She reached across the table for his hand and clasped it tightly. "Thank you for feeling that way, Cage. When I left the doctor's office, I was flabbergasted. I didn't know where to turn or where to go. I felt lost and alone."
"You don't have to feel that way, Jenny. You can always come to me. For anything."
"I appreciate your attitude about it."
If only she knew his real attitude about it. He was incredibly overjoyed and incredibly sad. He was having a child, but no one would know it was his. Not even its mother.
"What do you plan to do?"
"I don't know."
"Marry me, Jenny."
That stunned her speechless. She stared at him blankly while she tried to get her heart to calm down and stop hopping around in her chest like a wild bird in a cage. She knew he was motivated by pity, possibly family loyalty, but out of sheer desperation to grasp the security his offer promised, she was tempted to say yes. That was ridiculous, of course. "I can't."
"Why?"
"There are a thousand reasons against it."
"And one very good one for it."
"Cage, I can't let you do that. Ruin your life for the sake of me and my child? Never. No, thank you."
"Let me decide what would bring me ruination, please." He squeezed her hand. "Should we elope tonight or wait until tomorrow? I'll honeymoon anywhere you say. Except Monterico," he added with a grin.
Her eyes were soft and shiny with tears. "You really are wonderful, you know that?"
"That's what they tell me."
"But I can't marry you, Cage."
"Because of Hal?" His face lost all vestiges of humor.
"No. Not solely. It has to do with you and me. We would be getting married for all the wrong reasons. Jenny Fletcher and Cage Hendren. What a joke."
"Don't you like me anymore?" he asked, pouring all the charm at his command into his smile.
She smiled with him. "You know it's not that. I like you very much."
"You'd be amazed at how many married couples I know who can't stand each other. We'd have more going for us than most."
"But a wife and child hardly fit your life-style."
"I'll change my life-style."
"I won't let you make that kind of sacrifice."
He wanted to shake her and shout that he wouldn't be making any sacrifice. But now he had to give her room. She needed time to adjust to the idea of the baby before she could consider taking on a husband with a reputation for being a philanderer. This would only be a temporary postponement. Nothing in heaven or earth would keep him from marrying her, making her his forever, rearing his child in a home filled with love rather than censure.
"So if you're going to break my heart and turn me down, what are you going to do?"
"Can I still work for you?"
He frowned at her. "You have to ask?"
"Thank you, Cage," she murmured earnestly.
She let herself relax against the back of the booth and unconsciously smoothed her hands down her abdomen, which was still flat. She's so damn tiny. Cage thought. Was it possible that his child was growing inside her?