Pregnant & Practically Married (The Bridal Circle #3)

by Andrea Edwards

  “Good idea,” Dorothy agreed.

  Except that he didn’t need a nursemaid. “I’m fine,” Jed said again.

  No one paid any attention. Karin just started up the car.

  “So why did we come if you hate square dancing?” he asked as they pulled from the church lot.

  “Who says I hate square dancing?”

  “Dorothy did.” Damn knee. All he had to do was look at it and it got sprained. He winced as they went over a pothole.

  “I’m sorry,” Karin cried. “I didn’t see it.”

  “I’m fine,” he assured her. “Except for this curiosity that’s eating away at me. Probably at my kneecap, too.”

  She slowed down to turn a corner, then glanced his way. It was too dark to see her expression, but he could feel hesitation about her.

  “I wanted you to have an evening that you’d enjoy,” she said.

  Where had she gotten the idea that he’d enjoy square dancing? But there was too much vulnerability in her voice to point out that he hated it.

  “That was sure nice of you,” he said slowly.

  He could feel her smile. “You’ve been so great about all this, I thought it would pay you back a little,” she went on.

  Lordy, he thought and tried to shift his position, but he couldn’t find a spot where his knee—or heart—didn’t ache. Good thing this was just make-believe. Otherwise he’d have to take up square dancing just to keep her feelings from getting hurt.

  “You didn’t have to,” he said.

  “I sure didn’t think this would happen,” she said, the smile gone from her voice. “I should have realized you’d be tired from working on the brick-painting crew today and planned something quieter.”

  Quieter? He wasn’t an old man that ran out of energy when the sun went down. “Painting had nothing to do with anything,” he said. “I’ve just got a bum knee from bull riding. And this was the nicest thing anybody’s done for me in a long while.”

  “Really?”

  Her voice sounded as if she was blushing as she pulled into the lot behind the bar. He was tempted to see if blushing made her lips hotter.

  His heart began to beat a little faster as he became aware of her nearness. He’d hardly have to move to touch her, to pull her into his arms. Once she stopped the car, she’d turn toward him and he could—

  The sound of another car pulling into the lot reminded him that Toto had come along. Damn. No, it was just as well. But not because he needed any help. Jed opened the car door.

  Karin wasn’t pleased with his show of independence. “Wait until—”

  “I’m fine, darlin’.” Too fine. Too tempted was more like it. He needed to get out of the inviting darkness of the car and into the bright lights of the apartment where he could breathe again. He slid out of the car and limped toward the stairs with a wave at Toto. “Thanks, but I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure?” Toto got out of his car, but Jed just waved again and made his way over to the stairs.

  “Will you wait a minute?” Karin muttered as she caught up with him. “Let me take your arm.”

  “Actually, I think it’s best if I use the handrails,” he said. “You get too close and I get distracted.”

  “Oh, don’t be silly,” she said. “No one’s here to see you.”

  That was the scary part. But rather than think about it, he began to pull himself up the stairs.

  “Need any help?” Toto asked from the bottom of the stairs.

  “No, thanks anyway,” Jed said without turning. Karin was right behind him and he didn’t need to be reminded of her presence.

  Hell. What was he thinking? He didn’t need to see her to know she was there. He went slowly up the steps as Toto got back in his car. A moment later, Jed heard it pull from the lot He was relieved that Karin’s friend had left, but wasn’t sure he liked being alone with her again.

  The porch got brighter suddenly as the kitchen door opened and Marge came outside. “Heavens, what happened?” she asked. “Jed, why are you limping?”

  Lissa appeared in the doorway. “What’s wrong?”

  “I hurt my leg,” Jed said, climbing up the last step. “A little.”

  Lissa came closer. “It wasn’t your right knee, was it?”

  “As a matter of fact, it was,” Karin said.

  “Oh, great.” The girl rolled her eyes. “He’s had that knee reconstructed like three times already. Did he tear any ligaments?”

  Karin gave Jed a glare that seared the tips of his ears. “I don’t know,” she told Lissa. “He wouldn’t let us take him to a doctor.”

  “That’s just like him,” Lissa said.

  “It’s only a sprain,” Jed pointed out sharply. “And maybe a pulled muscle. I’ll be fine in a day or two.”

  “Good gracious, get in here and sit down,” Marge said, holding open the kitchen door. “Do you need an ice pack or anything?”

  “No, I’m fine.” How many times had he said that in the last half hour? Maybe he needed to get it tattooed on his forehead.

  He went into the apartment, ignoring Lissa’s scolding glare and Karin’s hovering. Heck, he hardly limped at all and certainly didn’t wince each time he put weight on the protesting joint.

  “I bet it isn’t even sprained,” he said.

  “Actually, an ice pack sounds like a good idea.” Karin closed the kitchen door and frowned at Jed. “Sit down. I’m going to take a look at your knee.”

  He didn’t like the fire in her eye. “I’m okay standing.”

  “You’re right,” she said.

  She’d agreed too easily. He had the uneasy feeling he should have sat when he had the chance.

  “You might as well go on into the bedroom,” she said. “Can you strip off your jeans yourself or will you need my help?”

  Toto went back to the VFW hall. He wasn’t sure why. He wasn’t keen on square dancing. But he was keen on one of the square dancers, he admitted to himself, and he wasn’t going to miss a chance to see her. Pretty pitiful.

  Dorothy, Heather and Alex were waiting for him in the lobby. His heart skipped a beat, but he knew he was being foolish. And Dorothy’s words confirmed it.

  “How was he?” she asked as soon as he came in.

  “Okay, I guess,” Toto said, feeling like a selfish jerk for even half wishing Dorothy’s first thoughts had been of him. No wonder she didn’t love him, not with the kind of attitude he had.

  “He seemed to be moving okay while he was here,” Alex said.

  Toto nodded. “I would guess it hurt from the way he was limping, but he went up the stairs by himself. Took him a while though.”

  “Didn’t you help him up?” Heather asked.

  “He didn’t want my help,” Toto pointed out.

  “You should have helped him anyway,” Dorothy insisted.

  He sighed. “There’re times when a man’s got nothing left but his pride. You don’t take that away from him.”

  “What’s pride got to do with anything?” Dorothy snapped and turned to the others. “Come on, guys. You gonna dance some more?”

  Her voice was icy with annoyance and Toto just kept silent. So much for impressing her, for sweeping her off her feet with his heroics.

  Heather went with Dorothy into the hall but Alex stayed behind. His smile was sympathetic.

  “You couldn’t have done it any other way,” he said.

  “That’s not what Dorothy thinks. Maybe guys in Paris do things differently.”

  “I doubt it. Dorothy’s still looking for that knight in shining armor that’s going to carry her off.”

  “Yeah, but she’d clobber him first for not asking permission.”

  “I’m not sure this is a good idea,” Jed said.

  Karin just frowned at his knee, trying to ignore the rest of his body. He was sitting on the edge of her bed, wearing a perfectly respectable pair of boxer shorts. A shirt covered his chest. There was no reason for her to feel self-conscious. She was a doctor, after all. Sh
e had seen lots of naked men before. And Jed wasn’t even naked, so what was the big deal?

  She took a deep breath and bent down to gingerly touch his injured knee. It would really help if she knew what she was looking for. Besides trouble, that is.

  She pressed gently on the side of the knee, ignoring the fluttery twinge in her belly, the curling tightening whisper of desire. “Does that hurt?” she asked.

  “No,” he said.

  She felt the other side, willing that uneasiness in her stomach to go away. “How about this?”

  “Nope.” He swung his lower leg out slightly, then rubbed just above his knee. “It’s a little sore up here and aches a bit around the sides when I walk. Only a sprain.”

  She should take his word for it. That would be the smart thing to do. Just take his word for it and back off. Instead, she traced her finger gently along a thin scar that ran down the middle of his knee. It started a tingle up and down her spine and left her feeling almost limp.

  “This from one of your knee surgeries?” she asked.

  “Actually from more than one,” he said. “They did a couple in the same spot.”

  “Both from rodeo injuries?”

  “Both from getting tossed by the same bull,” he said. “Guess you could say I was a slow learner.”

  Karin let her finger glide over to another scar on the side of his leg, the tingle along her back began to spread to other parts of her. Maybe she was a slow learner too. She knew this wasn’t the smartest thing to be doing but...

  “How’d you get this scar?” It was too jagged to be from surgery.

  “Got tossed onto a fence.”

  “By the same bull?”

  “His cousin.”

  She winced at the battering his body had taken. “Why did you keep going back? Are you that stubborn?”

  “The money was good.”

  What a crazy answer. A typical macho-cowboy response. “So you’d save enough for your ranch and be too crippled up to enjoy it,” she snapped. “Now that’s real logic.”

  “Hey, I didn’t get hurt that much,” he protested.

  “Oh, no? What about this scar and this one here? Or this—”

  She’d been about to touch one higher up on his leg, but he took hold of her hand and stopped her. “I really don’t think this is a good idea.”

  Suddenly the tingle came back in full force, a galloping shiver that raced through her and set every nerve on edge. Left every part of her aching in awareness of him. Her heart was beating so hard and fast that she could barely think.

  She got to her feet slowly, her eyes locked with his. This was crazy. She was a doctor and he was hurt. There wasn’t anything else going on. There shouldn’t be anything else. So why were her lips longing to feel his? Why did her hands want to explore the hardness of his muscles? Why did she know that paradise was to be found in his arms?

  The twinge in her belly came again, but this time it was different. It was definite. Not a sensual response but something else. Bubbles.

  Her expression must have changed, for Jed frowned.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked as he stood up.

  She shook her head, her hand going to her stomach as if that would make a difference. Maybe it was something she ate. Or maybe the dancing had been too much for her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, sounding more concerned.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Just a little flutter in my stomach.”

  That didn’t seem to ease his concern. “Maybe you should sit down.”

  “I don’t feel faint.” She shouldn’t have said anything. She hated being fussed over. “Just flutter. Like I have bubbles bursting.”

  He got an odd look in his eyes and put his hand on her belly. The odd look turned to a smile. “Your baby’s moving,” he cried and moved her hand to where his had been.

  She felt slight movement, both from inside and outside, and took her hand away as if that would make it stop. “It’s too early for that.”

  “No, it’s not.” He put his hand there again, a soft smile lighting his eyes. “Isn’t that the most marvelous thing?”

  What? To have a baby that would have no father and a mother that didn’t know how to love? But she couldn’t say any of that to him.

  “You should stay off that leg,” she said instead and took a step back.

  Something seemed to close down in his eyes as he looked at her, then he slowly nodded. “Right,” he said. “I’m sorry. This isn’t something you’d be wanting to share with me, is it?”

  It wasn’t him. It wasn’t as if there was somebody else. It was just—

  She sighed and went to the bedroom door. “I’m going to get you an ice pack so you can ice that knee before you go to sleep.”

  Jed spent the night brooding about how he hated being sick. Hated being injured. Hated being waited on. He knew he would have to stay off his knee for it to heal, but he hoped he’d be able to see to it alone. Lissa was off at school again and Karin had better things to do than hang around the apartment and watch him.

  Of course there also was the fact that he was finding her too damn attractive. A little distance between them wouldn’t be a bad thing.

  “You know, I’m really fine on my own,” he told her after breakfast the next morning. “I’ll just settle down with the newspaper.”

  “I don’t have anywhere I need to go,” she said as she started for her bedroom, then stopped. “Do you have any laundry you want me to do? I don’t think I have a full load with just my stuff.”

  He ignored her question. “Shouldn’t you be checking on your patients?” he asked. “What about that guy you operated on on Monday?”

  “My partner is taking care of him.”

  “Oh.”

  She went into her room and came out with an armload of clothes. Maybe she was taking them to a Laundromat. Or maybe she was washing each thing by hand and it would take her hours. He could always hope.

  She carried the clothes into the next room and, after a little bit of thumping around, was back and settling down at the kitchen table with some medical journals. Two minutes, tops. If getting laundry started was a rodeo event, she’d be the champ. Why did Marge have to supervise yellow-brick painting all morning? But that did give him an idea.

  “Maybe we should go downstairs and get the bar ready to open for your mother. Her festival work this morning is going to set her back.”

  Karin barely looked up from her journals. “I have no idea what she does to get the place ready to open. We’d probably screw up more than we’d help.”

  But at least he wouldn’t be sitting here watching her, having his blood turn to fire with every move she made. Of course, he didn’t have to sit here. He could go into the living room.

  “I’m going to sit in the living room,” he said and picked up his newspaper. “I can stretch my leg out there.”

  “What? Oh, the living room.”

  She’d only been reading for a few moments, but she had been engrossed in the article already. There was something lost and vulnerable about her as she looked up at him. It tore at him for some unknown reason and he had to fight back the urge to brush that hair away from her face. To touch that—

  “I could come in there and read too,” she said, starting to stand up.

  “No! Uh...I mean, I’m afraid I’d disturb you,” he said quickly. “I...uh...like to watch game shows on TV while I’m reading the paper and I’m sure you’d prefer it to be quiet.”

  “Well, I’ll help you get settled,” she offered and did get to her feet this time. She took the newspapers from him and offered him her arm.

  He could hardly refuse, so he made himself limp into the other room as fast as possible and practically jumped onto the sofa. He barely noticed how soft and sweet her perfume was, or how smooth her skin was. Or—

  He swallowed hard. “This is great. Thanks,” he said.

  She put the newspapers on the low table in front of the sofa, then frowned at him. “Woul
d you like a soda? Or some more coffee?”

  “Nope, I’m just fine.” He picked up the sports section of the paper, hopefully showing how eager he was to read it.

  “Oh, I know,” she murmured and flicked on the TV before bringing him the remote. “Don’t want you to miss those game shows.”

  He stared at the cheerful TV host and his perky guests and wondered what the hell show this was. He sure hoped Karin didn’t ask any questions.

  He smiled up at her. “Thanks.”

  This time he did bury his head in the newspaper and kept it there until he heard the sound of her kitchen chair being pulled out. Then he breathed a sigh of relief. Marge’s cat was crawling into his lap at that moment and gave him a strange look.

  “Okay, so this is harder than I thought,” he muttered to Shilah. “It’s not like I’ve done this before, you know.”

  “What did you say?” Karin called to him from the kitchen.

  “Nothing,” Jed assured her. “Just answering a question on the TV. If I get too loud, I won’t mind if you go into the bedroom to read. Or even downstairs to the bar.”

  She laughed. “The noise won’t bother me at all. And I’d rather stay where I can see you. I’m not convinced you won’t try something if I don’t keep an eye on you.”

  “All I’m going to do is try to guess the answer to this puzzle,” he said, nodding at the television.

  “Oh.”

  With a sigh, Jed went back to the newspaper. The morning passed with all the speed of a pickup without wheels. He read every danged article in the newspaper—twice. He petted Shilah until she finally went off to the other side of the room to get away from him. And he watched game shows until he was ready to throw something at the next cheery face he saw. He still was conscious of every move Karin made. Every sigh, every stretch, every shift of her position. And the fire inside him grew.

  He tried to nap; it didn’t work. He tried to turn his back to her; he could see the reflection of her silhouette in the TV and the windows. He tried to close his eyes and pretend he was back home; his imagination worked overtime with every sound in the apartment and Karin was somehow the star.