Secret Surrogate

by Delores Fossen

  For good.

  If she’d done that, Lucas might have been able to forget all about her. He might have eventually been able to forgive her, as well. But by telling him, she’d ruined everything. Would he ever be able to look at his baby’s face and not remember that she was that child’s mother?

  Of course, there was a flip side to this particular question. If she hadn’t told Lucas, who would have helped protect her? SAPD, maybe. But no one other than Lucas would have had a vested interest in keeping the baby safe. She wasn’t invincible. And pride was something she couldn’t afford to indulge in.

  At least, that’s the rationalization that kept going through her head.

  However, Kylie had to ask herself if protecting the baby was the only reason she’d told Lucas. Or was there something else? Some subconscious motivation? She wanted to believe that her motives were pure. But the doubts were right there next to the rationalization and the unwholesome thoughts she was having about him.

  Are you trying to convince me? Or are you trying to convince yourself?

  Those were the smart-mouthed questions she’d tossed at Lucas just hours earlier when he’d stormed into the guest room. Now she had to wonder if she’d aimed those questions at the wrong person.

  Since Kylie didn’t really want to know the answer to that, she decided to concentrate on a way to put a speedy end to all to this. Once Finn had done the ultrasound, she would call her cousin in Houston. He was a P.I., and he would almost certainly let her stay with him until the police could catch the guys who had tried to kidnap her. Heck, maybe she’d even stay there until she had the baby. That way, it would insure that she and Lucas wouldn’t have any more contact with each other.

  She opened the bathroom door and heard Lucas moving around in the kitchen. He seemed to be talking on the phone. And cooking. She immediately got a whiff of coffee and, heaven forbid, bacon. Her stomach lurched, but Kylie ignored it and tried to hold her breath while she went into the kitchen to remind him that she needed to pick up some clothes from her house.

  However, something that Lucas said stopped her in her tracks.

  “That sounds like the same two men who tried to kidnap Kylie. You said you saw them near the medical clinic?”

  That was a temporary cure for her morning sickness. Instead of a lurch, Kylie’s stomach tightened. If Lucas had sounded more urgent, then she would have started to hope and pray that the men were on the verge of being apprehended. But since Lucas was carefully forking out sizzling bacon from the black cast-iron skillet, it probably meant the caller was informing Lucas of a sighting after the fact.

  A cold sighting.

  Which was a misnomer. Because it was anything but cold for her.

  “That was about an hour or so after Kylie and I left,” Lucas said in response to the caller. “Did you see which direction they were headed in?” He paused. “If you remember anything else, give me a call.”

  Lucas slipped the phone back into its cradle, mounted on the wall, and glanced at her. “You heard?”

  She nodded. “Who saw them?”

  “The night security guard at the bank.”

  In other words, probably a reliable source. It told her two things—first, that the one man hadn’t been so badly hurt that they’d had to flee the area to seek medical attention, and second, that the men weren’t going to give up.

  That knot in her stomach tightened.

  “I don’t have any tofu, yogurt or any of the other healthy stuff you like to eat, but there’s coffee,” Lucas advised her.

  “No, thanks. I gave it up.”

  He blinked. “You quit drinking coffee?” Asked in the same tone as, You quit breathing?

  “The caffeine isn’t good for the baby.”

  “Oh.”

  It was as if she’d stomped right on a raw nerve again. Of course, any conversation about the baby would likely be painful. She figured it would take Lucas time to accept this, but Kylie had to believe he would. After all, he did want to become a father, and she was offering the baby to him with no strings attached.

  She was about to remind him that she needed to drop by her house, but the knock at the kitchen door stopped her. Not just a knock, either. One brief tap, and the door flew open.

  “Brr. It’s freezing. The front door was locked so I decided to come around to the back.”

  Kylie immediately recognized the voice. And the owner of the voice.

  Cordelia Landrum.

  Owner of the town’s only women’s clothing boutique. Marissa’s sister. Lucas’s former sister-in-law. And a general pain in the butt whom Kylie didn’t want to face. Not this morning. Not any morning.

  Cordelia was still brr-ing and briskly rubbing her kid gloved hands together when she entered. Her mouth was wide with a rose-slick smile—until her attention landed on Kylie, that is.

  “What are you doing here?” Cordelia demanded.

  Kylie had gotten warmer greetings from perps as she was arresting them. But that was to be expected. Cordelia and Kylie had never been friends, but Marissa’s death had certainly made them enemies. It was a shame, because Cordelia looked so much like her sister. From her sleek strawberry-blond ponytail to those aristocratic mist-green eyes. If Cordelia weren’t, well, Cordelia, then it might have been nice to have her around just because it would be like hanging on to a little piece of Marissa.

  “Someone tried to kidnap Kylie last night,” Lucas explained. “She’s in my temporary protective custody.”

  And he hastily jumped right in there with that explanation, too. Probably because he didn’t want Cordelia to think anything funny was going on.

  Funny as in sexual.

  Which wouldn’t have been a totally absurd conclusion for Cordelia to draw since Kylie was wearing Lucas’s robe while standing in the middle of his kitchen. Of course, because of Lucas’s and her history, probably even Cordelia wouldn’t believe that Lucas and she were lovers.

  His explanation prompted Cordelia to give Kylie a once-over. That cool gaze slid from Kylie’s still wet hair, past her stomach, all the way to her feet.

  Wait a minute.

  Kylie didn’t miss the fact that Cordelia’s gaze hadn’t even paused, much less lingered, on her pregnant stomach. It was such an odd thing to bypass that Kylie glanced down to make sure she appeared as large as she felt.

  Yep. Her pregnant belly was there. Totally visible. Not hidden one iota by the scrubs or the robe that she’d left untied.

  “How long will she be here?” Cordelia asked Lucas.

  Lucas calmly put the skillet into the sink. “I’m not sure.”

  That answer surprised Kylie almost as much as Cordelia’s lack of response to the pregnancy. What the heck was going on? Had that chloroform and adrenaline fried a few of her brain cells?

  “I don’t want her here,” Cordelia concluded. “This is my sister’s house.”

  An easy comeback would have been for Kylie to remind her that it was Lucas’s house, as well. But Kylie held her tongue. In the grand scheme of things, Cordelia’s annoyance just wasn’t very important. Not when someone wanted to kidnap her and do God knows what to her and the baby.

  Cordelia took a step toward her. Because it seemed like a challenge and because she couldn’t resist that, Kylie took a step toward her, as well.

  They faced each other eye to eye.

  “I’ll call Lucas this afternoon,” Cordelia informed her. “I’ll expect you to be gone by then. If not, I’ll do something about it. Understand?”

  Kylie shook her head. “Not really. But that sounds like some kind of threat. Is it?”

  “Cordelia,” Lucas warned.

  But if Cordelia had heard his warning, she showed no signs of heeding it. She kept her focus on Kylie. “If you don’t think I can make trouble for you, then think again.”

  Kylie considered just staying quiet, but her mouth didn’t cooperate. “Cordelia, it really isn’t necessary for you to keep reminding me just how much you hate me. You couldn’t
possibly hate me more than I hate myself.”

  “Don’t bet on it.” And with that chilly comeback, Cordelia turned, issued an equally chilly goodbye to Lucas from over her shoulder, and slammed the kitchen door behind her.

  If Kylie hadn’t been sure of what to do, she was after that exit. She had to get out of there.

  Because Cordelia would cause problems for Lucas. And Lucas already had enough problems as it was. After all, the idea was to make him happy again. To heal his heart. To do what she’d promised Marissa that she would do. She couldn’t very well heal anything if she was making him miserable.

  “I’ll call Finn to come and pick me up.” Kylie walked toward the phone.

  “You can’t. He phoned while you were in the shower. One of the Krepner kids broke his arm in two places when he fell off his bunk bed. Finn said he needs to take care of that, and then he’ll just meet us at the Brighton Medical Center around noon. He gave me directions.”

  Slowly, she turned back around to face him. “And you’ll be taking me there,” Kylie concluded. But before the last word left her mouth, she was already considering other options. Any other options.

  “Don’t even think about arguing. Those two men were near Finn’s clinic. I don’t think that’s a coincidence, Kylie. They’re looking for you. And they’ll keep looking until they’re caught.”

  She couldn’t argue with that. It was the stuff nightmares were made of. Still, what she couldn’t quite grasp was that Lucas didn’t seem riled about spending what would no doubt be an entire morning with her.

  “This new attitude of yours is because of the baby,” Kylie said, more to herself than to him.

  “Of course it is. What else would it be about?”

  Nothing that she wanted to voice.

  “I need to blow-dry my hair,” she told him. “Give me fifteen minutes, and I’ll be ready to leave.”

  Kylie walked out, intending to hurry back to the bathroom. Mainly because that whole bacon smell and the confrontation with Cordelia had sent her stomach into another tailspin. However, she stopped when she glanced out the sidelight windows that framed the front door.

  The entire front yard and the driveway were covered with frost. It glistened in the morning light, making the ranch look like postcard material. What marred the pretty picture was Cordelia, who was still parked out front. Sitting in the driver’s seat of her pricey red sports car. She had her head down, and she seemed to be talking to herself. Whatever she was saying obviously didn’t please her because her expression was one of anger and…. what? Frustration, maybe? Kylie couldn’t quite make sense of it until Cordelia turned in her direction. And glared at her.

  The emotion was anger. Pure, uncut anger.

  A chill went through Kylie, and she didn’t think it had to do with the temperature outside. That look on Cordelia’s face said it all. Cordelia hated her. And that got Kylie thinking.

  Had Cordelia already done something about that hatred?

  After all, she hadn’t even reacted to Kylie’s pregnancy. Why? Why wouldn’t she have shown at least some mild interest?

  Because perhaps she already knew?

  She considered that a moment, and then she took her musings one step further. If Cordelia had somehow learned about the baby, then what? She wouldn’t be pleased, that was certain. And she wouldn’t want Kylie to be a part of Lucas’s life. So, just how far would Cordelia go to prevent something like that from happening?

  Kylie wasn’t sure, but she intended to find out.

  Chapter Seven

  As a general rule, Lucas usually avoided hospitals and doctors’ offices. The sterile smell and the white-jacketed doctors just didn’t set well with him. It was a childhood trauma association thing. Too many broken bones, bruised ribs and stitches from trying to play rodeo.

  Yet, here he was inside his second medical facility in less than twenty-four hours. This one, the Brighton Medical Center, was about twenty times the size of Finn’s clinic, and despite its back-to-nature claim, it was crammed with lots of those white jackets, sterile smells and patients. In this case, the patients were dozens of pregnant women.

  One of whom was Kylie.

  “I really have to go to the bathroom,” she complained to Finn. She was wearing a dull gray-blue paper hospital-type gown while reclining on an examining table, and her stomach was bare. Well, it was bare except for some clear gooey stuff that Finn had smeared all over it moments earlier.

  “Sorry,” Finn apologized to Kylie. “You’ll have to wait a few minutes before you can go. A full bladder helps with the ultrasound.”

  Lucas figured there was a thorough explanation for that, but he didn’t really want to hear it. All he wanted was for the test to be completed and for Kylie and the baby to get a clean bill of health.

  Until they’d arrived at the medical center, Lucas hadn’t realized just how concerned he was that the kidnappers’ drug might have harmed the child. In the past twelve hours, he’d had the case, Kylie and even Cordelia’s brief but irritating visit to take his mind off such things. But those distractions didn’t work now.

  He needed to know if this baby was okay.

  Finn held up a small device. “This is a transducer,” he explained and began to move it over Kylie’s goo-slick stomach. “It’ll transmit the images so we can see what the little tyke is doing in there.”

  Kylie began to hum. Softly. Lucas wasn’t sure, but he thought it was “Peter Cottontail.” With the absurdly cheerful Easter notes coming from her closed mouth, she kept her attention fastened to the small, grainy screen. He divided his focus between it and her.

  She was nervous. The humming proved that. Not that Lucas needed such an obvious clue. After what had happened to her, any expectant mother would have been worried about the test results. As an expectant father, he was certainly worried.

  In addition to the nervousness and the humming, Kylie looked exhausted. And probably was. The confrontation with Cordelia certainly hadn’t helped, either. Why of all days had his former sister-in-law chosen this morning to drop by for a visit? It had been weeks, if not months, since Cordelia had come out to the ranch. Lucas didn’t have the answer as to why she’d shown up out of the blue, but because he didn’t believe in coincidences, he had a really bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

  Was Cordelia up to something?

  And why hadn’t she reacted to Kylie’s clothes? After all, it appeared as if Kylie had just climbed out of his bed. Even more, why hadn’t Cordelia said something about the pregnancy? Cordelia knew about the surrogacy, of course. In fact, she’d even volunteered to help Lucas decorate the nursery. She couldn’t have known that Kylie was that surrogate, but why wouldn’t Cordelia at least have shown some interest, or even displeasure, in the fact that Kylie was pregnant? That revelation had certainly hit him like a sucker punch to the solar plexus.

  “Just to let you know, I plan to send the ultrasound to your doctor in San Antonio,” Finn continued, moving the transducer to the side of Kylie’s stomach. “But so far, everything looks good. The placenta’s attached normally and the heartbeat looks good. The baby’s active, has two arms, two legs. If you want to see them, just look here.”

  Finn used his index finger to trace parts of the fuzzy image on the screen, but Lucas couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

  Apparently, Kylie was having the same problem because she glanced at Lucas and questioningly lifted her right eyebrow. They both seemed frozen in the moment.

  They shared a smile. A brief one. It was laced with relief, fatigue and other emotions that probably only parents experienced. But it was still a smile. A reminder for him that Kylie and he had something in common, whether he wanted that or not. And suddenly that didn’t seem as disastrous as it had the night before.

  Oh, man.

  He was so in trouble here.

  Lucas didn’t want his feelings toward Kylie to soften. He really didn’t. But how the heck could he stop that from happening? And why did stopping it sudde
nly seem like a really stupid idea, anyway? After all, it was his baby, but she was the one carrying it. It just wasn’t a good idea for them to be at odds.

  Kylie flexed her eyebrows as if she understood the battle he was having. It was ironic. He now shared a camaraderie with Kylie Monroe. Worse, it wasn’t simply camaraderie.

  There was an attraction simmering between them.

  Lucas mentally paused and waited for lightning to strike him where he stood. No lightning bolt. No cosmic rift. Just a moment of truth.

  However, that moment of truth and admission didn’t mean he would act on that attraction. No way. It would be a massive mistake. Because Kylie and he would never be able to get past what had happened to Marissa.

  He mentally paused again.

  Would they?

  “How about the sex?” Finn asked, jarring Lucas out of his conflicted thoughts.

  Since Lucas was staring right at Kylie, he saw the bittersweet reaction register in her eyes. Lucas knew there was emotion in his, as well.

  She pulled in a slow breath, shook her head, moistened her lips. “I don’t want to know, but you can tell Lucas.”

  She was obviously trying to distance herself from the baby. Trying being the operative word. And that led Lucas to yet another concern in his ever-growing list of concerns. This was his baby, yes, he didn’t doubt that. But even though Kylie had said she would give him the child and leave, would she?

  Would Kylie just leave?

  “All right, we’re finished,” Finn announced.

  He didn’t have to tell Kylie twice. She barreled off the table as much as a pregnant woman could and headed straight for the adjoining bathroom.

  “So, you want to know if you’re having a little cowboy or a cowgirl?” Finn asked.

  Of course, he was curious. Okay, more than curious. Since he’d found out that his surrogate was pregnant, he had formed mental pictures of both a son and a daughter. He had to adjust those images now that he knew Kylie was the mother. He’d always thought of his child as having dark hair. Like his. But there was a possibility that he or she would be blond.