do. All she wanted was to go home and be by herself. She still had four days of vacation left, and she wasn't going to tell her mother she was in Erie until the morning she had to go back to school.

As she had driven down the familiar streets toward her home, she realized that Erie didn't feel like home. She didn't know why, it just didn't. When had that happened? She loved Erie.

Now all she could think about was a big bull in Texas and the bull's big owner. The man she loved, despite that he had called her a liar.

She sat at her familiar desk in her office at home. All the school supplies, the teacher's manuals, the how-to books surrounded her. Before, whenever she had come in here, she'd been filled with enthusiasm at the prospect of teaching her little babies. But now she knew they weren't her babies, they were little kindergarten kids who belonged to other people.

When had the little babies in her class stopped fulfilling the need she had? She used to love going to her classroom, loved teaching, loved planning the lessons. She had loved wiping sniffly noses, and watching the kids play and learn. For some reason none of that thrilled her anymore. She knew she would still love her job and love her kids, but the thrill of the
job wasn't there. She wanted more. Much more. She wanted Rex. She wanted Rex's baby.

Why was it that life was so complicated? Why couldn't Rex simply understand that? Why did he have to go off about the pinpricks? She told him she hadn't used those.

Anyway, Rex wouldn't even consider marrying her, and she certainly didn't want to marry him. If she did, she'd be giving in to her mom's bet. Of course, it was a nonissue because Rex never gave her any indication he might be interested in marriage.

Besides, where would they live? Even though Erie didn't feel like home right now, she was sure in a week or so it would, and she'd settle right back into her routine.

Even if things had worked out between her and Rex, she couldn't stay in Texas. She had her family and her job and her friends here.

When she had been in Pegleg, Cara thought she had everything figured out. She was a modern woman, she was going to have a baby, raise it on her own, be pen pals with the father. She knew what she wanted and no one could stop her.

Then something had happened between the time she left Pegleg and arrived back in Erie. Time, that's what had happened. Time to think. Time to reflect. Time to contemplate the fact that she didn't have a baby, she didn't have Rex, and probably would never have either.

She wanted him. All she could remember were the moments she had spent with Rex. To remember what it was like to stroke his face. The feel of his temple where the tiny pulse point seemed to accelerate beneath the touch of her fingertips. She'd circled his temple with a softness and gentleness she didn't realize she possessed. The feel of his cheek, the contour of his jawline traveling upward toward the earlobe,
then behind the shell of his ear and toward the nape of his neck. Never would she have thought that a cheek could make her body tingle, make her want to drink in the fragrance of his cologne, nuzzle the crook of his neck and never have to raise her head.

What she realized most of all, what she hadn't expected, was the loneliness. The terrible, terrible sense of loss, something that had hit her hard when she had least expected it. The moment she had left Tony's restaurant.

On Sunday night, the phone rang, and she could tell by the ring that it was Cecilia. Only her mother's rings were that persistent.

“Where have you been?” Cecilia shrieked at her. “Don't you know I'm your mother?”

“Yes. How are you?”

“I'm as fine as can be expected being the mother of a daughter who drops off the face of the earth for ten days.”

“I'm sorry, Mom. I couldn't stand the matchmaking anymore.”

Her mother let out one of her big sighs. “I guess you're right. I shouldn't meddle. After all, I'm sure Brigit's skinny daughter is already married by now and probably pregnant.”

“Do you know that for a fact?” Cara hoped Shannon was married. It would sure be a relief to get Cecilia off her back.

“No, she's not married,” her mother snapped. “If she were married, don't you think Brigit would be lording the fact over us until we all puked?”

Oh, well, Cara thought. So much for that wish. “Maybe you and Brigit can call it a draw and the two of you can go to the Catskills and leave us alone.”

Cara could hear her mother nodding, since her cheek was rubbing up and down on the mouthpiece.
“I was thinking the same thing. There's no point in playing around with your future and your happiness.”

“Thank you, Mom.”

“Well, I know I shouldn't have done this, since you've been such a terrible daughter, running out on us without a word. But you know, there was this sale, and I did find a beautiful dress for you, and I'm dying for you to come over and try it on.”

“Is this a setup?”

“How could it be setup? Did I know you were going to be home? Did I know I was going to see you?”

“No. Okay, I'll be right over.”

Ten minutes later Cara was knocking on the front door of her parents' house. Her mother opened it and gave her a big hug. “I missed you,” she said, and for the first time Cara knew her mother really meant it.

“Where's Dad?”

“He's in the den. Do you want to go and see him?”

“Sure.”

“Good. I'll go get the dress. I hope you like it.”

“I'm sure I'll love it.”

Cara's dad was sitting on the chair in the den, and for the first time in as long as she could remember he didn't have his head buried in a newspaper, and he wasn't watching television. He stood up and walked over to her, gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. “You had us worried, Cara. Don't ever leave without giving us a number where we can reach you.”

“You're right. I'm sorry. It was so wrong of me to do that.”

“That's right, it was,” said a wonderfully familiar voice. “Do you know how long it took to pry out of Tony where you lived?”

Cara swung around. “When did you get here?”

“Thirty minutes ago.”

“Ohmigod. With my parents?”

“That's why your mother called you. I wanted to meet them first before I saw you again.”

“Why? To see if I come from good breeding stock?”

“Come on, Cara. You don't believe that, do you?”

“No.”

“I asked her to call you because I wanted to see you again. In neutral territory.”

“This isn't neutral.”

“It is to me.” He stood in front of her, gathering her hands in his. “I had to see you again. I had to tell you how much I love you. How sorry I am about what happened.”

“Rex.” She put her arms around him and melted into his chest. Home. This is where she belonged. The feel of him. His arms around her. His face nuzzling her neck. This is where she needed to be.

“I see you found him,” Cecilia said. “Nice boy. If he had been living in Erie, I would have brought him over to meet you.”

“I know you would have, Mom.” Not likely. Rex was too manly. Cecilia had preferred all the wimpy, skimpy men with no personalities.

“Here,” her mother said. “Your dress.”

It would figure her mother would have bought her a bridal gown.

Cecilia held it up against her own body. “Do you like it?”

“It's nice.” She wasn't going to get excited over lace and silk, no matter how beautiful the dress was. She wasn't getting married.

“I was hoping you'd have changed your mind about that.” He pulled one of Cara's gold coins out of his pocket. In the hole where it was supposed to be attached to the bracelet, he had tied a big ring. A diamond ring. “I was making sure the ring and the coins all matched. Wouldn't want you clashing.” He
took her hand, slipping the diamonds and gold on her finger.

She looked at her hand, then at her mother and father, and finally at Rex. “I love you, you know.”

He released a big breath. “You can't possibly love me more than I love you.”

“You called me a thief and a liar.”

“You did lie and you stole my heart.”

“I didn't steal your semen,” she whispered.

“We'll talk about it when we can use visual aids,” he said quietly.

“I can't hear anything. Did she say okay?” Cecilia interrupted.

“I don't recall hearing a question,” Cara said.

“Did you ask her? What's taking so long?”

“I hope you'll marry me, Cara. I love you. I want you. I want to be the father to all your children. I love your heart, your spirit and your kindness. I love your protectiveness, your loyalty and your body.” He winked, leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Especially that one particular dimple on your hip, I love to nip it and lick it—”

Cara stepped back, her face heated, her temperature rising. She gazed at the man in front of her. Pure male. How she loved him. “I almost want to say no because of my Mom and Brigit's stupid bet. But I don't want to lose you. I don't want to be apart from you. I only want to be with you always and forever. So it's a yes.”

Cecilia started jumping and screaming and singing, “Where's the phone, where's the phone, I've got to call that Brigit. Where's the phone?”

Cara took Rex by the hand. She whispered so only he could hear, “Come on with me, big boy. I want to take you back to my apartment so that you can show me the right and proper way to gather up your personal stash of semen.”