Pregnant & Practically Married (The Bridal Circle #3)

by Andrea Edwards

  So what happens the very next day? Just sensing Karin’s presence near him starts him on fire with desire. Obviously on fire.

  Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that she was still looking at some things hanging in the closet. Which made this a good time to hustle into the bathroom and a cold shower. He took a calming breath. He’d spring out of bed, grab his jeans off the back of the desk chair, and holding them in front of the running shorts he was wearing, run like a house afire. He took another breath, tensed his muscles and got ready to spring like a mountain lion leaping for his prey.

  But mountain lions rarely had to contend with the overhanging corner of that stupid desk. Jed jumped up and—rammed his head into it.

  “Oh, damn.” He grabbed his head and sank back on the bed.

  “Did you bump your head?” Karin asked sharply. “I told you to move your bed.”

  “I hate people who have to say ‘I told you so,”’ he said through gritted teeth. Jeez, he really hit himself good. “That smarts.”

  “I’m taking a look at it this time,” Karin said, her voice sounding more concerned. She knelt on the edge of his bed.

  That was all he needed, her right next to him on the bed. The bump to his head had settled down other parts of him, but he couldn’t guarantee they’d stay settled.

  “I’m okay,” he insisted, trying to get up. “It hurt for a few seconds and now it’s fine.”

  She pulled on his arm to get him back down. “Oh, stop being a baby and let me look at it.”

  “I’m not being a baby,” he cried, shrugging from her touch as if it scalded. “It just doesn’t hurt anymore.”

  “So it’s no big deal if I take a look,” she said. She put her hand on his shoulder.

  He stopped. The touch of her hand paralyzed him in the strangest ways. Because it sent a jolt of awareness through him, like being hit by lightning. Because all he knew was a sweet desire to feel that touch all over him.

  He suspected she wasn’t feeling similar hungers, though, for she scooted over to kneel in front of him, feeling his head with her fingertips. He tried to close his eyes and breathe normally. He tried to remember she was a doctor.

  But all he could do was watch her. Watch the fullness of her breasts so close to him. Breathe in the soft scent of her cologne. Know that he could, oh so easily, slip his hands around her waist.

  “It looks okay. A little contusion but nothing serious.”

  “I told you I was fine,” he said, his voice thready and weak. His heart was racing, his body felt feverish.

  She sank back on her heels. “I thought you didn’t like people who said, ‘I told you so.’”

  She was still too close to him. He could barely think, just feel. And he felt too much. “Karin, this is not a good idea,” he said. Groaned almost.

  “What isn’t?” she asked, a look of worry flashing through her blue eyes. “You mean the engagement?”

  His body wanted her so badly, he was afraid to move. “You and me here,” he said.

  She looked at him, comprehension coming slowly, then in a rush as her cheeks blazed red. “Oh.” Her hands flew up to cover her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. I’m so bad at all this.”

  Her embarrassment was more than he could bear. He reached over and took her hands in his. “It’s okay, darlin’,” he said softly. “Relax. No harm’s done.”

  But tears welled up in her eyes. “I am so dumb at times. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson,” she said, waving down at her belly.

  “Oh, hush now,” Jed said, pulling her into his arms. He was playing with fire, he knew, but he couldn’t stand to hear her blaming herself. “Stop putting yourself down.”

  “Excuse me,” Marge said with a loud cough. “I did knock, but I guess you were a little busy.”

  They flew apart like guilty lovers and turned toward the door.

  “Jed hit his head,” Karin said quickly.

  Lissa peeked around Marge with a frown. “Is he okay? Are you gonna have to go to the hospital, Daddy?”

  “I’m fine, sweetie,” he said.

  “Don’t worry, honey, your dad’s okay,” Marge said, putting her hands on Lissa’s shoulders. “Now go box the rest of the cookies.”

  Once Lissa was gone, Karin’s mother turned toward Jed. “Your little girl needs to talk to you when you get a chance.”

  “Glad to,” Jed said. Damn. He was really screwing up. He was letting himself get all rattled by Karin and then not being there for Lissa when she needed him.

  “I’ll go shower,” Karin said as she climbed off the bed. “Unless you want the bathroom first.”

  “No, go ahead. I need to talk to Lissa.” He pulled on his jeans over his shorts and went out into the kitchen where Lissa was counting cookies.

  She was wearing clothes from her overnight bag—tan slacks and her favorite red blouse. Her hair had been washed and curled and she looked all too close to the Lissa that appeared in the Crunchy Flakes ads. But maybe she had something planned for the two of them that wouldn’t put them around too many people.

  “Have you had breakfast?” Jed asked.

  Lissa rolled her eyes. “We’ve been up for ages, Dad.”

  “Since the crack of dawn,” Marge added.

  It wasn’t that late, but he just ignored the ribbing. “What’s on our agenda for today?”

  Lissa frowned at him a little nervously. “I’m going to school.”

  “School?” Jed shook his head.

  “Ginger’s invited Lissa to come to school with her,” Marge explained. “You met the Tompkins family at Penny’s wedding. Everything’s been cleared with the principal and the teacher.”

  “And I’m bringing cookies,” Lissa said.

  Jed was having trouble comprehending. It was like that time in Calgary when the bull he was riding threw him into the front-row seats. “You want to go to school on your vacation?”

  “We were going to check with you yesterday,” Marge said. “But we couldn’t find you.”

  “And I said we didn’t have to check,” Lissa said. “’Cause you said it was my vacation and I could do anything I wanted.”

  “Oh. Yeah, right.” He had said that. But he hadn’t expected she was going to up and leave him.

  “We better get going, Grandma,” Lissa said. “I don’t want to be late.”

  “Sure, honey. I’ll go get my purse.”

  While Marge went off into the other room, Lissa came over to sit next to Jed. “You sure you don’t mind?” she asked.

  That worried look was creeping back into her eyes. Her voice was just a touch hesitant. “Of course not,” he assured her quickly. “Whatever you want.” He lowered his voice. “But wear one of your hats so no one recognizes you.”

  She got to her feet, shaking her head with a smile. “Nobody will. I asked Grandma for Crunchy Flakes for breakfast and she said nobody eats them here.”

  That awoke another worry. “Lissa, about this whole Grandma—”

  She frowned at him. “I know it’s just make-believe,” she whispered. “Jeez, Dad. Give me a break.”

  Marge came back into the room. “You ready?” she asked Lissa. “Got the cookies?”

  “Yes and yes.” Lissa grabbed up the box of treats and a baseball cap from a hook near the door. “Bye, Dad.”

  Marge looked over at Jed and shook her head. “Hey, cheer up, cowboy. Now you and Karin’ll have some time alone together.”

  Just what he needed.

  Karin was in no hurry to get out of the shower. She needed the time to get herself back in control. She was having the strangest reactions to being around Jed. Her heart raced when she heard his voice, and when she’d woken up this morning and lay watching him sleep, she felt her body temperature rise as if she had a fever.

  She was sorry she’d started this whole thing. It had seemed so simple when the idea had come to her, but it was getting more and more complicated by the moment Maybe she should just call it quits.

 
By the time she was drying herself off, she’d decided that was what she should do. Definitely call it off. It had been a mistake. Unfair to Jed and Lissa. Wrong to lead her mother on. And much too much for her own nerves. And today would be the perfect time. She had to go back into Chicago to check on a few patients, so she’d tell him it was over and drop him off at his car. By the time she got home later this evening, he and Lissa would be gone.

  But then Karin went into the kitchen and found her mother back from taking Lissa to Ginger’s house. Karin couldn’t discuss this while her mother was here, so she ate some breakfast and waited until she and Jed left.

  Of course, then she couldn’t say anything until Jed drove them out of Chesterton—just in case someone who could read lips was passing by.

  “I need to go into Chicago and check on some patients,” she said once they were out in open farm country. “We’ll pick up your car and then I’ll go on from there. You can go on back to Chesterton.”

  “Why don’t I just go with you?” he said.

  She needed time alone, that was why. Not that she could say that. “What for? You’d only end up sitting around the hospital lobby for hours. And I feel fine. No problem driving.”

  “Well, it’s either sitting around a hospital lobby or sitting around Chesterton,” he pointed out. “At least in Chicago no one’s going to catch me in a lie. Besides, I’ve been thinking. I’m not sure it would look right for me to have my own car. I thought I’d get the luggage, then call the rental company and have them come get it from the oasis.”

  “Why?” she asked. She’d been busy trying to find the right words to call the whole thing off, and his words took her by surprise.

  “We’re supposed to be a couple. Why would we have separate cars?”

  “My trips to check on patients would be one reason,” she said and then cleared her throat. “Actually, I’ve been thinking, too. I think maybe we should forget this whole thing.”

  He flashed her a startled look as he pulled into the tollway oasis parking lot, but said nothing until he parked the car. “Call it off?” he repeated. “How in the world can we do that?”

  She was more prepared with the whys than the hows. “It’s just not fair to you and Lissa,” she said. “And I’m not sure it’s all that kind to lead my mother on, either.”

  He turned, leaning on the steering wheel as he frowned at her. “What do we say? That it was all a lie or that we fought and called off our engagement?” He sounded confused and a little impatient.

  His reaction was actually rather surprising. She would have thought he would jump at the chance to be free of her and the lie.

  “Does it matter?” she said. “Whatever works.”

  “I don’t see how anything will,” he pointed out. “Either way, I come out as the villain and it would mean the end of Lissa’s vacation.”

  Karin hadn’t thought of that. “Not necessarily,” she said slowly. “We can say it was all my doing. No one will blame you.”

  He gave her a look. “No thank you, ma’am. No woman is going to take the blame for my foolishness.”

  “Oh, stop going all noble on me,” she snapped. “This isn’t working. Neither of us is comfortable around the other. We can’t do half the things we want to because we’re supposed to be a couple. And we are so totally incompatible that no one in their right mind would believe it anyway.”

  “Lissa’s having a good time,” he said.

  “She still can. Telling the truth isn’t going to change anything.”

  “You can’t really believe that,” he said. “I may be from the big city, but I can guess how things work in a small town. We’d suddenly be real strangers, not just townsfolk they hadn’t met yet. There’d be no invitations for Lissa to go to school with them.”

  This wasn’t going the way Karin thought it would. “So you do other things,” she said.

  “We had a bargain,” he said. “And I’m holding you to your end.”

  He got out of the car then, taking the car keys with him as if he thought she might drive away without him. Hardly. This discussion wasn’t over with. She got out of the car, too, slamming the door behind her, and hurried after him.

  “I’ll still talk to Lissa as Glinda,” she said.

  He was unlocking the trunk of his rental car, but glanced her way. “If we call this off, we can’t stay around that long.”

  He really was making this much more difficult than it had to be. “Of course you can. You can even come to events as my guest.”

  He grabbed their suitcases from the trunk. “It’s less than a week,” he said after she’d shut the trunk lid. “What’s the big deal?”

  “It’s the principle of the thing,” she tried to explain as she followed him back to her car.

  His look said he didn’t buy that. And to be honest, it was an awfully weak argument. But she couldn’t exactly tell him that her heart beat faster near him. That she felt quivery inside when she heard his soft drawl. It was all due to her crazy pregnant hormones, she knew. But there had to be a better argument she could use.

  “Hello!” someone called out.

  They both looked up to see the waitress from the oasis restaurant bearing down on them, a huge grin on her face.

  “It’s you two!” she cried. “I thought it was.”

  “Howdy, ma’am,” Jed said politely, tipping his hat.

  The woman stopped in front of them, her face taking on a serious look. “How are you?” she asked Karin, her eyes getting wide as they traversed the full length of her. “My gosh, you’re gonna be a mama. The baby’s okay, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, we’re fine,” Karin said. It was kind of the woman to care, but Karin really wanted to be gone. She and Jed still needed to get this thing settled. “I hope that there wasn’t too much damage done here.”

  The woman waved her hand. “Enough, but the storm hasn’t hurt business any. Actually maybe helped it.” She turned to Jed. “Hey, some reporter’s been looking for you. She heard how you saved this lady here, and wanted to do a story about you and your little girl.”

  Publicity was one of the last things in the world Karin wanted, but she was surprised at the sudden stillness in Jed, at the fleeting sense of panic she felt in the air.

  “Too bad,” he said with a forced laugh. “Guess we missed our chance at fame.”

  “Oh, no,” the waitress said. “It wasn’t a story about the storm, but about heroes. I’ve got her number. She wanted me to call if I see you again. Where you folks staying?”

  “Just passing through,” Jed said quickly. “Afraid she’ll have to find somebody else—a real hero—for her story.”

  He tossed the luggage into the back of the Jeep and went around to Karin’s door. “Coming, darlin’?” he asked.

  Karin had a moment’s realization that she could use this to her advantage, that she could keep quiet about where he was in exchange for him agreeing to end their pretend engagement But she couldn’t.

  “Sure, honey,” she said and smiled at the waitress. “Thanks for your interest.” She got into the car.

  He backed out of the parking spot. “So on to Chicago?”

  She shrugged. “Just head west on the tollway,” she said. “I’ll tell you when to get off.”

  Jed didn’t say anything else as they drove away from the oasis. Karin just stared out the window at the passing neighborhoods and tried to figure out why she wasn’t more upset. She should be angry at him for refusing to end their fake engagement. She should be tense that they would be found out. So why did she feel all flushed and warm? Why was her heart beating so? It was these damn hormones.

  Jed wasn’t used to this. His insides were all tied up in knots and he couldn’t think straight. That had been a close call back there at the oasis with the waitress. All he needed was some reporter to track them down and everything would be ruined—Lissa’s vacation and Karin’s face-saving engagement.

  He followed Karin’s directions from the tollway to an expresswa
y and then onto the city streets, stewing the whole way. He had to be more careful. He had to watch his every step. He was letting the calm and peaceful environment of Chesterton suck him in.

  “You probably think I’m nuts,” he finally said with a short laugh. “I guess most folk would jump at the chance to be branded a hero.”

  “It’s your decision,” Karin said.

  But he barely heard her. “And then me insisting on keeping up this pretense, probably doesn’t make much sense to you, does it?”

  “Well, that doesn’t, no.” She sighed loudly. “I don’t get that at all. Turn left up here.”

  He did as she instructed then didn’t say much, indecision bouncing around in his stomach. He was sure he could trust her. She wouldn’t tell anyone who Lissa was, but somehow he couldn’t say the words. It would be telling too much, opening up too big a part of him.

  “It’s just that Lissa’s everything to me,” he said slowly. “She took her mother’s death real hard and I want her to have the vacation she’s been dreaming of.”

  “She’s been dreaming of going to school on her vacation? Turn right at the light.”

  He slowed down for the turn. “She was dreaming of being part of the town like her mom was when she lived here,” he said. “I never figured she’d get more than a tourist experience, but luck smiled on us and she’s getting more. I can’t be the one to take that away from her.”

  He drove down a few blocks, feeling as if he was back in Los Angeles and choking. Traffic wasn’t bad, but it was just the sense of everyone hurrying around in their own little worlds, never touching or laughing, that got to him.

  “You can pull into this parking garage up here.” Karin handed him a plastic key card. “The first two levels are reserved for physicians.”

  He pulled into the dark concrete structure, and he missed the sunlight immediately. It was lightless like his world after Wendy died. Then he spotted a patch of sunshine pouring in over a half wall. He drove into a spot there.

  “Do you still miss your wife?” Karin asked as he turned off the engine.