SWEET ANTICIPATION (4 page)

“You’re the boss,” Rita responded with a chuckle. “I just want you to remember that I’m here for you if you need any help—with anything.”

“Except choosing an attorney,” Lauren flashed back with a wry smile.

Lauren tried to heed her own advice but, in spite of her brave words, her heart skipped a beat every time she thought about the possibilities. Maybe he was just biding his time until the baby was born. There seemed to be no other way to prove his paternity other than blood tests, which would be performed at birth. If his plan was to sit back and let her do all the hard work, then step forward while she was still recovering and claim his child, there was no reason for him to contact her for the next three months. If that was the case, then those months would be the longest of her life.

Should the blood tests prove positive and they actually went to court, she didn’t have the finances to hire a major-league attorney to defend her case. Visions of joint custody, along with all the complications of trying to explain about how Daddy got Mommy pregnant when they didn’t even like each other, kept pushing their way into her thoughts.

Lauren was concerned enough about the future without this additional complication. Discomfort from her weight gain, swollen ankles, exhaustion and restless nights were taking their toll on her peace of mind.

As the days stretched into weeks, the fear began to be replaced by anger. Lauren was infuriated at the way Jordan Daniels had disrupted her life, but most of all she resented his intrusion into her thoughts. Before that fateful lunch when he had dropped his bombshell, Lauren’s mind had been filled with Johnny. Through her memories of him and the plans they had made together, she had been able to share with him every experience of being pregnant with what she had thought of as their baby.

But now when she thought of the child, she thought not of Johnny, but of Jordan Daniels. Of course, the role of these two men in her life was entirely different. Johnny was the epitome of all that was good and kind while Dr. Daniels was the devil himself. Her sweet anticipation became so tainted with his invisible, but constant, presence that her feelings for this man she barely knew contained such an intense dislike that they bordered on hatred.

How dare he pop into her life, upset her so much with his threats and accusations, then disappear back into the shadows! One part of her wished he would step forward and update her on his plans, but another part of her was glad that he was staying away. She couldn’t help but think that the more time that lapsed before their next confrontation, the better the chances were that he would reconsider and possibly drop his claim.

Dr. Reese was not much help either. When she made her monthly visit, he said that even though he saw Jordan almost every day, they didn’t discuss her or the baby. She had been very hopeful that Dr. Reese would be able to give her a clue, but apparently he was as much in the dark about Jordan’s plans as she was.

Lauren went on about her everyday business. Her shop, Pretty Petals, was doing well. The location on a busy street in an exclusive section of Houston near the medical center and Rice University was excellent for both spur-of-the moment drop-in clients and wealthy repeat customers who ordered regularly or had recommended her work to their friends.

Spring comes early to southern Texas, so April was not the first month with warm weather and early blooms. But it was the month during which the native wildflowers, such as the scarlet Indian paintbrushes and purplish bluebonnets, were at their beautiful best. Azaleas in many shades of pink, red and purple brightened almost every yard in this part of the city and the fragile blossoms on the redbud and fruit trees showed up brightly against the leafless branches.

It was the time of year when everyone, regardless of age, sex or sensitivity, noticed flowers. After a gray wet winter, these same people not only enjoyed the colorful blooms in their flower beds, but wanted bouquets to bring indoors. Lauren and Rita put together enough daisies, tulips, hyacinths and daffodils to fill several large fields. Spring weddings were also popular and Lauren spent almost as many hours in churches, arranging the displays on the candelabras, the platforms and the reception areas as she did in her own home. It began to seem like the only time she was in her house was when she was sleeping, showering or dressing.

She was beginning to fill out her maternity blouses and dresses. And it was becoming more important that she set aside a few minutes every hour to sit down, relax and prop her feet up. Lauren didn’t know how much longer she would be able to keep up the pace she had set for herself when she had taken over this business, but she wanted to stay as busy as possible. Not only did she need the money to provide a cushion of security to pay her bills and Rita’s salary when the baby arrived, but by falling into bed exhausted each night, she didn’t have a chance to let her mind wander onto subjects she would rather not think about.

Lauren kept a large calendar stuck to the door of her refrigerator with a daisy magnet, and each evening she marked off another day. June fifteenth was getting closer and closer. Soon she would be holding her little baby in her arms.

But as she looked at each day with its large red
X,
she was reminded that she had one day less to wait for Dr. Daniels to make his move. He might be planning to try another sneak attack, by presenting his claim while she was still lying weakly in the hospital bed. Well, if he thought he would catch her off guard again, he wasn’t as intelligent as Dr. Reese had given him credit for being.

Lauren was ready for anything Jordan Daniels could possibly come up with.
Anything!

Chapter Three

Jordan Daniels sat on the park bench, absently feeding the crusts of his half-eaten sandwich to the pigeons that pranced in expectant circles on the sidewalk. A more cautious squirrel watched from a safer distance, occasionally darting through the flock of birds to grab a piece of bread, quickly stuff it into one of his cheeks, then scurry back to store it in his tree.

But as the crowd of hungry creatures continued to grow, Jordan barely noticed them. Instead, he sank deeper and deeper in thought until the forgotten sandwich fell from his relaxed fingers to the sidewalk where it immediately became the catalyst for several fights. Jordan’s gaze skipped across the wide expanse of emerald-green grass to a woman pushing a baby stroller. As she reached an empty bench, she sat down, unstrapped the baby and lifted him out. Pulling a bottle from a diaper bag, the woman proceeded to enjoy the spring sunshine while her baby enjoyed his lunch.

Even though he knew he was staring, Jordan couldn’t look away. There was something so compelling about a woman feeding an infant that he wished he had brought his camera along to capture this moment.

How odd, he thought, that he, a bachelor, should suddenly begin noticing babies. Even though his research centered around creating them, he had never really paid any attention to the tiny people his studies were helping to be conceived. His job kept him in the background, working more on the beginning than the conclusion.

At least, that was the pase until he had become personally involved in the process. Now that his own baby was due in less than two months, the bachelor scientist had suddenly become an anxious father-to-be. The only problem was that he was missing out on everything. Even the pleasure of being involved in a sexual relationship when the child was conceived had been denied him. And since he knew little about the mother-to-be, he still didn’t have the faintest idea what was going on with his son or daughter. He could only hope that she was taking care of herself and his baby. He could only guess what sort of plans she had for the actual delivery. And he could only imagine how exciting it would be to watch as his baby came into this world and drew the first breath of air into its tiny lungs.

“Damn,” he exclaimed, pounding his fist against his knee with such vigor that the pigeons lifted off the sidewalk in a chaotic flutter of wings. Jordan had never felt so helpless. He was a man who enjoyed being in control of his life and even though he sometimes dismissed what he considered inconsequential details, he was, nevertheless, a very organized person.

Ever since he had been a little boy, sitting enthralled in front of the television watching Doogie Howser, M*A*S*H and St. Elsewhere, he had wanted to be a doctor. He had worked hard to make his grades good enough to earn a scholarship to medical school. Methodically, he had conquered one after another of his career goals, until he was now in what he considered to be the most important position in his field. If his studies were successful, thousands of babies would be born to couples who had thought they never had a chance to bear a child of their own.

But now, through a quirk of fate, the moderation of his personal life had suddenly been taken out of his hands and placed in those of a total stranger. He felt helpless and angry, but at the situation, not the woman.

Jordan shook his head as he remembered that day in the cafeteria. God, he had come on strong. He had regretted his aggressiveness almost immediately and wished he had taken enough time to cool down before confronting her. But he had just found out about the mistake and, not thinking very clearly, had jumped to the conclusion that she was somehow responsible for the switch.

Common sense told him that she could not possibly have been involved in choosing whose donation she received. He was not egotistical enough to think that even if she had known his sperm was in storage, she would request it. But he had been so upset to learn that six months of work had been cancelled, his project interrupted and an unknown woman pregnant with his child that his usually dormant temper had flashed out of control.

His frustration had twisted his reasoning until he believed that if Lauren Nelson hadn’t decided to be artificially inseminated or her biological clock hadn’t chosen that particular day, then none of these problems would have occurred. On that rather shaky theory, he had stormed out of the medical center, after getting information about where she lived and worked from Dr. Reese’s secretary. He found out from her clerk where Lauren had gone for lunch. If at any time during those few hours he had sat down and tried to think clearly, he would never have confronted her with such hostility.

She must really hate him, he thought to himself. He had approached a delicate situation with all the finesse of a freight train, creating an atmosphere of hostility and resentment where none should have existed. If only he had arranged a meeting with her in a more private place where they could have talked about this rather unusual event and tried to come up with a solution that would satisfy them both.

But he had ruined any opportunity for that. And then he had been too ashamed of his behavior to try to make amends after the fact. He wouldn’t blame her if she refused to ever speak to him face-to-face again. Even his attorney had been aghast at how ineptly the situation had been handled. Now, instead of coming to some sort of agreement, they would have to wait until the baby was born and tests could be performed to prove that Jordan was the father before any compromise could be reached.

Not that Jordan had any doubt that his sperm had been used. So what if the nurse had been a little confused after all that time about the exact location? Her description had been near enough to where he had stored his vial to convince him that she had picked it up. Even when she told him the other vial had been in almost the same vicinity, his belief had never wavered—well, almost never. There were a couple of things that his scientific mind had refused to dismiss that sometimes bothered him. The very fact that Lauren had become pregnant on the first try was one of them. Because of the experiments he had been running, using himself as a guinea pig, he had been very surprised at the immediate success of the insemination.

Besides, this particular experiment had never been meant to go farther than his lab. Not only were there not going to be any other human beings involved in the actual tests, but he had never intended for anyone to know of this project until he had found out if it would succeed. That had been one of the reasons he hadn’t labeled his vial. He had never considered the possibility of a nurse using it without double-checking the identification. And no one should have thrown it out without asking everyone in the lab if they knew why it was being stored.

If only he hadn’t been so concerned with what everyone else might think, he would have labeled it. But his masculine pride had kept him from putting his own name on that vial, and now just look where it had gotten him … in a lot of trouble, that’s where. Admitting that it had been his own specimen had been even more embarrassing than he had anticipated. And now it looked as if that information would be dragged through the courts for all the world to know.

Jordan leaned back on the bench, stretching his arms out on each side of him until they rested comfortably on the top slat. The woman on the bench across the small grassy open area was holding her baby on her shoulder, patting him on his back, obviously waiting for a burp. Even though Jordan couldn’t hear it, he could tell by the pleased expression on the woman’s face that the baby had done what was expected of him. Settling the infant in his stroller, the woman replaced the bottle and a towel in the bag and stood up.

As she turned her back, walking on down the sidewalk away from Jordan, he noticed how the sunbeams turned the woman’s blond hair into a sparkling gold. It was the same color as Lauren Nelson’s hair, he thought, but not as long or as soft-looking.

Now where did that memory come from?
he asked himself. He hadn’t seen Ms. Nelson in over a month and yet he had as clear a picture in his mind of what she looked like as if he had seen her only yesterday. He remembered the way her clear blue eyes had looked at him with friendly curiosity before his harsh words had changed them into the color of a stormy sea. Her voice had been smooth and cultured, her slightly drawled words revealing that she was one of those rare people—a Houston native.

He had to admit that if he had had to choose a woman to produce his progeny, he couldn’t have chosen a more suitable candidate. She was very attractive with neat, even features and a deliciously feminine figure that showed her pregnancy only in a small bulge beneath her rib cage. If their baby took after her, it couldn’t help but be an adorable child and a handsome adult. And as God was his witness, Jordan vowed that he wouldn’t let anyone rob him of the experience of watching his kid grow up.

The woman pushing her baby stroller had turned a corner and was out of sight. With a wistful sigh, Jordan’s gaze drifted back to the empty park bench. But, to his surprise, another woman was now sitting there, removing items from a white paper bag and arranging them neatly on the bench beside her. It wasn’t until she had folded the sack and set it beside her lunch that Jordan could see that she was pregnant.

He straightened, his arms dropping from the top rail as he watched this new woman with increasing interest. Even before she lifted her head enough that he could get a good look at her face, he knew it was her—the same person he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind for the last few weeks—the woman who now had a stake in his future whether she wanted it or not.

He didn’t know what he should do next. Should he stroll casually toward her, catching her off guard again so he could see her honest reaction toward him? Maybe then he would be able to judge how much damage he had done. But no, that might only make things worse, by surprising her again.

Or maybe he should just sit here and wait until she noticed him. If he seemed harmless enough, perhaps she would make the first move and invite him to join her or come over to him. Who was he kidding? That possibility was so remote that he would probably be sitting here for the rest of the week, waiting for her to forgive and forget.

Jordan frowned and raked his fingers roughly through his thick black hair. It would do nothing for his reputation as a man who was too cool to let anything ruffle his feathers, but he could think of no better solution than to swallow his pride, rush over there and apologize for his earlier behavior. He hoped they could start over and discuss their problem like two adults.

But before he could put any of his plans into action, Lauren lifted her attention from the sandwich she was eating and, with unerring accuracy, her gaze met his. Jordan watched, horrified, as she winced as if she had been shot. After that, she didn’t wait for him to act harmless, stroll casually or even dash across the grass. With amazing agility for a woman so far along, she tossed her sandwich aside, pushed herself off the bench and hurried down the sidewalk in the direction from which she had come.

Jordan practically leaped off his bench, forgetting whatever coolness or reticence he had been planning on as he cut across the grass until he reached the spot where he had seen her. She hadn’t been running, but already she was out of sight. Helplessly, he stared at the tree-lined sidewalk, empty except for an old man shuffling along leading a small gray-muzzled dog.

“Damn!” Jordan repeated for the second time in the last half hour. He hadn’t meant to scare her off. The last thing in the world he wanted was for the baby to get hurt. His fists clenched at his sides as he waited for some divine guidance to tell him what to do now. God knows, he had sure messed things up on his own.

He looked down at her lunch, left abandoned on the bench. She had spread out on a piece of waxed paper an eclectic mixture of nutritious and junk food. There was an apple, an unopened bag of cheese puffs, a chocolate bar, a can of diet cola and a carelessly discarded ham and cheese sandwich. A tiny smile lifted the corners of his mouth as an inspiration struck him. He had suddenly remembered that her shop wasn’t far from here.

Of course, that was where she would go. She had just walked to the park to eat her lunch. And it would be the gentlemanly thing for him to return it to her. A pregnant woman needed her nourishment and he didn’t want her to be able to accuse him of making her skip a meal. As carefully as she had laid it out, he repacked it in the white bag. Retracing his steps, he stopped long enough to wad the remainder of his own lunch into a messy ball and toss it into a garbage can before he started walking in the direction of her florist shop.

As he neared the doorway with its classy pink-and-white-striped awning printed with the name Pretty Petals in a curling script, Jordan began to get nervous. He wished there were some other way to handle this, but it seemed so cold to wait until after the baby was born and let their lawyers hash it out. And he knew how little time he had left to create some sort of truce that would keep him from being excluded completely.

Heaving a shaky sigh, Jordan pushed the glass door open and stepped out of the heavy humidity into the cool, cheery interior of the shop. There was no one in sight and even though the little bell over the doorway had jingled loud and clear, neither Lauren nor her clerk came out to help him. He could hear voices, muffled by the water running in the back room, so he knew he was not alone. Patiently he waited until the water was turned off, then reached over and pulled the door open and let it ease shut, causing the bell to ring again.