Valentine's Day. Nicola Marsh

done that. You’ve saved Jamie’s life and you are going to have a beautiful baby who will carry on Gino’s memory and be a part of your family forever. You’re giving your mother a gift of love that can’t be equaled. Jamie will remind you and your family every day of what a wonderful brother you had.”

      Max inclined his head, acknowledging everything she’d said as his fingers curled around hers. “You had a part in it all,” he mentioned, but she waved that away.

      “Your second goal was to return the ownership of the family ranch to your mother because losing it had preyed on her mind for years and you thought it would make her happy to have control of it again, something to help heal the unhealable wound losing Gino had dealt her. This you haven’t achieved as yet.”

      “True.”

      Now came the hard part. “You know you could achieve it by marrying C.J.”

      He nodded. “But that’s not going to happen.”

      She frowned, shaking her head. “Then how are you going to get control of the ranch?”

      He grimaced and shrugged. “I’ll find another way.”

      That chilled her. What if desperation drove him to do something illegal, or even underhanded in some way? She knew that would eat away at him. She couldn’t let something like that happen. But what could she do? When it came right down to it, this was none of her business. Why was she even delving into it?

      Because she wanted to help him. Because she was worried about him. Because…and this was the bottom line…she was in love with him.

      Yes, it was true, and she had to admit it to herself. She’d fallen in love with the man she’d vowed to harden her heart to from the start. What a fool she was.

      Turning, she looked at his handsome face, and some of her self-criticism faded. He was so gorgeous and so good and so lovable. How could she not fall for a man like this?

      Especially now as he moved closer and he took her chin in his hand and he began to kiss her mouth with quick, hungry nips that made her gasp. Ordinarily she would pull away. Ordinarily she would protest. But he wasn’t marrying C.J. anymore. So she was going to give in to temptation for just a few minutes. It just felt so good.

      His hands held her head on either side now, and his kisses were growing deeper and more urgent. Reaching up, she dug her fingers into his thick hair and arched her breasts against him. He was so very male and she was so very female and they were caught up in a dance as old as life. Every part of her body began to relax, and then to tingle with pleasure. She wanted his hands on her breasts, and his lips, too. She wanted to feel him crush her to the couch with his hard body. She wanted all of him.

      The phone rang. For a moment she thought he was going to ignore the sound of the phone and make love to her instead. That was what she wanted. That was what he wanted, too. But in the back of her mind she knew this had to be his mother. Gathering all her strength, she pushed back and startled him into noticing.

      “It’s going to be your mother,” she panted, pulling her clothing together. “You’d better take it.”

      “I’ll call her later,” he muttered, kissing her again.

      “No, Max. You’ll hate yourself if you don’t take this call.”

      It took another minute for him to come to his senses, but when he did, he rose and took the phone call. She sat on the couch and smiled as she listened to their conversation. It was in half in Italian, but she understood every word and every emotion. As Max explained about Jamie, the astonished joy on the other side of the Atlantic was easy to feel. It was a good night.

      And a lucky phone call. If his mother hadn’t interrupted, she might have made love with Max. Her willpower had eroded beyond usefulness for a moment there. She had it back now. She knew it would be crazy to make love with a man, no matter how much you loved him, without some sort of plan or commitment. And she had neither. So she was going to give him one last kiss and go off to her bed—alone. Sighing, she turned and prepared to do just that.

      * * *

      Cari was juggling baby bottles and Jamie the next morning when her phone rang. It was Mara.

      “Did you have a nice Valentine’s Day?” she asked hopefully.

      Cari smiled into the phone. “It was wonderful.”

      “Good. I’m so glad we fixed that.” Mara sighed happily. “So, where did you and Randy go last night?”

      It had been a while since she’d talked to her friend. Her heart sank as she realized Mara didn’t have a clue as to what had been going on. How was she going to tell her?

      “Mara, I didn’t go out with Randy.”

      There was a shocked pause, then Mara cried, “What? But I talked to him and he said…”

      “If he said he was out for Valentine’s, he must have been out with C.J.”

      “C.J.?” Her voice was rising. “Who is C.J.?”

      Mara was sounding a bit tightly wound at this point. Cari tried to use a soothing tone.

      “You remember about C.J. She’s the other woman in the big mix-up.”

      “Oh. Ah. And so I imagine you were out with the other man?” She was back to being hopeful again.

      “Yes. Max Angeli.”

      Mara laughed. “Okay, I can hear it in the way you say his name. You’re in love, aren’t you?”

      She never gave up. Cari was halfway between laughter and outrage.

      “No!”

      Mara nagged at her for another twenty minutes but, Cari wouldn’t break down and admit it, not even to her best friend—even though she was very much afraid it was true.

      And if it was true, just what exactly was she going to do about it?

      There wasn’t really much she could do. Max had told C.J. he wouldn’t marry her last night, but in the bright light of morning, she couldn’t take that seriously. She knew him well enough by now to know he would do anything he had to do to heal his mother’s heart. And that was one of the things she loved about him.

      She gave Jamie a bath and cleaned his room and put him in an adorable baby suit. But all the while, her mind was on the facts, and the facts were stubborn things.

      She had to face them. She had to be realistic. Max had a lot of affection for her. He enjoyed being with her. And he definitely wanted her in his bed—he’d made that perfectly clear. But he’d never said one word about marrying her, had he? He hadn’t even contemplated that as much as he had contemplated marrying C.J. Marriage of any sort did not seem to be on his horizon.

      He’d made it clear from the beginning that he wasn’t the marrying kind. And she’d told him much the same about herself. Too bad she’d changed her mind. He obviously hadn’t.

      And no, she couldn’t see herself as a paid mistress, traveling to Venice with the family, being with Max as long as his interest lasted, then segueing into the role of nanny once he’d moved on to someone else.

      Ugh. That picture didn’t fit at all. There was no way she could live her life like that. Painful as it was, she was going to have to withdraw from the field. There was no other way.

      But how could she leave Max? She knew now that she loved him. And how could she leave Jamie? She loved Jamie almost as much as she’d loved Michelle. Well, she’d survived losing her own baby. Now she would have to develop ways to live through losing Jamie—but with a broken heart that might never be repaired.

      She tried to talk to Max about it the next day when he came home for lunch. He brought in burgers in a sack and they sat down at the dining-room table to eat out of cardboard containers. She mentioned a few things obliquely at first, venturing carefully into the subject, but he dismissed it out of hand.

      “I’m