Audra Adams - The Bachelor's Bride

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, uncharacteristically apologizing, not knowing why, only feeling the need to do so.

Rachel touched her swollen lips with her fingertips. “Why did you do that?” she asked.

His hands in fists, Reid took a step back from her and shook his head as if to clear it, more for himself than to answer her question.

He half turned and looked at her. “I had to see if your dream had just been my imagination.”

Rachel nodded, knowing what he meant, understanding that he needed verification that they had, indeed, been together, been more to each other than casual acquaintances at a party. The baby notwithtanding—it still didn’t seem quite real enough to her yet—like he, she’d needed some proof now, some tangible evidence that the dream had, indeed, been real.

And if nothing else, the kiss had proved that.

To both of them.

He’d kissed her, but she’d known how to kiss him back. She’d known exactly how to respond to him. It wasn’t something that happened instinctively with a first kiss. That knowledge only came with practice, and consciously, or unconsciously, Rachel had known what he’d wanted from her and how to give it to him.

A knock sounded and Trudy stuck her head in the door. “Are you two all right?” she asked.

“Yes,” Reid said, walking back around his desk. “We’re fine.”

“May I come in?”

“Please,” Rachel answered.

Her gaze locked with Reid’s. Her eyes told him their talk had ended. His said yes...for now.

“If that’s all...” Rachel said to him as she stood.

“May I call you?” he asked.

“I...” Rachel looked to Trudy, then back to Reid. “Yes, if you wish.”

“I do.”

“Fine.”

“I’ll go home with you,” Trudy said, then turned to Reid. “Unless you need me for something?”

Reid shook his head. “No,” he said as he walked the two women to the door, opened and held it for them.

Rachel turned to him, feeling ridiculously awkward. She held out her hand. “Goodbye...Reid.”

“Thank you for coming,” he said politely, and shook her hand.

His hand said one thing, his eyes another. Rachel wondered which message was for her. Perhaps both, she mused, and gave him a tentative smile as she left.

Reid stood in his doorway staring into space long after Rachel and Trudy departed. Charlotte studied him, waiting for him to say something. When he didn’t, she resumed typing. The sound galvanized him and he pushed himself to move.

“Charlotte,” he said as he turned to reenter his office. “Get Mazelli back on the phone.”

* * *

Rachel’s visit to the doctor confirmed what she already knew to be true. She spent the first week of August thinking. Options, she’d told Reid. Choices. There were many in this day and age, but for some reason, she felt hers were limited.

She was thirty years old. Not old, but not young, either. A perfect age, really, to take on the responsibilities of motherhood. If she had married Tom, this would have been just about the time they would be starting their family. But she hadn’t married Tom. She hadn’t married anyone. And there was no one on the romantic horizon.

A fleeting image of Reid James skipped through her mind and she quickly dismissed it. He didn’t believe her, and she hadn’t the will or the energy to convince him. Besides, she was fed up with having to work at making people want her...love her. And even if she had, Reid James would be the least likely candidate.

In her mind’s eye she could still see the headline of the magazine article about him that Trudy had given her: New York’s Most Eligible Bachelor. She winced. And he thought she wanted money from him. Ha! If she’d been that type of person, a quick call to the tabloids would bring her thousands. But that kind of notoriety was the last thing she wanted or needed.

No, there was no one but her in this picture, and whether or not Reid James wanted to be part of the decision-making process, first and last, the choice was hers.

She wanted the baby. It was really as plain and simple as that.

The other choices were not so simple. She still had most of the money her mother had left her, but it wouldn’t last long without a job. As much as she loved New York, it was an expensive place to live, even if she did approach Reid for help.

And that she wouldn’t do. Something deep inside warned her that if she allowed him in, he could, quite possibly, take over not only her life but the baby’s, as well. Living in the afterglow of Reid James’s spotlight didn’t appeal to her, and it wasn’t at all what she wanted for her child. She cherished her independence too much for that, and to keep it, her best choice would be to return to Ohio to live with her father.

Her stomach tightened with the thought. His remarriage only two months after her mother’s death had driven a wedge between them. Though they’d reconciled and had come to terms with each other, there was still a certain amount of tension between them that would make it difficult for her to go back home.

Rachel sat on the edge of her bed and cradled her head in her hands, trying not to remember the harsh words she and her father had exchanged the day of his remarriage. She’d harbored so much resentment of his callous behavior, it had all burst forth that day, ruining everything, or so he’d said.

But she hadn’t been able to stop herself. Her mother had suffered for two years before her death, and Rachel had willingly nursed her. She had always known that her mother and father’s marriage was not one made in heaven, but her mother’s sickness had brought out the worst in her father. He couldn’t deal with the illness that hung over the house like a shroud, so instead, he’d spent as little time as possible there, leaving the burden of care to Rachel.

Not that she’d minded. She’d loved her mother with a fierce loyalty that had lasted until she’d breathed her final breath, and beyond. But Rachel had paid a price for that devotion. Tom’s initial patience with pushing back the wedding date wore thin as one year became two, and finally he, too, found someone else to give him the attention he craved.

The day after her mother’s funeral, he’d broken the news to her. He’d met someone else. He was in love and going to marry her. Rachel remembered the blow of her mother’s death and Tom’s desertion like a one-two punch at a heavyweight match. The final straw was when her father introduced her to his lady-friend, and told her that he and the woman were marrying and moving into their home.

Her mother’s home.

It was all too much for Rachel. She’d exploded the day of his marriage, and the screaming fight that ensued left them both angry and shaken. At the time, the rift had seemed irrevocable as far as Rachel was concerned. She’d moved out that same day, staying with an old school friend and her husband until she could make arrangements to move away.

New York had been a big, sprawling refuge, a place to lose herself, a place to hide. But she’d found that hiding was not enough for her. She’d been sure her mother was watching over her when she’d landed the first job in the garment industry for which she’d applied. She’d apprenticed to a cloth designer, building on her fashion schooling, learning the fabric trade. She’d found an apartment, met Trudy, and had her life running on an even keel for the first time in a very long time.

And then the bottom fell out. She lost her job when the parent company made what they called “necessary cutbacks.” Since she had been the last hired, she was the first fired. That was four months ago. She’d pounded the pavement ever since in hopes of landing a new job, substitute waitressing at the corner coffee shop during the lunch hour to supplement her meager inheritance.