“Lilly!” Miranda, guardian of the front entrance and first to notice everyone who came in, tumbled out of her chair. “You’re back.”
She was joined by nearly everyone in the room.
To Lilly’s annoyance, they blocked Lilly’s view of the woman seated at her desk. Standing on tiptoe didn’t help.
“Careful,” she warned Jimmy Bob in a gentle voice when he hugged her a little too exuberantly.
“Sorry. I missed you.”
“I missed you, too. All of you.” Her smile encompassed the entire room.
“Have you come back to work?” Apparently, Mr. Deitrich was having one of his good days because he recognized her.
“Not yet. I hope to after the baby’s born.” If she wasn’t spending every day at the hospital. “I just came by for a short visit.”
“Who the hell is she?” Miranda gave Claire a stern once-over.
Lilly might have asked the same question about the woman in her office.
Claire endured Miranda’s scrutiny without flinching. “I’m Lilly’s mother. I’m staying with her.”
“Hi.” Jimmy Bob greeted Claire as he did anyone who was a friend or the friend of a friend. He hugged her.
Claire hugged him back.
“Give the poor girl a break.” Georgina pushed through the crowd. She’d waited while everyone else had their turn with Lilly. Now, she was demanding equal time. “Can I get you anything? Cold water or some coffee?” offered Georgina.
“A chair.” Lilly rested a hand on her protruding stomach. “I’m supposed to sit as much as possible.” The commotion generated by her return had tired her more than she’d expected.
“Come on.” Georgina guided Lilly toward the back of the room.
“Mom, will you be okay?”
“Miranda’s going to give me the grand tour.” Claire slung an arm around her new buddy.
Lilly had to dole out three more hugs before she and Georgina escaped to a small seating area behind a partition. Clients sometimes used this corner when they were high-strung and needed a place to calm down.
Within seconds, the center and its occupants returned to normal.
Lilly sank into one of the straight-backed chairs. She would’ve liked to inquire about the center, how they were faring without her and who the woman in her office was. Georgina, however, insisted on finding out about Lilly.
“You doing okay?”
“Pretty good.” Lilly summarized the last few weeks, focusing on her pregnancy and omitting anything about Jake. Georgina didn’t appear to notice, but then Lilly had always been closemouthed with her co-workers when it came to him.
“I’m so glad. We’ve been worried sick about you. It must be incredibly difficult, being confined to bed.”
“I’d say I’m getting used to it but I’d be lying.”
“Please tell me you’re coming back after the baby’s born.”
“I hope so.”
Lilly wanted nothing more. There was a limit to the amount of medical leave she could take before she risked losing her job. The FMLA didn’t apply in her case because the center employed less than fifty people. She was completely dependent on her boss’s generosity. And though the baby came first, she needed an income. As it was, she’d been drawing on her retirement account to make ends meet, and that would only last so long.
Jake’s pledge to take care of her and their child echoed in her head.
No. Supporting her wasn’t an option. She’d made it on her own for years and wouldn’t stop now. Helping with the baby’s expenses, yes. That was different. And when he or she was born, Lilly would take Jake up on his promise.
There. She’d made a decision about the baby, and it wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it would be.
“I can’t believe how much this place has changed in such a short while,” she told Georgina.
“It isn’t the same without you.”
Lilly couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. “Who’s the gal in my office?” She didn’t add my replacement. Her heart ached just to think the words, much less speak them.
“Her?” Georgina’s grin widened. “That’s Alice. She’s Jake’s assistant from the ranch.”
“Oh.” Lilly hadn’t recognized her. “What’s she doing here?”
“I assumed you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“She’s been coming in every afternoon for the past week. To pick up the slack.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. She’s pretty good, too. Not like you, of course, but who is?”
“Dave hired her?”
“Technically, she’s a volunteer.”
“That’s very nice of her.” Lilly was only casually acquainted with Jake’s very efficient, very professional and not over-friendly personal assistant. “I wouldn’t have pegged her as the type to volunteer.”
“She’s all right when you get to know her. Which is fortunate since she’ll be here until you return. Jake arranged it.”
“I’m confused.”
“He pays her to work here.”
“He does?”
“He comes in most afternoons, too.”
“He does?” Realizing she sounded like a parrot, she shut up.
Georgina fidgeted. “Did I mess up by telling you this?”
“No. Not at all.” In all their conversations, which weren’t many lately, Jake hadn’t said anything about either of them helping out at the center.
“Good. Because he’s been really great. And the girls, too.”
“Girls?” Lilly wasn’t sure she’d heard right.
“His daughters. The two youngest ones come in with him after school sometimes. Of course, they aren’t much help, but they sure are cute and very entertaining. The clients love them.”
“LeAnne and Kayla?”
“Yes.”
Kayla! Who would have guessed?
“If you stick around a few minutes,” Georgina said, “he’ll probably show up.”
“Really?” Lilly’s hand went to her hair. How did it look? Had she chewed off her lipstick?
“That’s not all he’s done, either. Dave’s been going crazy running both centers. He swore if you were out for another two weeks, he was going to replace you. Jake went to Dave and convinced him to keep your job indefinitely. In exchange, we get Alice. Jake’s mother helps out, too, once a week. She does the filing and takes the deposit to the bank.”
“His…mother?”
“Yeah. And whatever’s left, he handles. I guess running Horizon isn’t too different from running a guest ranch.”
Lilly sat there, dumbstruck.
“He’s a great guy, Lilly,” Georgina said. “And absolutely nuts about you.”
“You think so?”
“How many guys would pay their assistant and give up their afternoons to cover for you until you came back to work?”
“Not many.”
“Damn straight.”
Of everything Jake had ever done for her, this was the sweetest, the kindest, the most generous. He—and his daughters—had proved their willingness to make the center a part of their lives and do whatever it took to help Lilly.
Thank God he hadn’t given up on her.
Her heart seemed to tighten, then expand as it filled to bursting with love for him and his family, every one of whom was dear to her. All the barriers she’d erected between her and Jake, all the excuses she’d made to maintain those barriers, fell away, leaving her exposed and vulnerable and finally able to give herself to him heart and soul.
“I’d better find Mom and bail her out.” Bracing a hand on the table, Lilly stood. She felt suddenly light and unencumbered. It was true; she still had the same number of burdens to carry. But they weren’t as heavy because she shared them with Jake. “Miranda’s probably talked her ear off.”
Claire was talking, all right. But with Jake, not Miranda. He’d apparently arrived while Lilly and Georgina were in the break room. He wasn’t alone. A half dozen of
the center’s clients completed the circle surrounding him and Claire.
Lilly moved slowly into the room, observing him from a distance. He hadn’t noticed her yet. No one had. They stared at him as if he’d hung the moon.
So did she.
In the next instant, he looked up and caught her watching him.
Her breath lodged in her throat.
Something must have flashed in her eyes—or was it the involuntary step she’d taken?—because his smile went from expectant to ecstatic.
All at once, he was across the room, then standing beside her. Taking her in his arms, he held her as if she were everything in the world to him.
“I was wrong,” she said, pressing her face into his neck.
“Me, too.”
It was enough for now. Later, they’d sort out all the misunderstandings and take back the angry words they’d said.
“I love you, Lilly.” He withdrew only enough to place his hand on her stomach. “You and the baby. And I always will, no matter what.”
She didn’t doubt him and never would again. “I love you, too.”
“I’m hoping what they say is true.” He reached into the front pocket of his jeans.
“What’s that?”
“About the third time being the charm.” He withdrew his grandmother’s ring. “I’ve been carrying this everywhere with me. I didn’t have the heart to put it away.”
“Oh, Jake!”
“Will you marry me, Lilly? Be my wife and the mother of my child?”
Claire started crying. She wasn’t the only one.
Tears sprang to Lilly’s eyes, and her throat closed, which made accepting Jake’s proposal difficult. She finally managed a hoarse “Yes.”
He slipped the ring on her finger. It fit as though it was made for her. The way she fit in Jake’s life and he in hers. They sealed their commitment with a lingering kiss. She hardly heard the whoops and cheers from the center’s clients and staff over the pounding of her heart, which was and would forever be joined with Jake’s.
Epilogue
“Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Mr. and Mrs. Jake Tucker.”
At the minister’s announcement, the group of people on the porch of Founder’s Cabin applauded. Lilly’s lips still tingled from Jake’s kiss, the one that had united them as husband and wife. On her finger, a simple gold band nestled beside his grandmother’s sapphire ring.
They’d opted for a very small wedding, immediate family and a few friends, and had pulled it together in a matter of weeks. Still bedridden for most of the day, Lilly couldn’t have managed without her mother, who’d stayed on, and Jake’s mother, who was quite possibly the best mother-in-law in the world.
There was no reception line. Instead, everyone converged on the bride and groom, showering them with hugs, kisses and good wishes. Lilly knew she should lie down soon but was too excited.
“Come see Big Ben.” Jimmy Bob, dressed in his groomsman’s suit, beckoned Lilly and Jake to accompany him. “Me and Briana fixed him up.”
He led the newlyweds to the porch railing. The old mule was tied to the hitching post in front of the cabin, a wreath of spring flowers on his neck. He was more interested in trying to eat them than showing them off.
“Thank you, Jimmy Bob.” Lilly kissed his cheek. “And you, too.” She embraced Briana and might have pulled back if the teenager hadn’t continued to cling to her.
Of all the wedding presents Lilly had received, that was the best.
“Are you hungry?” Jake asked, stealing her away to a corner of the porch for a moment of privacy.
“Not really.”
“Tired?”
“No, but I should be—”
An odd sensation, unlike any she’d previously felt during her pregnancy, rippled through her middle. Grimacing, Lilly held her stomach.
“Sweetheart, are you okay?”
“I don’t think so.” Suddenly, her water broke, soaking her dress and the porch floor. “Jake!”
Carolina rushed forward. “You two go. I’ll take care of everything here.”
He wasted no time helping her to his truck. Lilly knew as he buckled her in the front seat that there was no stopping this premature labor. She prayed that at thirty-three weeks, she was far enough along, and the baby would be safe.
Please, please.
The wedding guests gathered in front of the cabin and waved goodbye. Jake held Lilly’s hand the entire way to the hospital and all through her labor, which lasted a mere forty minutes. If he hadn’t driven like a madman, they might have become parents somewhere along the road to Payson.
“It’s a girl,” Dr. Paul said and lifted up a wriggling, squalling baby.
“A girl!” Lilly fought to sit up straight. “Is she all right?”
Jake was beaming. “She sure can cry.”
Dr. Paul brought the baby over and laid her in Lilly’s arms. “She’s small but looks perfectly healthy. Do you hear me, Lilly? Perfect. Ten fingers and ten toes. You have your baby.”
Lilly cradled her beautiful new daughter in one arm. The other, she wrapped around Jake.
“You’re not sorry you have another girl?”
“Are you kidding?” He kissed the top of her head, then their daughter’s damp brown hair. “Boys are overrated.”
“What should we name her?” Lilly asked, laughing and crying at the same time. Finally, after all these years, she’d beaten the odds.
“I was thinking….”
“Yes?”
“Hailey, after my sister.”
“And Claire, after my mother?”
“Hailey Claire Tucker,” Jake said with pride, slipping his index finger into the baby’s small fist. She instantly stopped flailing and looked at her parents with unfocused eyes. “I like the sound of that,” he said.
“I like it, too.”
Lilly gazed down at her daughter, then over at Jake. Joy bubbled up inside her. In one day, she’d become a wife and a mother.
“We did it,” she said. “We have a baby.”
“You did it.”
All those pictures of ideal families she’d tried to imagine and couldn’t suddenly came into sharp focus. Soon they’d be a reality. They’d cover the walls of the home she shared with the man she loved and the child she’d always wanted.
Lilly sighed contentedly. The wait had been worth it.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-3483-7
WAITING FOR BABY
Copyright © 2009 by Cathy McDavid.
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 publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3K9, Canada.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Waiting for Baby Page 19
