A Camden's Baby Secret (9 page)

“You took on responsibility for another elderly couple and a nine-year-old girl once before and should have learned something from it?” Livi joked.

“No, but I
did
neglect my wife right into the arms of my assistant.”

Livi wasn't quite sure what to say to that. It did make her curious, though.

“I have a history of dropping the ball when it comes to relationships,” Callan explained.

After seeing what had gone on for the last two days, Livi didn't find that a surprise.

He chuckled mirthlessly and added, “Actually, that dates all the way back to the sixth grade, when Mandy had a crush on me.”

“Not on John Jr.?”

“Nope, that didn't happen until we were older. In fact, I was so oblivious that I didn't even know she'd ever felt that way about me until she told me about it years later. We all laughed about it because it had just been a kid thing. But after that I sometimes had the feeling that I was on the outside looking in at what I might have had.”

“Did you have those kinds of feelings for Mandy?” Livi asked.

“No, I never saw her as anything but a friend. But you know, it's the what-if—what if I'd gone through that door instead of walking right past it.”

“Greta would have been yours,” Livi said, testing for his reaction.

But he only laughed. “I'm sure I would have screwed things up long before that—I have with every other woman. Mandy was always sending me on blind dates, trying to find me someone. But even when I liked the person, eventually the way I work got in the way.”

“So it's common for you to work as hard and long as you have the last two days?”

“The past few days have been extreme, since I had a lot of catching up to do, and the product launch is around the corner. But we have our share of crises and they usually mean I end up chained to my desk. In any case, Mandy said I was bad about letting anybody get too close, that I used my job to make sure they didn't.”

“But you did get married,” Livi reminded him. “Was that from one of Mandy's setups?”

“Actually, no. I married my secretary.”

Livi laughed. “A relationship you could
combine
with work?”

He laughed, too. “At first, I guess. Mostly it was a relationship that got scheduled in when I wasn't really looking.”

“How does that happen?”

“Elly was my first secretary when CT Software took off. And, don't get me wrong, she was cute and smart and I was aware of it—I'm not blind. But mostly she was just around. If I worked, she worked. I didn't ask that of her, but she said that was her job. And it was nice having her there whenever I needed something—dinner ordered in at eleven at night, paperwork when I remembered it at four in the morning. I thought it was just loyalty, but—”

“It was a way to spend time with you.” Sort of what Livi was doing, sitting in that courtyard with him as the clock ticked toward midnight.

“Right. Things got more and more chummy and then flirty. Elly started to make comments about how I owed her a night on the town for all the nights she'd worked, and she just sort of eventually scheduled herself in.”

“Because who better to know when you
would
have time to get away from work.”

“Yep.”

“And by the time you got to paying her back for all those long work nights, you must have been fairly close.
From
all of those long work nights.”

“Also yep. We were married the year after Greta was born.”

It didn't sound very romantic, but Livi didn't say that. “So, you got married eight years ago? Did Elly stay your secretary?”

“For about three years. But then we bought some land to build a house on and she decided she wanted to do everything herself so the place would be exactly right. She thought that should be her full-time job. And it wasn't as if we needed the money, so she quit.”

“While you kept on working the way you had?”

“Uh...yeah,” he admitted reluctantly. “But for a while she didn't complain
too
much.”

“She knew better than anyone how you were about your job.”

“Right. And she was swamped herself with designing the house and overseeing the building and then decorating it.”

“And did you have a new secretary?” Livi asked leadingly, hoping this story didn't end with him having an affair. She wanted to think he wasn't that kind of man.

“I did. The same one I have now. Rose, who's old enough to be my mother, is devoted to her husband and works strictly from nine to five. But along the way I also gained an assistant...” Callan finished that in an ominous tone. “A man named Trent Baxter, because Elly didn't want it to be a woman.”

That wasn't difficult to understand. Especially not for Livi as she sat there watching him and thinking that she couldn't imagine any woman not being a little awestruck by those good looks.

“How long was your wife occupied with building and decorating the new house?” she asked.

“Altogether? Almost three years. We moved in on our sixth anniversary—a day I remember too well, because on top of the move and the anniversary, we had a world-class fight.”

“Seems like you should have been celebrating.”

Looking embarrassed, he admitted, “I was at work for most of that day and it was my assistant filling in for me, overseeing the move. During the fight Elly said that I didn't have a mistress on the side, I had a wife on the side, and she called my assistant her ‘proxy husband.'”

Livi flinched for him. “And how exactly was he your proxy?”

“Turned out, in all ways,” Callan said under his breath. Then, more openly, he went on. “Besides being there for the move that day, Trent had taken on the job of buying my gifts for Elly, for birthdays and Christmas and all anniversaries and holidays and special occasions. Actually, too many times I didn't even give them to her—Trent ended up delivering them while I stayed working.”

“Which you do a lot.”

He nodded. “Trent took my place at social functions so Elly didn't have to go alone. I even sent him with medicine and chicken soup when she got sick, and to give her a lift when she had car trouble.”

Livi could tell that he knew those were mistakes. “Did you stop having your assistant be your proxy after the fight?”

“I'd like to say yes...”

“But you can't.”

Apparently he couldn't. Instead he said, “Then Elly got pregnant unexpectedly, a little over a year ago.”

His tone was more ominous still.

“I was happier about it than I expected to be,” he said sadly.

“You didn't want kids before that?”

“I wasn't against the idea. But I was busy and...” He paused. “I know this will sound lazy or selfish or something, but it seemed like a wife was enough to keep up with.”

“Even though it was really your assistant who was keeping up with her?”

“Yeah,” he admitted ruefully. “But once I thought there was going to be a kid, I thought, okay, great, we'll have a family. Maybe we'll be like Mandy and J.J., after all. And I actually started to get kind of excited about it.”

“So you didn't think your marriage was like your friends' marriage without kids?”

“It wasn't,” he said categorically. “Not that I didn't love Elly. I did. And even though she sort of manipulated us into a relationship, I like to think that she loved me, too, that that's
why
she scheduled herself into my life. But did we have what Mandy and J.J. had? I can't explain why, but...we didn't. There was just something...I don't know...more superficial about the way we were together. I thought maybe it was just because Mandy and J.J. had history—hell, they had history even before they started dating. I thought maybe Elly and I just needed to put in more years together...”

“And that a baby would bring you closer?”

He shrugged. “I guessed that if we had a family, we'd seem more like a family—if that makes any sense. Coming from what I came from, it wasn't like I had a role model for being a husband and father. Yes, I lived with the Tellers for a year, but John Sr. never opened up to me, and there's only so much you can pick up by watching. I understood Mandy and J.J.'s relationship better, and what they had was great. I thought getting married would give me the same thing. But once I was in it, it didn't. Only I couldn't tell you what was lacking. Just that something was.”

“And you think it was all you?” Livi guessed.

“I think I dropped the ball big-time and that if I had handled things differently, Elly would never have done what she did.”

“Which was what?” Livi asked, admiring that he took responsibility for his own actions, but still wanting to know what part his wife had played.

“About six months into the pregnancy I got home one night to find Trent there waiting for me
with
Elly. So they could tell me together that they were pretty sure the baby was his and they wanted to get married. That
they
wanted to be a family.”

Hearing the note of lingering shock in Callan's voice, Livi felt her heart go out to him. “Ouch,” she said.

“Yeah. Believe it or not, it hit me hard. I never saw it coming—which I suppose makes me about the most oblivious person on earth after she'd already told me he was her ‘proxy husband.'”

“And
was
the baby his?” Livi asked carefully.

“Yes—DNA tests proved it.”

“A second punch,” she sympathized.

“The whole thing was a jolt,” Callan agreed with some sadness in his voice. “And, yes, it was rotten of Elly and Trent to hook up behind my back. But I'd handed them the opportunity on a platter—I neglected Elly. I neglected the relationship. I sent someone else in to do what I should have been doing.”

He really was determined to take the blame. Livi could see that nothing she said would change his mind, so she opted for a different take.

“Okay, but now you have a chance to mend your wanton ways,” she pointed out with some levity, trying to find something positive that might help with his current situation.

He smiled at her. “Was this a roundabout way of getting me to admit that I need to make it home for dinner every night?”

“Actually, I believe I sort of started out saying that,” Livi stated.

“So I'm a slow learner, too?” he joked.

“Apparently not when it comes to computers, but maybe a little when it comes to people...”

“Okay, no denying it. If I promise to try harder would that make you feel better?”

“It would.”

He smiled again and bowed slightly “Okay. I will try harder to remember there are people at home waiting for me, and to get there at regular intervals.”

Livi laughed. “Well, it takes a little more than that, but that's a beginning, anyway.”

“Lesson one. But you'd better leave it at that for now. You don't want to overwhelm a slow learner with too much at once.”

“True. I think, seeing what I'm working with, patience is probably what it takes,” she agreed, giving him a hard time.

He seemed to enjoy their back-and-forth, though, because the tension visible in his striking features when he'd been talking about his past was now gone. It was replaced by a little sparkle in those dark eyes that was not coming from the fire.

“Are you going to be around for any of the dinners I'm supposed to make sure I come home to?” he asked, with something else in his voice. Something enticing.

“I guess if I'm invited I might be,” she said, more flirtatiously than she intended.

“How about I give you a blanket invitation here and now?”

“Forgetting that I'm a Camden and you aren't sure I should be around at all?” she challenged.

He grinned full-out then, drawing crinkles at the corners of his eyes. “Oh, yeah, I did forget about that. Again.”

Maybe because he was looking into her eyes the same way he had two months ago in Hawaii, when they'd been just Livi and Callan.

And there on that comfy chair under the stars, bathed in the golden glow of the fire burning nearby, it felt as if they were again.

Callan's hand came from the back of the chair to her nape, so softly she barely felt it.

His eyes were still searching hers. And maybe it was due to the fact that it was so late and she was weary, or maybe it was being outdoors with him again, in the night air, but Livi didn't fight the feeling that took them back two months.

Instead, when he closed the distance between them, she didn't draw away. She stayed where she was, letting him kiss her.

Not on the forehead tonight, however.

No, tonight he kissed her on the mouth, his lips warm and talented.

And without thinking about it, she found herself kissing him back, basking in sweetness that had a titillating bit of sensuality to it.

Then it was over and Callan was the one to draw away, taking a deep breath. “Yeah, just plain Livi tonight,” he mused. “Without being plain at all... Could
you
fix
that
?” he teased.

Coming to her senses, Livi still couldn't help smiling at him. “You want me to wear a bag over my head?”

He grinned yet again. “No, I'd miss the sight of you. Even if it would make things easier on me.”

She had to admit that it was nice to receive a little flattery. But she knew better than to let it go too far, so she took her own turn at a deep breath and stood up.

“It's late,” she said. “And do you remember that tomorrow Greta is supposed to visit her new school?”

She could tell he hadn't. But he didn't own up to it. Instead he covered, saying, “I do seem to recall something about that. Even though it's Saturday, there's some kind of event, so the school will be open and the principal will be there. He'll have some free time on his hands and thought that would be a good opportunity to give her the tour.”