The Baby Proposal. Rebecca Winters

      “That’s all I needed to hear.” Gabe sounded quietly pleased, just like he did when he’d sewn up another market on the international scene. “I’ll meet you at the county clerk’s office at three. Benny will be by for you at two-thirty. See you then, Andrea.”

      He clicked off before she could say goodbye.

      Dear God… What had she done? She could hear her mother’s voice asking her the same question.

      The more she thought about it, the more Andrea feared calling her parents. Gabe wasn’t in love with her. Better for them not to know anything yet.

      There was every possibility she wouldn’t be making that three o’clock deadline downtown Gabe had set…

      CHAPTER THREE

      BAUER’S Eidelweiss Chalet formed part of a strip mall in Scarsdale that might as well have been one of those wonderful little shops nestled in the heart of Germany’s Black Forest.

      Gabe entered the virtual fairyland just as a cuckoo went off twelve times announcing the noon hour. Every conceivable kind of hand-painted wood nutcracker and doll house covered the display tables. On one side of the shop were Christmas ornaments, music boxes, smokers, steins and cowbells. The other side sold Bavarian clothing.

      He glimpsed Andrea’s dark-blond father dressed in traditional lederhosen up on a ladder. The tall, fit man with a short beard and moustache was setting up a crèche pyramid. Her mother had to be the attractive brunette woman behind the counter dressed in a Bavarian blue dirndl.

      Andrea’s parents looked to be in their mid-fifties. Both appeared to be the picture of perfect health, which made fiction out of Andrea’s insistence that they were getting old and needed her help.

      She’d inherited traits from both of them, particularly her mother who had those same bluebell colored eyes and a healthy bloom on her cheeks. The well-endowed Bauer women wore little makeup. They didn’t need to with such flawless skin.

      He waited until their only customer left the store, then he approached the counter. “Renate Bauer?”

      “Yes?” She eyed him as if she were trying to remember if she’d seen him before.

      “I’m Gabe Corbin, Andrea’s employer.”

      The second she recognized his name, a look of anxiety replaced her friendly smile. Her complexion paled.

      “Karl!” she cried to her husband. “Come quick! Mr. Corbin’s here. Something must have happened to our dau—”

      “Andrea’s fine!” Gabe rushed to assure her before any more damage was done. By now her husband had joined them. “I’m sorry if our first meeting has led you to believe I’m the bearer of bad news. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

      Relief slowly chased away their alarmed expressions.

      “Andrea and I just returned from Paris. While we were there, I asked her to be my wife and she accepted. I would have come to you first to ask for her hand, but circumstances made it impossible.”