Secret Dream: Delos Series, 1B1 (14 page)

“What if I’m not pregnant?” Lia whispered, giving him a panicked look.

Cav moved his hand comfortingly along her tense shoulders. “Then we’ll keep trying until it happens.” For him, it wasn’t the end of the world, but he had known since meeting Lia months earlier that she wanted to have children. And she was twenty-six years old and wanted to have her children sooner, not later. He saw her face fall. Leaning over, he kissed her cheek and squeezed her. “Relax. I think you are pregnant, Lia.”

“Really? Do you, Cav? You’re not just saying that to make me feel better?”

Squelching a smile, he maintained a serious expression for her sake, continuing to move his hand slowly across her shoulders. “It’s a sense, baby.”

“Your SEAL sense?”

“Yes.”

“Well, how accurate is it?”

He wanted to laugh but curbed it. She was distraught over not knowing the lab results and he hoped Rayne would get back to them soon. “Pretty accurate,” he replied. “It’s saved my life and the lives of the people on my team a number of times when we were out on missions.”

Nodding, she closed her eyes, forcing herself to take a deep breath. “Ever since that one night you made love to me, when I felt so different, I’ve thought I was pregnant.”

“Well,” he said, keeping his voice low and calm, “we’ll find out shortly.”

Rayne entered the office. She beamed at them. “Lia! You’re pregnant!” She waved the test results in her hand, smiling widely. “Congratulations!”

Gasping, Lia appeared stunned. “Really, Rayne? I’m really pregnant?”

Laughing, Rayne handed her the results. “See this hormone?” She pointed at the paper. “It verifies without a doubt that you are pregnant. And judging by the numbers, I’d say you’re three to four weeks along.” She handed the paper to Lia. She looked over at Cav. “You’re going to be a father. Congratulations!”

Lia stared for a moment at the paper between her trembling hands. And then she burst into tears.

Rayne made a soft sound of sympathy and watched as Cav gathered her into his arms and held her as she sobbed against his chest. Giving him a look of thanks for his sensitivity toward Lia, she hugged her gently. “You’re going to be a mom, Lia. This is wonderful news!”

Cav felt tears burn in the back of his eyes and he blinked them away. Lia shook like a leaf in his arms, her sobs loud and filled with relief. He knew exactly the night that he’d gotten her pregnant and joy soared through him. Kissing her sable-colored hair, he absorbed her weeping and her laughter. Never had he felt such happiness as he did in this moment with her.

Rayne went over to her desk and grabbed a box of tissues. “Here,” she offered, pressing one of them into Lia’s hand after pulling the lab results from her clutching fingers. She gave Cav a sunny smile, and he nodded his thanks to her.

Lia finally reined in her runaway, joyous emotions. She gave Cav an apologetic look.

He smiled and kissed her wet lips tenderly. Her heart was pounding with such relief and happiness as she eagerly returned his searching kiss. As she drew away, she stared wonderingly over at him. “I’m pregnant, Cav. We’re going to have a baby . . .”

“Yeah, I feel pregnant by proxy,” he said, giving her a warm smile, pushing some of her dark hair away from her damp, reddened cheek. “You’re going to make an incredible mother. I know you are.” His throat jammed up with so many emotions, all good, as he saw her gray eyes shining with utter happiness. He heard Rayne’s husky, low laugh. She stood up and shrugged out of her white lab coat and hung it up behind her desk.

“Come on, you two, let’s get out of here. Cav, you should take Lia out for a celebration dinner tonight.”

Cav stood, wrapping his hand around Lia’s and bringing her to her feet. She looked so emotional that he wasn’t certain about going out in public with her right now. “Well, maybe soon,” he told Rayne.

Rayne pulled on her raincoat, buttoning it up. “Well, whatever you do, celebrate. Having a baby is something I dream about, too.”

Cav knew that Rayne was a carbon copy of Lia in some ways. She was maternal. Loved children. Wanted a brood of them. But she had lost her husband to the drug soldiers in Mexico. He, too, had been a physician, and they had traveled once a year to Sonora, Mexico, setting up medical clinics in many villages that had no medical services nearby. Her husband, James, had been killed trying to stop the drug soldiers from stealing the medicines they kept in the back of their SUV for their needy patients. He’d been shot in the head in front of Rayne. Cav hurt for her, because she was just as kind and giving as Lia. She deserved better out of life. Rayne was thirty-three years old, and her baby clock, as she called it, was ticking. Soon she would be too old to have a baby, she’d told him once. It was a sad situation and Cav felt deeply for the doctor, who, to this day, traveled once a year to Sonora alone, still giving her time and charity to those who had so much less than she did.

Rayne picked up her black leather purse, pulling the strap across her shoulder. Coming around her desk, she opened the door for them. Lia gave Cav a wobbly smile, wiping her eyes free of the last of her tears. He guided Lia out of Rayne’s office and into the hall of the hospital, helping her into her black wool coat.

Rayne shut and locked her office door. She walked with them down toward the entry doors at the end of the green and white tiled hall, then caught Cav’s attention. “Tal Culver says you probably feel like collateral damage to all this massive planning Dilara and Lia and her mother, Susan, are doing for your wedding.” She gave them a wicked look. “I’m learning some Turkish and Greek greetings because their global family will be here for your engagement party near Christmas.”

Cav shook his head. “That family is like a little UN.”

She chortled and said, “Don’t I know it! The whole family is amazing to me.”

Lia slid her hand into Cav’s as they walked to the sliding glass doors. “We’re going to have to bone up on some words in Turkish and Greek, too, Rayne.”

“Yeah,” she said, smiling, “I think I’ll ask Tal to give you the same cheat sheet she gave me so you can at least stumble through the greetings like I’ll be doing.”

Lia breathed in the damp, coolish air as she stepped outside. “I’d love to be able to greet them in their own languages.” The sky was filled with gray and white churning clouds, the rain having stopped. The trees were dressed in their autumn raiment, their leaves colorful, reminding her that it was her favorite season of the year. She felt Cav release her hand, his arm going around her instead. He always seemed to know when she needed to be tucked away at his side. She gave him a look of thanks, and they all headed out to the huge asphalt parking lot.

Cav stopped at their silver Kia SUV and opened up the passenger-side door, helping Lia in. She waved good-bye to Rayne, who was parked in another row. Once Cav climbed inside, shutting the door, she whispered, “I’m pregnant.”

He chuckled as he turned the key, the engine coming to life. “Indeed you are.”

“Are you happy about it, Cav?”

He felt her unsureness. Dilara had already buttonholed him about a woman’s emotions going up and down when she was pregnant. She was the only other person who had known that Lia might be pregnant and had a heart-to-heart talk with him about it, in case Lia was. He took her experiences to heart. Reaching over, helping Lia pull the seat belt across herself, he murmured, “I’m happy, baby. For both of us,” and he held her glistening gray gaze. He’d never seen such joy in Lia’s eyes except for that one special night when he knew as he’d made love with her that he’d gotten her pregnant. They had both felt it in their own way, and that was amazing to Cav as he drove slowly out of the wet parking lot. “What would you like to do?”

“Go home,” she said, rubbing her brow. “I’ve had enough excitement for one day.”

“I’ll make us dinner,” he volunteered. “Are you going to call your parents? Tell them the good news?”

“Yes.” She sat back, her hands across her stomach. “I’ll call my parents when we get home. Mom is going to be deliriously happy. She’s been wanting to be a grandma for so long . . .”

“I think your dad is going to be over the moon about it, too,” Cav said, pulling out into the quitting-time traffic of Alexandria. Their condo was only four miles south, but it would be stop-and-go on the streets of the quaint town.

“Oh,” she sighed, “Dad will be so happy! He’ll spoil our baby like he spoiled me.”

“They’re okay with you being pregnant and not married?” Because Cav knew her parents were old-fashioned in some respects. They had a thirty-year marriage. And nowadays, Cav saw people living together and never marrying. He didn’t agree with that, because he wanted Lia to see his commitment to her. He was all in. They weren’t just living together to see if their relationship could work. Sometimes, he thought that when people merely cohabited with one another, it didn’t bring the relationship the importance that it should have. If both people knew they could walk away with impunity, whether there were children involved or not, it made it too easy for a couple to quit, give up and not put in the effort to make the relationship work.

By observing Chief Jacoby’s marriage, how he devoted himself to his wife and children, and by watching Susan and Steve working daily with one another in their relationship, Cav had seen the kind of positive role models he hadn’t had in his own family. And he wanted Lia to know, without question, that he loved her and was 100 percent devoted to making their marriage, their relationship, work. Cav wanted to give Lia that symbolic promise. He loved her enough to marry her.

He slanted her a glance. “I’m okay that you’re pregnant before we get married, Lia. But I want us to be married by the time our baby is born. I want to give him or her our name.”

“Nowadays,” she murmured, “women don’t care if they’re married or not when they have a baby by the man they’re living with.”

“No,” he agreed. “And it’s fine for them, but it’s not fine for me or for you. Your parents have a thirty-year marriage. I think you’re wanting the same thing.”

“Better believe it.” She rubbed her belly gently. “I want our children to know that marriage is a good choice, not one they can throw away. I want them to see us working at our marriage every day. And it is work, but when you love the other person, it’s not a prison sentence.”

“No,” he said, smiling a little as he watched traffic around them down the wide avenue, “we’re a work in progress, but at least we’re committed to one another. To our family.” And Cav knew just how important that was to Lia. And to himself.

“I want what my mom and dad have, Cav. I know we can have it by working for it. I know we can raise our children with love.”

“You’ll get no argument out of me,” he teased. He reached out, covering her hand. “Are you feeling better now?”

Lia slanted him an amused glance. “I feel so high, Cav. This is a dream I’ve had forever. I played with the dolls my mom gave me from as far back as I can remember. I loved seeing my dad kiss my mom, hold her, and show his affection to her as I grew up. I wanted the same thing because they’re happy with one another. It doesn’t mean they don’t have strong discussions with one another, sometimes, but I never saw my dad ever demean my mom, and he always sat down and constructively talked things over with her. I used to sit at the kitchen table sometimes, listening to them talk with one another, not argue. There’s a huge difference.”

“Yes,” he agreed, “there’s a big difference. So we’ll have lots of constructive talks?” He gave her a teasing look, watching the corners of her lips lift.

“I’m sure we will.”

“But we get along well with one another,” Cav reminded her. “We’ve complemented one another since we met. We were never at odds with one another, Lia.”

Sighing, she leaned back, absorbing his profile as he drove. “From the moment I met you, I just felt so good about your presence in my life, Cav. And that hasn’t changed at all. In fact, it’s grown deeper and wider the more I’ve gotten to know and be around you.”

He grazed her pink cheek as he braked at a stoplight. “I feel the same way, baby, about you. About us.”

Closing her eyes, she murmured, “I’m so happy, Cav . . .”

He said nothing as his gaze moved around the major stoplight and the cars jammed bumper-to-bumper with one another. His mind moved to what he wanted to do for Lia in the near future. Knowing that she loved the country, the rural area where she’d been raised, they’d been looking at information on the farmhouses for sale that Dilara had found for them. He didn’t care where he lived, but he knew Lia did. And he wanted Lia to be happy. Cav could live anywhere with the woman he loved, but he knew Lia would flourish if they had a home out in the country, not in the city. Condo living wasn’t her style and he’d seen that often enough after they started to work at Artemis.

He wanted her to make a nest out of the home she fell in love with. His job, as he saw it, was to give her the world as much as he could. His position at Artemis paid him a damned high salary for his expertise. For that, he was grateful. But over his years as a security contractor, he’d squirreled away the bulk of what he’d earned and invested it in the stock market. He’d made his considerable savings work for him, and he was now worth over four million dollars. Cav had told no one because it wasn’t anyone’s business. He would, however, tell Lia. He wasn’t going to hide anything from the woman he loved.

Lia had no idea of his financial worth—yet. He could afford to buy her the house of her dreams. His heart expanded with a fierce love for her. In the coming weeks, he was sure there was going to be a lot of adjustment for Lia, but at least this time, it was going to be due to happy events like her pregnancy. It wouldn’t be because of some trauma, thank God. She’d gone through enough of that. A five-year hell. And he’d had no idea when he’d been hired by Robert Culver that he was going to fall in love with a woman whose life had been put on the line.

Glancing over at her, he saw Lia had closed her eyes, a new contentment in her features, her mouth now soft and relaxed, unlike before she knew she’d become pregnant. Since they’d come home from Oregon and visiting her parents, Lia had been glowing. Sometimes, that radiance just seemed to emanate from within her. Maybe being pregnant did that. He wasn’t sure, but he’d noticed those new subtleties since returning to Virginia.