The Baby Bargain (27 page)

"And you always were poking your nose in where it didn't belong." There was no anger in Dan's tone.

"You're in love with her, aren't you?" It was only half a question but Dan answered it, anyway.

"More than I'd ever thought possible."

"Then why the hell haven't you told her so?"

"I was going to. Today. I had it all set up." Dan thrust his fingers through his hair, his smile rueful. "I guess I should have figured it out sooner."

"Yeah. You were always slow-witted, too." There was remembered affection in the insult.

"I can't argue this time around. Is she all right?"

"She's fine. But I think she'll be a lot better once you tell her you love her."

Dan started up the stairs and then stopped, turning back to look at Michael. "You know, you and Brittany are a lot happier than she and I ever would have been."

The words were a letting go—of old hurts, old losses, old bitterness. Michael's expression made it clear that he recognized them as such.

"Thanks."

Dan turned, taking the stairs two at a time. He stopped outside the door Michael had indicated, feeling suddenly uncertain. What if she didn't want to come back under any circumstances? What if she felt she could never love him?

He knocked quietly and then pushed open the door. Kelly had been looking out the window. She turned, color flooding her face when she saw him,

"Dan!"

"Hi."

"How did you find me so quickly? I wasn't running away," she added hastily. "I know how much this baby means to you."

"It doesn't mean half as much as you do."

"I'm sure we can work something out," she continued, oblivious to what he'd said "Joint custody or something. I know it won't be easy but I can't give him up. I just can't"

Dan crossed the short distance between them, catching her hands in his. "Kelly, listen to me. I don't want you to give this baby up."

"You don't?" She stared at him, her eyes wide.

"I want you to marry me and we'll raise our child together."

"No." Her chin set and she shook her head. "I won't marry you for the sake of the baby."

He refused to let her pull away, drawing her closer, instead.

"I want you to marry me because I can't live without you, because my life was empty until you came into it"

She stared at him, feeling her heart start to pound a slow, hard rhythm.

"What?"

"I'm trying to tell you that I love you, Kelly. I'm trying to ask you to marry me and make a life with me for the two of us and our baby."

"You love me?"

"I love you," he repeated, with such conviction there could be no doubting that he meant it She stared at him wide-eyed and silent "You might say something about how you feel about me," he prompted when it seemed she might never speak again.

"I love you," she said, as if he had to have known it all along.

"And you'll marry me?"

"If it's what you want—but you don't have to."

"I want to. I want my ring on your finger so that everyone knows precisely who you belong to."

He slipped his arms around her, drawing her close. Kelly leaned her head on his chest, happier than she ever dreamed it possible to be.

"When I woke up this morning and you were gone, I was glad. Because I didn't know if I could look you in the eye and tell you I was leaving."

"I shouldn't have gone." His hand stroked her hair. "I went to see your father."

"No!" Kelly's head jerked up, her eyes showing a trace of fear. "I told you to just let it go."

"I didn't feel like letting it go. Don't worry, I didn't murder him, though that would have been no more than he deserved. I merely suggested that he might find another part of the country more comfortable."

"What did he say?"

"Well, a great deal about the wages of sin," Dan said dryly. "But I think he's seen the wisdom of a fresh climate. And I also got your box of keepsakes for you."

"You did?" Tears stung her eyes.

"I did. I was going to surprise you with them and then I was going to take you out to a site I'd picked out Remington Construction's first project is going to be a house for the two of us. The three of us," he corrected, setting his hand against the swell of her stomach.

Kelly leaned against him, her heart swelling with happiness. It had all happened so quickly. From despair to joy in a matter of minutes.

"We're going to be together always, Kelly." Dan put his hand under her chin, tilting her head back until her eyes met his. "That's a promise you can believe."

And she did believe it. With all her heart, she believed.

"Here's your veil," Kelly watched in the mirror as Brittany set the veil carefully in place. The delicate circlet of ivory silk roses was draped with a short fall of tulle.

"You look beautiful." Brittany blinked back sentimental tears.

"I look six and a half months pregnant," Kelly said. She stood, smoothing her hand over the fell of watered silk that failed to hide the bulge of her stomach.

"Well, you could look nearly eight months pregnant," Brittany pointed out, gesturing to her own bulging tummy.

"True. Do I really look all right?"

"You look gorgeous. Dan is going to be stunned. I wonder if that's the limo already." Brittany glanced at the clock as the doorbell rang. "They're early. You find your shoes and I'll tell them to wait."

She hurried from the room, leaving Kelly alone with her reflection. She was getting married today. Marrying the man she loved more than she'd ever dreamed she could, marrying the father of her child. And, miracle of miracles, he loved her. It hadn't been easy to convince herself of that, but she was finally beginning to believe it completely.

The wedding party was small. Brittany and Michael and Michael's parents, who had turned out to be just as wonderful as Dan had said they were. Ben, of course, who was acting as Dan's best man. Kelly knew that Brittany had hoped to see Michael in that role but it was too soon. He and Dan were working toward a friendship, but it was still in the early stages.

Brittany was her only attendant. If Kelly had one regret, it was that she had no one of her own to be at the wedding. She'd written Devlin when she first moved, though she'd hadn't told him the circumstances. There had been no reply, just as there hadn't been for nearly eight years. Maybe Dan was right. Maybe it was foolish to keep writing. For all she knew, Devlin wasn't even receiving her letters.

That was something to think about another time. Today she wanted to concentrate on her wedding, on a new beginning for her life.

"Kelly?" Brittany's tone was odd, almost strained. Kelly turned.

"What's wrong?"

"There's a man here who says that he's...well, actually, he says he's your brother."

"Devlin?" Kelly pressed one hand against her throat. Had thinking about him conjured up a hallucination? "Devlin is here?"

"That's what he says." Brittany glanced over her shoulder, stepping aside.

Kelly stared at the man who stepped into the doorway. He was older, taller, harder. There was nothing of the lanky boy who had left home so long ago in the rugged man before her.

"Kelly?"

Even the voice had changed, gotten rougher, deeper. But his eyes—the eyes were the same steely color that somehow managed to be both blue and gray.

"Dev?" she whispered, her voice trembling on the word.

"Hello, midget." The smile that softened his mouth seemed rusty, as if he didn't smile very much.

"Dev?" She took one step forward. "Dev."

He covered the remaining distance, catching her in his arms. Neither of them was aware of Brittany leaving them alone. They didn't speak for several minutes, just holding each other, absorbing the reality of being together again. It was Kelly who drew back first, brushing at the tears that dampened her cheeks.

"Where have you been? I missed you so much. Did you get my letters?"

"I got them," he said, ignoring the first part of the question. "But you didn't tell me everything that was going on." He gave her stomach a pointed glance.

Kelly flushed, smoothing her dress. "Yes, well, there didn't seem to be any need to tell you everything."

"You're getting married"

"Yes. In about fifteen minutes." She caught his hand "There's so much I want to know, so much to tell you."

"Are you happy?"

"More than I ever dreamed of being," she told him with absolute sincerity.

"Good. I don't want to make you late for your wedding," he said "We can talk afterward."

"Come to the wedding." Her fingers tightened over his. "You could give me away."

"I'm not really dressed for a wedding, Kelly." He glanced down at his jeans and short-sleeved shirt.

"I don't care. You can borrow one of Dan's jackets. Please, Dev. Please. It would mean so much to me to have you there. Someone of my very own. Please say you will."

The little church was a riot of flowers, courtesy of Beth and Donovan Sinclair. Dan hardly noticed them. Glancing at his watch for the tenth time in five minutes, he wondered uneasily what was taking Kelly so long. She was nearly ten minutes late.

Maybe the limo broke down. Maybe she changed her mind She probably had a run in her stocking. What if she'd gone into labor two and a half months early?

Before he could work himself into a frenzy, the door at the back of the church opened and Brittany stepped in. The organist immediately began to play as she moved up the aisle at a slow pace. Her eyes sparkled with excitement, more than he'd expected to see. But he didn't have time to speculate. The familiar strains of the wedding march swelled and the doors opened again as the guests rose.

Dan's heart bumped. It was really happening. He and Kelly were really getting married. Kelly stepped into the church but she wasn't alone. Her hand rested on the arm of a tall man, wearing jeans, tennis shoes and—if he wasn't mistaken—one of his own jackets.

There was only one person it could be, though it was impossible to see any resemblance between the hard-jawed man and the delicate woman beside him. This had to be the elusive Devlin. Incredible as it seemed, Kelly's brother had made an appearance.

There would be time later to ask questions and exclaim over his arrival. Dan took Kelly's hand from Devlin's with a murmured thanks, his look only for her. Her smile shook around the edges and her eyes were bright with tears. But they were happy tears. And if he had anything to say about it, that would be the only kind of tears she'd ever shed again.

Breaking with tradition, he bent to kiss her gently before they both turned toward the minister who would bless their union. But it was really a formality. As far as Dan was concerned, he was already blessed. In having found Kelly, his life had been more blessed than he'd ever imagined it could be.