To Make a Marriage (12 page)

‘Of course he did.' Adam gave Andie a reassuring smile.

‘With the amount of weddings in the Summer family needing to be announced in recent months, the newspaper editor must be rubbing his hands with glee.'

Andie grinned. ‘Six months ago none of us had even thought of marriage!'

Adam took her hand in his as they walked along side by side. ‘I think we should go out to celebrate tonight, don't you? Possibly with Danie and Jonas? Jonas did say that Danie will be back in time for dinner.'

Andie's smile showed that she was pleased by this suggestion. ‘I think that's an excellent idea,' she confirmed. ‘This way Danie may have missed out on the engagement, but she'll be the first to hear about the twins.'

Adam's stomach seemed to rise up, turn a somersault, before falling back into place again. He had seen the two
babies on the screen, even had a photograph of his very own showing those two tiny beings curled up together in foetal bliss—and he still found it incredible to believe that he was going to be a father soon, not to one baby, but two.

‘You really don't mind?' He looked down intently at Andie.

‘Of course not,' she answered instantly.

‘But it's going to be more difficult with two,' he persisted, needing to be absolutely sure that Andie was happy with the way things were. It could be disastrous if she weren't.

Andie shook her head. ‘Harder work, maybe. In fact, I'm sure it will be.'

‘It might make it harder for you to return to work afterwards,' he pointed out.

Andie's laugh had a slight catch in it. ‘I have a feeling I won't want to go back to work! Awful, isn't it?” She screwed her nose up endearingly.

Adam would be perfectly happy with Andie staying at home to care for their children. In fact, he would prefer it. But there was no way he would ever make that decision for her. ‘Wait and see how you feel,' he advised cautiously. ‘You may find you miss all that glamour after a few months.' After all, Andie had always been extremely fashion-conscious herself.

‘Motherhood may not be glamourous, but I'm sure the twins will keep me more than busy. In fact, it will probably be infinitely more fun than a job that now seems frivolous and unimportant.'

‘We could always employ a nanny—'

‘No way,' Andie told him determinedly. ‘None of us ever had a nanny, Mummy always looked after us herself, and she said that, no matter how hard and difficult it could sometimes be, it was worth it, if only in the fact that we
each knew we were totally loved.' A slightly wistful look came over her beautiful face. ‘She also said that no matter how many children you have there's always enough love to go round.'

Barbara would say something like that, Adam realised sadly. She would also have been overjoyed at the prospect of grandchildren.

‘Do you still miss her?' Adam heard himself ask. And then wished he hadn't, as Andie's beautiful face clouded over. ‘Forget I said that,' he told her hastily. ‘It was a stupid question. What I suggest we do now, if you have no other plans,' he added softly, aware that he could be domineering in his decisions without actually meaning to be; he had been in charge of just his own destiny too long, it would take time to adjust to the three—no, four—of them, as a unit!

‘I have no other plans, Adam,' Andie answered him, obviously fully aware of what he was endeavouring to do.

‘I just have to pop back to my office to check on a contract my secretary was preparing when I left earlier, and I thought you could come with me. Once I've dealt with the contract we could perhaps go on to an estate agent and make some enquiries about houses?' He looked at Andie questioningly.

She nodded. ‘That space and garden you mentioned seems all the more appealing now that we know there will be two babies and not one. A visit to an estate agent's sounds like a very good idea,' she agreed happily.

Adam felt such a sense of ecstatic happiness himself, at the thought of their future life together, that for a moment he couldn't speak. He could see the four of them now, out in the garden together, Andie laughingly happy, the two babies gurgling merrily on a blanket on the lawn.

But, as always happened when he imagined that com
plete happiness, a shadow loomed. A dark, ugly shadow that he wanted nowhere near his future life with Andie.

The same shadow that loomed as they approached his offices!

Once again there was that familiar figure, patiently waiting, a newspaper tucked under one arm!

Adam didn't need to be told that Glenda had seen the announcement. He had spoken to her only last week, dealt with that situation—for what he had hoped at the time would be several months; there was absolutely no reason for Glenda to be here now, other than the fact she had seen the marriage announcement in the newspaper she so conspicuously carried.

‘Adam…?' Andie looked up at him uncertainly as she seemed to sense his sudden tension.

What did he do now? He could hardly turn tail and run. But to actually speak to Glenda, with Andie at his side, was even more unacceptable.

Why was there never a bus to walk under when you needed one?

T
HEY
had come to an abrupt halt on the pavement after getting out of Adam's car outside his offices, Adam's sudden tension a tangible thing as Andie looked up at him worriedly.

She followed his line of vision, but there was really nothing to see, just a blonde woman in a poppy-red suit, reading some notices in an office window.

But Adam was staring at the woman as if he had seen a ghost!

Andie turned back to look at the woman herself. Tall and very slender, that blonde hair resting silkily on her shoulders, she had a sensual beauty that sometimes came with age, a beauty Andie was sure men would find attractive.

That Adam had found attractive?

It suddenly occurred to Andie that this woman could be one of those loose ends she had expected Adam to deal with now that he was marrying her.

She felt tense herself now. The last thing she wanted, today of all days—the incredible news of their twins still uppermost in her feelings!—was to have to deal with one of the legion of women who had at some time been part of Adam's life!

Although it seemed, as Adam tightly gripped her arm as they slowly began to walk towards the building that housed his offices, that she was going to have little choice in the matter.

The woman had turned now, was watching their approach with speculatively narrowed eyes.

Andie instantly felt an unexplained animosity welling up inside her!

She hadn't even spoken to the other woman. She had no proof that she was someone Adam had been involved with. Nevertheless, Andie knew that she disliked the other woman intensely.

‘Adam,' the woman greeted.

‘Glenda,' he bit out harshly, his hand falling away from Andie's arm now.

Andie watched the two of them, swallowing hard, knowing that if Adam ever looked at her with such contempt she could want to curl up in a corner and die.

‘Aren't you going to introduce me to your fiancée, Adam?' the woman Glenda said archly. ‘I take it this is your future wife?' She looked speculatively at Andie.

‘I'm Andrea Summer, yes,' Andie was the one to answer stiffly, reaching out to curl her fingers about Adam's hand. A hand that was surprisingly very cold. Or perhaps not so surprising; Adam looked as if he were carved out of ice at this moment.

The woman Glenda gave her a sweeping glance before turning her attention back to Adam. ‘Adam…?' she said pointedly.

His expression was grim, his mouth a thin angry line, grey eyes narrowed chillingly. Andie felt a shiver down her own spine just looking at him. Although the woman Glenda seemed unperturbed by Adam's lack of welcome, smiling at him confidently…

He drew in a harshly angry breath. ‘Andrea Summer. Glenda—Howarth.'

Was it her imagination, or had there been the slightest hesitation in Adam's voice before he'd stated the other woman's surname? As if he would rather not have said it!

Although Andie couldn't imagine why not. As far as she
was aware, the other woman's name meant nothing to her. Although the same obviously wasn't true of Adam…

‘Mrs Howarth,' Andie responded stiltedly, actually having no idea of the other woman's married state. The too-slender hands were bare of rings, but in this day and age that didn't mean anything; lots of women chose not to wear a wedding ring.

‘Miss Summer,' the other woman drawled derisively before once again turning back to Adam. ‘And the wedding is to be two weeks on Saturday, I believe?'

Adam's nostrils flared as he looked at the newspaper tucked beneath the woman's arm. ‘That is one of the few newspapers I know that actually print the truth,' he replied tautly.

The woman continued to smile undauntedly. ‘I trust I will be receiving an invitation?' she queried.

Andie saw raw anger flare in Adam's tightly set features, that silver gaze sending out shards of light. Whoever this woman was—whatever she had once been to Adam—he obviously did not want her at their wedding!

‘It's going to be a very quiet wedding.' Andie was the one to answer the other woman. And not exactly truthfully; their guest list had added up to fifty at the last count. ‘With family and only a few very close friends,' she finished firmly.

Blonde brows arched. ‘Really? In that case—'

‘We're actually in rather a hurry, Glenda.' Adam cut her short, fingers tightening about Andie's hand. ‘So if you wouldn't mind—'

‘So it would seem.' The woman looked at him for several seconds before her slightly contemptuous eyes passed on to Andie.

This woman knew, or had at least guessed, that Andie was pregnant!

Andie didn't know how she was so sure the other woman knew, she just knew that she did. Because Adam had told her? Had he excused his sudden marriage by explaining that he really had little choice in the matter, that it was literally a shotgun wedding; Rome would have taken a shotgun to Adam if they weren't married and Rome recognised the baby as being the other man's!

Andie felt slightly sick, those moments of deep emotional intimacy she and Adam had shared, as they'd gazed at their babies, disappearing like a puff of smoke.

Adam was being forced into marrying her by the circumstances of his long-standing friendship with her family, her father in particular, and, no matter how much she loved Adam, she knew she must never lose sight of that fact.

She turned blindly to Adam. Blindly, because of the tears threatening to fall. Something she would not allow to happen in front of Adam, let alone this brittle, but beautiful woman.

‘If you don't mind, Adam, I think I'm really too tired to bother with the estate agents today.' To her surprise her voice sounded lightly dismissive, instead of how she really felt—heartbroken! ‘In fact, I think I'll return home and rest for a while if we're going out this evening with Danie and Jonas.'

Something she was no longer looking forward to, Andie acknowledged heavily. Half an hour ago the world had seemed bright and full of promises, now it only consisted of two tiny innocent beings caught at the centre of what was, after all, merely a loveless marriage! Carrying out what now seemed nothing but a charade, in front of her sister and Jonas, was going to take every ounce of courage she possessed!

‘Andie—'

‘I'll call Danie and Jonas later this afternoon, and let you
know where and at what time we're meeting them for dinner,' Andie pushed smoothly into what she knew was going to be Adam's protest at having her cut their afternoon together short like this. She did it with all of her old authority; she was perfectly capable of choosing to make decisions without consulting Adam first! ‘I'll leave you to talk to Mrs Howarth, Adam.'

‘I hope I haven't interrupted something?' Glenda Howarth said cattily.

Telling Andie that she hoped no such thing at all! The other woman was enjoying herself at the expense of Adam's marriage to Andie—and Andie, for one, had taken enough of it.

‘Not in the least, Mrs Howarth,' she came back smoothly. ‘Adam and I will have the rest of our lives together, I certainly don't begrudge you a few minutes of his time.' Her emerald-hard gaze told Glenda Howarth that if it amounted to anything more than that, begrudging a few minutes of Adam's time would be the least of the other woman's problems.

Blue eyes returned to hers unflinchingly. ‘That's very gracious of you.'

Gracious was the last thing Andie felt—she could cheerfully have wiped that condescending smile off the other woman's face! But, having no idea what this woman meant to Adam, that was something she couldn't do.

She turned to Adam. ‘I'll give you a ring later.' She reached up and placed a light kiss on his rigidly clenched jaw. ‘Goodbye, Mrs Howarth,' she added with more than a little force.

‘Miss Summer.' The other woman was still confidently unperturbed.

Adam seemed stunned by the suddenness of her decision to leave, Andie realised as she turned away from them to
signal a passing taxi to stop. He hadn't come out of that stupor by the time she had climbed into the waiting taxi and turned to give him a dismissive wave through the window.

She gave the taxi driver her address before sinking wearily back into the seat, realising as she did so that her legs were actually shaking.

She hadn't liked Glenda Howarth on sight, and further acquaintance hadn't changed that opinion, the other woman proving to be hard and brittle. Worst of all, she seemed to have some sort of hold over Adam…

That was the thing that bothered Andie the most about that unexpected meeting.

Adam hadn't been at all pleased earlier when Jonas had told them Rome had put their marriage announcement in the newspaper, and at the time Andie had guessed there was someone that Adam didn't want to see that announcement.

She now knew, with sickening clarity, that person was Glenda Howarth!

Who was Glenda Howarth?

More to the point, what did the other woman mean to Adam…?

Andie had a feeling she wouldn't like the answer to either of those questions!

 

Adam watched Andie as she chatted happily with Danie across the dinner table.

As promised, Andie had telephoned him at five-thirty to tell him she had managed to contact Danie, and that the four of them were meeting up for dinner at Cleo's at eight o'clock.

Andie had sounded bright and cheerful enough on the telephone, just as she had looked stunningly beautiful in a
knee-length black dress when he'd called at her apartment for her shortly after seven-thirty so that they could drive to the restaurant together. And she seemed happy enough in Danie and Jonas's company now too.

But for all that bright happiness Andie portrayed, Adam knew that something had subtly changed between them this afternoon. Andie was politely gracious when he told her how beautiful she looked this evening, politely considerate of everything he said, politely distant! In fact, Andie was just too damned
polite
!

He knew the reason for it, of course. Andie was puzzled, if not a little hurt, by that strained meeting with Glenda earlier this afternoon. The problem was, he wasn't sure, without telling Andie everything, how he could make things right between them again. It was something he had hoped to avoid until after he and Andie were safely married.

Although he had had the satisfaction, after Andie had left so abruptly, of leaving Glenda in no doubt that if she tried to interfere in his life again in the way she had today, then she would get nothing else from him. Absolutely nothing.

As Glenda's interest in him had only ever been a financial one, he was pretty sure she would take note of that warning.

Which took care of Glenda, for the immediate future, but did absolutely nothing to put things right between himself and Andie. If he tried to touch her, put his arm about her waist, hold her hand, she found some way of eluding that touch. When he had moved to kiss her on arrival at her apartment earlier, she had turned her face slightly so that he'd ended up kissing her cheek.

In other words, he was back to square one as far as Andie was concerned!

It wasn't acceptable to him! Being with Andie was the best thing that had ever happened in his life—and he wasn't about to lose it.

He reached out and took her hand in his, his grasp tightening as she seemed to instinctively move away. ‘Isn't it time you told Danie our news…?' he prompted as Andie turned to look at him questioningly.

Her cheeks became slightly heated, her gaze shifting uncertainly away from his.

Andie didn't want to tell Danie they were expecting twins!

Adam knew that as clearly as if Andie had shouted the words out loud, feeling a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Andie had seemed as excited as he was earlier when Jonas had shown them the two babies on the screen. Obviously it was something that had happened since that had changed that.

Glenda had happened!

His mouth tightened at that realisation. Glenda was responsible for much of the unhappiness in his own life; he would not allow her to be the cause of any in Andie's.

‘We already know about the wedding.' Danie was the one to break what was becoming an uncomfortably long silence following Adam's question.

‘Andie?' Adam prompted again, his hand tightening reassuringly about Andie's now.

She drew in a sharp breath before smiling across at her sister. Adam just hoped he was the only one who could tell how strained that smile was!

‘Jonas did a scan for us today,' Andie told Danie lightly.

‘It was—very illuminating,' she added with a return of some of her mischievous humour.

Danie turned to her quietly listening husband. ‘You didn't mention that,' she rebuked playfully.

Jonas shrugged. ‘Doctor and patient confidentiality still stands, even from the patient's sister. Even if that sister happens to be my own wife. As you very well know.'

‘Can you believe this man, Adam?' Danie turned to him, her eyes twinkling humorously. ‘For several weeks after Jonas and I first met, I thought he was a heart specialist, or, at worst, a cancer specialist!' She shook her head. ‘I even got the patient wrong!'

Adam smiled. ‘Sounds like an interesting story,' he said.

He had always rather liked the red-haired Danie; of the three sisters she was probably the most spirited. Although Jonas didn't seem to be having any problems as her husband, looking confidently relaxed as he sat beside his wife.

The other man had a quiet strength of character that was more than a match for Danie's more extrovert one, Adam was quickly learning. The other man was also highly intelligent. Jonas was a very capable obstetrician. And obviously deeply in love with Danie. It was the latter that made Adam like him the most.

‘Oh, it is,' Danie confirmed. ‘So tell me your news,' she demanded. ‘Obviously Jonas already knows it.' She gave her husband a playfully chastising look.