The Pregnancy Plan

“No, thanks,” she said. “I’ll pass.”

“Okay. But thanks for taking me over!” Jack ran around to her side of the car, and put up his arms for a hug.

She leaned over and gave him a warm one. “I enjoyed the trip,” she said. “It’s always fun to have an outing with such a cool young dude!”

Jack beamed with pleasure. Then turning to the ranch hand, he said, “Let’s go, Arthur!”

Arthur put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You’d better nip inside first and let your dad know you’re back.”

“Aunt Lacey will. Right, Aunt Lacey?”

She’d intended to leave without seeing Dermid. It still rankled that he hadn’t included her in the private talk he’d had with Jordan. But Jack was hopping around impatiently, eyes eager as he waited for her response.

How could she refuse? “Yes, I’ll tell him.”

“Just go in,” Arthur said. “The doorbell needs fixin’, and he’s upstairs, won’t hear you if you knock.”

While he and Jack headed off, she got out of the car and walked toward the house, stepping carefully so’s not to muddy her cream leather pumps.

To her right was the terraced bank that Alice had transformed into a picturesque garden. While she’d been alive, it had been a joy to behold at this time of year; now weeds flourished, crowding out the once-vibrant perennials that Alice had so lovingly planted and tended.

But it wasn’t only the garden that had a desolate air; the house itself looked sad. Paint was peeling off the green front door and the brass fittings cried out for a polish. Where once the windows would have been open to the fresh spring day, with crisply laundered curtains billowing in the breeze, now they were shut…closing out the world.

Lacey opened the door and walked into the entryway. Stepping over mud-caked boots, noting the grit on the formerly gleaming slate floor, she felt her spirits sink.

And they sank further as she looked around the front hall. This would break Alice’s heart, she thought with a spurt of anger, if she could see it. The hall table was thick with dust, as were the pictures on the walls, and the carpet leading up the stairs was fuzzed with lint.

Tears stung her eyes. How could he! How could Dermid McTaggart have let Alice’s cherished home fall into such a state of abandonment!

Dermid stepped out of the shower in his en suite bathroom, and whisking a towel from the floor, he ran it over his hair. Then tucking it around his waist, he swiped a hand over the steamed-up mirror, brushed his hair, and then threw the brush, along with his shaving gear, into the toilet bag he was going to take to Toronto with him.

Tomorrow, he was going to the clinic.

Tomorrow, he was going to do something that would make his heart ache for the rest of his life.

And after he’d signed the necessary papers, he reflected as he brushed his teeth, he’d no doubt feel like going to the nearest pub to drown his sorrows; but he wouldn’t, because of Jack—

Someone hammered on his bedroom door.

Arthur? What did he want? And when had he ever knocked!

He turned off the tap and heard the knocking again. This time, it was even more demanding. And it was followed immediately by the sound of a voice he recognized, one that had him almost choking…then spitting out his toothpaste as if he’d discovered it contained arsenic.

Lacey Maxwell.

What the devil was she doing here!

Dropping his toothbrush on the countertop, he strode to the bathroom door and came to an abrupt halt.

There she was, in his bedroom, dressed in an indigo shirt and a cream miniskirt and cream shoes, with her black hair falling like a sheet of jet to her breasts.

And she was spitting mad.

“Didn’t you hear me knock?” Her green eyes had a furious sparkle. “Are you deaf?”

He swallowed and the toothpaste made his throat feel raw. “What—” his tone was incredulous “—are you doing here?”

“How could you!” She glared at him. “How could you let this place go to rack and ruin. Alice would turn in her grave if—”

“I asked,” he said grimly, “what you are doing here.”

She sliced a hand through the air, the gesture angry and dismissive. “I brought Jack back. He was homesick. Though how he could be homesick for such a pigstye is utterly beyond me! How can you possibly justify what you’ve let happen here? It’s an absolute disgrace—”

“Now that you’ve brought Jack back,” he said coldly. “You’re free to leave.”

“Uh-uh! I still have some things I want to say to you.”

“I’m really not interested in what you have to say. And please don’t come in here, from your polished plastic world, and tell me how I should live. You’re not even on the same planet. Now why don’t you tell me what’s really bothering you, Ms. Maxwell. I think there’s a lot more to it than a dustball or two!”

“You’re right.” She set her hands on her hips, and gave him a look that would have annihilated a lesser man. “I want you to know that Felicity happened to overhear you and Jordan talking the other day, and she told me about your conversation because she felt that as Alice’s sister, I had the right to know what you were planning to do—”

“I’m sure Felicity acted with the best of intentions, but she was wrong. The decision was mine alone to make, and—”

“But you went to Jordan for advice,” Lacey snapped. “You left me out!”

“I went to Jordan because I needed to talk to someone about what I was going to do. I didn’t go to him for advice. I went to him for support. I knew what I had to do, it wasn’t as if I had any other option. I needed to hear him say it was okay.”

“But there could have been another option.” Her breasts rose and fell under her silk shirt, as she took in a deep breath, let it out again. “Surrogacy.”

“It’s out of the question.” The harshness in his tone surprised even himself. “I won’t consider it.”

“That’s what Jordan said.”

“Then Jordan got it right.”

Her eyes burned with challenge. “If you really wanted this baby to be born, you’d surely consider every possible avenue—”

“Not that one, because—”

“I know your reasons. Jordan told me. Having a baby is a family affair, and outsiders shouldn’t be involved.”

Silence shimmered between them, and he suddenly realized he was standing there in nothing but a towel—not that it seemed to faze her. Of course, she was probably used to seeing men half-naked. Or totally naked. In the world she inhabited nudity was probably run-of the-mill.

She walked away from him and crossed to the window.

The silence between them continued, but he sensed a buildup of tension in her that made him wary.

“What is it?” he asked. “What are you thinking?”

In a voice that was no longer challenging but quiet, she said, “I was just thinking how happy Alice was here. How happy she was, with you and with Jack. And…how very much she wanted this baby.”

What could he say to that? Nothing…even if his throat hadn’t tightened with emotion, because what she said was true.

Without turning, she went on, “After our mother died—and you probably know this—I was sent to live with an aunt—a rigid and unloving person—and I was miserable. But after a few weeks, Alice came for me. She’d dropped out of university in order to come back home and bring me up. I owe her, Dermid. And I was never able to repay her.”

Now she turned, and he saw that her face was very pale.

“You told Jordan,” she said, “that you could never consider surrogacy because having babies was a family matter. I’m family, Dermid.”

He looked at her blankly, and then his eyes narrowed. “What the devil are you trying to say?”

“This will be my last—my last and only chance, to do something to repay my sister for what she did for me. Let me be the gestational carrier for your baby, Dermid. For you…and for Alice.”

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