Her Forgotten Husband. Anne Ha
the child in front of him. He would wait, and the waiting would make it all the more pleasurable in the end.
But looking into her eyes and seeing the barely concealed hero worship in them had been difficult indeed.
“You must have been amused by my crush,” she said.
“Not at all,” he responded truthfully.
“Of course not.” She smiled. “You probably didn’t notice I was madly in love with you. I was fifteen, you said? You probably didn’t even know I was alive.”
Of course he’d known. But Garrick didn’t relish reliving that part of the past any more than necessary. “Anything else you’d like me to tell you?” he asked, hoping to shift the conversation to safer topics.
She thought for a moment, tapping her chin in that adorable way she had. “Where’d we go on our honeymoon? Maybe it will help me remember.”
He hesitated. “We stayed here in town.”
“Really? No trip to Hawaii or Mexico? Was that my choice or yours?”
“Both of ours.”
Samantha frowned. “Isn’t this strange? I can remember about Hawaii and Mexico, but I don’t know if I’ve been to either one or if I learned about them from TV.”
“You’ve been to Mexico, not Hawaii,” Garrick said.
“With you?”
“With Jenny.”
“Who’s Jenny?”
“Your best friend. My sister.”
“Oh.” She looked a little depressed. “I can’t believe I don’t remember my own best friend.”
“It’s okay, Sam. I’m sure she’ll understand. She’d be here right now, by the way, but she’s taking an exam.”
Samantha gave him a questioning look.
“Law school,” he explained. “She’s finishing her second year.” He decided he’d given Samantha enough information to absorb for one night. “How’s your headache?”
She closed her eyes briefly. “Better, but the medication they gave me isn’t very strong. I guess they didn’t want to hurt the baby.” As if suddenly reminded of the new life growing inside her, she cupped a hand to her abdomen. She grinned at him, her eyes alight. “We sure got started on our family fast, didn’t we?”
Garrick grimaced. Now what the hell was he supposed to say to that?
He racked his brains for the right response.
It didn’t come.
If he told Samantha the truth about the baby’s conception… Well, he didn’t know how she’d react. But after her romanticized version of their relationship, she was sure to be upset.
Samantha continued, unaware of his inner turmoil. “After ten years of being madly in love with you, I couldn’t wait to start a family, right? Or was it just because you’re, er, extremely virile…? No point going to Hawaii if you’re gonna spend the whole week inside the hotel room, anyway, eh?”
“I guess not,” he said, feeling trapped. He was pretty damn close to lying by omission at this point.
He should just tell her everything. That was the honorable thing to do. But when he opened his mouth, no words came out. He just stared at her beautiful features, which were so much more happy and relaxed than they’d been twenty minutes ago, and couldn’t bring himself to burst her bubble.
“Two months,” Samantha continued in wonderment. “I bet I never thought I’d get pregnant that quickly. Did you?”
“Uh, not exactly.”
She paused, tapping her chin. “Is that why we fought?”
“Why we fought?” he repeated.
“Yes. When I woke up, you asked if I was still angry. So we must have had a fight, right? Was it about the baby?”
Garrick nodded reluctantly. She might have lost her memory, but her instincts were right on. They had been fighting about the baby right before she drove off. But it wasn’t what she thought.
Samantha’s brows drew together. “You don’t want the baby, do you?” She shut her eyes. “Oh, gosh, no wonder I got amnesia. I don’t want to remember that you don’t want our baby!”
“Sam,” he said, leaning forward, “I want this baby, and I have since the moment you told me you were pregnant. Nothing could make me give it up.” And it was the truth. Despite everything, he already loved the child she carried.
“Then why were we fighting?”
He sighed. “I can’t explain that right now. I don’t even understand it myself. It was all a big mistake, which you’ll realize when you’re better.”
“You want the baby?”
“Yes, I want the baby.”
Samantha sank back against the cushions, an expression of relief on her face. She folded her hands over her belly. “The doctor said it’s May,” she mused. “So am I going to give birth in December?”
Oh, good Lord. She’d always been too mathematical. “November, actually.”
Her eyes widened. “November?”
“Early November,” he said, feeling as if he’d just stepped off the edge of a precipice.
She stared at him. “Garrick, exactly how long have I been pregnant?”
“About twelve weeks,” he admitted.
“Oh…Oh, no.” She shook her head slowly. “You married me because I got pregnant, didn’t you?”
How could something be true and yet so completely false? He remembered how quickly his shock at her pregnancy had shifted to elation—and how he’d hated himself for that weakness. He’d had to force himself not to blurt his proposal on the spot, but to pull back behind a screen of disinterest, treating the situation as he might treat a sensitive business deal. “Not exactly.”
“Then why?”
“I married you,” he said, “because I thought we had a good chance of being happy together.”
They did. Ten years of friendship was the strongest basis for marriage he could imagine.
“And because you got me pregnant,” Samantha said.
“Your pregnancy did have something to do with it,” he admitted.
She looked disappointed. “You don’t love me?”
If she only knew what she was saying! But he couldn’t tell her the truth. Even amnesia wasn’t enough to erase the past ten years.
Garrick kept the emotion from his voice, just as he’d done when he’d proposed. “Love isn’t always the most important thing, Sam…Sometimes friendship can be enough.”
He didn’t love her.
Sure, he’d married her and wanted their baby, but he didn’t love her. He’d spent the whole night by her side, but he didn’t love her.
It wasn’t right, Samantha thought the next morning as Garrick checked her out of the hospital. Something felt wrong. She might not remember who she was, but she knew, just knew, she wouldn’t have wanted a loveless marriage.
So why had she married him? Only because she was pregnant? That didn’t make sense. She wouldn’t have