The 7 Lb., 2 Oz. Valentine Read online

  “Yes.” He paused after throwing the pillow into the back seat. “I can think of sights I’d rather witness than you screaming and wracked with pain,” he told her honestly.

  She’d asked for it. “Then why do it? One of us going through this is enough.” She looked down at her stomach. “Since I seem to be rather committed to this, you get the option of not having to be there.”

  He didn’t want an option. He wanted to be there for her. “I was there with you in the beginning—even though I can’t remember—and I’ll be there with you at the end. It’s only fair.”

  Since she still wasn’t getting in, he walked around the hood and came to her side. He opened the door for her.

  She didn’t care about fair, she only cared about feelings. And his were just as important to her as her own. Maybe more so.

  “But-”

  Very gently, he opened the door and ushered her into the seat. “And I figure you need me,” he continued as if she hadn’t protested. “That’s reason enough for me.” He pulled the seat belt out as far as it could go, then offered it to her. “Now, are you going to buckle up, or are we going to be late?”

  She took the belt from him and slipped the metal tab into the slot. “I’m buckling up.”

  “How about that,” he murmured as he got in on the driver’s side. “An argument I finally won. Is this a first for me?”

  Erin looked at him. “No. You convinced me to marry you,” she reminded him.

  Brady started the car. “I don’t think I had to push that hard.” He glanced at her as he pulled out of the driveway. “Did I?”

  “No,” she admitted after a beat. “Not very hard at all.”

  “Okay.” He took a left turn down the block and headed toward the street that led out of the development. “Now that that’s settled, directions?”

  Erin settled back in her seat. “The class is being held at Harris Memorial Hospital. Make a left at the light.” She pointed to it needlessly. Erin, he had already learned, liked to talk with her hands. And he liked to watch.

  The stars were out in full regalia when they walked out of the hospital two hours later. Class had run over. Since it was the last session, the instructor had wanted to review a few things with them. Even so, Erin felt far from prepared.

  Brady lingered by the car, studying the sky. It was a beautiful night. He didn’t want to go home yet.

  “Are you up for a stop?” he asked.

  Erin looked at him, puzzled. He had never liked staying out late during the week. It interfered with work. “Isn’t it getting late?”

  “Yes, but I noticed this little outdoor café on my way home tonight. It’s new.” Or maybe he’d never noticed it before. “The sign in the window says they’re open until nine. It seems like a perfect night to sit out and watch the stars.” He looked at her. “Are you game?”

  It took her a moment to assimilate his words. This really was out of character for him.

  “Brady, it’s forty-five degrees out.” Or thereabouts, according to the weather report they’d heard on the radio while driving to the hospital.

  Forty-five degrees didn’t feel that chilly, he thought. It felt bracing.

  “You’ve got on a coat,” he said. He closed the top button for her, then lifted the collar. “It just seems like too pretty a night to end, that’s all.”

  The look in his eyes warmed her. His attitude warmed her. Romantic. The word whispered across her mind. Brady was being romantic. “Even after the video the instructor showed?”

  Several men, as well as a few of the first-time mothers, had turned a very vivid shade of green during the video. Erin had expected Brady to get up and take a walk down the corridor until the video was over. Instead, he’d sat beside her on the folding chairs that had been set up for the screening, holding her hand throughout the fifteen minutes they viewed the tape. It was incredible how safe she felt with him there.

  “Maybe I’m trying to put the video behind me,” he confided. His expression became serious as he looked at her. He certainly didn’t envy Erin the ordeal that lay ahead of her. “Seems like an awful lot of pain to endure.”

  “Thanks.” She laughed shortly, though a smile was harder to muster. “I needed that.”

  He hadn’t meant the words to come out that way. “Sorry, pretty tactless, huh?”

  The fact that Brady recognized how his words must have sounded to her and apologized really stunned her. He just wasn’t the same man who had disappeared from her life all those months ago. The last few weeks had been like living in a dream. Living with a dream.

  If she were to describe him to anyone, she would have said he was the new, improved Brady. Like detergent that had been tinkered with. Except he was a human being. A fantastic human being. She prayed that things wouldn’t change again any time soon. She liked him just the way he was.

  Erin inclined her head. “Apology accepted. As well as the invitation. I’d love to try out the new place.” Her eyes lit up. “Maybe get some hot chocolate if they serve it.”

  “Hot chocolate it is,” he promised.

  “With whipped cream?” Erin added, sliding into her seat.

  He got in. “So much, you won’t be able to lift the cup.”

  Erin grinned. “Oh, I think I’ll manage.”

  The stars seemed to circle around them as they sat, nursing their drinks of choice. It was a cool, crisp evening that braced cheeks and made a man feel glad he was alive. Alive, he thought, as he looked at Erin, with the right woman.

  They were the only patrons sitting outdoors, though there were several nestled around small, circular tables within the coffee shop. Erin surrounded the mug of hot chocolate with her hands, drawing on the warmth. If she wasn’t already in love with him, she mused, she would have fallen in love with him tonight.

  Maybe she was right, Brady thought. It was getting chilly. He didn’t want her getting sick so close to her due date. “Too cold for you?”

  When she looked up from her mug, she smiled contentedly. “No, I’ve got my hot chocolate and you, not necessarily in that order. I’m just fine.” Erin raised her eyes to the sky. “You’re right, it really is a pretty night.”

  He could watch her all night, Brady thought, this woman he knew so little about. He set down his cup and reached for her hand.

  “Tell me about yourself, Erin. Tell me things I don’t know.” That, he realized, covered a lot of territory. “What were you like as a child? Did you like spinach when you were growing up? Did you have crushes? Did you hang up posters over your bed and write fan letters to rock stars who never answered?”

  She held up her hand, stopping the onslaught of questions. They had been together a little over two years when he had disappeared. He’d never wanted to know any of this. She had told Brady about herself before, but it had been on a volunteer basis. It had amounted to spoon-feeding him the information. He’d never asked for it and never looked particularly interested in knowing. He’d been content to let her talk when she wanted to and not question anything.

  The fact that Brady wanted to know these things now warmed her far more than the hot chocolate.

  Erin sat back in her seat. “I have two sisters, both older. My parents live in Washington—the state, not the capital. I hated spinach, still do, but we can’t let the baby know that,” she interjected. “And I never put up any posters or wrote any fan letters. I was never particularly struck by anyone.” She leaned over the table, her eyes holding his. “Until there was you.”

  That was what made it all hard to believe. She was vibrant, alive, bubbly. He was the exact opposite. “Me? I’m the dry, scientist type.”

  The one thing that hadn’t changed an iota was his modesty. He was the same unaffected man she’d always known. He had absolutely no idea of the effect he had on her, or other women when they looked at him.-

  Erin nestled her chin on her upturned hand, still looking into his eyes. “Still waters ran deep, and I wanted to go wading in them.”

&nb
sp; And he wanted to have her wade. As soon as possible. But right now, he had more questions that needed answers. “How did we meet?”

  “How did we meet,” she repeated as the memory rose in her mind. “It was raining. My umbrella had just turned inside out. You offered to walk me to my car.” She’d been struck by his chivalry. And his terrific profile.

  Brady looked at her incredulously. “You trusted a perfect stranger?” Of course she did. Erin seemed to trust everyone to be just like her.

  “You had nice eyes.” Mischief lit hers. “And you weren’t all that perfect.”

  He shook his head. Though he found it endearing, being too trusting was one of her flaws. “Ted Bundy had nice eyes, too.”

  “Really?” She pretended to be fascinated. “I never met him. But I did want to meet you.” From the moment she first laid eyes on him.

  “Why?” he prodded.

  “Because I had a feeling you were the right one, the one I had been waiting for.” She saw the question coming. “Women know these things.”

  He laughed, getting into the spirit of the story. “More illogical logic?”

  “Exactly.” She took another sip before the chocolate grew cold. “Anyway, you walked me to my car, but it wouldn’t start. I’d left my lights on and the battery was dead,” she explained. The knowing look in his eyes was a familiar one. “You walked me back to the mall so I could call a towing service,” she continued. “While I waited, we had sandwiches at one of those little restaurants around the perimeter.” She looked around. “Kind of like this one, except it was a lot noisier.” She looked at him. “I paid for the meal to thank you for being so nice.”

  Erin drained her mug, then placed it on the table, fitting it over the ring it had formed. “Then we went out to wait for the driver to arrive. By the time he did, you had asked me out.” She saw the thoughtful look on his face. He might as well have the truth. “Actually, I asked you out because you were too slow.”

  That sounded just like her, he thought.

  “I told you I had two tickets to the revival of Cats and no one to go with. At the time, it was playing at the Performing Arts Center.”

  Brady finished his coffee. “And did you?” he asked. “Have tickets?”

  She grinned. “You catch on fast. No,” she admitted. “But I did after I finished talking to you. I called the box office and ordered tickets that afternoon as soon as I got home.” With a languid sigh, she pushed away the mug. It felt wonderful just to be alive. “Anyway, that’s the story of how we met.” She peered at his face. “Any of this coming back to you?”

  He shook his head. “No.” It was still as if there were a brick wall between him and his memory. Nothing more had returned to him since he had begun working at Edmond Labs. But he had ceased feeling so restless, so frustrated by the situation.

  Instead, he was satisfied just to enjoy what he had. And Erin.

  Brady pushed his chair back. “Ready to go home, Erin?”

  Erin nodded as she moved the chair away from the table. Home, she mused, rising. It had a good sound to it.

  9

  Two more customers walked out of the shop, one after another. Erin sighed as the door closed. Behind her, Anthony was taking three more arrangements to load onto the delivery van. Her head was throbbing, and her body felt as out of sync as was humanly possible. It felt like the longest day of her life.

  Erin rubbed a hand over her forehead and turned just as Terry hung up the telephone. “Boy, I can’t wait for this day to be over.”

  Terry picked up the two order sheets Erin had just written out and added the one she’d taken over the telephone. She leaned into the back room and handed all three to Juanita, her eyes on Erin.

  “What a strange thing for a sentimental woman to say on Valentine’s Day.” She took a sip from the can of soda she kept beside the register. “Especially a sentimental woman who owns a flower shop.” Her expression softened to one of sympathetic concern. She looked at Erin’s stomach. “Baby acting up?”

  Acting up was putting it mildly. For the past two days it felt as if the baby was practicing to stage its own revolution, automatic weapons and all.

  She laughed softly, taking Terry’s soda can from her. Erin took a long sip before answering.

  “I wish he or she would hurry up and get here to lend a hand.” She returned the can to Terry. The soda didn’t help. Nothing was going to help until the baby was finally here. “I can’t remember a more hectic day.” There hadn’t been time for either of them to break for lunch, so Erin had sent out for pizza instead. The last slice was sitting very heavily in her stomach. “This is even worse than all those orders last Mother’s Day.”

  “Worse?” Terry echoed.

  Erin waved a hand in suppressed exasperation. “You know what I mean. Crazy. Hectic.”

  Erin turned, looking at the glass where they kept their flowers on display. They were going to have to start using those pretty soon. Anticipating a rush— everyone always waited until the last minute—Erin had doubled her usual order from the nursery. It was just about depleted now.

  Everyone, it seemed, was in love this year. Not that she blamed them. Erin smiled to herself. Being in love was wonderful. If anything, it was entirely underrated.

  Terry studied her best friend thoughtfully. “You know, you didn’t have to come in today. After all, it is your due date.” She nodded toward the back room. “I could have had Juanita call her cousins. We would have handled the orders.”

  Erin knew that, but it was beside the point. She needed to be here, to keep busy, so that she didn’t dwell on how miserable her body felt today.

  “I couldn’t just sit home and listen to my skin stretch. Besides, I thought that this might induce labor.” Something had to. She would just die if she was overdue. Waiting nine months had been bad enough. Waiting a minute longer came under the heading of inhumane.

  Terry looked at Erin anxiously. “Oh, thanks, thanks a lot. You know I faint at the sight of blood.”

  Erin laughed, shaking her head. She took another vase from the display. Juanita had used the flowers in it to fill the last order she’d taken. “Just what I need. Support.”

  She heard the door opening again and looked quickly around the showroom. She hoped whoever it was wasn’t going to ask for red carnations. They were completely out of them. Erin heard the delivery truck leaving. It had gone out a record number of times. Anthony was chafing to get home to his own girl, but they still had a couple of hours left before they closed up.

  Provided they didn’t completely run out of everything. Erin placed a bouquet of daisies into the vase and turned around to place them on the counter.

  “Hi.”

  The vase almost slipped from her fingers when she saw Brady. She looked at him with apprehension as he greeted Terry.

  “Anything wrong?”

  Her eyes searched his face. Had his memory returned? she wondered suddenly. What else would have brought him here at this hour? He was supposed to be at work. Brady never left work early.

  She looked flushed, he thought. The pink blush to her cheeks was enticing. “Absolutely nothing.”

  “But you’re here, and it’s—” she glanced at the clock on the wall directly above the glass display “—five o’clock.”

  He grinned as he looked at the clock. “Guess you won’t have to be going in for an eye test any time soon.” He looked at Terry before continuing. The woman nodded imperceptively. Good. “Seeing as how you refuse to give birth today, I came by to take you out to dinner.”

  “Dinner?” Erin repeated dumbly. Brady didn’t care for going out to eat. He claimed the food never tasted right to him. She had to keep reminding herself that this was a different Brady.

  Brady took her hand, coaxing her out from behind the counter. “You know, where they use knives, forks, talk a little. I hear that it’s really catching on in some regions.”

  “I know what dinner is.” Behind her, Terry made no attempt to stifle a g
iggle. Erin looked over her shoulder reprovingly. “But why are you taking me out?”

  He got a kick out of the way she treated everything with awe and wonder. Obviously he hadn’t been a very attentive lover, he mused. But that had been a mistake he was about to change.

  “Haven’t you heard?” He tapped a drawing of Cupid hanging over the display. “It’s Valentine’s Day. You’re supposed to do something special for your valentine today.” Brady extended his hand toward Terry in what Erin realized was a rehearsed gesture. “Terry, flowers.”

  From beneath the counter, Terry pulled out a small arrangement of violets and baby’s breath. Erin’s favorites.

  “Flowers,” Terry announced.

  “Flowers,” Brady repeated, handing the bouquet to Erin. He watched her take them, her hand closing around them as if she had never seen flowers before. “I know this is like a busman’s holiday for you, but—” He stopped and lifted her chin with the crook of his finger. “Erin, are you crying?”

  She didn’t answer him. She couldn’t. All she could do was nod as she stared down at the bouquet, which blurred before her eyes.

  He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Is it the baby, Erin? Are you having contractions?”

  Pressing her lips together to seal in the sob, she shook her head.

  If it wasn’t the baby, it had to be him. He didn’t understand. What had he done wrong? “Then what? Tell me,” he coaxed.

  Erin blew out a breath, struggling to steady her voice. She hoped it wouldn’t crack when she answered. “You’ve never given me flowers before.”

  Brady wouldn’t know about that. He could only guess that perhaps he had thought it was a little redundant, bringing flowers to a florist. Obviously, whatever his reasons, they had been wrong. Dead wrong.

  “Then I should have,” he said softly. He took her hand in his, drawing her toward the door. “Are you ready to go?”

  Guilt pricked her, warring with a desire to be with him. She really wanted to go, but she had obligations, just as he did. Erin looked back at Terry. She couldn’t just leave her manning the shop on a whim.