Page 44 of Vincent
"Don't!"
She jolted slightly at the explosion and the ominous look on his face. She had been observing him over the past few weeks and noticed how relaxed and contented he was. He was even smiling more these days.
"Vincent-"
"No." Taking the glass with him, he started pacing. "No. Thea and I are just seeing each other. We get to decide when or if we want to put a label on what we have going on. Not you, not mother. Us."
"You mean you," Jacklyn interjected quietly when he stopped and sat on the edge of the desk. Ignoring his glare, she pushed on. "You don't think you deserve to be happy. Lizzie is dead, and you're of the opinion that you should go on being miserable."
"The fact is, you're happy whether you like to acknowledge it or not. She, and I mean Thea, makes you happy. Why are you not allowing yourself to be? What are you afraid of?"
"I don't answer to you," he told her heatedly. "Do you know what yesterday was?"
"Thursday?"
"It was her birthday. Do you know when I remembered? While I was driving home from another woman's house. The radio was playing and her favorite song came on. That's when I remembered. She's slowly fading away from me. If I don't look at her photo, I barely remember what she looks like." He drank and slammed the glass down. "She made a sacrifice-"
"Which was entirely her choice!" Putting the cup down, she rose and crossed over to stand in front of him. "She wanted to give you a baby so badly-"
"Because I wanted one!" He moved away to walk over to the hearth.
"Because she loved you. What happened to her was tragic, and we all grieved-"
"I'm the one who was in love with her." He whipped around to face her. "Me." He jammed a finger at his chest. "I'm supposed to love her until my last breath. I owe her that much. And I never want to face that kind of thing with another woman again."
"Thea will want children. Have you considered that?" she demanded. She wanted to shake some much-needed sense into him.
"It's not going to happen," he promised grimly.
"Really?" she asked with raised brows. "All the nights you've been racing over there, is it just to hold her hand and talk? Have you been using anything to ensure there's not a baby involved?"
"That's none of your-"
She saw when it hit him suddenly. His face went pale under his tan. Easing away from the mantle, he walked to his desk and sat down slowly. "Good Christ!" he whispered.
In the past, he had made certain that he was protected. But not with Thea, never with her. He had not even considered the possibility of using anything. It never occurred to him. The need inside him had been so much that everything else had takena back seat. She could be pregnant. Even now, she could be carrying his baby inside her.
He had been careless for the first time in his life. He was never careless. With her, nothing else had mattered.
"I'll deal with it." His face was still white and strained, his voice low. "Kindly tell mother that if she invited Thea for Thanksgiving dinner, David and I won't be there."
"You wouldn't. That's ridiculous."
"If you have already invited Thea, find some excuse to uninvite her," he continued grimly. "Now," he added briskly. "I have work to do and you're keeping me."
She rose slowly and turned to face him, expression bleak. "You're a colossal idiot. There's a wonderful woman who's right there giving you the happiness you deserve, and because you're so damn pigheaded and stupid, you cannot see it. Hopefully you will before it's too late."
She sailed out the way she had sailed in and slammed the doors shut.
He leaned back in the chair weakly, his expression grim. What the hell had he been thinking? Obviously he had not been thinking at all, or he wouldn't have put himself in this situation. And why hadn't she insisted on him using anything? Was she on the pills or whatever? He should have asked. He had a lot to lose.
He knew her. She had expressed the desire to be a mother while they were in college. And he was certain she had not changed since then.
Was it deliberate? He shoved away from his desk and walked over to the window. The sky was a leaden metallic gray that presaged bad weather. Thursday was Thanksgiving, and the offices would be closed from then until next Monday. He had planned to spend the day with his son at his mother's place and then leave him there to spend the weekend with Althea. She had mentioned that she had some baking to do for the family but hadn't said a word about the invitation.
He would go to the club, he decided. Drop David off and just go away for the long weekend. He had been neglecting his membership, and besides, he needed the time and space away from her to do some thinking. But in the meantime, he would confront her tonight. He was going to have some very hard questions to ask, and she'd better be prepared to answer them honestly.
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