Stacy Connelly – How To Be A Blissful Bride (страница 8)

“Oh, come on, Allie. You can’t tell me you don’t see the similarities. But whatever your parents’ faults were, they were their own. Don’t hold Chance responsible for them.”

“What are you saying, Griffin?”

“What you already know. He has a right to know that he’s going to be a father.”

* * *

The last thing Chance wanted to do that evening was head into Clearville for dinner. The Victorian town held a certain appeal for visitors and for locals who made their money off those tourists, but the place had always struck Chance as too cute. And now, as smiling pumpkins and pilgrims battled with Santa and Rudolph for prime window display real estate, it was worse than he remembered.

Rory, of course, loved it.

“I can’t wait to start decorating Hillcrest for Christmas!” Wearing a thigh-length red coat, his sister already looked in the holiday spirit. She waved a hand at the glowing storefronts along Main Street. “I wanted to start putting up a few small touches here and there—just a wreath or two—but Evie insisted we wait until after Thanksgiving.”

“For once, Evie and I agree,” he said wryly.

“I’m so glad you’ll be here for the holidays. I don’t remember the last time we were all together at Christmas.”

Home for the holidays? Oh, hell, no. Christmas was several weeks away, which might as well be an eternity. He wouldn’t still be in Clearville then. He couldn’t be. But even as he opened his mouth to argue, he swallowed a curse as the toe of his shoe caught on an uneven spot on the sidewalk, and his full weight landed on his right leg.

Six months, his doctors and therapists had warned him, before he could expect full range of motion. Before he could walk without limping, without pain.

“Chance—”

“I’m fine.” He cut Rory off before she could ask the question he was already so sick of hearing.

“Are you sure you should be off your crutches so soon?” she pressed.

Pushing yourself won’t make your body heal any faster, his doctor had warned. You aren’t building up muscle. You’re regrowing bone, and that takes time.

Chance didn’t have time. He’d been riding a wave of success with recent recognition from the World Press along with nominations for international photography awards. While on the sidelines, several key assignments had been given to other photographers. He had to keep his name and his pictures out there. Whatever it took.

As they stepped inside Rolly’s diner, Chance came face-to-face with another reason why he needed to get out of there. Anywhere but Clearville.

“Oh, look, there’s Alexa and Griffin!” Rory announced as she sent the couple a quick wave.

Seated at a booth toward the back of the restaurant, Alexa lifted a weak hand in response while her golden boy fiancé was all smiles. As Chance’s gaze caught Alexa’s, as the distance between them—the crowded tables, the chattering waitresses, as the whole damn diner—disappeared in that powerful moment of memory, of connection, he could almost feel sorry for the poor SOB.

If Griffin James hadn’t been the one seated across from Alexa. If he hadn’t been the one holding her hand, hearing her voice, smelling the honey-lilac scent of her skin.

Sharing her hotel room...

Yeah, who was the poor SOB now?

“I didn’t expect to see them here,” Rory was saying as she slid into an empty booth.

Chance had had plenty of time to curse the limitations of his injury but rarely more so than in that moment. Unable to fully bend his knee, he had to take the seat on his left, to keep his right leg stretched out. A seat that faced the back of the restaurant and gave him a perfect view of Alexa and her fiancé.

“Yeah, this is hardly Alexa’s kind of place.”

Rory frowned as she lifted the laminated menu that probably hadn’t changed since the last time Chance had eaten there. “How would you know?”

“I know...women like her,” he finished. “Wealthy, spoiled, too good for everyone around her.”

Not that Alexa had seemed like any of those things the night they met.

Setting the menu aside, his sister took a deep breath. “You know how much I hate admitting Evie’s right, but you really do need to get on board if you’re going to be our photographer.”

If? If? She’d all but begged him to fill in! “I told you I’d get a haircut and all that.”

“I’m not talking about how you look. I’m talking about your attitude about love and marriage...and women.”

“Excuse me?”

“I know Lisette did a number on you—”

Now it was his turn to toss the menu aside. “This has nothing to do with Lisette,” he stated flatly.

“Then what?”

“It’s—”

We come from different worlds, Chance.

He watched as Griffin James, a man very much a part of Alexa’s world, reached over and cupped her cheek in his palm.

“Nothing,” he told Rory finally. “It’s nothing.”

Chapter Four

“Don’t worry. Everything’s under control.” Even as Alexa spoke the words into her cell phone, she fought a burst of hysterical laughter that would certainly be enough to send her grandmother’s panicked assistant over the edge. Not to mention the state it would leave Alexa in.

Under control? As she listened to Raquel rattle off the dozens of details her grandmother had needed handled in the three days since Alexa left, she couldn’t imagine anything being further from the truth.

Chance was alive.

Chance was here.

She needed to tell Chance he was the father of her baby.

The phrases had circled endlessly through her mind, robbing her of any hope of a good night’s sleep. She’d always been an early riser, part of the strict schedule her grandmother had established and one Alexa couldn’t seem to break no matter how hard she tried. Or no matter how many hours she’d spent tossing and turning the night before.

Her doctor had encouraged exercise and warned her about too much stress, so Alexa had set out on a early morning walk. As she’d breathed in the cool morning fog, a bit of pressure eased from her chest. The breeze rustled through the pines, carrying a hint of salt air, and she was glad she’d thought to grab a thigh-length beige sweater to wear over her tunic-style cream blouse and tan leggings.

But any sense of relaxation had come to an abrupt end as she remembered that Chance wasn’t the only one Alexa needed to tell about her pregnancy. And while she had no idea how Chance was going to react, she had a good idea what her proper, old-fashioned grandmother would have to say.

Tuning back into the conversation and Raquel’s laundry list of concerns, she reassured the younger woman, “You’ll do fine.”

“But the Giving Thanks benefit—”

“Everything is going as scheduled. I confirmed with the vendors this morning.” Alexa could hear Raquel relaying the information back to her grandmother and Virginia’s protests in the background. “Tell my grandmother—”

“You can tell me yourself, Alexa.” Virginia Mayhew’s crisp voice cut across the line.

“Like I was saying to Raquel, everything is under control. I contacted—”

“You should be here working on the benefit. How does it look for you to be off on vacation at the most critical time of the fund-raising season?”

Considering she typically dealt with vendors by phone or email, Alexa knew things didn’t “look” any different. She also knew that wasn’t her grandmother’s point. Alexa was the face of the foundation, and that face was always supposed to be in the public eye.

But Alexa was tired of constantly living behind a public persona. She wanted to live her own life. A life where she could go outside without the perfect clothes, perfect hair, perfect makeup. A life where she could be something less than perfect. “It’s only for a few days, Grandmother.”

“This isn’t a good time. I told you that before you left.”

“Yes, you did,” Alexa acknowledged, but it was never a good time. Which was why she hadn’t taken a vacation in...she couldn’t even remember how long. “I’ll be home soon.”

Alexa hung up feeling the familiar weight of expectation pressing on her chest. She had started volunteering for the Mayhew Foundation when she was still in her teens and had dedicated her adult life to helping raise money for those in need.

Taking a deep breath, Alexa pressed the button on the side of her phone. For the first time, she was going to think of her needs. She’d longed for a break from the nonstop schedule for the past year or so, but doubted she would have made the stand if not for her pregnancy.

Growing up in her grandmother’s house, Alexa’s world had been filled with directives as to what a Mayhew did not do. A Mayhew did not slouch, did not sulk, did not argue, did not cry...

Only with Griffin had Alexa ever felt she could let down the walls her grandmother’s rules had built around her and truly be herself. Only with Griffin...and with Chance.

Not that her feelings for the two men were at all the same. With Griffin, she felt safe. With him, she could say and do whatever she wanted.

With Chance, she felt dangerous. With him, she had said and done things she’d never imagined, and now...

Alexa was certain getting pregnant following a weekend fling would fall within the “did not” constraints.