The Unwanted Wife (Unwanted #1)(47)
“Well, I live with him and I know you’re both wrong,” she maintained stubbornly, shoving all those Scrabble and chess nights to the back of her mind determinedly. She tried not to think about the companionable meals and the silent support that he had lent her at every doctor’s appointment. “He’s in love with someone else. I’d say another woman, only in this case, I think I’m probably the other woman.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Rick asked furiously.
“He was in love with her before my father forced him into this marriage. She’s the woman he wants to have a family with. I’m the one who screwed up his life, Rick, not vice versa. Once I have this baby we’ll go our separate ways and both be happier for it.”
“This is so messed up.” Rick shook his head in disgust. “What about the baby and you? Don’t you count for anything?”
“I would hate it if he stayed out of some outdated sense of duty. I think I deserve more than that, don’t you?”
“Absolutely,” Lisa whispered, squeezing Theresa’s shoulders reassuringly before sitting down on the chair beside the bed and leaning toward Theresa. “So you felt the baby move?”
Theresa’s eyes lit up with remembered joy.
“It was amazing.” She nodded and both Rick and Lisa went misty as they verbally recalled Rhys’s first movements. “After the fright I got, it was such a relief to feel him moving around in there.”
“Is he doing any wriggling now? His auntie Lisa wants to meet him.”
Theresa shook her head with a slight laugh.
“He’s all quiet right now.” She rested her hand on her stomach. “I can’t believe I have to stay in bed for a week.”
“Yeah, that’s a bit crappy.” Lisa nodded sympathetically. “So glad I wasn’t confined to the bed at any time during my pregnancy.”
“God, if only…she was like a little dynamo, I had to force her to slow down,” Rick recalled with a shudder.
“Do you think I could stay with you for the next week or so?” Theresa asked hesitantly, and Rick and Lisa both frowned before nodding.
“Of course,” Lisa said. “But why?”
“Sandro’s going to Italy for a week and before this happened I had every intention of staying in my own home but—”
“If you think I’m going to Italy with you confined to a bed, you can damned well think again,” Sandro’s gruff voice suddenly interrupted from the doorway and three heads swiveled toward him. He looked…strange. His hair was disheveled, his suit wrinkled, and his tie loosened. He was also clutching a wilted bunch of flowers in one hand and a gaily wrapped square box in the other. Added to that he had an incongruous bunch of foil helium balloons trailing behind him. It was the latter that caught and held everybody’s attention. They were colorful, some were downright garish, and most of them either read Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary and one woefully out of place dolphin had the legend “Yippee for SUMMER” emblazoned across its side, a very optimistic sentiment considering that it was July and the middle of winter.
“Sandro, bro…” Rick managed in a voice that only barely trembled with laughter. “Did you go raiding all the wards in the hospital for those?”
“These were all the seriously understocked gift shop had,” Sandro grumbled, obviously sensitive to Rick’s mockery, which raised Theresa’s brows because she had never heard her self-assured husband sound so defensive before.
“Thank you, Sandro,” she said before Rick could come back with anything else. “I love helium balloons.”
“I know you do,” he said fiercely, surging forward until he elbowed Rick aside and stood staring down at her intently. “I know that you like helium balloons and pink gerbera daisies. I know that you like praline truffles.” He shoved the gift-wrapped box, which probably contained praline truffles, and the wilted pink daisies into her arms. “I do know things about you, Theresa. I’ve been learning.”
“Um…” Okay? Right, so he remembered the conversation they’d had months ago when she’d accused him of knowing nothing about her. He’d obviously been paying attention during their evenings together but what on earth was he trying to prove with this? “Thank you.”
It was all she could think of to say, and she saw both Rick and Lisa wince and watched Sandro’s shoulders droop slightly before he nodded.
“You’re welcome,” he muttered in a devastatingly unemotional voice as he took a step back from the bed. “I’ve postponed my trip to Italy. I want to make sure that you get the rest you’re supposed to.”
“Okay.” She nodded.
“Good.” He seemed to be at a loss for a moment, looking unsure of his next move, before he reached out to stroke one soft cheek. “Are you feeling better?”
“Fine,” she whispered. “A little tired.”
“Righty-o…” Rick sing-songed. “That’s our cue to vamoose.”
“Oh, but I didn’t mean…” Theresa was appalled that they thought she was hinting for them to leave.
“No, you didn’t.” Lisa smiled down at her. “But you are tired and you do need your rest. I’ll leave the clothes right here.” She dropped a small canvas bag onto the visitor’s chair. “Call if you need anything.”