The Moment of Truth

Dana focused on the loosely knitted sweater coat. It was the only thing she honestly liked. The only garment her sisters had encouraged her to buy that she actually wore regularly.

At five minutes before six, after letting Lindy Lu out, she took a peek at the cat litter box. Still clean.

Only then did she slip out of the tie-up ankle boots that she loved, for the slightly longer spike-heeled boots that her sisters had insisted were much sexier.

She was ready one minute before six, according to her phone. Peeking around the front window blind, she saw Josh’s SUV out front and had a hard time breathing. He must have just pulled up because he wasn’t even out of the vehicle yet.

Her heart pounding, she debated running out and jumping in the vehicle before he could come up to the door, but she didn’t want to risk falling off her spikes, short though they may be, as she ran over the desert landscaping.

This was going to be the night of her life.

* * *

JOSH WAS BETTER prepared when he walked up Dana’s driveway on Tuesday night. Carefully chosen words were running through his mind. By the time dinner was through, Dana would be thinking that moving to a new home and letting Josh take care of her and their baby had been her idea to begin with.

The door opened almost as soon as he knocked.

For a moment he thought Dana had company. And wasn’t particularly pleased when he realized the heavily made up, sharply dressed woman was Dana. She looked like Olivia. Or Michelle. “Just let me get Lindy Lu in her kennel and I’ll be ready,” she said, while Josh stood there digesting the fact that Dana was just like other women.

That body...he’d known she was curvy, but he’d had no idea her breasts were quite that voluptuous. Or her waist so curved.

That body was carrying his baby. He didn’t want to take it anywhere dressed like that. Except to bed.

And bed was off-limits.

Standing with his hands in the pants he’d worn to work that day, his shirt wrinkled from sweating in his faux-leather chair and the knot of his tie not as tight as it had been that morning, Josh wasn’t particularly pleased.

Emotion rose up inside him. Not the grief and shame that had besieged him at the time of Michelle’s crisis and become his accepted constant companion since. He wasn’t sure what it was.

But he sure didn’t like it.

“What have they done to you?” The words burped out of him. Shut up, man, he told himself.

Excuse yourself to the restroom and find your way back when you’ve got yourself under control. His mother’s words that time.

“Who?”

“Whoever talked you into doing that to yourself?”

At the look of horror on Dana’s face, Josh knew he’d blown it. His father would have fired him on the spot if he had ever lost control like that with a client.

“We’re just going to dinner,” he said now. The business deal of his life and he hadn’t freshened up. He had his jacket in the car, but this was Dana—the one person in the world with whom he felt comfortable just being himself.

Or the person he was trying to become.

She slung her bag over one shoulder, locked her door behind them, and folded her arms.

“I wasn’t sure if we were staying in town or going to Phoenix.”

He’d never considered taking her to Phoenix. Perhaps he should have. “I’d planned to grab a burger or something at the campus pub.”

“The pub’s fine. Good,” she said.

Okay, he could still salvage this.

“I just...” He spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully because he wasn’t sure he trusted himself. “I’m sorry if I sounded derogatory about your appearance.” They were walking side by side to his SUV. “I was just shocked.”

Her chin dropped.

“You look great,” he changed course. “Like you just walked off the pages of a fashion magazine.”

“Stop, Josh. I prefer your honesty to complimentary lies. I will never be fashion mag material.”

He unlocked the SUV with his clicker and reached out to get her door, but she was there before him, opening her door and climbing in without his help.

Oh, hell...

“Look, if it’s honesty you want, then here it goes,” he said as he climbed in on his side of the car and turned to face her. “I shouldn’t be admitting this to you, considering the circumstances, but I find the real you far more attractive.” If he was going to screw up, at least it was going to be with an eye to getting what he wanted. “The world is filled with women trying to look like beach babes, or fashion magazine cutouts. Frankly, they’re a dime a dozen. The first thing that attracted me to you was that you didn’t need any of that stuff and didn’t seem to feel self-conscious about not having it on, either. You’ve got beautiful skin that looks healthy and that makes it a pleasure to look at. Your body is more enticing because of the mysteries your clothes hide.”