Semiautomatic Marriage. Leona Karr
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mouth trembled slightly as she asked, “You think the black-market drugs and his hit-and-run might be connected?”
“I don’t know, but I promise you I’ll do my best to find out.” He sat down beside her again. “Look, I feel like a heel pushing you like this, but if we’re going to set up this cover, it has to be now, before you move into your role as Carolyn Leigh Stanford. When you meet your uncle and the others living in the Stanford mansion, I’ll need to be there as your husband—a fait accompli, so to speak.”
“My…my uncle.” She stumbled over the term as if it had never crossed her lips before. “Do you know him?”
From the way her blue eyes widened, he realized that once again he was moving too fast for her. The idea of having a living relative must be as astounding as the rest of this situation.
“I’ve never met him,” Adam admitted, “but I know that Jasper Stanford is a man in his early fifties who’s lived with your grandfather for years. He’s a laboratory scientist at Horizon and has never shown any aptitude for the business side of the company. As I said before, he was a failure in his own ventures. Jasper was your mother’s only sibling. He was twenty-six years old and away at college when she ran away from home at sixteen. Their mother, your grandmother, died a few years after your mother, Alicia, leaving your grandfather a widower for many years.”
Adam paused, trying to decide the best way to explain the situation Carolyn was going to find under her grandfather’s roof and at the company. “Jasper’s girlfriend, Della, has been living in the Stanford mansion with her twenty-three-year-old daughter, Lisa, and her twenty-one-year-old son, Buddy. Apparently it was an arrangement that had your grandfather’s approval.”
What if I don’t like these people? Carolyn asked herself anxiously. And what if they didn’t like her? She felt her stomach tighten. She had plenty of memories where she was less than welcome, her presence tolerated only because of the money her foster parents were paid. The circumstances were different now, but one thing was the same. These people were going to resent her presence big-time.
“Were they mentioned in my grandfather’s will?”
“You and Jasper are the major beneficiaries. I’m sure that the contents of your grandfather’s will was totally unexpected, though, and your inheritance a great surprise to all of them.”
Was there a warning in his tone? She shivered. Too much was coming at her too fast. She needed a break. Quickly she rose to her feet.
“I missed my second cup of coffee at breakfast,” she said. “Would you care for a cup?”
The invitation wasn’t exactly full of warmth and hospitality, but he readily accepted and then followed her into the small kitchen. She motioned to one of the chairs at the chipped Formica table crowded into one corner.
“Cream and sugar?” she asked as she took a couple of mugs down from the cupboard.
“No, black.”
“Good, because I don’t have any cream,” she admitted with a wry smile. “Going grocery shopping is not one of my things.”
“Not mine, either. I knew we had something in common,” he added facetiously, hoping for a smile, but as she handed him the mug, her expression was anything but amused.
Instead of sitting down in the other chair, she leaned against the kitchen counter, sipping her own coffee. Even though they were in close physical proximity, she seemed able to completely disregard him. Everything in her body language told him she was processing what he had told her. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d taken her mug and disappeared into the other room, ignoring him completely.
He’d bungled everything. He’d completely misjudged Carolyn Leigh. The instant she’d locked those clear, ocean blue eyes on him, he should have known her outward feminine softness was deceiving. She had a self-reliance that was a match for his or anyone else’s. Arthur Stanford must have been aware of her strength and firm hold on her convictions when he decided to leave his assets to her. He doubted very much that she’d ever be swayed by pure emotion or easily dominated by a husband, pretend or otherwise. If she agreed to his plan, she’d be a tremendous help, but if she refused to consider a contrived marriage, there would be nothing he could do or say to make her change her mind.
He forced himself to remain silent, sipping his coffee. His wandering gaze settled on a kitchen shelf that held a small vase of artificial flowers, a chipped porcelain tea cup, and a small framed photo of an older woman standing with a frail-looking blond girl who appeared to be about eight. Carolyn? It must be.
“Yes, it’s me.” She startled him by suddenly sitting down in the other chair and following his gaze to the photo.
“And who’s the woman?” he asked.
“An angel.” A soft glow deepened the blue of her eyes. “Hannah Lamm. When I was a sickly, emaciated three-year-old, who had no appeal as a child to be adopted, she arranged to take me into her home. She nurtured me through all the childhood diseases. I stayed with her until I was eight. She saved my life. My physical health improved, and so did my mental abilities. Hannah convinced me that I had a good mind and could learn. Somehow she planted the idea that I could become a doctor. When she died and I was thrown back into the pack of unwanted orphans, when I thought life wasn’t worth living, that goal was the motivation that kept me going.”
“And you’ve supported yourself all the way?”
She nodded. “Hannah also taught me that goals are reached by working for them. I got a full-time job out of high school and was lucky enough to get with a good company and the chance to learn a lot about investments. Even after I started college, I worked part-time. Sometimes I was tempted to stay with Champion Realty and Investments, because I could see myself moving up in the company, but somehow I had to prove to myself—and to Hannah—that I could have an M.D. after my name.”
“And now you do. Congratulations. You have a medical degree and more. Your grandfather had great faith in you, Carolyn, and he must have loved your mother very much to leave almost everything he had to her daughter.”
“All this is too sudden. I still can’t believe it.” Her fingers tightened on her cup. “How could my life change so radically in the span of a few moments?”
“That’s the way it does sometimes, both good and bad. But nothing stays the same, and we really don’t have much choice how to handle change. We can make it work for us or just mark time.”
The challenge in his tone was clear, but she ignored it. She wasn’t ready to make any kind of a commitment. Certainly not the kind he was proposing. She needed time. Time! She glanced at the kitchen clock. Almost one o’clock. She was due at the free clinic at twelve-thirty.
“What’s the matter?” he asked as panic flashed across her face.
“It’s my afternoon at Friends Free Clinic.” She hurriedly got to her feet. “I completely forgot. Oh, no. My car. Taking a bus will eat up another hour.”
“Well, if mine is still working, I think we’re in business.”
She nodded. “Thank you. I’m surprised Dr. McPherson hasn’t called to chew me out. He’s an ornery old codger who should have retired years ago, but he can’t ignore the need. Just a minute while I grab my medical bag.”
“What about lunch?” he asked as if he hadn’t been planning on coaxing her to have it with him.
“I’m used to skipping it.”
“Doctor, doctor,” he teased. “For shame.”
She laughed then, a full, wonderful laugh that wrinkled her nose, brought a shine to her crystalline blue eyes. She was utterly beautiful. Vibrant. And desirable. He was stunned by the sudden realization that Carolyn Leigh was about to touch some guarded depth of emotion that he thought he’d put away forever. He couldn’t afford such feelings. First of all, she was on the threshold of a lifestyle of money