Falling for the Mom-to-Be Page 18

  Turning the ignition, he wondered if he was doomed to be alone forever. His parents had died early, his wife far too young, so he’d gotten used to being alone. But not anymore! He threw the truck into gear, drove like a maniac and fishtailed out of his driveway. Life was too short to live alone. He didn’t want another moment to go by without Marta.

  Kent’s logic had clicked last night in the camp as he slept in his old pup tent. The reward for letting go and loving again would be much greater than any potential loss. Yet here he was already at the “loss” part and hating every second. He didn’t want to be an old lonely man. He wanted to live and love, have a family. He’d defeat the gnawing fear this time around.

  His heart was opened wide and there was more than enough room for both Marta and the baby. If she’d only have him. That was supposed to be his job today, to convince her beyond all doubt that they belonged together. All three of them. Now all he had to do was find her.

  First he’d call the car rental to see if she’d returned the car. He pulled over to make the call, fumbling his way through finding the number.

  With a sigh of relief he hung up. The car hadn’t yet been returned. She still had to be in town. His brain was all jumbled. He hadn’t been thinking clearly. Idiot. He called her cell. It went directly to voice mail.

  “It’s Leif. I need to talk to you. Call me, okay?”

  For the next hour he drove like a madman all over town, up and down the main streets, searching for her and the rental car. She wasn’t at the college, either. He called Lilly’s cell. It also went directly to voice mail.

  “This is Leif. Do you know where Marta is? Call me.”

  He drove to the train station on a crazy whim, thinking she might be there. Yeah, his brain cells were shot through and through with panic and fear; his actions didn’t make much sense, but it was better than sitting still, twiddling his thumbs doing nothing and losing her. There was no sign of Marta at the train station, either. He’d started grasping at anything, anyplace, driving in circles.

  On the verge of giving up, of admitting defeat, he pulled out of the art-supply parking lot, thinking of heading up to the Ringmuren, and spotted a police car. Gunnar Norling was driving. He honked and sped to catch the police sergeant.

  Gunnar noticed him and pulled over. Leif jumped out of his truck and strode toward Gunnar’s car, where the cop had already gotten out.

  “Have you seen Marta? She’s gone. Didn’t leave a note, and I can’t find her anywhere. Her cell’s turned…”

  “Lilly and Desi are hosting a baby shower for her.”

  He stopped in his tracks. “A baby shower?”

  Gunnar grimaced. “You know she’s pregnant, right?”

  “Of course I do.” Leif understood he looked like a madman, but he wasn’t stupid.

  “They’re having it early since she’ll be leaving tomorrow.” Gunnar glanced at his watch. “Should be over by now, though.”

  He felt completely out of the loop, but what could he expect when he and Marta had essentially quit communicating the past few days? Then the news dawned on him. She hadn’t left town! She was still in Heartlandia. He still had a chance.

  Like he’d been given a second start and was reenergized because of it, Leif sprinted back to his crazily parked car. “Thanks, man!”

  “Drive carefully.” Gunnar laughed the words.

  Leif peeled out, hitting the highway like a race-car driver, figuring the most logical place to go was home.

  *

  Marta couldn’t believe the sweet gesture her two new friends had made. They’d invited her to lunch, then surprised her with the baby shower. They’d also invited a handful of ladies from town, each someone Marta had quickly come to care about. Gerda Rask, Elke Norling, two art students she’d taken under her wing while painting the mural. Though Cliff Lincoln had offered his banquet room for the shower, he’d also stuck around and became their private host for the afternoon, seeing to their every need like a doting father.

  Over coffee and cake, Desi filled her in on her true love story with Kent. It occurred to Marta that when love was right and meant to be, it was okay to trust and depend on someone else. Necessary, even. Desi was definitely a better woman for it and still remained independent and able to follow her dreams. It was time to quit hiding behind that fear of a “benefactor” keeping her under his thumb. The only thing that mattered was who the benefactor was and if he was the right man. And Leif definitely was. When he’d asked her to stay on, he knew she was a package deal. She and the baby had both been invited.

  Desi’s story gave Marta hope she would find the same balance and happiness for herself.

  Hadn’t she already without realizing it?

  Desi followed Marta home to help carry in all of the wonderful baby gifts she’d received and would have to make arrangements to ship home. One more item to add to her goodbye list. When they got there, a pang of disappoint shot through Marta when she realized Leif’s car still wasn’t home. Would he really stay AWOL on their last day together?

  There was so much she needed to tell him, to make him understand. She loved him and wanted to be with him…if he’d have her.

  Heartsick that he would let her go without a proper goodbye, she unlocked the front door and they went inside.

  “Looks like someone’s got some plans,” Desi said when they rushed by the living room and she noticed the special setup.

  Marta’s hopes cautiously crawled out of the doldrums as she inspected the room. “I wonder what that is.” She pointed to a box, definitely bigger than a ring box, with a huge bow.

  “Let’s get these boxes upstairs so I can clear out. I don’t want to ruin any surprises, you know?” After Desi put the last package on the perfectly made bed, she hugged Marta.

  They stared at the candles strategically placed around the room. Desi gave a mischievous smile and Marta got chill bumps on her arms. Leif had been in here, making plans.

  “Maybe we better put the gifts over there.” Desi pointed to the overstuffed lounger in the corner.

  After they moved everything, Desi smoothed out the bedspread and winked. Then she left the room. “I want details, lady. Details!” She giggled as she went down the stairs, and a few seconds later Marta heard the door close tight.

  What a great group of people her new friends were. Heartlandia felt more like home than Sedona, and the thought of leaving tomorrow made her chest ache. She glanced around her bedroom, which lifted her spirits. What was Leif up to?

  To distract herself from her hopes getting too high, she went into the art studio and packed the unfinished portrait of Leif inside a large transport box. She planned to ship it home, finish it and bring it back to Leif in case he let her leave—another one of her last-ditch backup plans.

  The back door slammed. “Marta! Marta!”

  It was Leif, and he sounded desperate. Her pulse quivered and her breath got all screwy. “Up here.” She could barely find the air to call out.

  Rapid-fire feet pounded up the stairs. She opened the studio door, joy rushing into her veins. There he was, disheveled but really well dressed and wearing an urgent, earnest expression.

  “Don’t go. Stay with me. Please.”

  “Leif, I…”

  “I love you.”

  He loves me? Her head went swimmy, and she tried to focus. “What about the baby? Wait. What? You love me?”

  He stepped closer, took her hand, tugged her near. “I love every part of you, and that includes the baby.” His eyes brightened, if that was even possible. “Wait. We’ve got to do this right. Come downstairs with me.”

  Pulling her along, he guided her downstairs to the living room. “Sit, sit.” He put her in the plush wing-back chair closest to the fireplace. Next he turned on the gas and lit the already assembled logs, then popped up and flipped a switch on the wall. Slow classical string music filtered through speakers hidden in the corners of the room.

  “Oh, wait!” He rushed to the kitchen, open
ed the refrigerator door and came back with a bottle of chilled and sparkling apple cider. The glasses were already on the coffee table, but he didn’t open the bottle or pour anything.

  “I’ve made some gifts for you,” he said, reaching for the pretty package with the maroon bow and handing it to her. He hovered over her as she opened it with shaky hands.

  “Oh, Leif, this is beautiful. Did you carve it?”

  He nodded. She turned the small sculpture this way and that, admiring the two figures melded together, one taller, the smaller one clearly pregnant with a baby outlined and etched inside the swell. She’d planned on being two against the world, but Leif’s family idea felt far more appealing. She glanced up at him, tears blurring her vision. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome, but wait, there’s more.” He dashed to the closet and pulled out the baby cradle.

  Marta gasped. “Oh, my God, that’s beautiful.”

  “I want both of you here with me.”

  Tears brimmed on her lids as he bent and hugged her. “When the baby’s born, I’ll carve his or her name right here.”

  “It’s so beautiful. You’ve outdone yourself.”

  He dropped to one knee and took her hands in his.

  “Please stay with me.” The dogs had edged their way into the area, one butting him in the back, the other nudging her knee for a pat. “Stay with us. I love you. Make my life complete again.”

  She leaned into his arms, held him as if he’d disappear if she let go. “I love you, too.” They kissed like the first time, fiery with passion and longing. God, she’d missed making out with him.

  Then he stood and invited her to dance with him, and she joined him, gently swaying to the slow and quiet waltz.

  “You deserve to hear the whole story,” he said, one arm snug around her lower back, the other palm holding her hand. He kissed her fingers, then continued, “How you scared the hell out of me with your beauty and talent. I thought you were the most sophisticated woman on the planet and couldn’t imagine you’d find anything about me appealing.”

  She couldn’t resist kissing his cheek, then pressed hers next to his.

  “But you kept chipping away at me.” He spoke gently over her ear. “You came on so fast. How was I supposed to figure it all out? It was like some voodoo serum or something. I started feeling things. Dreaming about things. Wanting things. With you. I wanted you.

  “And you were wise enough to already know that.” He pulled back to look into her eyes. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.”

  “You tortured me, making it all sound so easy, so doable. Just for now. We can heal each other.” He kissed her forehead. “You did heal me, Marta. Put feelings back into my heart. Thank you for not giving up.”

  Tears brimmed and threatened to spill over Marta’s lids again. She had given up that very afternoon, and now he’d proved why she never, ever should have doubted him.

  “That’s why I want you to stay. Be with me. Let me be your home base. Let me give you and the baby a home. Let me love you from now until forever. I need you to tell me I can do that.”

  There was no doubt in Marta’s mind that Leif knew how to love for eternity, that when he mated, he did it for life. That he was also a package-deal kind of guy, and he’d just offered everything to her. Well, almost everything. “Please do.”

  “Then, marry me.” He said it with certainty, as though there was no doubt and she should make her decision right that instant.

  Her breath got stuck in her windpipe; she was afraid to move, to jinx it, to lose this moment, but the guy needed and deserved an answer. She’d once put him on the spot and waited for him to act, and now things were the other way around.

  She held his face with trembling fingers and looked deep into the blue depths of his eyes, the eyes of the man she loved with all of her strength and hope. “I was afraid you’d never ask me to stay, but I never dreamed of this. Yes. I want to marry you.”

  After another long and satisfying kiss, he took her hand and, forgetting about the cider and chocolate, walked her up the stairs and straight to her bedroom, then closed the door behind them.

  Chapter Twelve

  Two and a half years later…

  It was a cloudy, blustery March day in Heartlandia.

  “Gabriella needs a sweater,” Marta called from the newly finished wraparound front porch—the two-year anniversary gift to her from the greatest husband in the world. From here, they could sit in the high-backed rocking chairs designed and handmade by Leif and watch sunsets and the Columbia River sparkle far off in the distance. They loved their sunsets together.

  Leif played with their daughter as he loped in slow motion to catch her. The toddler giggled and ran away on the wide green lawn until she fell down.

  “I got you!” Leif, acting like a huge monkey, chased after her, then swept her up from the ground.

  “No! No!” Using her favorite word these days, Gabby halfheartedly fought her father.

  “Mommy says you need a sweater, kitten. Aren’t you cold?”

  “Nooo!”

  Leif pretended to eat her stomach, growling and laughing at the same time, then threw her over his shoulder like a bag of protesting potatoes.

  “No, no, no, no.”

  Nothing meant more to Marta than to see Leif with her daughter. Their daughter. He’d married her before she’d delivered, giving Gabriella his last name and heart, sight unseen, and had never looked back. From the love and attention he gave, the child may as well have his blood running through her veins.

  Leif made it to the porch railing, smiling up at her. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Fat,” Marta said, rubbing her back and displaying her growing belly through the form-fitting top over leggings. “I just got a call from Kent.”

  “Everything okay?” He carefully put the sweater on Gabby, even though she squirmed like an octopus.

  “Got the results of the amniocentesis back.”

  His eyes lit up. “And?”

  “The baby’s healthy.”

  “And?”

  “I thought you didn’t want to know the sex. Weren’t you the one to turn your head during the ultrasound?”

  “Maybe I lied.”

  “What kind of example is that for our daughter?”

  He laughed. “Men are allowed to change their minds.” Gabriella had settled down a little, as if knowing the importance of her parents talking about the new baby coming. He rushed up the steps and joined Marta there, tugging her near and kissing her. “I want to know. Especially if you do.”

  She decided to play it coy to draw out this wonderful moment. “I suppose it could be considered cruel and unusual punishment to expect me to keep a secret for four more months.”

  He kissed her again. “I’d hound you day and night. Tell me.”

  She put her hands together and pressed them to her lips, as if praying. “Okay. So remember those names we were tossing around last week?”

  “Yes, now come on, you’re driving me crazy.” He tickled her sides, making her laugh. “How can I engrave the name on the cradle in time if you don’t tell me?”

  “You do have a point.”

  “Girl or boy?” He came at her with tickle fingers again.

  She skipped aside to avoid more friendly torture. “It’s a boy!”

  He went still. “We’re having a son?”

  Delighted with the sudden over-the-moon expression on Leif’s face, she laughed more. “That’s generally what boy babies are called.”

  “Gabby, you’re going to have a little brother! Isn’t that fantastic?”

  “Yay, fastic!” the child chimed in, clapping as if she’d just made a potty all by herself. “But I wanted a doggie.” She pouted out her lower lip.

  Leif looked at Marta with his usual she-says-the-cutest-things gaze, pride and love rolled together and welling in his eyes. Marta’s vision blurred, taking in the two most important people in her life, one hand rubbing the ever-grow
ing next addition to their family.

  Her mother had a term for times like these. She called them golden moments, and standing on the porch, gazing at her husband and daughter as they cheered for the coming baby, Marta decided this qualified for the greatest golden moment of her life.

  That was, after that September day when she’d found and soon enough fell in love with Leif Andersen.

  *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from FORTUNE’S JUNE BRIDE by Allison Leigh.

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  Chapter One

  “I need you to marry me.”

  The words came out of left field.

  Literally.

  Galen Fortune Jones stared down at Aurora McElroy. He was pretty sure the last time he’d seen his neighbor had been a few months ago. They’d run into each other at the Horseback Hollow feed store. There had been no romance involved, considering that at the time he’d paid more attention to helping her daddy, Walt, load up his truck, before tending to his own business there.

  Now he looked from her hand, clutching his left arm, back to her dark blue eyes. “Beg your pardon?”

  She huffed, pushing a shining red ringlet out of her face. “It’s an emergency, Galen. I need a groom. Right now!”

  You will marry a woman in white and be married within the month.

  The words echoed inside his head and he wanted to shake it hard, just to see if something had come loose inside.