Beloved Stranger by Joan Wolf

Author:Joan Wolf [Wolf, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Contemporary Romance
ISBN: 9781610847056
Google: 1oeqXwAACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 550582
Publisher: Signet
Published: 1984-03-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

It was almost impossible to rent a house for only six weeks, so when they went to Florida Ricardo took a large suite in one of the best hotels in Fort Lauderdale. They had two bedrooms, a living room and a small kitchen area with a refrigerator and a hot plate. When they arrived Susan quickly made arrangements for a baby-sitter. “We’re going to have to eat dinner out,” she told Ricardo firmly, “and I do not want to have to drag Ricky into a hotel dining room every night.”

He grinned. “True. His manners leave something to be desired.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Susan replied. She did not anticipate finding it easy to take care of a four-month-old baby in a hotel suite, but she forebode to press the point. They had had this out before. And difficult though it was probably going to be, she was glad she was here with Ricardo.

She accompanied him the following day when he went to report to the Yankee camp. The sun was shining, it was eighty degrees, and as she pushed Ricky along in his umbrella stroller, she felt the festive mood of the occasion.

They hadn’t been at camp for five minutes before Ricardo was surrounded by reporters. He stood courteously, answering their questions with absolute patience and good humor. Susan came in for a small share of the attention but she found the reporters to be polite and their questions had to do with Ricardo and not with her.

“What’s Rick been doing all winter?” a wire-service man asked her first.

“Chopping wood,” she replied a little shyly. “Building a new garage.”

“He looks in great shape.”

“Yes. He’s been very active.”

“Is this the pennant baby?” another reporter asked.

Susan looked startled and then she smiled. “Yes, that’s right. He was born on the day Ricardo won the pennant, wasn’t he?”

The reporter grinned. “It was the Yankees who won the pennant, Mrs. Montoya.”

Susan laughed, “It all depends on your point of view, I suppose.”

The reporter laughed back, his eyes bright with admiration. “I see what you mean. And you’re probably not far from the truth. Rick had an awful lot to do with winning that pennant. And the series as well.”

She smiled and didn’t reply, and shortly afterward Ricardo moved away from the reporters to go change and she and Ricky walked over to where the other wives were sitting to watch. This had been Susan’s first encounter with the press and it left her feeling more comfortable than she had dreamed possible. It was the nature of Ricardo’s celebrity that protected her, she thought. His personal life was a minor adjunct to his fame. It was what he did on the field that counted.

There had never been a breath in any of the papers about their hasty marriage or the quick arrival of Ricky. The TV announcers had proudly imparted the news of Ricardo’s son’s birth, but no one had ever mentioned the fact that his parents had only been married for a few months. She had been enormously grateful for their reticence.

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