Center Stage
Page 23

John twisted the top from his beer and took a sip. “I think she is too.”
Carlos took the holder off the balls carefully and exchanged it on the rack for a pool cue. “She hasn’t heard anything else from Alexander Hamilton, has she?”
“I don’t think so. I’m not sure what his motivation in scaring the hell out of her was, but it worked.”
Carlos hit the balls and sent them rolling. “Solids.” He lined up another shot. “I tell you what. If the man comes near my sisters, or my family, they’ll be locking me up for a very long time.”
He understood that sentiment. “I’ve done business with him a few times. I know four years ago Zach had all intentions of sending me to that job. I’m glad it didn’t pan out.”
Carlos laid the stick on the table and picked up his beer. Obviously the game was a distraction to get John in the basement. That was just as fine.
“You don’t really think he wants Regan’s baby, do you? The one she gave up, I mean.”
“I think the Keller family stopped him from his intentions, and he’s a vengeful man.”
Carlos shook his head. “I never did like Curtis telling him they both died. But it made him go away. Regan needed that.”
“She never kept in touch with the adoptive family?”
“No. She never even looked at the baby. Curtis is the only one who ever saw her.” He shrugged. “Seems like a long time ago.”
“Wasn’t really.”
Carlos took a pull from his beer. “Nope, sure wasn’t.”
Arianna knew she’d made Clara’s night by telling her the news. Madeline had screamed aloud, too. It was going to be a wonderful production, and she couldn’t wait to get started.
But, at that moment, she was digging into a cherry pie slice at Village Inn, and it was heaven.
She looked up to see John nursing a cup of coffee and staring at her.
“What?” she asked with her mouth full.
“You’re beautiful when you’re enjoying things.”
She swallowed the large piece she’d shoved in her mouth and wiped off her lips. “You’re one of those men, huh? The kind that feed women sweets just to see them devour it?”
John shrugged and smiled from behind his mug.
Arianna loaded her fork with a much smaller bite. “I’ll have to remember to keep going to yoga, or you’ll make me fat.”
John sipped his coffee. “Clara seemed excited about Annie.”
“Oh, she is.” She swallowed the next bite and then washed it down with her bitter and cold coffee. “I told you it was what she’d want. And did you hear about Christian? He’s going to be playing varsity, and he’s only a freshman.”
“Pretty talented family.”
“Well, don’t get me started on Ed. He’s the smartest kid I know. If Zach keeps him around, I’ll guarantee you Ed will be running the place.”
John set down his mug, but it was his face that grabbed hold of her attention. Something was on his mind, and he didn’t know how to talk about it. She’d seen it before.
“What’s bothering you?”
John let out a breath. “You and your family.”
That wasn’t a positive statement, and she couldn’t imagine where he’d go with it.
“Something wrong with my family?”
“No. No.” He tried to ease back in his seat, but he wasn’t comfortable. She figured John Forrester hadn’t talked so much in his whole life, and now he was having deep conversations on a daily basis. She’d ease him into it.
“My family is very important to me.”
“I know. In fact, when you were talking about offering Clara the part, your eyes lit up.”
“My nieces and nephews are my life.”
He nodded and reached for her hands across the table and held them. “That’s what I’m trying to get to. How can you not want to have children?”
Her heartbeat began beating extremely hard in her chest. “Why do you ask?”
“I think you’d be a fantastic mother.”
Which way was this going? He hadn’t wanted kids. She hadn’t wanted kids. That was part of the charm that was their relationship. Which one of them was now causing the problem?
Arianna pursed her lips together. “Do you want kids?”
“I’m fifty-three years old.”
“I’m not sure that was an answer to my question.”
He held her hands tighter. “I just think that you’d be so good at having them. You shouldn’t give that up.”
“Do you want kids?” She reiterated her question.
This time he shrugged, and that made her heart rate go even faster. It was very uncomfortable.
“John, what are you trying to say to me? You want to have a baby?”
The tense look on his face softened. “Can you imagine? By the time they were thirty, I’d be eighty-three.”
“You’re freaking me out. What are you talking about?”
He lifted her hands to his lips and gently placed a kiss on her knuckles. “No, I don’t want kids of my own. I gave that desire up years ago. But you are still young enough to have them, and if you wanted them, I wouldn’t run away.”
She let her shoulders drop. “I don’t want kids. I thought you knew that.”
“But you love your nieces and nephews so much…”
“Yes, I do.” She scooted out of her side of the booth and walked around the table to sit next to him. “They are my world, just as my brothers and sister are. I don’t want some big wedding with flower girls and ring bearers either.”
“You’re sure?”
“You asked me when we first tumbled on my bed if I would commit to you. That’s what I did. John, I don’t want a wedding dress. I never have. I don’t want children. I never have. But I have grown very fond of you.”
“Okay.” He kissed her on the cheek. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I just didn’t want you to give up something that might someday be important.”
“You’re all I want. Stay with me forever?”
“I promise.”
Just to prove he did love a woman with her mouth full of pie, John had bought one for them to take home. Arianna had scolded him, but he’d seen her break off a piece of crust and eat it before she expended him in bed and then fell asleep.