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Dane concentrated hard but then gave a slight shake of his head. “Nothing yet.”
“It’s very subtle. But I feel it.”
He raised his hand and cupped the side of my face. “That’s incredible. You’re incredible.” Love blazed in his eyes and it warmed my heart.
“I hope I’ll be a good mom.”
“You’ll be the best.”
I inched forward and kissed him softly. “At least I know how not to be an evil witch from hell.”
That would be my own mother. A woman who had not only destroyed my father and abandoned me years ago, until she’d discovered I had something she finally deemed of worth—money and prestige—but who also recently threatened my father’s stellar reputation as a former PGA favorite in an attempt to extort cash from me. She’d even tried to collect on the tragedy at 10,000 Lux.
I didn’t feel guilty that she and I were estranged, that I held no love for her. I’d had to sever that tie long ago, for my own sanity. I wasn’t sure anyone could honestly say they wanted absolutely nothing to do with a parent, but sometimes it was born of sheer necessity.
I had yet to tell Dane my mother had returned to Sedona after the explosion. Kyle had helped me deal with the situation at that point. I’d needed her off my back, away from me so that she didn’t create more drama and tension.
Granted, I still harbored a hint of apprehension over how she’d respond if she learned Dane was alive and that we were married. Would she darken my doorstep again? Concoct some other method to get her hands on my money?
I wouldn’t spend the rest of my life paying her off; I’d already discerned that. Nor would Dane. But what if she used our secret marriage against us? Worse, what if she used my pregnancy against us?
Kathryn DeMille had proven she wasn’t above dirtying her own hands to better her situation. She’d been willing to fess up to adultery for the sake of a lucrative book deal if her blackmailing me didn’t pan out. Luckily, Dane had put a stop to that insidious plot.
She was definitely a piece of work.
I shuddered.
Dane frowned. His thumb whisked over my cheekbone. “Hey. What are you thinking about?”
I didn’t like keeping anything from him, so I admitted, “Something I failed to tell you after I was released from the hospital and figured out you were among the land of the living, though working undercover with the FBI.”
The crease between his eyes spoke volumes. If something disturbed me or posed a problem, he wanted to be the first to know. So he could deal with it.
But my independent nature forced me to try to solve my own crises. Which irked him in that possessive it’s my job to protect you, Ari sort of way.
However, I said, “Just mentioning my mother makes me fear she’s going to materialize in a plume of smoke, broom in hand.”
“Thought we took care of that.”
“No,” I corrected with a bit of scolding in my tone that made his brow crook. “You took care of it, when I’d specifically asked you not to, remember?”
“Ari. The woman planned to bleed you dry. You would have been stuck signing over every paycheck to her, working your fingers to the bone for nothing.”
“True,” I reluctantly agreed. “Though I was formulating a strategy to—” The other brow jerked up. The double-doubt look. I laughed softly. “All right, all right. When it comes to her, I am not nearly as strong willed as I’d like to be.” Not to mention, I’d do anything under the sun to keep my dad from being publicly humiliated. He’d never deserved her venomous attacks, mostly stemming from the fact that injuries had kept him from reaching the top tier of professional golf legends—thereby, in my mother’s selfish opinion, precluding her from the elite status she’d sought by being his wife.
“Baby,” Dane said as he slid his hand through my thick hair. “If she comes back, then—”
“She did come back,” I said. And cringed.
His hand left my hair. His eyes squeezed shut briefly as he pinched the inner corners in obvious consternation. And irritation.
I sighed. I was about to get an earful.
“I didn’t want to trouble you with her visits,” I explained. “You had enough on your plate after the explosion—you still do.”
His eyes snapped open. “Ari.”
“Don’t get all surly.”
