“You two aren’t going to gang up on me.” Alana crossed her arms over her chest and gave Pax another dirty look.
“We aren’t, baby girl,” Matt chuckled. “What’re you naming the firstborn?”
“Something Joy if it’s a girl,” she answered.
“And maybe Thomas Matthew if it’s a boy,” Pax chimed in. He reached over and patted Alana on the shoulder. “If you want to wait a year to start our family, I’m good with that, darlin’. We could still be parents by the time we’re thirty.”
“Well, I can’t think of any better names.” Matt beamed. “Y’all need to make a decision and not fight about when to start. Just love each other and compromise. I know I’ve said it before, but I’m so happy about this wedding and knowing that y’all are going to be together.”
Pax shot a knowing look at Alana, but she turned her head and looked out the side window. Big black clouds rolled in from the southwest. A long streak of lightning flashed through the sky, and a roll of thunder followed right on its tail. Pax’s grandpa had always told him to count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder, and that would tell how many minutes he had to get inside before the storm hit. If that was the truth, then they barely had time to get parked and into the café without getting soaked.
“Looks like we’re in for a frog strangler,” Matt said when Pax parked the truck right in front of the café.
“Kind of does, don’t it?” Pax agreed. “Y’all go on in and I’ll get the truck parked and join you in the café.”
“You best hurry,” Matt said as he slammed the door shut.
Alana didn’t even look at him, but slid out of the passenger seat and hurried toward the café.
Something told him that whatever squall was boiling in Alana’s heart was going to be much bigger than what the weather could deliver that day.
* * *
Matt was already heading back to the table where Iris, Bridget, Maverick and Laela waited when Alana got into the café. She took two steps to follow him, but Danielle touched her arm and whispered, “I’m warning you that Rachel is really angry at you for not asking her to do something at the wedding. She called me on my way from the church to here.”
“Well, maybe I should ask her to be on bathroom duty. She could hand out pretty monogrammed paper towels for the ladies to dry their hands on,” Alana said with a saccharine smile.
Danielle giggled. “Are you really going to have someone do that?”
“Nope, but it would be a good job for her. Here comes Pax. Thanks for the heads-up,” Alana said.
Pax came through the door and made his way right to her. He slipped his arm around her shoulders and said, “Glad y’all got inside before it started. The way the wind is picking up, it could be quite a storm out there in a few minutes. I’d hate for you to get your pretty dress all wet, darlin’.”
The heat of his arm resting south of her shoulder made her angry. She didn’t want him to have that kind of effect on her emotions. What she wanted was for him to agree with her about putting an end to all the lies and start telling the truth. She didn’t want to talk about baby names, not when she wasn’t sure whether she was pregnant or had cancer. The latter would mean that she’d probably die young and never have children, so why pick out names for children she might never have.
“I took the privilege of ordering us all sweet tea,” Iris said. “Our waitress will be back for our orders in a few minutes. I swear to God, the servers in this place get younger every year. The one who’s waiting on us can’t even be out of high school.”
“No, she’s not,” Matt said. “That’s Doc Wilson’s granddaughter, and she’s been working here all summer.”
“Well, how about that,” Iris crowed. “I like to see kids work. It teaches them responsibility. Now tell us what y’all were really arguing about at the church.” Her grin faded as she stared across the round table at Alana and Pax.
“They’re trying to decide whether they should start a family right after they get married or wait a year or two,” Matt answered. “I already got it out of them, and guess what, Iris? When they have a son, they’re going to name him Thomas Matthew, and when they have a daughter, her middle name is going to be Joy.”
Iris’s smile was so bright that it lit up the room. No one around the table even thought about the rain pouring down outside. “That’s the most precious thing I’ve heard in months.” She sighed. “Your grandpa would be so proud.”
“Whoa!” Maverick threw up both hands. “Bridget and I were going to wait to tell all y’all, but if you’re stealing my boy name, then we might as well let the cat out of the bag right now. We’re expecting a second child in November. And we’ve decided if it’s a boy, we’d like to use the name Thomas.”
“Oh. My. Goodness.” Iris’s hands went to her cheeks. “This is great news. Laela needs a sibling, and now I’ll have two great-grandchildren.”
Alana leaned over and gave Bridget a hug. “I’m so happy for you.”
Pax pushed back his chair and hugged Bridget on his way to clamp a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Congratulations.” Pax smiled. “We called the name first, but nothing says we can’t turn our name around to Matthew Thomas, and both of us use Grandpa’s name.”
“He’d be bustin’ the buttons off his shirt with pride,” Iris said.
“Great news.” Matt was on his feet next and shook hands with both Bridget and Maverick. “You kids are a lucky couple and some fine parents already.”
“I might have a girl,” Bridget reminded them.
“Or we might have one on our first try too,” Pax said.
The conversation turned to whether Bridget would have her baby on Thanksgiving Day, since her due date was close to then. Iris wanted to know all the details, like when she’d been to the doctor and was she using Doctor Wilson.
Alana listened to the conversation going on around her, but she didn’t care about all the particulars. She was glad that the spotlight was off what she and Pax had been arguing about. It was still her intention to come clean after her visit to Doctor Wilson, whatever the test results revealed. She simply couldn’t carry the guilt of their deception another two weeks.
“Twenty-four hours,” Pax whispered in her ear and then kissed her on the cheek.
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Give us until this time tomorrow to think about what you’re about to do. If you’re still set on telling Matt, then I’ll go with you. He deserves to hear it from both of us,” Pax said for her ears only.
Alana agreed with a nod. She hadn’t planned to talk to her father until afternoon anyway, and Pax should be there when she did. True enough, it had been her idea, but Pax hadn’t hesitated a single second when he agreed to play along. She would know for sure exactly what to tell both of them tomorrow.
“And one more thing while the attention is on Bridget. Have you taken a pregnancy test yet?” Pax asked, his head close to Alana’s.
“Okay, you two lovebirds, what are you whispering about, now?” Bridget asked.
“I was telling Pax that we’ll talk about when to start a family later. Right now, I’m starving and I want a big plate of chicken and dressing with all the sides,” she answered. “I’ve never learned to make good dressing. I always put too much sage in it.”
“I’ll teach you at Thanksgiving,” Iris offered. “It took me years to get it right. Here come our drinks. Better be making your decisions about dinner.”
“Thank you.” Alana wondered if Iris would even want her in the Callahan house when she found out what she and Pax had done.
The waitress passed their drinks around and then took out her order pad and pen. “Y’all ready?”
Pax went first. “I want the Sunday special, only instead of green beans, I want corn.”
When she’d written down all their orders, the waitress rushed off to the kitchen.
Matt picked up his glass of tea. “A toast. To the new baby.”
They all clinked glasses together and then took a sip of their tea.
Iris raised her glass. “Another toast. To Pax and Alana. We’re glad you two finally woke up and realized you were meant to be together.”
“Amen!” Matt touched his glass with Pax’s. “Love her. Cherish her. And may y’all celebrate your fiftieth anniversary with your children beside you and your grandchildren playing in the front yard of the Bar C Ranch.”
“Hear, hear!” Iris stood up and touched her glass to Alana’s.
A visual popped into Alana’s mind. Pax as sitting on the porch with her. Three or four of their grown children gathered around them, and a whole horde of little grandchildren playing chase on the front lawn. The picture warmed her heart. But it wasn’t enough to keep her from feeling like the biggest hypocrite in the whole state of Texas.
Chapter Eighteen
Alana had read somewhere that guilt was the strongest of all the emotions, and the toughest to get past. The peace that she’d felt from making the decision to come clean with her father had been short-lived. Now it had been replaced by a heavy feeling in her chest that she was afraid would never leave, no matter what she did or didn’t do.
Damned if you do; damned if you don’t, went through her mind as she waited for the doctor to come into the examination room. The open-back gown barely came to her knees, and the sheet Mary Beth gave her to cover with wasn’t doing a very good job. She inhaled deeply when she heard someone approaching out in the hallway. Her breath rushed out with a loud whoosh when Mary Beth pushed a cart with a computer on the top of it into the room.
“What’s that?” Alana asked.
“Internal ultrasound machine,” Mary Beth told her. “Doc should be here in a few minutes. Just relax.” She hurried out of the room and closed the door behind her.
Alana let out a long sigh. Cold chills that had nothing to do with the air-conditioning vent being right above her chased down her spine. Goose bumps popped up on her arms, and her breath came out in short gasps.
She couldn’t give her father the truth. To keep from crying—again—she focused on a height and weight chart hanging on the wall. She was six feet tall, so according to the chart she should weigh 148 pounds. She’d tipped the doctor’s scales at 145 that morning, so she was pretty close to normal.
That wouldn’t last long, though, not if she was pregnant. Her stomach would swell faster than her skin could grow, and she would waddle like a duck, and Pax would think she was ugly. Poor man had sure gotten himself into a mess when he agreed to a fake marriage.
Voices outside her door took her attention away from the chart and the pictures she visualized in her mind showed how horrible she would look in a few months. Two people were arguing right outside the door. She leaned forward and listened so hard that her ears ached. One had to be Mary Beth, and she was not happy.
“I’m goin’ in.” Pax’s voice came through loud and clear.
Her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat when Pax pushed his way into the exam room with Mary Beth right behind him.
“What are you doin’ here?” Alana asked.
He folded his arms over his chest. “I’m your fiancé, and I’ve got every right to be here.”
She tugged the sheet up over her chest, only to leave her thighs and legs exposed. “How did you even know I was here?”
“I followed you,” he said. “Are you pregnant? Is that why you’ve been acting so weird all weekend?”
The two of them were totally focused on each other, so Mary Beth took advantage of the situation and eased out of the room.
“I don’t know.” Alana pushed the sheet back down and twisted the corner into a knot. “The pregnancy tests I took were positive, but there’s no way I can be pregnant. I wasn’t ovulating. From what I read on the Internet, cancer will present a false positive, so I’m waiting for Doc to tell me what the blood work said.”
“And you didn’t tell me…why?” Pax crossed the small room in a couple of long strides and took Alana’s hand in his. “If we were really engaged, my place would be right here with you. Hell, if we weren’t doing more than dating and you thought you were pregnant, you still should have told me.”
“I wanted to be sure.” Wearing nothing but a backless gown and a sheet, Alana was sitting on the end of an exam table, and his touch still caused sparks to bounce off the light green walls.
“It doesn’t matter what the doctor says, Alana.” Pax brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “I’m here for you. I’ll be right here with you. I’m not going anywhere, darlin’.”
Doctor Wilson pushed into the room with a chart in his hands. He laid it on the countertop and flipped it open to the first page. “Your blood work shows absolutely no abnormalities that would indicate cancer, and every sign that you are pregnant. Congratulations to both of you.”
“Are you sure?” Alana whispered. “Do you need to do more tests?”
“No, you are definitely pregnant,” he said again. “Now lie back, put your heels in the stirrups, and we’ll do an ultrasound. I’ll push this screen closer to you so that you and Pax both can see your baby.”
She stared up at Pax, and be damned if his eyes weren’t twinkling.
“This will be a little cold. Sorry about that,” Doc Wilson said. “And I don’t usually do an internal ultrasound this early, but…” He pointed toward the screen. “That little bean right there is your baby. That’s Matt Carey’s first grandchild.”
Alana couldn’t take her eyes off the tiny blob on the screen. “That can’t be a baby. It looks like one of those goldfish crackers. Are you sure it’s not the beginning of a tumor?”
“Shhh…” Doc Wilson said and turned up the volume on the machine. “Must be because you are both good-size people. The baby is already pretty big for only two weeks.”
“That’s a good sign, right, Doc?” Pax’s expression changed from happy to worried.
“Shhh…” he said again. “Listen carefully.”
“All I hear is a whooshing noise,” Pax said.
“Is that…” Alana covered her mouth with her hand.
“It’s a heartbeat.” Doc nodded. “It’s early to detect one, but bigger babies do sound out earlier than the smaller ones. Since you know the day you got pregnant, I’d say you’re two weeks right now, and right there”—he pointed to numbers on the bottom of the screen—“is your due date. Looks like you might have a Valentine’s baby.”
The doctor removed the apparatus, and the screen went dark.
“Put it back,” Alana said. “I’m not finished looking at it. I’m really going to have a baby?”
“We’re really going to have a baby,” Pax corrected.
“Congratulations, again,” Doc said. “And in a few seconds we’ll have you some paper copies of your ultrasound. That should put your mind at ease about the idea of cancer.”
Doc took a slip of paper on which were three copies of black-and-white pictures from a printer on the bottom shelf of the rolling cart and handed them to Alana. “Proof that you do not have cancer. I never knew a tumor to have a heartbeat,” he chuckled. “I’ll be going now. You can get dressed and go celebrate the good news. Make an appointment with Mary Beth to come back in a month. After the sixth month, I’ll see you every two weeks, and after the eighth, it will be every week.”
“We’ll take care of that, Doc,” Pax replied. “And I’ll be here with her for every appointment.”
Alana was staring so hard at what was in her hands that she didn’t even know when the doctor left the room. “I thought things couldn’t get any more complicated, but I was wrong,” she whispered.
Pax leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “Grandpa used to say when obstacles came along how you got over them or around them all depended on how you looked at them. Ten years from now, we might look back on this and see it as a blessing. I’m going to be right here with you to help raise this child, Alana. Boy or girl, I want to be a part of its life.”
“I’m ready for that,” he said.
“Are you sure?” She sat up and turned her head so that she could look right into his eyes.
He nodded without hesitation. “I’m very sure. I told you before I will always be a part of the life of any child I father, and I meant it. I’ll be there for this baby. I’ll pay for the little one’s food, clothing, shelter—whatever he or she needs. No matter what, I’ll be right across the fence from you, and I’ll be there in five minutes anytime you call.”
“Do you realize that less than three weeks ago…” Her voice cracked.
“Yes, I do.” He hugged her tightly. “And I also know that in only eleven days we’re getting married. You got your vows written?”
“No, I have not,” she declared. “Pax, what am I going to do? It would kill Daddy’s soul to know that he was leaving me behind—pregnant…” She paused to wipe her eyes. “Dammit! All this is making me emotional.”
Pax reached across her lap, pulled a tissue from a box on a nearby table, and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Don’t cry, darlin’. We started this baby together, and we’ll raise it together.”
“Here’s a scenario for you. We’ve decided to be only friends. You live over at Callahan Ranch, and I’m living on the Bar C. It’s Saturday night, and you’re about to head out to go to the Wild Cowboy for some fun. I call and tell you that the baby has a fever, and we need to rush to the emergency room. Or I call and tell you that our toddler got away from me out in the pasture and a bull trampled him. What do you do?” She had no control over the damn tears that kept rolling down her cheeks.
Cowboy Strong - Includes a bonus novella Page 19
