Sutherland’s Pride (6 page)

“That’s really very kind of you,” Pride said. “As I recall, I made quite an uproar.”

“You did,” Morgan said grimly. “It was damned embarrassing. What on earth got into you, young lady?”

Pride’s face took on a set look of remembered suffering. “At the time, it seemed the only thing I could do.”

“Dad.” Flynn stared at Pride, once more conscious of something he couldn’t yet define. “Leave it alone, please.”

Morgan Sutherland had been ignoring his son’s advice for years. Flynn wasn’t surprised when he continued to do so.

“Flynn told us he had informed you long before you claimed you were pregnant that he couldn’t possibly father a child,” Morgan said. “Whatever possessed you to claim that he had? Surely you realized we’d all know you were lying.”

Pride’s sudden smile lit her face in the old way. “Did it ever occur to you that I thought Flynn had been lying to me? He told me he couldn’t get me pregnant, and he did. How do you think I felt when that happened?”

There was an appalled silence. Flynn felt as if he had been turned to stone.

Morgan said at last, “I’m terribly sorry, Pride. There isn’t much we can say to you, is there?”

• • •

Pride watched Morgan Sutherland march back to his table with a combined sense of regret and relief. She loved the older man and his wife, but she could not imagine spending several hours trying to pretend she was the girl they remembered, all in the presence of her little boy.

Besides, for all she knew, Morgan and Bettricia Sutherland might well take one look at Johnny and realize the truth.

Not that it would make any difference to Flynn. He might well deny the possibility that Johnny was his child.

Flynn stared at her as if he had just noticed her. Pride met his eyes briefly then looked away and watched the waiter set out water and offer Flynn the wine list.

Flynn started and took the list, swiftly placing orders for both wine and food. The moment the waiter left, he leaned forward. “Did you really think I lied to you?”

“The thought crossed my mind.” She faced him and told him the absolute truth. “Come on, Flynn. What would you think if a woman told you she couldn’t get pregnant because she was on the pill, then she said she was pregnant?”

Flynn sat in appalled silence a moment.

“I see,” he said, at last. “So you thought I was taking advantage of your innocence just so I could get you into bed with me?”

Pride smiled. “Yes, I did think that for a while. Then I realized you really believed in that sterile bit, so I had to acquit you of being out to seduce me.”

“What did you think when I refused to listen to you?”

Pride glanced at him. He sounded calm and reasonable, unlike the way he usually reacted when this subject came up.

“I didn’t know what to think at first. It shocked me to realize you actually wanted to believe I had another lover.”

Flynn’s expression didn’t change, but he looked bleak suddenly. “You thought I wanted to believe you were running around on me?”

“What else could I think? If you had been halfway interested in proving I was a liar, you’d have had those medical tests redone by another doctor.” She reached for her wine glass, needing fortification badly. “Let’s discuss about something else, Flynn. I’m through talking about this.”

“My parents had those tests repeated several times when I was a teenager. Dad was more interested than I was in my future ability to have children. I couldn’t see repeating them yet again.” He paused, staring at her. “It wasn’t exactly fun to keep dwelling on my personal failings.”

Pride leaned back in her chair. “I wouldn’t call it a personal failing. As far as I’m concerned, you were potent and virile and all those other words denoting masculine achievement in fathering a child.”

After a moment of stunned silence, Flynn burst into laughter. The pinched, gray look left his face, and warmth blazed from the penny-brown eyes. He reached across the table, holding his hand palm-up.

“You always know the perfect thing to say to a man, don’t you? Give me your hand, sweetheart.”

“What for?” Pride held onto her prickly attitude with both hands. Now was not the time to let Flynn into her heart again.

“Because I want to hold it.”

“Oh, yes?” She eyed his hand a moment. “You aren’t going to kiss it or anything revolting like that, are you?”

“I just want to hold it a minute.”

She glanced at her gold watch. “One minute then.”

Flynn laughed and closed his fingers over the slim hand that settled into his. Then he met her eyes. “I don’t quite know how to say this, Pride.”

“Then perhaps you’d better not. Thirty seconds.”

“Your watch is fast. Look, Pride, I — ”

“Oh, thank you, Flynn. I haven’t eaten shrimp cocktail in ages.”

The waiter returned with appetizers, and Pride withdrew her hand when Flynn’s grip loosened. She picked up her fork and ignored his outstretched hand.

“Pride, I’m trying to say something to you. Would you mind paying attention for a minute here?”

“Save it for later,” Pride recommended. “I’m busy. I really appreciate this. I do love a good shrimp cocktail.”

“You’ve never been a chatterer,” Flynn observed. “What is it you’re afraid I’m going to say to you?”

Pride popped a large shrimp dipped in red cocktail sauce into her mouth. She had to finish it off before she could reply to his question. The task kept her from splashing the contents of her wine glass in his face.

“I have no idea,” she said, at last. “But I’ll tell you this. If you’re about to state that now, after all I went through three years ago, you have suddenly achieved a belief in my innate honesty such that you now accept my assertions that you are the father of my child, I’ll dump this entire dish of shrimp cocktail over your head.” She dipped another shrimp in the sauce and waved it at him. “It would be a sad waste of good shrimp.”

“Is that so?” Flynn withdrew his outstretched hand. “How about if I say I now have an open mind on the subject?”

Pride chewed another shrimp in a thoughtful way. “I’d say you always had an open mind. Everything I said went in one ear and out the other.”

“Now who has the open mind?” Flynn asked.

She grinned across the table cheerfully. “An open mind is the chief characteristic of a good journalist.”

“You aren’t going to listen to me, are you?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be fair, would it?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean far be it from me to deprive you of the opportunity to follow me around for two weeks or so, screaming at me in public and interrupting my dates with other men.”

When he said nothing, she gave him a brilliant smile. “I’m a very fair person,” she finished.

“Yes, I can see you are.” Flynn picked up his own fork. “I suppose I have no right to complain about that.”

“You can’t think how glad I am to hear you say so.” Pride made a great effort and managed not to throw her napkin at him. “All right, Flynn. I’m here tonight because you’re supposed to explain to me, in terms I can understand, all about the multi-million-dollar inheritance I’m about to come into.”

“Did I say multi-million? It’s more like two-million.”

“Come on, Flynn. Daddy was too busy judging people to play the stock market, or whatever he did to make all this money.”

“He invested in the stock market,” Flynn said. “Quite well, as it happens. You own a lot of stock in growth industries, like computer companies and trash-removal companies.”

“Trash removal companies?”

“It may be inelegant, but you have to admit, it’s a growth industry.” Flynn paused and regarded her over his wine glass. “There will be taxes, of course, but you’ll receive a tidy estate once I’ve finished all the paper work.” He smiled. “Are you really going to Bermuda?”

“Actually, it was a joke. Gloria and I laughed all the way to Anahuac about what we were going to do with the penny Daddy left me.”

“I think he was depending on me to make you understand that he wanted to apologize for the past.” Flynn studied her. “I’m sorry, Pride. If I had been able to get to the hospital right away, I might have been able to find out what he wanted to say.”

“There’s no need to feel sorry.” Pride found herself unable to think about her father just then. “If Daddy had wanted to make amends, he could have written me a letter anytime.”

“Did he know where you were?”

“It wouldn’t have taken much work for him to find out.”

Flynn looked annoyed, as if he didn’t believe her when she pointed out that her whereabouts shouldn’t have been difficult for Alan Donovan to discover.

“He was probably afraid to face me,” she said.

“Why?”

She hesitated, while she expunged from her mind the fact that Alan Donovan knew she hadn’t miscarried. “Perhaps he was afraid of admitting, even to himself, that I was his daughter. Especially after I went off and got myself into trouble.”

Flynn winced. “No one makes a big deal out of unwed motherhood these days.”

“Except self-righteous men like my father.”

Flynn wisely changed the subject. “You’ll be able to afford to pick and choose your freelance assignments now. Maybe you can even start the great American novel.”

“I’ve never had any aspirations as a novelist. I’m more of a nonfiction type.” She looked at her empty cocktail dish thoughtfully. “Actually, I do have an idea in mind for a book.”

“I’d like to see you write a book,” Flynn said. “What will it be about?”

“I’ll have to think on it a bit more before I go telling people about it.” She was not about to tell Flynn about the book outline she had already completed. “Did you tell everyone ahead of time that you were about to quit your dad’s firm and strike out on your own?”

“No.” Flynn smiled wryly. “Everyone was aware of it all the same. You could hear Dad shouting for three blocks.”

“He seems resigned to your absence now,” she commented.

“Even he recognized the force of my arguments when I pointed out that I wasn’t particularly useful to the firm in my position as his understudy. He was going out of his way to keep me from doing any actual work.”

“I remember,” she murmured.

Flynn had been trained in business and law in preparation for taking over Sutherland Investments one day, but when he went to work for the firm, Morgan discovered he was nowhere near wanting to give up any of his power to his son. Privately, she thought Flynn had been wise to leave the company for a while.

“I suppose you would remember,” Flynn said, in dry tones. “We get along much better now.” He paused and studied her face. “Are you holding a grudge against my parents?”

“Heavens, no. You heard your father. He likes me.”

“They mourned your departure for weeks,” Flynn said, to her surprise. “Dad was of the opinion that I should have married you and treated the baby as my own.”

“On the grounds that you aren’t able to have a child of your own and adoption is ridiculously difficult?” Pride managed a smile and gripped her hands together in her lap. “Now that’s an idea. Gee, why didn’t I think to suggest that?”

Flynn started to say something, but apparently thought better of it when he caught her gaze.

Their waiter arrived with food, and Pride breathed a sigh of relief. Flynn had ordered her a steak marinated in a French herb sauce. Too bad she had totally lost her appetite for the succulent dish. Worse, Flynn kept staring at her every time he thought her attention was focused on the food.

When their plates were removed at long last and cups of steaming coffee were set before them, Pride curled her fingers around her cup and let herself relax a little. Surely, the evening was almost over.

“You still haven’t explained about my inheritance,” she pointed out. “We seem to keep getting off the subject.”

Flynn smiled. “I’ve told you, but you don’t seem to believe me. Why don’t you come to the office in the morning and I’ll show you some of the paperwork, and what you can expect in terms of income.”

Pride thought about it. Maybe she’d better go and get it over with. “All right. What time?”

“Eleven. Prepare to have lunch with me. I want to show you a new boat I’m thinking about buying, then we’ll take Gloria and the kids sailing.”

Pride stared at her cup, dismayed at the fierce longing that arose inside her. “I don’t know about this, Flynn.”

“Gloria and the kids will enjoy the outing. This is a family boat we’re going to see.”

“Oh, yes? Is there such a thing?”

“Of course. If the children don’t fall overboard, I’ll buy the boat. How’s that?”

“I’d call it a good test,” Pride agreed.

She wanted to go, she realized, astonished at herself. She longed to see the marina again. She’d thought Flynn was kidding, when he claimed he’d take everyone out on his boat.

Johnny would love it, which was, of course, the only reason she even considered it.

Flynn smiled. “Then I’ll expect you tomorrow morning at eleven. You and I will need to spend about half an hour together then we’ll pack up the children and drive to Galveston. You’re going to love this boat.”

“I’m sure I will.” The only things Pride knew about boats were the things Flynn had taught her.

“I’ve been thinking about a motor yacht,” Flynn said.

“You? A motor yacht? A stinker? A noisemaker?”

“I’ve been … considering something that would be comfortable for a family,” Flynn said slowly. “My old sailboat is too small, and it definitely isn’t a family-type boat.”

“A family,” Pride repeated. Was Flynn thinking about marriage and adoption? “Well, I’ll tell you what, Flynn. When Johnny gets aboard, you’ll have a very good test of its child-worthiness. He’s in an exploring stage right now.”

“Great,” Flynn said. “I’ll count on Johnny. Are you ready? I want to show you another place I discovered recently.”

“I’d rather go home, if you don’t mind. As I told your dad, it wasn’t fair of me to leave Gloria alone with the kids.”

“It won’t take but a minute.” He stood and helped her rise. “You’ll enjoy it. Would you mind speaking to my mother before we leave?”

Pride couldn’t think of a good reason for avoiding Flynn’s mother, much as she’d have liked to. She allowed Flynn to lead her to his parents’ table and tried to steel herself.