She struggled with a vague feeling of disappointment, but he kissed her and her body grew warm, her bones turned to liquid, and her head began to swim.
They shared one night of lovemaking and left the suite the following morning after a champagne brunch conducted primarily in the nude. Kate had to pass on the champagne because it wasn’t good for Cupcake, so Michael served her orange juice in a flute.
She still felt odd in his apartment and added touches from her place to provide some comfort. She looked at a few houses, then nixed the idea when Michael couldn’t join her. She simply didn’t feel ready to make such a big decision without his input. In the meantime, her adjustment to wifedom was rocky. Michael made love to her nearly every night, but he missed dinner with her as often as he joined her. More than one night she’d prepared a meal and he hadn’t arrived home until after nine o’clock. It occurred to her that she’d known his schedule when he’d been her boss, but it hadn’t bothered her too much then. “I didn’t prepare the food, then,” she muttered to herself as she glanced at the clock. “It wasn’t my meal that got cold.”
Michael breezed in the door. “Smells great, but I can’t stay. I’ve got to meet the guys at O’Malley’s.”
“Guys? Excuse me?” She glanced at the chicken parmesan and wondered how he could possibly prefer O’Malley’s.
He brushed a lingering kiss to her lips and pulled his tie loose. “I promised Justin and Dylan I’d meet them two nights ago and forgot. If I don’t show tonight, they might come knocking here, and I don’t want them scaring my new bride.”
“But dinner—”
“—looks great,” he told her. “I’ll eat when I get home. I shouldn’t be long.”
“Okay,” she said, but it didn’t feel okay when he walked out the door and she looked at the uneaten meal on the table. Sighing, she shrugged and put the meal into the refrigerator. She heard a ringing noise, but couldn’t place it. It stopped, then started again. Kate followed the noise to the bedroom and found Michael’s cell phone on the bed.
“Must’ve forgotten it,” she said and picked up.
“Hello?”
A pause followed. “I think I have the wrong number.”
“You probably don’t,” she said quickly. “This is Kate Adams—uh—Hawkins. Michael’s wife,” she said, the reality still foreign to her.
“Bill Reynolds from Legal. I’ve got some urgent news. Could Michael return my call as soon as possible?”
“Yes,” she said, wondering at the worried tone in Bill’s voice. She promptly called O’Malley’s, but there was a baseball game on the bar TV and the noise was so loud neither she nor the bartender could hear each other. Giving up, Kate got in her car and drove to the bar. It took her a few moments to spot Michael and his two friends at the far end of the room. She walked up behind them and overheard Dylan.
“I have to say I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long,” he said. “Your bride was as pale as a sheet and you looked like you were gearing yourself for a marathon.”
“This guy is stuck in the worst way. He didn’t get her to sign a pre-nup,” Justin said.
Dylan looked at Michael as if he’d lost his mind. “Where was your head?”
“That’s obvious,” Justin said. “Michael explained it to me. He said he married her for regular sex and because he’d knocked her up.”
Kate’s stomach gave a vicious twist. She blinked. Justin’s words reverberated in her brain. Regular sex, knocked her up. A dozen emotions raced through her, all of them painful. She thought of the nights they’d shared in Michael’s bed and the nights she’d prepared a meal for her husband and he hadn’t bothered to show. Humiliation crowded her throat. She felt like a fool.
“Hey lady, you’re standing in the middle of the walkway,” a man loudly said.
Kate blinked and stumbled to the side. As if in slow motion, she saw Michael turn around and spot her.
“Kate,” he said, surprise on his face. “What—?”
She wanted to be anywhere but here, anyone but his wife. She thrust his cell phone at him. “You left your cell phone at home. Bill Reynolds from Legal called. He said it’s urgent. Bye,” she said, and raced away, headed anywhere except to Michael Hawkins’s apartment.
Eight
M ichael slowed his car as he neared the home for unwed teenage mothers. He spotted Kate’s Volkswagen in the small parking lot and something inside him eased. He’d found her and she was at least physically okay.
Parking his car, he grabbed the flowers from the passenger seat, stepped out and slammed the car door behind him. He adjusted his tie and strode toward the building.
Kate hadn’t returned to his apartment last night. Nor had she gone to her old duplex or to Donna’s. Michael had almost called her parents, but Kate’s protectiveness of them had given him pause. He suspected he knew what had made her run. She’d clearly overheard Justin shooting off his mouth.
Seeing her ashen face had caused something inside him to shift. He knew her open affection for him was something precious, and in one moment, he’d lost it. More evidence of the capriciousness of human emotion, he thought cynically.
Although Michael couldn’t blame Kate for her response, he refused to let her go. In his mind and gut, her leaving was not an option. Now he had to convince her.
He climbed the front porch steps and rang the doorbell to the old house. A young, very pregnant woman answered the door. She glanced at the roses in his hand then looked at him quizzically. “Yes?”
“I’m here for my wife,” Michael said. “Kate Hawkins.”
The teen nodded in recognition. “Oh, Kate Adams,” she said, then smiled. “You’ll have to get in line. She’s in the back finishing a tutoring session. This way.”
Michael followed the young woman down a long hallway and saw Kate working with another young, very pregnant woman in front of a computer. He drank in the sight of her, surprised by how much the tension inside him eased. She appeared incredibly focused, yet vulnerable. At first glance, she looked as if she were completely composed. Dressed in a black skirt and blouse, she exuded competence. That was a big part of the reason he’d hired her. Michael looked closer, however, and saw hints of shadows under her eyes, and her smile was strained.
“I like your idea of sending résumés from the home to local companies for the residents to perform off-site computer work. After you complete your list, you can just use mail merge to—”
“You have a visitor, Kate,” Michael’s guide said.
Confusion crossed Kate’s face. “Visitor?”
Her glance fell on him and Michael felt an arctic blast. His stomach sank. This was not going to be easy. “I brought you roses,” he said, stepping forward to offer them to her.
“They’re beautiful,” her student said with a trace of envy.
“Yes, they are,” Kate murmured and set them down. “Would you excuse me for a moment while I talk with—” She broke off as if she were reluctant to call him her husband. “I’ll be right back,” she said, then turned to him. “Outside.”
Coming from a man, those words may have led Michael to expect a bloody brawl. His sense of unease tightened in the back of his throat. But he forced the words out anyway. “I’m sorry,” he said as they stepped out onto the front porch.
Surprise flickered across her face. “For what?”
“For Justin shooting off his mouth and hurting you last night.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “According to Justin, he was just repeating your words.”
Frustration bucked through him. “Justin was giving me a hard time the day we got married. He’s got even more of a bottom-line mentality than I do. I just gave him some facts about marriage on his level to get him off my back.”
“He was giving you a hard time?” she repeated.
“He thought I shouldn’t marry you and that we should do a pre-nup.”
“Perhaps you should have followed his advice.”
Michael tamped down his anger at her words. “No. I knew marrying you was the right choice, and I sure as hell didn’t need a pre-nup because you’ve made it clear you’re not after my money. Where in hell did you go last night? I checked everywhere, everyone except your parents.”
“I went to a hotel. I needed some time to think.”
“And?”
“And I’m not sure us being married is going to work.”
“I didn’t take you for a quitter.”
Her eyes shot sparks. “You didn’t have your role as a wife reduced to sex and pregnancy. I don’t think you and I share the same ideas about marriage. To put it in your terms, the synergy may not be there. You’ve said that during a merger the policies, purpose and sociology of the two companies need to complement each other and respect each other’s value. I’m afraid we may be way apart.”
Michael felt a trickle of perspiration run down his back. He told himself it was the summer heat, but the injured expression in Kate’s eyes told him he’d lost a lot of ground with her. “Then we’ll negotiate.”
She looked at him askance. “You forget that I’ve seen you negotiate, Michael. For every concession you make, you demand three.”
“We’re going to make this work,” he told her.
“That will take two.”
“What do you want?”
“The impossible,” she muttered under her breath and turned away.
He moved closer to her. “Kate,” he began.
She rounded on him. “You have no idea how humiliating it was for me to hear that. I’ve been knocking myself out trying to fix dinner for you nights when you don’t bother to come home and make a home and life for us. How silly for me to try so hard when all you want is sex and to give your baby a name. I feel like such a fool.”