No doubt about it, Ashley thought several days later as she looked at herself in the mirror. The pants that had been loose when she had purchased them two and a half weeks earlier were not “roomy” any longer. She could still get the zipper up with nary a struggle but, realistically, she wasn’t sure how much longer that was going to last. Or even if, ten days from now, when she hit the three-month mark and could finally tell Cal about the baby, they would still fit.
She had gained only another three pounds, according to the scale, but that combined with the five she had gained in the first two months, seemed to have gone straight to her waist and hips.
“What I ought to do is just go to the maternity store and buy some pants that don’t look like maternity slacks,” Ashley mumbled to herself as she turned this way and that, examining the new pudginess of her torso.
But, fear that if she did that, one of the women in the family would recognize the trousers as pregnancy clothing kept her from doing it. And anyway, there were only ten more days. After that she would no longer have to protect her husband. She could tell Cal he was about to become a daddy and buy herself some clothing more suited for a mommy-to-be.
“What are you doing? And why are you muttering to yourself?” Cal asked from the open doorway. He, too, was getting ready to go to work. He was freshly shaven and his ash-blond hair was damp and scented with shampoo. Shoeless, his shirt open and un-tucked, he looked so sexy and handsome he took her breath away.
“I’m not doing anything.” Ashley swiftly released the hem of her burgundy turtleneck sweater, so it fell back over her hips.
He closed the distance between them in three lazy strides. He lifted his brow. “You were obsessing over your figure again, weren’t you?”
Ashley battled a self-conscious flush.
“I wish you’d just relax about it,” Cal said, wrapping his arms around her waist. “And let me see you naked again.”
Ashley wanted that, too, if only because it would mean she could see him naked. She had always enjoyed the sight of his handsome, well-honed body. Soon, she promised herself, there would be no more secrets between them. No more reason to hold him at arm’s length. She turned around, so they were face to face, and tipped her head back. “I’ve got to start working out first,” she stalled.
And she knew what she was going to do, just as soon as she had time—a pregnancy yoga routine.
Tightening his hold on her, he kissed his way down her neck. “You’ve got everything you need right down the hall.”
He had been very generous when it came to outfitting their new home “gym.” Deciding it would be best for both of them if he weren’t quite so undressed, she began buttoning his shirt, from the hem, up. “I know.” As her fingers brushed his fly, she couldn’t help but note his arousal.
Soon, it matched her own. It seemed she couldn’t be near him like this without feeling that telltale flutter in her middle, and the tightening of her breasts.
“Yet I haven’t seen you on the bike or the treadmill,” Cal continued, gently stroking his hands through her hair.
The truth was, Ashley was afraid to get on the fitness machines. Afraid that if she stressed her body in the slightest she would lose their baby. And though, as a physician, she knew intellectually this wasn’t true, that moderate exercise was good for her, the mother’s heart inside her was busy churning out warnings to “be extra, extra careful” night and day.
“Surprise.” She pulled away from him and went to the mirror to finish brushing her hair. She shot him a glance in the reflection. “You’ve got a very lazy wife.”
Cal sauntered over to find a tie on the rack that matched his pale-yellow shirt. “If you’re trying to be mysterious,” he teased her affably, “it’s working.”
“That’s a nice way to spin it,” Ashley joked back. “Mysterious, instead of lazy.” While he tied his tie, she twisted the length of her hair and secured it in a clip. “And much as I would love to stay here and discuss my sudden reluctance to exercise, I’ve got to get a move on. I need to be at the hospital to make rounds by seven, and in the office by eight.”
“How come you’re going in this morning?” Cal asked, swiftly hunting down his socks and shoes. “I thought you were only working afternoons.”
“Carlotta called while you were in the shower,” Ashley said. “Elizabetta has strep throat and Carlotta wants to stay home with her. So I said I would go in for the whole day.”
“You want to go in together then?”
Normally, Ashley would prefer taking separate vehicles—she liked being able to come and go as she pleased, and she knew Cal did, too.
“If not,” Cal continued affably, “I could drive the Mustang, if you want to take the SUV.”
Ashley shook her head. “No, let’s go together.” There was too much snow still on the ground for him to drive the Mustang. Her concern wasn’t only for her and the baby. She wanted Cal safe and sound, too. “The roads are still icy in places, where the snow has been melting during the day and then refreezing overnight. I don’t want to take a chance on one of us getting in an accident.”
“Okay.”
“You’re not going to say I’m being silly?”
He studied her a long moment, as if trying to figure out the change that had come over her. She knew what he was thinking—she had never used to worry about such things, and in fact, had poked fun of people who were too safety-conscious.
All that had changed when she became pregnant again, however. Now their family couldn’t be safe enough…she couldn’t be with him enough.
And though he couldn’t quite figure it out, he didn’t really seem to mind.
Finally, Cal shook his head. A wistful look came into his eyes, the same one he used to get after one of their commuting rendezvous together whenever he had to say goodbye to her. “Not silly. Beautiful.” He put his arm around her waist, guiding her close. “And sexy.” His voice dropped another gruff notch. “And bound to make us both late if we don’t get our coats and get out of here.”
“YOU’RE KIDDING ME, right?” Hannah stared at Cal over the hood of the car she was working on. “You can’t want me to sell the Mustang for you and Ashley! Now? When you just gave it to her a few weeks ago!”
Cal wasn’t surprised by his sister-in-law’s response.
Hannah’s business, Classic Car Auto Repair, revolved around vintage automobiles. She not only worked on them, she understood the value, and the Mustang Cal had given Ashley was a fine automobile. Hannah knew, because she had not only helped Cal buy the vehicle, she had spent months getting it into top running form and realized full well how sentimental and heartfelt a present it had been.
Cal struggled not to feel remorse at getting rid of the convertible, especially since their reasons for doing so were valid. “It’s a great car, and you did a beautiful job restoring it, but we’ve decided we want something with more state-of-the-art safety features,” Cal told Hannah practically. “And we can’t really afford to have a twelve-thousand-dollar car we never drive sitting in the barn at the farm, so it’s going back on the block.”
Understanding lit her eyes. “I’ll put the word out. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble finding a buyer.”
Cal nodded, relieved. “Thanks.”
Hannah touched Cal’s arm. The two of them were more than in-laws, they were good friends and had been even before Hannah had married Cal’s sports-announcer brother, Dylan, the previous autumn. “Is everything okay with the two of you? I know how much that Mustang meant in your relationship.”
Cal smiled. “It actually was a great gift. Ashley was thrilled when I first gave her the car that we had our very first dates in.” And the car, as he had hoped, had marked a turning point in their marriage. So maybe all hadn’t been lost, maybe it had served its purpose, and it was time to move on.
Hannah guessed there was more to the story. “But—?”
Cal grimaced. “She lost control of the car in the snow and jumped a curb.”
“Dylan and I heard about that—Mac told us. But we understood she wasn’t hurt and the car had no damage.”
Cal had an idea what Hannah was thinking. They could put snow tires on the vehicle. Or chains on the tires. Or simply not drive it at all in wet winter weather. It didn’t snow in their area of North Carolina more than a couple of times a year, if that. During those times, he and Ashley could share his SUV, as they had been the past few days. “That’s right.”
“But you’re getting another vehicle anyway?”
“Tonight, after work.” Cal was hoping he and Ashley could find something she liked right away. “We’re headed for a dealership in Raleigh that specializes in vehicles with state-of-the-art safety features. The near miss made us both realize we had to be practical as well as romantic. And since there’s no way to install air bags in a vintage car like that…we opted to go with something else for her to drive.”
Hannah nodded, understanding completely.
“Is everything else okay with you two?” Hannah asked.
Cal paused, not sure how to answer that. On the one hand, he and Ashley had never been happier. They were both living and working in the same place. After several years of guarded exchanges and cautious politeness, they were opening up to each other again. Laughing. Snuggling. Making love—albeit in the dark. For the first time in several years, he felt hopeful they would have the kind of equitable, satisfying marriage they had both always wanted. And yet, there were times, like this morning, when he had the strong sensation that Ashley was still withholding more than she was telling him, and that there were things about her life she would rather he just not know. And for the life of him, Cal couldn’t figure out how to get past that.
“ADMIT IT,” Ashley said, later that evening after they had parked their two cars side by side in the garage, and emerged to stand between them. She pointed to the shiny fire-engine-red car she had driven home from the lot, while he followed in his SUV. “This wasn’t the vehicle you expected me to pick out for myself this evening.”
No kidding, Cal thought, seeing no reason to fib. “I admit I’ve always seen you as the sports-car type.”
“Instead of a station wagon.” She turned to survey the buttery-soft cream leather seats and carpeting, seating for five, a generous cargo area, and a luggage rack on top, then turned back to him. Her lips formed a perplexed pout.
“What don’t you like about it?”
The fact, Cal thought, that there is still something you’re not telling me. But not wanting to start a fight by accusing Ashley of he didn’t quite know what, Cal merely smiled. “I think it’s a perfect family car,” he said.
Ashley tensed at the mention of the F-word.
“Not that I’m pushing you to have a child right now,” Cal corrected himself hastily. “I know that the time has to be right for both of us, and—”
Ashley pressed a silencing finger to his lips. The haunted look was back in her china-blue eyes. “Let’s not talk about this right now, okay?”
“Then what would you like to talk about?” he asked her softly, unable not to note how gorgeous she looked, even after a long day. In the subdued light of the garage, her classically beautiful features were all the more pronounced. Her dark hair had been blow-dried straight and caught in a clip on the back of her head, but wispy tendrils escaped to frame her face and the nape of her neck.
Ashley shrugged. “Well…”
“Yes?” He could practically see her switching gears. Anything, he figured to get them off the subject of family and children. And when—if ever—they were going to have them.
Ashley swallowed, her expression as distracted as it was uneasy. She turned back to the station wagon that was outfitted with every safety feature currently being made, including air bags, steel beams, a car engine that would drop down instead of coming through the passenger compartment on impact and an emergency communication/navigation system.
Ashley turned back to him and sashayed toward him seductively. “It’s obvious to me that you don’t think this car is sexy enough.” She slipped her hands beneath his coat to caress his chest, in much the same way she had in the past when they’d had problems she didn’t want to discuss and preferred to sort out—or maybe just forget altogether—in bed.
This had occasionally irritated Cal in the past…although he never passed up a chance to make love with her.
Making love always made them feel closer—even if their problems remained.
Which was maybe where Ashley was headed with this?
The tactic was one she had said she wanted to avoid. And they had. But maybe she was having second thoughts about this all-or-nothing method of dealing with conflict between them.
Maybe she was trying to guide them onto middle ground.
He couldn’t say after the years spent living away from her, and the temporary moratorium on their sex life, that he would mind. Especially when it looked as if she were contemplating initiating a little fun.
“But the car could be sexy.” Ashley lowered her hands recklessly.
Cal felt the caressing sweep of her hands down the front of his thighs. Damn, if he wasn’t already hard as a rock. “If we were to christen it?”
Ashley glanced back at the vehicle they had just purchased. “The front console could be a problem.” She paused, bit her lip in a thoughtful way that had him wanting to kiss her and never stop.
“Fortunately,” she continued happily, “the passenger seat folds down.”
Cal slipped his hands beneath her coat, too. He removed her hands from his body and brought her against him, so her feminine softness curved against his growing arousal. He pressed kisses into her hair, across her forehead, temples. “Sure we won’t be too chilly?”
Ashley trembled in his arms and kissed him back—on the lips. “Not if we closed the garage door, got some blankets, and let mutual body heat do the rest.”
Cal brought his hands around to cup her buttocks and lift her against him. “Damn if you aren’t full of surprises,” he murmured, lowering his head once again. They were about to kiss again when they heard the sound of a car moving toward them and found themselves caught in the sweep of yellow headlights.
Too late, Cal realized he should have shut the overhead door as soon as they pulled their vehicles into the garage. Maybe then, they could have pretended not to be home. As it was, they had been caught by the female Hart posse—all three of his sisters-in-law and his sister, Janey.
There were times when family was not welcome. This was one of them.
Not that he would ever be rude. It wasn’t their fault that their timing stunk.
“We hate to interrupt,” Emma Donovan Hart said as she stepped out from behind the wheel.
Hannah Reid Hart, Lily Madsen Hart, and Janey Hart Lantz soon joined them. “But we were in the area and thought we’d drop by and say hi.”
“We also brought some wedding cake for you to taste,” Janey said, cradling several white pastry boxes in her arms. “I’ve been developing some new recipes and I need some more opinions on whether or not to offer them at the shop.” Janey paused. Although she knew they had interrupted a romantic moment it did not seem to be deterring her in the least. “You don’t mind giving me some fresh perspective, do you?”
“Of course not,” Ashley said, shooting Cal a curious look no one else could see. One that said, What the heck is going on here?
He had a pretty good idea.
He just couldn’t say.
“And maybe some coffee, too?” Lily said, falling into step beside Ashley as Ashley closed the overhead door behind them with a press of a button and led the way into the farmhouse. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
“Before we go in, would you mind letting us have a look at your new car?” Hannah said, waylaying Cal, along with Emma.
“I’ve been thinking about getting something a little safer, too,” Emma said.
Cal waved Ashley, Janey and Lily on inside.
As soon as the door shut behind them, he turned. “What the—?”
“The black dress you left with the dressmaker has Lycra in it,” Emma said in exasperation. She opened her oversized shoulder bag and got out a small Ziploc bag with Ashley’s undies and handed it over to Cal along with Ashley’s black dress. “That’s what makes the fabric so stretchy.” Emma demonstrated before handing the dress over, too.
“So?” Not wanting to get caught with either, Cal opened the back passenger door of his SUV and tossed the clothing onto the seat.
“So we can’t get a valid measurement off it.” Emma threw up her hands in frustration. “We don’t know what her waist size is!”
“What about the underwear?”
Hannah rolled her eyes. “It was bikini, in case you hadn’t noticed. It doesn’t go all the way up to her waist.”
Cal flushed. He hadn’t thought about that. “Oh.”
“So, at the moment,” Emma continued whispering, “all we’ve got is her bra size, and given the fact she’s gained a little weight recently—”
“In all the right places,” Hannah sighed enviously.
“Realistically, her bust measurement could be off, too,” Emma finished.
“So what do you want me to do?” Cal asked, embarrassed he had goofed this up to such a degree, when the surprise “wedding vow-renewal-ceremony” was only a week and a half away….
Hannah removed a tape measure from her pants pocket. “We want you to take this tape measure and go upstairs and measure the waist and hips and inseam on a pair of pants that you know fits and give it to us. And while you’re at it, get us her shoe size, too.”
“She only has two pair of pants that she has been wearing since she got back. One of ’em is on her right now. The other is hanging in her closet. But I’m not sure I know exactly how to measure…”
“Can you get me up there without her seeing me then?” Emma asked.
Nodding, he looked at Hannah. “But you have to stay downstairs with Lily and Janey and make sure she doesn’t come upstairs.”
Hannah smiled, confident as ever. “No problem.”
“SO WHY were they really here?” Ashley asked Cal an hour later.
“What do you mean?” Cal asked, ducking his head as he rinsed the coffee cups and plates in the sink. He had never been any good at subterfuge. The fact the fibs were necessary to pull off the surprise anniversary celebration he was planning at the Wedding Inn wasn’t making it any easier. He didn’t want any secrets between them.
Ashley positioned herself between Cal and the front of the dishwasher. She folded her arms in front of her. “I mean, it’s obvious they all wanted to talk to you. And I’d like to know what about. Did the men in the family send them over here?”
Cal frowned and wrapped his arms around her waist. It was time this conversation took another tack. “Why would they do that?” he asked, gently rubbing his hands up and down her spine.
Ashley narrowed her eyes at him as she splayed her hands across his chest. She tilted her head up to better search his face. “You said a few weeks ago the whole family was concerned about us. So was tonight more of the same?”
Cal did not like the feisty look in Ashley’s blue eyes. That look always guaranteed trouble. And they’d had enough trouble up to now. “No.”
She assessed him obstinately. “Then why did they all show up here and why did Lily and Janey and Hannah do their best to keep me occupied in the kitchen while you-all stayed out in the garage and then went up to the exercise room with Emma?”
“Hey.” Cal aimed a thumb at his chest. “I know for a fact that Janey honestly wanted your opinion on those cake samples she brought over.”
“And Lily?”
Cal could feel her body melting against his even as her will remained as difficult as ever.
“Why was Lily suddenly so interested in my opinion of various flowers she was thinking of doing for Polly Pruett’s wedding?”
Cal shrugged and tried not to think about how much he enjoyed feeling the soft, feminine warmth of her body pressed up against him this way. He smiled, hoping to tease her out of her suspicious mood. “Because she thinks you have good taste?”
Ashley frowned.
“And anyway,” Cal continued, kissing the top of her head, “what does it matter why they were here as long as they’re gone now and we’re once again alone, ready to christen the car we just bought?”
Ashley broke free of his light, protective grasp and whirled away from him. “You’re changing the subject,” she declared heatedly.
“You bet I am.” Cal grabbed her arm and whirled her right back. “I’m tired of talking about my family,” he told her. Smiling, he stroked the pad of his thumb across the silken invitation of her lower lip. “When all I want is you.”
Her lips parted under the pressure of his touch. He had her backed against the counter, and she leaned back, bracing her hands on either side of her, and putting as much space as possible between the two of them. Which wasn’t much, Cal noted. Maybe an inch.
“I’m not going to forget this,” she warned.
Deciding they had done far too much talking for one night, he threaded both his hands through her hair. “Then I guess I’ll just have to convince you.”
The clip was in the way of his fingers. He took it out, and let her hair fall down around her shoulders, like tangled ribbons of dark brown silk.
Ashley caught her breath as he moved his hands through the soft thickness of her hair. “Cal—” It was part admonition, part plea. He chose to obey the latter. Engulfing her with the heat and strength of his body, he lowered his head and delivered a breath-stealing kiss. She moaned, soft and low in her throat. His body responded, heating and surging to life. And he kissed her again, deliberately shattering what little caution she had left. Her lips parted beneath the pressure of his, and he enjoyed the sweet, hot taste of her. He groaned as their tongues twined urgently, and his body took on an urgent pulsing all its own, until there was no doubting how much they wanted and needed each other.
Ashley sighed, trembling and cuddling against him, when they finally broke the kiss. “You are so bad for me sometimes.”
He kissed her again, letting her take him where she wanted to go this time, not stopping until the last of the distrust between them had dissolved. “I take it you mean bad in a good way,” he teased, as he rubbed his fingers across the tips of her breasts, then slipped his fingers beneath the hem of her sweater and bra, to caress the pearling tips even more intimately.
She shuddered as he traced the weight and shape. “Bad in every way,” she teased right back.
“I want to make love to you,” he kissed his way down the nape of her neck, pushing the rolled collar of her turtleneck aside.
“I want that, too.”
“We could stay in front of the fire.”
Ashley shook her head, stubborn as ever. Her hand dropped to his arousal. She enfolded him in her palm with the same tender care he was cupping her breasts. “I want to go back to our original plan and christen the car.” He grinned as she used her other hand to unbutton his shirt, and continued her role as aggressor. “You have to start thinking of that station wagon as sexy.”
He reached around behind her to unfasten her bra, and fill his hands with her silky warm flesh. “Making love with you in it will do that all right,” he promised.
Ashley stepped back, away from him. Knowing, as did he, that if they didn’t stop now, they’d never make it out of the kitchen. “You get the blankets and maybe a pillow or two. I’ll open up the back and put down the rear seat.” She started for the door to the garage.
Cal watched the gentle sway of her hips, and wondered if she knew just how enticing she was, or how much he had enjoyed taming her and making her his. “Just don’t start without me,” he teased.
Ashley turned and shot him a sultry look that upped his pulse another notch. “Don’t you wish.”
He grinned.
“Meet you in five,” she dictated cheerfully.
“Or sooner,” Cal said, his spirits lifting the way they always did when he was about to make love to his wife. Only, when he gathered up the items she had asked for and met her in the garage, Ashley wasn’t standing in front of her new car, but rather his SUV. And she looked anything but pleased as she held up her sexy lace undies and black dress and drawled, “I can’t wait to hear the explanation for this.”