Brides, Babies And Billionaires. Rebecca Winters
her mother held up one hand.
“He does want you there. He told you so,” Teresa said. “He wants you to leave before he loves you? What kind of statement is that? He already loves you and it scares him.”
Rita laughed shortly and shook her head, denying the possibility. “Nothing scares Jack.”
Although, the minute those words left her mouth she remembered Jack saying “You terrify me.” Maybe her mother was on to something.
“Oh, honey,” her mother said, “nothing scares a man more than love when it finally shows up.” She gave Rita’s hands a pat, then picked up a cookie and took a bite. “It’s especially difficult for a strong man, because being out of control is a hard thing to accept.”
“Jimmy wasn’t scared,” Gina muttered.
“Sure he was,” her mother said on a laugh. “You just didn’t give him time to think about it.”
Shrugging, Gina admitted with a grin, “Okay, fair point.”
“And your brothers?” Teresa laughed. “They were terrified.”
“We can still hear you,” Marco yelled.
Ignoring her son, Teresa looked at Rita. “Even your dad fought tooth and nail to keep from loving me.”
“As if I stood a chance at that,” Nick called out.
“Why do we have a door,” Teresa wondered, “when everyone hears everything anyway?” Shaking her head again, she continued, “What I’m saying is, everything worth having, is worth fighting for.”
Rita just didn’t know. She’d left the penthouse in a rush, hurt beyond belief, angry beyond anything she’d ever experienced before. Heart aching, she’d had only one thought. Come home. To the family that was always there for her.
“So what’re you going to do?” Gina spread a cinnamon-and-sugar mixture on the rectangle of dough then carefully rolled it up for slicing and baking. “You going to stay here? Or go back and reclaim your life?”
Well, that was the question, wasn’t it? Being here with her family, she was starting to think and as she did, she was embarrassed to admit that running away from her problems, from the man she loved, just didn’t feel right. She’d pulled back from him and hid away—the very thing she’d accused Jack of doing.
“Why should I leave?” she murmured, hardly realizing she was speaking aloud.
“Exactly,” Gina agreed, slicing cookies and laying them on sheets to bake.
“I have a business there. And a home—okay, not the penthouse, but I was happy there and I can be again.” Rita ate another cookie while her brain raced and the pain in her heart began to ease.
“Sure you can,” her mother said.
“Jack doesn’t make decisions for me.”
“’Course not,” Gina agreed.
“He doesn’t get to tell me when to go. When to stay. Sit. Heel.”
“That’s my girl,” Teresa cheered.
“Why should I make this easy on Jack?” Rita demanded of no one in particular.
“You never made it easy on any of us,” Marco quipped when he brought an empty tray into the kitchen.
“Oh, please,” Gina sneered. “And you were the angel child? Do you remember shaving my Barbie dolls bald?”
“A fond memory,” Marco assured her, dodging when she took a swing at him.
“I’m going back,” Rita announced. “And I’m going to look Jack in the eye and tell him that he can’t dictate my life.”
“I feel like I should have pom-poms,” Gina murmured.
“He’s not chasing me away,” Rita proclaimed, scooting off the stool to stand on her own two feet. “I’m going back. I’m going to tell him he’s in love with me and when he’s done being scared of it, he can come and find me. I’m building a life there and I’m not giving it up.”
“Good for you.” Her father came into the kitchen and gave her a quick hug before grabbing another cookie. “But you can stay for a couple of days, right? Have a nice visit before you go back?”
“I sure can, Daddy,” she said and leaned in to the most wonderful man she’d ever known. “Let Jack miss me. It’ll be good for him.”
“You women are devious, wonderful creatures,” her father said.
“And don’t you forget it,” his wife warned.
* * *
Solitude was overrated.
Three days of it and Jack felt like he was suffocating. Quiet. Too much damn quiet. He kept seeing Rita’s ghost in the penthouse. He heard her laugh. He caught her scent in the guest room she’d used and ached for her in a way he wouldn’t have thought possible.
It was worse somehow, knowing that she was in Utah. Jack hadn’t really believed Cass when she told him that Rita had left the damn state. So he’d driven to Seal Beach, walked past the bakery and got a chill when he saw the closed sign on the door.
He’d driven her off and she’d actually left. He should be happy. Instead, he felt...hollowed out. Like a shell of the man he used to be. At that thought, he imagined what Rita would say to it and he could almost hear her. Whose fault is that, Jack? Who keeps running away from life?
Shaking his head free of irritating thoughts and reminders of all he’d lost, Jack turned his attention back to the stack of papers waiting for his signature. He’d been spending more time than usual in the office because it beat the hell out of being alone in the penthouse with too many memories.
“I’ll get over it. Hell,” he murmured, scrawling his name along the bottom of a contract, “she’ll get over it.”
“Mr. Buchanan?” Linda stood just inside the open door to his office.
“What is it?”
“Marketing reports The Sea Queen is now sold-out.”
“Good. Great.” The cruise liner would be a huge success, one more feather in the Buchanan family cap and Jack couldn’t have cared less. “Is there anything else?”
“Just one thing.” Linda stepped back, a smirk on her face and Rita sailed past her into the room.
The door closed behind her, but Jack hardly noticed. All he could see was her. That amazing hair of hers was a tumble of dark curls. Her eyes were sizzling. She wore black slacks, a lime-green shirt that clung to the mound of her belly and a white linen jacket over the shirt. Black sandals were on her feet and her toenails were a bright purple.
He’d never seen anything more gorgeous in his life.
Standing up behind his desk, he curbed the urge to go to her and grab hold of her. He’d done the right thing and he wasn’t going to backtrack now. “Rita. I thought you were in Utah.”
She tipped her head to one side and gave him a cool glare. “Hoping I’d stay so far away you’d never have to think about me again?”
“No.” There was nothing on this earth that could keep him from thinking about her. “I just—”
“I didn’t come to chat, Jack,” she said, cutting him off as she dug into the oversize black tote slung over her shoulder. She pulled out a large manila envelope and handed it to him.
“What’s this?”
“It’s an ultrasound picture of your daughter.”
His eyes widened, his jaw dropped and his fingers tightened on the envelope. “I thought you didn’t want to know what the baby is.”
“Turns