Having Leo's Child

IT STARTLED Teri to see the dining room almost empty when she returned. There were only two couples left, eating their choice of sweets. Dylan was cleaning the grill and Mel was chatting with Leo who’d obviously finished his main course since Mel had cleared his table. A glance at her watch showed 9:15. Time had flown since Leo had arrived.

“Ah, here you are!” Mel said with satisfaction, and held out the chair opposite Leo’s for her.

“Thanks,” she said, her eyes quizzing this unanticipated gesture of gallantry from her teenage employee.

Mel grinned. “No problem. Leave you to it now.”

Teri rolled her eyes to Leo who looked most amused at this little byplay. “Why do I feel I’m being pushed at you tonight? Are they up to no good behind my back?” she dryly remarked.

He laughed, his eyes twinkling like brilliant sunshine on blue water. “They like you, Teri. They like working for you. You make this a good place to be. They want to give you some time off. That’s all.”

She sighed. Leo really was a gorgeous man. “You know you’ve never told me how many people work for you.”

He had explained his business as software conversions, but Teri hadn’t probed much, not wanting Leo to think she was interested in how big his income was. That didn’t matter to her. However, she needed a safe, impersonal kind of conversation until they were absolutely alone together.

He shrugged. “Small team. Four crack computer programmers and one administrative assistant.”

“Any females?”

“The assistant.” He gave a crooked little smile. “Mavis is in her early fifties, frighteningly efficient while sort of mother-henning the rest of us.”

She hadn’t been checking out possible female competition, but it was interesting to know the kind of woman he’d hired. “Do you prefer your programmers to be men?” she asked, aware there were many women in computer fields these days.

Something negative flicked across his face. “It’s easier,” he said flatly.

“How so?” she asked curiously.

He sighed. “You’ll probably accuse me of being some kind of male chauvinist, but the truth is most whiz-bang computer programmers are fairly young and a lot of young women trade off their sex appeal.” An icy hardness flashed into his eyes. “They can bring tensions into a workplace I simply don’t want. Guys start competing for their attention and an atmosphere of camaraderie is suddenly shot to pieces. It’s just better avoided.”

“You’ve seen this happen?” Teri asked, uneasy with his explanation which did smack of male bias.

He nodded. “Married women are usually okay but unmarried ones can play havoc with productivity and team spirit.”

So it wasn’t exactly a bias against women, more a pragmatic choice to guard against hormone battles. But he certainly didn’t care for women who traded on their sex appeal. Teri couldn’t help wondering what his ex-wife had been like. They’d never swapped marriage stories. Raking over that particular part of her past had not appealed to her. Still didn’t. And she didn’t have the right to poke into his.

Besides, even the mention of marriage might be misinterpreted when she had the highly sensitive subject of her pregnancy waiting in the wings.

She smiled. “I guess you consider Mavis safe.”

He relaxed and returned her smile, pleased she wasn’t critical of his employment policy. “Absolutely safe. Mavis is great. Reliable, responsible, has a place for everything and everything in its place.”

Teri wondered if Leo applied some of those headings to herself...like safe and in her place. She certainly didn’t constitute a distraction from his work. She suspected she was his break from it.

The big question was...how would he view a baby?

The shifting of chairs alerted her to the imminent departure of the remaining diners. She glanced around. Yes, all of them up, ready to go. Dylan was at the cash register, waiting to take their money. Mel had cleared the buffet table and was hurrying out of the kitchen to clean up the tables being vacated.

“Do you want dessert, Leo?” Teri asked, swinging her attention back to him. There’d still be leftovers in the kitchen.

He gave her a whimsical look. “It’s being taken care of.”

She raised her eyebrows. “More special service?”

“I think I’ve won special status by winning your favour.”

“Leo, I suspect you’d win any woman’s favour if you worked on it.” And that was the plain truth, Teri thought.

“You miss the point,” he argued, his eyes dancing at her again. “It’s you who’s special, Teri.”

How special? Was he prepared to accept her as the mother of his child?

“Well, thanks,” she said as graciously as she could manage when her nerves were getting strung out like piano wires. “It’s nice to be appreciated.”

“Oh, you are! Very much,” Leo asserted, desire flowing from him in electric waves that instantly screwed the piano pegs up another notch or two and caused her stomach to go into spasms.

Fortunately Dylan provided distraction, escorting the last of tonight’s customers to the door and locking up behind them. “You and Mel can go, too, Dylan,” Teri instructed. “If there’s anything left to do, I’ll do it in the morning.”

“Okay. We’ll be off in a minute. Just got to hang up my apron,” Dylan returned cheerfully.

One more minute and she could start unburdening herself of this dreadful suspense. A sixty-seconds countdown to desertion or togetherness or a continuation of their sometime relationship into sometime fatherhood. And the strange part was, Teri had no idea which outcome would be best in the long run.

“Is something wrong, Teri?” Leo asked.

It forced her to meet the quizzical concern in his eyes. “Not really,” she answered, wishing the boys would hurry up.

“You look a bit strained.”

“Sorry.” She tried a rueful smile. “There’s nothing wrong.” An innocent baby on the way could hardly be called wrong. “It’s just...well, I have a lot on my mind”

“Anything I can do to help?”

The offer was genuine. She could see nothing but sincerity in his expression. Maybe...

“Happy birthday to you...”

Dylan’s and Mel’s voices raised raucously in song, instantly jerked her attention away. Her two young employees were marching out of the kitchen, Dylan carrying a cake with a single candle burning on it, Mel bearing a tray with two flute glasses and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket.

“Happy birthday to you...”

Leo rose from his chair to join in.

“Happy Birthday, dear Teri-i-i...”

They were all grinning like Cheshire cats.

“Happy birthday to you!”

She almost burst into tears. She quickly propped her elbows on the table and covered her face with her hands. Let them think she was embarrassed. Let them think anything as long as she had a few seconds to fight back this awful flood of turbulent emotion.