SWEET ANTICIPATION (5 page)

This time it got a better response as Rita hurried out to greet the customer. As soon as she saw who it was, she screeched to a halt and stood staring at him.

“You! What do you want now? Haven’t you done enough damage without coming here to bother her?” As soon as she gathered her wits, she advanced on him like a mother hen protecting her chick. “What could this baby possibly mean to you? It means the world to her and she will be a great mother. Why don’t you just leave her alone?”

“Whoa. Slow down,” he responded in a soothing voice, “I don’t want to hurt her. I just want to talk to her and smooth things out between us.”

“Well, she doesn’t want to talk to you … ever.”

Rita’s raised voice had carried to the back room and Lauren decided she had better investigate the ruckus. Brushing her blond hair away from her face, she wiped away the last remnants of her tears and walked into the shop.

“You!
What are you doing here?” she asked, echoing Rita’s words almost exactly.

Jordan managed to force his stiff lips into a believable grin. “I’m beginning to get the idea that I’m not welcome here,” he said, trying to break the tension with a feeble joke.

“That’s very perceptive of you, doctor,” Lauren answered sarcastically. She pivoted around and had every intention of leaving the room when he called after her. It wasn’t the words he spoke but the genuine anguish in his tone that touched her.

“Mrs. Nelson, please give me just a few minutes to talk to you. This is my first child, too, and I don’t want to miss out on this important time in his life.”

Reluctantly, she stopped, but didn’t turn to face him for several seconds as she fought a silent battle with her own emotions. She could rudely ignore him as long as he was being hostile. But when he appealed to her sentiment, he created a whole new side to the problem that she hadn’t considered. From his earlier attitude, she had assumed he was angry at her and the situation, but the thought that he might honestly be interested in the child had never occurred to her. The possibility that such a furious man could have any fatherly feelings seemed so incredible that Lauren had dismissed it completely.

Could it be that she had misjudged the doctor? Today he seemed to be an entirely different person. Throughout Rita’s interrogation and Lauren’s curtness, he had remained calm and genial. He appeared to have come here to extend the proverbial olive branch in a gesture of peace and he seemed almost desperately anxious for her to accept it. Still very suspicious, Lauren decided that it wouldn’t hurt to hear him out. Maybe he would give her some information that she could later use against him.

Taking a deep, bracing breath, she slowly walked around behind the counter and faced him. “Okay, doctor. You have five minutes, then I have to get back to work.”

Five minutes? How could he say everything he wanted to say in just five minutes? Stepping closer, he set the paper bag and her cola on the counter. “You forgot your lunch. I’m sorry if I startled you.”

“I don’t like being followed,” she said accusingly.

“I wasn’t following you. Honest,” he defended himself. “If you’ll remember, I was there first.”

“I didn’t notice you sitting there when I arrived.”

“Well, I was.”

“What were you doing in the park anyway? I’d heard you rarely stick your nose out of your laboratory.”

Jordan managed a chuckle. “Even doctors have to eat. When the weather is as nice as it is today, I like to take my lunch to the park. The medical center is only a block away, and contrary to popular belief, I
do
like to get out of the lab every once in awhile. I have a tendency to forget to eat if I stay in there too long.”

Lauren didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to think of Dr. Daniels as a human being, but the more he spoke, the more normal he seemed.

Jordan, too, seemed to be struggling for words. Looking down at her lunch, he remarked, “You really should finish eating this. But I think a glass of milk would be better for you and the baby than a diet cola.”

“Oh, no! Not you, too,” Lauren groaned as she caught a triumphant smile on Rita’s face. “What is this, a conspiracy to force people to drink milk? Do you and Rita own stock in a dairy or something?”

“Cola is probably no worse for you than chocolate bars or cheese puffs,” he admitted. “But don’t you think you should be a little more careful with your diet right now?”

“Look, doctor. I said I would listen to you, but don’t patronize me.” Lauren drew herself up to her full five-foot-six-inch height and ignored the several inches she had to look up to meet his eyes boldly. “I’m a grown woman and I believe I know better than you how to take care of myself.
My
baby and I have successfully made it through seven months without your advice and we plan on making it through two more. So if you have something else you’d like to discuss, get on with it. If not, then maybe you’d better go ahead and leave.”

“There I go again. It seems as if every time I open my mouth around you, I have to apologize. Please forgive me. I didn’t mean to get out of line. It’s just that this is so important to me.”

He was so contrite that Lauren felt her defenses melt slightly. Even Rita was affected by his almost humble bearing. Excusing herself, she went into the back room and left the two of them alone.

“What did you want to talk about?” Lauren asked, as if she didn’t already know.

“First of all, I want to explain why I might have come on a little too strong at the cafeteria a few weeks ago.”

“A little too strong?”
Lauren exclaimed in astonishment. “That’s an understatement if I ever heard one. You were the most obnoxious, rude, arrogant man I had ever met. And speaking of the cafeteria, I haven’t had enough nerve to show my face there since. You made such a scene that they probably wouldn’t let me come in, anyway.”

“Okay, I admit that I wasn’t acting very nice that day. But I think I was in a state of shock. I should have waited until I cooled down and was thinking more clearly before I talked to you. It’s not every day that a man finds out he’s going to become a father, especially when he has never met the mother.”

Before Lauren could answer, the front door opened and a young man entered the shop. Lauren stepped back, allowing the customer to approach the counter, and Lauren tried to act as normally as possible as she helped a young man select for his girlfriend a beautiful bouquet of red roses and lacy green ferns arranged in a tall ceramic vase. Trying to impress Jordan with her business acumen, she wrote up the sale, put it on the man’s charge card and thanked him for his business.

“Now where were we?” she asked as she closed the cash register drawer. “Oh, yes, you were telling me how upset you were about finding out you were going to be a father.”

“I’m not upset about becoming a father. I was just upset about how it happened,” he corrected.

“Not nearly as upset as I was. But as far as I’m concerned, as long as there’s at least a fifty-fifty chance that you’re not the father, I prefer thinking that you’re not.”

Jordan’s lips pressed together as he bit back a response. He was smart enough to know that he wasn’t going to be able to convince her through mere words. She was as unlikely to accept his ‘gut feelings that he was definitely the father as he was to accept her conviction that he wasn’t. It appeared that they had reached a stalemate.

Behind him the bell jingled and he knew that another customer had walked into the shop. How could he and Lauren ever have a meaningful conversation if they kept getting interrupted? He watched as Lauren walked around the counter to help an older woman choose a potted plant from the display near the front windows. From the way the two women talked to each other, it was obvious that the customer came here often. Jordan couldn’t help but feel a little envious of the ease with which everyone else seemed to get along with Lauren. Was he the only person in the world with whom she turned on that cool aloofness?

Maybe he deserved it. But he was trying to make amends. Leaning casually against the corner of the counter, he was able to observe her with total freedom. The bright yellow sundress she wore fit loosely enough that only an observant eye would have noticed that it was a maternity dress. Narrow straps showed off the smooth skin of her shoulders and her slender bare arms to their best advantage. Her rich blond hair captured the glow from the artificial lighting and her beautiful face showed none of the inner turmoil that she must be feeling at this moment.

Finally, the woman selected a pot of gloxinia attractively decorated with pinkish-purple foil to match the velvety bell-shaped flowers. As they walked back toward the counter, the woman asked, “When is your baby due? I know you’ve told me before, but I can’t seem to remember.”

Lauren’s hand lifted to rest protectively on her stomach as she cast a frantic glance at Jordan.
Don’t tell her,
her eyes pleaded with him.

I wouldn’t do that to you,
his eyes answered as he gave an almost indiscernible shake of his head.

“It’s—it’s due around June fifteenth,” Lauren finally stammered out loud.

“You’ve got that wonderful glow that all pregnant women get. Of course, you’ve always been attractive, but now you look even better.” The older woman rattled out the compliment. “It’s just too bad you don’t have a husband to share this with. I remember how much Henry enjoyed going through my pregnancies with me. I think he got as much joy out of feeling my babies kick inside me as I did. I’ll never forget the look on his face the first time he was hugging me and my little Rachel kicked him.”

As if pulled by an invisible force, Lauren’s gaze was locked to Jordan’s. She could read no mockery, no anger and no trickery in his eyes, only a vulnerability that shook her to her very core. This baby
did
mean something to him. What if he really was the father and she was denying him the pleasure of watching his child develop?

But darn it, it wasn’t her fault. Why should she suddenly become the villain in this? She hadn’t asked for her baby to have any acknowledged father other than her deceased husband, Johnny.

But Jordan hadn’t asked for this either. It was something he was trying to live with. After all, he had a lot to lose, too. And even if the courts eventually granted him some of his fatherly rights, he would still have missed out on the beginning of his child’s life. Even though she didn’t want to, Lauren was beginning to feel sorry for him. Good Jeez, the next thing she knew, she would probably even start liking him, she thought to herself in exasperation. And that was something she couldn’t afford to do.

Jordan saw Lauren’s blue eyes brighten with unshed tears. Why couldn’t he get her to understand that he didn’t want to hurt her?
Trust me,
he pleaded silently.
Let me share this with you.
He sensed her indecision and knew they had a long way to go from here. But first he must convince her that his intentions were honorable and his feelings completely natural. But he also knew that she would be fighting him all the way.

“I’d hate to think of how lonely and frightened I would have been if I hadn’t had Henry there to hold my hand during that first birth.” The older woman continued with her reminiscing, unaware of the silent conversation going on over her head. Apparently having noticed the handsome man leaning against the counter and sensing that she had interrupted a very personal conversation, she added with a sly glance in Jordan’s direction, “You should find yourself a nice young fella to take care of you and that baby. It’s not good for a mother to raise a child alone.”

Lauren forced herself to break the hypnotic bond with Jordan. Turning her attention back to her customer, she answered, “No, Mrs. Grissom. I’m not ready to get into another relationship so soon after my husband’s death. But don’t worry about me. My baby and I will do just fine as long as I have good customers and friends like you to look after me. Now where would you like me to deliver this? And do you want me to put it on your account?”

Jordan turned away and pretended an interest in the glass-fronted refrigerated area where large bunches of flowers were being stored in buckets of water. Mrs. Grissom was a wise old bird. Now it was up to Jordan to convince Lauren that much of what the woman had said was absolutely true.

Of course, he wasn’t looking for a romantic relationship any more than Lauren was right now. He was too busy with his work to deal with the pressure and commitment that would be involved, but he would make room in his life for his baby. He would do anything to keep her from depriving him of sharing this baby’s life.
Anything!

Chapter Four

As Mrs. Grissom was walking out the door, two more women customers came into the shop. Jordan tried to be patient even though it took them fifteen minutes to decide whether or not they wanted an ivy with variegated leaves or standard dark-green ones. Jordan was getting to the point where he was tempted to go over, pick up the first plant he saw, hand it to them and push them out the door. If it took them this long to select a plant, he hated to think how many months it must take them to shop for a new car.

But finally, with a huge pot of brilliant pink hydrangea gripped in the arms of one of them, they left.

“I thought they were planning to buy an ivy,” Jordan commented with a confused frown. “I don’t know much about flowers, but I’m positive that wasn’t one.”

Lauren smiled as she pushed the cash-register drawer shut. “I like to make little bets with myself about whether or not a customer will end up buying whatever it is they came in here for. Very few do. They think they have their minds made up when they come in here, but then they see something that has a pretty flower or maybe I’ve gotten in a particularly fine shipment of ferns that will attract their attention. I’ve even had people choose a plant because they like the color of paper that is wrapped around the pot. They don’t seem to realize how simple it would be for me to change the foil and the bow on any of the plants. For the most part, though, people just don’t know what they want.”

“I do,” Jordan remarked quietly.

Lauren tilted her head to one side and studied him skeptically. “I thought you said you didn’t know much about flowers.”

“I wasn’t talking about flowers.”

“In that case, your five minutes are up.” Suddenly alarmed at the direction this conversation might be taking, she decided it was a good time to end it. “Sunday is Easter and I’ve got a lot of orders to fill. I’m really too busy to stand out here and chat anymore.”

“We’re going to have to talk about this sooner or later.”

“Then let’s make it later, much later,” she retorted, her tone a little sharper than she had intended. If he expected to soften her up by pretending an interest in her business and then switching to the subject he knew she didn’t want to discuss, he was in for a big surprise. She wasn’t a simpering, passive female who could be tricked or bullied. There had been a time in her life when she had been a wide-eyed innocent, willing to do whatever was necessary not to make waves, satisfied to let her parents or her husband take care of her problems.

But Johnny’s death had done more than take away her husband. It had made her realize that it was time that she grew up and became responsible for her own life. She couldn’t depend on someone always being there to fight her battles for her, so she had better learn how to take care of herself.

Her first step toward independence had been to purchase this flower shop when her parents decided to retire and move to Corpus Christi. Her second step had been to go through with the artificial insemination. And her third step would be to stand up to Jordan Daniels.

Jordan had been watching her carefully, trying to gauge the strength of her resistance. He had noticed that all hints of laughter had frozen into blue ice crystals in her eyes. The soft curve of her mouth had straightened into an impervious line. For several seconds they exchanged appraising stares, each wanting to claim an advantage, but neither willing to back down. He knew he had brought much of her distrust and hostility on himself by the way he had treated her at their first meeting. But as he looked at the rounded bulge beneath her yellow dress, he could almost hear the clock ticking. If they didn’t reach some sort of agreement soon, he would be the loser. Even if he were able to take her to court and get partial custody of the child, it would likely take weeks, maybe years, and he would miss not only the birth, but those important first months.

“Don’t you think it would be better for you, me and the baby if we could try to get along and work this out between ourselves?” he asked hopefully.

“I think it would be better if you left now so I could get back to my customers. In case you haven’t realized it, this is my livelihood and if I don’t work, I don’t eat.”

“But I’d be glad to—” he began, with the intention of offering to help her financially, but as if she knew what he was about to say, she cut him off short.

“Goodbye, Dr. Daniels,” she interrupted coolly. “Your laboratory is calling you. While you’re wasting your time here with me, someone else could be stealing your precious sperm.”

Jordan opened his mouth to respond with equal sarcasm that the possibility was completely unlikely, but he forced himself to remain silent. She was trying to bait him to make him angry enough to want to avoid any future confrontations. Well, he just wouldn’t let it work. Even though he would love to see a judge wipe that smug, almost fearless look from her face, he kept reminding himself that he didn’t want to wait that long to claim some of his paternal rights.

Lifting one shoulder in a show of resignation, he gave her one last parting shot as he opened the door. “Don’t stay on your feet too long. We don’t want anything to happen to that baby, do we?”

Lauren glared after him even when she could no longer see him through the plate-glass windows at the front of her shop. This confirmed her belief that she didn’t need this man in her life for any reason. It was obvious that he would try to take over if she let him get even one foot in the door. And since they hadn’t been able to agree on anything so far, she doubted that they would have the same ideas about how a child should be raised. How could she get it across to him that this was
her
child and she didn’t intend to share it?

“Lauren, there’s a shipment of Easter lilies at the back door,” Rita called from the workroom. “Do you want me to write them a check or put it on our account?”

The rest of the week Lauren was too busy to give Jordan much thought. The lilies sold as fast as she could get them in the window, and she had to call the supplier and beg for another rush shipment. Pots of colorful hyacinths, tulips and miniature azaleas were also good sellers, as everyone seemed to need a gift for Grandma or a centerpiece for the holiday dinner table. A couple of churches in the area had called weeks earlier to place orders for flowers for their altars, and the Saturday before Easter, Rita was busy loading pot after pot of pure-white lilies into the back of the delivery van while Lauren handled all of the last minute walk-in business. As luck would have it, though, it wasn’t until Rita had actually driven away that a flood of customers—too many for one person to take care of—crowded into the small shop.

Lauren tried, practically running from one person to the next. It would have been simple if everyone had simply selected a plant, paid cash and left, but that was not the. case. Some people wanted a corsage, others wanted a flower arrangement, and still others, unintentionally proving her theory, didn’t have the faintest idea of what they wanted and needed her advice. Just as she was reaching up to unhook a huge basket of Swedish ivy from one of the hangers above the window, she heard the little bell tinkle over the front door, and she muffled a moan. At this point, what she needed was a helping hand, not another customer.

“Don’t you dare lift down that basket,” a fierce masculine voice boomed behind her. “What on earth are you doing standing on that step stool? Don’t you realize you could hurt yourself and the baby by doing something that stupid?”

As she realized whose voice it was, she almost made his warning come true as her foot slipped on the step. Luckily, she was able to catch her balance and, a little shaken, she backed down until her feet were set firmly on the floor. “Jordan, please calm down,” she said, low enough that only he could hear her. “I’m trying to wait on my customers and I can promise that I will not be in a terrific mood if you drive any of them away.”

“You should know better than to reach over your head for something heavy like that plant. And you were asking for an accident by standing on that little stool.”

“But that couple wants to buy the plant and someone had to get it down,” she defended herself automatically, even though she knew that, for once, he was absolutely right. The plant would have been almost too heavy for her to lift—especially while she was balanced on a stool—even if she weren’t pregnant.

“If that man were a gentleman, he would have offered to get it down for you. It’s obvious that you’re in no condition to do it,” Jordan whispered back. “You go wait on someone else. I’ll take care of this one for you.”

“But—”

“Go on. There’s a line of people waiting at the cash register and I noticed a few of them glancing toward the door. You’d better hurry or you’ll be the one who’s guilty of driving customers away.”

She didn’t like the way he had stepped in and started giving her orders, but unless she wanted to have a very public, possibly embarrassing, argument with him right there, she knew he had left her with no alternative. Besides, she grudgingly admitted, she could use his help. Forcing a wide, friendly smile and beaming it in the general direction of the couple waiting for the hanging basket, she went to the counter and rang up the sales of the people waiting there. As she took their money or ran their credit cards, she tried to keep an eye on Jordan. He was easy enough to spot as he was several inches taller than anyone else in the room and his deep, rich voice carried over the other sounds. Lauren heard him tell one young lady that he knew her mother would love “these pink flowers” because his own mother had a pot of them on her front porch and they bloomed every year. And he talked a man who was shopping for a present for his girlfriend into buying a pot of “those purple things” because they smelled so good.

As she rang up sale after sale, she couldn’t help but relax a little. Jordan’s self-confident, authoritative attitude that probably made him such a good scientist was now helping him to be a successful salesman. Some of these people were frequent customers and Lauren knew from experience that they usually looked at everything at least twice before making a selection. But not today. Instead of fluctuating as they probably would if Lauren were waiting on them, they seemed completely satisfied with whatever Jordan suggested.

Just as she would think they were catching up with the work load, some more people would push their way into the shop. Lauren had no idea how much time passed as she hurried from the cash register to the refrigerated case to get out one of the corsages or arrangements she and Rita had spent the previous day making for special orders or to have on hand in case someone needed one at the last minute. Sometimes she was too busy to even think about Jordan, but whenever she had a second to catch her breath, she would look around to see if he was still there. She knew she should be grateful to him for helping out the way he was, but she couldn’t keep from resenting his manner. Why did everything about him rub her the wrong way? Was she being overly sensitive or was she looking for a reason to continue to dislike him? She had to admit that it would complicate her life if she should be so foolish as to start liking him.

Finally Rita returned and helped to clear out the latest wave of customers before closing the door for the last time that evening. Because it was the day before a holiday, they had stayed open an extra hour, and as it turned out, they had needed every minute of it.

Lauren slumped down on the tall stool she kept behind the counter and Rita sat on the step stool, leaning the back of her head against the wall while Jordan half leaned, half sat on the edge of the window box where several dozen plants had been arranged earlier in the afternoon. Now there were none. The three people glanced around the shop, amazed at how empty it looked.

“Were there truly that many customers or did someone let a flock of locusts in here?” Rita asked incredulously.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people were in here this afternoon. The city of Houston fire marshals would have had a fit if they had been here,” Lauren replied with a tired chuckle. “And from the look of things, they were the only people who weren’t. It was a real madhouse. I have no idea how many customers we had, but I can’t wait to count the receipts.”

“And I can’t wait to get something to eat,” Jordan remarked after his rumbling stomach reminded him that he hadn’t eaten since breakfast.

Rita looked at him as if seeing him for the first time today. “What are you doing here?” she asked bluntly.

“I just dropped by to get a present for my grandmother,” he answered. “Ever since I was a little kid, my family has spent Easter at her house. When all my aunts, uncles and cousins get together, it’s quite a crowd, but we have the biggest and best Easter-egg hunts in the world. My grandmother loves flowers, so I thought I’d take her something pretty.”

Again three sets of eyes viewed the remnants of the florist shop’s stock. “I think I should have picked something out as soon as I got here.” he added wryly, critically eyeing what few plants remained.