by Linda Kage
“If you tell him, I will slaughter you.”
“Oh, honey, there’s no way I’m keeping this from him. Wild horses couldn’t—”
“Panties incoming.”
Jo Ellen stepped forward and caught the wad of cloth sailing over the bathroom stall. She grimaced when her fingers encountered wetness. But determined to be a supportive cousin-in-law, she trooped dutifully toward the dryer.
“Please don’t tell him, Em,” Lex had resorted to begging. “This is downright humiliating.”
Thinking the two needed their attention diverted, Jo Ellen cleared her throat and decided now was as good a time as any to announce, “So, I ran into Travis the other day.”
Mission accomplished, she watched Emma Leigh gasp and swivel toward her. Eyes wide with shock, she opened her mouth to demand answers. Jo Ellen pushed the dryer on, successfully drowning out her twin’s question.
“Where? What happened? What’d he say?” Emma demanded as soon as the loud rush of air stopped venting through the machine.
After drawing in a huge breath, Jo Ellen explained how she’d encountered him at Mr. Sheffield’s house party while she patted Lexi’s underwear to see they were still a bit damp.
Eww.
“Did you spit in his face?”
Jo Ellen frowned. “Of course not. Why would I spit in his face?” Without waiting for Em’s certain rebuttal, she pushed the dryer back on.
“Why!?” Emma Leigh repeated as soon as the dryer died down again. “Because the creep dumped you after knocking you up…when you were eighteen. Oh my God, Joey. The asshole left you high and dry to deal with a major problem all by yourself. If I were you, I would’ve racked him between the legs right before giving him a bloody nose.”
Jo Ellen smiled. “Well, I’m sure Travis appreciates that I’m not you then.”
“I cannot believe you're getting back together with that piece of slime.”
Jo Ellen scowled. “I never said I was getting back together with him.”
“But you plan to meet him?”
“Yes, I told you I want to tie up—”
“And you gave him your cell phone number?”
“Yes, but—”
“Oh my God, you're getting back together with him.”
“Good Lord, Emma Leigh. Will you just listen to me?”
“He knocked you up when you were eighteen,” Em repeated, “then dumped you, leaving you to deal with the fallout. How can you be so stupid as to even talk to him again?”
“There are unresolved issues. I want this settled. I want—”
“How can you waste your time on settling anything with him? There are so many better men out there who'd take you in a heartbeat. Hell, Coop just outside this door is one of them.”
Abruptly forgetting all the different arguments brewing inside her, Jo Ellen blinked. “Cooper?”
“Yes!” Emma Leigh set hands on her hips with an exasperated huff. “He had a raging thing for you all through high school. God, maybe before that.”
A strange tingle blanketed Jo Ellen's skin. Cooper Gerhardt? A thing? For her? No. It couldn't be. Still, the idea of that handsome man out in the bar truly being interested in her made her shiver, the good kind of shiver. A hot chill burned up the length of her spine, only increasing the shudder.
“No, he didn't,” she insisted on a laugh, a very stiff, uncertain laugh. “Em, don't be ridiculous.”
“I'm not being anything but honest,” Emma Leigh charged. “The boy was freaking crazy about you. Every time he saw me, he’d always—always—send this quick glance around me to check out who I was with. Took me a couple years to figure out he was looking for you. Whenever you were with me, his eyes would spark and his nostrils would flare before he zipped his gaze away. Then he'd make sure not to set eyes on you again while you were around. And when you weren’t with me, he’d keep searching, waiting for you to appear.”
Jo Ellen shook her head. “Emma Leigh, that’s…well, it’s outrageous.” But even as she denied it, a heavy ball of nerves plopped into the base of her stomach.
Cooper Gerhardt.
Her heart began to thump hard.
“Even tonight,” Em continued. “First thing he did when he saw and recognized me was scope out everyone who was with me.”
“Oh my God, he did,” Lexi confirmed from her stall. “I remember wondering why he looked so relieved when he focused on my face after gaping at my huge belly. I bet he was worried I might be you, thinking you’d gotten married and were going to have another man’s baby.”
Jo Ellen flushed, even more uncomfortable with this conversation. She sat her hand on her flat stomach, remembering, wondering—
“I'm with Em on this one, Jo Ellen,” Lexi said. “I'd make a go for the Cooper guy if I were you. He's yummy.”
“I'm not making a go for anyone,” Jo Ellen growled and flung Lexi's panties over the side of the stall door, forgetting to warn her they were coming. When Lexi yelped out a startled sound, she gasped. “Oops, I'm sorry. I should've told you I was sending them over.”
“No worries. I caught them."
A moment passed. Jo Ellen crinkled her eyebrows into a mini scowl as her twin glared at her. Turning her back to anymore crazy notions, she hurried to the sinks and scrubbed her hands with plenty of soap and scalding water. Behind her, Em thankfully remained silent, obviously deciding she'd said all she was going to say, which was an utter relief. Jo Ellen couldn’t bear to hear another word about either Travis or Cooper tonight.
But when a small moan of agony came from the other side of the stall, she jerked to attention.
“Alexa?” Jo Ellen called, setting her hand on the door, ready to break it down if need be. “You okay in there, sweetie?”
“Oh...” There was a pause as if she had to think about her answer. Then, “I…yeah, I'm fine. I just...it's those stupid barbequed ribs. I was so starved before we got here tonight I was having these major hunger pangs. But now, I only feel worse after eating them. Stomach cramp.” She sucked in a pained breath.
Jo Ellen exchanged a worried glance with Em. “Want us to go get Dexter?” she offered.
“Dear Lord, no! That man can't handle it when he thinks something might be wrong with me. He totally freaks out. And when he freaks out, he yells. Loudly.”
Jo Ellen grinned as the stall door opened and a refreshed-looking Alexa stepped out to join them. “Nope. Don't bother him. Everything’s fine now.”
Yet as soon as she spoke, her smile fell. Eyes widening, she grasped her lower stomach and hunched over it as she gawked down at her feet, or at least tried to see them past her baby bump.
Jo Ellen scanned down as well to find the insides of both of Lexi’s pant legs much darker than the outsides. Wet drops trickled from the hem of her slacks into the small puddle forming between her feet.
Emma Leigh's mouth fell open. “Holy shit, you peed your pants again?”
“I...I...” Lexi shook her head dramatically, tears welling in her eyes. "I couldn't help it!" she wailed.
“But are you certain—” Jo Ellen quieted and bit her lip, not sure if her suspicions were correct. She didn’t want to alarm anyone if she was wrong.
“Are we certain…about what?” Emma Leigh pressed, waving her hand with an impatient flourish to encourage Jo Ellen to speak her mind.
With a wince, she faced Alexa. “I could be wrong. I mean, I have no experience in this but…” She hesitated.
“What?” Em cried, clearly frustrated.
Jo Ellen sucked in a breath and took Lexi’s hands. “Lex, I’m not so positive you’re wetting your pants. What if…what if your water broke? You said you were having stomach cramps,” she rushed to add when the two women merely stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “I just wondered what if they’re labor contractions instead of hunger pangs.”
“But I’m not due for another four weeks,” Alexa insisted, swishing her head back in forth in adamant denial. She whirled to Emma Leigh and demanded
, “Is this what your water breaking was like?”
Em’s eyes widened. “I don’t know. I had a C-section. There was no breaking of the waters with me. No contractions.”
Lexi’s fingers clamped down hard on Jo Ellen’s and turned ice cold. “This can’t happen,” she whispered, looking horrified. “I…I’m not ready. I’m not home. I want to go home!” Her wail startled both twins and made Emma jump. “I can’t have a baby in Texas. What if he talks with a twang!” She paused with a thoughtful wrinkle in her brow. “Actually, that might be kind of cute.”
A surprised laugh bubbled from Jo Ellen. When Emma Leigh and Alexa scowled at her, she delicately cleared her throat and straightened her spine, humbly apologizing. “Sorry.”
“Oh, God.” Lexi groaned, bending to gape down at the mess she’d made. “What’m I going to do?”
“Well, there’s only one thing to do.” Jo Ellen made sure to keep her voice level and calm. When the other two women turned with quizzical expressions, she rolled her eyes. “We need to get you to a hospital. Now!”
Chapter Ten
Cooper mentally scolded himself as he watched Jo Ellen follow her pregnant cousin into the ladies room. After ten years, he should’ve been able to control his helpless attraction to her. His pulse shouldn’t be racing from merely talking to her. His emotions weren’t supposed to be a scattered mess.
But damn, as soon as he’d seen those succulent little berries popping out the front of her blouse, his unrequited fascination had sprung back to full awareness. He told himself she’d just been cold. But from the way sweat gathered on his brow, he couldn’t any further removed from cold if he was sitting in an oven. It wasn’t the least bit chilly in Rio’s muggy bar.
Then they’d moved past the initial awkwardness, and their conversation had progressed so smoothly. It felt almost comfortable, as if they were meant to share their life experiences with each other. He’d been tuned in to even the most mundane thing she’d said. He could’ve talked to her all night; he still wanted to talk to her all night.
With one eye on the bathroom door, he prayed she came back to sit next to him again when she returned. But about as soon as the three ladies disappeared into the bathroom, her brother-in-law whirled to glare at Coop. “What the hell, man?”
Startled by the attack, Coop lifted an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
As Jo Ellen’s cousin, Dex, ignored them, too busy polishing off his wife’s ribs and licking the sauce from his fingers, Branson narrowed his gaze on Coop. “I was looking forward to scoring with my wife tonight. But then you just had to come along with your rock-hard, pure-steel muscles, didn’t you? Now if I get her on her back, I’m going to be freaked out the whole time, worried she’s picturing your perfect face the entire time. So…thanks a lot. Jerk.”
Coop sputtered out a laugh as he watched Em’s husband pout. “I don’t think you have to worry,” he assured, patting the other man’s back. “Em never thought of me that way.”
Bran eyed him up and down before narrowing his gaze. “But you thought of her that way, right?”
His amusement only growing, Cooper shook his head. “No. Sorry.” To make some kind of amends for inadvertently offending Emma Leigh’s husband, Cooper waved Rio over to buy both Branson and Dexter a beer.
“Oh!” Bran looked surprised as Cooper handed the frothy mug over. “Well…thanks.” He took a hesitant sip, then smacked his lips and sighed, refreshed. “Nice and cold.” Then he sat next to Coop as if all unintentional insults were immediately forgiven. “So, yeah. What was all that between you and Em’s sister then?” He twirled his fingers around, motioning to where Jo Ellen had been sitting.
Cooper coughed and cleared his throat, then shifted in his seat. “That… that was nothing.” He took a big gulp of beer.
“No, that was definitely something,” Bran insisted.
“Yeah,” Dex agreed, leaning their way to join the conversation. “That was definitely something.”
“Which confuses me,” Branson said, eying Cooper. “I thought Em said Jo Ellen dated some guy named Trevor all the way through high school.”
“Travis,” Coop corrected him with a teeth-clenching mutter.
Both Dexter and Bran lifted their eyebrows at him.
“See. There’s the history,” Dex decided, elbowing Bran with a knowing poke.
Branson nodded sagely. “Oh yeah.” He drained the rest of his mug and slammed the empty glass onto the bar. “Some good and juicy history too, from the looks of it.”
Coop shook his head and tried to ignore them both.
Not that they let him.
“Well, that actually relieves me,” Bran announced on a contented sigh. He reached over and slugged Coop companionably in the elbow with his forearm. “I’m glad your thing was for Joey, because you really seem like a likable guy and I’d hate to have to hate you for lusting after my wife.”
When he sent Coop a sloppy grin, Coop frowned and glanced skeptically toward Dex, silently asking what was up with Bran’s suddenly loopy behavior.
Dex shrugged as if to apologize, then shook his head. “He’s got a low tolerance for alcohol.”
Cooper frowned and glanced at Bran’s glass. “But that was only his second beer.”
“Okay,” Dexter revised, “so he has, like, zero tolerance for alcohol.”
“Hey, it’s my third. Had one before we came over.” Bran’s face looked bright and flushed as he ordered another draft and wiped a sheen of sweat off his brow.
Coop couldn’t keep from laughing. “That is so ironic. I remember how Em used to win all the drinking contests when we were—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Bran cut him off moodily. “My wife’s more of a man than I am. Zip it already.” But his scowl just as quickly morphed into a proud grin. “She’s so amazing. I am the luckiest man on earth.”
Deciding he liked Em’s husband, Coop shook his head and grinned. That was until Branson decided to press the Jo Ellen subject. “So you’re into Jo Ellen, not Emma Leigh, right? Because you seem like a good guy,” he repeated, and then paused to hiccup; “…and I’d say Joey really needs to get laid one of these days. Like soon. Hell, I doubt she’s had any fun since I met her, which was, what, ten years—”
“Wait one damn second here.” Dex broke in to punch Bran in the arm. “What do you think you’re doing? Don’t go telling some stranger to sleep with one of my cousins.”
Branson blinked. “What? I’m sleeping with one of your cousins.”
Dex’s eyebrows snapped together with annoyance. “Well, you’re not some stranger I just met in a bar, either, moron. On occasion, when you’re not acting too stupid to live, you’re sadly my best friend.” Then he cracked a grin before taunting, “Besides, I’m sleeping with your sister.”
Bran’s drunken smile fell flat. He pointed an accusing finger at Dexter. “That’s just wrong, man. I should kick your ass.” But when Bran dove to tackle Dexter, Dex darted out of his way with a husky laugh.
“Ha! Missed me.”
Growing more irritated and less coordinated, Bran stumbled after him, swearing, “Not this time, ass wipe.”
Watching them, Coop took a drink. In all his years of coming here, this had to be the strangest entertainment he’d ever gotten from Rio’s bar. But it was amusing nonetheless. He monitored their chase, ready to intercede before anyone got hurt, while Dex led the drunken Branson around a pool table and past the wall of dartboards until the ladies’ bathroom door opened. Immediately, he forgot about the men.
Jo Ellen was the first to emerge. His heart gave a heavy thump against his ribcage. He tried to forget Bran’s drunken comment—Joey really needs to get laid one of these days—but it kept churning through his head, making his skin heat and every follicle of hair on his body stand erect. His mouth watered, already imagining what it wanted to do to those pert nipples he’d glimpsed through her shirt.
His body dominated so much of his thinking as he watched her it took him a second to realize
anything was wrong. But the tension on her face, not to mention the strange way all three ladies exited the bathroom, had him squinting in confusion. The pregnant one stayed huddled directly behind Jo Ellen, sandwiched between her and Emma Leigh who brought up the rear, forming a tight little train of follow the leader.
Something was definitely up. He jerked to his feet, ready to help in case he was needed.
A second later, Dex must’ve noticed the anxiety emanating from the ladies as well. He stopped dodging Bran’s clumsy attempts to catch him and jerked to a halt.
“What’s wrong?” When he focused on Lexi’s face, he hurried forward, demanding, “What’d you two do to my wife?”
Jo Ellen cleared her throat. “Um…we…well, we’ve decided her water broke.”
Cooper pulled back and sucked in a breath, noticing Lexi’s wet pants, soaked from her lap to her ankles. Silently, he agreed with Jo Ellen’s summation. But Dex wasn’t so persuaded.
He gaped at Jo Ellen as if she’d spoken a foreign language. Then he exploded, “You decided? What, like you took a vote on it or something? Let’s break Lexi’s water. Yeah, that sounds like fun. Jesus.” He ran his hand through his hair, glaring at Jo Ellen. “What the hell?”
“Honey,” Lexi said, slipping from between the twins to grasp his arm.
He clenched his teeth. “No,” he denied heartily. “You…this can’t be. We’re a month from the due date. For God’s sake, we’re fifteen hundred miles from home, Lex.”
“But—”
“No!” he yelled. “You cannot go into labor. End of discussion.”
“Dexter Henry Pratchett,” Alexa hissed, stomping her foot. “I…am…in labor, damn it! Now get me to a hospital before I deliver our baby right here in this bar.” As if to prove she wasn’t lying, she cringed and doubled slightly, grasping her swollen stomach.
It reminded Cooper too much of when Jo Ellen had done that very thing the night she’d miscarried. Fear and panic propelling him into action, he lurched forward to catch her, but her husband beat him to her side, grasping her shoulders and tugging her up against his chest.
