An Act of Persuasion(58)

“Then you’ve come to the right place. I’m nowhere near happy with love right now.”

“What’s your beef?”

“Well, there was this charming redhead I met who I would have liked to get to know better. Sadly, she was already committed...and pregnant.”

She batted a hand at him, dismissing his heartbreak, but he had to admit it wasn’t all harmless flirtation. Leave it to Ben to snatch her up first. Leave it to Mark to be always a step behind.

A house, he thought. Ben obviously wasn’t taking any chances. Could there be a more perfect gift for a woman who had grown up in the foster-care system? Mark only hoped the gesture had been made out of sincerity and not strategy.

“I’m serious, I don’t know what to do.”

“About the house? Worried it’s a bribe?”

Anna shook her head. “That’s the problem. It’s not a bribe. He bought it for me months ago. When he was sick.”

Not strategy then. Just sentimental feelings. Ben Tyler with sentimental feelings. The very idea seemed completely unsupportable, but the truth was glaringly obvious. “He really thought he was going to die, didn’t he?”

Anna nodded. “You’ve never seen a man look so betrayed. When we got the news after the first round of chemo that the cancer was still there, it was like he’d personally failed at a mission. He was devastated. Not because he was still sick, but because he hadn’t successfully destroyed it. I should have known then that he would have done anything to beat it. That he would be willing to take any risk...just to win.”

That sounded a lot like Ben. “So let’s recap. You have a man who you say you love. This same man who bought you a house when he thought he was dying so you had somewhere to go after his death. This man who is also the father of your unborn child—”

Anna winced. “Yeah, I get it. I’m being stubborn and ridiculous. I should just marry him and make a home with him and raise the kid. Easy answer.”

“Anna, I wasn’t trying to talk you into anything. You said you’re being stubborn and ridiculous. Isn’t the question why? He’s been back in your life for a couple of weeks now. First, you were afraid he didn’t love you. Then you were afraid he only wanted you for the baby.”

“That still could be true.”

“No, it can’t. And you know it. Because he didn’t buy that house when you were pregnant. Isn’t that what’s scaring you most of all?”

She looked at him then and he could see an anguish that belied her normally easy nature. This woman had been hurt in ways Mark didn’t remotely understand.

“What if, in the end...he doesn’t love me?”

“I don’t see how that’s possible.”

She gulped and he could see she didn’t entirely believe him. Whether it was her fear of not being loved, or her fear of being abandoned after she committed herself, it had a remarkably strong hold on her. Why shouldn’t it?

Her parents had left her. A foster mother she cared about got sick and so she was taken away from her. Ben got sick and he was almost lost to her. Mark wondered if Ben knew how scared she was. If he understood the real reason she’d left him when he got sick wasn’t because he didn’t include her in his decision, but because she needed to leave him before he left her?

Anna was a woman who was lacing up her sneakers and getting ready to flee. Mark could see it. He wondered if Ben did.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’ve taken up enough of your time. This is my job and I’m sitting here talking about my love life.”

“You can always talk to me. We’re friends, Anna.”

She smiled halfheartedly and returned to her computer and whatever tasks she had lined up for the day.

Mark thought about calling Ben to tell him he needed to be even more cautious with her. Then Mark considered Ben’s reaction the last time he’d tried to talk to him about Anna. No, Mark was done interfering. Ben was on his own when it came to love.

But as much as Mark liked to consider Ben a rival, he was, in his own way, kind of rooting for the guy. Obviously Ben had powerful feelings for her. But if he pushed her too hard and went too fast—the home buying a case in point—he wouldn’t give her enough time to accept that what he was offering was real and permanent.

Anna wasn’t much better than a rabbit right now. And while Ben was holding up a really big carrot, and she was desperately hungry for it, one false step and she might decide she was better off without it. Safer, anyway.