Paul Dunlap was off the sofa in a flash. “What do you mean?” he demanded, shocked, incredulous, as he towered over Callie.
Callie lifted her chin and looked up at him. “Just what I said. You are Shayla’s father. Eva lost her baby from Thomas Jordache in her fourth month. I carried mine to full term. Our due dates were about the same time, within a week of each other.”
“You were pregnant?” Paul asked in a gut-wrenching voice, still in the clutches of shock.
Callie saw the pain in his features, and wondered if it was from not knowing or from him just finding out. She wanted to believe it was from both. She felt an unexpected tightness pull around her heart. “Yes, I was pregnant.”
Paul gave himself a mental shake. “But—but how?”
Callie met his glare with one of her own. “You have to ask me that, after that summer? Think about it, Paul.”
He did think about it. There had been passion between them from the moment he had first seen her, the day she had dropped by the office to see her sister after arriving in town. By the end of the summer, before she left to return to college in Atlanta, they had made love a number of times, a lot of those times without any protection, because everything between them had been spontaneous…like combustion. It hadn’t taken much for their hormones to blaze out of control, and as much as he had tried being prepared, sometimes he had not been. “No, you’re right. I don’t have to ask you that,” he finally admitted.
A small silence followed his remark. Then he looked down at her, his eyes turned cold, hard. “Why didn’t you tell me? Didn’t you think I had a right to know?”
Callie sighed one of those sighs she’d caught herself doing a lot recently. “Yes,” she answered in a flat voice, “you had a right to know. That’s the reason I skipped classes and caught the Greyhound bus all the way from Atlanta to Jacksonville, just to tell you,” she said, turning away from the dark anger in his eyes. She looked across the room at Shayla’s baby photo, which hung on her wall.
“But you didn’t give me the chance to tell you. You didn’t want to hear anything I had to say,” she murmured softly. Her gaze returned to his. “You did all the talking that night, Paul. I had ridden on a bus for nearly six hours to see you. I was exhausted, scared, confused. I wanted you to hold me and assure me that everything would be all right, and that my pregnancy had changed nothing, that you still loved me and would be there for me and our baby.”
Fingers trembling, Callie swiped at the tears that had begun forming in her eyes as she relived a period of her life she thought she had long laid to rest. But she hadn’t, and the emotions, the hurt, the pain, were just as if it had all happened yesterday. “Instead you called me all sorts of names, accused me of all sorts of things. You accused me of sleeping with you to cover up Eva and Thomas Jordache’s plot to ruin the company you worked for, the company you were paid to protect.”
Her words slashed into Paul, into the very core of his being, because everything she said was true. He had loved her so much, and when he’d been faced with what seemed like her betrayal, be couldn’t handle it. “Callie…I—”
“No,” she cut in. “Please let me finish while I can.” She took a deep breath, trying to reclaim her composure. “I couldn’t go to Eva and tell her what you thought. I felt so ashamed that you could believe such things about me…and about her. I caught the bus back to Atlanta that night, with my heart shattered.”
She hunched her shoulders, reliving how defeated she had felt that night. “I was able to finish the semester. My plans were to quit school, get a job, and keep my baby, without any help from you. Then, a month or so later, after Eva and Glenn worked out things between them and married, they gave me their support. They offered to take care of my child along with theirs while I returned to Atlanta and finished college. They felt with a college education I’d be better equipped to support my baby in the future as a single mom.”
Callie’s lips creased in a sudden smile. “Eva and I were happy about having our babies. We found out that we were both going to have girls, and knew our daughters would have a close relationship and would be like sisters, just like us.”
Callie’s smile faded. “But things didn’t work out that way. Eva lost her baby. I felt really bad for her, because I knew that had been the last chance she and Glenn had at having a baby. Glenn was sterile.”
Her small laugh was forced and shrill. “It’s strange how things had worked out. Glenn had loved Eva enough to marry her and accept another man’s child as his own, and there I was pregnant by a man who thought I was a whore.”
Paul sucked in a sharp breath. “That’s not true, I—”
“I know what you called me that night, Paul.”
“Whatever I said was said in anger, Callie. I wanted to hurt you the way I thought you had hurt me.”
“You succeeded.” She walked over to the window and looked out. “Eva was so hurt, so broken up after losing her baby. Then I saw what she and Glenn could give my child, something that I couldn’t, the love of two parents. I felt a child needed a mother and a father. I owed my child a chance to have a normal family life.”
“So you gave my child away?” Paul asked in a thunderous voice.
Callie turned around to face him. Her expression was just as thunderous as his voice. “Don’t you dare question my decision. You don’t know what I went through to make it. You didn’t want me. You didn’t love me. I couldn’t afford to give my child the things it should have. I was still struggling through school. It wouldn’t have been fair to ask Eva to take care of my baby knowing she had lost her own, the only child her body could ever have. I loved my sister. I knew she would take care of Shayla, and give her everything I could not. I also knew that as long as Shayla was with Glenn and Eva I could see her whenever I wanted, and that I would always be a part of her life. And I have.”
Tears Callie could no longer contain flowed from her eyes. “You had no right then, and you have no right now, to question me. You made your decision about me twenty-seven years ago.”
Unable to say any more at the moment, Callie turned and rushed up the stairs, leaving Paul standing in the middle of the room.
Brenna stood and gazed out at the ocean. This would be her last day aboard the Majestic. The same time midday tomorrow she would be able to watch as the docks of New York came into view. Once she left the ship she would take a taxi to the airport. There she would catch a plane to Austin—home sweet home.
She sighed, knowing she should be overjoyed at the idea of returning home and planting her feet on solid ground and not having the constant rhythm of the ship moving under her. But she wasn’t. Leaving the ship also meant leaving Trent. Although he’d made it clear that love meant nothing to him, she still loved him, and would miss him just the same.
A part of her wished things could have ended differently in his cabin that night. But, she thought as she left the window and went to sit on the side of the bed, another part was grateful that he had been so brutally honest with her. No matter how things had ended between them, in her mind and heart he would always be the most amazing man she had ever met. Every day she had spent with him had been special.
But he couldn’t accept the kind of person she was. While some women were comfortable engaging in casual affairs, she wasn’t. She needed more from a relationship. She needed substance, she needed commitment, she needed love.
Brenna had picked up her sunglasses and hat from the bed when she heard the soft knock at the door. Thinking it was the steward delivering the lunch she’d ordered, she crossed the cabin and opened the door.
“Trent?”
“Brenna.”
She smiled wryly up at him, inwardly admitting that she was glad to see him. She had deliberately avoided him the last three days, taking most of her meals in her cabin.
“May I come in?”
She nodded and moved back to the center of the room.
He stepped into the cabin and closed the door behind him, then leaned against it. “You’re all set to leave the Majestic tomorrow?”
“Yes. What about you? Or will you be remaining on the ship?”
“I’ll be remaining for a while,” he answered, not taking his eyes off her. “Probably for another day or so. Then I’m going to Chicago to check on my father.” He walked over to the window and stared out at passengers moving around on deck. Although they had enjoyed the trip, it was evident that they were ready to get back home. Three weeks were a long time, but that was all the time he had needed to fall in love.
“Trent, there’s something I want to say to you,” Brenna said behind him.
He slowly turned around to face her. “There’s something I want to say to you, too, but as a rule ladies are first.”
Brenna nodded and plunged ahead. “I enjoyed our time together, and I’m going to miss you,” she said breathlessly, her nerves frazzled.
Trent lifted an eyebrow as a slow smile tilted his lips. “I enjoyed our time together, too, but I’m not going to miss you. What I want more than anything is to marry you.”
Brenna stood a few moments in stunned silence. “Marry me?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Just so you can sleep with me?”
Trent crossed the room to her. “No, this is nothing like the last time I got engaged, when one was dependent on the other. I want to marry you because I love you.”
Brenna inhaled sharply as her mind raced back. “But just three nights ago you said—”
“I know what I said. I was fighting my feelings for you then. My mind didn’t want to accept what my heart was saying. There’s more between us than sex. The time we’ve spent together on this ship has proved that. Women aren’t the only ones who want someone special. Just like women want a one-of-a-kind man, men want a one-of-a-kind woman. And I believe you’re that, and more. You’re a beautiful intelligent woman I want to share my life with. I want you by my side forever. This is all about love. I feel it every time I take you into my arms. I do love you, Brenna. I need to know how you feel about me. Do you love me, too?”
Brenna smiled. Pure happiness showed in her eyes. “Yes, I do.”
“Will you marry me?”
“Yes, I will.”
“Today?”
“Today!”
“Yes, as soon as it can be arranged. Since we’re still in international waters, my captain can perform the ceremony at a moment’s notice. We can have another ceremony for the benefit of our family and friends whenever you want. I just don’t think I can let you leave this ship without binding you to me forever. But if you prefer that we wait, then I’m willing to do that, too. You’re definitely a woman worth waiting for.”
He reached into his pocket and took out something wrapped in tissue paper. “This is my mother’s ring. I had my father air-flight it to me,” he said huskily, drawing her hand into his and slipping the ring on her finger.
Tears pricked Brenna’s eyes as she looked at the huge diamond that graced the third finger of her left hand. “Oh, Trent, it’s beautiful. I don’t know what to say.”
“Say you’ll love me forever, because that’s how long I intend to love you.”
Brenna looked at him, smiling, then looked at the ring. “You’re completely serious about all of this, aren’t you?”
To prove that he was, Trent pulled her to him and kissed her, letting her feel from his kiss what was in his heart, When his tongue touched hers, tingling heat raced through her entire body.
Moments later she pulled back, withdrawing from the hot passion of his mouth but not from the warm embrace of his arms. “This is crazy. We’ve only known each other for three weeks,” she said softly against his moist lips. She’d never been one to act irrationally or rush into anything. She’d always prided herself on being logical and clearly thinking through any situation before acting on it.
“What you’re proposing is insane, ludicrous, Trent.” But then, she thought, he had proposed, and she was wearing his ring to prove it. And to top it off, he was ready to marry her at a moment’s notice—today. Her mouth curved into a dreamy happy smile. What more could a girl ask for?
She touched her lips to his. “And if we marry here, today, you’ll be willing to go through another wedding ceremony for our family and friends?” Corinthians would kill her if they didn’t.
Trent chuckled against her lips. “Yes. I’ll say ‘I do’ as many times as you want me to, and mean it every time.”
Brenna’s mouth curled at the comers. “I love you, Trent, and yes, I’ll marry you today.”
Trent pulled her into his arms, claiming her mouth and again demonstrating the depth of his love for her.