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“Well, hallelujah,” Vidalia said, smiling. “I wondered where my daughter was hiding for a minute there.”
“She’s back, Mom.” Maya sent her mother a loving smile. Then turned to face Caleb again. “I’m Vidalia Brand’s eldest daughter. I need to see the newspaper, and I promise you, I’m not going to fall apart when I do. No matter what it says.”
Caleb lifted his brows and turned to glance at Vidalia. She gave him a nod. Looking as if he thought better of it, he reached inside his jacket and pulled out a folded-up tabloid newspaper. On the front page was a photo of Maya and Caleb walking into the clinic, obviously taken the day before. The headline saidFront-Running Candidate’s Dirty Little Secret.
She lifted her chin, folded the paper back up. “I’m going to shower and put on some decent clothes. I’ll take this with me.”
“Maya, don’t worry. We’re going to fix this. I promise.”
She looked at Caleb, so strong, confident, sure of himself. “You really do care about these babies, don’t you?” she asked. Because it was suddenly so crystal clear to her that he did.
He held her gaze. “I didn’t know it was even possible to care this much, Maya.”
She smiled a bit unsteadily. “I know the feeling.”
“Do you need help…with anything?”
She shook her head. “My sisters are still upstairs. I’ll, um…call them if I need them.” Then she frowned as a thought occurred to her. “Mom, if Mel catches any reporters snooping around, there’s going to be trouble.”
Her mother looked worried, then looked at Caleb. Good Lord, why was everyone suddenly turning to him for answers? They’d got along just fine without a man forever!
“No reporters will be near the place. I was on the phone half the night getting things set up. We’ve got security men stationed out front. No one’s going to get past them. My top aide is on his way here with my legal team. They’ll help us formulate our response. And by the time you get out of the shower, Maya, you’ll have a new private telephone number.”
She tilted her head. “You work fast.”
“I’ve been in this game a while.”
She got to her feet, but before she turned to go, he stopped her, placing his hands tenderly on her swollen belly. “I’ll make it all right…for all of you. I promise.”
She laid her hands over his. “I honestly believe you’ll try, Caleb.”
He was looking very deeply into her eyes just then, and there was something else. “All this…all that’s been happening…there hasn’t been time to talk about…anything else.”
She lowered her head. “What else is there?” And before he could answer, she turned and hurried away.
By the time she came back downstairs, dressed in her prettiest maternity clothes, back throbbing and clenching in protest, Maya’s home was crawling with strangers. Men with radios and headsets sipped coffee and munched on crumb cake in the kitchen, and the dining room table was surrounded. Mel, Selene, Kara and Vidalia lined one side of the long oak table, while three men in dark blue suits lined the other. Caleb sat at the head, and the chair to his right was empty.
“I’m telling you, Caleb,” one animated man in his late twenties was saying. “I can spin this thing into solid gold, for both you and Ms. Brand.”
“She’s not going to like it, Bobby,” Caleb said.
“What won’t I like?”
Everyone looked up to see her. The men rose, and Caleb pulled out the empty chair for her. “Gentlemen,” Caleb said, “meet Maya Elouisa Brand, the mother of the heirs to the Montgomery fortune.”
She blinked in surprise. “That’s a far cry from my former title—’the slut who destroyed the Montgomery-legacy.’”
“Thank you,” the impeccably dressed, almost boyishly good-looking Bobby said.
She frowned at him. “Why are you thanking me?”
“For the compliment on my work. ‘Mother of the heirs to the Montgomery fortune.’ That’s mine. It’s what I do,” he explained. “Your status is soon going to be the American equivalent of royalty, Ms. Brand. I’m the best spin doctor in the business. And you…well….” Shaking his head, holding his palm up toward her, he smiled. “Hell, with you to work with, this is going to be a cake-walk.”
She frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t follow.” She went to her chair, took it, and the men sat down.
“Well, look at you. You’re gorgeous. And you have that clean, natural, healthy look about you.”
“I’m not sure whether to thank you or offer to let you check my teeth,” she said.
