Chapter 55
“T a-da. I won big-time .” James moved over to Maureen and hugged her. A sloppy hug. She leaned back to avoid his breath, reeking of liquor. “This hotel is now ours. Yours and mine, sugar.”
“Live here? Do you mean to tell me that you plan to move us to Scotland and make this hotel our permanent home?” she asked. “But—but we already have a home. And a membership to the country club.” Her mind explored the possibilities. She saw herself greeting travelers, that she might call our guests , and overseeing the menu. She’d be a queen again instead of a nobody. Again. But she said, “How can you be happy about taking another man’s livelihood away from him? Not to mention his stature in the community.”
“Okay, I hear you, but we could visit once a year. Under all that snow, there must be a golf course or two.”
Maureen was speechless. She’d wanted a vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket—not on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
“Why aren’t you smiling, sugar?” James asked.
“Because all I wanted from Gordon is a little cairn terrier puppy. The one my sister adores—when it’s old enough to leave its mother.
Maureen had never seen James look so flabbergasted. His cheeks turned the color of a ripe tomato. “Are you serious?” he asked, and she nodded. “Now I’ve heard it all. Are you going through the change of life?”
“No.” She rubbed her tummy. “Not yet.”
“I ordinarily give you everything you want, but this is too much.”
She was determined not to give in. “We can still visit. Next time during the summer. Maybe go to St. Andrews. Isn’t that where you’d rather be? Golf where all the greatest golfers in the world long to play.”
“I suppose they might have nice places to stay there too. If you promise not to get on my case for golfing all the time.”
“I promise I won’t, darling.”
“What about your phenomenal career?”
“I would give that up for you today.” She knew she was being duplicitous, but she wasn’t ready to admit the calamity on her television show or how she was directed to keep off the set until the newspaper frenzy blew over. If it did. In days James would read about her.
He tugged his earlobe, then he spun around and stomped back into Gordon’s room. Minutes later he stepped through the doorway again. “Don’t ever claim I don’t do anything for you. I just traded this valuable hotel for a crummy little dog.” James shook his head. “I must be going nuts.”
“You did? Really?” Maureen clung onto the tangible proof that he loved her. “Thank you so much, darling,” she said.
“It seems I can’t win with you.” He shook his head. “I’m never good enough. Always something wrong.”
“Not true,” Maureen said. “You’re my knight in shining armor.”
“You have a strange way of showing it. You’re always in competition with me and coming out the winner.”
Already Maureen started second-guessing herself. Had she made a mistake?
“I’m sorry, my dearest husband. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.” Maureen spoke up to James in a subservient manner. “You will be my husband forever. The father of our child. And maybe our future baby. Would you mind another child?”
He seemed to inflate. “Mind? Are you kidding? I’d be thrilled.”
“Well, I might already be pregnant.”
“But how could you know? Have you gone to a doctor?”
“No, but I’ve been having the weirdest cravings—the way I did when I was carrying Amanda.”
“Amanda can be our babysitter.”
“Maybe, but you know our Amanda.” Maureen scanned the hall.
“I hope it’s a boy this time,” James said. “Too many women in our family.” James wrapped his arms around her and kissed her lips in a way that brought back memories of their wedding night when love was fresh and alive.
After they stepped apart, Gordon strode out into the hall and slapped James on the back as if they were old friends. “I can’t thank you enough,” Gordon said. “I will always be in your debt.”
“You’ve got that right.”