A Child on the Way

by Janis Reams Hudson

  So she flirted right back.

  Across the room at a little table by the hall that led to the rest rooms, a stranger watched and smiled. Finally he’d found her.

  It was no effort to hear their conversation. The guy told the waitress that Lisa was staying at the ranch. The four-wheeler they’d pulled up in sported a logo on the side for the Flying Ace ranch.

  The man who’d hired him to find the woman would be pleased.

  Well, scratch that. Nothing pleased the man who’d hired him. But the news of the woman’s whereabouts would be welcome.

  The stranger paid his bill, then went out and sat in his car to place the call on his cell phone.

  Chapter Seven

  By the time they pulled up to the back door of the house it was dark, and Jack was having a little problem with reality. His mind kept slipping back to that tantalizing fantasy he’d been having since the day he’d carried Lisa in from the cold.

  The bad part was, the fantasy didn’t seem as terrifying now as it had the first few times he’d had it. Why should it scare him to imagine that this was all real? That Lisa was his. That he’d taken her into town for a prenatal checkup. That they’d spent the day together. That he’d taken her out for a late lunch so she wouldn’t have to cook once they got home.

  Most of it was true. There was no harm in altering the facts a little. It was a private thing, existing only in his mind. What could it hurt to pretend?

  Next, if this was real and not just his imagination, he would take her inside and carry her to his bed. Their bed.

  “Oh, Jack, thank you.”

  It took him a full minute to realize that Lisa had actually spoken, that he wasn’t making it up. He blinked the vision away and put the truck into park. “What are you thanking me for?”

  “For today. It was wonderful.”

  When she leaned toward him across the seat, Jack held his breath. She tilted her head and aimed a kiss at his cheek.

  He didn’t know what made him do it. He must have lost his mind. At least his willpower. Definitely his common sense. At the last possible second, just before that enticing mouth would have brushed his cheek, he turned his head. Toward her.

  Lisa saw the move too late. For one stunning second her lips brushed his. Heat and electricity sparked from the contact.

  Startled, shaken, Lisa sucked in a breath and pulled back. She froze a fraction of an inch away. If she so much as pursed her lips, she’d be kissing him. If she leaned forward just the tiniest bit…

  Oh, how she wanted to lean forward, purse her lips, kiss him. How she wanted him to kiss her back. The wanting was so strong and yet so foreign, as though she’d never known such a thing before, that she jerked away, shaken.

  Heaven help her, he looked…disappointed. As if he’d wanted them to kiss. After all, he was the one who moved his head, turning her simple gesture of thanks into something that could have been much more.

  Lisa’s heart raced. He had wanted to kiss her. Her, a woman nearly eight months pregnant with another man’s child.

  But when she met his gaze, she couldn’t deny what she saw there, and what she saw was the look of a man who wanted to kiss a woman.

  “Jack—”

  “I’m sorry.” He turned his gaze away and stared out the windshield. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

  If her laughter sounded as though it was more from shaky nerves than humor, Lisa couldn’t help it. “I felt a number of things just now, but offended isn’t even on the list.”

  Jack looked at her. With one finger he tucked her hair behind her ear. “You’re too honest for your own good, you know that? You could give a man ideas. And that’s not smart.”

  “No.” She huffed out a breath. “It’s not smart, is it.” She made it a statement rather than a question. “Can we…just forget it?”

  “No,” he said quietly. “But…”

  “But we won’t let it happen again,” she finished for him.

  “That’d be best.”

  “Yes.” She shrugged. “Roger always said I wasn’t any good at…at this man-woman stuff, anyway.”

  Beside her, Jack stiffened. “Roger?”

  Lisa shuddered. She couldn’t believe the words that had just come from her mouth.

  “Who’s Roger?” Jack asked.

  “I…” She pressed her fingertips to the dull throb in her temple. “I don’t know. It was there, then it was gone. Damn!” she cried. “Why did I say that?”

  “Easy,” Jack crooned, pulling her hand away from her head. “Just take it easy. Remember what the doctor said about not trying to force it.”

  “I can’t stand this,” she said. “Why would I say that?”

  Jack was furious, and trying to hold it in. How dare some bastard say a thing like that to her. Jack would like to get the jerk alone in a room for five minutes and teach him some manners.

  But Lisa didn’t need his anger right now; she needed reassurance. “It’s the sort of thing a weak man says to a strong woman. He tears her down as a way to try to build himself up. It’s also the excuse a man gives his wife or girlfriend when he gets caught cheating. That way he makes her think it was her fault he cheated on her. Whoever this Roger is, you’re better off not remembering him.”

  “But what if he’s my baby’s father? What if—”

  “Stop.” Jack squeezed her hand, when what he wanted to do was wrap her in his arms. “Until you get your memory back, all the speculation in the world is useless. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. But damn him, Lisa, he was wrong.”

  She eyed Jack warily. “What do you mean?”

  “When he said you weren’t any good at sex. That’s what you meant, wasn’t it?”

  Unable to look at him, she nodded.

  “Look at me.”

  When she wouldn’t, or couldn’t, he carried their joined hands to her chin and nudged her face up until she met his gaze.

  “I know you,” he said softly. “You’re the warmest, most generous woman I’ve ever met. There’s no way he was right. If I knew for certain you weren’t married, or involved with someone, I’d prove it to you.”

  His words went all through Lisa, warming her blood and making her pulse race. She pressed her free hand to her chest to hold her heart in place. In his eyes she saw desire. For her.

  …married, or involved…

  Was she? She didn’t feel as though she was, but she didn’t know. And suddenly, here in the night, in the close confines of the vehicle, with Jack staring at her as though he could gobble her up in two big bites, she wanted desperately to know.

  Oh, dear. “I…think I better go in now.”

  He held on to her hand a moment longer, then gave it another gentle squeeze. “Stay put. I’ll help you out.”

  She would have objected—the last thing either of them needed was for him to put his hands on her again—but he was right. It was a long step down out of the rig, and her bulk made her less than agile.

  When he got out and started around the front of the vehicle, he left the engine running and the lights on. That told her he didn’t intend to go inside with her.

  That was good. It was the smartest thing for both of them just then. And it was incredible how disappointed it made her feel.

  The next morning Jack was in the barn doctoring a horse that hadn’t seen the barbed-wire fence buried beneath the snow and had gotten cut up.

  The horse didn’t really need doctoring; the cuts weren’t serious and would heal fine on their own. But Jack needed something to do to keep himself from going up to the house and checking on Lisa. He just wanted to look at her, to make sure she was all right, to see her smile.

  But after last night…

  No, he needed to stay away for a while, give her a little space. She probably wasn’t in any hurry to be around him. She’d meant to thank him, and he’d turned it into something else entirely. Something neither of them was ready for.

  The horse stomped a foot at Jack’s lack of atten
tion.

  “Sorry, fella. I’ll hurry.”

  Trey sauntered into the barn and up to the stall. He looked the situation over and let out a low whistle. “I’ve seen worse, but I don’t remember when.”

  Jack gave him a look of dismissal. “It’s just a few cuts, and none of them too bad. You’ve seen plenty worse.”

  “I was talking about you, not the gelding. Who died?”

  “Nobody that I know of,” Jack grumbled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Uh-huh.” Trey leaned against the stall door. “You look like the world caved in on you. Wanna talk about it?”

  Jack turned back to the horse and dabbed antiseptic on another cut. “Nothing to talk about.”

  “Ah.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? Ah. Ah, what?”

  “It means, big brother, that whenever a man says there’s nothing to talk about, it usually indicates woman trouble.”

  Jack snorted.

  “You got woman trouble, Jack?”

  Jack refused to look at his younger brother. He knew that if he did he’d find Trey grinning like a possum. He could hear that grin in his voice. “You know damn well and good I don’t have a woman. No woman, no woman trouble.”

  “There you have it.”

  “I know I’m gonna regret asking this, but there I have what?”

  “The source of your trouble. No woman.”

  Jack snorted again. “Okay, wise guy, where’s your woman?”

  “I happen to be between women right now.”

  Jack purposely took the comment in a way he knew Trey hadn’t meant and laughed. “You wish, bro.”

  Trey snickered. “True enough. I’d like to be between a redhead and a—”

  “Spare me the details. It’s too early in the morning for barroom talk.”

  Trey shrugged, not the least offended. “Anyway, I’ll be finding myself a new woman when I get to Las Vegas after Ace and Belinda come home.”

  “Gonna get your heart broken by some long-legged showgirl?”

  “I hope so,” Trey said with feeling. “I dearly hope so. Hey, you’re not still mooning over Marsha, are you?”

  “Get real. That’s ancient history.”

  Trey nodded. “Yeah, okay. That narrows it down, then. You’re mooning over Lisa.”

  Jack ground his teeth together to keep from saying anything. No matter what he might say, Trey would twist it around and make something out of nothing. Better to just keep his mouth shut. Except that didn’t stop Trey, either.

  “No comment?”

  Jack slathered too much ointment on another small cut. “I wouldn’t dignify such an absurd remark by commenting.”

  “Well, then,” Trey said a little too casually, “I guess that means you won’t mind if I mosey on up to the house and pay her a visit.”

  Jack whirled on Trey so fast he startled the horse. The animal shied and stepped on Jack’s foot.

  The string of curses that Jack let out turned the air blue. Trey laughed till he nearly split a gut. Jack finished swearing long before Trey finished laughing.

  “It wasn’t that funny,” Jack muttered, turning back to soothe the horse.

  When he could talk again, Trey let out a gusty sigh. “Oh, yeah, it was.”

  “I don’t recall you thinking it was too damn funny when you got kicked in the shin last month.”

  Trey chuckled. “I wasn’t laughing at the fool horse stepping on you. I was laughing at the look on your face when I said I was gonna go up to the house and see Lisa. Guess that told me what I want to know.”

  Jack shot him a dirty look. “She’s got enough trouble on her hands without having to fight off some jerk who thinks he’s the local Don Juan.”

  “Well, then, you oughtta stay away from her.”

  “You’re so damn funny, aren’t you? I’m telling you to stay away from her.”

  “I rest my case,” Trey said. “You want her for yourself. You’re mooning over her.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about. She doesn’t need any man stirring up things for her just now.”

  “Yeah,” Trey said, turning serious. “She’s in a bad spot, all right, with her memory gone and a baby on the way. Is she married? Is that what’s got you tied up in knots?”

  Jack worked his way down a series of shallow cuts on the horse’s right foreleg and said nothing.

  “Damn,” Trey said. “So that’s it.”

  “No,” Jack said tersely. “That’s not it. Exactly.”

  “Not it exactly? What does that mean?”

  Jack leaned his head on the horse’s neck. “Jeez, you’re gonna worry this to death, aren’t you?”

  “Hey, there’s only the two of us left in this family who are still single. I’m just looking out for you, bro. It’s not like you to fall for a married woman.”

  “First of all,” Jack said, eyes narrowed, “I haven’t fallen for her. Second, it’s not that she’s married, it’s that she doesn’t know if she’s married.”

  Trey let out a long whistle. “Wow. That’s rough, man. Hell of a thing to forget.”

  “She can’t help it.”

  “I know. What are you gonna do?”

  “Nothing.” Jack turned back to the horse. “Not a damn thing.”

  As noon approached, the temperature shot upward and the snow began to melt rapidly. Lisa was amazed that every time she looked out a window there was less and less of the white stuff. There was still a lot of it; there’d been so much to begin with. They wouldn’t see bare ground anytime soon, but the piles and drifts were visibly shrinking. The sight should have boosted her spirits, but it didn’t.

  She sat staring at the television. There was a talk show on, and she hoped it would take her mind off herself for a while, but no luck there, either.

  She had neither seen nor heard from Jack since last night. She couldn’t decide if she should be unhappy or relieved. Unhappy because she wanted to see him, relieved because she needed this time to think clearly.

  Clearly. That was a laugh. Everything in her head was muddled and fuzzy, or sharp and confusing.

  She was pregnant, so that meant there was a man somewhere in her life. At least there had been. But the picture she was getting of him did nothing to reassure her that everything would be fine once her memory fully returned.

  Who was this Roger who thought she was no good at sex?

  Jack had been right about that. Lisa had called it “man-woman stuff.” But what she knew—she couldn’t truthfully call it a memory, because she couldn’t remember a Roger—was that this Roger person had told her—no, convinced her, for she believed it—that she was no good at sex.

  A man wouldn’t make a statement like that unless he’d had sex with her, would he? He hadn’t said, “I hear…” He’d said, “You are…”

  Did that mean Roger was the father of her baby? Was he the man she was angry with? She had told Jack that her baby might never know its father if the jerk didn’t back off.

  Then there was the money she’d brought with her. And her medical records.

  Everything pointed to the assumption that she and the baby’s father had had a falling-out, and that she hadn’t planned to return to Denver anytime soon.

  Oh, Lord, she wished she could just remember!

  Maybe, if she could remember her past, remember herself, she would know what to do with these mixed feelings she had for Jack. Wary one minute, yearning the next. And sometimes, like last night when her lips had brushed his, downright turned on.

  She felt like a yo-yo, some giant unseen hand yanking her string.

  How long could she go on like this? What if her memory didn’t return for months, or years, or never?

  She needed a plan. A plan that would allow her to stand on her own. Obviously she needed to know if she was married. She supposed she could go to Denver and check the courthouse records.

  Of course if she found nothing, that would only mean she hadn’t gotten ma
rried in that county. She could have gotten married anywhere.

  She could hire a detective to find out about her life, but was that the best use of her money when she would have a baby to care for, medical bills, living expenses? Heavens, she would go broke in no time.

  She would need a job and a place to live. She couldn’t live off the Wilders, even if Belinda really was her best friend. But the job would have to wait. When she’d looked over her medical records, she’d learned that the baby was due sooner than she’d thought. When she had remembered that she was seven months pregnant, she must have been remembering how far along she’d been at her last checkup. She was now, as of yesterday, eight months along. No one was going to hire her that close to her due date, only to have her take off for six weeks in a scant month. Assuming she would be able to work that long.

  No, the job would have to wait. She could have the baby in Hope Springs. Maybe there was a small house for rent there. The thought of going somewhere else, where she wouldn’t know a single person, left her cold.

  “Lisa?”

  At the sound of Jack’s voice she gave a start.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I knocked and called out. Guess you didn’t hear me.”

  She pushed herself up from the couch. “I guess I didn’t. I was…watching television.” She felt her cheeks sting at the small lie. She’d been staring at the television, but she had no idea what was on.

  Jack stuffed his hands in his pockets and took a step back toward the kitchen. “I was just going to help myself to something for lunch.”

  Lisa insisted on fixing something for him. “How much time do you have before you need to get back to work?”

  “Some. Why?”

  He was a hardworking man. He needed something more substantial than a sandwich or two, and he had to be getting tired of soup from a can. “I could fry a chicken.”

  His grin came slow and wide. “I’ll take the time.”

  To her surprise and pleasure, he stayed in the kitchen with her while she cooked. He sat at the kitchen table and stretched his legs out, and they talked a little about the warmer weather.

  “I found a ham in the freezer,” she told him. “I thought I’d bake that this afternoon for tonight’s supper.”