See Jane Love (17 page)

But Gabe wasn’t laughing, nor was he smiling. “I do all right. Can I get you something to drink?” he asked, shrugging out of his jacket.

“No, but thanks,” she said, making herself comfortable on the sectional. It was obvious he didn’t think his living quarters were any of her business. She took another glance around. Not only was it fancy, but neat and tidy, too. Maybe he was subletting the place, or maybe the apartment belonged to a lady friend, possibly his lover. Quickly, she pushed the last thought from her mind. “Alex and Sara send their love.”

He snorted and sat down on the other end of the sectional. “Do they know you’re here?”

“Yes. I told Sara yesterday that I was coming to New York and that I planned to stop in and say hi to you. That’s how I got your address. I flew in this morning. I checked in at a hotel, and then I took a quick peek at the city. This is my first time in New York.” She knew she was rambling, but she didn’t care. She had every right to be nervous.

“So, you’re here on business, or pleasure?”

“A little of both,” she said, plucking a magazine from the glass coffee table and flipping through it. A naked woman stared back at her from one of the pages. Janie quickly closed it and set it aside.

A brief smile touched his lips. “Sorry about that.”

Shrugging, she said, “That’s okay. I understand. You’re a bachelor. It’s perfectly normal for a bachelor to like that sort of . . .” She glanced at the magazine, then looked up at him. “You
are
still a bachelor, aren’t you?”

“Last I checked.” She smiled with relief. But her smile quickly faltered when Gabe asked, “So, is your visit to
me
business, or pleasure?”

“A little of both,” she said again, then blurted, “I’m going to have a baby.
We’re
going to have a baby.”

Gabe didn’t so much as blink. He
couldn’t
blink, couldn’t move. He’d never been so stunned in all his life.
A baby. Janie was going to have his baby.
He half anticipated, half dreaded the idea. Was he ready for this?

Sitting motionless for what seemed like forever, his gaze drifted over her again. He’d already checked her out thoroughly downstairs in the lobby. Even through the baby blue sweater, he’d noticed her breasts were slightly larger. But he’d assumed she was back to her old tricks and had stuffed them with tissues. And though her waistline hadn’t looked as trim as he remembered, he’d simply contributed it to the bulky sweater.

She crossed her shapely legs, then uncrossed them, while searching his face. “Say something,” she told him. “Anything. Yell at me if it will make you feel better.”

Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “Why would I want to yell at you?”

“I don’t know. I just thought . . . I don’t know what I thought,” she said on a sigh.

Torn by conflicting emotions, he looked at her for a long time, then asked softly, “Do you want this baby, Janie?”

“Yes. God, yes. I have to admit, at first I was a little frightened and unsure of the whole thing. But, yes, I want him. Her. I don’t care which.”

He smiled, feeling relieved.

“So, you’re not angry?”

“No,” he said firmly. “I’m not angry.
Scared?
You’d better believe it.”

“Me, too. But we’ll be fine. The baby and me,” she clarified. “I didn’t come here to ask for anything. I mean, I don’t expect anything from you. I just wanted you to know.”

He watched as she fidgeted with her hands in her lap, tugged at her black skirt and then toyed with her hair before getting to her feet. “Well, that’s all I came to say.” She grabbed her coat and purse, clutched them tightly with both hands and started to move toward the door.

Gabe sprang to his feet and blocked her path. “Whoa,” he said, taking her by the upper arms and staring down at her. “Not so fast.”

Janie blinked up at him and moistened her lips.

“So, you’re just going to drop this on me, and then walk out of here?”

Swallowing, she said, “I don’t know what else to say.”

“What about us?” he asked, mixed feelings surging through him.

S
he looked at him as if he’d backhanded her.

Whatever he’d expected her to do, it wasn’t that. What happened to the Janie who’d said, “What if I told you I’d fallen in love with you?” Had she only said that to try to get him to stay in Erie? Was what they’d had together just about sex, and nothing more?

Dropping her arms, he ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Don’t tell me, let me guess. You’re one of those modern women who thinks she doesn’t need a man in her life except for sexual gratification. You probably think it’s not important that a child has both a mother and a father in his life.”

“I never said that! Don’t put words in my mouth, Montero.”

“So, you
do
think it’s important that our baby has both his mother
and
his father in his life.”

“Of course, I think it’s important.”

“Good.” They were finally getting somewhere. “Then we’re both in agreement,” he said. “What do you think about Vegas?”

“Ve--gas?”
she said, tripping over the word.

“Yes. We could fly to Vegas in the morning. I think we should get married as soon as possible.” He was as surprised by his suggestion as she seemed to be. But what choice did they have?

Dropping her purse and coat to the floor, Janie stumbled backward and almost fell over. Gabe caught her in his arms. Suddenly, she didn’t look so well.

After settling her on the sofa, he grabbed a bottled water from the refrigerator behind the bar and brought it to her. “Here, drink this,” he ordered, practically shoving it in her face.

“I’m all right,” she said, pushing the bottle away.

“Drink it. And when’s the last time you’ve had a decent meal?”

He watched as she took a couple swallows.

“I’ve been eating,” she said. “Or trying to, at least. It’s just that nothing much agrees with me. I’ve been mostly living on saltines and bananas.”

Gabe swore and paced the area in front of the sectional. “Why did you wait so long to tell me? What’s it been, four months?” he asked, as if it were nothing but a lucky guess. He knew exactly how long it had been since he’d seen her last. Four months, one week and two days.

“Yes,” she said, tipping her chin up in that defiant little way of hers. “I’m sorry for waiting so long, but I just didn’t know how to tell you. To be honest, I was scared. I only told Sara yesterday.” She paused, and then added, “And stop yelling at me, or you’re going to make me cry. I cry over nothing, you know.” And then her bottom lip jutted forward and her eyes filled with tears.

Rushing to her side, Gabe sat down on the sofa and pulled her to his chest. “Don’t cry, Janie. I’m sorry I yelled at you. It’s just that this is all a little . . .”

“Overwhelming?” she asked between sobs.

“Yes. No. We’ll get through it okay. If you’re feeling up to it, we’ll leave for Vegas in the morning, and by tomorrow night we’ll be married.”

She lifted her face from his chest, sniffed, and wiped her tears with the backs of her hands. “It’s not that simple. What about blood tests and--”

“Nevada doesn’t require blood tests to get a marriage license, and there’s no waiting period. All you need is a driver’s license.” He knew because Jed, his protagonist in his detective books, had almost gone off the deep end and married one of his lovers while in Vegas. Gabe had done his research into the matter.

“Don’t you think we’re rushing things a bit?” she asked, a long yawn following.

“Maybe you’re right. We can always wait until the day after tomorrow, once you’ve caught up on your sleep.”

“That’s not what I meant, Montero, and you know it. I meant that we don’t have to get married, just because I’m pregnant.”

“Like hell, we don’t.” Call him old fashioned, but he couldn’t help his feelings.

She blinked up at him, but didn’t say anything.

Okay, so she didn’t want to marry him. All that talk about falling in love with him had been nothing more than her trying to get him to change his mind about leaving her. She’d only wanted him for sex. And the thought angered him.

“If you’re worried that the sex will get stale once we’re married, don’t,” he said. “I’ll make sure you have a constant smile on your face.”

Her mouth flew open. “You conceited, arrogant, cocky son of a bee,” she swore, stabbing him in the center of his chest with her finger. “Is that what you think? That I’m only concerned about sex?”

“Look, let’s not pretend here, okay? We both know what you wanted from me. But things have changed now. Whether we like it or not, we’re going to have a child together. I, for one, think our son or daughter would feel better knowing their parents were married when they were born. So, you can forget whatever fantasies you had about raising this child on your own. It’s not going to happen. You’re stuck with me.”

She opened her mouth to argue with him again, but another yawn came out instead. When it ended, she said, “I’m too tired to argue with you right now. I’m going back to my hotel--”

“Which hotel?” he asked.

“The Hilton on 57th.”

“Uh, huh,” he said, easing her head down to his lap. “Why don’t you stay with me tonight?”

Lifting her head a notch, she said, “I don’t think that would be such a good idea.”

Now, why didn’t that surprise him? Somehow, he’d known that was exactly what she would say. “Why don’t you just rest for a minute first, and then I’ll call you a cab.”

He felt the tension in her, and he swore she was about to bolt. But instead, she closed her eyes and was fast asleep in less than a minute.

Gabe toyed with a lock of her silky auburn hair, tipping his head to get a whiff of her. Cotton candy, he thought, smiling and remembering. The woman had gotten under his skin when he wasn’t looking, and now it seemed as if she’d be stuck there forever.

Was he making a mistake insisting that she marry him? He didn’t think so. He couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than Janie and their baby. He smiled to himself, then sighed in frustration. If only she wanted him for something other than to warm her sheets.

It wasn’t as if he expected her to be in love with him because he didn’t. And it
certainly
wasn’t as if
he
were in love with
her
. Or was he? The thought almost made him laugh. Hell, he didn’t know anything about love. So, surely whatever he felt for her wasn’t that. Then again, how
did
he feel about her?

Janie made him happy, that was for sure. Never had a woman gotten to him the way she had. There hadn’t been a day since last July that he hadn’t thought about her. He’d been in a constant state of agonizing arousal most days. And he hadn’t been thinking just sexual thoughts. Those incredible green eyes, and all those cute little freckles, lingered around the edges of his mind, as well. Not to mention that he’d never been the same since Janie had first
hiccupped. He’d never heard of such a thing before.

Staring down at her sleeping form, Gabe grinned. He didn’t know how to put his feelings for her into one word, but whatever he felt for her couldn’t be love. He only wished he knew for
sure what it was.

Once he knew Janie was sleeping soundly, Gabe slipped out from beneath her and went to his study to make a few calls. Punching in the first set of numbers, he smiled when he heard his friend Tano answer. “Hey, my man, how’s it going? And how’s Maria?”

“Gabe, you old dog, you. Maria’s as beautiful as ever,” the man said with a heavy Spanish accent.

Gabe laughed. “That’s great. Hey, I was wondering if you could do me a
favor.”

“Sure. Anything for you. I owe you, you know that.”
Just because he’d put in a good word for Tano at the cab company a few years ago, and the manager had hired him, Tano thought he owed Gabe the world. And no matter how many times Gabe had tried to tell him otherwise, the man refused to listen to reason. “Do me this favor, and then we’ll call it even.”

“Like I said, anything for you, Gabe.”

“Great. Here’s what I want you to do.”

A tacky wedding chapel in Las Vegas was not Janie’s idea of a wedding. There were no flowers, no guests, no bridesmaids, no father to give her away, and no Sara as her matron of honor. And yet, in less than ten minutes, this was where she and Gabe were going to be married.

Glancing around the tiny waiting room, she noticed the others. They all looked so happy, so in love. A couple in their twenties and dressed in blue jeans couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Even the older couple--both with gray hair and dentures--were holding hands and smiling.

Gabe sat beside her, a glum expression on his face, and ran his fingers along the creases of his gray wool trousers. He hadn’t so much as looked her way once they’d sat down. Was he nervous? Was he having second thoughts?

Was
she
?