The Million-Dollar Catch

She’d been so careful, too. Ever since Garrett, she’d avoided men and sex and entanglements. Based on who Ryan had turned out to be, she should have stuck with being single.

“How did it go wrong?” Willow asked. “Was he secretly a woman?”

That made Julie laugh. She touched her sister’s face. “No, but that would have been interesting. He lied … about everything.”

She told them about him pretending to be Todd, in order to teach her a lesson.

“He assumed I was in it for the money, so his plan was to show me a good time, get me to fall for him and then tell me the truth.”

“What?” Marina stood up and put her hands on his hips. “That’s horrible. You didn’t do it for the money. You did it for Grandma Ruth. You lost. Did you tell him you lost because you always play scissors?”

“I mentioned that.”

Marina settled back beside her. “This is going to turn you off guys forever, isn’t it?”

Julie nodded. “I suspect I’ll have a lengthy recovery.”

“Want me to hurt him for you?” Willow asked.

Julie laughed again. Willow was all of five foot three inches. She was feisty on the inside but on the outside she had a whole lot more in common with a waif than a bodybuilder.

“That’s okay,” Julie told her. “I appreciate the offer, but he’s big and burly.”

“But I have speed and the element of surprise on my side.”

“I love you guys,” Julie said.

“We love you, too,” Marina told her. “I’m just so mad. Maybe Willow and I could take him together.”

“I don’t think so.”

Willow leaned against Julie’s shoulder. “I hate Todd, too. He’s a part of this. How could Grandma Ruth want any of us to marry someone who’s so jerky?”

“Maybe she doesn’t know,” Marina murmured.

“Maybe it’s the reason she offered the money,” Julie said. “It doesn’t matter. It’s over. I’m never going to see Ryan again.”

Or think of him. Except she had a feeling that forgetting him was going to be more difficult than she wanted it to be. If only she could go back in time and never show up for that stupid date.

Willow squeezed her arm. “You want us to not tell Mom? You know how she worries.”

“That would be great,” Julie said. “I’ll probably have to mention it eventually, but if I could wait a while, it would be easier.”

“Sure,” Marina said. “Whatever you want.”

Julie managed a smile. “So you two feel so sorry for me I could get you to do anything, huh?”

Her sisters nodded.

If she’d been feeling better, she might have teased them or come up with a crazy task. Instead she let them comfort her and told herself that in time, she would put all this behind her and forget she’d ever known Ryan Bennett.

Julie stared out of the window of her office and did her best to get excited about the view. Sure, she could mostly see the building next door, but to the right she could see clear to Long Beach.

She’d been promoted the previous week and had moved into larger quarters. She now had a shared assistant and a nice raise. She also had big plans to celebrate this weekend with a shopping spree. Willow and Marina had already promised to come with her.

This was all good. She was smart, successful, moving upward in her chosen career. So why couldn’t she stop thinking about Ryan?

It had been three weeks since that disastrous night and morning when he’d swept into her life and made her think this time things would be different. Three weeks of remembering, of dreaming about him, of wanting him.

That’s what she resented most—that her own body betrayed her. She could stay sane during the day but when she finally fell asleep, he invaded her dreams as she relived what it had been like to be with him. She woke up several times a night, aroused, hungry for his touch. These were not the signs of a woman forgetting a man.

“I want him gone,” she whispered into the silence.

But how to make that happen? Until she’d found out he was a lying bastard, he’d been the best night of her life.

He was also persistent. He’d phoned three times and sent a basket filled with chocolate, wine and season one of Gilligan’s Island on DVD.

She placed her hand on the cool glass. Things had to get better, right? She couldn’t remember him forever. It was a matter of discipline and maybe a little less coffee. She could always call Willow—the queen of all things organic—and ask if there was some kind of sleep aid to get her through this rough patch.

Julie turned to return to her desk, only she didn’t exactly make it. As she took a step, the room seemed to shift and sway.

Her first thought was an earthquake, but there wasn’t any noise. Her second thought was that she’d never felt so dizzy in her life. Her vision narrowed and she realized she was very possibly going to faint.

Somehow she made it to her chair where she collapsed. After a couple of deep breaths, her head cleared, but now her stomach felt all queasy.

She did a quick review of what she’d eaten that day and wondered if she had food poisoning. When that seemed unlikely, she considered a quick-onset flu. It was early in the season, but it could happen.

Wasn’t there a prescription she could take? Something that would cut down how long she would be sick. Eyeing the stack of work awaiting her attention, she picked up the phone and dialed a familiar number.

“Hi, Mom, it’s me. I’m good. Kind of. Is there a flu going around?”

“How do you feel?” her mother asked two hours later as Julie sat in one of Dr. Greenberg’s examining rooms. One of the advantages of her mother being the man’s office manager was Julie and her sisters never had to wait to get an appointment.

She’d been weighed, had her blood pressure taken, peed in a cup. Talk about thorough. “I feel weird,” Julie admitted. “Queasy, but otherwise fine. I keep waiting to throw up, but I don’t.”

“Poor girl,” Naomi said soothingly as she held her hand against her daughter’s forehead.

“I’m twenty-six, Mom. Not really girl material.”

Her mother smiled. “You’ll always be my little girl.”

Julie laughed. Right now the fussing was kind of nice.

“Let me get you something carbonated,” her mother said as she headed for the door. “It might settle your stomach.”

Julie watched her go. All three sisters had inherited their mother’s blond hair and blue eyes. They were variations on a theme, ranging from Willow’s pale blond to Julie’s medium, to Marina’s dark gold hair. Julie and Marina had inherited their father’s height, while Willow was petite.

In her high-school science class, Julie had been fascinated by how two people could have produced three daughters who were so similar in some ways and different in others.

“Here you go.” Her mother returned with an iced drink in a cartoon-character paper cup. “Dr. Greenberg will be right in.”

Just then the older man stepped into the room. “Julie, you never come see me anymore. What’s up with that? Now that you’re a fancy lawyer, you don’t have any time for a mere doctor?”

“I do move in very special circles,” she said with a grin.

Her mother waved and ducked out of the room. Dr. Greenberg took Julie’s hand and leaned forward to kiss her on her cheek.

“So you’re not feeling too good?” he asked.

“I don’t know. It’s weird. I can’t tell if it’s food poisoning or the flu. I thought maybe you could tell me and then give me a prescription.”

He scowled at her, an expression she remembered from when she’d been little and had been scratching her rampant case of poison ivy.

“Not everything can be solved with a pill, young lady.”

She fingered the long sleeve of her silk blouse. “Does this make me look too young? First Mom and now you. Do I look sixteen?”

“I’m lecturing you,” he said. “You could listen and pretend to be intimidated.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

He shook his head and settled on the stool. “You girls.”

She smiled.

Dr. Greenberg had been a part of their lives for as long as Julie could remember. He was a warm, caring widower. When she’d finally figured out her father would always show up only to leave again, she’d started hoping her mother would divorce him and marry Dr. Greenberg.

“All right.” He flipped through her chart. “You’re basically healthy. Good blood pressure. You getting enough sleep?”

She thought about the Ryan dreams. “Too much.”

“Like I believe that. You work too hard, but you can slow down a little. The firm will survive.”

“Slow down? Why? What’s wrong with me? Is it more serious than the flu?”

He set down her chart and looked at her. “You’re going to have to be the one to decide that. You’re not sick, Julie. You’re pregnant.”

Five

“They have a unique take on the market,” Todd said from his seat across the conference table. “This would be a new area for us. We’ve talked about expanding and—”

Todd broke off and tossed down the folder. “Am I boring you?”

Ryan glanced at his cousin, then at the paperwork in front of him. “It sounds like a great opportunity.”

Todd glowered at him. “You could at least pretend to care about the damn business. What’s wrong with you? It’s not that Nelson woman again? It can’t be. It’s been too long.”

Not for him, Ryan thought, feeling both angry with himself and resigned to the situation. His attempts to contact Julie had gotten him nowhere. He’d blown it and he had to accept that. The thing was, he didn’t want to.

Todd leaned toward him. “Dammit, Ryan, what’s the big deal? Women have been after us since we were fifteen years old. The money is just too hard to resist. We’re both sick of being the catch of the day. So why now? Why this woman?”

“An excellent question,” Ryan admitted. “I don’t have an answer except to say she was amazing and I destroyed any chance I had with her.”

“So you pretended to be me,” Todd said. “What’s the big deal? If she’s all that, then why can’t she see the humor in the situation?”

Ryan didn’t answer. He’d given Todd a very abbreviated version of his date with Julie, leaving out the fact that he’d spent the night.

“I swear, Aunt Ruth can be a pain,” Todd muttered. “When she suggested I marry one of her granddaughters, I wanted to choke her.”

“I wanted to help,” Ryan said, knowing he’d gone into the situation willingly. The idea of exacting a little revenge had been too appealing to ignore.

He’d let his pride take charge, always a dangerous decision.

“Julie didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, more to himself than Todd, “and I hurt her.”

“She was willing to go out with a man for money,” Todd pointed out. “That’s something.”

Despite feeling like roadkill, Ryan smiled. “The date was free. I told her she should have held out for at least fifty thousand. After all, there had to be something significantly wrong with you for your own aunt to have to pay someone to marry you.”

Predictably, Todd bristled. “She’s my aunt by marriage and there’s nothing wrong with me.”

He and Todd were enough alike that Ryan had to agree. Despite only being cousins, they were so similar in appearance that they had often been asked if they were twins. But for once, he and Todd were going to part company. On the issue of Julie Nelson, Ryan could only have regrets.

“You’re going to have to forget her,” Todd said.

“I will.” In time. The question was, how long would it take?

“Look at the bright side. If this went as badly as you said, I don’t have to worry about the other Nelson sisters wanting to marry me. So you’ve derailed Aunt Ruth.”

“She’ll come up with another plan. You know she wants to see us both married. You got picked first because you’re a whole couple of months older, but my time is coming.”

He had the sudden thought that if he had been picked first, then his date with Julie would have been real. He would have gone, expecting nothing, determined to get rid of Julie as quickly as possible, and she still would have won him over.

He felt both sad and angry at the thought. Yes, he’d screwed up. He was willing to admit that, even crawl a little. Why was she so stubborn? Was the situation really that unrecoverable?

He already knew the answer and, as he only had himself to blame, he had nowhere to put the excess emotion.

“I’m going to the gym,” he said as he stood. Maybe a couple of hours on the running track or in the weight room would allow him to sleep tonight. Or at the very least, forget for a few minutes.

But before he could leave, the door to the conference room opened and his secretary stepped in.

“Sorry to interrupt, but there’s someone here to see Ryan. A Julie Nelson. She says it’s important. Should I show her in?”

Todd looked at Ryan. “She must have checked out your latest financials and realized it’s a hell of a lot of money.”

“Shut up,” Ryan said without looking at him. “Yes, Mandy, please show her in.”

Seconds later Julie walked into the room. His chest tightened and he felt as stupid and clueless as a high-school sophomore on his first date. Relief, desire and excitement battled for his attention.

She was gorgeous—tall and blond with blue eyes that flashed her every emotion. Right now they held a combination of controlled rage and contempt.

“Good morning,” she said, her voice as low and sexy as it had been every night in his dreams. The navy power suit she wore concealed more than it showed, but he remembered the curves and soft skin underneath. Dear God, he remembered.

She glanced from him to Todd, then smiled coldly.

“There’s enough similarity in your appearance for me to know who you are,” she said. “The infamous Todd Aston III. It’s my lucky day. Two snakes for the price of one. The liar and the man afraid to do his own dirty work. Your mothers must be so proud.”

Todd raised his eyebrows and nodded slightly. Ryan knew his cousin well enough to read his thoughts. Todd was impressed that Julie wasn’t stupid and wasn’t begging. If Julie had known that, she would have probably told Todd he needed to date a wider range of women.

Ryan liked that he could predict what she was going to say—only the talent wouldn’t have much use. From the looks of things, she hadn’t dropped in to forgive him.

“I didn’t expect to see you again,” Ryan told her.

“It’s all about net worth,” Todd said, staring at Julie. “Isn’t it?”

“I’d wondered why your aunt felt it necessary to offer money to get someone to marry you,” Julie said calmly. “I’d thought the reason might have something to do with a physical impairment. Now I realize the flaw is in your personality. How unfortunate and much more difficult to fix.” She looked at Ryan. “I need to speak with you privately. Now is a good time for me.”

Todd stood, then raised both his hands in the air. “I’ll leave,” he said to Ryan. “Later you can try to explain what exactly it was that you missed.”

With that he left. Ryan pointed at the empty chairs around the table. “Have a seat.”

She hesitated, then sat down. He could feel the anger radiating from her.

“I called,” he said, knowing it was pointless, but still compelled to make the effort.

“I got the messages.”

“And the basket?”

“That’s not why I’m here.”

“You never said thank you.”

Her eyes widened in outrage. “Excuse me? You’re the one who lied. You made horrible assumptions about me and you lied about who you were and what you wanted and you’re trying to take me to task because I didn’t send a thank-you note?”

“I …”

She stood, which forced him to his feet.

“You lied,” she repeated. “I don’t do liars. I could have handled pretty much anything else, but no. That would have been too easy.”

“You were there because of the money,” he said, in a feeble attempt to defend himself. Apologizing hadn’t worked—maybe she would respond to an offense better than defense.

“Oh, please. I was there because I recently discovered I had a grandmother and I’m still thinking I want to have a relationship with her. It was never about the money and you know it.” She folded her arms over her chest. “That’s what gets me the most, Ryan. You know all of that. We had a great connection. That night was …” She paused and swallowed. “Forget it.”

“Julie, don’t do this. Don’t shut me out. You’re right. It was a great night. Magic. That doesn’t happen very often in my life. What about yours? Are you really going to walk away from that because of a mistake?”

She glared at him. “A mistake is losing your keys. You lied about who you were with the express purpose of hurting me. Magic or not, those aren’t qualities I look for in a man.”

Right. “So why are you here?”

She sucked in a breath, then stared him in the eye. “I’m pregnant. We had sex and we didn’t use anything. Didn’t even discuss it, which is pretty dumb, but there we are. My excuse is I haven’t been in a relationship for over a year and wasn’t on anything. I won’t presume to know what your excuse is.”

He heard the words, but they didn’t mean anything. His body froze and his brain stopped working.

Pregnant … as in pregnant?

“How?” he asked before he could stop himself. He shook his head. “Never mind. I know the answer to that.”

“How comforting.”

Pregnant. He couldn’t comprehend what that meant. Sure, having kids had always been something he’d known would happen eventually, but now? Like this? With a woman who hated him?

The timing sucked the big one, but a baby? He found himself kind of liking the idea.

Julie sat down. She would have preferred to stay standing, but these days she was always at risk of being a little woozy. Some women could go their entire pregnancy without feeling symptoms. She’d managed to get her first one less than a month after conception. Was that just her luck?

Only she couldn’t be upset. Even as Ryan stood there looking shocked and ready to bolt, she couldn’t be unhappy. Not about having a child.

“I wasn’t sure if I should even tell you,” she said, probably shocking him with her honesty, but she had no choice. She was a big fan of the truth. “I’ve debated for the past two days. But you are the father and you have the right to know.” She drew in a breath. “Just so we’re all clear, I’m keeping the baby.”

“I’m glad.”

Really? Color her surprised. But then what did she really know about Ryan?

Except that he was a liar, of course.

“You can sign away your rights and I’ll take full responsibility,” she said, wondering if he would. It was the easy out, the most practical. Most men would jump at the chance. A week ago, she would have assumed she would have jumped at the chance.

But something had happened. The second Dr. Greenberg had said she was pregnant, Julie’s heart had nearly burst with joy. She’d never much thought about having children. They had been far in her future. Yet knowing there was a life growing inside of her had changed everything. In that moment, she’d suddenly felt her life had meaning and purpose, which theoretically it had had before, but not in such a big way.

A baby. No, a miracle.

He braced his arms on the table and leaned toward her. “No,” he said clearly. “I will be a father to my child.”

Great. Because morning sickness wasn’t enough of a hassle. “You don’t have to do this to look good. No one needs to know.”

His dark gaze locked with hers. “I will be a father to my child,” he said again, his voice low and forceful. “I want to.”

He looked good. Too good. She hated that she still found him tempting. She wanted to lean toward him as well, so their mouths were close. She wanted to breathe in the scent of him and touch him and be touched. She wanted him to make the bad parts of their last time together go away so they could have the good parts again and again.

“Obviously we’ll have to work something out,” she said calmly so he wouldn’t guess what she’d been thinking. “As I’m less than a month along, we have time to deal with all this.”

She rose and pulled a business card out of her jacket pocket. She’d put it there earlier and had written her home number on the back. Of course she’d hoped he would agree to walk away from the child, but based on how her luck was going lately, it hadn’t seemed likely.

She held out the card.

“That’s it?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You have nothing else to say? Nothing else you want to talk about?”

She set her card on the table and shrugged. “There isn’t anything else. I’m pregnant. That’s for me to deal with. When there’s a child, you can get involved. Between now and then, I suppose we’ll talk.”

“You mean I’ll call and you’ll ignore my messages.”

She thought about the times he’d phoned her office. “I won’t ignore them this time.”

“I’m not sure I believe that.”

She picked up her purse. “I’m not the one who lies.”

“Are you ever going to let that go?”

“No.”

He took a step toward her. “Julie, we’re having a baby together. You have to forgive me sometime.”

“Actually, I don’t,” she said, then turned on her heel and left.

Six

Ryan spent the afternoon in his office, not working.

Pregnant. He knew he’d been there and he knew what had happened, but it still seemed impossible that a single night could produce a baby.

Todd walked in and slumped on the leather sofa by the window.

“So what did she want?” he asked, then shook his head. “No, wait. I want to guess. She’s forgiven all and desperately wants to be with you.”

“Did she act like either of those was true?”

Todd shrugged. “She was mad, sure, but was it real or an act? Come on. We’ve seen it all. Some of them are better than others.”

At one time Ryan would have agreed with his cousin. Recently he’d become convinced there weren’t any honest women left. But he’d been wrong.

“She’s pregnant.”

Todd straightened and stared at him. Then he swore and flopped back on the sofa. “You’re totally screwed,” he said glumly. “Doesn’t it just figure. She wins in the end.”

“No one’s winning,” Ryan said. “We’re dealing. She asked me if I wanted to sign away rights.”

“And in return she’d ask you for nothing?” Todd shook his head. “I won’t believe it until I see the paperwork myself.”

“I told her no.”

“Of course you did.”

“This isn’t what I would have planned, but now that it’s happened …” He didn’t know what to say. In truth, the thought of a kid of his own was appealing.

Todd frowned. “Don’t go all father and son on me.”

“I wouldn’t mind a daughter.”

Todd groaned.

Ryan grinned. “Look at the bright side. I read somewhere that a child gets most of its intelligence from the mother. Julie’s bright enough that her kid could grow up to save the world.”

“You need saving right now. You barely know this woman and now you’re having a baby with her? If she offered you an out, you need to think about taking it.”

“No.”

“Look what happened last time.”

“This is different. I won’t be a stepfather. I’ll be involved from the beginning. We’ll make decisions together.”

“You sure about that?”

“Julie has every right to be pissed at me.”

“I don’t agree but we’ll go with it,” Todd said. “Fine. She’s pissed and are you so sure she’ll get over it? Or play straight with you? Are you even sure the kid is yours?”

Ryan stared at his cousin. “Have you always been such a cynical bastard?”

“We both are.”

“Not anymore.”

“No way.” Todd rested one ankle on the opposite knee. “You can’t tell me this changes anything. You met her, you liked her, you obviously slept with her, which I’ll now point out you didn’t tell me.”

“It didn’t seem relevant.”

“All evidence to the contrary. You have no way of knowing who she was with the night or week before she met you. Okay, sure, assume it’s yours, but protect yourself, Ryan. It makes sense.”