Little White Lies (23 page)

Holt’s heart lurched.  “How serious is it?  What was the prescription for?  I need to go to her,” he said frantically, “she shouldn’t be alone when she’s sick!”

“Calm down, she’s not sick.”

“But you said…”

“I
said
she had a prescription filled.  Holt, it was for prenatal vitamins.  Miranda is pregnant. And unless I misunderstood what you said about your relationship with her, congratulations are in order.”

Holt blinked.  “Pregnant?”

“That’s the usual diagnosis for prenatal vitamins.  Are you okay?”

A slow grin spread across Holt’s face.  Miranda was going to have a baby. 
His
baby.  “Hot damn, I’m going to be a father!  Where is she?”

“Little Palm Island, you ever heard of it?”

“Yeah, it’s in the Florida Keys.  Are you sure she’s still there?”

“I’ve got someone posted at the Welcome Station for the island so we know she hasn’t come back to the Mainland.  They have motor yachts coming and going all day long, but no one fitting Miranda’s description has been on any of the return trips.  I could send someone out to the island to check if you want.”

“No, that won’t be necessary.  As soon as we hang up I’m going to call my pilot and have him ready and waiting at the airport.  I owe you big time, Ben.”

“Oh, you’ll pay big time too.  I also expect an invitation to the wedding.”

Holt’s first call after hanging up with Ben was to the pilot who usually flew Devlin Shipping’s private plane.  His second call was to Brianne.  “I know where she is,” he said, dispensing with the niceties of a proper greeting.

“Thank God!  Are you going to get her or do you want me to?”

“I’m the one who chased her off, I’ll be the one to bring her back.  I’ve already got my pilot on standby but she’s on an island off the coast of Florida so it may be a few days before we return.”

“Take all the time you need, just don’t come home without her.”

Holt laughed softly, his mood soaring.  “Not a chance in hell.  I’ve got to run, but I need to tell you a few things first.  I want to thank you for not shutting me out even though you probably wanted to, and also for not drilling me about what happened.”

“Oh, believe me, it took a monumental effort on my part not to nag you about it.  The truth is, I took one look at you the day you came to my house and knew just how miserable you were without her.  You really love Miranda, don’t you?”

“More than you’ll ever know.  There’s something else I have to tell you but before I do, I need to ask for one more favor.”

“Anything, just name it.”

“I’d like to stay there with her for three or four days, make sure our relationship is on solid ground before I bring her home.  Do you think you can throw a wedding together in that short of a time?”

Bri hooted with laughter.  “It will be the grandest wedding any one ever whipped together, you can count on that.”

He told her to jot down his mother’s phone number.  “She’ll know who to invite on my side and I’m sure she’ll have plenty of resources at her fingertips.  Just don’t let her make it too big or try to run the show.  You’ll take care of Miranda’s wedding dress and whatever else she needs?”

“No problem, whatever looks good on me will look fabulous on her.”

Holt smiled into the phone.  “I know. I’ve seen that green get up you conned her into wearing on New Year’s Eve.”

“Just leave everything to me.  Now, what else did you have to tell me?”

Twenty minutes later, Holt’s ear was still ringing from the high pitched squeal Brianne let out when he told her she was going to be an aunt.  He’d taken just enough time to pack before pushing the speed limit to the airport and boarding his private plane.  It was going to be a long flight, but after all the waiting and worrying it was a relief to know where Miranda was and that soon he would be joining her.  Nothing could dampen his spirits now.

                        ***

Miranda hung up, not at all happy about her conversation with Brianne.  Her sister asked how she was, as she usually did, but hadn’t even tried to convince her to come home.  Even more disconcerting, Bri seemed very upbeat and had rambled on about her boyfriend Chad and a big party they were going to in a few days.  Miranda tried to act interested, but secretly she was disappointed because this time when Bri asked her to come home she had planned on saying yes.  Now it seemed selfish for her to return only disrupt her sister’s life again.  When Bri finally paused to take a breath, Miranda asked about Holt.

“Has he tried to contact you lately?”

“Not for quite some time.  I’m sure you’re relieved to know he has stopped looking for you, right?”

“Yes, of course,” she choked back a rush of tears, “it’s just…”

“Just what?”

“Nothing.  I’ll call you in a few days.”

What had she expected?  After refusing to take his calls, changing her number, and hiding away on an island, did she really think he would continue to ask about her or try to find her?  Sadly, the answer to that was yes.  When Bri told her he had someone watching the mansion and that he’d gone to all the trouble to track Brianne down too, Miranda’s hopes had spiraled.  But after telling Holt she didn’t know where Miranda was, he seemed to have given up altogether.  There seemed no reason to return, not when Bri sounded so happy and Holt didn’t care enough to keep looking for her. 

She wandered out onto the veranda, her hand absently resting against her flat belly.  It was useless to think there might still be a future with Holt now that there was a baby on the way.  She wanted to believe Holt was the father, but how could she know for sure?  The night before she’d flown to Texas she’d had sex with Jack and they hadn’t used protection.  Then she’d slept with Holt and been even more careless with him because they’d made love four times without the use of contraceptives.  She’d done some research on her own about using DNA testing to determine paternity and discovered it was ninety-nine point nine percent accurate.  Except in the case of twins.

Since identical twins are the result of one egg dividing and separating to form two identical babies, the DNA profiles are also identical.  In short, it meant that both Jack and Holt would test positive as the baby’s father.  There was no way to prove or disprove which of them actually impregnated her, not when the possible conception dates were with forty-eight hours of each other.  Telling one or both of them would serve no purpose except to cast an even bigger stigma on her morals.  No, regardless of her belief the baby was Holt’s, she could never tell him.

As the last of the day’s sun dipped below the horizon, Miranda turned to go back inside and nearly came unglued when she found herself pressed up against a solid mass.  Two strong arms enveloped her, drew her closer, crushed her to the massive chest she knew with such intimate familiarity.  No words came to her, only blessed relief that he had come for her at last. 

Holt closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, filling his senses with her feminine scent and letting it breath life back into him.  He held her to him, scared to let loose for even a second for fear she would disappear again.  His first initial reaction at finding her door unlocked was to chastise Miranda for being so careless, but the moment he spotted her on the veranda, the only thing he could think of was getting his arms around her and keeping her there.  If she hadn’t whimpered a small protest because of how tight he was holding her, Holt would have been perfectly content to remain just as they were indefinitely.

“I love you, Miranda.”

She sagged against him.  “I love you too, but it will never…”

“Hush, sweetheart.  I’ve got a lot of things to say and have come a long way to say them, so the least you can do is hear me out.”

“Still as pushy as ever,” she teased.

Keeping his arm around her, Holt propelled her inside to the sofa.  “I am not pushy, I’m assertive.”  Sitting at an angle so he could look at her, he took Miranda’s hand and started from the beginning.  “I think I must have loved you for quite some time, only I was too blind or too stupid to see it.  I wasn’t angry with you for wearing that dress to the New Year’s Eve party, I was angry at myself for wanting you.  And because I was forced to admit it was more than just a sexual desire I was feeling.  I wasn’t quite ready to handle it.”

“Oh, Holt, if only you hadn’t left the party, I never would have met Jack and then none of this would have happened.”

“I did leave, but I came back…to find you.  After I gave my little speech, I went up to the penthouse and changed my clothes, intending to spend a nice quiet evening alone.  But I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I tried calling you, but when you didn’t answer, I started to wonder if you’d gone back to the party.  It was the thought of you leaving with someone else that finally made me go look for you.”

Her voice was tinged with sadness.  “But Jack found me first.  I had a little too much to drink and went outside to get some fresh air.”

“Honey, I know what happened.”

Miranda nodded slowly.  “Jack told you.”

“He didn’t have to tell me.  I was there, Miranda.”

“I don’t understand.  If you were there, why didn’t you stop that man instead of waiting for Jack to do it?”

Holt didn’t answer right away.  Instead he dug in his pocket and pulled out the necklace she’d left at the condo.  “Here, this belongs to you.”

Her eyes clouded.  “You…you want me to wear the necklace Jack gave me?”

He undid the clasp and waited for her to move her hair aside then looped it around her neck and clasped it again.  “
I
gave it to you,” he said softly.

“You’re confused, Holt, and you’re confusing me.”

He touched the diamond horseshoe with his finger.  “You asked me if it was supposed to bring you luck.  I told you no, that it was a reminder of how lucky I was to have found you.”

Miranda pushed his hand away impatiently.  “Is this another game?  Jack bought this for me in Las Vegas and you know it.”

“No, honey, it was me.  It’s always been me.”

Holt took her hand again, desperately needing the physical contact.  “When I came looking for you in the parking lot and saw that man pawing you, I went crazy.  I wanted to kill him, but more than that I needed to make sure you were okay.  Then when I was carrying you inside and you said I looked familiar, I thought you were joking and played along by saying I was my own evil twin, Jack.”

Miranda drew in a sharp breath.  “But Jack is real!  Bri saw the announcement for his engagement in the newspapers.  And even if what you’re saying is true, you had to have realized I honestly thought you were Jack long before we slept together.”

“Yes, Jack is real, and he is my brother, but you’ve never met him.  I figured out you really didn’t know it was me, but not right away.  I was going to tell you the truth, and then you made some statement about how foolish it would be to get involved with your boss and that you would never jeopardize your job that way.  I know this sounds awful, but keeping up the pretense of being Jack seemed like the perfect solution.” 

He cleared his throat, waiting for what he’d told her to sink in, but she still didn’t quite understand. “What I’m trying to say is that I didn’t want to lose the relationship we had at work, but I couldn’t bear the thought of never making love to you again either so I…”

Comprehension hit Miranda like a ton of bricks.  “You thought you could have the best of both worlds,” she finished for him.  “You could be Holt during the day and it was business as usual, then become Jack at night and continue to be my lover.”

“Something like that,” he mumbled.

She gaped at him in disbelief, all the while wondering why she wasn’t absolutely livid with him. “What if I had accidently run into him?  What if I had thrown myself at Jack thinking he was the man I’d been living with?”

Holt shifted uncomfortably.  “Well…we, uh…we’re not really twins.  He’s two years younger than I am, and even though there is a family resemblance, I don’t think you could ever mistake us for one another.”

Why was she not surprised?  “Jack doesn’t know about any of this, does he?”

“No.  You’re the only one who knows the truth.”

“Didn’t you even consider what it would do to me?  I was in love with you, but when you were so mean to me at the party, I turned to Jack.  Only it wasn’t Jack, it was you.  I couldn’t understand how I could love you both.  It didn’t make sense.  Oh, this is so confusing!”

“I know it is, honey, and I’m truly sorry.  I just never thought I would fall so hard for you, and by the time I realized I was in love with you, it was too late to tell the truth.  That’s when I decided to take you along on the trip to Texas and seduce you.  I thought if I could get you to confess you loved me, you wouldn’t be so angry when I told you the whole story.”

Elation filled her heart.  “You mean it wasn’t Jack’s engagement that prompted you do it?”

“No, as a matter of fact his engagement wasn’t even supposed to be announced until a week later.  I knew you were in love with me, but I also knew a part of you had fallen for the man you thought was Jack.  I guess what I really needed to prove was that given the choice, you would pick me.”  He smiled wryly.  “It sounds kind of stupid now.  I was jealous of myself.”