If you like this online read you'll enjoy Darlene Gardner's books!

Ordinary Girl, Millionaire Tycoon
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A Time To Come Home
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"I don't understand." Will shook his head. "If you believe me, why can't you see me anymore?"

She bit her trembling bottom lip as the realization of what she had to do struck her. The backs of her eyes burned with her effort to hold back tears. It seemed surreal that she was having one of the most important discussions of her life through her car window.

"Because loving you is too big of a risk," she explained. "You resisted temptation this time, but what about next time? I'd always be afraid you'd go back to your old ways. Maybe not this year, but next. After the baby's born and grows to love you."

"That's not fair. How can I defend myself against something that hasn't happened? What am I supposed to do to get you to trust me?"

"Why should I trust you when you don't even trust yourself?" she retorted. "You asked me to live with you, not to marry you. That way, after the baby comes, you'll have an easy out. If you don't like having a baby in the house, you can just move out."

From the tortured look on his face, she saw that she'd hurt him. A car passed, swinging wide to go around him. "This is the wrong place to discuss this. Come inside, Shea, so we can work this out."

She shook her head. If she went inside, her resolve would dissolve. A tear escaped her eye and ran unchecked down her face. "I can't, Will. You have to accept that it's over."

He didn't say anything for a moment, then asked softly, "Where's the gutsy girl I fell in love with?"

"We've been over this before, Will. She's protecting herself." She placed a hand over her stomach. "And she's protecting her baby."

Not opening herself to second guesses, she rolled up the car window and drove away.

* * *

Nunzio's signature lasagna, made from a recipe concocted by Sofia Donatelli, sat untouched on the plate in front of Shea. It was hardly past noon, her blood pressure was rocketing and she was starting to think lunch with her mother and two of her friends had been a very bad idea.

"Your mother told me you dumped Will Sandusky," said Mrs. Ferguson, a stern-faced woman who had been her Sunday school teacher growing up. "What I'm wondering is why you ever got involved with him in the first place."

Mrs. Papadakis, the local dry cleaner, nodded. "He's such a ladies' man, that Will."

"Shea's well rid of him," added Shea's mother with a pleased air. "He's not the right kind of young man."

Shea had had enough. She put down her fork with a clank and glared at her mother and her friends. "How dare you talk about him that way. Will is decent and caring and one of the finest men I have ever met."

"We all know that, honey." Mrs. Ferguson reached across the table to pat her hand. "Everybody 'round here adores Will to pieces, but he's not somebody a woman should get serious about."

"No offense meant, Mrs. Ferguson, but you don't know what you're talking about," Shea retorted with heat. "A woman would be privileged to have Will in her life any way she could get him. Did you know that the Christmas project Sandusky Real Estate is running was his idea? And have you ever seen how great he is with his nephew? Or how considerate he is with everyone else? He's the best man I know."

"But his past -- " her mother began.

"Is over," Shea finished. "The only thing that's important is the present, and Will's done nothing since I met him to make me doubt him."

Her mother narrowed her eyes, peering at her with interest. "It sounds to me like you're in love with him."

Shea got ready to deny her mother's statement, then realized she couldn't. "Maybe I am," she said.

"If that's the case, and if he's that great of a guy," her mother continued, "why in the world did you dump him?"

Why, indeed? Shea put her hands to her suddenly hot face. What on earth had she done?