“Yes. You should.”
He took her by the shoulders and kissed her forehead. “Take care of yourself, Little Mama. I’ll be in touch soon.”
“Goodbye, Brody.” She made herself walk away from him calmly, spine straight, eyes dry. This might well turn out to be the shortest marriage in the history of record books. When she entered the waiting area and found a seat, she waited a full ten seconds and then turned her head to look for him.
Brody was gone.
Seventeen
Brody had been running on autopilot ever since he received Duncan’s text. Only by clamping down on his feelings and compartmentalizing every detail of the incredible night before was he able to function.
He had returned the rental car, checked in for his overseas flight and boarded the huge jumbo jet. Twelve hours later Brody tipped the driver and got out of the taxi. He’d spent a fortune today, and had nothing to show for it.
After landing in London, he’d taken a commuter jet to Glasgow. Now here he was, on Duncan’s doorstep. Brody hadn’t wanted to go to his own place, because the air would be hot and stale, and he had no food at home. His stomach curled with nausea. He wouldn’t think about Cate. He couldn’t.
Duncan opened the door almost immediately, his face reflecting shock. “What in the hell are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on your honeymoon.”
Brody shoved him aside, went into the house and collapsed onto the sofa. “Give me an update about the accident.”
Duncan continued to stare at him in bemusement. “Definitely our fault. It was the new guy you hired four months ago. He and the wife had a falling out. She tossed him in the street. He had a few too many pints at the pub before going on board for his shift, and the rest is history.”
“The victims?”
“Stable. Eleven in all. Three are children.”
“Hell.”
“Exactly.” Duncan grimaced. “I can’t believe you didn’t trust me to handle this.”
Brody blinked. “Of course I trust you. Implicitly.”
“Then why are you here?” Duncan’s dark eyes judged Brody and found him wanting.
“I’ve put everything I have into the business. My boats are an extension of me. They’re who I am. Cate or no Cate, I had to be here. Not because I don’t trust you, but because I...” Brody stopped, scrubbed his hands over his face. Because being with Cate scared me shitless, and I seized on this disaster as a chance to put some distance between us. He sucked in a ragged breath. “The point is, I’m here to help.”
Duncan scowled as the landline began to ring. “There’s nothing you can do at the moment.”
He picked up the phone and after a few moments of listening, his face sobered. He looked like someone had punched him in the belly. “Sure, Granny,” he said. “Do you want to talk to Brody?” Her response was loud enough for Brody to hear the volume if not the actual words. Duncan held the phone away from his ear, wincing. After a few moments he seized a break in his grandmother’s rant. “I’ll tell him. Don’t worry.”
When Duncan hung up, Brody stood, swaying with exhaustion. “What is it?”
Duncan’s expression held both sympathy and pity, enough to curl Brody’s stomach. “Cate is in the hospital. She’s had some heavy bleeding. The doctor says she may lose the baby.”
* * *
Cate picked at a loose thread on the thin hospital blanket and tried not to think about Brody. He was gone. She was in this alone. Even if he came back for the birth, it meant nothing. And besides, there might be nothing to come back for. Tears she couldn’t stem leaked down her face.
She’d sent Isobel home hours ago. This was day two of Cate’s hospitalization. The old woman was too frail for a vigil. Now it was dark outside, and there was nothing to do but wait.
The stack of mail Brody’s grandmother had brought was little more than a distraction, but Cate reached for the yellow envelope and extracted the single piece of cardstock to read it a second time. Her friends in Candlewick were throwing her a baby shower. They were indignant and perplexed that she didn’t know the sex of the child, hence the yellow card. Sharma was spearheading the party-planning.
In the midst of her fear and panic, Cate was touched and grateful that she actually had friends who cared. She had locked herself away emotionally for the past five years. It was a wonder she hadn’t scared them all away.
A slight noise from the doorway brought her head up.
“Cate,” Brody said. That was all. Just her name.
She shook her head, not entirely sure she wasn’t dreaming. “You look like hell,” she said flatly. She was dead inside. Nothing could penetrate the ice in her heart. She wasn’t upset that Brody had abandoned their honeymoon for a business emergency. That would be petty and immature. No, what cut to the bone was the way he had made it so very clear that his damned boats were everything to him.
“So do you.” He hadn’t shaved since she last saw him. His face was gaunt with exhaustion. His hair stood on end.
“I thought you went back to Scotland.” She knew he had. She had tracked his flight online.
“I did. I was there for all of forty-five minutes before Granny called Duncan and I headed back for the airport.”
She shrugged. “You shouldn’t have bothered. That was foolish.”
“How are you feeling?”
She shrugged again. “How do you think I feel? You broke my heart, Brody. I thought you and I were getting closer, but you cut and ran at the first sign of trouble. I thought I was part of your everything. Now I know I’m not. And on top of that, I may lose my baby. I love you, Brody. But it doesn’t matter, because you made your choice. At least I didn’t have to guess where you stand.”
Her cold, cutting tone made him go pale beneath his tan. “They said you’re bleeding.”
“Off and on. Apparently, it’s common. There’s some danger, and they’ve given me meds. Now I wait and see.”
“I love you, Cate.”
* * *
Brody blurted it out, uncensored. He’d figured out the truth sometime during the middle of his second transatlantic voyage. Cate blinked but didn’t seem particularly overjoyed. “Go back to Scotland, Brody.”
“I can’t leave you.”
“Correction. You can and you did. Everything you cared about was in jeopardy, remember?”
It was worse than he thought. Hearing Cate quote his callous words back to him was agonizing. “My mother often called my father a thickheaded, stubborn male when I was growing up. Apparently, I’m more like him than I realized. I’m sorry, Cate. I didn’t know.”
“Didn’t know what?” Her air of calm showed cracks. “Never mind,” she said. “Get out.” Each word was an icy command. “I don’t want you here.”
“Can you feel the baby?”
“I’m not discussing this with you. If I miscarry, we’ll have the marriage annulled. That’s all you need to know.”
“It’s my baby, too. For God’s sake, Cate. Don’t be absurd.”
A nurse came hurrying in and scowled at him as Cate’s monitor began to beep loudly. “You’ll have to leave, sir. Visiting hours were over long ago. You’re upsetting my patient.” She checked Cate’s blood pressure efficiently and frowned. “Don’t make me say it again. You need to go.”
“I’m her husband,” Brody said desperately.
The woman raised an eyebrow. “You’re Mr. Everett?”
“No,” Brody stuttered. “I’m Brody Stewart.”
“Well, this woman is registered as Cate Everett, so I’d suggest you leave before I call security.”
Brody turned to the silent woman in the bed. “Tell her, Cate. Tell her who I am.”
Cate stared at him impassively. Those vibrant green eyes were dull and lifeless. “You’re nothing to me. Go away.”
Brody staggered i
nto the hall and slumped against the wall, eventually ending up on his butt with his head on his knees. God, he was tired. Never in his life had he felt such overwhelming fear. The black hole inside his chest was sucking away every shred of hope he’d managed to cling to for the past unbearable hours. The only day that came close to being this dreadful was the one when he had finally understood his parents were divorcing.
Even that hadn’t been as bad, because he’d had Duncan and Grandda and Granny. Tonight he had no one.
Why had he been so slow to realize the truth? Cate was his everything, not some stupid boat. At a deep, barely conscious level, he had been dealing with that realization for months. The truth had been terrifying, so he had stayed away from North Carolina. How could he have been so stupid? His deliberate, obtuse refusal to recognize the wonder that was right beneath his nose had ruined everything. He had let fear consume him. Fear of pain and loss.
And now the damage was done. All he could do was pray for answers. He had to figure out a way to fix this. He had to... Failure was not an option.
Fortunately, the night shift was sparsely populated. Nurses and aides walked around him gingerly, but no one actually tried to boot him out. At last, his body shut down. With his throat thick with tears, he slept.
* * *
Why did doctors have to do their rounds so damned early? Cate had finally managed a good stretch of rest somewhere after 5 a.m., and now, barely two hours later, her ob-gyn awakened her.
“Let’s take a look,” the perky, too-cute-for-school doctor said. The woman’s hands were gentle as she folded back the sheet and lifted Cate’s hospital-issue gown. She pursed her lips and probed delicately. At last, she lifted her head. “Breathe, honey, before you black out.”
Cate hadn’t even realized she was holding her breath. “Oh, sorry. Well, how am I?”
The doctor smiled. “As far as I can tell, the bleeding has stopped completely.” She held her stethoscope to Cate’s belly and listened. “That little one is dancing around in there. I think you’re in the clear. But we’ll keep you until tomorrow morning just to be on the safe side.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
The woman left, and Cate burst into tears, noisy, ugly sobs that made her chest hurt. The relief was overwhelming.
Suddenly, someone sat on the side of her bed and took her hands. “I’m so sorry, Catie girl. So damned sorry. Please don’t cry. It’s killing me.”
She sucked in a deep breath and wiped her face with the sheet. Brody’s presence befuddled her. “I told you to go. How did you get back so early?”
“I slept on the floor outside your door. I saw the doctor leave. I heard you crying. I’m sorry, Cate.” He pulled her close, his big, strong arms wrapping around her and holding her tight.
“You smell like stale French fries,” she said, sniffing and still crying a little bit.
“I’ve been wearing the same clothes for three days. It’s no wonder.” He sat back and smoothed the hair from her face. “Are they sure?” His throat worked. “About the baby, I mean?”
Cate felt as if she were having an out of body experience. “The baby is fine. He’s fine. I was crying because I was so relieved and happy.”
Brody went still. “He?” His eyes widened.
“I wanted to pray for our baby, and I needed to know if it was a him or a her, so I made the doctor tell me.”
“A boy...”
Brody looked poleaxed.
Cate felt far too fragile to handle any more emotional drama. “I’m fine, too, Brody. Please go. I don’t know why you stayed last night. They’re keeping me one more day, but it’s just a precaution.”
“I love you.”
She took a deep breath and exhaled. “We had a scare. It’s over. Back to business as usual.”
“No,” he shouted, slamming his hand on the bed rail.
She shrank back in the bed. “I don’t understand.”
He took her face in his hands and stared into her eyes. “I’m in love with you, Cate.”
“No. You’re not. You made your choice obvious when you left. You’ve had several shocks in a row. And you probably haven’t had a good Scottish breakfast in days. You’re off your game. But things will get better. Go or stay. I don’t care.”
He stood up and glowered at her. “I’m neither a Victorian maiden nor an elderly aunt. I’m completely clearheaded. And I love you.”
“Go pickle a herring,” she said, her heart racing. “I don’t want to hear your fanciful tales.”
“Where’s the ring?” he snapped, his gaze zeroing in on her bare left hand.
“They don’t let you have jewelry in the hospital. It’s a hazard. But not to worry. I left it with Isobel. I’m sure you can sell it on eBay. Or do they even have eBay in Scotland?” She was babbling.
Brody put his hand over her mouth. “Shut up, Cate. And listen to me.” His words were perfectly polite, but she sensed the steel behind them. “I love you. This isn’t a game.”
Cate was tired and overwrought and wearing nothing but an ugly hospital gown. And that wasn’t even counting the fact that she was still supposed to be on her honeymoon. She shoved his hand away. “If you care for me even the tiniest bit, Brody Stewart, you will walk out of this room and leave me alone until I can go back to Candlewick. By then I might be willing to have a civil conversation with you. But I make no promises.”
Brody’s face darkened. She held all the cards. No man in his right mind was going to argue with a pregnant woman who almost lost her baby, particularly if that very same man was responsible for ruining her and his honeymoon.
“Okay,” he said quietly. “If that’s what you want.”
She stuck out her chin. “It is,” she said.
* * *
When Brody walked out the door, she burst into tears again, only this time she cried into her pillow so no one would hear. She didn’t know if he was out in the hall again, and she didn’t want to know.
Somehow she had to pull herself together and make plans, plans that didn’t include Brody. The baby would be the focus of her time and attention and love. No matter how badly she wanted to believe in Brody’s impassioned about face, she dared not risk being wrong about him again.
For the remainder of the day she divided her time between watching stupid programs on the TV and talking on the phone with Isobel. Brody’s granny didn’t mention her grandson, and neither did Cate.
At eight the following morning, Cate’s doctor signed her dismissal papers. “No strenuous activity for a week,” she said. “And no sex.” The last instruction was said with a grin. “I’ve seen that brawny Scotsman out in the hall, but you tell him I said to keep it in his pants for a few more days.”
“Doctor Snyder!” Cate muttered, utterly mortified.
The other woman just chuckled and opened the door. “You can come in now.”
Brody entered the room looking only a shade better than he did the last time she had seen him. When she cocked her head and gave him the evil eye, he held up his hands. “Granny said I had to come take you home.” He held up a bag. “I brought clean clothes.” He sat on her bed. Again.
Cate snatched the leather tote out of his hands. “Go back in the hall while I get dressed.”
“I’ve seen you naked,” he reminded her.
The gentle teasing weakened her defenses. He was being so darned sweet and gentle. How was she supposed to resist him? Tears welled in her eyes. Brody, his expression strained, held her as she cried. “Sorry, lass.”
This time the storm didn’t last as long. Cate gathered herself together and sniffed. “Stupid hormones. Give me fifteen minutes to get ready, and we’ll go.”
He bent his head, looking searchingly into her eyes. “Are you really okay? And the baby, too?”
She nodded, unable to meet his gaze. “We’re both fine.”
<
br /> Brody stood. “That’s good.” He shifted from one foot to the other. “Should I call a nurse? Do ye need help with your clothes?”
“I don’t need anything. Go, please.”
The near-tragedy had left her shaky and emotional, and on top of that, she had to figure out what to do about Brody. Could she risk a marriage that wasn’t emotionally equal? She adored the man. Now, seeing his reactions to this latest scare, she did believe he cared about her and the baby. But love? His declaration was suspect at best. He was feeling guilty on several counts. She didn’t want a convenient marriage. Eventually, if Brody didn’t love her the way she loved him, the entire thing would unravel. The best thing she could do was absolve him and send him back to Scotland.
Eighteen
Brody was worried about Cate. She was pale and quiet, too quiet. No conversational gambit he tried succeeded in coaxing her out of her silence. At last, he gave up. Pushing her would only upset her. He had done enough of that already.
Without asking, he had decided to choose the longer route home. Taking a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway would add only twenty minutes to their forty-five-minute trip. But it would also provide several opportunities to pull off and look at the view, thus getting Cate out of the car.
He was hoping like hell that something, anything, would help him break through her brittle shell. He loved her. Sooner or later he had to convince her that was true. And though it scared him, he had to offer her a way out. One that wasn’t what he wanted, but a choice to prove that he wasn’t trying to control her life.
While she had made one last trip to the loo in preparation for leaving the hospital, he had read through the paperwork the doctor left with Cate. She was supposed to drink plenty of water, have regular mild exercise and not ride in a car or airplane for extended periods.
Now, after waiting for Cate to be wheeled out to the exit per hospital procedure, they were in the SUV he had bought for her, and the air was thick with tension. Seeing a turnout up ahead, he eased the car off the road. “Let’s get out and stretch,” he said.
His Heir, Her Secret (Highland Heroes Book 1) Page 15
