The Pregnancy Promise

“I’m always nice,” he said as he prepared to leave. He touched her shoulder. Lianne resisted the impulse to lean against him for strength. She wanted to keep their relationship normal. She couldn’t take any more distractions at this point.

Lianne watched as he drove away. Nice was not the word she’d use to describe her boss. But sometimes he could be kind. She walked back out to the beach, wishing the sun was shining brightly and children were playing on the sand. Instead she had the lonely cry of the gulls to keep her company on a blustery day.

Tray drove back to the city reviewing the business awaiting his attention. Maybe he hadn’t needed to seek out Lianne, but he’d wanted to see for himself that she was all right. Finding out she wasn’t had shaken him. She’d always seemed indestructible. He never remembered her sick before. These past two days had shown a vulnerability that startled him. And brought out protective instincts he hadn’t known he had. Meeting her sister had also been a surprise. She looked exactly like Lianne. At first, he’d thought his assistant had gotten married and planned to quit her job. He’d been relieved and intrigued to discover the twin connection. What other surprises would he discover if he hung around her longer?

The revelation that she might not be able to have children—and longed to have them—had been another. Not that they’d ever discussed lifelong dreams, but she was devoted to work. Of course she had a private life. She didn’t go into hibernation at night and reappear at the office the next morning. He felt he was seeing Lianne in three dimension for the first time.

Life was so unfair. He’d known that since he’d been a small boy bewildered when he learned of the death of his mother and his father’s abandonment. But it still astounded him sometimes.

Like now. Lianne wanted a baby so badly and had no one to make one with. While Suzanne had been pregnant with their child and ended its life.

CHAPTER TWO

LIANNE arrived at work early Thursday morning. She had her coffee in hand and was prioritizing her phone calls when Tray entered her small office and looked at her.

“I hoped you’d be back in today. How are you feeling?”

“Back to normal, thank you.” She felt awkward and embarrassed remembering him preparing her meals.

“Good. Mark’s meeting me for lunch. I thought the three of us could go together.”

“Today?” she asked, surprised Tray had acted so quickly in lining someone up. She half thought he’d been giving her lip service.

“No time like the present. Mark will be here at noon.” With that he disappeared down the hall.

The phone rang and Lianne’s day began.

As noon approached, Lianne grew more and more nervous. She’d never met anyone before with the deliberate intent of seeing if they could hit it off enough to get involved. How far would it go—to marriage? She thought when the right man came along she’d recognize him immediately and be swept off her feet. Now she felt like some of the man-hungry women she’d read about out for only a meal ticket. Only in her case it was a baby ticket. Was she wrong to try for a family? She would miss so much from life if she never had a child of her own.

She made a good income. She didn’t need a man to support her. But she did need a man if she wanted a baby before it was too late. One who would be a good father—and loving husband?

Tray and a tall man with sandy hair entered her office promptly at noon. She looked up and smiled at them both, feeling like an actress getting ready to go on stage who couldn’t remember her lines. The visitor smiled easily when Tray introduced him.

“Join us for lunch,” Tray said as if it wasn’t already planned.

“Thanks, I’d like to.” She pretended she didn’t see the surprised look Mark had given Tray. This was never going to work.

Lianne felt awkward at the lunch table. For one wild moment she considered refusing when Tray had issued the invitation, but her boss had gone to all this trouble for her, she had to hold up her end.

Soon, however, the awkwardness began to ease when Mark proved to be entertaining and personable. Probably needed to be for his job, she thought skeptically. She couldn’t help compare the two men. Tray was dark, quiet, intense. Mark had a sunnier disposition and seemed interested in her. Maybe they would hit it off.

When lunch was finished, Tray excused himself—to be available for an important phone call due from Europe.

“For the first time since I’ve known him, his timing is superb,” Mark said when Tray left.

“Oh?” Lianne asked.

“I was hoping I’d get a moment alone with you. I’d like to invite you to dinner, if you’re free.”

“I’d love to,” she replied. Had a script been written out, it couldn’t have gone better.

“Tonight?” Mark asked.

“Terrific,” she said, smiling. Her heart didn’t skip a beat. There was no sense of weightlessness or flutter of excitement. But Mark was entertaining and maybe feelings would develop. She couldn’t expect love at first sight. That was surely a fantasy in books.

Tray was in a meeting when she returned to work. She wanted to let him know about her dinner date, but couldn’t leave a message with his secretary. She hoped the cryptic note would clue him in.

The afternoon flew by. Tray stopped at her desk at one point, on his way to meet with some of the operatives.

“So?” he said, holding up the note she’d left.

“Date tonight,” she said.

He nodded and moved on. Lianne watched him walk away. She was disappointed he didn’t want to know more. He’d set it up, wasn’t he more curious? Sighing, she turned back to the analysis she was working on. He’d know soon enough if she and Mark would make a match of it.

Her phone rang.

“Lianne,” she answered, glancing at the time. Another hour or so and she’d take off.

“Hey, thought you were coming to see me when you got back from the cottage,” her sister said without preamble.

“It was late last night and I came to work early this morning.”

“Obviously. I called before but you were busy. You doing okay?” Annalise asked.

“I’m hanging in there, if that’s what you wanted to know.”

“Feeling okay?”

“Much better.” Lianne sighed softly. It was a day-by-day thing at the time of her period. The rest of the time her life seemed normal.

“I’ve been thinking what you need is a social life to find some man to fall for,” Annalise said.

“I’m ahead of you there, I have a date tonight.”

“Really, who with?”

“Tray introduced me to one of his friends.”

“Why would he do that?” Annalise asked.

“I told him about the situation.”

“He came to the cottage, didn’t he? I thought he might when he almost browbeat me into giving out where you were. Were you okay with that?”

“Yes, that was fine. He listened to my tale of woe and came up with this idea—meet his friend who used to be married and wants to be married again. Maybe we’ll hit it off. We all had lunch together today and Mark asked me to dinner tonight.” She didn’t tell Annalise about Tray’s help for two days. Her sister would jump to erroneous conclusions.

“Fast worker. How are you feeling about that?”