Christine Rimmer - Pregnant! - Prince and Future...Dad? / Expecting! / Millionaire Cop & Mum-To-Be

She heard his footsteps going up the stairs. They faded off on the second floor. By then, she’d more or less pulled herself together. She leveled a look of disdain at her mother. ‘‘Well?’’

‘‘Oh, darling.’’ With a long sigh, her mother dropped to her chair again. ‘‘I hope you’re not too upset with me….’’ She looked across at Liv, hoping, no doubt, that Liv would rush in with eager reassurances, vowing she wasn’t angry in the least.

No way.

Ingrid became very absorbed with crossing her long legs and smoothing her bronze-colored linen skirt over her knees. ‘‘Oh, all right,’’ she finally admitted, ‘‘I should have said something earlier.’’

‘‘Now there’s a thought. Maybe you could have mentioned it last night, while I was stumbling all over myself trying to make sure you wouldn’t worry if you heard any rumors about my ‘engagement’ to that man.’’

‘‘I wanted you to get a good night’s sleep, be fresh for your job today. I knew you’d be angry, whenever I told you. And last night it simply seemed…wiser, just to wait until this evening.’’

Liv still held the apple she’d carried from the kitchen. Her appetite for it had vanished. She set it on the counter in the built-in bar area and moved nearer the chair where her mother sat. ‘‘Finn was here last night when you called me, wasn’t he?’’

Her mother sighed again and nodded.

‘‘Then you know about what happened between us?’’

‘‘Yes, darling. I do.’’

Did the humiliation never end? One night’s indiscretion and everybody had to know about it, her mother included. ‘‘How did you find out?’’

‘‘I spoke with your father. He called yesterday. We had a long talk.’’

Liv wondered if she’d heard right. ‘‘Wait a minute. The way you say that, you seem to be implying that you and Father had an actual conversation.’’

‘‘Yes. I would say the word ‘conversation’ pretty much describes what took place between us.’’

‘‘But…you never have conversations with Father.’’ The two had barely spoken in over twenty years.

Her mother was smoothing her skirt again. ‘‘Well, sweetheart, I’ve been doing some thinking. And I’ve come to the brilliant deduction that things change. If we want to survive in life, we have to adapt.’’ Ingrid looked up. A rueful gleam lit those sea-blue eyes. ‘‘With Elli married and living in Gullandria, and with Brit suddenly deciding to—oh, how should I put it?—explore her Gullandrian roots—I can see I’ll have to be willing to talk to Osrik now and then if I want to have any idea of what’s going on in my daughters’ lives.’’

‘‘You could try asking us.’’

Ingrid made a sound of frustration low in her throat. ‘‘I have. I don’t get a lot of answers—and what are you saying? That you’d rather your father and I went back to not speaking?’’

Maybe she would. Especially if they were going to discuss things like her sex life. ‘‘Whether you speak to him or not is completely up to you.’’

‘‘Thank you, darling.’’ There was a definite note of sarcasm.

Liv decided to ignore it. ‘‘So Father called and he told you…’’

‘‘About how you spent Midsummer’s Eve, about how you experienced the Freyasdahl symptoms the following night, about Finn’s offer of marriage and your refusal. Your father said Finn had decided to come here, to Sacramento, for a few weeks, to see if he might somehow manage to change your mind.’’

Liv felt her anger rising again. ‘‘And you want that to happen, right? You want him to change my mind. That’s why you invited him to stay here, in the house where I grew up—to show your support for him. You actually think that I ought to marry him.’’

Ingrid reached out. ‘‘Oh, Livvy…’’

Liv stepped back and sat in the chair across from her mother. ‘‘Just say it. You think I ought to marry him—marry a man I hardly know, a man with whom I have absolutely nothing in common, a man who’s been under just about every skirt in Gullandria.’’

Ingrid said nothing. For a moment, they sat in silence, mother and daughter, at odds.

Then Ingrid was leaning forward again, a wild, warm light in her eyes. ‘‘Oh, Livvy. I like him. I do. And he’s from a good family. And if you give it a chance, you might find the two of you have more in common than you realize. And besides, I saw the way he looked at you just now.’’

‘‘Mom.’’ Liv leaned forward, too. She spoke softly, taking care that no one but Ingrid would hear. ‘‘He’s a…playboy. Flirting to him is like breathing. He does it without having to give it a thought. He looks at all the women as if they’re the only one.’’

‘‘No, he does not. I’d bet a huge sum of money on that,’’ said Ingrid firmly. ‘‘And please don’t scowl. I do understand exactly what you mean when you speak of his flirting skills. He’s flirted with me , for heaven’s sake, and I loved it.’’

‘‘Well, at least you admit it.’’

‘‘Why shouldn’t I? He’s a joy to flirt with. But the way he looked at you…it was an altogether different thing.’’

Absurd, but Liv felt her heart lift a fraction. ‘‘Oh, I don’t think so.’’

‘‘You’re so bright, Liv. So strong and sure. Focused and determined, way beyond your years. And you’re also domineering. And overbearing. And it wouldn’t hurt you to stop and smell the flowers now and then.’’

Liv tried to keep from rolling her eyes. ‘‘Your point being?’’

‘‘That I think Finn sees your value, as a person, as a woman he could love. And you have to admit—’’ her mother dared a naughty grin ‘‘—he’s certainly experienced enough with the fairer sex to know a special woman when he meets her.’’

Liv did roll her eyes then. ‘‘That’s an interesting way of looking at it.’’

‘‘It’s merely the truth.’’

‘‘Mom. You are working on me.’’

‘‘Yes, I am. I want you to give Finn a chance.’’

‘‘I have a boyfriend , remember?’’

‘‘Darling. Simon Graves is a lovely man. But if he was really all that important to you, I doubt you would have spent Midsummer’s Eve with Finn.’’

Liv felt her face flaming. Okay, okay, maybe some of her fury at Finn was misdirected anger at herself. What she’d done with him four nights ago told her things about herself she really didn’t need to know.

‘‘Finn,’’ Ingrid said, ‘‘is, after all, the father of your child.’’

Liv groaned. ‘‘Please. It was only one night—to my lasting shame. And it’s way too soon to—’’

‘‘No, it’s not. What happened to you always happens to the Freyasdahl women when—’’

‘‘Mom. Let’s just…not go there, okay? I’ve been over it with Brit and Father and Finn. I really don’t feel up to going around and around about it with you, too.’’

Her mother’s eyes were very bright. ‘‘There will be a baby. Deny it now, if you feel you have to. But that won’t make it go away. And yes, I am… supporting Finn in this, in his effort to get to know you better. In his willingness to try and do the right thing. He seems a lovely man to me and he’s welcome in my home. I’m only too happy that the father of your baby was well-brought-up, is well-to-do and wants to marry you and give your baby his name.’’

‘‘Oh, Mom…’’ Liv knew she was softening. How could she help it, seeing the way her mother looked right now, that gleam in her eyes, the glow on her cheeks?

Liv supposed her mother’s reaction wasn’t surprising. A new baby in the family, to Ingrid, would mean new hope for the future, someone on whom to lavish all the love she’d never be able to give her lost sons.