Countdown To Baby

Now she felt terrible. Geoff had gone to so much trouble to make this a perfect evening, and here she was questioning his motives. Just because most of the men in her past had turned out to be all flash and no substance didn’t mean she should judge Geoff by their standards.

But experience made a pretty darned good teacher, she thought as she tried to ignore the ripple of foreboding that went through her. She would be incredibly foolish to forget all the hard-earned lessons she had learned along the way.

Propped on one elbow, Geoff lay in the big iron bed watching Cecilia sleep. Moonlight streamed through the open bedroom window, bathing her in a soft light that suited her creamy skin. Her dark hair tumbled around her, and he remembered once wondering how it would look spread across his pillow. He was delighted that he’d had the chance to find out.

She must be tired, he thought, his gaze lingering for a moment on the purply smudges beneath her long eyelashes. She had talked about how busy they’d been at the clinic lately, and how much stress they’d been working under.

She had been up most of the night delivering the baby that had interrupted their last evening together. She’d told him the baby hadn’t arrived until nearly two a.m. She needed a couple of days of rest and relaxation.

They’d had a very pleasant evening. After finishing their dinner, they had taken a leisurely stroll down the path to the water, where they’d sat for a while on the benches built into the sides of the fishing pier. Letting a companionable silence fall between them, they had listened to the water lapping against the pier and the bank.

Away from the lights of town, the stars had twinkled brilliantly above them, reflecting in scattered-diamond patterns on the surface of the lake. Hidden in the trees surrounding them, frogs and night birds had entertained them with an enthusiastic concert.

It had been a magical evening, as far as Geoff was concerned. He was so comfortable with Cecilia, so relaxed. Not only did she seem to have no particular expectations of him, she actually seemed uncomfortable when he went to extra trouble on her behalf.

He remembered her warning that he was in danger of spoiling her. Had it been so rare for

her to be pampered? He knew she was close to her brother and that Eric took care of her home-maintenance needs, but she seemed to be almost entirely unaccustomed to nice gestures from anyone else.

Were all the men she had known—including her ex-husband—total idiots? Hadn’t they realized that Cecilia was a very special woman, someone who gave so much to others that she well deserved to be indulged occasionally herself? If so, it was no wonder she’d been a bit wary of his motives.

She’d asked if he always made romantic gestures toward the women in his life. Truth was, he had done things like that for other women. He enjoyed planning nice evenings, got a kick out of watching a woman’s eyes light up in surprise and pleasure.

But it had been a long time since he’d made the effort for anyone. And there was something different about the way he felt when he did something special for Cecilia. Maybe because she expected so little from him. Maybe because there was something different about Cecilia herself.

She was the first woman he had ever considered having a child with. Maybe because she was the first woman who’d ever asked him to, he thought with a smile. But also because she was the first woman he had ever seen as a suitable mother for his child. Darned near perfect, as a matter of fact.

He reached out to smooth a strand of hair away from her cheek. She murmured something in her sleep and nestled more deeply into the pillow. He wanted to lean over and kiss her, but he was afraid he would awaken her. She needed her rest. If he’d had to, he would have lain awake all night watching over her to make sure nothing interfered with her sleep.

This new level of protectiveness was different, too. Especially considering that he’d met few women more unmistakably capable of taking care of themselves.

He felt his smile turn slowly to a frown, and he wasn’t sure exactly why. It seemed to have something to do with the strength of his feelings for Cecilia—feelings that were beginning to seem too intense considering the parameters of the relationship they had agreed to. While he’d thought it would be convenient to be good friends with his child’s mother, this felt like more than friendship. Unnervingly more.

The odd feelings would pass, he assured himself. Neither he nor Cecilia wanted this situation to get all sticky and complicated. With the possible addition of a child, she liked her life just the way it was, and he felt the same way about his.

Just because she looked so absolutely right in his bed didn’t mean he wanted her to become a permanent fixture there, he assured himself.

Funny. He usually made pronouncements like that with a bit more conviction.

Chapter Twelve

Cecilia must have needed time away from her usual routines even more than she had realized. Though Geoff’s weekend place was less than an hour from her home, it felt much farther.

Rather than waking at sunrise and going nonstop all day as she usually did, she and Geoff slept late Saturday, then woke to a slow, delicious bout of lovemaking. They had a late breakfast, then walked down to the water to swim and sunbathe and be lazy until heat and precaution against too much sun sent them back inside.

She discovered something new about Geoff that afternoon. The man was a fanatic about games. Scrabble, Monopoly, Yahtzee, Parcheesi—he didn’t seem to care which game she selected as long as they played. And as long as she made it a true challenge. He loved to win—and he gloated unrepentantly when he did—but he was a good loser, accepting defeat with grace and humor.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had played games like this, since Eric wasn’t much of a player. Nor could she remember laughing so much in one afternoon—laughing until her sides ached and tears rolled down her cheeks in response to Geoff’s foolishness.

They fired up the barbecue for dinner, threading chicken and vegetables onto skewers and roasting them slowly over the coals. They ate outside again, taking their time, talking about nothing more serious than the taste of the food and the merits of the music playing quietly on the unseen speakers.

Cecilia made a specific effort to keep things light, casual. The way it had been between them all day. She didn’t bring up his romantic gestures—or allow herself to wonder how much of that was for her benefit and how much just from habit. She didn’t talk about the clinic and the problems there. She didn’t mention Geoff’s impending business trips.

She didn’t even discuss their hopes for a baby, since even that seemed like too serious a topic for this utterly relaxed day.

It was nicer this way. No past. No future. No plans or expectations. It was so delightfully different from her usual carefully planned and scheduled routine. And she intended to enjoy every single moment of it.

Geoff was the one who finally brought reality into the fantasy. They had gone back outside in the late afternoon when some of the heat had dissipated, and they were taking a stroll through the woods surrounding the house, watching birds and enjoying an occasional spectacular view from the hilltops. He turned to lean against the trunk of a tree as she enjoyed a particularly nice scene of the lake dotted with sailboats and fishing boats, with fluffy white clouds overhead and the blue mountains in the distant background.