Kara Lennox - The Pregnancy Surprise

“Maybe you better talk to my grandmother. Sara’s fine, don’t look so stricken. But she’s not here.”

Miss Greer was already making her way out, limping laboriously with the aid of a walker. She, too, appeared distraught at seeing him. “Oh, Reece. I knew Sara had gotten everything wrong.”

“Where is she?”

Miss Greer all but wrung her hands. “She’s gone. She took a job working in the kitchen on a cruise ship.”

“Where? What cruise ship?”

Miss Greer paused, thinking, then shook her head. “I can’t remember. Valerie?”

“It was the Princess line,” Valerie supplied. “Out of Los Angeles. She said she would be working the Baja cruise. But I can’t remember the name of the ship.”

“I’ll find it.”

“You’re going after her?” Max asked.

“Of course I’m going after her!”

“Whoa.”

“You’d better hurry,” Valerie said. “The ship leaves tomorrow afternoon.”

Reece turned to Max. “Take me back to the airport.”

Max groaned. “Can’t you just call her? Doesn’t she have a cell phone?”

“She never turns the damn thing on.” He would keep trying to reach her. But meanwhile, he would get to where she was as fast as humanly possible. He headed for the door.

“Reece.” It was Miss Greer.

“Yes?”

“She thought you didn’t return her feelings. If you don’t…if you aren’t serious, please don’t chase after her. You’ll only cause her more pain.”

“I’m as serious as…” He’d started to say as serious as a heart attack. But he didn’t joke about that kind of thing anymore. “I want to marry her. Is that serious enough?”

Miss Greer smiled. “You’ll make a wonderful husband.”

THE CORPUS CHRISTI AIRPORT was starting to feel like home to Reece, he’d spent so much time there lately. He managed to get the last seat on the last flight for L.A. that night, and he would have to change planes in El Paso. But with any luck he would make it to the cruise ship in time.

Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on his side. His flight was delayed due to weather-again!-and by the time he arrived in El Paso he’d missed the connection. The next plane for L.A. wouldn’t leave until morning and, though technically he would still make it in time, he didn’t want to trust his fate to weather and the whims of airline schedules.

He would rent a car, that was it. But the first rental car place he tried was out of cars.

“How can you be out of cars?”

The uncaring woman behind the counter shrugged. “It happens. Big convention of manufactured housing salesmen cleaned us out. I doubt you’ll find a rental car anywhere at the airport.”

“Where ya headin’?” asked a scruffy-looking man who’d been eavesdropping.

“L.A.”

“I’m goin’ that direction. I’ll take you with me if you’ll buy the gas.”

“Deal.”

Reece’s new best friend was named Red, and Red’s car looked like it was held together with rubber bands and duct tape. Red wasn’t exactly a scintillating conversationalist, and his taste in music-some kind of heavy metal-threatened to give Reece a migraine. But Red drove fast, and that was all that mattered.

Halfway across the desert, he pulled off the highway onto a side road.

Reece roused himself from a half-sleep. “Why are we stopping?”

“This is as far as I’m going.”

“What?”

“I’m sure you can get a ride from here.”

Oh, God. He’d never hitchhiked in his life. He looked at his watch. “Is there an airport near here?”

“If there was, I’d have flown instead of driving.”

Fine. He’d hitchhike. “Thanks for getting me this far,” he said grudgingly as he got out.

Hitchhiking wasn’t as easy as it looked. For one thing, at four in the morning the traffic on this road wasn’t exactly brisk. When cars did come along, they sped past without sparing him a glance, and could he blame them? He would never pick up a hitchhiker.

At dawn the growl of half-a-dozen motorcycle engines approached from behind, and Reece didn’t bother sticking his thumb out. But one of the bikers pulled up beside him anyway.

“Need a ride, stranger?”

The biker was a woman. A big woman. A couple of her friends had stopped, too.

“Um…” He looked at his watch. Hell, why not? “Sure. Thanks.”

The woman gave him her extra helmet. “Lucky you don’t have luggage.”

“Yes, I…” Oh, hell. He’d left his small duffel in the scruffy man’s trunk. He’d been so focused on being stranded he’d forgotten all about the bag.

At least he still had his wallet. He climbed on behind the woman, wondering if he’d lost his mind as well as his heart.

“Hold on tight, handsome.” And off they went. Reece grabbed on to the woman’s thick middle at the last moment. The only saving grace was, with the loud engines and the wind, conversation was impossible.

Biker woman and her friends took him all the way to Los Angeles, but not before riding through a rainstorm that soaked Reece through the skin, turning the road grime sticking to him into mud. The sun was high in the sky by the time he reached Long Beach and the L.A. Harbor, looking and feeling like a degenerate.

Twenty minutes of searching and asking, and he finally found the Sapphire Princess, bound for Baja. Thank God, it hadn’t left yet. A glass-enclosed building led to the gangway, and that was where he hit another roadblock. He couldn’t board without a ticket.

“But I’ll be getting right back off again. I just need to find someone.”

“Yeah, right,” said the unsmiling ticket-taker, who could have played a bouncer in a rough bar.

“Then where can I buy a ticket?”

The bouncer looked Reece up and down, obviously doubting he belonged on a luxury cruise ship. “Easiest way would be to find a computer terminal, order online and print out your boarding pass. But we close the gangway for good in twenty minutes.”

Reece tipped his head back and looked up at the sky. Why, oh, why did Sara not answer her cell phone?

But then he spied an Internet café-right there at the harbor.

IT DIDN’T TAKE Sara long to unpack-it never did. Her quarters on the Sapphire Princess were distinctly unglamorous, a closet-size room with a tiny bunk, a tiny dresser and a tiny sink with a tiny mirror. Honestly, the cabin had been designed for Thumbelina, and the bathroom was down the hall.

This was quite a comedown from her quarters at the Sunsetter B and B, and it didn’t even have a porthole.

But she wouldn’t spend much time here. She would be busy. She was expected to work long hours, which was fine with her. The harder she worked, the less time she had to think about Reece.

One problem, though. All through her first shift she’d suffered from morning sickness. Even now she was queasy, and though she longed for a nap after her shift cutting up fruit for a buffet, she needed fresh air worse than sleep.

She now had an inkling of why Reece didn’t like boats.

She was about to head for the deck when someone knocked at her door. Curious, she opened it and found Reece Remington standing there. Only it wasn’t the Reece Remington she was accustomed to. This one wore wrinkled, disheveled, filthy clothes, uncombed hair and a day’s growth of beard.

Her jaw dropped and her heart pounded crazily. “Reece? What are you doing here?”

“I’m trying not to be sick.”

Join the club.

But then he smiled. “I can’t believe I found you.” He steadied himself against the doorway. “Is the boat moving?”

It was. And her stomach was pitching right along with it. “Follow me. Up on deck.” Otherwise, things were going to get very unpleasant.