Tempting Fate (49 page)

She slipped out of her shoes and glanced around the huge room.  Double wide windows dominated one wall and a bed big enough for at least three people hugged the opposite wall which led to another room.  She padded across the room and dug her toes into the plush royal blue carpet as she stood at the open doorway to the smaller room.  As Mary had informed her, the room was empty, just waiting to be filled with little baby items.

She stood, almost in a trance, wondering what it would be like in just a few months to have this room filled not only with a crib and pretty blankets and stuffed toys, but with the sound of her baby's laughter.

She felt Jonah behind her and swung around.  He ran his hand over his dark hair and rested his hand on the nape of his neck.  A sense of awkwardness engulfed her and suddenly Jonah was as much a stranger to her as the day they'd met.  But something was different.  An electric awareness flowed between them as it had right from the first.  He was her husband.  But they were nearly strangers.

As if sensing her awkwardness, Jonah cleared his throat and turned toward the door.  “I know you're tired.  I'll make sure your bags are brought up after you nap.”

He closed the door and allowed her privacy in her own room.

* * *

Maggie's little nap had her sleeping through dinner and waking in the early morning ravished enough to eat an elephant.

Elephants, she thought as she skipped down one end of the wide stairway in search of the kitchen.  She could stencil little animals on the wall of the nursery.

She hadn't been given the grand tour of the house yet, but decided a good way to find the kitchen would be to follow the pungent aroma of bacon.  She hit pay dirt on the first hall she followed, finding the dining room and the swinging door leading to the kitchen.  She pushed inside.

“Good morning, Mary.”

“You're up so early, love.”

“I wasn't going to sleep with all the racket my stomach was making.”

Mary laughed, cracking another egg and dropping it into a bowl already filled. 

“Can I help you with anything?”

“No, thank you.  I have it.” 

“Is there anything I can munch on before breakfast is done?  I'm starving.”

Wiping her hands on the apron, Mary said, “I imagine you must be.  You can't be skipping meals now that you're eating for two.  Why don't you go into the dining room and get comfortable.  I'll be there straight away with your breakfast.”

“Dining room?  But there's no one in there.  Am I eating by myself?”

“So far.  Jonah's still upstairs.”

  “What's wrong with right here at the kitchen table?”

Mary seemed to look pleased.  “Nothing at all.  But Jonah insisted that all the staff put out their best to make you feel welcome.”  She winked and whispered, “He usually has his coffee and biscuits right here at the nook.”

Heat crept up Maggie's cheeks.  “Since I already feel welcome, there is no reason for me not to do the same.  I'm just another member of the family.”

“The only member of Jonah's family,” Mary said, turning back to the frying pan.

Maggie climbed into a seat at the stool at the breakfast nook and reached across the table for a banana from the fruit basket, peeling back the skin.  “You're more family to Jonah than I am.”

Mary stopped short of spooning bacon on to the plate to drain, a measure of warmth was stretched across her face.  “In a way, I suppose you're right.  Up until yesterday, anyway.”

“You're the only person who doesn't call Jonah by his formal title.”

Mary chuckled.  “I'm not so sure I could do that after all the scoldings I gave him when he was a young lad.”

“Did you raise him?”

Mary dropped a plate of biscuits and bacon on the counter in front of Maggie.  “Now where on earth did you get an idea like that?”

  Maggie shrugged.  “It's just the way you look at him.  It's obvious you have a special bond.  It's not like the other members of the staff.”

Mary's pleasure was unmistakable.  “For me, Jonah is as close as it gets to having children of my own.  But if I did have a son, I would wish him to be just like Jonah.  The whole lot of us were bursting with pride when the Queen honored him with Knighthood.  Here, have some orange juice to help wash down that banana.” 

Mary pulled a carafe from the fridge and poured the juice before placing the glass on the table in front of Maggie.

Maggie drank it down in one gulp.

“I'm going to have to stock up on juice if you keep that up,” Mary said, chuckling.

Jonah strode into the kitchen, giving Mary a scrutinizing glance, before sliding into the stool next to Maggie.

“I thought we'd agreed on breakfast in the dining room.”

“I like the kitchen,” Maggie said.  “It's warmer in here.”

“It's August, it's hot as Hades everywhere.”

Mary jabbed him in the shoulder, then placed a dish of bacon and eggs in front of him.  “You know fully well what Maggie is talking about.”

He smiled sheepishly.  

Mary dropped the last platter on the table in front of them.  “If you need anything else, Maggie, Jonah will direct you.  I'm going out to the garden to harvest some zucchini and tomatoes.”

Jonah waited until the back door was firmly shut and they both filled their plates with food before he spoke.

“After how exhausted you'd been yesterday, I thought for sure you'd sleep in late this morning.”

“I have to get to work.”

Jonah's head snapped up from his coffee mug.  “You're going to the coffee shop?”

She nodded.  “I have to be there by the time the breakfast run is in full swing.  Kelsey is still too new to handle it on her own.  Then when it quiets down I have some inventory to go through.  School will be starting soon and it's always busy once the college kids arrive.  I'd like to get a little ahead of the game if I can.  That way I can take a few weeks off after the baby is born.” 

He was quietly looking at her, ignoring the mound of scrambled eggs he'd scooped on his fork.

“I just assumed you'd be quitting your job now that...”  He dropped the fork in his plate with a clank.

She stared at him questioningly.  “Now that we're married?  You can say it, you know.  I'm not going to bite.”

Jonah cleared his throat and dabbed his mouth with his napkin.  “There's no need for you to work anymore now that we're married.”

She wasn't aware her mouth had dropped open until she tried to speak.  “You are kidding, right?”

He shook his head, his eyes narrowing with question.

“You have to admit it's a bit barmy for the wife of a millionaire to be working as a waitress-”

“Owner, thank you very much,” she said, correcting him.  “And I don't care how it looks to anyone.  The
Coffee Drop
is my livelihood.  How else will I be able to make money to support the baby?”

“I thought we settled all this the other night.  Money need not be an issue.  If you want to take some time off before the baby is born--”

It was if he'd just slapped her across the face.  Although Maggie would bet Jonah would never resort to such physical violence, his words stung just the same.  What was he thinking?  Did he really think she'd just sponge off his bank account for the next year?

“That wasn't part of the deal.  I thought I'd made that perfectly clear.”

“You did.”

She threw her napkin on the table.  “Then what is this all about?”

  “Simply that you needn't worry yourself about whether or not you'll have money to support the baby.  I can more than sufficiently care for both of you now.”

No, he couldn't, Maggie thought.  He absolutely could not.  Not now, not ever.  Because if she let her guard down, she might end up needing him.  If she needed him, she may want to stay here with him in her life after the year was through.  And that was never part of their arrangement.

Her mother had needed her father.  She'd heard countless stories of how for three years her father had courted her lavishly until the day he found out about Maggie.  Then it was over.  Unfortunately, it was also too late.  Although they had never married, Rhonda had become so dependent on him emotionally and financially that it took years for her to be able to build back her self-esteem and stand on her own two feet again.

And then of course there was Keith.  Maggie hadn't needed him financially.  The one lesson she'd taken to heart from her mother's experience was that she had to learn to take care of herself.  But she'd needed him emotionally, at least that one night after her grandmother died when she'd conceived her baby.  And just like history repeating itself, he'd hit the road when he found out she was pregnant.

Maggie was determined that wouldn't happen again.  She didn't want to become bitter like her mother had.  She wouldn't depend on Jonah to take care of her or the baby.  She would do it herself.

“I am capable of taking care of me and my child.”

“I have no doubt of that.  But in the last week even I can tell you've been pushing yourself too hard.  You were so exhausted you slept through dinner last night.  When I brought your bags to your room, you didn't even stir when I shook you.”

She knotted her arms across her chest, not sure what she was feeling beyond the anger rising inside her.  Jonah had been in her room last night?  She had no idea.

“Pregnant women sleep a lot.  Especially in the first few months.”

 “I can see that.  More proof that you need to take it easy.”  He expelled a slow breath that echoed frustration.  “I just want you to know that your working is no longer a necessity.”

“That's where you're wrong.  It is.  To me, it definitely is a necessity.” 

Maggie leaped from the kitchen stool and walked around the counter in an attempt to assuage the rising steam inside her, reaching explosion level.  Grabbing the carafe of orange juice, she poured herself a glass, and dropped it on the table next to the carafe.  Busy work, her grandmother always called it.  She'd clean the whole damned mansion if it kept her from snapping the way she wanted to at Jonah. 

Dragging in a deep breath, she chose her words carefully.  “My grandmother left me the coffee shop.  It was all she had, and she wanted me to have it.  She'd worked at that coffee shop my whole life.  All my memories of childhood were spent after school helping her and hanging out with my friends there.  It's as much a part of me as she is...was.”

Her voice cracked and she clamped down on her bottom lip with her teeth to keep it from trembling.

“So you see, I do have to work.  The
Coffee Drop
may not be a castle in England worth millions, but its value is far greater than anything I could think to put a dollar value on.”

The tightness that had masked Jonah's expression when she started her tirade had subsided to regret. 

“You're right, of course.  It was wrong of me to make such an assumption.”

Oh, how Maggie wished she could let her guard down.  But she couldn't.  And because she couldn't do that, she had to make Jonah understand. 

“You don't know what it is like to struggle in life.  I do.  That's not your fault and I'm not blaming you in any way if you can't understand.  My mother and grandmother worked hard to make a life for me.  I'm not going to shirk my responsibility to my child just because you have money.  That's not why I married you.  And I don't want you to ever think that because I don't.”

She picked up the glass of orange juice she'd just poured and drained it.  Carefully, she placed the empty glass on the table and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

“I'll see you tonight,” she said, already racing through the kitchen door.  And not a moment too soon. 

Maggie held onto her composure long enough to get her point across, but now it was beginning to unravel.

What had gotten into her?  She'd never reacted so wildly before, not even when it was clear Keith wanted nothing to do with the baby.  She'd practically chopped Jonah's head off. 

It had to be her hormones again.  That was the only explanation Maggie could think of for her coarse reaction.  Although she knew deep down Jonah was only trying to help, she also knew that if she let her guard down with him, she'd lose...what?  What could she possibly lose?

She didn't want to think about it.  Instead, she raced through the front door of the mansion to the waiting limousine that would take her from Jonah's fairy tale house to her real life at the coffee shop.

* * *

Jonah groaned inwardly, watching the swinging kitchen door that Maggie had just stalked through slap back and forth, creating a breeze.  Terrific.  First day married and he was already in the doghouse. 

He should have known better than to assume the Coffee Shop wouldn't mean as much to Maggie as Wiltshire did to him.  They'd grown up in entirely different worlds, but the ties to their worlds were strong.  He'd have to make a point of remembering that.  The last thing he wanted to do was hurt Maggie or her pride. 

Again.

# # #

Chapter Seven

The flood of college students lining up to apply for jobs wasn't as bad as it had been in recent years, Maggie thought, glancing through the applications.  She could only choose two for part-time employment.  It was all she could afford.  And since she had to make the most of the money she paid out in wages, she chose carefully.

Gregg was a tall kid in his first year in college.  He looked as though he were smart and dependable, able to lift a lot of the heavy boxes she'd be unable to carry as the months went on.  She'd give him a call first, see if he was interested in stopping by for an interview.

She'd need another waitress, but she might be able to hold off for at least another few months.  The restaurant wasn't all that big and she could certainly take multiple trips to serve her customers if need be.  Yes, she'd hold off on the wait staff and concentrate on the bigger jobs.  She'd make sure she had a waitress trained and ready to take her place long before she needed a replacement.

With that settled, Maggie lifted off the stool and breezed across the floor to the back room.  It had been quiet this afternoon.  It usually was this time of the day since the
Coffee Drop
's main business was serving breakfast and lunch.  Maggie enjoyed the freedom of being able to close the shop at a decent hour.  It would make it easy for her once the baby arrived.