Wishing and Hoping. SUSAN MEIER
We have the whole house to ourselves for at least two weeks because my housekeeper is taking care of her sister in Minneapolis after surgery. We don’t have to figure everything out tonight.”
Tia shifted out from under his hold. “Great. I’ll get my overnight bag from my car, then you can show me where to sleep.”
“I’ll get your overnight bag,” Drew said as he caught her by the shoulders, turned her around and led her into the foyer. He pointed up the steps. “Pick any room you want. Just don’t take the room at the end of the hall. That’s mine. I’d give it to you if you insist, but since Mrs. Hernandez has been gone, it’s a mess. The others are all clean. Take one of them.” With that, he turned and walked out the front door.
Tia climbed the steps. At the top she gazed down the long, quiet corridor of the second floor of his brand-new house and counted six bedroom doors. She would have taken the first, but curiosity got the better of her and she sneaked down the hall, peeking into each room, gasping every time she opened a door because all six were beautifully appointed. Probably professionally decorated.
And she suddenly realized why Drew wanted a prenup. In the same way that she’d grown up in the past six years, he’d become wealthy. Maybe even the object of women pursuing him for his money. And she’d shown up on his doorstep waving the oldest trick in the book. A pregnancy. After a case of mistaken identity.
Wow. No wonder Drew wanted a prenup. For all practical intents and purposes, it looked as if she’d tricked him.
“Do you have any rope?”
Drew glanced up from reading the morning paper. When he saw Tia standing in his kitchen doorway, he steeled himself against the slam of desire that hit him like a tsunami. He didn’t mind that she had the waistband of her too-big sweatpants bunched in her fist. What got to him was the enticing strip of belly flesh exposed because she had her white T-shirt tied at her midriff. It reminded him that he knew how soft she was. He knew how sweet she smelled. He knew just how good they had been together before he’d figured out she was Ben’s daughter.
Which was exactly why she was totally off-limits. She was Ben’s daughter. Not somebody he’d normally seduce. Not somebody he would sleep with again. Not only that, but their situation hadn’t really been settled. If she wouldn’t sign a prenup, he couldn’t marry her.
When she’d conveniently become sick before they could finish their discussion about the prenup, it had finally sunk into Drew’s thick skull that it was pretty darned odd that Tia had had absolutely no hesitation about making love the day they’d met at the party in Pittsburgh. They didn’t really know each other as adults, so Drew knew there was no emotional bond between them. Which meant the most logical conclusion to be drawn for why she’d fall into the arms of a man she hardly knew was that she had wanted something.
He didn’t have a clue what it was, but he did know that though he was duty-bound to raise his child and protect Ben, there was no way in hell he was losing half this farm. If she thought she was going to hoodwink him out of money, she was sadly mistaken. In fact, he’d decided not to push the issue of the prenup until he had a better handle on what game she was playing.
Gripping her too-big bottoms, Tia ambled to the table. “The first two weeks I was pregnant, I threw up every day and I lost ten pounds. Now all of my baggy clothes are way too baggy.”
“There’s plenty of rope for those pants in the stable,” he said, and turned his attention back to his newspaper. “If we were staying for breakfast I’d get you a bale. Since we’re going out, you might as well shower and put on something that fits.”
“We’re going out?”
“We need to be seen in public before your mother calls the preacher to arrange the ceremony or the local caterer to order two roasters of chicken for a buffet supper, and word of our marriage gets out.”
“You’re right.”
“So go change and I’ll see you at the truck.”
Though Tia cringed at the mention of his truck, much to Drew’s relief, she didn’t argue. She left the kitchen and twenty minutes later, dressed in comfortable-looking capri pants and a crisp white blouse, she joined him by his black truck where he was talking over the day’s chores with two hands.
“Jim, Pete,” he said when Tia joined them. He slid his arm across her shoulders. “You remember Tia Capriotti, Ben’s daughter.”
Jim grinned. Pete took off his hat.
“Sure.”
Tia extended her hand to shake both of theirs. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“We’re going for breakfast right now,” Drew said, not giving anybody a chance to really get to know each other. If her goal was to cheat him, he had to be very careful how chummy he let her get with the people close to him. He still had to marry her. He still wanted to be part of his child’s life. But he’d be darned if he’d let her insinuate herself into his world enough that she could get information to use against him to take half of the farm he’d worked for for the past ten years. “We should be back at about eleven. I’ll check on you then.”
Jim and Pete nodded and headed for the stable. Drew turned Tia in the direction of his truck.
“How about if we take my car?”
“No.”
“I no longer get morning sickness, but I still get motion sickness in any vehicle but my own car. We don’t want to show up at the diner first thing in the morning with me green and begging for crackers.”
He sighed. Unfortunately, she had a point. “Fine. But I’m driving.”
Tia rolledher eyes. “I’m pregnant. I’m not an invalid.”
“No, but I’ve seen the way you drive,” he said, taking the keys from her. “I want to get there in one piece.”
He opened the passenger’s-side door for her. She got in and he closed the door, then rounded the hood. He slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. It purred to life like the finely tuned piece of engineering that it was, and he smiled. He didn’t know a man in the world who wouldn’t have smiled.
“Nice car.” And not the car of a woman who needed to cheat a man out of money. He frowned. That really was the truth. This wasn’t the car of a woman who needed to trick a man for money.
“Thanks. I bought it as a present to myself two years ago when I graduated.”
Ah. Graduation money. The car didn’t count. “What is it you do for a living, again?”
“I work for an ad firm.”
“You took all those brains your dad told me you had and decided they would best serve the world by selling panty hose?”
She laughed. “I’m pretty good with panty hose, breakfast cereal is the specialty of the company I work for.”
“You think hawking cereal is more important than science or medicine?”
“No, but I don’t have a science or medicine kind of brain. I’m analytical, but I’m more verbal. I could have probably made a lot more money at a drug company, but I like what I do.” She shrugged. “And I don’t do so bad in the money department, either. In fact, as I climb the corporate ladder, my salary will increase quite nicely.”
Drew frowned again. She sounded like a woman who had her future all planned out, not a woman who would marry a guy for money. But that only baffled him all the more. If she didn’t want his money, what the hell did she want badly enough to make love with him that night in Pittsburgh?
“So you have a good job?”
She nodded. “And a house.”
That’s right! He’d been to her house. “Which means you should want a prenup as much as I do.”
“Because of my