The Lawman's Little Surprise

by Roxann Delaney

  But Trish wasn’t worried about Dusty, funny or not. With Kate pregnant, there was no telling how much of her honeymoon cruise she’d be able to enjoy. And that wasn’t fair. Kate worked hard at farming and at her catering and tax businesses. She deserved the time off.

  Glancing out the curtained window, Trish saw that evening was settling in. She wasn’t looking forward to encountering Morgan. Hettie had been there since early afternoon for their gift exchange, and Trish had managed to avoid seeing him when he’d dropped Hettie off at the farm. Hettie just wouldn’t give up hope.

  As if she’d summoned him with her thoughts, headlights flashed as a car turned into the drive and parked in front of the house. Thinking quickly, she dumped the napkin in the trash and turned to step into the hall, just as she heard a car door close. She was halfway up the stairs to her room when Hettie called to her that Morgan was at the door.

  Ignoring the hint, she hurried to her room where she collapsed on the bed. She knew she couldn’t hide for long. Aggie, if not Hettie, would come to fetch her to tell Hettie good-night. But just for the moment, she wanted to catch her breath. To be alone. To not think about Morgan or even the baby.

  The reprieve lasted for only a few minutes, until she heard footsteps on the stairs outside her room. Scrambling to her feet, she grabbed a hairbrush from the nightstand next to her bed and pulled it through her hair. When the light knock sounded on the door, she was calm and ready to join the others. “I’ll be right there,” she called.

  The door opened slightly, and Aggie poked her head into the room. “Everything okay?”

  Trish pasted on a bright smile. There was no sense worrying Aggie. “Of course. I just wanted to grab—” She looked around the room and spied the present she’d bought and lovingly wrapped months ago for Morgan. Picking it up from the top of her dresser, she held it out to show her aunt, hoping that would be that.

  Instead of leaving, Aggie perched on the edge of the bed. “I can only imagine how hard it is for you, seeing it’s the holidays and all, and what with Kate getting married and your own plans gone awry. I just want you to know that I’m proud of you.”

  Tears seemed to always be just on the surface of late, and it took an effort to keep them from spilling. “I’m okay, Aunt Aggie. Really. It’ll get easier. I’ll feel better when Kate gets home, I’m sure.”

  Aggie got to her feet and laid a hand on Trish’s shoulder. “Holidays are a heck of a time to have family away. A Christmas wedding sounded nice, but I don’t think any of us gave any thought to them being gone during the time we want them with us the most. Now, you come on downstairs. I think Morgan has something for you, too.”

  Surprised that he would bother after everything that had happened, Trish gave a sniff to the tears she’d managed to hold back and followed her aunt down the stairs. In the kitchen, she found Hettie watching Morgan devour a huge piece of Christmas cake.

  Looking up when they came into the room, Morgan swallowed, a sheepish smile on his face. “Nobody does this cake like Kate does,” he said before taking another mouthful.

  Trish crossed her arms in front of her, then glanced at Hettie and Aggie. “Kate didn’t bake it.”

  Morgan stopped in midchew and his eyebrows went up.

  “Trish did,” Aggie announced.

  “With a little help from Aunt Aggie,” Trish added, “and a lot of notes from Kate.”

  “Nobody would know,” Morgan replied after finishing the bite. “It’s that good.”

  Aggie grinned, the lines in her face deepening. “We’ll send a piece home with you. If you think you might want it, that is.”

  “I was hoping you’d say something like that.”

  Trish set the gift for him aside and busied herself at the sink. No one could call her domestic, although everybody seemed to think she looked the part of the perfect little wife. She tried her best. She really did. And Kate had spent an enormous amount of time teaching her the basics of cooking. At least now she could boil water without…well, without burning it and the pan. She would never be as good as her sister, but cooking a decent meal had become much easier.

  Behind her, she listened to the conversation between her aunt and their guests. Everyone always felt at home in Aggie’s kitchen, whether they were longtime friends or strangers. That’s the way it was in the country, her aunt had told Trish and Kate when they moved in after their parents’ deaths. That was definitely the way it was at the Claybornes’.

  “So are you two ladies packed for your trip?” Morgan was asking.

  Hettie laughed. “Packed? Are you joking?”

  “You’re an organized person,” Morgan pointed out. “I figured your bags were sitting by the door in your apartment, waiting to be loaded into the car.”

  Trish heard Aggie’s disgusted snort, and she smothered a giggle.

  “It’s a cruise, for heaven’s sake,” Aggie admonished. “What’s to pack?”

  “No off-ship adventures? No tours of the area when you dock somewhere?”

  “We’re docking?” Aggie asked.

  That had Trish turning around, certain her aunt was joking, but by the look on her face, she knew Aggie wasn’t.

  “Why, of course!” Hettie cried. “Several places, to be exact.”

  Trish moved closer to the table where everybody was seated. “You didn’t know? I thought Kate and I told you.”

  Aggie gave a dismissive wave of her hand, but her face showed her concern. “I suppose you did.”

  “You weren’t paying attention.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  Hettie let out a sigh. “Oh, Aggie, it’s a dream trip for both of us.”

  “You’ve been on cruises,” Aggie pointed out, but didn’t look her way.

  “Many. But not with my best friend.”

  Not sure she should make things worse, but knowing her aunt needed to know, Trish spoke softly. “You’ll dress for dinner on board the ship.”

  Aggie’s eyes widened in horror. “Dress?” she croaked.

  “Nothing fancy,” Hettie hurried to say. “Sunday best, not black tie.”

  Aggie gave a decided nod, her mouth set in a firm line. “I can do that.” But the worry lines between her eyes remained.

  “Where will they be stopping?” Morgan asked. “I haven’t heard. Don’t know a thing about cruises.”

  Hettie turned to him. “And you from Miami!”

  He shrugged and looked down at his empty plate. “Let’s just say we weren’t a cruising family.”

  “Neither were we,” Aggie said, slowly sinking to her chair at the table. “Not until now, anyway.”

  Hettie glanced at her, and then turned back to Morgan. “We’ll be stopping in Cozumel, Montego Bay and George Town.”

  “You’ll love it, Aunt Aggie,” Trish hurried to assure her. “A whole ’nother world, as they say.”

  Aggie grunted. “I can go to Texas for that.”

  Hettie pushed back her chair and stood, then grabbed Aggie’s arm and tugged. “Come on. Let’s go take a look at what clothes you have. I’m anticipating a shopping trip in a couple of days.”

  Looking up, Aggie muttered, “Heaven help me. She’ll drive me crazy on a boat.”

  “Ship,” Trish and Morgan replied in unison.

  Hettie laughed as she coaxed Aggie from the room, nearly having to drag her. Trish shook her head. Her aunt had never been one for being fancy. Plain and simple, Aggie always said about herself. Trish suspected it hadn’t always been that way. Her dad and mother had both mentioned more than once that in her youth, Aggie had been a beauty. Somewhere through the years, it simply had ceased being important to her.

  When Morgan cleared his throat, Trish felt the need to comment. “They’ll have a lovely time.”

  “No doubt. And probably get into some kind of scrape, knowing them. It was really nice of you and Kate to give them the cruise as a Christmas present.”

  Shrugging, Trish took a seat at the table and avoided meeting his gaze. “
They both deserve it. Aggie has worked hard all her life. Things are better for her, now that Kate and Dusty have taken over the farming, but we wanted to do something special.”

  “Only you and Kate could have thought of a cruise.”

  She looked up, straight into his eyes. “She took in two orphaned teenage girls. She’s been our mother for almost twelve years. Booking her on a cruise with her best friend doesn’t come close to repaying her for everything she’s done for us.”

  His expression was solemn as he nodded his understanding. “I know. She’s one of the best. Her and Hettie.”

  “And your uncle Ernie,” Trish added. Morgan had broken her heart, but the pieces still loved him beyond measure. She willed the thought away. She couldn’t risk clouding her mind with emotions that might mean nothing to him. Not with the decisions she needed to make for her and the baby’s future.

  “I brought something for you,” he said, getting up from the table.

  “Really?” She watched as he walked to the small table by the door and picked up something hidden beneath where he’d left his coat.

  “It isn’t much,” he said, returning with a pretty wrapped package in his hands.

  “I have something for you, too,” Trish said, jumping up from the table. She slipped the package from the counter where she’d left it and took it back to the table. “It’s not much, either,” she said, taking her seat again.

  With a bit of embarrassment on both their parts, they exchanged their gifts. “Go on,” Morgan urged after taking his, “open it.”

  Trish felt her cheeks warm even more as she carefully began removing the tape on the ends of the package. Gently folding back the shiny silver-embossed paper, she spied the gift he’d given her. “Oh, Morgan, it’s beautiful!”

  “When I saw it one day when I was in Oklahoma City, I thought of you.”

  Tears swam in her eyes as she ran her hands over the front of the leather journal. She’d once told him that keeping a diary was something she had started as a young girl. Most of the entries had been snippets of fairy-tale stories that floated around in her mind. Those had been the beginning of her writing and what had led her to write a children’s book.

  “And a pen, too!” Saying too much would only make him uncomfortable, so she merely looked up at him, hoping he could see how much she loved the gift. “A very expensive pen, by the way. You shouldn’t have, Morgan.”

  “It’s only a blank book and pen.”

  The threatening tears vanished and she laughed. “But a beautiful blank book and a lovely pen. Inspiration to write more.”

  “So now I’m inspiring, huh?”

  His smile was wide and relaxed, something Trish hadn’t seen for a long, long time. Not since June, when everything had begun to change. If only she knew what that had been about, maybe they wouldn’t be sitting at her aunt’s table, exchanging Christmas gifts on one of the saddest Christmases she could remember. But Morgan had refused to discuss much of anything, no matter how often she’d tried.

  “Open yours now,” she urged, hoping he would like the gift she had chosen for him, in spite of what had happened between them.

  He glanced toward the door to the hallway, sudden discomfort evident in the stiff look of his shoulders. “Are you sure—”

  “They’re upstairs. I can hear them,” she said. “Go on. Open it.”

  MORGAN STARED at the blue-and-gold package in his hand and wondered if the gift exchange was a good idea. He never felt comfortable getting presents. Giving was easier, even though he usually did it without much thought. In fact, there had been no thought to the one he’d found for Trish. He’d just known the minute he laid eyes on it that it was made for her.

  “What is it?” he asked as he forced himself to begin the unwrapping process.

  “Keep going and find out.”

  He glanced up to see Trish watching him, a tentative smile on her lips. Pulling a box from the wrappings, he opened it to find a set of Gary Cooper movies on DVD. “How’d you know?”

  Shrugging, she stood and walked to the sink. “I guess I heard you mention once that you liked his movies.”

  “I love ’em.” And he did. Gary Cooper was his kind of guy. As a little boy, he’d been discovered staying up late at night watching old Westerns on television, more than once. Of course he’d been immediately sent back to bed, but he suspected his mom and dad had known that he’d sneaked right back out and finished the movies, followed by dreams of being the good guy who saved the day…and the lady.

  “I’m glad you like them,” Trish said from where she now stood by the sink.

  “They’ll give me something to do on an evening when I’m off duty.”

  “Have Dusty put video software on your computer at the office, and you can watch to your heart’s content.”

  He rubbed his jaw with the palm of his hand and considered the idea. Being the sheriff in Desperation wasn’t time-consuming, but what would the city council think if they found out? “I’ll think about it.”

  “More cake?”

  “What? No, no thanks. But there was something I wanted to talk to you about.” He hadn’t wanted to, but it was something that had been bothering him since the night before, and the only way he knew to find out was to ask. “What’s that?”

  “Come sit down first.”

  With a shrug, she joined him again at the table. She looked worried, and he sure didn’t want her to be. A simple answer from her, and the subject would be closed. It was a question he was pretty sure he knew the answer to, but there was still the possibility she’d made a mistake. He only wanted to be absolutely sure.

  After a quick glance at the doorway to the hall, she gave him her attention. “Go on. What is it?”

  Summoning his courage, he held her gaze. “How long have you known? About the…you know.”

  For a fraction of a second, she stared at him, and then her chin went up, defiant and stubborn, totally unlike Trish. “Long enough.”

  He gathered his patience and proceeded as if it was an interview with a stranger. “Can you explain to me what that means?”

  With a sigh, she nodded. “I’ve suspected it for several weeks, but I wanted to be sure.” She glanced toward the hallway again and dropped her voice. “I took a home pregnancy test. It was positive.”

  Nodding, he thought about it, although he didn’t know a lot about those kinds of things. “You’re sure it wasn’t too early? You know, so it worked right?”

  “There’s no doubt, Morgan. I know my own body.”

  “Of course you do. I’m just trying…” Trying to what? Pretend this wasn’t happening? Hoping it wasn’t? That wasn’t completely false, but he needed to accept this one hundred percent, without a doubt. “I guess what I am trying to find out is if you’ve seen a doctor yet.”

  “I have an appointment on Tuesday, as a matter of fact.” Her chin went up again, and he suddenly saw the resemblance, plain and clear, between her, Kate and their aunt. “But there’s no doubt, absolutely none.”

  “Okay. I just think we should make sure, before we go off making plans.”

  He jumped when she slammed her hands on the table and shot to her feet. “No, that isn’t it at all,” she said, her voice rising. “It’s easier to pretend it isn’t happening or to think it might be someone else’s.” She leaned down, peering into his eyes. “Is that it, Morgan? You think it belongs to someone else?”

  “Hell, no!” he shouted back.

  “That’s good,” she said, not moving even an inch back, “because there’s never been anyone else. Not ever. Not before, not after, not ever. So if you think that’s the way it is, you can walk right out that door right now and never—and I mean never—show your face here again.”

  “What’s going on down here?”

  Morgan nearly came out of his seat, sure his short-cropped hair was standing on end, and Trish had jumped up, nearly tangling herself in her chair. “Nothing. Just talking,” he managed to answer as he turned to see
Aggie and Hettie in the doorway. How much had they heard?

  “Talking?” Aggie asked, striding into the room. “Sounded more like an argument to me.”

  Hettie nodded. “A loud one.”

  Trish sank to her chair. “It’s nothing. Just a disagreement between two people.” She slid a warning look at Morgan. “I think he’s ready to go, Hettie.”

  He noticed that her hands, which she quickly clasped in front of her on the table, were trembling. He felt bad. Real bad. Trish would never trick him into something. He wanted to assure her that he knew that with all his heart and soul. But with Aggie and Hettie standing there, it was impossible. He knew women could be wrong about being pregnant, and he didn’t want to learn, nor did he want Trish to learn, that it was a case of an imaginary pregnancy.

  But he was damn glad there wasn’t anyone else involved in this thing. Now all he had to do was wait until she told him what the doctor had to say. After that, he’d be ready to move forward and start making arrangements, whatever those arrangements might be.

  Chapter Five

  Trish sat in the waiting room flipping through the glossy pages of a magazine and wishing this first doctor visit was over. If Morgan knew that he’d put doubt in her mind, he’d be surprised. Or would he?

  Frankly, she was still amazed that she’d blown up at him on Christmas Day, accusing him of thinking there was someone else in her life. She blamed her hormones. She hadn’t known she could hit red rage quite so quickly. She never had before, and she was shocked by how good it had felt to let all that pent-up anger at him for the past six months surface.

  She glanced at the reception desk, hoping she’d be called soon. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the door open and the last person she wanted to see entered the room.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked Morgan, unable to keep the annoyance from her harsh whisper. He took the empty seat next to her.

  “Just passing by,” he replied, with a nod to Cara Milton behind the receptionist’s desk.