Jess tasted real fear for the first time in his life. "If you hurt my wife or the baby, I'll kill you."
Yoder's disdain was palpable. "I hear you've been a busy boy," he taunted, his mouth hooking to one side in a sneer. "Making folks down in my neck of the woods real nervouslike. Trying to get 'em to take away my boys permanent. All but got 'em convinced, according to that shyster lawyer I hired. Think that greaser sister of Silvia's and that pansy husband of hers know better'n me what's good for my own flesh and blood."
Jess saw a fresh bruise blooming on Hazel's cheek, and he knew what Silvia had felt all those years. Killing was too good for an animal like Yoder.
"I'm not the one who gave Cleve and Johnny those bruises," Jess said with an icy calm he was far from feeling.
Yoder tossed off his words with a grunt. "Hell, they don't mind, same as I didn't mind when my old man hit me. A good beating now and then toughens a boy, makes him into a man."
"What kind of a man hits a woman?" Hazel exclaimed, her tone disdainful in spite of the fear in her eyes.
"More of a man than you got." Yoder's gaze slid sideways, his pleasure in taunting them as obvious in his face as a malignant sore.
"Tell me somethin', Miz Dante. Crippled like he is, don't it make your flesh crawl when he touches you?"
Hazel's eyes flashed. At the same time, her elbow shot sideways into Yoder's gut. Air flew from his lungs, and he recoiled.
Seeing his chance, Jess launched himself at Yoder's knees. They crashed to the floor together, and Jess felt something crunch when he landed on the flashlight.
He had no time to take stock, however, because Yoder was already struggling free of his one-armed tackle, using his fists like battering rams.
Dodging blows as best he could, Jess managed to roll, then connected with a solid hook to Yoder's jaw. Like petrified wood, there was no give to the man.
Jess's advantage was in the quick reflexes that had saved his life more than once. Sidestepping another blow, he spun around, then connected with an uppercut to the belly and a knee in the groin. With a hoarse grunt Yoder folded, hitting the floor like a lumpy sack of meal, out for the count.
Out of breath, Jess sat down on the top step and waited for his head to stop swimming. Hazel sat next to him, her trembling hands moving over his face, wiping away the blood from a cut on his lip he didn't remember receiving.
"Are you all right?" she demanded. "What hurts?"
"My pride," he grated, then turned his face upward to inspect the damage to her face. Her eyes were shadowed and brimming with the tears he'd caused, her cheek swollen, but other than that she seemed okay. And so lovely he wanted to wrap her in that satin nightie of hers and keep her all to himself for the next hundred years.
Instead, he asked gruffly, "What about you? Are you okay? Francey?"
"Both of us are fine." She shot a disgusted look at Yoder's pasty face. "He said he was going to kidnap the boys and take them to Mexico – after he'd made sure we would … remember him."
Jess ground his teeth. "How'd he get in here?"
Her eyes flashed, warning him not to push her too hard. "I heard someone on the porch. I thought it was you, so I opened the door."
"Naturally you didn't check."
Her mouth pouted. "I was worried. Ty didn't know where you were, so I called Garrett. He said you'd left hours ago."
"I was driving some of the roads I used to know as a kid. Sometimes it helps me sort things out."
"And did it?" Talc and perfume swirled through his senses until he was filled with her.
"It helped – until I got a ticket for going fifty miles over the limit. Then all I could think about was the money it was gonna cost me."
She inhaled slowly, raggedly, giving him a mind-shattering glimpse of the shadow separating her breasts. "Jess Dante, if … you … ever do something that stupid again," she said in a rush, "I swear I'll steal the keys and throw them away."
Emotions he couldn't begin to sort out pounded in his head. All he knew for sure was that he was going to fight to win her back, and when he was done, she would know what it felt like to be wooed.
"Don't worry," he muttered. "With another baby on the way, I can't afford too many hundred dollar fines just to figure out a few things I should have known all along."
He lifted his hand and lightly touched the bruise. At the same time pain seared him so strongly that he nearly cried out, and he rested her head on his shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he said, his voice thick. "Everything you said about me is true. I'm spoiled and selfish and a damned hypocrite."
"Hypocrite?"
"Damn straight! Just before the cop pulled me over, I realized I wasn't much better than Ron, bailing out on you because I'd gotten my feelings hurt."
Her hand circled his wrist and pressed his hand more firmly to her face. "I shouldn't have said those things. I can't begin to imagine how it feels. Not for you or for Neil or my other patients with physical disabilities."
Jess studied her eyes. They were shimmering with a depth of emotion that should have scared him. Instead, knowing that he had inspired that emotion had him humbly vowing to do his best never to hurt her again.
"Don't spoil it, honey. Admitting I'm wrong is not something I do all that often." His voice was quiet, an uncomplicated statement of fact.
"Neither do I, actually." She smiled. "Perhaps we both could stand to change a few things. Like our sleeping arrangements, for starters." Her mouth wobbled. "I miss fighting you for the covers. And I miss waking up with your arm around me."
Jess found his eyes misting and emotion swelling in his chest until he had trouble drawing breath. "I guess I could handle that – eventually."
Her eyebrows flew up. "Eventually?"
"Not the sleeping part," he assured her hastily. "The waking up with my arm around you."
Her eyebrows flew down again and then drew into an ominous line. "Jess Dante, if you start that feeling sorry bit again—"
He stopped the tirade he sensed was coming with a kiss. Her lips responded so eagerly, so intensely, that he had trouble dragging his mouth from hers.
"Now, don't be upset," he said with a slight hitch in his tone. "And don't yell, okay? But much as I really, really don't want to, there's something important I have to tell you. But first, keep this in mind, okay?"
This time he kissed her with all the fire he'd held back for so long, his tongue tasting, his mouth searching and clinging until they were both starved for air.
"Oh my," she murmured, her eyes soft and sensuous and just a bit dazed. "Now I remember why I love you."
Jess had to swallow twice before he could find his voice. "And I love you," he ground out. "But you're going to have to wait awhile before I can show you how much the way I'd like to."
She blinked. "If you're talking about Yoder, I'll call the police right now and have him hauled off to jail where he belongs."
Jess grinned. "Good plan, honey, and I suggest you get to it before he wakes up, but there's another small problem."
"You mean Francey?"
"No, not directly, although we should drop her off at the McClanes's on our way to the hospital. Once the police have taken Yoder off our hands, that is."
She drew an audible breath. "The hospital?"
Jess felt his face flame, and his mood edge toward dangerous. "Remember that last uppercut that put Yoder down for the count?" he asked gruffly.
"Hmm, magnificent, my hero," she teased, but her eyes were somber.
"Yeah, well, your hero broke his wrist delivering it."
"Oh no!" she squeaked in dismay. "Oh, Jess. What should I do? How can I help?"
Jess felt himself stiffening, all the old pain returning. And then he looked into his wife's eyes. It wasn't pity he was seeing there. He knew now he never would.
"For starters, you can promise not to divorce me when I'm driving you up walls while the damn thing heals."
Her smile was the most beautiful he'd ever seen. "I pr
omise."
"Even when I'm yelling at you and kicking down doors and generally making an ass of myself?"
Hazel heard the rough vulnerability and saw the bleak concern in his deep dark eyes. "Nope, not even then."
So happy she could laugh and cry and shout all at once, she very gently cradled his hand in her lap and kissed the square chin that was starting to take on a pugnacious stubbornness she had a feeling she'd better get used to.
"Besides," she whispered when he closed his eyes on what she sensed was a moment of deep relief, "remember what you told Neil. I'm crazy for your body, so I'm pretty much committed to taking everything that comes with it."
"For better or worse?"
"Hmm, till death us do part."
* * *
Epilogue
«^
The sun was warm on her tummy and wonderfully soft on her face. It was turning out to be a perfect spring Sunday in Sacramento.
The Yoder boys had left a few hours earlier after a week's visit, and Jess had issued strict orders that she wasn't to lift a hand the rest of the day. Playing mother to four had been fun – and exhausting.
Much as she'd loved having them and the noisy confusion they invariably brought with them on their frequent visits, she was happy to have Jess and Francey to herself again.
It wouldn't be long before another member of the family would be making his appearance. Smiling to herself, she mentally ticked off the days.
Sixteen days and counting until Garrett Tyler Dante would be in her arms instead of trying to kick his way through her belly.
"Here we go, ice water for Mama Buddha."
Opening her eyes, she saw Jess smiling down at her, Francey perched securely on his hip, holding a Sesame Street
cup in her chubby hands.
"Wah-wah," she said with a pleased grin that showed off six pearly teeth and another on its way.
"Thank you, punkin'," Hazel murmured, taking the cup carefully. Because Francey's dark eyes were fixed expectantly on her face, Hazel took a long, thirsty swallow, smacked her lips and expelled a pleased sigh. "Hmm, good," she murmured.
"Goo'," Francey repeated, and Hazel beamed. After much logical discussion and objective soul-searching, both she and Jess had proclaimed their daughter a genius.
Of course, the McClanes and the Dantes and even Mrs. Weller had agreed. In addition, they had bestowed sainthood on Hazel, for putting up with a teething baby and a grumpy, bad-tempered, generally hateful husband at the same time.
As promised, he'd been impossible, especially when Hazel or Mrs. Weller, or sometimes Garrett, had had to feed him. There had been occasions when Garrett had resorted to anatomically graphic words Hazel hadn't even dreamed existed.
Mrs. Weller had threatened to quit at least once a week. One morning, pushed to her limit by Jess's bad temper, she'd even hit him square in the face with the red satin pillow he liked so much, ordering him to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the day or he'd be eating that same pillow.
Hazel hadn't dared laugh, but later she'd given Mrs. Weller her most profuse thanks.
"So, little mama, how are we feeling today?" he asked in that whiskey smooth voice she loved – especially when they were alone in their bedroom with the door closed and the lights low.
"Mellow," she murmured, watching through half-closed eyes as Jess set Francey carefully on her heavily padded bottom and handed her the bottle of juice he'd stashed in the back pocket of his cutoff jeans.
"Mellow, huh?" he drawled, sprawling next to Hazel on the fresh-cut grass and pressing his ear to her belly. "And how are you doing, slugger?" he murmured to the baby, caressing the swell of her tummy with the gentlest of touches.
He smelled of sun-block and the honest sweat he'd worked up cutting the grass. Sunlight tangled in his hair, turning it a tempting mix of black and silver that automatically drew her fingers to the soft thickness.
"Slugger's getting anxious," Hazel said with a laugh. "Just like his father with a cast on his arm, he can't seem to settle in one position very long."
Jess raised his head and fused his dark, intense gaze with hers. "Hey, c'mon, admit it. I wasn't that bad."
Hazel snorted. "You were absolutely the most aggravating, most infuriating person – man, woman, or child – that I've ever encountered."
How a man as big and tough as Jess could manage to look boyishly chastened and impossibly sexy at the same time, Hazel didn't know. She just knew she was more in love with him with every day that passed.
"Didn't I have any redeeming qualities?" he coaxed with one of his heart-stopping half smiles.
Hazel pursed her lips, then watched his eyes heat. "I have to admit you did develop some very … innovative techniques in bed to compensate for not being able to use your hand."
He looked smugly pleased. "Compensation does have its rewards."
"I'll say it does," she murmured. "And you, my husband, are a true master."
Turning her head, she nuzzled her face against his sun-warmed bare skin for a moment before very tenderly, very lovingly kissing the puckered flesh he was no longer hesitant to expose.
Jess didn't even flinch. He was too busy kissing her back.
* * * *
ONCE UPON A WEDDING Page 23
