The Manning Brides (4 page)

“You dried your socks in the microwave?”

Jason shrugged. “I forgot to put the load from the washer into the dryer the night before. I needed a pair for work. So it was either that or pop them in the toaster.”

Rich chuckled. That sounded exactly like something his brother would do. Jason was right: A woman would’ve been horrified had she known about his method of drying socks.

For the next ten minutes they were both engrossed in the game. At the commercial break, Jason propped his ankle on his knee and turned to Rich.

“Why’d you bring up this marriage thing?”

“No reason. I was just wondering.”

“What about you?” Jason asked. “Isn’t it time
you
thought about settling down and fathering a houseful of kids?”

“Me?” Rich asked.

“Yes, you. Mom knows any future Mannings will have to come from you and Paul. She’s thrown up her hands in disgust at me.”

“I don’t think I’ll get married, either.”

Jason’s eyes widened with disbelief. “Why not?”

“Don’t look so surprised.”

“I am. You, Richard Manning, are definitely the marrying kind. Women flock to you.”

Plainly his older brother had an inflated view of Rich’s sexual prowess, and Rich couldn’t see any reason to disillusion him. “True, but not one of them, in all these years, has appealed to me enough to want to marry her.”

“What about Pamela?”

“That woman’s a—” Rich decided not to say it. “Put it this way. We don’t have much in common.”

“I thought you were still seeing her.”

“I do occasionally.” He took a swig of his beer and set it down, then reached for a bowl of popcorn. Leaning back, he rested his feet on the coffee table, crossing his ankles. “This is the life.” He made a point of changing the subject, growing uncomfortable with the topic of marriage, although he’d been the one foolish enough to introduce it.

“It doesn’t get much better than this,” Jason said enthusiastically.

Once again their attention reverted to the television. The Seattle football team, the Seahawks, was playing the Green Bay Packers in a heated contest for the National Football Conference title. The winner would go on to play in the Super Bowl. All of Seattle was excited about the game.

“What about kids?” Rich wanted to kick himself the instant the question left his lips. What the hell was the matter with him? He’d had no intention of talking to Jason about any of this.

“Children?” Jason’s attention didn’t stray from the game. “What about them?”

“If you don’t plan to marry, how do you feel about not having a child of your own?” This bothered Rich the most. He really would like a son or a daughter. Or both.

Jason took a long time answering, as though the question had caught him unprepared. “I don’t know…I hadn’t given children much thought. I guess I’d like a couple of kids someday, but on the other hand, I don’t want to get married in order to have them. But then—” he hesitated “—there’s no need to marry…not these days. We live in an enlightened age, remember?”

“Not marry the woman pregnant with my child?” Rich gave his brother a sour look. “I don’t care what age we live in. We both know better than that. A word of advice—don’t let Mom or Dad ever hear you say such a thing.”

Jason exhaled. “You’re right, that was a stupid idea.” He reached over to the bowl of popcorn Rich was holding and grabbed a handful. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“Not telling you?”

“Yeah. There’s something on your mind.”

“I’ll tell you what’s on my mind,” Rich said, picking up his beer. “Football. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re down by seven points and Denver’s got the ball on the fifteen-yard line.” He laughed, but his brother didn’t.

“You’re sure?” Jason asked a few minutes later. “The score’s the only thing bothering you?”

“Positive,” Rich assured him, feigning a smile. A man didn’t tell his older brother, especially one who assumed women flocked to him, that he was thinking about becoming a sperm donor.

Six days had passed, and if Rich didn’t call her soon, Jamie was convinced she’d have a nervous breakdown. Every time the phone rang, her heart shot to her throat and she started to tremble like an October leaf.

Rich had made a point of saying he’d be the one to call her, and he’d promised to do so within a week’s time. Nevertheless, the wait was killing her, and each day that passed seemed to increase her anxiety.

She’d just put a casserole in the oven when the doorbell chimed. Jamie’s gaze flew apprehensively toward the door. Even before she answered it, she knew it was Rich.

Inhaling a deep breath, she walked unsteadily across the carpet and opened the door.

“Hello, Jamie.”

“Hi, Rich.”

His eyes refused to meet hers, and her stomach twisted into a tight knot as he entered her home. He removed his coat and hung it in the closet as though he intended to stay for a while. Jamie didn’t know whether she should take encouragement from that or not.

“Dinner’s in the oven. Will you join me?”

He nodded, although she suspected he hadn’t heard what she’d said.

“It’s a new recipe…. I seem to be in a cooking mode lately. Tamale pie—I found the recipe on the back of a cornmeal box. I’ve always liked Mexican food.”

“Me, too.”

“Would you care for some coffee?”

“Sure.”

He followed her into the kitchen and sat down at the table. “I suppose you’re wondering what I’ve decided,” he said when she brought him his coffee.

It was all she could do not to demand he tell her right then and there. Waiting even one more minute seemed too long. She pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. She was so anxious, her hands were trembling and she clasped them in her lap, not wanting to give herself away.

“I’ve done a lot of thinking since the last time we spoke,” he began.

If the lines around his eyes and mouth were any indication, his thoughts had been serious indeed. It didn’t look as though he’d slept much in the past week. For that matter, neither had she.

“I’m sure it hasn’t been an easy decision.”

“No, it hasn’t,” he said pointedly. “Before I say anything else, there are a few things I’d like to get straight. Once I do, you may change your mind.”

“I’m not going to do that,” Jamie said confidently.

His eyes held hers. “Don’t be so sure. First and foremost, I want full parental privileges. This child will be as much a part of me as he or she is of you.” He spoke forcefully, as though he anticipated an argument.

“What…what exactly do you mean by parental privileges?”

“I want a say in how the child will be raised, as much of a say as you. That means when it comes time to choose a preschool, I’ll expect you to confer with me. I don’t want you moving out of the area, either. At least not without me being informed and in full agreement, but I can tell you right now, I won’t agree.”

“Okay,” she said hesitantly. The only reason she’d even brought up the subject of moving was to simplify the situation for him. It wasn’t what she wanted at all. “Anything else?”

“I’m just getting started. If we go ahead with this, I want visitation rights.”

“Of course. I have no intention of hiding the child from you.”

“That’s not what I understood earlier,” he said, frowning.

“I…know. I should have thought this through more carefully before I approached you. I’d come up with the idea of you being the baby’s father the same night I talked to you. When I showed up at your place, the idea was only half formed.”

Rich seemed cold and distant. It was almost as if they were negotiating something highly controversial and there was no room for friendliness. No room for personal feelings.

“Does that mean you’ve changed your mind?” he asked.

“No…no, just that I hadn’t worked everything out as extensively as I should have before I came to you. It hadn’t dawned on me that you’d care one way or the other about the child. I realize now how insensitive that was of me. I apologize for that, Rich, I really do.”

“Of course I’d care about the child!”

“I know. If you want full visitation rights, and a say in how the child’s brought up, then that’s only fair. I have no objections. None whatsoever.”

“I’m also going to insist you accept child support.”

“But, Rich, that really isn’t necessary. I make a decent wage and—” She stopped abruptly at the way his eyes hardened.

“Then the deal’s off.”

She took a moment to compose herself. “Since that’s clearly an important issue to you,” she said carefully. “I’ll be willing to accept whatever monetary support you deem necessary.”

“Emotional support, as well. I don’t want you walking the floors at night with a colicky baby.”

“What do you expect me to do?”

“Phone me.”

He was making everything so much more complicated than it needed to be. “You don’t expect me to call you over every little thing, do you?”

“Yes,” he said emphatically. “I want all the arrangements between us clear as glass
before
the blessed event. We’ll share the responsibilities.”

When she didn’t respond, he asked, “Having second thoughts yet?”

“Not…really. Is this everything?”

“It isn’t.” He stood and opened the oven, checking the casserole that was baking inside. He let the door close slowly.

“You mean there’s more?”

“One small item.”

“One small item,” Jamie repeated, assuming she wouldn’t have any more trouble with this than his other demands.

“If we do decide to go ahead and have a child together…”

“And I think we should,” she said, smiling over at him.

“Fine. Great. Wonderful. If you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

“Good. In that case, I insist we get married.”

J
amie was too confused to think clearly. Surely Rich didn’t mean what he’d just said. It made no sense. “Married…but…you can’t be serious.”

“I’ve rarely been more serious in my life,” Rich answered, stalking to the far side of her kitchen. He removed two dinner plates from her cupboard and set them on the table. “Naturally, this wouldn’t be a conventional marriage.”

“Naturally,” Jamie echoed, still too bewildered to understand his reasoning. “Then…why are you insisting on a wedding?”

“I want the child to have my name. I don’t care if that no longer matters to most people. It matters to me.”

“Oh.”

“We’ll continue to maintain our separate residences. For all intents and purposes, nothing will change, at least not outwardly. Except that we’ll be sharing the care and custody of a child.”

Jamie stood in front of the silverware drawer and closed her eyes, trying to force her heart to stop pounding so hard. Rich had made it plain this wasn’t any love match—not that she’d ever suspected it would be. Nevertheless, her heart had reacted fiercely to his insistence on a wedding. Because she couldn’t help associating marriage with love, despite a great deal of evidence to the contrary.

“What about the pregnancy? I mean…how do you think I should get pregnant?” By the time the question was complete, her voice had dwindled to a whisper.

“You could always seduce me.”

Furious, Jamie whirled around and glared at Rich. She could feel the hot blush warming her cheeks, “I should never have admitted that. You’re going to throw it in my face at every opportunity, aren’t you?”

“No,” he denied, but his eyes were sparkling with the blue light of laughter. “I agree with you. Sex between us would ruin everything. I don’t want to risk our friendship any more than you do.”

The tension eased from between Jamie’s shoulder blades.

“We’ll need to keep the marriage a secret.”

“For how long?” If their child was to have his name, they’d eventually have to tell their families. Jamie wasn’t keen on facing her mother with a surprise marriage to go along with a pregnancy. Doris Warren wouldn’t take kindly to being cheated out of a wedding any more than Rich’s mother would.

“We’d only stay married until the baby’s born,” Rich explained, revealing no hint of indecision, and certainly no doubts. He apparently had the whole situation worked out to his own satisfaction.

Unfortunately, he’d completely unsettled Jamie. She’d had everything organized and none of her plans included marriage, even a marriage of convenience. The questions were popping up faster than she could ask them.

“What are we going to say after the baby’s born?” she demanded.

“That we’re getting a divorce.”

Jamie felt the sudden need to sit down again. “That we’re getting a divorce?” she repeated. Already she could imagine her mother’s shock and dismay. Not only would Jamie have married without telling her, but she’d be obtaining a divorce.

“It makes sense once you think about it,” Rich continued with matchless confidence.

Maybe it did to him, but Jamie felt as though she were wandering through the dark, lost and confused, bumping into walls she didn’t know were there. It had all seemed so simple the night she’d approached Rich.

He pulled out a chair and placed his foot on the seat, resting his right elbow on his knee. “We’ll get married at the courthouse as quietly as possible. There’s no reason for anyone to know.”

“That much I understand…. I’m just not convinced it’s necessary.”

“I am,” he said adamantly.

“All right, all right,” she muttered, swiping one hand through her hair. What had seemed such an uncomplicated idea had suddenly taken on more twists and turns than a country road.

“You’ll agree to the wedding?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Don’t sound so enthusiastic.”

“I’m not.” She sighed loudly.

“As soon as the ink’s dry on the marriage certificate, we can make an appointment with the gynecologist….”

“Good grief, what are we going to tell him?” Jamie didn’t relish that task. If Rich wanted to explain why two healthy, normal
married
adults who wanted a baby would choose such an unconventional method, then more power to him.

“We won’t tell him anything. He’s a professional—he isn’t going to ask a lot of questions. It’s none of his business, anyway.”

“Rich…I don’t know about this.”

“If you have doubts, then I suggest you spill them now.”

“I’m not sure getting married is the right thing. We don’t have to go through a wedding ceremony for the baby to have your name. Couldn’t you legally adopt him or her after the birth?”

“Why complicate everything?”

“And marriage
isn’t
going to do that?” Jamie cried.

“Marriage will accomplish the same thing now without the legal hassles of adoption later. As I said, it’ll be in name only.”

“Yes, I know, but…” She hesitated, trying to shape her objections in the form of a reasonable argument. When she spoke, her eyes met his. “You’re going to think I’m terribly old-fashioned.”

“The woman who asked me to be a sperm donor? Hardly!”

Jamie had the feeling it would take a long time to live that down. “Yes,” she said vehemently, “I suppose it has to do with my upbringing, but I’ve always considered marriage sacred. Somehow, it just doesn’t feel right to sneak off and get married and…and then arrange for a divorce nine months later.”

Rich was quiet for a moment. “I agree,” he finally said, “but this isn’t a normal marriage.”

“What marriage is?” Jamie asked, thinking of all the friends she’d known over the years who’d married. Each relationship was different from the others. She’d stood by and observed how some couples had grown closer in their love and commitment. Others had drifted further and further apart until it was too late.

“Nothing’s going to change, at least not outwardly,” Rich tried to reassure her once again. “We’re doing this for the child’s sake. And for yours.”

“For
mine?
”

Rich’s eyes narrowed slightly, and when he spoke his voice was cold. “I won’t allow your reputation to be damaged by an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.”

That was all well and good, but it was
her
reputation and if she had no objections, then he needn’t be concerned. “But Rich—”

“Furthermore,” he said, interrupting her. “I refuse to allow my son or daughter to be born a bastard.” He raised his hand. “Before you argue with me, I feel the same way about this as I do about the baby having my name. I don’t care if it’s important to anyone else. It is to me. Besides, why make a kid’s life any harder than it has to be?”

“You’ve got a point,” she whispered.

“Still, I can understand your hesitation.”

Jamie lowered her eyes. “It’s just that I expect you’ll want to marry someday. Sooner or later a woman’s going to come into your life and this marriage is going to complicate everything for you. What are you going to tell her about me—and the child?”

“The truth.”

“But Rich—”

“It’s not going to happen. If I believed I was eventually going to marry, I wouldn’t have agreed to this.”

Any doubts Jamie entertained were wiped out with the certainty of his smile.

“So you’ll marry me?” he asked.

Jamie nodded. She still wasn’t convinced it was the right thing to do, but he’d insisted on it so she felt she had no choice.

“One last thing,” Rich said, placing his foot back on the floor.

There was
more?
Jamie’s head was still reeling from his last announcement. “Now what?”

“You’re important to me. Our friendship’s important. For the sake of that friendship, I think we should have everything drawn up legally. I don’t want any misunderstandings later on.”

This seemed logical to Jamie. “Okay, but most of the lawyers I know through work handle real estate and wills and business mergers. This isn’t their kind of contract.”

“I know an attorney who’ll do it. One I trust.”

“Who?”

“James Wilkens, Christy’s ex-fiancé.”

James Wilkens’s office reminded Rich of his youngest sister, Christy. She used to work here, and he’d stopped by a couple of times over the past year to take his sister to lunch. He half expected her to come around the corner at any moment.

Christy was married to Cody, however, not James. Sheriff Cody Franklin. Rich wasn’t likely to forget how he’d interrupted their wedding night, nor was Cody going to
let
him forget it. Rich had arrived at her apartment soon after he’d found out about Pamela’s little fling. He’d been disgusted and disheartened, convinced women didn’t know the meaning of the word
faithful.
He hadn’t included Christy in that, though. Not his little sister; she’d always been so sweet and virtuous. Then, not knowing they were married, he’d stumbled upon her in bed with Cody, and his opinion of women had fallen to an all-time low.

Sitting in the plushly decorated waiting room next to a five-foot potted philodendron brought back an abundance of memories. The plant was on one side of him, with a fidgeting Jamie on the other.

He glanced at her. She was flipping through the pages of a magazine so fast she’d created a draft. She was on her third issue of
Good Housekeeping
and they hadn’t been seated for more than five minutes.

She remained ambivalent about to the idea of marriage, but she wanted the child enough to agree to his terms.

Unlike Jamie, Rich felt comfortable with the plan, for all the reasons he’d given her. He wasn’t sure what anyone else would think, especially his family—if they ever found out—but frankly that was their problem. He was doing his best friend a favor.

Rich had the almost overwhelming urge to laugh. Never had he thought he’d agree to anything like this. According to Jason, women gravitated naturally toward him. In some ways that was true, but they were usually the wrong women. What he wouldn’t give to have fallen in love with a woman as genuine and compassionate as Jamie.

The need to touch her, to reassure her, even in the smallest of ways, was as strong as the urge to laugh had been a few minutes earlier. He reached for her hand, entwining her fingers with his own.

She looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“I…I can’t seem to sit still.”

“We aren’t at the courthouse, you know. This is a meeting with James. He’s a decent guy, and a darn good attorney. He isn’t going to laugh or make snide remarks.”

“I know…. It’s just that…” She let the rest of the sentence fade.

“You’re nervous.”

“I’m nervous,” she said. “I don’t understand why, exactly, but my stomach’s in knots and I can’t seem to read, and I keep thinking of everything that could go wrong.”

“Like what?”

Jamie turned from him and stared down at the open magazine in her lap. “I…you wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

“Marriage shouldn’t be taken lightly. I know I’ve said that before, but I can’t seem to explain it in a way that you’ll understand. Something happens to a couple when they marry—even when it’s only a marriage of convenience. Something…spiritual. I know you don’t agree with me, but we’re both going to be affected by this. I can’t shake the feeling that deep down we’ll regret it.”

“We aren’t going to have a physical relationship.”

“I know all that,” she said, “but it doesn’t change what I feel.”

Her hand was trembling in his, and he could tell from the way her voice quavered that she was close to tears. “Do you want to call it off?” Rich would accede to Jamie’s wishes, but he hoped she wouldn’t back out now.

“That’s the crazy part,” she said, her expression even more anguished than before. “I want this marriage and our child more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

“So do I,” Rich admitted, realizing how true it was. “So do I.”

“Rich,” James greeted him as he came into the waiting room. Rich stood and they exchanged handshakes. “It was a pleasant surprise to find your name on my appointment calendar this morning.” The attorney looked from Rich to Jamie, and he smiled warmly.

“This is Jamie Warren,” Rich said.

“Hello.”

“We met briefly…a while back,” she said, suddenly biting off her words. She cast an embarrassed glance at Rich, as though she’d made a dreadful blunder. Fortunately James didn’t react at all. It wasn’t until they were inside James’s office that Rich remembered the two of them had been introduced at James and Christy’s engagement party.

“Come on in and sit down,” James said, motioning toward the two upholstered chairs positioned on the other side of his desk. James, who was of medium height with broad shoulders and a hairline just beginning to recede, had a rather formal manner and a natural reserve.

Rich knew from mutual acquaintances that he’d taken the broken engagement hard. He’d loved Christy and been deeply wounded when she’d married Cody instead. Rich had heard that James rarely dated. If so, that was a shame. James had a lot to offer a woman. He was a junior partner with the firm these days and his talents were in high demand. It would take one hell of a woman to replace Christy, and Rich could only hope that James would find someone just as special.