Authors: Liz Matis
Love By Design (23 page)
The woman named the baby Russell, Jr. It didn’t matter, Victoria believed in Russ. With that thought she began to nod off but the sharp trill of the phone sent her eyes wide and awake.
Russ shot out of bed and grabbed the phone and returned to the bed as he said hello to his lawyer. Had he been feigning sleep? Victoria scooted up to rest her head on the headboard as he settled in next to her. Pulling her closer he said, “Wait.” He put the phone on speaker. “Go ahead.”
“Congratulations, you are not the father.”
Victoria held in a shout of joy. Neil said it best; this all had been a bad episode of The Maury Show.
“Is she still saying we slept together?” asked Russ.
“Yes.”
“Bloody hell.” He paused a moment then asked, “Is there anything I can do?”
“I’d just let it die down.”
Russ spoke with his lawyer for another five minutes before ending the call. For the first time in a long time, Victoria had trusted a man and for the very first time it wasn’t thrown back in her face. “We can go public now, if you want.”
Russ tossed her onto her back and straddled her hips. “You are mine, doesn’t matter who knows it or not. Only now I can go around and beat my chest.” Then he pounded on his naked pecs like Tarzan.
Victoria giggled but then turned serious, still new to a healthy relationship full of trust and support. “Do you think it’s going to work? We’re so different.”
“The master designer up in the sky created you just for me.”
Victoria liked that idea but teased, “Oh yeah? Then why were we born on different continents?”
“God’s a big picture guy. He left the details up to me. So remember it was me who traveled halfway around the world to find you.”
Victoria would never forget it. “You’re so corny, just like that tacky accent.”
He took her arms and held them above her head. Nose to nose, gaze to gaze, breath to breath, he said, “Admit it, you love it.”
She wouldn’t because he’d only use it more and drive her crazy but she had something else that had been burning in her heart to confess. “I love you. And don’t forget that I said it first.”
“I’d say we’re even then.”
She risked it and lost. Just because she said it first didn’t mean he would ever say it second.
“I’d say it,” he added as he brushed a lock of hair away from her face. “But I’d rather tell you I love you too.”
Victoria gazed into his eyes and knew it was true.
Epilogue
V
ictoria placed the stuffed animal gently into the crib that belonged to another. The mother kangaroo with the joey poking his head out of the pouch was the perfect finishing touch to the home office turned nursery and to the final episode of the season. Twenty-five shows in twelve weeks had left her exhausted.
Russ’s arms circled around her waist. “Feeling better, luv?”
She gazed into the empty crib picturing a similar scene seven months from now but with their baby snuggled into a quilt she’d make just for him or her. She didn’t have the words this morning to tell Russ. Okay, so she was a little afraid to reveal the reason for her fatigue. How would he react—especially after the fiasco with his co-host in Australia? Would he think she was aiming for publicity as well? She didn’t think he would but that didn’t mean he would jump for joy either. “Better. Decorating a baby’s room can’t help but put a smile on your face.”
His embrace tightened and he whispered against her neck, “Or put you in the mood for making one.”
Hope swelled in her chest. Was he hinting that he wanted children? Had the past few days of working on the Cohen nursery have the same effect on him? They hadn’t talked about it yet. They hadn’t even talked marriage. Not that one precluded the other. “That too,” she ventured.
“Mmm, then I say we ditch the wrap party and start collaborating on a Rowland and Bryce production.”
His teeth grazed her ear lobe, sending a shiver through her body. She reached for his hand and slid it down to her flat stomach. “What if I told you the collaboration was already in post-production?”
Russ’s hand stilled and Victoria feared the worst. Perhaps he’d been kidding and had only been making a half-hearted comment but then faced with the reality he was going to be a father he’d flip and accuse her of lying or worse, setting him up. Then there was the show to think about. She’d be almost full term by the time the next season started. Or perhaps he suddenly realized Victoria’s parenting skills would be no better than her mother.
No, that is my fear.
But then with his other hand he reached for the kangaroo and cradled it against her belly.
“Then I’d say this comes home with us—it’s meant for our baby’s nursery.”
Victoria smiled, remembering while out shopping for accessories for the makeover she had spotted the kangaroo and wondered if Russ owned something similar when he was a little boy back in Australia. And hadn’t she been thinking of her own future children when she purchased it? Then a funny thought occurred to her—had her subconscious mind been trying to tell her something that it already knew? She turned around and gazed into Russ’s glistening eyes. “Yes, I think you’re right.”
“I’m right. Now that’s a headline.”
About the Author
Liz Matis is a mild manner accountant by day and romance writer by night. She lives in the mountains of NY hoping for a HGTV makeover.
Please visit her blog at:
www.taoofliz.blogspot.com
Email:
[email protected]
Liz would like to thank Juan M. Frisanccio Muñoz for permitting the use of his poem.
Playing For Keeps
by Liz Matis
Available December 2011
winner of the New England Romance Writers of America First Kiss Contest
J
ournalist Samantha Jameson always wanted to be one of the boys, but Ryan Terell won’t let her join the club. Fresh from the battlegrounds of Iraq, reporting on a bunch of overgrown boys playing pro football is just the change of scenery she needs. If trying to be taken seriously in the world of sports writing wasn’t hard enough, Ryan, her college crush, is only making it harder. As a tight-end for the team she’s covering, he is strictly off limits.
Ryan Terell is a playmaker on and off the field, but when Samantha uncovers his moves, he throws out the playbook. Just as he claims his sweetest victory, Samantha’s investigation into a steroid scandal involving his team forces him to call a time-out to their off the record trysts. But then a life threatening injury on the field will force them both to decide just how far they’ll go to win the game.
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