Romantic Acquisition (25 page)

Kate reminded herself that she’d known all along that Carlo wasn’t a candidate for parenthood.  She had heard him say that before so it shouldn’t be a shock.  Why was her heart breaking now, then?  

Because she’d deluded herself into thinking she might be wrong.  She had been hoping that Carlo really did want to be a father, have his own children.  He’d seemed to genuinely adore his nieces and nephews.  Why was he so opposed to fatherhood? 

She knew the answer to that.  He’d told her himself several weeks ago.  Being an uncle was the best of both worlds.  He got to spend time with his nieces and nephews, spoil them, play with them but then hand them back to their parents and go do whatever he wanted to do.   He liked his freedom too much.  Who could blame him?  Many people agreed with him.  Unfortunately, they went on to have children and resent them after time, ignored them or abused them.  Carlo was admitting up front that he didn
’t
want to have children.  He was accepting that part of himself.

Could she accept it? 

Kate didn’t know the answer to that. 

She looked at Jeff and he was waiting for an answer.  She forced her concentration back to the task at hand, refusing to listen to Carlo’s conversation anymore.  It was none of her business so she should keep her nose out of it. 

By the end of the day, Kate had a headache so bad that she couldn’t think anymore. 

“I have to get home,” she said to all three of them. 

Carlo stood up and followed her into her office.  “What’s wrong?” he asked as soon as they were alone.

“I just have a really bad headache,” she said and took her purse.  “Can we hold off on our plans tonight?”

“Sure.  Let me drive you home.  You look pretty awful,” he said.

“No, please.  Don’t worry about me.  All I need is a warm bath and some aspirin and I’ll be fine.  I’ll call you later,” she said and left her office.

Kate went home and curled up on her bed, not bothering with a bath.  She let the tears fall onto her pillow, sobbing out her despair.  She felt like she’d just had a dream ripped out of her hands. 

After an hour of cry
i
ng, she pulled herself together.  She knew she was in love with Carlo.  What she didn’t know was if she could continue to see him knowing how he felt about having children.  She knew she desperately wanted children.  At least two, possibly more. 

Could she live without Carlo?  The idea almost started the tears flowing again.  She didn’t want to consider living without him.  She loved him so desperately.  He made her laugh, challenged her as no one ever had before,
and made
her feel beautiful and unique. 

So if she didn’t want to live without Carlo, could she live with him but without children
?
  Around two in the morning, she realized that yes, she could live with him but not have children.  She could find other things to ease her mothering instincts.  Many women lived wonderful lives without children. She’d just have to find a way.

The alarm went off the
next morning but she just coul
d
n
’t wake up enough to get out of bed.  She shut it off and went back to sleep.  Two hours later, her phone rang.  Still drugged by sleep, she had trouble figuring out that it was her phone and not her alarm clock.  By the time she answered it, the person had almost hung up. 

“Kate?  Where are you?” Carlo asked, the worry evident in his voice.

“Hmmm?  I’m not feeling well,” she lied, not able to face anyone today.

“I’m coming over.”

“No!” she said, sitting up in bed.  “Really, it isn’t all that bad.  I just had a hard time getting rid of the headache from yesterday.  I’m going to try and sleep it off.  I’ll be better later today.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. 

“I’m sure.  Thanks for checking on me,” she said and hung up the phone. 

She wanted to go to him, ask him point blank why he didn’t want to have children.  But she
knew that some men just didn’t
want the hassle.  She had to adapt to that. 

Kate went back to sleep and didn’t wake up until
six o’clock
that evening.  It was knocking on her door that woke her up and she dragged herself out of bed to answer it. 

“You didn’t come into the office,” Carlo said, his voice sounding angry.

“Carlo!” she said, pulling her sweatshirt down lower over her legs.  She was only wearing underwear, thick white socks and a sweatshirt, not bothering with anything else, not caring what she looked like.

“You look like hell.  Tell me what’s wrong,” he demanded and walked past her into her family room.  He dumped a bag of medicine on her coffee table.  It included everything from aspirin to
diarrhea
medicine.  He’d even brought a pint of chocolate ice cream. 

Kate laughed at his assortment of
elixirs.  “You came prepared, didn
’t
you?”
warmed beyond words by his concern. 

“I like to know I can fix whatever is wrong,” he said and put his hands on her waist.  “Tal
k to me.  Tell me what is wrong…please,
” he said, asking instead of demanding this time.

“Nothing anymore.  I feel much better.  I think I just needed some sleep,” she said and stood on tiptoe to kiss his chin, the only thing she could reach because of his height. 

He bent down and kissed her properly.  “Am I intruding?”

“Only if you take the chocolate chip ice cream away,” she said and slipped out of his arms to get two spoons.

“Have you had anything else to eat?”

Kate thought back.  “Not since yesterday’s lunch.”

“How about Chinese?” he asked.

“Sure thing,” she replied, crossing her legs on the sofa as she dove into the chocolate ice cream.

Carlo chuckled at her expression of
ecstasy
.  “I’m glad you’re easy to please.  You had me worried for a while last night.”

Kate just smiled broadly at him and took another spoonful of ice cream.

Carlo picked up the phone and ordered Chinese, already knowing what she liked since they’d ordered it a few time
s
when they were at his house.  They ate ice cream and Chinese, made love then held each other again that night. 

Kate smiled as Carlo left the next morning.  She stretched and wriggled deeper under the covers.  She felt wonderful.  She hadn’t been this happy ever in her life.  She ignored the small voice in the back of her head that reminded her that things were not perfect.  She didn’t care that they weren’t perfect.  They were better than they had ever been, that was better than most people get. 

Kate walked into a coffee shop a few hours later.  She’d overslept after Carlo had left so she hadn’t been able to make a pot of coffee.  She knew she should just settle for the office coffee, but she wanted to splurge and get a gourmet cup of coffee with lots of cream and sugar. 

Kate stood patiently in line, listening to the conversations of the other people around her.  There was a teenager with her mom in front of her who was complaining about the recent punishment imposed upon her for a tardy night’
s arrival.  Kate smiled, remembering when
her mother had grounded her for
staying out too late.  It was one of the worst weeks of her life.  She hadn’t been able to shop for seven whole days and, at that time, it had just about destroyed her. 

There were two ladies behind her who were talking about their stock portfolio.  Kate wasn’t really interested in that conversation but as they talked, something caught her attention. 

“Yeah, the guy I had drinks with last night told me I should look at investing in Jamison’s,” one lady said.
  “He was pretty cute in a
yuppie
kind of way.  I hope he calls me again.  I think we really hit it off.”

“Isn’t that the department store chain just a few blocks away?” the second one asked. 

“Yeah, according to this guy, there’s something happening with their stock that will be good long term.”

“I didn’t think they were doing well.  Hasn’t their stock been going do
wnhill over the past few years?  Did he say what was happening that might turn things around?”

Kate pictured the first one shaking her head before replying,
“
No.  He couldn’t go into any details.  T
he guy said he ran the company and knew that something big was about to happen.  He said to put all my money in their stock.”

Kate froze, wondering if David could possibly have been the person who had passed on this kind of insider information.  Everyone at Jamison’s had been instructed that this was what was called a “quiet period” in the stock industry.  No one was allowed to discuss anything regarding a potential sale. 

She crept out of line and walked the last
few
block
s
to her office in a haze of worry.  The woman had said it was the head of Jamison’s
who had given her the tip
.  But any of the people who worked there, or even a stranger, could ha
ve lied and said they were the
president.  She should warn David that someone was leaking information.

The office was e
e
rily quiet when she arrived.  No one was in the kitchen getting coffee and Carlo’s team was not in the conference room. 
There was usually one or two people hanging out in the kitchen discussing something.  It was odd that even the hallways were empty.  Everyone was in their office, she realized as she peered into the open doorways. 

She went to her office and noticed that she had a voice mail.  She dialed in and smiled when she heard Carlo’s voice letting her know that all the remaining research would be done at
ATI
instead of at Jamison’s.
  For some reason, the fact that he’d called to tell her that made her feel special.  It was the first time he’d done something like that. 

Kate settled down at her desk and was busily working throughout the day.

Her phone rang late in the morning.  “Hi gorgeous,” Carlo said.

Kate’s stomach did a flip flop after hearing his voice. 
“Hi!  How are you?”

“Not so good.  I have to fly up to
New York
.  I’ll be gone for about three days, possibly four.”

“Oh, no!” Kate said, instantly depressed.  “What’s going on?  I thought you were trying to wrap things up here.”  She wanted to tell him about the conversation she’d overheard at the coffee shop, but didn’t want to do it over the phone. 

“I just have some meetings that I have to attend.  I was hoping I could get someone else to go in my place, but something’s happened so it has to be me.”

There was a moment of silence and then he continued.  “Kate, when I get back, I think we need to have a talk.”

Kate didn’t say anything for a long moment.  He sounded too serious.  She didn’t like that. 
“What about?”
 

“I don’t want to do it over the phone.  I’ll call you, okay?”

Kate
worried about
his tone.  It sounded too ominous.  “Sure,” she said, trying to be upbeat.

“Gre
at.  I’ll see you in a few days,
”
Carlo said and hung up from his end. 

Kate hung up the phone and bit her lip.  What did he want to talk to her about?  Did he want out of their relationship?  What was wrong? 
Surely he didn’t want out of the relationship already, could he?