Thirty Days to Win His Wife Read online

  She nodded slowly, fumbling at the waistband of her black slacks. “Are you staying in here with me?” she asked. “I’ll keep my hands to myself.”

  Last night he hadn’t given her request a second thought. Now her question was plaguing his mind with unproductive fantasies about what might happen at the end of their time together. He’d always avoided a relationship with Amelia because he was certain it would end badly, like all the others before him. Now, because of the baby, he hadn’t allowed himself to consider any other alternative than them being successful. There was no way he would be sleeping anytime soon. Tossing and turning was more like it. Amelia needed her rest, and that meant he needed to sleep in his own room tonight.

  “No,” he said, stepping away as she slipped off the last of her clothes.

  Amelia slipped under the covers and Tyler pulled the comforter up as if he was tucking a small child into bed. She pouted a little, but the soft pillows quickly lured her into the twilight before sleep, wiping worries from her mind. “Good night, Tyler,” she said as her eyes fluttered closed.

  “Good night,” he replied, looking down as she drifted off to sleep. Tyler couldn’t make himself walk away, like he should. He just stood there, watching the soft rise and fall of her chest and the faint smile that curled her pink lips in her sleep. She was the most precious thing he’d ever had in his life. And soon, they would have a child—maybe with the same rosy cheeks and flash of red hair.

  Failure was simply not an option. That had been the motto of his life since he was eighteen years old and decided to get into the jewelry business. He hadn’t had a family legacy or a lick of experience, but that hadn’t stopped him. He had drive. Ambition. A fire that pushed him to succeed in everything in life. It was a passion Amelia lit in him.

  That same passion would carry over into their relationship, as well. At the end of thirty days, Tyler would be successful in making Amelia fall in love with him. He might not be in love with her, but it didn’t matter. He wasn’t the one hell-bent on a perfect love. He just wanted a happy family, and he didn’t intend to let this woman and their child slip through his fingers.

  Eight

  “I can drive, Tyler.” Amelia frowned at him as she stared down his new Audi with disdain. “You don’t even know where my doctor’s office is.”

  “You can tell me,” he said as he opened the passenger door for her to get in. Why would she rather ride in her old SUV than his brand-new luxury vehicle? He had heated leather seats. Individualized climate controls. It was like floating on a cloud to their destination.

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “How can I convince you that pregnancy is not a disability? I’m perfectly capable of driving my own car to the doctor’s office.”

  Ah, it wasn’t the car. It was him driving it. Too bad. His willingness to do whatever made her happy went only so far. He was going to take care of her whether she liked it or not. “If I had truly thought that about you, the acrobatics in bed last night would’ve persuaded me to believe otherwise.”

  Amelia’s eyes grew wide, then a smile chased away her irritation. “Quit it,” she scolded.

  “I will, but how can I convince you that letting other people help you isn’t a crime?” He stood looking at her expectantly until she finally gave in and climbed into his car. “See?” he said. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  She didn’t respond. Once he got in the car and they started out toward the doctor’s office, she turned to look at him again. “You make me crazy sometimes.”

  He gave her a sly smile in return. “Ditto, sweetheart. You know, you gave me this big, looming deadline to steal your heart, but you fight me at every turn.”

  Tyler’s thoughts drifted to her concerned question from Saturday night. She hadn’t broached the subject again since then, but he hadn’t been able to put it aside in his own mind. If she didn’t love him at the end of thirty days, it wouldn’t be for his lack of trying. But would their friendship survive it? He’d insisted everything would be fine and dismissed any concerns because he didn’t intend to lose, but could they be friends with a baby? Could they go back to where they came from, knowing what they knew about each other? “How am I supposed to woo you when you won’t let me do anything for you?”

  “We must have different definitions of wooing. I don’t consider it very romantic to drive a woman around everywhere against her will and treat her like a fragile flower.”

  “That’s your problem,” Tyler noted. “I don’t think you know what love is really about.”

  “What?” She looked at him with wide eyes as she scoffed at his suggestion. “Love is my business.”

  “Food is your business. Love is your obsessive ideal, but you don’t really understand it. You think love and romance is just about those big gestures—expensive gifts, fancy dinners and moonlit declarations of undying devotion.”

  “What is wrong with all those things?”

  Tyler sighed. “Nothing is wrong with them. It’s just that none of that lasts. Flowers die, food gets eaten, words are forgotten. Fifty years from now, when we’re sitting in our favorite chairs watching our grandkids play, that’s not what you’ll remember about our life together. You’ll remember the little things, the things you don’t give me credit for doing now because they don’t fit your ideal.”

  “You get credit for everything you do,” she argued. “I just feel helpless when you drive me around and carry things.”

  “That is your hang-up, not mine. I’m just being nice. But I could go bigger if you want me to. Would you like me to buy you a new car? That would be a big romantic gesture.”

  “You are not buying me a car. No way. I don’t care how much money you have just lying around, it’s a ridiculous suggestion.”

  “See?” he said, with a shake of his head. “I can’t win.”

  At that, Amelia chuckled. “You’re married, Tyler. You’d better get used to that.”

  That was certainly right. He wished Amelia didn’t question the motives of every little thing he did. Somehow being nice seemed to get him in trouble, although he didn’t really mind it. He didn’t do it on purpose, but he got a little thrill when Amelia got irritated with him. A becoming flush would rush to her cheeks and a flash of emotion would light up her dark eyes. She was a beautiful, passionate woman. He’d had the good fortune to share her bed the past two nights and had taken full advantage of that fire in her. That didn’t mean that he didn’t enjoy winding her up and watching her spin in the daytime.

  He hadn’t wanted to push their physical relationship too hard. They’d come together suddenly that first night in the house, and he could tell she was apprehensive about it. Their night together in Vegas had been fueled by raw emotions and alcohol. The second by the delirium of sleep and fierce desires. Since then, he’d thought she’d want some space, but it had been the opposite. She seemed to have abandoned all her reservations about their physical connection. Which he didn’t mind at all. But somehow it didn’t feel as though they were making relationship progress. It just felt like sex.

  What universe was he living in where just having sex with a beautiful woman was somehow less than fulfilling? He was turning into a teenage girl.

  Speaking of girls, the doctor’s waiting room was crawling with women when they arrived. They checked in, then found a pair of seats among the sea of other ladies waiting. Tyler wasn’t certain he’d seen that many women together at once. Young ones, old ones, pregnant ones, ones with babies in carriers... At the moment, he was the only man and feeling very out of place.

  “Maybe I should—” he began, but stopped when another man came in with a pregnant woman.

  “Are you trying to punk out on me?” Amelia asked with a teasing smile.

  “Well, I just wasn’t sure. I didn’t know what the protocol was for this kind of thing.”

  A
melia patted his arm, reassuringly. “Daddies can come. Relax. You may just have to look the other way when there are lady parts involved.”

  “Lady parts?” he asked with a frown.

  “I know you’re familiar with them, but this is a whole new ball game. Just remember, if you’re uncomfortable seeing them, just think how uncomfortable I am putting them on display and subjecting them to various...things.”

  Things? Tyler swallowed hard. There was a lot to this baby-having business he hadn’t considered before.

  “Amelia Kennedy?” the nurse called from the doorway.

  Amelia got up and slung her purse over her shoulder. Despite his trepidations, Tyler followed her to the doorway, pausing only when the nurse smiled at him and held up her hand to stop him.

  “Sir, we’re going to take her back to change, get her health history and do a quick pelvic exam. If you’d prefer, I can come back for you when that’s done and the doctor is ready to do the ultrasound and chat with you both.”

  “Absolutely,” he said, looking visibly relieved.

  Amelia smiled and patted his shoulder. “Saved by the nurse. It shouldn’t be long. Read some parenting magazines.”

  Tyler nodded blankly and returned to his seat. About a half hour later, the same nurse returned and waved him over. He followed her through a maze of corridors, finally stopping at an exam room with a closed door. She knocked softly and entered.

  He paused just as he crossed over the threshold into the domain of the female. Amelia was lying back on the table with her feet up. She had a paper sheet draped over her, but his eyes still widened as he took it all in. “The nurse said we were going to do an ultrasound. I thought that meant rubbing gel on your stomach.”

  “That’s for later trimesters,” the doctor explained, gesturing toward a stool where he could sit by Amelia’s side. “A transvaginal ultrasound gives us a better picture of what’s going on early in the pregnancy.”

  Amelia took his hand and tugged until he sat down. “We’re watching the television screen. Stay north of the sheet and you’ll be fine.”

  Tyler nodded and watched the screen intently as the blurry gray images swirled around. A black circle came into focus and inside it, a tiny gray blob that looked a little like a pinto or kidney bean.

  “There’s your baby,” the doctor announced.

  Tyler watched the screen with a touch of disbelief. It didn’t look anything like a baby. And yet, his focus narrowed in on the image as if everything else in the room ceased to exist. Up until this moment, the baby had still been a vague concept to him, a challenge he had to face head-on. He’d accepted its existence and had planned how he would care for it when it arrived, but it was still an idea. Suddenly seeing it on the screen made it a person—a tiny little person that he and Amelia had made.

  “Wow,” Tyler said.

  Amelia turned to him and smiled. “Look what we did.” Her cheeks were flushed pink and she had glassy tears in her eyes.

  Truthfully, he was fighting the same reaction himself. Tyler gripped her hand tightly as the doctor took size measurements and put information into the system.

  “What is that little flicker of movement there?” Tyler pointed at the screen. For the most part, the baby was still, but a small section seemed to be pulsing.

  “That is the heart beating,” the doctor said. “It looks good, too. Nice and strong, considering how early it is.”

  “Can we hear it?” Amelia asked.

  “It’s too early to pick up with the Doppler, but it should certainly be audible when you come back in four weeks for your next checkup. That will give you two something to look forward to. Laura is going to print out a couple shots of the ultrasound images for you to take home and show the grandparents,” the doctor said. “It’s your baby’s first picture.”

  A soft sigh slipped through Amelia’s lips as she watched the blurry image. The expression of awe on her face had faded to a faint sadness. Maybe Tyler only noticed it because he knew her so well. It was no surprise that the doctor’s words would distress her. A lot of these early milestones in the baby’s development would go uncelebrated by friends and family. The excitement, the hugs, the discussion of baby showers and nursery furniture... There would be none of that, at least for now. At some point they would make the happy announcement of her pregnancy to their parents, but would it be tempered by the news that they weren’t marrying or even in love?

  Little Bean’s grandparents would have to wait awhile before they got to learn about his or her existence, much less see the ultrasound photos. Everything would stay under wraps for at least another twenty-two days while he and Amelia figured out what they were doing.

  “Okay, we’re done here,” the doctor said. He helped Amelia sit up and scoot back on the table. “You can go ahead and get dressed, then Laura will bring you back to my office, where we can go over the new-pregnancy packet and you can ask any questions you might have.”

  They thanked the doctor and Tyler waited outside while Amelia redressed. The meeting with the doctor was pretty short. All their questions seemed to vanish when they were put on the spot, but the doctor laughed and said that was common. That was why they sent parents away with all the paperwork that would answer the questions they remembered once they got home.

  When they got back into the car to leave, Tyler noticed Amelia flipping through the massive package with a wide-eyed expression of panic. “There’s a lot of stuff in here to read.”

  “We’ll go over it tonight. What do you say we go by the bookstore and pick up some of those baby books you wanted? Then we can get some Chinese takeout, and we can spread all of it across the bed and go through it together. How does that sound?”

  “Better,” she said with a soft smile. Amelia might be worried about what they faced, but the idea of tackling this together seemed to soothe her concerns for the moment. “Thank you. There’s just a lot to think about.”

  “Sure. But we can handle it. Humans have done it for thousands of years, and most of them without books or handouts to help them. It will be just fine.” Tyler tried to think of a distraction, and the weight of the box in his coat pocket reminded him he had a gift for her. He’d had it for a couple days but hadn’t found the right time to give it to her yet. “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

  She set the paperwork aside and looked at him suspiciously. Amelia wasn’t big on surprises, good or bad. “Will I like this surprise?”

  “I think so. I bought you something at the Travis auction the other day.”

  Amelia’s nose wrinkled. “I have enough jewelry, Tyler. I know that’s your business, but I don’t know what to do with all the pieces you’ve already given me.”

  “It’s not jewelry.” He pulled the long, narrow box from his lapel pocket.

  “It looks like jewelry,” she argued as she took it from him.

  Tyler watched her open the box, revealing the delicate silver spoon inside. It had a long, thin handle with a grip designed to look like a crescent-shaped man in the moon. A small diamond was embedded in the eye of the moon. “What do you think?”

  Amelia’s brow knit together as she examined the box, but no words came. She lifted it, turning the spoon in her fingers and examining the excruciatingly detailed handle.

  “It was a gift to Patty from Elvis Presley when she had her first son, Martin. I thought you might like it. You said I wasn’t allowed to get any furniture or things like that until after we make it out of the first trimester, but this is a little thing. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No, I don’t mind. It’s beautiful.” She ran her fingertip over it and placed it back in the box. “Thank you.”

  He noticed a hesitation in her. He’d noticed it a lot lately. She seemed to second-guess everything he did outside of the bedroom. “But?” he pressed.

  “Well,” she s
aid with a smile, “I just never dreamed I’d have a baby born with a silver spoon in its mouth.”

  * * *

  “These are super yum. I vote for Tasty Temptations.”

  Amelia turned to look across the conference room table at Gretchen. Between them was an assortment of platters and dishes, food courtesy of the five catering companies they’d interviewed today. Each company had been asked to bring menus, customer references and a sample each of an appetizer and a main course. They were also each asked to replicate one of Amelia’s trademark dishes in case a customer requested something specific while she was gone.

  “I don’t know,” Bree said. “We’ve used Bites of Nashville a couple times, like when Amelia went to Vegas. I feel like they should get priority.”

  “The only thing I’m loyal to is this little cheeseburger.” Gretchen was enamored with a tiny Kobe beef slider by Tasty Temptations. It had tomato aioli and a tiny, fresh-baked yeast bun.

  That was all nice, but Amelia didn’t feel charitable. None of the catering companies had really blown her away. “They were okay,” she said.

  “Okay? Come on, Amelia.” Natalie groaned, putting her tablet down on the table beside a platter of Bellinis with assorted toppings. “I’m as big a stickler for perfection as anyone, but you’re unreasonably nitpicking. Every company we saw today was great. They were professional and the food was tasty and creative. Chef on Wheels replicated your gorgonzola-and-cracked-black-pepper tenderloin flawlessly. I couldn’t tell you hadn’t made it.”

  Amelia frowned at her coworkers. Maybe the hormones were making her oversensitive, but she couldn’t help it. Flawlessly? Why should she be happy that someone had been able to copy one of her featured dishes so easily? “I’m sorry, but I’m not that enthusiastic about being supplanted. It’s hard to think about someone coming into this place and doing my job. Taking over my role. We’ll see how you guys like it when we interview your replacements.”