Kathryn Ross - A Marriage On Paper

He met her eyes.

‘You realise that you’re a know-it-all,’ she told him lightly.

‘I prefer it when you call me a genius,’ he said with a grin.

She grinned back at him. ‘How did your meeting go, genius?’

‘Couldn’t have been better.’

‘Would you like a glass of wine to celebrate, instead of that coffee?’

‘No, thanks. I’ve already had a glass of champagne, and I’ve got to drive home.’

She very nearly said, No, you haven’t. You can stay here. But she stopped herself. It didn’t sound as if he wanted to stay. ‘It must have been a terrific outcome if you celebrated with champagne?’

‘Nothing is signed yet,’ he answered cautiously. ‘But I’m quietly confident. I have to go to Perth week after next—meet some of Maddie’s associates. I’m hoping to sign a deal while I’m there.’

‘Really?’ Alicia tried to sound pleased for him.

He nodded. ‘I’ll be relying on you to hold the fort here for me.’

She didn’t say anything.

Dex frowned suddenly. ‘Are you OK, Alicia? You look very pale.’

‘I’m fine. Just tired.’ She got up and went to pour her coffee down the sink. Then stopped with her back to him. What was she saying? She wasn’t fine at all. For a start her hormones were up the creek, she had never felt so over-emotional. She needed to talk to him. She had to tell him before she fell apart.

She turned and looked at him.

‘Dex, I have something to tell you.’ The words seemed to come out in a terrible rush.

‘It’s not about the modelling, is it?’ His voice was suddenly wary.

‘Modelling?’ She stared at him taken aback by the question.

‘Peter came in to see me this morning. Early, before you arrived.’

Alicia frowned. Peter Blake was one of her closest friends. In a way he was like the big brother she had never had. He was two years her senior and had grown up in the same orphanage as she had. He was a talented photographer now, had made a big name for himself taking terrific shots of the Queensland scenery.

‘He told me about the photographs he had taken of you,’ Dex continued. ‘In fact he brought them in to show me.’

‘Oh!’ She was surprised that Peter had done that behind her back. She had already told him that she wasn’t interested in taking up modelling.

‘They were beautiful,’ Dex said softly. ‘I was impressed.’

‘Were you?’ She smiled, embarrassed and flattered by that look in his eye, by that husky quality in his voice.

‘He told me that he had sent them to some big agency in Sydney and they were very interested in you. Then he accused me of standing in your way, obstructing your road to a rewarding career.’ His voice held an unusually harsh note. ‘I told him that you hadn’t even mentioned the offer to me, but I don’t think he believed me. Even if he did, he still continued to inform me that I was holding you back.’

‘That’s just rubbish.’ Alicia pulled away from the sink and went to stand by the table. ‘He had no right to talk to you like that.’

‘Are you going to take up the offer? Go to Sydney?’

‘No.’ She was annoyed with Peter for mentioning this to Dex. She had told him last week, when he had hot-footed over with the news, that she wasn’t interested in leaving here. Modelling was hardly a secure job; not many girls made it to the big time. Maybe if she’d been sixteen she would have stood a better chance, but not at twenty. Anyway, that was all immaterial now.

‘Why not?’

She hesitated. ‘For one thing it’s not a good time to uproot Vicky. She’s studying for exams.’

‘And you want her to have all the opportunities you never had, don’t you, Alli?’ he asked gently.

‘I want her to do well.’ Alicia shrugged.

‘There are good schools and great universities in Sydney, you know.’

She stared at him. ‘Do you want me to go?’

There was a moment’s silence, and it suddenly occurred to her that he thought she should take up the offer. Her heart pounded painfully.

He looked at her, and thought again about how young she was. ‘I want you to do well, be happy,’ he said softly. ‘You know how ambitious I am, how I’m putting all my energy into my career. I’d be a hypocrite if I said that’s OK for me but not for you. If you want something you should go out there and get it. I wouldn’t want to stand in your way…if it’s what you want….’ He trailed off and shrugged.

It wasn’t what she wanted. She hadn’t even given it serious thought. Not because of Vicky, not because she was expecting Dex’s baby, but because she couldn’t bear to leave him. She loved him with all her heart.

‘Strange how paths of opportunity seem to be opening up for both of us at the same time,’ Dex continued lightly, when she didn’t make any reply.

‘Everything happens at once.’ She tried to keep her voice light too, but it was laced with emotion even in her own ears. Dex wasn’t even a little bit in love with her. He couldn’t be, not if he was telling her it was all right if she left. ‘Trouble is, those paths seem to be leading off in different directions.’

He reached up and took hold of her hand. The next moment she was sitting on his knee.

‘That’s better,’ he murmured huskily. ‘So what are you going to do? Are you going to run off to Sydney and leave me? It sounded like a terrific opportunity the way Peter was talking.’

‘I suppose it is.’ Her voice was pensive. They should be discussing the baby, but somehow it seemed even harder to bring up the subject now that she knew he wasn’t averse to her leaving.

‘I suppose if I were to be truthful…not to mention selfish…I’d say I don’t want you to go,’ he murmured softly.

‘You don’t?’ Her heart missed a beat, her eyes widened as they met his. ‘Why?’

‘I’d miss you, that’s why,’ He smiled. ‘Apart from anything else, you’re the best damn secretary a guy could get.’

Her heart seemed to crash somewhere down near her toes. All right, so maybe a few weeks ago she’d have laughed at that. Now she felt as if she’d never laugh again. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

He frowned as he looked into her eyes and saw the mist of tears there. ‘Alicia?’

‘I can’t go. I’m pregnant.’ She whispered the words softly. ‘Seven weeks, to be precise.’

She saw shock clearly etched on his handsome face. It was no wonder he was shocked. It wasn’t as if they had taken risks. She had been using a contraceptive.

‘It’s all right,’ she said quickly. ‘You don’t have to offer to marry me or anything…’

He shook his head, seemed lost for words. The expression of shock had been replaced by a look of guilt.

‘I’ll have to have the baby, of course,’ she continued swiftly. ‘I mean…I couldn’t contemplate the alternative.’

Still he didn’t speak.

The silence between them had never been so tense. And yet she continued to sit on his knee.

She reached out and touched his hair. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said unsteadily.

He closed his eyes. ‘Don’t say that.’

‘Why not? It’s how I feel—’

‘This is as much my responsibility as yours Alicia,’ he said finally, firmly. ‘You should have told me earlier.’

‘Why?’ She looked at him warily.

‘Because we’ve got a lot to sort out.’ His voice was calm. ‘What do you want to do?’

‘I don’t know.’ She shook her head, then met his eyes directly. ‘What do you suggest?’

He frowned, and thought for a moment. The minutes seemed to drag interminably. Alicia suddenly noticed little things, like the tick of the clock on the sideboard, the drip of the tap in the kitchen. Small, inconsequential sounds that normally wouldn’t have bothered her. Yet at this moment they seemed so loud they were almost unbearable.