Taste of Love (7 page)

She was still debating on whether to tell Cameron or not, but even if she wanted to, she had no idea how to get in touch with him. She would just have to cross that bridge when she came to it.

If she came to it.

That night at work, Austin kept a close eye on her, making sure she didn't push herself too hard. She could feel his eyes on her as she moved around the stoves and counters. She knew that she wasn't showing yet - she had spent a good hour in front of the mirror that morning, examining her belly and wondering if anyone would know - but she wondered if her decisions were showing in her face.

She pulled him aside halfway through the evening and gave him a solid, sure smile. "I'm okay," she said. "I promise."

"Cross your heart?" he asked.

"I am okay," she said again. "You'll see."

"Mother, I don't know why you had to pick me up. I could've just met you at the restaurant," Cameron told Bunny once he got into the town car.

"You know darling, most young men greet their mother with a 'Good Evening Mother, how are you doing?' I know I taught you better manners than that," she chided with a hint of disappointment.

"Sorry, Mother. How are you?" he asked politely as he leaned over to kiss her cheek.

"I've been well, thank you. I've been keeping busy; dining with the girls, tennis lessons, golf, and my charities. My social calendar is just packed full right now," she told him, glowing with satisfaction.

"Well, I'm glad to see old age isn't slowing you down. Most widows tend to let themselves idle after their husbands die," he commented with a smirk, knowing that she would take offense to the old age remark.

"Cameron Andrew Rome! I'll have you know that I'm only fifty! I have plenty of years ahead of me before I hit 'Old Age'," she protested.

"Mother, you're fifty-three. Don't deny it," he laughed.

"Whatever, fifty is close enough."

Not long after, they pulled up outside of the restaurant. Cameron looked up at the canopy overhead and saw the fancy calligraphy proclaiming them to be at The TigerLily. He groaned. "Oh, Mother. Couldn't you have picked a different restaurant?"

"I am just fascinated with this place. They have the best food, and such a wonderful atmosphere. You would think you'd indulge my desires, being so old and all," she pointed out.

Cameron shook his head. "I'm sure I'll be gone long before you will," he told his mother as he led her into the restaurant. Cameron was glad that he'd made himself look presentable. He didn't think there was much chance of seeing the owner, but just in case, he wanted to look good enough to eat. Then he smiled at his own pun.

Their meals came and went uneventfully as they shared pleasant conversation to pass the time. When dessert came, Bunny did something out of character: before the waiter could leave, she put her hand on his arm and asked if Madison was available.

Cameron's heart leaped in his chest. His face flushed with heat. He took a quick sip of wine to cover it up as he tried to think of a graceful way out of this.

The waiter left to find Madison, leaving Bunny very pleased, and Cameron completely mortified.

"Hey boss, there's a woman out there who was asking for you, table twenty-three," one of the waiters told Madison as he entered the kitchen.

"Is there a problem?" she asked. She liked to know beforehand if she was walking into a hornet's nest.

"No, she seems very happy. I think she just wants to say hello," he told her, then disappeared back into the dining room.

Madison removed her black apron and placed it on the counter near the door, then washed and dried her hands. She checked the mirror to make sure she was presentable before she went to the dining area.

She looked over to table twenty-three once it came into view, and saw one of the ladies she had met a few weeks ago. Madison smiled. She'd been coming in at least once a week ever since, and made sure to say hi each time she was in. There was also a man sitting at the table with her, but all Madison could see was the back of the man's head. Usually she came in with her women friends, so Madison was intrigued.

"Bunny, how are you?" Madison asked when she got closer to the table. She leaned down and kissed the older woman's cheeks.

"I'm great. Having a wonderful dinner with my son." Bunny pointed to the man sitting at the table with her, shielding his face with his hand. "Madison, this is my currently rude son, Cameron. Cameron, this is Madison."

She smacked his hand away from his face, eliciting a gasp from Madison.

"We've met, Mother." Cameron spoke softly, while Madison just stood there with her mouth open.

"Oh wonderful! I think the two of you will get along famously," Bunny said, clasping her hands in front of her in excitement. Then she looked at the young woman standing beside the table and frowned.

"Are you alright dear?" she asked Madison, seeing her pale face.

Madison nodded after a long moment. "Um, Cameron, can I talk to you in my office for a minute?" she asked. She wasn't sure what she was going to say, but fate had obviously brought him to her restaurant for a reason.

He nodded, and threw his napkin on the table as he stood and followed behind her. Bunny was left at the table to create a hundred different scenarios as to what was going on between the two of them. All of them ended up with Madison as her daughter-in-law and the mother of her grandchildren.

She was quite pleased with herself as she dug into the last of her dessert.

Once the door closed behind them, Cameron was quick to jump to the matter at hand. "What is it that you wanted? I don't have all night."

"You might want to sit down for this." She motioned to a chair.

"I think I'll stand," he told her defiantly.

"Fine, don't say I didn't warn you." She took a deep breath. "Cameron, I'm pregnant, and it's your child."

Cameron looked at her with a raised eyebrow. He didn't miss a beat. "Oh, really? You expect me to believe that?"

"What?" Madison stared at him with wide eyes.

"I should have known you would do something to try to ruin me. How much do you want?"

"Excuse me?" she asked, still not understanding what he was talking about.

"How much do you want to keep from going public with 'my child'? Do you know how many times women have come to me and said that I fathered their children? Do you know how many of them were actually mine? None of them were mine, that's how many. It's all a ploy to get money from me," he spat, his anger rising.

Madison's anger was rising, too. She took a deep breath to keep it in check.

"Well, you're the only one I've been with in a really long time, and I'm sure this was no 'Immaculate Conception', so that leaves just one conclusion," she argued.

"Yeah, right. We had a one night stand, and you expect me to believe that I'm the only one you've been with in a while? Come on, tell the truth. I bet you do it all the time; go out to bars, pick up a guy, go home and screw his brains out? You're a little slut, aren't you?" Cameron taunted.

Staying calm was getting much harder to do. "Screw you," she said, her voice almost a whisper. "I told you that was the first time I'd ever had a one night stand." She could feel the tears prickling her eyes.

"Yeah, and I've never heard that one before either. Get real. It's the same old story I hear time after time. If you're even pregnant, it's not mine, so forget the whole extortion thing," he told her as he walked out of her office, slamming the door.

Only when he was gone did Madison let the tears fall.

Cameron walked back to the table where his mother was sitting, trying to dampen his temper with every step he took. That woman sure had nerve to accuse him of something so transparent! Did she think she was the only one who had ever tried that game? The moment he got even the slightest bit famous, it began to happen with disappointing regularity. Now he was accustomed to dealing with women who thought they had found their paycheck in his pants.

"Let's go, Mother," he said, harsher than he intended, once he got back to their table. He reached for her arm, making it clear that he was serious about getting out of there.

"What happened?" Bunny asked, confused as to why her son was in such a sour mood.

"Some people just aren't who they pretend to be," he told her cryptically, as he dropped money on the table and led her out of the restaurant.

T
he next two weeks were tough on Cameron. Madison's pregnancy was always in the back of his mind, and he wondered if it truly was his. From everything that his mother said about her the night they had gone to The TigerLily, she appeared to be a very stand-up woman. Would she really lie about something like a pregnancy?

Cameron shook his head. Of course she would. He had learned through his career that people weren't always as honorable as they pretended to be.

But still, something about this woman kept him thinking. Sure, it was possible that he was the father. He didn't remember using a condom that night, but then again, he was so out of it that he could have screwed a hole in the wall and not known the difference. Besides, he'd had sex without a condom before, and the woman never got pregnant. Not that it happened very often, but there were a few times that he was too caught up in the moment to play safe.