Baby Bonanza

Five

Once the ship had docked and most of the passengers had disembarked for their day of shopping, sailing and exploring the city of Cabo San Lucas, Nick got busy. He’d already had Teresa make a few calls, and the lab at the local hospital was expecting them.

The sun was hot and bright and the scent of the sea greeted them the moment he and Jenna stepped out on deck. Ordinarily Nick would have been enjoying this. He loved this part of cruising. Docking in a port, exploring the city, revisiting favorite sites, discovering new ones.

But today was different. Today he was on a mission, so he wasn’t going to notice the relaxed, party atmosphere of Cabo. Just as he wasn’t going to notice the way Jenna’s pale green sundress clung to her body or the way her legs looked in those high-heeled sandals. He had no interest in the fact that her dark blond hair looked like spilled honey as it flowed down over her shoulders and he really wasn’t noticing her scent or the way it seemed to waft its way to him on the slightest breeze.

Having her stay in his suite had seemed like a good idea yesterday. But the knowledge that she was so close, that she was just down the hall from him, alone in her bed, had taunted him all night long. Now his eyes felt gritty, his temper was too close to the surface and his body was hard and achy.

Way to go, Falcon, he told himself.

“So where are we going?” she asked as he laid his hand at the small of her back to guide her down the gangplank to shore. Damn, just the tips of his fingers against her spine was enough to make him want to forget all about this appointment and drag her back to his cabin instead.

Gritting his teeth, he pushed that image out of his mind.

“Teresa called the hospital here,” he muttered. “The lab’s expecting us. They’ll take a DNA sample, run it and fax the results to your lab. We should have an answer in a day or two.”

She actually stumbled and he grabbed her arm in an instinctive move. “That fast?”

“Money talks,” he said with a shrug. He’d learned long ago that with enough money, a man could accomplish anything. Way of the world. And for the first time, he was damned glad he was rich enough to demand fast action. Nick wanted this question of paternity settled. Like now. He couldn’t stop thinking about those babies. Couldn’t seem to stop looking at the picture she’d given him of them.

Couldn’t stop wondering how their very existence was going to affect-change-his life. So he needed to know if he was going to be a father or if he was simply going to be suing Jenna Baker for everything she had for lying to him. Again.

Her heels clicked against the gangway and sounded like a frantic heartbeat. He wondered if she was nervous. Wondered if she really was lying and was now worried about being found out. Had she thought he’d simply accept her word that her sons belonged to him? Surely not.

At the bottom of the gangway, a taxi was waiting. Silently blessing Teresa’s efficiency, Nick opened the door for Jenna, and when she was inside, slid in after her. In short, sharp sentences spoken in nearly fluent Spanish, Nick told the driver where to go.

“I didn’t know you spoke Spanish,” she said as he settled onto the bench seat beside her.

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know,” he said.

“I guess so.”

Of course, the same could be said about what he knew of her. He remembered clearly their time together more than a year before. But in those stolen moments, he’d been more intent on burying himself inside her than discovering her thoughts, her hopes, her dreams. He’d told himself then that there would be plenty of time for them to discover each other. He couldn’t have guessed that in one short week he’d find her, want her and then lose her.

Yet, even with the passion simmering between them, Nick could recall brief conversations when she’d talked about her home, her family. He’d thought at the time that she was different from the other women he knew. That she was more sincere. That she was more interested in him, the man, than she was in what he was. How much he had.

Of course, that little fantasy had been exploded pretty quickly.

He dropped into silence again as the cab took off. He didn’t want to talk to her. Didn’t want to think about anything but what he was about to do. With a simple check of his DNA, his life could be altered irrevocably forever. His chest was tight and his mind was racing. Cabo was no more than a colorful blur outside his window as they headed for the lab and a date with destiny.

In a few seconds the cab was swallowed by the bustling port city. At the dock and on the main drive that ran along the ocean, Cabo San Lucas was beautiful. The hotels, the restaurants and bars, everything was new and shone to perfection, the better to tempt the tourists who streamed into the city every year.

But just a few short blocks from the port and Cabo was a big city like any other. The streets were crowded with cars, and pedestrians leaped off the sidewalks and ran across the street with complete abandon, trusting that the drivers would somehow keep from running them down. Narrower, cobblestoned side streets spilled off the bigger avenues and from there came the tantalizing scents of frying onions, spices and grilling meat.

Restaurants and bars crowded together, their chipped stucco facades looking a little tattered as tourists milled up and down the sidewalks, cameras clutched in sunburned fists. As the cab driver steered his car through the maze of traffic, Nick idly glanced out the window and noted the open-air markets gathered together under dark green awnings. Under that umbrella were at least thirty booths where you could buy everything from turquoise jewelry to painted ceramic burros.

Cabo was a tourist town and the locals did everything they could to keep those vacation dollars in the city.

“Strange, isn’t it?” she mused, and Nick turned his head to look at her. She was staring out her window at the city and he half wondered if she was speaking to him or to herself. “All of the opulence on the beach and just a few blocks away…”

“It’s a city, like any other,” he said.

She turned her head to meet his gaze. “It’s just a little disappointing to see the real world beneath the glitz.”

“There’s always a hidden side. To everything. And everyone,” he said, staring into her eyes, wondering what she was feeling. Wondering why he even cared.

“What’s hidden beneath your facade, then?” she asked.

Nick forced a smile. “I’m the exception to the rule,” he told her. “What you see is what you get with me. There are no hidden depths. No mysteries to be solved. No secrets. No lies.”

Her features tightened slightly. “I don’t believe that,” she said. “You’re not as shallow as you pretend to be, Nick. I remember too much to buy into that.”

“Then your memory is wrong. Don’t look for something that isn’t there, Jenna,” he said softly, just in case their driver spoke English. “I’m not a lonely rich boy looking for love.” He leaned in toward her, keeping his gaze locked with hers, and added, “I’m doing this DNA test for my own sake. If those babies are mine, then I need to know. But I’m not the white-picket-fence kind of guy. So don’t go building castles in the air. You’ll get trapped in the rubble when they collapse.”

Jenna felt a chill as she looked into those icy blue eyes of his. All night she’d lain in her bed, thinking about him, wondering if she’d done the right thing by coming to Nick. By telling him about their sons. Now she was faced with the very real possibility that she’d made a huge mistake.

Once he was convinced that the boys were his, then what? Would he really be satisfied with writing out a child support check every month? Or would he demand time with his children? And if he did, how would she fit him into their lives?

Picturing Nick spending time in her tiny house in Seal Beach was almost impossible. His lifestyle was so far removed from hers they might as well be from different planets.

“Nick,” she said, “I know there’s a part of you that thinks I’m lying about all of this. But I’m not.” She paused, watched his reaction and didn’t see a thing that made her feel any better, so she continued. “So, before you take this DNA test, I want you to promise me something.”

He laughed shortly, but there wasn’t a single spark of humor lighting his eyes. “Why would I do that?”

“No reason I can think of, but I’m still asking.”

“What?” he asked, sitting back, dropping one hand to rest on his knee. “What’s this promise?”

She tried again to read his expression, but his features were shuttered, closing her out so completely it was as if she were alone in the cab. But he was listening and that was something, she supposed.

“I want you to promise me that whatever happens, you won’t take out what you feel for me on our sons.”

He tipped his head to one side, studied her for a long moment or two, then as she held her breath, waiting for his response, he finally nodded. “All right. I give you my word. What’s between you and me won’t affect how I treat your sons.”

Jenna gave him a small smile. “Thank you.”

“But if they are my sons,” he added quietly, “you and I have a lot of talking to do.”

The DNA test was done quickly, and before she knew it, Jenna and Nick were back in the cab, heading for the docks again. Her stomach was churning as her mind raced, and being locked inside a car hurtling down a crowded street wasn’t helping. She needed to walk. Needed to breathe. Needed to escape the trapped feeling that held her in a tight grip.

Turning to Nick, she blurted suddenly, “Can we get out? Walk the rest of the way to the dock?”

He glanced at her, and whatever he saw in her face must have convinced him because he nodded, then spoke to the driver in Spanish. A moment later the cab pulled to the curb. Jenna jumped out of the car as if she were on springs and took a deep breath of cool, ocean air while Nick paid their fare.

Tourists and locals alike crowded the sidewalk and streamed past her as if she were a statue. She tucked her purse under her left arm and turned her face into the breeze sliding down the street from the sea.

“It’s still several blocks to the ship,” Nick said as he joined her on the sidewalk. “You going to be able to make it in those shoes?”

Jenna glanced down at the heeled sandals she wore then lifted her gaze back to his. “I’ll make it. I just-needed to get out of that cab and move around a little.”

“I don’t remember you being so anxious,” he said.

She laughed a little and sounded nervous even to herself. “Not anxious, really. It’s just that since the boys were born, I’m not used to being still. They keep me running all day long, and sitting in the back of that cab, I felt like I was in a cage or something and it didn’t help that neither one of us was talking and we’d just come from the lab, so my brain was in overdrive and-”

He interrupted the frantic flow of words by holding up one hand. “I get it. And I could use some air, too. So why don’t we start walking?”

“Good. That’d be good.” God, she hadn’t meant to go on a stream of consciousness there. If he hadn’t stopped her, heaven only knew what would have come out of her mouth. As it was, he was looking at her like she was a stick of dynamite with a burning fuse.

He took her arm to turn her around, and the sizzle of heat that sprang up from his touch was enough to boil her blood and make her gasp for air. So not a good sign.

Music spilled from the open doorway of a cantina and a couple of drunk, college-age tourists stumbled out onto the sidewalk. Nick pulled Jenna tight against him and steered her past them, but when they were in the clear, he didn’t release her. Not that she minded.

“So what’s a typical day for you now?” he asked as they moved along the sidewalk, a part of, yet separate from, the colorful crowd of locals and tourists.

“Typical?” Jenna laughed in spite of the fact that every nerve ending was on fire and lit from within due to Nick’s arm wrapped tightly around her waist. “I learned pretty quickly that with babies in the house there’s no such thing as typical.”

She risked a glance at him, and his blue eyes connected with hers for a heart-stopping second. Then he nodded and said, “Okay, then describe one of your untypical days for me.”

“Well, for one thing, my days start a lot earlier than they used to,” she said. “The twins sleep through the night now, thank God, but they’re up and raring to go by six every morning.”

“That can’t be easy.” His arm around her waist loosened a bit, but he didn’t let her go and Jenna felt almost as if they were a real couple. Which was just dangerous thinking.

“No,” she said quickly, to rein her imagination back in with cold, dry facts. Their lives were so different, he’d never be able to understand what her world was like. He woke up when he felt like it, had breakfast brought to his room and then spent the rest of his day wandering a plush cruise ship, making sure his guests were happy.

She, on the other hand…

“There are two diapers that need changing, two little bodies who need dressing and two mouths clamoring for their morning bottle. There are two cribs in the room they share and I go back and forth between them, sort of on autopilot.” She smiled to herself as images of her sons filled her mind. Yes, it was a lot of work. Yes, she was tired a lot of the time. And no, she wouldn’t change any of it.

“How do you manage taking care of two of them?”

“You get into a rhythm,” she said with a shrug that belied just how difficult it had been to find that rhythm. “Cooper’s more patient than his brother, but I try not to use that as an excuse to always take care of Jacob first. So, I trade off. One morning I deal with Cooper first thing and the next, it’s Jacob’s turn. I feed one, then the other and then get them into their playpen so I can start the first of the day’s laundry loads.”

“You leave them alone in a playpen?”

Instantly defensive, Jenna shot him a glare. “They’re safe and happy and it’s not as if I just toss them into a cage and go off to party. I’m right there with them. But I have to be able to get things done and I can’t exactly leave them on the floor unattended, now, can I?”

“Hey, hey,” he said, tightening his grip around her waist a little. “That wasn’t a criticism…”

She gave him a hard look.

“Okay,” he acknowledged, “maybe it was. But I didn’t mean it to be. Can’t be easy. A single mother with two babies.”

“No, it’s not,” she admitted and her hackles slowly lowered. “But we manage. We have playtime and the two of them are so bright and so interested in everything…” She shook her head. “It’s amazing, really, watching them wake up to the world a little more each day.”

“Must be.”

He was saying the right things, but his tone carried a diffidence she didn’t much like. But then how could she blame him? He didn’t believe yet that the boys were his sons. Of course, he would hold himself back, refusing to be drawn in until it had been proven to him that he was their father.

“When they take their naps, I work.”

“Yeah,” he said, guiding her around a pothole big enough to swallow them both, “you said you had your own business. What do you do?”

“Gift baskets,” she said, lifting her chin a little. “I design and make specialty gift baskets. I have a few corporate clients, and I get a lot of business over the Internet.”

“How’d you get into that?” he asked, and Jenna was almost sure he really was interested.

“I started out by making them up for friends. Birthdays, baby showers, housewarming, that sort of thing,” she said. “It sort of took off from there. People started asking me to make them baskets, and after a while I realized I was running a business. It’s great, though, because it lets me be home with the boys.”

“And you like that.”

Not a question, a statement. She stopped walking, looked up at him and said, “Yes, I like it. I couldn’t bear the thought of the boys being in day care. I want to be the one to see all of their firsts. Crawling, walking, speaking. I want to hear their giggles and dry their tears. I want to be at the heart of their lives.”

He studied her for a long minute or two, his gaze moving over her face as if he were trying to imprint her image on his mind. Or trying to read her thoughts to see if she had really meant everything she just said.

“Most women wouldn’t want to be trapped in a house with two screaming babies all day,” he finally said.

Instantly Jenna bristled. “A, the women you know aren’t exactly the maternal type, now, are they? B, the boys don’t scream all day and C, spending time with my kids isn’t a trap. It’s a gift. One I’m thankful for every single day. You don’t know me, Nick. So don’t pretend you do.”

One dark eyebrow lifted, and an amused glint shone in those pale eyes of his. “I wasn’t trying to insult you,” he said softly. “I…admire what you’re doing. What you feel for your sons. All I meant was, that what you said was nice to hear.”

“Oh.” Well, didn’t she feel like an idiot? “I’m sorry. I guess I’m a little quick on the trigger.”

“A little?” He laughed shortly, and started walking again, keeping his arm locked about her waist as if concerned she might wander off. “The words Mother Grizzly come to mind.”

Even Jenna had to chuckle. “You’re right, you know. I learned the moment the boys were born. I was so electrified just by looking at them…to know they’d come from me. It’s an amazing feeling. Two tiny boys-one minute they’re not there, and the next, they’re breathing and crying and completely capturing my heart. I fell in love so completely, so desperately, that I knew instantly I would never allow anyone or anything to hurt them. Nobody criticizes my kids. Nobody.”

“Yeah,” he said, with a thoughtful look in his eyes. “I get it.”

His hand at her waist flexed and his fingers began to rub gently, and through the thin fabric of her summery dress, Jenna swore she could feel his skin on hers. Her heartbeat jumped into high gear, and her breathing was labored. Meeting his gaze, she saw confusion written there and she had to ask, “What is it? What’s wrong?”

Quickly he said, “Nothing. It’s just…” He stopped, though, before he could explain. Then, shaking his head, he said, “Come on, we’ve still got a long walk ahead of us.”

A half hour later Jenna’s feet were aching and she was seriously regretting jumping out of that cab. But there were compensations, too. Such as walking beside Nick, his arm around her waist as if they were really a couple. She knew she should step out of his grasp, but truthfully, she was enjoying the feel of him pressed closely to her too much to do it.

It had been so long since their week together. And in the time since, she hadn’t been with anyone else. Well, she’d been pregnant for a good part of that time, so not much chance of hooking up with someone new. But even if she hadn’t been, she wouldn’t have been looking. Nick had carved himself into her heart and soul in that one short week and had made it nearly impossible for her to think about being with anyone else.

Which was really too bad when she thought about it. Because he’d made it clear they weren’t going to be getting together again. Not that she wanted that, or anything…

“Oh!” She stopped suddenly as they came abreast of the street market they’d passed on their way to the lab. An excellent way to clear her mind of any more disturbing thoughts of Nick. “Let’s look in here.”

Frowning some, like any man would when faced with a woman who wanted to shop, Nick said, “What could you possibly want to buy here? It’s a tourist trap.”

“That’s what makes it fun,” she told him, and slipped out of his grasp to walk beneath the awning and into the aisle that wound its way past at least thirty different booths.

She wandered through the crowd, sensing Nick’s presence behind her. She glanced at tables set up with sterling silver rings and necklaces, leather coin purses and crocheted shawls that hung in colorful bunches from a rope stretched across the front of a booth. She smiled at the man selling tacos and ignored the rumbling of her stomach as she moved on to a booth selling T-shirts.

Nick came up behind her and looked over her head at the display of tacky shirts silk-screened with images of Cabo, sport fishing and the local cantinas. Shaking his head at the mystery that was women, he wondered why in the hell she’d chosen to shop here.

“Need a new wardrobe?” he asked, dipping his head so that his voice whispered directly into her ear.

She jumped a little, and he enjoyed the fact that he made her nervous. He’d felt it all day. That hum of tension simmering around her. When he touched her, he felt the heat and felt her response that fed the fires burning inside him. The moment he’d wrapped his arm around her waist, he’d known it was a mistake. But the feel of her body curved against his had felt good enough that he hadn’t wanted to let her go.

Which irritated the hell out of him.

He’d learned his lesson with her a year ago. She’d lied to him about who she was. Who was to say she hadn’t lied about her response to him? Wasn’t lying still? But even as he thought that, he wondered if anyone could manufacture the kind of heat that spiraled up between them when their bodies brushed against each other.

“The shirts aren’t for me,” she was saying, and Nick pushed his thoughts aside to pay attention. “I thought maybe there’d be something small enough for the boys to-here!”

She pulled a shirt out from a stack and it was so small, Nick could hardly believe that it could actually be worn. There was a grinning cartoon burro on the front and the words Baby Burros Need Love Too stenciled underneath it. “It’s so cute! Don’t you think so?”

Nick’s breath caught hard in his chest as she turned her face up to his and smiled so brightly the shine in her eyes nearly blinded him. He’d given women diamonds and seen less of a display of joy. If this was an act, he thought, she should be getting an Oscar.

“Yeah,” he said. “I guess it is.” Then he looked past her to the woman who ran the booth and in Spanish told her they’d be needing two of the shirts.

Smiling, the woman found another matching shirt, dropped them both in a sack and held them out. Nick paid for the shirts before Jenna could dig in her purse. Then he took hold of her hand and, carrying the bag, led her back out onto the street.

“You didn’t have to buy them,” she told him once they were on their way to the dock again.

“Call it my first present to my sons.”

She stumbled a little and he tightened his hold on her hand, steadying her even while he felt his own balance getting shaky.

“So you believe me?”

Nick felt a cold, hard knot settle into the pit of his stomach. He looked into Jenna’s eyes and couldn’t find the slightest sign of deception. Was she too good at hiding her secrets? Or were there no secrets to hide? Soon enough, he’d know for sure. But for now “I’m starting to.”