Shotgun Groom

by Kristin Morgan

  The following day Beth drove Jack to the airport. She kissed him goodbye at the gate, and somehow, through it all, was miraculously able to hold back her emotions until he was on board his flight. But the moment she saw his plane moving toward takeoff, she leaned her forehead against the glass wall in front of her and let the tears roll down her face.

  She was missing him terribly already.

  Somehow, she made it through the next couple of weeks. Jack called her often during that time. He told her that he missed her and was anxious to come home. She told him she was counting the days. She missed him and couldn’t wait for him to get back.

  One morning, she realized her period was late. Never in her life was her period late. Normally she was like clockwork. Almost to the hour.

  She was exuberantly happy at the possibility of being pregnant Spellbound, even. And her first thought was that she couldn’t wait to tell Jack.

  Oh, God, Jack... If she was pregnant, then that meant—

  She couldn’t bear to think about what that meant. Not right now, anyway. She was missing him too much.

  Jack called her that night from London and told her he would be home the following evening. The next day turned out to be one of the longest days of Beth’s life. The only place she ventured was the neighborhood supermarket, and then she came straight home to wait for him. She didn’t want to chance that he might get in earlier than expected.

  But by nightfall, he still hadn’t arrived, and Beth was on pins and needles waiting for him. Finally, near midnight, she heard a cab drive up to the curb in front of her house. Before the driver could even get out from behind the wheel and unload Jack’s luggage from the trunk, she was already running down the sidewalk to meet Jack. Reaching him, she practically threw herself in his arms.

  Jack hugged her tight against him. “God, I missed you,” he said, kissing her on the mouth.

  “I missed you, too,” she replied breathlessly. It was such a comforting thought to know that he was finally home.

  He picked up his luggage and they went inside the house together. Beth closed the door behind them. Then, taking him by the hand, she immediately began leading him down the hall toward her bedroom.

  “What’s this?” he said with a teasing grin.

  “Your homecoming present,” she replied.

  He didn’t say a word, just grinned and followed her lead.

  Once they reached her bedroom, they helped each other to disrobe and then made love with such an intensity that it almost made up for their two weeks of lost time. Over and over again, he took her lips, her body, her heart and her soul and made them his.

  When the fire between them was sated, Beth knew that she had something of critical importance to tell him and that putting it off, even for a moment, wasn’t going to change anything. That something was the source of the most painful, bittersweet joy she had ever known. Just thinking about it now made her want to cry. Only she couldn’t cry. Too much was at stake.

  “Jack,” she said softly, moving her head slightly until she was able to look at him. Unconsciously she placed the palm of her hand against his bare chest and stroked him lovingly.

  He was lying flat on his back with his eyes closed. “Hum?” he said without moving a muscle.

  “I have something I need to tell you.”

  “I was kind of wondering when you were going to get around to that,” he said.

  “How did you know I had something on my mind?”

  “Because I know you, Beth.”

  “I think I’m pregnant, Jack.”

  There was a moment of dead silence where Beth was almost certain she could hear her own heartbeat. Finally he said, “Well, that’s good, isn’t it?” “Yeah—it’s great.”

  “You must be very happy,” he replied.

  “Oh, I am.”

  “Then I’m happy for you,” he said.

  But the fact of the matter was, he didn’t look very happy. Not to Beth, anyway. As far as she could tell, he hadn’t moved one single muscle of his body since she’d started this conversation with him. True, he had opened his eyes, but he was staring straight up at the ceiling.

  “W-well, actually,” she stammered, “I don’t know for sure if I’m really pregnant. I mean, I haven’t taken a pregnancy test or anything. I bought one today, but I...uh...I was waiting for you to get back before taking it. Remember, you said you wanted me to wait for you to be here when I did?”

  “I remember,” he said, but his voice was still lacking any real enthusiasm. She wished he would smile, or something. Anything, in fact, was better than the stone-faced reaction she was getting from him right now. Didn’t he have any idea what it was doing to her?

  She frowned. “Jack, is there something wrong?” she asked, lifting her head slightly and gazing at him.

  “No,” he said. “Nothing’s wrong. I guess I just wasn’t expecting you to get pregnant this soon, that’s all.”

  “Well, I wasn’t expecting it to happen this soon, either. But it only takes one little, bitty sperm,” she said laughingly, hoping to make him smile. All she wanted was for him to smile. Or say something to make her feel better. She needed him so much right now. Why couldn’t he see that?

  But he didn’t smile. In fact, he didn’t say anything at all. Suddenly Beth found herself fighting back a wave of tears. But she wouldn’t let him see her cry. Not one single tear. She had some pride, after all.

  She swallowed back the lump in her throat. “Jack, I’d really like to take the pregnancy test tonight, before we go to sleep, if it’s all right with you.”

  “But it’s not up to me, Beth,” he said. “It’s up to you. You’re the one calling the shots, remember?”

  She frowned at his remark. She wasn’t trying to call the shots. She was just trying to get him to tell her what was bothering him.

  Taking a deep breath, she swung her feet to the floor and sat up. “Aren’t you happy for me?” she said, giving him a long, thoughtful glance.

  He tucked his hands behind his head and continued to stare up at the ceiling as though she weren’t even there. “If this is what you want, I am.”

  She shrugged. “Well, of course, it’s what I want. Having my own baby is what I’ve always wanted.” After standing up, she gazed down at him. “Look, I know you’re tired and all, but I have one more favor to ask of you.”

  After what seemed like an eternity, he cut his piercing eyes in her direction.

  Beth got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, but she was determined not to let it stop her from going ahead with the moment. “I’d like for you to be there when I take the pregnancy test. You know, when the color changes and all. According to the directions on the box, it doesn’t take that long for it to happen.”

  After a long, drawn-out silence that did absolutely nothing to make her stomach feel any better, Jack sighed heavily. “Yeah, sure, why not,” he said. Then he swung his legs to the floor and in one fluid motion stood up.

  Standing there naked next to him, Beth felt suddenly very vulnerable. Immediately she reached for her robe and slipped it on.

  She didn’t understand why she felt the way she did, but she knew she needed to be on guard where her feelings were concerned.

  And the most devastating part of it all was knowing that she had to be on guard with the one person in all the world whom she would have willingly trusted with her life.

  Chapter Ten

  Pregnant!

  The color code said Beth was pregnant.

  Jack’s gut knotted. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him. Not already. He and Beth had only been together—what? two weeks. It was too soon. He had been counting on having more time with her. Damn, what luck. She was already pregnant.

  “We’ll have to decide on what attorney to use for our divorce,” she said.

  “W-what...?” Jack replied, immediately trying to pull his thoughts together. Here he was thinking of how much he was going to miss not being intimate with her any longer and
here she was already planning their divorce. These past two weeks hadn’t caused her to budge one inch in her ideas about them. They were going to have a baby together, but even that hadn’t changed her mind. And he was fool enough to think that maybe it would. She loved him, all right, but only as a friend.

  Suck in your pride, Kincaid, he told himself. You’re not her Knight in Shining Armor, and you never will be. Instead, you hold the coveted title of being her best friend. And according to Beth’s way of thinking, those two roles in her life simply didn’t mesh. It was one or the other. He should be happy he got something.

  Besides, he reminded himself, he didn’t really want to be married and have a kid on the way. He was a bachelor by nature. He would not be happy for very long being anything else. He was just feeling a bit shaken right now. Beth had a way of doing that to him.

  “Look,” he said, turning away from the test results that told him his way of life for the past two weeks was now coming to a quick close, “I’m tired. I don’t want to talk about finding an attorney tonight. Let’s just go to bed and get some sleep.”

  “All right,” Beth said.

  Jack could tell by the expression on her face that she wasn’t all that sure how to take his lack of response. But in spite of that, she led the way as they returned to bed. After turning off the lamp next to her, she lay back against the mattress and said, “Jack, are you feeling okay?”

  “I’m fine, Beth. I’m just tired,” he replied.

  “Well, you certainly have all the reason in the world to be,” she said. “Hopefully you’ll feel better in the morning.”

  “I’m sure, I will,” he said. “Good night.”

  “Good night.”

  At that point, Jack had every intention of rolling over to his side of the mattress and going right to sleep, but then he thought about the limited time he now had in her bed—in her aims—and pulled Beth close to him instead. They fell asleep curled up together.

  Beth rose the next day, which was Sunday, around midmorning. But since Jack was still in such a deep sleep, she simply closed the door to her bedroom without disturbing him and went into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee.

  Besides, she had a lot to think about and needed some time to herself.

  She was pregnant! She could hardly believe it. It should have been the most wonderful feeling in the world—and it was. It was just that... well, there was a touch of sadness, too, and she had no idea where it had come from. Frankly it wasn’t part of her plan.

  In and out. Short and quick. No time for her and Jack to fall in love. That was the way she had organized this whole thing and, by golly, she was sticking to her plan. To falter now would undoubtedly prove to be a big mistake at some future date. Already there were times when she sensed an unexplainable tenseness between her and Jack. A tenseness that was sending off warning bells she could no longer allow herself to ignore. Now that she was pregnant, it was time to end their marriage as soon as possible so that their lives could return to normal.

  Jack slept late into the afternoon. When he finally got up, he showered, ate a light supper and watched television for a while. At eight-thirty that night, he said he was going back to bed. By now Beth knew for certain that something was bothering him, something that had to do with her pregnancy test coming out positive, because his manner with her had changed too suddenly after that. Beth thought she knew exactly what it was. Now that he’d gotten her pregnant as she wanted, he was ready for her to keep her end of the bargain. He was ready to have his freedom back.

  Well, he deserved it. It was the least she could do for him after what he’d just done for her.

  So why then, was a part of her being so resistant to the idea of getting a divorce from him when it had been such an intricate part of her plan all along?

  She was just being greedy, she told herself a moment later. And that, she knew, was no way to handle a friendship that she cherished more than anything in the world. Jack deserved to have his freedom back without having to ask her for it. He was her dearest friend, and she loved him too much to place him under that kind of pressure. Therefore, she was going to see to it that she gave him what he wanted. In fact, she planned to take care of it first thing in the morning.

  Beth went to bed after the late-night news, and was surprised to discover that Jack was still awake. He rolled over suddenly and reached for her. And although he made no attempt to explain his reserved behavior from earlier that night, she gladly went into his arms and let him make love to her. After all, he was her husband...her lover...her best friend...her world. They made love twice that night before finally going to sleep.

  The following morning, after being awakened by the alarm, Jack never once brought up the subject of her being pregnant, or the fact that he was dying to have his freedom back. But then, he really didn’t have to. She knew that he was. Still, when he reached for her again and their eyes met, she surrendered herself to him—her body, her soul—with complete abandonment. Because she knew this was it. By that night, they would be officially separated. And these were the last, stolen, bittersweet moments they would ever have together like this.

  Jack stood behind his desk after eight long hours at work and gazed down at the new ad campaign for his company that he held in his hands. It wasn’t complete yet—not by a long shot—but he liked it already. He thought his boss would, too.

  He was just glad that something was going right today, because to be honest his personal life was in shambles. Now that Beth was pregnant, she had made it quite clear to him that she was no longer in need of his services as her sperm donor and was getting ready to divorce him. He should have been happy about that, but he wasn’t. Instead he was miserable.

  The truth was, he was over the line. He was in love with her.

  Actually he now realized that he’d always been in love with her. It had just taken the last two weeks of his life for him to come to recognize that.

  Suddenly his secretary buzzed him.

  “What is it, Pam?” he asked.

  “It’s Beth on line three.”

  His gut knotted. “Thanks.”

  He pressed down the button to line three. “Hello.”

  “Jack, it’s Beth. Look, I’m at the office of Jerome Hyatt. He’s the attorney I’ve just hired to get our divorce proceedings started. He just needs to know—”

  “You’re where?” he cut in as all air rushed from his lungs.

  There was a long, startled pause. Finally Beth said, “I-I’m at the office of our attorney. You know, the one I told you I was going to hire to file the necessary papers to get our divorce started.”

  Jack gaped into the telephone. He couldn’t believe this was happening. “Already?” he remarked, his heart pounding in his throat.

  “W-well, Jack, I’m pregnant. What’s the point of putting it off?” Beth asked.

  The point?

  The point was, he was her husband, dammit. The father of her child. She couldn’t just use him to get pregnant and then discard him like this. He had his rights, too. She wasn’t getting rid of him that easily.

  And frankly he’d had enough of it. For as long as he could remember, he had allowed Beth to call the shots concerning their friendship because he had feared he would lose her altogether if he didn’t. Well, now it was his turn to decide the way things needed to be, and his first order of business was to confront the emotional stuff going on between them. He was tired of having to lie to himself when it came to his feelings for her. Beth probably wouldn’t want to hear what he had to say, but one way or another he was going to make her listen. Then, if she still didn’t want him as her husband, he would have to learn to live with that. But, at least, he would have been honest with her—and with himself, too. At this point in the game, it was probably his only chance of convincing her of anything. Besides, he owed that much to their baby.

  His baby. That was something else he and Beth had to straighten out. None of this best friend business anymore. He was the kid’s fa
ther, and that was the role he was going to play in his kid’s life. Of course, he wasn’t planning to use his paternity as leverage in convincing Beth that they belonged together—except, of course, if he really needed to. He was at a point where he wasn’t above resorting to blackmail.

  “Beth,” he said, keeping his voice calm, “don’t you dare sign any papers until I get there.”

  “B-but, Jack, it isn’t necessary that you come.”

  “Like hell, it isn’t. This is my life, too, you know,” he replied.

  He hung up the telephone before she could reply, then quickly looked up the address of the attorney she’d named and stormed out of his office. When he arrived at his destination, he was told by the secretary at the front desk that Mr. Hyatt and Mrs. Kincaid were expecting him.

  As Jack entered the attorney’s office, Jerome Hyatt immediately rose from his seat and introduced himself. Then he invited Jack to have a seat in the chair next to Beth.

  But Jack hadn’t come to sit back and listen to anyone make long-winded speeches about the laws of divorce in the state of Louisiana. He had come to talk to his wife, and that was exactly what he was going to do.

  Gazing at Beth, but directing his words to her attorney, Jack placed his hands on his hips and said, “Look, I know this is going to seem like a strange request to you, Hyatt—especially under the circum-stances—but, you see, there seems to have been a misunderstanding between my wife and me, so I need to speak to her alone for a moment.” Jack canvassed the room, looking for an outlet. “Is there someplace where she and I can talk in private?”

  “Uh...well...yes,” the attorney said, obviously flustered by Jack’s request. “That door over there leads into my private rest room. But, look here, I don’t want any trouble.”

  “There won’t be any trouble,” Jack said, shaking his head. “Didn’t my wife explain? She and I have been the best of friends practically all our lives. In fact, that’s the reason we’re supposedly getting this divorce. We want to stay friends,” he said with just a hint of sarcasm.