“I want it.”
“Okay, then.” He smiled at her. “But next time, if there are guns involved, keep your mouth shut and don’t move.”
She didn’t even bother to reply to that, only whispered, “I heard Meggie left.”
“Yeah.”
“And that she’s going to have a baby.”
“Yeah.”
Her brows drew together. “I bet you don’t want to miss that. Seeing your baby born. It’s going to be soon, from what I’ve heard.”
“Yeah. Real soon.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“Well, my mother’s in the hospital.”
Sharilyn cast a loving glance at Hector. “Don’t you worry about me. I have someone special to care for me. You go on home now, Nathan, to Meggie and your baby, where you belong.”
Chapter Sixteen
The last Saturday in April, Meggie woke in the morning to a rippling contraction that moved over her stomach and down into the deepest part of her. Smiling, she put her hands over the place where her baby lay.
Over the past several days, her belly had lost its high roundness. Now her baby lay low inside her, ready to be born.
“Um, yes. All right. Very good,” Dr. Pruitt had said when she’d gone to see him on Thursday. “Effacement is progressing nicely. And you’re even a couple of centimeters dilated. That baby should be showing up here very soon.”
Dr. Pruitt had been right, of course.
Very right. Meggie lay in her bed thinking that before the next day dawned, she would hold her baby in her arms.
She rose from the bed and went down to make the fire. Farrah called from her house just as Meggie got a good blaze going.
“Come on over. Biscuits and gravy.”
“I’ll be right there.” Meggie damped the fire a bit, grabbed her jacket from its hook by the door and went out across the cold, dark yard to the bunkhouse.
Another contraction took her in the middle of the yard. Meggie stopped, put her hands on her stomach again and looked up at the stars overhead
Not a cloud in sight. Her baby would be born on a sunny day.
Farrah knew what was happening the moment she saw Meggie’s face. “How far apart are they?”
“Ten minutes at least, and they’re not very regular. It could be quite a while yet.”
“Did you call Doc Pruitt?”
“Not yet.”
“By nine, though, all right? If the contractions keep up.”
“Sure. By nine.”
When Meggie called at nine, the contractions were still several minutes apart. Doc Pruitt told her to call again in two hours.
At eleven, he still advised her to wait awhile before heading to the hospital in Buffalo. Meggie cleaned her house and made sure she had everything she’d need for her short stay in the hospital. She checked the baby’s room, opening all the bureau drawers to see the little shirts and hand-knitted sweaters, running her hand over the stack of diapers that waited on the shelf above the changing table.
“It won’t be long now,” she whispered to the yellow teddy bear propped up in the side of the crib.
Lunchtime came and went. Meggie felt too excited to eat. But Farrah talked her into sipping a little soup and chewing a few crackers.
Finally, around three in the afternoon, Meggie reported to Doc Pruitt that her contractions were coming about every five minutes. They were longer, and stronger than before, too.
“Get Farrah to bring you on in, then,” the doctor said. “I’ll meet you there.”
Meggie put her suitcase in the back of Farrah’s little hatchback 4x4. Then she returned to the house to check one last time that all was in order.
Farrah was waiting with the motor running and her kids in the back seat when Meggie came out of the house again. Smiling, she walked across the sunny yard toward the waiting car. She had just reached the passenger door, when a contraction came on. She leaned on the roof of the car, waiting for it to pass.
Farrah rolled down her window. “Okay?”
Meggie groaned. And then she smiled. “Yeah. They’re getting stronger.”
“Come on, then.” Farrah pushed the door open from inside.
Meggie started to lower herself to the seat.
And right at that moment, an old GMC pickup came barreling into the yard.
“Nate,” both Meggie and Farrah said at the same time.
Spraying gravel, Nate spun to a stop a few yards from the hatchback. Sonny’s hound started barking.
Meggie called out, “Scrapper! You stop that now!”
The dog gave one last “Whuff,” then slunk off the side of the bunkhouse porch.
Nate shoved open his door and slid down from the seat.
Appalled by the tenacity of her own unwavering heart, Meggie hungrily drank in the sight of him. He looked wrung out, rakish—and disreputable as always. He was the handsomest man she’d ever seen.
She asked, “What happened to your arm?”
He shrugged. “It’s nothing. A scratch.”
“That’s no answer.”
He gave a cursory glance toward Farrah and the kids and the waiting hatchback. “Where are you headed?”
“To Buffalo.”
“What for?”
Instead of telling him, Meggie turned and spoke to Farrah through the side window of the hatchback. “Go ahead and take the kids back inside. I’ll give you a call. Soon.”
Farrah frowned. “Meggie, it’s a ways into Buffalo.”
“There’s time.”
“But—”
“Please. Go on in. I’ll talk to Nate. And I’ll call you soon enough.”
Farrah shot a disapproving look past Meggie’s shoulder at the man who waited behind her. “If he gives you any trouble, you send him to me. I’ll show him the sharp side of my tongue.”
Meggie forced a grin, trying to telegraph a confidence she didn’t feel. “Will do.”
Farrah wasn’t buying. “Look, Meggie...”
Meggie pushed back from the door. “Go on. I’ll be fine.”
Reluctantly, Farrah drove the car the short distance to her own front door, got out and began removing Davey from his carseat.
Meggie and Nate were left standing alone in the middle of the yard, looking at each other. Neither of them seemed to have a clue what to say.
Meggie was the one who broke the silence. “What do you want?”
His mouth opened, and then he closed it. His brows drew together in a pained frown.
She demanded again, “What do you want, Nate?”
His jaw tightened beneath a couple of days’ worth of beard. He coughed, and then he asked quietly, “Will you please invite me in?”
She thought of all the times he had left her, of all the times he had sent her away—of how each of those times, he had broken her heart. She didn’t want her heart broken anymore. She’d had all the heartbreak she could take. Behind her, the screen door to the bunkhouse squeaked shut as Farrah took her children inside.
“Please, Meggie...”
“You told me you would leave. For good. I believed you, Nate.”
“Please.”
With a grim sigh, she turned and led him up the steps and in the front door of her house. In the living room, she gestured at a chair. “Sit. And whatever you have to say, it had better be good.”
But he didn’t sit. He stood in the middle of the room, looking at her with the most intense and burning expression she’d ever seen on his face in all the years she’d known him.
“What?” she demanded. “What?”
And he said, “Meggie, I love you.”
Meggie blinked. “What?”
He said it again. “I love you.”
She gave a small, bewildered cry.
He added, “And there’s more.”
She gulped. “There is?”
“Yeah. I have always loved you, since the first minute I saw you, minus your Wranglers, on the back of that big sorrel gelding you used to r
ide. I know I don’t deserve you. I know I’ve hurt you bad every time I walked away from you. You shouldn’t take me back. But if you will take me back, I will never walk away from you again. I swear it.”
A contraction took Meggie, right then, as Nate was saying all the words she’d made herself stop dreaming she would ever hear from him. She dropped into an old rocker that had been her granny Kane’s and, moaning, she let the pain have its way with her.
Nate covered the distance between them and knelt at her side. He felt for her hand. She gave it and squeezed hard, bearing down the way the pain bore down on her.
At last, it passed off and away. She panted and leaned her head back. “Whew.”
Nate let out a groan of his own. “My God. You’re in labor.”
She rolled her head to look at him. “Yeah.”
“Buffalo,” he muttered in dawning understanding. “The hospital. That’s where you were going.”
“Right.”
He jumped to his feet. “What’s the matter with you? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’m fine, really. I have plenty of time.”
“We’re going. Now.”
She didn’t move. “Soon. I promise. Soon.”
He dropped down beside her again. “Look. I really think we should get out of here.”
“We will. In a minute. But first, there’s so much...to decide.”
“Not now. Later. Right now, we should be—”
“Listen. I have a ranch to run. You live in L.A. How are we going to work that out?”
“Meggie—”
“Answer me. How will we work out this problem?”
He stood once more and raked his fingers back through his hair. “I can’t think about this now.”
She wasn’t accepting that as any excuse. “If I can, you can. Now, tell me how we’ll handle this, or I’m not getting out of this chair.”
“All right. Fine.” He paced back and forth in front of her. Then he stopped and shrugged. “I don’t see it as a problem. I’ve got nothing against ranching. I’ll move back here.”
Meggie gaped. This was so crazy. Her wildest, most impossible fantasy come true. “You will? You’re serious? You’re not just saying it because—”
He knelt once more. “Hell, no. I’ll come back. I know how you feel about this place. I expected, if you’d have me, that I’d move back home and work the Double-K with you.”
“You did?”
“year.”
“Oh, Nate...” She reached out, put her hand against his stubbled cheek, partly in pure love—and partly to reassure herself that this wasn’t some crazy, laborinduced dream. He grabbed her hand, kissed her palm. She smiled at him adoringly. And then she frowned. “But all you ever wanted was to get away from here.” She pulled her hand away.
“No.”
“Yes. You always said—”
He stood again. It seemed he couldn’t stay in one place. “Meggie, look. A lot has happened in the past couple of days. I’ve figured out a lot of things I never really understood before. I’m going to fill you in on all of it. Soon. While we’re driving to the hospital, and after we get there. So let’s get on the way. All right?”
“What things?”
“Meggie...”
“Just tell me a little. Come on.”
“My mother got married.”
“To Hector?”
“Right.”
“I knew it.” Her face lit up. “Wait a minute. I know. You made up with your mother.”
“More or less.”
“Oh, Nate...”
“I was really off base about her.”
Meggie couldn’t help it. She felt wonderfully smug. “I told you so. She really does love you. But people are people. They make mistakes. And I honestly believe she did the best thing for you when she turned you over to your grandfather. Don’t you?”
“I do, Meggie.”
“Good.”
He bent down and took both her hands. “Can we go to the damn hospital now? Please?”
“In a minute. Let me think what else we have to deal with...I know. I would want to go back to L.A. sometimes, to visit Dolores and our other friends there—and your mother and Hector, too. Could we do that?”
“Whatever you want, Meggie. Anything you want, I swear.” He still had her hands, so he pulled her from the chair. “Let’s go.” He pushed her ahead of him, toward the door. “Do you have a suitcase or something?”
“It’s in Farrah’s car.”
“Fine.”
She turned and faced him before they went out. “Nate, I’m just so proud of you. I can’t believe it. You made up with your mother....”
He groaned and rolled his eyes. “Meggie. Out the door. Now.”
“I’m going. But listen—”
“No more. We are leaving now.” He reached around her, groping for the door handle.
She kept talking. “I just want to say this. I may get clingy sometimes. Especially in the next several hours. And clingy was something I swore I’d never be with you.”
Nate looked down into her flushed, earnest face and understood that he couldn’t go another minute without holding her. Instead of pulling the door open, he pulled her close.
Sighing, she cuddled against him. He groaned—in pain, this time.
“Oh!” she said. “Your arm...”
“It’s okay. It’s fine. Don’t pull away.” He cradled her tenderly, moved beyond imagining by the feel of her huge belly pressing against him and her soft arms sliding up to encircle his neck.
“I really didn’t want to be clingy, Nate,” she murmured ruefully into his ear.
“Cling to me, Meggie,” he whispered against her silky hair. “Never, ever let me go....”
From the Medicine Creek Clarion week of
April 31 through May 7:
HELLO, WORLD...
Born: April 26, to Megan May Kane Bravo and
Nathan Justice Bravo,
a son, Jason James, 7 lbs. 6 oz. Mother and child
are doing just fine.
Those cynical Bravo men are dropping like flies!
Watch as Zach Bravo finally marries his true
love—or is she?—in the last installment of
CONVENIENTLY YOURS.
PRACTICALLY MARRIED is available in
May...
only from Silhouette Special Edition.
ISBN : 978-1-4592-6667-4
MARRIAGE BY NECESSITY
Copyright © 1998 by Christine Rimmer
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Marriage By Necessity Page 20
