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rapier-sharp. "My arrival at that given moment
was quite inconvenient for you, wasn't it, Stacey?
You hadn't expected to be caught up in your lie so
quickly."
She moved her lips to speak, but the words
wouldn't come. He was angry with her, so terribly
angry.
"You rejected my proposal," he continued icily.
"You only wanted an affair with me, remember?"
He sounded hurt, she realized, and her heart
ached for him. She'd hurt him when she'd refused
to mariy him and she hadn't even been aware of it.
"My proposal is withdrawn, Stacey. An affair is
all you want from me and that's all you'll get. And
you had no right to concoct some piece of fiction
involving me to get you off the hook with your par-
ents. Tomorrow you're going to tell them the truth,
Stacey."
The truth. She swallowed hard. Justin didn't
know the full truth. He was hurt and angry. He
thought that she'd used him for her own ends, to
escape the consequences of her appearance on The
Cord Marshall Show. But how could she tell him
the whole truth now, when he was so cold, so
angiy?
"I deeply resent your trying to divert your father's
anger over your appearance on that abominable
television show by telling him that we're getting
married. It was cowardly and deceitful, Stacey. Not
to mention malicious!"
"It didn't happen that way," she said softly. A
covert glance at his unyielding profile brought a
sudden rush of tears to her eyes. He hated her, she
thought. He really did. He said he'd withdrawn his
proposal! And her mother was undoubtedly
arranging their wedding this very moment.
Stacey's hand rested lightly on her abdomen. Two
babies were growing within her. Justin's children.
If she were to tell him, she knew he would dutifully
marry her, even though he'd come to loathe her.
She remembered the brief days they'd spent
together in loving harmony, when the promise of a
deep and abiding love had been an actuality, not a
shattered dream. But it was hopeless now.
"Don't worry, Justin," she said around the
constriction in her throat. "We're not getting
married."
He pulled the car to a stop in front of her apart-
ment building. "Kindly inform your parents of that
fact." He didn't glance at her. He kept his eyes fixed
firmly ahead as she quickly climbed out of the car.
"Stacey, what happened?" cried Brynn as she
watched Stacey haphazardly toss clothes into her
suitcase. "What are you doing? Where are you
going?"
"I'm going to live with Spence and Patty. We'll be
in relative obscurity down on the farm. Kimberly
can deliver the babies and and my little nieces
can watch and ..."
"Good Lord, you've flipped! Stacey, what did
your parents say? Are they going to disown you or
what? Please, please talk to me!"
"They expect me to marry Justin tomorrow
night, Brynn. And he doesn't want to many me, he
can't stand me! Oh, it's just no use, Brynnie. Our
our planets aren't favorably aligned after all."
"Ohh!" Brynn groaned.
"I have to go. I have to get out of Washington."
Stacey gave Brynn a quick, hard hug. "I'll call you
when "
"Stacey, I'm not letting you drive down to that
farm alone at night in the state you're in. If you
insist on going, I'm going with you."
"But you have to be at work tomorrow, Brynn."
"Ill call the office and tell them I'm taking a few
vacation days. Stacey, won't you please reconsider
and talk this over with Justin?"
"We've already talked, Brynn. It's hopeless."
Stacey blinked back her tears. She would not cry
again. She must direct all her thoughts and ener-
gies to her new life. Crying over what might have
been was demoralizing and useless.
Brynn pulled her suitcase out of the closet. "I
just hope Spence doesn't expect us to milk that
evil-looking cow of his. Or tangle with that macho
rooster, either," she added grimly.
Ten
Stacey, Brynn, and the three little girls sat at the
kitchen table of the old farmhouse the next morn-
ing, playing with a flour-and-water dough Patty
had whipped up earlier.
"No, Aurora, we don't eat it." Stacey retrieved
some dough from the two-year-old's mouth for the
fifteenth time. "We play with it. It's play dough."
"She eats the store kind too," said Sunshine.
"Look at the kitty cat I made, Aunt Stacey."
Stacey smiled. "He's adorable, Sunny."
"When Mommy and Daddy coming home?"
demanded three-year-old Melody. Patty and
Spence had driven into town for supplies an hour
earlier.
"Very soon." Brynn cocked her head to one side.
"In fact, I think I hear a car coming up the road
now."
The three children tore out of the kitchen,
squealing with anticipation. "It's not Daddy and
Mommy," came Sunny's disappointed voice. "It's
Justin Marks."
"Stace, don't panic," Brynn said quickly. But
Stacey did just that. She snatched Patty's thick
woolen sweater from a hook on the wall and dashed
out the kitchen door.
Justin found her in the hayloft of the barn fif-
teen minutes later. "Will you come down?" he
asked quietly, standing at the bottom of the
wooden ladder and looking up at her. "Or shall I
come up?"
"Neither. Go away!"
He put his foot on the lowest rung of the ladder.
"Not until I recite the speech I've been rehearsing
the whole way down here."
"I don't want to hear it. I hate speeches."
"I know." He began to climb slowly, steadily, up
the ladder. "I called your apartment a half hour
after I dropped you off last night, Stacey. And when
there was no answer, I drove over only to find you
and Brynn had gone. One of your neighbors said
he'd seen the two ofyou leave with suitcases."
Stacey couldn't stand the suspense a moment
longer. "How did you know we were here, Justin?
Why are you here?" She felt sick with apprehen-
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