Her Sister's Baby

Author:Janice Kay Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub

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Chapter 9

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Stunned, Colleen stared at Michael. Without taking her eyes off him, she backed up until her legs bumped the sofa, then sank onto it. Marry him?

"Don't say anything yet," he urged swiftly. "Will you just listen for a minute?"

She bobbed her head, still too shocked to speak or even know what she felt.

Now he pushed his hands into his pockets and began to pace. "I've been thinking. It's not like this baby—our baby—was an accident. He was created out of love. Maybe not in the usual way, but that doesn't matter now. What does is that he deserves two parents." He paused and looked at her.

Colleen nodded again, automatically.

Michael took a deep breath. "I was remembering what you said about how all three of us couldn't be happy. And then it occurred to me that there's one way we could be. There are other advantages to marriage for both of us. I know you're struggling financially. I can change that. I know you worry about your kids not seeing their father very often. I… They might not accept me, but if they did…" His shoulders hunched. "I'm willing to try."

"But—" her voice was a croak "—what about you?"

For the first time Michael looked away from her. Roughly he said, "I hate going home. It's so damned empty. I've thought about selling the house, but a condo doesn't hold a lot of appeal. When I'm over here, I see what I'm missing. That makes it even harder to go home."

"But … marriage?"

He stopped his pacing right in front of her. Michael's eyes, never bluer, met hers. His expression was unguarded, leaving him vulnerable. "I won't say I'm in love with you," he said very directly, "but I'll do my damnedest to make ours a decent marriage. I think we have that potential. Unless the whole idea is repugnant to you."

Colleen's heart squeezed. "No, I … no. I'm just … you took me by surprise." A half-hysterical giggle escaped her. "Oh, Lord. I sound like some Victorian young lady. Except I'm not young. Michael, are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm sure."

Colleen sat, staring up at him, this man she had trouble remembering had ever been her sister's husband. She studied him as though she had never seen his face before. He had movie-star looks: a high forehead and Slavic cheekbones, a straight, patrician nose and a mouth that gave little away. Only the lines from nose to mouth and beside his eyes showed his age and kept him from being too handsome. And those eyes of his, clear and blue as a high mountain lake, unexpected with his tan and his straight, dark hair.

Repugnant? Hardly, Colleen thought, a little stunned at what she'd just discovered about herself. Why had she never acknowledged how attracted she was to this man? Why had she told herself so many lies to explain her physical reaction to him?

Dumb question—there was something almost biblical in the prohibition: Thou shalt not covet thy sister's husband. It was natural that she had walled away the knowledge, hiding it even from herself.

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