Their Baby Bargain

CHAPTER ELEVEN

HE’D left.

Wendy had heard the cars departing. First the Aston Martin, gunned down the road by an inexpert hand. She’d hoped Sonia had organised insurance-and then had been tempted enough to hope that maybe she hadn’t. Then there had been the sound of two other cars. That would take care of Nick and the city lawyers, she’d thought. But when she’d taken Gabbie back inside she’d found Nick and Tom waiting for her.

No Luke.

‘Congratulations, young lady,’ Tom told Gabbie gravely, and the flushed look on his face told Wendy he couldn’t have been more pleased at this ending. ‘We’ve just organised you a new mother. Nick has the legal forms here, and if you’d like to sign them, Wendy, we can get things underway.’ He grinned. ‘You realise, you’ll have to submit to social security checks as an adoptive mother.’ And then he chuckled. ‘If I have to forge them myself they’ll be fantastic. Well done.’

‘Where’s Luke?’ Wendy asked.

‘He’s driven Sonia’s car into the second-hand car dealer in Bay Beach,’ Nick told her, his eyes resting on her face. ‘The agreement is that we’ll send the proceeds on to her straight away.’

‘And…and then?’

‘I guess he’s going back to Sydney.’

Without seeing her? Wendy’s heart sank to her boots.

‘I need to see him,’ she said desperately. ‘Nick, I need to catch him.’

He smiled. ‘Now, how did I know you’d say that? As it happens, I’m available to take this little lady out to the farm.’ He stooped to Gabbie’s height. ‘Gabbie, you know that Shanni and Harry are at the farm looking after Grace and Bruce while Wendy’s here with you. Wendy needs to see Luke-to say thank you for what he did for you both today. Do you agree with that?’

Gabbie considered. Things were going very right for once in her small world, and her smile said she could afford to be generous. ‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Then, if Wendy goes to look for Luke, will you come back to the farm with me?’

‘And you’ll come back, as well?’ she asked Wendy, and Wendy nodded.

‘As soon as I’ve found Luke.’

‘Tell him we love him, too,’ Gabbie said, and, amazingly, she tucked her hand into Nick’s and she smiled and smiled. ‘Okay. Let’s go home. I need to tell Bruce that I can stay with him for ever.’

He was still there.

Bay Beach Motors was right on the esplanade. Wendy pulled up and Sonia’s car was parked on the tarmac and Luke was waiting patiently while a sales rep crawled all over it.

‘Eight hundred dollars,’ the man was saying as Wendy approached. ‘It’s a wreck. That’s the best I can do.’

‘Fine.’ Luke looked drawn and haggard. The flights and the stress were starting to get to him. He put his hand in his pocket, withdrew his wallet and handed over a roll of bank notes. ‘Here’s another five hundred. Make a cheque out for one thousand three hundred dollars to Mrs Sonia Rolands and we’ll say that’s what you paid us. That way she can’t have any comeback on us. We’ve been more than generous.’

‘You have been at that.’ The salesman stared. ‘She’ll never expect this much.’

‘Well, maybe it’s her lucky day.’ And then he turned as he heard Wendy approach behind him, and his face stilled at the sight of her.

‘Hi,’ she said.

He didn’t smile. He just stood-waiting.

And so did the salesman. There must have been something about the tension between them-the vibes emanating from each-that made him stop and stare.

Maybe a more sensitive sort of guy might have melted into the background, but this salesman was going nowhere. He stared from Wendy to Luke and back again, and there was nothing for Wendy to do but what she’d intended to do all along-in broad daylight with whoever watching that wanted to.

She walked straight over to Luke, she took his face between her hands and she pulled his mouth down to hers to kiss him.

The kiss went on and on. First it was Wendy kissing Luke-he was so stunned that he was almost rigid. But she kissed on, her soft lips pleading, and the warm sunlight played over their joined faces and the salesman looked on in wonder-and Luke couldn’t resist for ever.

She felt his tension slacken in his body and a tremor ran right through him. She felt him begin to respond. Please…

And then she wasn’t kissing him any more. She was being kissed herself-with a thoroughness and ruthlessness and hunger that left her breathless.

Her Luke…

Finally it ended. Somehow it must, though afterwards she could never tell how long that wondrous, healing kiss had lasted. Ten minutes? Longer? No matter.

They pulled away and their audience had expanded. There were now three sales reps watching with avid interest, and a motley group of tourists on the esplanade were gazing on with blatant approval.

It didn’t matter one bit. Luke held her at arm’s length and he smiled at her with the smile she loved so much it made her heart still within her breast. Her Luke… Please, still her Luke.

‘Was that a thank-you kiss?’ he asked in a voice that was none too steady. It was a husky whisper, and it was laced with pure desire.

‘No.’ She shook her head, her eyes devouring him with love. ‘It was an I love you kiss. It was an I’m sorry, and I’ve been a fool and I want you more than I ever wanted anyone in my life kiss. I love you so much, my wonderful Luke. I want you to marry me. If you…if you’ll still have me.’

Silence. He took it in-he took all of her in-and the silence went on and on.

And then…

‘I might well buy another sports car,’ he said, eyeing her speculatively as if the thought had just come to him out of left field.

She grinned at that. ‘Do you have any money left?’

‘Not a lot.’ He sighed. ‘I’ll just have to make more. I need a quiet room where I can concentrate though-a farm, maybe-and a nice, peaceful family environment…’

‘Family?’ She chuckled, a lovely, joyous sound that rang over the foreshore. ‘I think I can manage family. I have a baby at hand. Also a five-year-old, a half-grown basset pup, the odd hundred or so cows and, as of last week, twenty new point-of-lay hens.’ She chuckled and her eyes devoured him with all the love in the world. ‘How does that sound?’

‘I have another leather jacket in my baggage,’ he warned her. ‘All the way from Fifth Avenue.’

‘How very suitable,’ she said, and her loving gaze didn’t falter. ‘In case we get another crow for you to rescue.’

‘And if we don’t?’

‘You wear it and I’ll love you wearing it,’ she told him. Her smile faded. ‘Luke, I’ve been really, really stupid…’

He put a finger on her lips, but there were still tests for her to pass. He gazed around the parking lot at the shining cars lined up for sale. ‘There’s a beaut little red roadster over there,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘I think I fancy it-right now.’

‘I thought you said you were broke.’

‘Comparatively,’ he said, and took her into his arms and nestled his chin into her hair. ‘Compared to yesterday.’

‘So if you really wanted that little red roadster…’

‘I guess it wouldn’t break the bank.’ And then he put her away from him for a little and gazed at her. ‘How about you? How would you feel about me buying it?’

‘I love what you love,’ she said simply. ‘Now and for ever. You want a roadster, you buy a roadster. Luke, until that moment in the office when you just said calmly, “You can have the car, too,” I never believed…’

‘That I wasn’t like Adam?’

‘That you were nothing like Adam. That I could trust you always, with whatever I had.’

‘With you?’

The words were simply said, and they came from the heart. Around them, their audience was growing by every appreciative minute. Bay Beach was seeing a romance at its best here, and they were soaking up every minute of it.

There were those here who knew Wendy and who wished her joy, but there were those who were strangers and knew they didn’t have to wish for anything. Joy was plainly written on two wondering faces. Here was a happy ending-or a truly wonderful beginning.

‘I’ll trust you for ever,’ Wendy said, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. ‘Oh, Luke, how could I have been so blind?’

‘A minor error of judgement I’m prepared to overlook,’ he said expansively. ‘Did you sign your mothering agreement? Do you have legal rights to Gabbie?’

‘Yes.’

‘And I signed my car away. It’s a day for signing if ever I saw one.’

‘I guess…’

‘What’s the legal timeframe for getting married in this country?’ he demanded suddenly, and his eyes glinted with love and laughter.

‘A month is the minimum. If we sign our intentions now.’

‘Then, that’s what we’ll do,’ he said softly, and he took her hands in his and he kissed her again so deeply that all the world knew they were seeing a marriage-right at this very moment. From now on, these two were one. ‘Right now, while we’re in a signing mood, we’ll sign our intentions to stay together for ever. What do you say, my love?’

And there was nothing she could say-not for quite a while until that sealing kiss came to an end. When finally he released her-but not very far-she stood back and smiled and smiled and smiled.

‘Yes, love,’ she told him. ‘I’ll sign anything you want. And then?’

‘And then we concentrate on living happily ever after,’ he told her solemnly. ‘Just you and me and Gabbie and Grace and Bruce…and whoever else comes along.’

‘Whoever…?’

‘You’ve no objection to expanding our family just a little?’ he asked. ‘You can get some very big sports cars these days.’

‘Oh, yeah, with dinky baby seats and the works. I’ll bet.’ But she was laughing.

‘If you pay enough you can get them specially made.’ His eyes held hers in the sunlight and they didn’t leave her for a moment. ‘But a baby would be perfect, I think. We started this whole deal with a baby bargain, my love. What better way to seal it-but with a baby.’

‘Or six?’

‘Six!’

‘Or whoever comes along,’ she said serenely. ‘Let’s just wait and see, my love. Let’s just see what love brings.’