The Texan's Contract Marriage - By Sara Orwig Page 0,36
I didn’t expect the reaction I got from them at all. Frankly, I think my mother is afraid to let go and love him. She loved Kern. When we were growing up, I always thought she favored him. Ginny and I both did. Kern was probably more lovable than we were. He could charm anyone. I think she’s scared of getting hurt again if she gets too close to Noah. If she lets go and loves him, she wouldn’t want to go back to California. My dad could be feeling the same. Don’t let it worry you. They’ll go back to California before we return and you won’t see them for a long time.”
“I’m just sorry they didn’t welcome Noah. He’s a sweetheart. They know you did a paternity test, don’t they?”
“Yes, they do,” Marek said, unable to understand how his parents could so easily reject Kern’s baby when they knew he was their grandson. “Don’t worry about it. They shouldn’t be that important to you. I think they tried to avoid seeing Noah, just so they wouldn’t become attached. We’ll be together sometime when Ginny’s girls are around and they’ll have to get to know him. If they do, I expect them to change. How can they resist him?”
She smiled. “I quite agree. He’s the most adorable baby in the whole world,” she said, and Marek smiled with her. “Ahh, I made you smile. That’s good. A real smile.” She patted his hand, a light, warm touch that heightened his awareness of her.
“Well, at least my family has accepted you. Actually, they’re grateful for all you’ve done for us.”
Marek reached over to take a pin out of her hair. “I like your hair down. The wedding is over and it’s just us.”
She smiled at him as her long, raven locks fell.
“Giving away money is the easiest part of this. Making the changes in our lives—that’s the hard part. You can’t always predict the outcome of your actions,” he said, concentrating on taking down her hair. When it fell freely, she shook her head. His pulse quickened. The midnight cascade fell over her shoulders, framing her face and giving her a more earthy appearance. With her lush curves and flowing hair, she looked hot-blooded and passionate. He could remember kissing her in total detail because it had been a sizzling kiss.
“Were you and Kern always close?”
“Yes. He just tagged along after me and I accepted that. Sometimes I thought he was a pest and would shake him, but most of the time I let him come with me or do what I was doing. By the time we were out of high school, we were becoming close, a closeness that grew as we did things together. As adults, the age difference didn’t matter. I miss him every day. I could count on him for a lot.”
“That’s sort of a description of my relationship with Ashley. Not so much Stephanie, who is older. A lot of the time she did her own thing. She has a deep regard for money, so you couldn’t have picked a better way to win her over.”
“Works with most people,” he replied, even though he knew it was a cynical attitude.
“If I hadn’t thought this would be good for Noah, I wouldn’t have agreed for any amount,” she said quietly, and he gazed into her blue eyes that held him as if she had immobilized him.
“I don’t think you would have,” he replied and they lapsed into silence.
“I can’t wait to get there.”
“We’ll get there in time for a swim, and then we can have a long, leisurely dinner overlooking the water. And there are palm trees around the veranda. I made sure of that before I leased this place.”
She smiled. “I want to wish the plane there now. It sounds like paradise.”
He didn’t want to point out that paradise would be doing this with a person she loved. She seemed happy, and he wasn’t trying to shoot down her joy because it was a difficult situation. A strained honeymoon with a stranger, both of them locked into a paper marriage of convenience. He had never expected to find himself in any such thing. And he would not have been if Jillian had lived. He would have been married to her by now, perhaps starting his own family, and he would have had to let Noah go and only see the child from time to time. Taking a deep breath, he dropped his thoughts of Jillian