More Than He Expected (13 page)

The site was currently a mess of construction. Alex was
typically not involved in this phase. Cement and jackhammers were not of
interest to him. Right now, the steel skeleton of the high-rise stretched nearly
ten stories in the air. That was about two-thirds of its final height. A large
chain-link fence enclosed the site and protected passersby from the heavy
equipment and chaos surrounding the project.

Tabitha paused outside the fence and grabbed a hard hat. She
handed one over to Alex, then glanced down at his shoes. “I hope those aren’t
expensive.”

“Of course they are,” he responded irritably, then realized
they were about to walk through the dirt and mud to the large trailer where the
site manager operated. He glanced down at Tabitha’s shoes, expecting heels, and
found that with her suit, she was wearing steel-toed work boots. You didn’t see
that every day, but she was nothing if not prepared.

“Nice look. Do you wear those shoes on the first date?” he
asked as they started off to the trailer.

Tabitha frowned. “I keep these at the office for trips like
this. My other shoes are tucked safely under my desk for when I get back. And
for any dates that might pop up. If you ever stuck around for the dirty work,
you’d have seen these already.”

Alex tried to step carefully the first few feet, then realized
Tabitha would leave him in her dust before too long. She was a no-nonsense
woman. Probably just the kind to give him the straight answers he needed right
now. The question was whether or not he wanted to hear it. “Tabitha, you’re a
woman,” he said.

“Last time I checked,” she said, drily.

“Let me ask you something about women.”

“Oh, lord,” she groaned, turning in her boots to face him. “I
don’t have time for this, Alex, so here’s a quick tip. Whatever you’ve done,
apologize and beg her to take you back.”

“What makes you think I did something?”

Tabitha didn’t respond, but crossed her arms over her chest and
sighed heavily.

“Okay, I know I’m typically guilty of something, but this time
she
left
me.
”

Alex regretted having this conversation with Tabitha
immediately. Watching his uptight, driven manager crumble into a fit of
hysterical laughter was too much. “You… got…
dumped?
”
she asked between hard-fought breaths.

“Will you stop laughing? This is serious. She’s in love with
me,” he blurted out.

The laughter faded and Tabitha fought to hold her composure.
“Poor woman. Running was probably the right choice. But don’t act like you
didn’t give her a reason to leave.”

“She decided I was a flight risk if I found out the truth, and
she left before I could.”

“You
are
a flight risk. And a jerk
if you’re even considering chasing after her if you’re not serious about this.
Do you love her, Alex?”

That was the sixty-five-thousand-dollar question. He thought he
didn’t believe in love. That if it existed, he was immune to it. But these last
few weeks without Gwen had been absolute torture. He’d lain awake at night,
thinking about the time they’d spent together in that very bed. Every show on
television or song on the radio somehow reminded him of her. And the worst part
was this constant, dull ache in his chest that refused to go away no matter how
many antacids he took.

Was that what love felt like? He had no clue. No basis for
comparison. All he knew was that he’d never felt like this after a relationship
ended. If this was love, it was no wonder Gwen opted to leave when she had
realized she loved him. Love could seriously suck when things weren’t going
right. He could only hope it felt better when the relationship was doing
well.

“I don’t know. I’ve never been in love before. But I can’t stop
thinking about her. I’m absolutely miserable.”

“I hate to tell you this, but it sounds like love to me.”

Alex’s heart skipped a beat in his chest when Tabitha confirmed
the thought that had been plaguing him for days. Love.
Love
was a big, scary word for a guy like Alex. Just saying it out
loud might break him out in hives. He wasn’t programmed for monogamy. He didn’t
even know what step to take next. “But I don’t know how to fix things between
us. No matter what I say, Gwen will never trust me to stay.”

Tabitha glanced down at her watch, then back at Alex. “Here’s
your last tip, then I’m going into that trailer for my meeting, alone. This
woman loves you. I have no idea why. If you love her, you need to go to her and
beg her to give you a chance to prove her wrong. Offer her everything she wants
and
deliver
on it.”

Alex swallowed hard. Going to Gwen would mean offering
everything he’d avoided his whole life: commitment, love, trust. And those
things he’d never thought he wanted: marriage, children, domesticity. But he
wanted it with her. If she’d give him the opportunity to try.

“You’re right.”

“Of course I’m right. Now, get your ass on a plane back to New
York and get out of my hair. I don’t want to see you again until the final
walk-through before the ribbon-cutting ceremony.”

Tabitha turned on her heel and disappeared, leaving Alex to
make his way back through the obstacle course of the construction site.

He took a different route, this time heading back toward his
hotel instead of the office. He needed some time to process what Tabitha had
said. In a matter of minutes, her take-no-prisoners attitude had cut through all
the mental crap he’d been bogged down in for days. He loved Gwen. He knew that
now. And if he wanted her, he had to be willing to offer her the life and the
family she deserved.

But he had to do something to prove to her that he was serious.
He needed to knock on her door with an engagement ring in his hands. But not
just any ring. Gwen wouldn’t be convinced by some vulgar and generic display of
diamonds. She’d want something authentic. Something that was distinctly hers.
Gwen was like no other woman, and she deserved a ring like no other. Knowing
he’d put the thought into the purchase would be what made the difference for
her.

Alex started on the hunt for a jewelry store. With the help of
his phone, he located and rejected several shops. They all had fine products,
but nothing in the store said Gwen. Looking down on his phone, he noticed there
was an antiques and estate jeweler a couple blocks past the hotel. Maybe that
was what he needed. A vintage piece.

By the time he reached the shop window, he’d been wandering
around New Orleans for more than two hours. Waiting to catch his breath before
he went inside, he admired the front display. A large and varied collection of
jewelry was in the window, protected by decorative but sturdy wrought-iron
bars.

After hours of fruitless searches, he was surprised to find
that one of the rings called to him immediately. He leaned in to look closer.
The platinum-and-gold antique filigree setting was inset with tiny diamonds
around the thin band. In the center was a large yellow oval-cut stone in a ring
of additional tiny diamonds.

It was bright and sunny yet extremely detailed and complicated.
It was Gwen in jewel form. Curious, he went inside the store and summoned the
old man behind the counter. He unlocked the case and took the ring with him back
to the white pad where he displayed jewelry for buyers.

“You have a good eye. It’s the best piece in my whole shop. I
suppose most people don’t realize what it is or think it’s citrine or some type
of costume jewelry.”

Alex frowned. “What is it?”

“A three-carat canary diamond. I bought it thirty-five years
ago from the estate auction of an old New Orleans family. Their
great-great-grandfather brought it here from France in the 1760s. Rumor is it
was given as a gift to a lover of King Louis the Sixteenth, who popularized the
use of platinum in Europe. I’ve got bulletproof glass and bars on the windows
for a reason, sonny.”

It was beautiful, rare and priceless. Alex couldn’t be sure how
much of the old man’s yarn was truth and how much was fiction to justify the
price, but it didn’t really matter as long as the certification paperwork held
up. If he was lucky, Gwen might not even know how valuable a ring she was
wearing. If she accepted it. And he had no guarantee that she would. “I’ll take
it.”

The old man’s eyes widened. “Don’t you want to know how much it
is?”

Alex shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Well,” he chuckled, “okay then. I’ll box this up and get the
paperwork for it together. You feel free to look around while you wait, and see
if there’s anything else you might need at an irrelevant price.”

A few minutes later, Alex walked out of the store with the ring
securely tucked into the breast pocket of his suit coat. He moved with more
purpose now. He finally had some direction. He was going back to New York. He
was going to tell Gwen that he loved her. That he wanted to marry her. Have
children with her. That he wouldn’t get scared and run away, and he wasn’t going
to let her run, either.

He could only hope that, after everything that had happened,
she would believe him.

Twelve

A
lex made a quick stop at his hotel. He
grabbed his things, checked out and headed straight to the office. He asked Lisa
to get on the phone and change his flight, and he grabbed his laptop from his
desk. Thirty minutes later, he was downstairs waiting for the car to take him to
the airport.

When his phone rang, he almost ignored it. He was too hyped up
on love and adrenaline to let business or family drama bring him down. But he
couldn’t help looking to see who it was. It was Adrienne’s cell phone.

Alex frowned and knew he had to answer. Adrienne never called
him. Only Will. “Adrienne,” he said, tentatively.

“Where are you, Alex?”

“I’m in New Orleans. But I’m getting on a flight back to
LaGuardia shortly.”

“Why? Did someone already call you?”

“Call me? No. About what?”

“About Gwen.”

Alex’s heart sank like a stone in his chest. Why would someone
call him about Gwen? “What about her? Is she okay? Has something happened? Is
the baby okay?”

Adrienne was silent on the phone for half a heartbeat, making
Alex almost ready to leap through the receiver and shake her until she told him
what was going on. “They’re both fine…now.”

He breathed a ragged sigh of relief, but he could tell there
was more to the story. “What’s happened?”

“She went into premature labor while she was at work last
night. Luckily, her supervisor realized what was happening and took her
downstairs. They immediately admitted her.”

“Labor? What? She’s only, like, six months along. Why would she
have gone into labor?”

“I know. They’re not sure why it happened, because she has so
many weeks left and no real risk factors. That’s why it’s so serious. They’ve
got her on some very strong intravenous medication to stop the contractions.
They seem to have done the trick for now. But the next few months will be rough.
She’s going to be on mandatory bed rest. She has to take leave from work, and
she won’t be able to afford to keep her apartment on her reduced pay. Anything
could start up the contractions again, and if her water breaks, they’ll have to
risk delivery no matter how far along she is.”

Alex gripped his skull with his free hand. Picturing Gwen alone
in a hospital bed, fearful for the baby’s life, was eating him up inside. He
felt helpless. “What can I do?”

“Come back. She’ll kill me for doing this, but if you care at
all for her, come back to New York. Be here for her. She’d never admit it, but
she needs you to get through this. I lied the day she left the Hamptons, because
I was trying to protect her. Gwen loves you, Alex. She’s just scared of being
hurt.”

“I know,” he said solemnly. “I love her, too.”

Adrienne muttered a soft curse. “You love her? Really? The
mighty Alexander Stanton has fallen?”

Alex supposed he deserved all this, but he would be the willing
butt of all the jokes after he was back and he knew Gwen and the baby were safe.
“Yes. I’m in love with her. That’s why I was coming back to New York. I wanted
to tell her that I wasn’t going to let her run away from us. My flight gets in
this afternoon. I’ll go straight to the hospital from there.”

“Call me when you get here, and I’ll get you her new room
number. They’re moving her to a regular room this afternoon.”

Alex said goodbye and hung up the phone. He couldn’t get to New
York fast enough. Gwen was in the hospital. Both her life and the baby’s were
potentially in danger. She was stable now, but what if something horrible
happened and he never got to tell her how he felt? What if she lost the baby and
he was a thousand miles away hiding in his work?

He couldn’t bear the thought. She’d already shared with him her
fears about the future and facing it alone. She certainly didn’t need to go
through this by herself. From now on, he wasn’t going to hide from his feelings.
He was going to tell her the truth as soon as he could.

No more regrets. Starting right now.

* * *

Gwen hated hospitals. It was a strange realization,
given she worked in one. As a nurse, it was fine, but being a patient was the
ultimate torture for any medical professional. Take your medicine. Eat your lime
gelatin. Stay in bed. Listen to the medical advice of some twelve-year-old nurse
who graduated from junior high while Gwen was graduating from nursing
school.

Torture.

She would do whatever she had to do for Peanut’s sake, but she
wasn’t going to be happy about it. Bed rest. Twelve to fourteen weeks of it.
Absolute misery. She wanted to go home, and they promised she would be released
soon, but that was little consolation. She would have enough short-term
disability through work, but the reduced pay would barely cover her rent. And
the doctor would not be pleased to know she lived alone in a fifth-floor walk-up
she could barely afford.

That would mean either being lifted via crane into her
apartment for the duration of her pregnancy or breaking down and staying with
Adrienne and Will. Robert and Susan would help however they could, but they
weren’t in the financial position to pay her lost wages or put her up in a
hotel. Their place was a slightly larger version of her own postage-stamp
apartment. Letting go of her place and staying with Adrienne was the logical
choice, as much as it pained her.

She hated this feeling of helplessness almost as much as she
hated hospitals.

Gwen fought the urge to roll into a more comfortable position.
The drugs had put a halt to the contractions, but they were taking every
precaution. The doctor said it was best to lie on her left side, which was her
least comfortable side, of course. It also put her back to the door of her room,
so people were constantly sneaking up on her. At the very least, she wished her
door would creak so she would know when someone was coming in.

“Gwen?”

At the sound of her name, Gwen jumped. Once again, someone had
come in and startled her. After the sudden panic faded, a new fear crept into
her mind. That voice. A man’s voice.

Alex’s voice.

Gwen leaned back to look over her shoulder. Alex was standing a
few feet away from the bed, a small bundle of daisies in his hand. Knowing Alex,
she’d figured he would show up with the largest, most expensive arrangement the
hospital gift shop had to offer. The daisies were a charming, and unexpected,
touch.

The doctor told her to try to avoid stressful situations, but
what could she do when one walked into her hospital room? She wanted to roll
back over and pretend he wasn’t there, but that wasn’t going to make it less
stressful. Instead, she sat up and hit the button to bring the back of her bed
up to a seated position. She fidgeted with smoothing out her hair and
straightening her gown, but it was a lost cause.

She didn’t say anything to him at first. She couldn’t quite
find the right words. First, there was a part of her that was embarrassed for
running out without telling him goodbye. It was the coward’s way out, but she
never claimed to be brave when it came to relationships. Then there was the part
of her pride that was wounded when he hadn’t chased after her. She hadn’t run
with the intent of being chased, but it certainly would’ve been nice to know he
cared enough to follow her.

There’d been no word from him since the holiday, but now he was
showing up out of the blue with flowers. It made her wonder if she ever would’ve
seen him again if she wasn’t in the hospital. If not, she shouldn’t read too
much into his being here.

Gwen glanced down, uncomfortably, and noticed his brown leather
loafers were caked in dried mud and dirt. “Where on earth have you been?”

“New Orleans. I went to check on my high-rise, but I was coming
back to see you when Adrienne called me.”

A likely story. She wanted to believe that his being here had
nothing to do with her condition, but it was doubtful. Adrienne had likely asked
him to come, hoping it would make her feel better to see him. “There’s no need
to rush back here. I’m fine. Peanut is fine. We’ve just got to take it easy for
a few months.”

Alex nodded, his face unusually somber. “These are for you.” He
took a few steps forward to place the daisies on the table by her bed.

Gwen admired them for a moment. There were no roses or
expensive lilies this time. Just a fresh bundle of white daisies with bright
yellow centers. Despite her reluctance to accept his gift, they made her smile.
They were her favorite flower, although there was no way he could know that.
They grew wild on her grandparents’ farm when she was a child. She would pick
handfuls of them and her grandma would put them in a vase on the kitchen
table.

“Thank you for the flowers.”

Alex stood a few feet away, his posture unusually awkward. He
appeared to be at quite a loss as to what to do with himself, which was odd for
a man who was always in control of everything. “When Adrienne called, she
mentioned you would have to take some time off work. I, uh, was thinking you
might need someplace to stay for a few months. You know that my place has more
than enough room. I’d have someone come in to cook for you. You wouldn’t have to
worry about bills or stairs or anything until the baby arrived safely.”

Gwen’s gaze narrowed at him. Part of her had hoped he was here
to make some romantic gesture, but she never once believed he was actually here
to offer that same old song and dance again. “Did Adrienne ask you to do
this?”

His gold eyes widened at the sudden venom in her voice. “What?
No. She just told me you were on bed rest. I thought that—”

“You thought what, Alex? That you could just waltz in here like
my knight in shining armor and I would be grateful for any scraps you threw my
way? Don’t you think next week’s fling will wonder why there’s a grumpy pregnant
woman hiding away in your apartment like Mr. Rochester’s crazy wife in
Jane Eyre?
”

He swallowed hard before he spoke. “That’s not at all what I
was thinking. I was just offering what I could to make your situation less
stressful. I’m certain I’ve already caused you enough stress as it is. I’m sorry
that you felt you had no other choice but to leave. I tried to call you over a
dozen times after you left.”

Gwen couldn’t take her cell phone with her to work, but she was
good about checking for voice mail or missed calls. “I didn’t get any messages
from you.”

“That’s because I never hit Send. I worried that you were
right. That leaving was the best thing for you. I didn’t want to drag you back
into it if you wanted so desperately to be rid of me. So I decided to go to New
Orleans and focus on work and let you get over me, if that’s what you
wanted.”

Gwen only wished he was that easy to get over. The reality had
been much tougher, even though she had been the one to leave. “But you said you
were coming to see me, even before Adrienne called.”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “I was coming to tell you that
I…”

Alex hesitated and she watched a touch of color drain from his
face. His pupils were fully dilated, a touch of moisture breaking out across his
brow.

“Are you about to pass out?” she asked. “Do I need to hit the
call button for the nurse? I can’t get up to catch you if you—”

“I love you, Gwen.” Alex spit the words out as quickly as he
could. It almost made her wonder if she’d heard him wrong. He could just as
easily have said, “I loathe blue gin,” although that would have been random and
out of context.

“What did you say?” she asked. If he’d said what she thought
he’d said, she wanted to hear it again. Louder and slower. Even if it made him
squirm. Especially if it did.

Alex walked over to the bed and eased down beside her. He
gently scooped up her hand, careful not to disturb her IV, and held it. “I…love
you. You took my heart with you when you left, and I’ve had nothing but an
aching hole in my chest these last few weeks. I’m stupid and stubborn, and it
took me way too long to figure all this out. But I want to spend the rest of my
life with you. I want to get married and have children of our own. I want to
wake up every morning with you in my arms.”

She’d always worried that Alex was too smooth for his own good
and she would never be able to tell when he really meant what he said. But there
was no doubt in her mind that he spoke the absolute truth to her now. There was
a painful sincerity in the tone of his voice with no hint of his usual charming
mischievousness. Alex was serious. And Gwen was dumbstruck. She couldn’t even
form the words that she loved him, too. All she could do was reach out to brush
his honey-colored hair from his eyes. She let her hand linger on his cheek, his
eyes closing as he leaned into her touch.

“When Adrienne called and said you were in the hospital with
complications, there was this horrible moment where I thought I might’ve lost
you forever. Or that something had happened to Peanut. I know she’s not our
child, but she’s as close as I’ve ever come, and it would hurt just as badly to
lose her. And to watch you go through that, knowing there was nothing I could do
to help, would’ve broken my heart.”

“I was so scared, Alex.”

He leaned in to hug her, and the tears she’d been holding back
since she was admitted to the hospital came rushing all at once. At first, she’d
been too concerned to waste time crying, and then she hadn’t had more than a few
moments alone, with Adrienne, Robert and Susan hovering over her. Now, in Alex’s
arms, the dam broke.

“All I could keep thinking was that I’d messed up. And how
crushed Robert and Susan would be if something happened to their little girl.
I’d tried to do everything right. I just had one job—to keep their baby safe—and
somehow, I’d failed.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Gwen,” he whispered into her
hair before sitting back to look her in the eye. “Sometimes these things happen.
You’re lucky you work at a hospital and had people around you who could help. It
could’ve been so much worse. But everything is fine now. You and Peanut are
safe. The doctors are going to keep a close eye on you. And like it or not,
you’re coming to live with me at least until she’s born, if not for the rest of
your life.”