BEVERLY BARTON - The Tender Trap

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt just to discuss the situation. Okay, pick me up around seven.” After all, what harm would it do just to consider his proposal?

Blythe walked away from him. Adam ran after her, halting her just as she opened the door. “Who’s your doctor?”

“Dr. Meyers. Why do you ask?”

“Thought I’d give him a call and—”

“And see if I’m really pregnant?” She raised her hand against him, wanting nothing more than to slap his face. How dare he think she would humiliate herself this way if she wasn’t really pregnant.

Adam grabbed her arm in midair. “To find out what I can do to make this pregnancy easier for you.”

“Oh.” Blythe jerked her arm away from Adam. “Dr. Meyers, in Decatur. I go back for a checkup in a month.”

Adam clasped her chin in his hand. “I’ll see you tonight. Until then, take care of yourself and my little girl.” He brushed a kiss across her lips.

She stared at him, not returning the kiss, but not fighting the sweet intimacy either. “Tonight,” she murmured.

Adam watched Blythe exit the outer office where his secretary sat, staring back and forth from Blythe to him.

“I’m getting married, Sandra. That little redheaded spitfire is my future wife.”

“Congratulations, sir. I had no idea you were seriously involved with anyone.”

“Oh, I’m as seriously involved with Blythe Elliott as a man can be.”

“He asked you to marry him!” Kneeling on the floor in front of her daughter’s musical swing, Joy Simpson looked up at Blythe.

“I don’t know what I expected.” Blythe laid her purse on the work counter in the back room of her florist shop. “But it certainly wasn’t a marriage proposal.”

Joy wiped the drool from Melissa’s rosebud mouth, then stood and wound the swing. A lullaby tinkled sweetly from the music box. Melissa’s eyelids drooped.

“Well, I’ve always considered Adam an honorable man—”

“Ha! If he’d been honorable that night after Missy’s christening party, I wouldn’t be pregnant right now.”

Joy placed her hand on Blythe’s shoulder. “It takes two, you know. You were a willing participant in what happened that night.”

“Too willing!” Gritting her teeth together, Blythe huffed, then closed her eyes and shook her head. “I can’t marry Adam.” She rounded the corner of her work counter, removed her purse from the top and slid it onto a bottom shelf.

“I don’t think you should make such a hasty decision,” Joy said. “After all, you haven’t had time to think things through.”

“I don’t need any time to think about it. I’m not going to marry Adam. We’ve already made one stupid mistake. It would be ridiculous to make another one.”

“Why would marrying Adam be a stupid mistake?”

“How can you ask me that?” Picking up the stack of morning mail and a silver letter opener off her corner desk, Blythe ripped apart the first envelope. “You know how we feel about each other, how we’ve felt about each other ever since we met. He doesn’t approve of the type of woman I am and I certainly don’t approve of the type of man he is. In short, Adam Wyatt and I have nothing in common. We’d make each other miserable.”

“Well, I will admit you two always did seem to strike sparks off each other. Adam is one of the most old-fashioned guys I know and you’re certainly a modern woman. But y’all definitely have something in common now.”

“What?”

“A child you created together.”

“Oh, that.” Blythe sighed. “But I still can’t marry him. He’s already issuing me orders and we aren’t even engaged. I’ve spent my entire adult life steering clear of entanglements that could lead to marriage and slavery to some chest-beating Neanderthal. You understand why I can’t marry Adam, don’t you?”

“I understand your reasoning, and I agree that it’s usually a mistake to marry someone without love, but you are pregnant.”

“So?” Shrugging, Blythe opened another envelope, glanced at it and tossed it into the wastebasket. “Single women all across the country are having children alone. There’s no reason why I can’t do it. After all, I’m a mature woman of twenty-eight, the owner of a fairly successful business and my best friend will be at my side throughout the entire pregnancy. Right?”

“Yes, of course, but what about after the baby’s born?” Joy asked. “Craig and I share all the responsibilities of caring for Missy.”

“I can take care of a child without a husband.”

“Well, don’t forget that I’m only working here two days a week now. Who’s going to help you take care of the baby when you’re at work? You could bring her with you, I suppose, the way I do Missy right now, but doing that every day would be difficult. Could you afford good day care?”

“I’ll handle those problems when the time comes. And somehow I’ll figure out a solution.”

“You’re forgetting several important things.”

“What things?” Blythe asked.

“Remember where you live and who you are,” Joy said. “This isn’t New York or L.A. This is Decatur, Alabama. We’re living in the heart of the Bible Belt and upstanding citizens who patronize your florist shop don’t approve of unwed mothers.”

“I know.” Frowning, Blythe clicked her teeth and shook her head. “Adam has already pointed out that we have reputations to uphold and an innocent child’s future to consider.”

“Adam is the other important thing you’re forgetting. He’s going to want to be a part of the baby’s life. Just because you aren’t married to him, doesn’t eliminate his rights as the child’s father.”

“Just what are you advising me to do?” Blythe separated the bills from other business correspondence, wrapping a rubber band around each stack.

“Agree to a marriage in name only until after the baby’s born. Then get a divorce. Let Adam give the child his name and you two work out child support payments and visitation rights. If you and Adam can learn to get along, it will be the best possible gift the two of you could give your child.”

“That’s exactly the solution Adam suggested. But maybe we could work things out without getting married. If we get married, he’s going to want me to change, and I know I’ll want him to change. Each of us will try to make the other become what we want in a mate. Besides, I don’t know if it’s possible for Adam and me to get along.”

Joy smiled. “I think you and Adam have already proved that you can get along. At least for one night.”

“Joy!”

“And what’s wrong with people changing a little? I know that Adam tends to be a bit old-fashioned, but with some effort on your part, I’ll bet you can modernize his thinking.”

“I seriously doubt that.” Blythe picked up the two stacks of correspondence, handed one to Joy and carried the other toward the small office space at the back of the store.

Flipping through the mail, Joy followed Blythe. “If you’ve already made up your mind, I don’t understand why you agreed to have dinner with him.”

“I couldn’t think straight after he said he wanted to marry me. He took me off guard. I didn’t expect him to take the blame for what happened. It just never occurred to me that he really would want to be involved with the baby.”

Shaking her head, Joy sighted. “You really don’t know Adam at all, do you? Because he’s big, good-looking, very masculine and a real take-charge kind of guy he’s always reminded you of your stepfather. You never gave him a chance. Surely the night the two of you made love, you realized that Adam’s not like Raymond.”

Blythe tossed the stack of bills atop the desk beside the adding machine and computer printer. “I don’t think he’s just like Raymond. I know Adam would never verbally abuse his wife or dominate her so completely that she couldn’t think for herself, but—”