Pregnesia. Carla Cassidy
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of a woman was she to be carrying somebody else’s baby and feel that burst of heat at the smile of a virtual stranger?
There had been a moment when his gaze had drifted over her that she’d wished her tummy was thin and shapely, that they’d met in the grocery store or at a restaurant and were together because of a mutual attraction.
Maybe she hadn’t just lost her memory, maybe she’d lost her entire mind, she thought as she slid into his passenger seat.
Stress. It had to be stress that had her thinking such crazy thoughts. The only thing she knew she could count on, at least for the moment, was Lucas and his sister. Was it any wonder she would be attracted to him?
“If you don’t recover your memory sometime today, then tomorrow I’ll make some discreet inquiries about missing persons reports that have been filed in the last day or so,” Lucas said as he started the car. “Surely somebody you know will get worried and report you missing.”
“Unless nobody cares that I’m missing,” she replied.
He shot her a quick look. “I would find that hard to believe.”
She released a wry laugh. “I find this entire situation hard to believe.”
“Let’s play a little game. I’ll ask you some questions and you give me the first answer that pops into your head.”
“Okay,” she agreed as he pulled out of the apartment parking lot.
“What’s your favorite television show?”
“The Closer,” she replied without any real thought.
He nodded. “Good. And what was the last movie you went to see?”
“I don’t go to the movie theater very often.” She tried not to think about the tiny nuggets of information the answers revealed about herself, afraid that the nuggets would stop coming.
“What’s your favorite restaurant here in the city?”
“That’s easy, Café Italian on Maple Street.” A buzz of excitement went off inside her. “Maybe they’ll know me in there. Maybe they can tell us who I am.”
“I know the place. It isn’t far from where I found you last night in the car. Maybe we’ll go there for lunch and see what we can find out.”
Jane’s excitement grew. It was possible that by lunchtime she’d know who she was; she’d at least know her name. Surely that would make it easier for her to find out what had happened to her.
“It’s a place to start,” he said, invading her thoughts. He pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot and found a space near the front door. At this time of the morning the store didn’t look too busy.
They got out of the car and had taken only a couple of steps toward the door when a voice inside her head thundered.
Don’t let them find you.
The words seemed to come from some separate entity inside her brain and they screamed with an alarm that froze her in her tracks.
Instinctively she reached out and grabbed Lucas’s hand as fear charged through her. He curled his fingers with hers as he looked at her with concern. “Are you all right?” he asked. “Is it the baby?”
Two thoughts raced through her mind. The first was that she liked the way his big, strong hand felt around hers, and the second was that the voice she’d thought she’d heard in her head had probably been nothing more than a response to the drama of her situation.
She suddenly felt foolish. She unfurled her fingers from his and gave a small laugh. “No, it’s not the baby. I guess I just had a case of nerves.”
He dropped his hand to his side and studied her intently. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. The only thing you have to worry about is being overwhelmed by all the choices.”
She forced a smile. “That never happens with women,” she said.
Once again they began to walk to the door. Surely the words that had thundered in her head meant nothing, she told herself. But what worried her was they hadn’t sounded like nothing. They had sounded like a warning … but a warning of what?
Chapter Three
Once again Lucas found himself doubting the veracity of her amnesia story. Something had happened in the parking lot. He thought she might have thought of something or remembered something that she apparently didn’t want to tell him.
She didn’t trust him. How could he help her if she didn’t trust him?
Lucas pushed the cart with one hand, took Jane by her elbow and guided her down an aisle. When he’d seen her in his T-shirt he’d realized how tiny she was despite her pregnancy. The baby weight was all up front like a ball in her belly, but everywhere else she was slender.
“If you’ll just get me a blouse and a toothbrush, that should be enough,” she said as they walked through the linen section toward the back of the store.
Lucas didn’t know a lot about women, but there was no way he believed she could make do for a day or two with just a new blouse and the jeans she had on.
When they reached the maternity clothes, she headed directly to a clearance rack. Apparently she meant to spend as little of his money as possible.
As she thumbed through the discounted items, he spied a blue cotton long-sleeved blouse exactly the color of her eyes and plucked it from the rack. He threw it into the basket, then added an oversized blue and white sweater.
Although she hadn’t mentioned it, she probably needed some underwear, too. He certainly didn’t want to completely outfit a woman who might return to a husband or a boyfriend before nightfall. She had a life somewhere, with clothes and shoes and everything else necessary. Still, he didn’t want her to do without the bare necessities while she was with him for a day or two.
She returned to where he stood with the cart, carrying an ugly gray T-shirt that had probably been the cheapest on the rack.
“I don’t think so,” he said. She looked at him in surprise. “If I’m going to be looking at you for the next day or two, I don’t want you wearing something ugly.”
“But it’s only five dollars,” she protested.
“There’s a reason it’s so cheap.” He took it from her and hung it on a nearby rack. “What about that pink shirt there?” He pointed to a pastel T-shirt that said Baby on Board. “With another pair of slacks, you should be all right with the other things I grabbed,” he said. He averted his gaze from her. “Then we’ll head to the underclothes department and you can get what you need.”
She grabbed him by the arm and when he looked at her, those beautiful blue eyes of hers were once again misty with tears. “I can only hope that the father of this baby is half the man you are, Lucas.”
“Don’t make me into some kind of a hero,” he replied with a definite edge in his voice. “I’m just doing what anyone would do under the circumstances.”
As they left the maternity section and headed to the undergarments department, he wanted to tell her that he was the last person she should look at with such soft, appealing eyes, with that hint of hero worship that made him feel too warm inside his own skin.
As she picked out a package of panties, he stood at the end of the aisle and waited for her. An old woman stood at the other end of the aisle and appeared to be looking at Jane. When she saw Lucas she offered a sweet smile, then moved on to another aisle.
Jane returned to the cart and threw in her choices. Her cheeks were slightly pink as she looked at him. “I hope I’m a wealthy woman because I’m going to owe you a bunch of money.”
“Don’t be silly,” he replied. He pointed to the