The Pregnant Bride by Catherine Spencer

eight with the promise that he’d be back around six that evening, and the minute the door closed behind him, the doubts descended and the tug-of-war began.
    In terms of time together, they’d known each other less than a week. They were crazy to think they could base a marriage on such short acquaintance. It was almost indecent!
    You conceived his baby when you’d known him less than two days. Where was your sense of decency then?
    They weren’t in love.
    They were doing this for the children.
    He was using her as a means to gain custody of Molly.
    Wouldn’t she do the same, if the situation were reversed?
    Oh, yes! He’d scored a fatal shot when he’d asked her how she’d feel if she thought her baby was in danger. She knew without a doubt that she’d go to any lengths to protect her child.
    Then stop looking a gift horse in the mouth! You’ve made the commitment, now live up to it!
    A long nap, a hot bath, and a visit to a beauty salon to get her hair done went a long way toward boosting her belief that she was doing the right thing. The flower arrangement from Edmund—stargazer lilies and roses—delivered just after she returned to her apartment, didn’t hurt, either.
    If they both tried, they could make this work. They had to. For the sake of the children.
    She dressed in a pale green linen skirt and jacket, wore pearls around her neck and matching studs in her ears, and was ready when he knocked on her door again right on the dot of six.
    “My, my!” he drawled, eyeing her up and down. “Is it safe to assume, from the way you’re all gussied up, that the engagement’s still on?”
    “It is, unless you’ve got cold feet.”
    “Not a chance, Jenna. I already warned you, once I make up my mind, I stick with it. Which is why,” he said, producing a gold foil bag from his pocket and dangling it before her eyes, “I’ve been shopping. Are you going to ask me in, or do I have to drop down on one knee out here and beg you to accept my ring?”
    “Ring?”
    “To replace the one given to you by the unlamented rooster.”
    “Oh!” She pulled the door wide and ushered him inside. “Come in, of course. But a ring? You didn’t have to go that far!”
    “Why not?”
    “Because it’s not necessary, given the circumstances.”
    “I don’t follow your reasoning,” he said, taking a seat next to her on the couch in her living room. “The circumstances are that you and I plan to get married very soon. It’s customary in such instances for the groom to give the bride a ring. You accepted Armstrong’s, so why not mine?”
    “Because what you and I are planning isn’t…the same.”
    “If, by that, you mean I won’t back out at the last minute, then you’re right. It isn’t the same.”
    “But it isn’t real. ”
    “It’s real all right! As real as this.” And tipping the bag onto the coffee table, he let a velvet jeweler’s box roll out. “There,” he said, snapping open the lid so that she could view the contents. “What do you think of that?”
    A solitaire diamond of exquisite color and cut set in platinum and yellow gold winked up at her.
    “What do I think?” She pressed a hand to her throat in shock. “I think you’re out of your mind! This is far too extravagant. I’ll feel like a fraud wearing it.”
    “Get over that idea and fast,” he said evenly. “There’s nothing fraudulent about this marriage, Jenna, and I expect you to wear my ring as proof.” He took it from the box and dropped it into her hand. “Put it on and let’s see if it fits.”
    It did, so well that it might have been custom designed expressly for her. Everything about it was exquisitely perfect.
    “You shouldn’t have spent so much money,” she said, awed and bewildered by his generosity.
    “It was affordable,” he said brusquely. “Don’t make a big deal out of nothing. If you like it, I’ll have a wedding band made to go with it.”
    “Oh, I like it. I like it very much! What woman