Rendezvous With Yesterday (The Gifted Ones #2)(124)
Bingbong bingbong bingbong bingbongbingbong. Thump thump thump thump thump.
Breathing hard, both men stopped and turned toward the door. Marc took a step forward, lowering his sword tip.
The door burst inward and Beth hurtled past, disappearing down the hallway at top speed. “Marc!” she shouted at the top of her lungs. “I’ve lost Robert! I can’t find him!”
“In here,” Marc called.
Beth’s sneakers squeaked as she skidded to a halt on the wood floor, then backtracked into the living room. “I can’t find Robert! I—”
As soon as her eyes lit upon Robert, she let out a huge sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness.” Wilting against the nearest wall, she pointed an imperious finger at him. “Don’t ever do that again.”
Robert raised his eyebrows. “Visit Marc’s home?”
“Aye! I mean, nay. When I got home from the doctor’s office, the house was empty and you weren’t in the garage or in the backyard or anywhere else that I could see, and there was no note, and I didn’t know where you went, and… Do you have any idea how many people live in Houston? Or how long it would take me to go door to door, asking each and every one of them if they had by any chance seen a gorgeous but loony Brit who speaks garbled English?”
Robert frowned. “My English is not garbled.”
She turned her frown on Marc. “Hi, Marc.”
Marc grinned. “Hi, Beth.”
“’Twas not my intention to worry you, love,” Robert told her, hoping to calm her temper.
“Well, you did. I haven’t been that scared since I was shot.” Straightening suddenly, she noticed for the first time the new furniture arrangement and the swords in their hands. “What are you two doing?”
“Sparring,” Marc answered cheerfully.
Her eyebrows nearly met her hairline. “You know how to wield a sword?”
“Aye,” Robert said. “And, after sparring with him, I must admit Marc is my equal.”
“No way!” she exclaimed incredulously.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that,” Marc mumbled. And damned if he didn’t flush at the compliment.
“I would,” Robert insisted. “You are a worthy opponent who would give even my brother a challenge.”
“Wow,” Beth said. “That is high praise indeed, Marc.”
Incredibly, Marc blushed an even darker crimson.
“Wait,” she said, straightening. “You’re speaking Middle English.”
Marc nodded. “I’m a member of a reenactment group.”
Her mouth fell open. “You are?”
“Aye.”
“Wow. It must be one of those really fanatical ones if you learned to speak Middle English.”
Robert grinned at Marc. “She thought I was a member of such when she first met me.”
Marc laughed.
“Hey, Robert?” Beth remarked casually.
“Aye?”
“Have I told you how hot you look in jeans?”
He had learned that hot in her time did not always refer to temperature. “You have.”
She looked at Marc. “You look hot, too, by the way.”
Marc darted Robert a nervous glance.
He smiled wryly. “Beth has already assured me that I am the only man who is hot in a way that makes her want to tear my clothes off and have her way with me.”
“Something I would love to do right now,” Beth said, grinning mischievously, “but I have news.” Skipping forward, she clapped her hands rapidly in the manner of a child who has been promised a sweet and was fairly bursting with excitement. “Guess what! Guess what! Guess what!”
Thoroughly charmed, Robert grinned back. “What?”
“I’m pregnant!” Then, squealing, she jumped up and threw herself into his arms.
The sword Robert held clattered to the floor as he caught her. Shock rippled through him. “What?”
She laughed. “I’m pregnant! You’re going to be a daddy!”
Joy swept through him as her words sank in. Squeezing her closer, he spun her around in a circle. A babe! Beth was carrying his babe. Their babe. Their son or daughter.
Setting her on her feet, he covered her face with kisses, then hugged her close again.
A happy smile wreathed her face when he released her.
“Congratulations,” Marc said, smiling as he pulled her into a hug, then offered his hand to Robert.
Robert shook it and thanked him, his heart full.
“I don’t know why I was so surprised when Doctor Cohen told me,” Beth said, taking Robert’s hand and swinging it back and forth between them. “I mean, it wasn’t like we were using birth control or anything. But you could have knocked me over with a polo mallet! No wonder I’ve been crying so much lately. I thought it was just stress.”
Marc laughed.
Robert shook his head.
“You are pleased, aren’t you?” she asked him.
“More than I can say.” Spinning her into his arms, her back to his front, Robert rested both hands on her tummy.
She smiled up at him over her shoulder and placed her hands atop his. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, sweetling.”