A Weaver Baby

by ALLISON LEIGH,

  “It’s not about money.” She squeezed her legs, clucking to Ziggy and the horse smoothly closed in again on Bonneville.

  But the other horse wasn’t finished with his arsenal of bad habits and he kicked out at Ziggy, who naturally stopped short, his big body tensing as he let out a warning squeal.

  J.D. gave the rope more play and directed Ziggy to back away. “Come on, guys. Play nice now.”

  His ears flat, Bonneville kicked out again and Ziggy practically bounced sideways, his long neck arching as he bared his teeth toward the younger horse. As far as Ziggy was concerned, he was the boss of the place and wasn’t about to let some upstart like Bonneville take his spot.

  But still, Bonneville didn’t back down.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw movement and threw out her hand, warning the boys again to stay back. But that left her only holding on to the lasso and when Bonneville reared up, so did the furious Ziggy.

  J.D. had no time to control her dismount. From some portion of her mind, she heard Jake shout, then all she could think of was protecting the baby as she curled herself into a ball.

  The impact sent the breath right out of her.

  Stars exploded inside her head as she blinked, trying to haul in a breath that wouldn’t come.

  “Don’t move.” Jake’s voice came above her.

  Her struggling lungs finally expanded with wind. The first words she croaked were, “Don’t let Bonneville run.”

  “Forget Bonneville.” His hands raced over her arms. Her legs. “Are you hurt?”

  “I can’t forget Bonneville. He’s in my care. I’m responsible for him.”

  Jake let out a string of colorful words and disappeared for a moment.

  She closed her eyes, hugging her arms around her middle. Please, please be all right.

  She heard Jake cursing both horses and tried to sit up, but a sharp pain shot out from her shoulder and she groaned, subsiding again.

  The boys were yelling and soon, Susan was kneeling beside J.D., too. “Good heavens.” She bunched up her soft scarf and slid it beneath J.D.’s head. “You poor dear.”

  “Jake—is he all right?” She craned her head around to see if he was managing. “He’s not used to this side of horses.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Susan shushed. “The boy grew up around horses. It was the only place he and his father could ever find some semblance of agreeable ground.”

  She tried to sit up again, this time using her other arm for leverage. She inhaled sharply at the pain that ripped along her collarbone.

  Susan’s hands gently nudged her down again. “Stay still. Let him handle it.”

  “Where are the boys?”

  “I sent them back into the house. Don’t worry.”

  But she couldn’t help it. She was worried.

  About Jake and his family. About Latitude. About that darned, bad-mannered Bonneville. And most of all, about the baby. And what Jake would do when he learned what she’d kept from him.

  Her hands closed protectively over her stomach and she closed her eyes again. If she stayed very, very still, the pain in her shoulder didn’t seem so hideous.

  It seemed forever before Jake returned, but in reality she knew it was probably only minutes. “All right.” He knelt beside her once again. “That beast is in the corral. Maybe a few more hours out in the cold’ll settle him down.”

  She tried moving again, to see around his broad shoulder to the corral. “Where’s Latitude?”

  “In the barn along with Ziggy.”

  She felt some relief at that. Her gaze ran over Jake. His white shirt was smudged with dirt and his fine, wool trousers were covered with dust and snow. “You need a coat,” she said stupidly.

  He huffed out a short, unamused laugh. “I’m probably feeling better than you or you’d be on your feet already. Where’s it hurt?” He shoved aside her coat, his hands skimming alongside her hips.

  God. She tried brushing away his hands but it was no use. “It’s not the first time I’ve fallen off a horse.” Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes. “It’s just the first time I’ve done so while pregnant,” she finished hoarsely.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Admitting it was almost a relief.

  Except Jake’s slashing eyebrows pulled fiercely together as he stared at her as if he didn’t even recognize her. “You’re pregnant?”

  “Almost eighteen weeks.”

  He went deadly still and all she could hear was her pulse pounding in her ears, seeming to tick off every…single…second.

  But he didn’t shout at her. Didn’t curse her. Didn’t voice even so much as a question.

  He didn’t need to. The betrayal he felt was naked on his face as he shoved his arms beneath her and lifted her right off the ground. “Susan,” he barked. “Get my coat from inside. My keys are in the pocket.”

  Obviously shocked, the older woman pushed to her feet and ran to the house.

  “Jake—”

  “Quiet. You need to see a doctor.”

  If she hadn’t been shaking from head to toe with the reaction that was setting in, she might have bristled. But he was right. She needed to see a doctor.

  She turned her face into his shoulder, afraid to even let herself think that the baby could have been harmed.

  Surely, God wouldn’t give her this miracle, only to snatch it away now? Or maybe that was her punishment for not being truthful with Jake from the very beginning.

  “Zach.” She could feel his voice rumbling through his chest. “Open the truck door for me.”

  “Is she gonna be all right?” The boy was carrying Jake’s coat and he raced around them, pulling open the truck door.

  “We’re going to find that out.” Jake set her inside on the seat and tucked her coat in before fastening the seatbelt around her.

  J.D. caught a glimpse of Zach’s white face before Jake closed the door between them.

  “Are you gonna take her to the hospital?” The boy trotted after Jake as he rounded the truck.

  “Yeah.” He yanked open the door and seemed to hesitate as he looked back at his son.

  Then he reached out and brushed his hand over Zach’s tumbled hair. “This is nothing like your mom, Zach. Everything will be okay. I promise.”

  The boy’s expression was torn. He wanted to trust but it so obviously went against his grain to do so.

  A rolling wave of nausea made her close her eyes, though, and a second later, Jake was inside the truck, gunning the engine. The tires crunched over snow. Gravel. Then the smoother, faster highway.

  Her shoulder felt like it was on fire.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  She moistened her lips. “I tried.”

  He was silent, his disbelief a tangible thing.

  “That’s what I wanted to meet with you about when I came up to the house that time. I was going to tell you then, but Susan interrupted us.”

  “That was months ago!”

  She had no answer for that. How could she when she, herself, felt no defense?

  “I was wrong.”

  “Damn straight,” he muttered.

  She moved her hand slightly, hoping to lower the window just an inch or two so the cold air could freeze out her increasingly persistent nausea. But even that slight movement sent pain careening through her, and she bit back a moan.

  The landscape flashed by even faster. She didn’t dare glance at the speedometer.

  She rested her head against the leather seat. “I need to get hold of my parents.” Whispering didn’t seem so painful. “Tell them I’m going to be late.”

  “You’re gonna be a helluva lot more than late. And that should be the least of your worries right now. What the hell were you thinking? You shouldn’t even be riding in your condition.”

  “I’ve ridden all of my life. My obstetrician said there was no reason I couldn’t continue to do so as long as I was careful.”

  “And that’s a perfect description for what
you did today with that infernal horse.”

  “That infernal horse is helping to pay my bills!”

  “If you’d have told me you were pregnant, you wouldn’t have to be worrying about your bills.” His voice was tight. Full of anger. “Christ, J.D. Did you think I wouldn’t take care of you?”

  She’d known that he would. That his sense of responsibility would have ensured financial support for his child. And that would be as far as it would go.

  Responsibility. But not love.

  “I can take care of myself and this baby without you throwing money our way.”

  “Yeah.” His voice was flat. “You’ve proved that so well today.”

  She angled her head carefully to look out the window away from him. He was right, so what could she say?

  Neither one of them spoke for the rest of the drive that he made in about a third of the time it should have taken. It was a wonder that he didn’t get stopped for speeding, but she supposed that her cousin-in-law Max, who was the sheriff, had a light roster of deputies on duty because of the holiday.

  It wasn’t as if she had to give Jake directions to the hospital, either, since it was right on the highway heading straight into town. Ignoring the signs that warned ambulances only, he pulled beneath the overhang that protected the emergency room entrance and came around to open her door.

  She started to protest that she could walk on her own when he lifted her out of her seat, but the words died when he gave her a tight look.

  His expression was almost the same as Zach’s had been when Jake had said everything would be all right.

  The first face she saw when he carried her through the entrance was her cousin, Courtney, who was a nurse at the hospital. Her eyes widened at the sight of them, and she hurried forward with a wheelchair. “What happened?”

  “She was thrown. Something’s wrong with her shoulder and she’s pregnant.” His gaze moved to J.D. again. “I suppose they all know that, though,” he concluded. “Everyone gets to hear the truth except me.”

  “Jake—”

  Courtney’s lovely face was troubled as she took in the exchange. “Bring her on back,” she said when it was clear that Jake had no intention of setting J.D. in the wheelchair. She hit a switch low on the wall and the double doors leading from the waiting room swung wide. “The first bed on your right. I’ll be right there.”

  All of the beds in the emergency room were empty except for one on the far side that had a curtain drawn around it. Jake lowered J.D. onto the first bed they came to. She barely had a moment to exhale her relief—because being carried wasn’t exactly the most comfortable of positions right then—when Courtney appeared again.

  “I thought you were off today,” J.D. told her.

  “I was. One of the other nurses has the flu, so I got called in. Fortunately, I like the leftovers from Thanksgiving just as well.” With a practiced tug, she swung the privacy curtain around the bed area and set a blank chart on the small counter next to the sink. “Did you lose consciousness when you fell?” She turned to J.D. and began to gently work the coat sleeve off her uninjured side.

  “No.”

  “No.”

  Jake answered at the same time J.D. did and her gaze tangled with his.

  Courtney managed to get off that sleeve, but J.D. was wringing wet with sweat by the time she finished. “I’m going to cut through the other sleeve,” Courtney said. “It’ll be easier on you.”

  J.D. was too breathless to argue. The coat had been damaged plenty well by Bonneville already. Her cousin peppered her with a stream of questions as she attacked the sleeve with a pair of deadly looking scissors. “Any cramping? You haven’t been able to check for spotting, I imagine. Describe the pain in your shoulder. Sharp? Dull? Hot?”

  J.D. answered, holding her arm tightly across her chest. If she didn’t breathe too deeply or move too much, she thought she might escape passing out. “No cramps.” Surely, she’d be able to tell even above the racking pain that was radiating from her shoulder in widening waves.

  Her cousin didn’t even attempt to unbutton the flannel shirt J.D. wore beneath the coat. She simply sliced through it and spread the fabric away from her shoulder. The fact that her action left J.D.’s unfettered breasts perfectly bare was only an inconvenient embarrassment where she was concerned.

  There was such fiery pain exploding from J.D.’s shoulder that she figured her hot face could be taken as part of the package. But Jake wasn’t giving her bare breasts even the faintest glance. His eyes were on her shoulder. “God,” he muttered, looking oddly pale.

  “At a guess, I’m going to say you dislocated it.” Courtney snatched a packet out of the cupboard below the sink and squeezed it a few times before settling it gently against the offended joint.

  J.D. gritted her teeth. The light weight of the pack was excruciatingly cold. “I may have to make you pay for this someday, Court.”

  Her cousin didn’t turn a single hair on her unfairly beautiful blond head. “I know it hurts.” She finally draped a cotton hospital gown over J.D.’s torso and with the finesse that nurses must learn in school, whisked off J.D.’s boots and the rest of her clothing without dislodging the cotton a single inch.

  J.D. focused on the bump of her feet beneath the thin blanket that Courtney spread across her from the waist down after she’d stuck her clothing in a bin beneath the bed. “Dr. Keegan’s your OB, right?” She barely waited for J.D.’s nod. “I’ll get a call in to her right away. But Dr. Jackman will be with you as soon as he can. He’s in the middle of stitching up a hand.” Courtney shook her head a little. “Turkey-carving accident.”

  Turkey.

  “I need to call my parents.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Courtney assured and stepped outside of the curtain. “Yell if you need anything.”

  “There’s only one doctor here?” Jake paced the close confines within the curtained area as soon as her cousin was gone. “What the hell kind of third-world hospital is this?”

  “One that amply meets the needs of Weaver and its surrounding communities,” J.D. returned wearily. “Just because it’s not up to your standards doesn’t mean it’s a bad hospital. My aunt Rebecca runs the place, if you must know.”

  “Did you ever plan to tell me?”

  She opened her mouth, but uncertainty strangled her vocal cords. “I don’t know,” she finally admitted.

  His jaw canted to one side then slowly centered, though a muscle continued to tick alongside it. “At least that’s one thing I believe you mean.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  But at that, Jake didn’t look at all convinced. The curtain rings rattled again, and he looked over his shoulder as the white-coated doctor entered and introduced himself. Dr. Jackman took one quick look at J.D.’s shoulder and scribbled on the chart that Courtney had left behind. “We’ll get you into X-ray as soon as we check the baby,” he said, then glanced at Jake. “Would you rather your husband wait outside while I examine you?”

  “He’s not my husband,” J.D. said.

  “Sorry.” The gray-haired doctor took it in stride. “Never know these days when it comes to couples.” He rolled the low metal stool to the foot of the bed and sat down on it. “We need to do a pelvic, though, so—”

  Jake silently left the curtained area.

  J.D. wished that she could have called him back. Wished that they were a couple.

  But now that was something that had never been further from reality. And she had no one to blame but herself for that.

  Fortunately, the pelvic exam, followed by an ultrasound that Dr. Keegan arrived in time to supervise, assured J.D. that her pregnancy was mercifully unharmed by her fall.

  “Does this mean I shouldn’t have that ultrasound I already scheduled for next week?”

  The doctor smiled faintly as she scribbled on J.D.’s chart. “No, though I don’t think it will be necessary. I want to see you in my office, anyway, though. Just to follow up on that little fellow.�
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  Tears collected in the corners of her eyes. “It is a boy.”

  “You told me before the test did,” Dr. Keegan reminded. “Congratulations, Mom. Now, I’m getting back to my Thanksgiving dinner, and you are getting that shoulder taken care of.” She surrendered J.D. to another technician who wheeled J.D. to the radiology department.

  That X-ray confirmed the more obvious diagnosis that her shoulder was, indeed, dislocated. Once it was relocated, the worst of the pain eased off.

  It just made it that much easier to feel the pain centered somewhere around her heart.

  By then, the emergency room was practically filled with members of J.D.’s family who all knew now, without a question, that Jake was the father of the baby she carried.

  Despite her insistence that she was fine and didn’t want to interrupt the big family Thanksgiving dinner, they’d shown up anyway.

  “We had to see with our own eyes that you’re okay,” Maggie said again in needless explanation. She and Angeline hovered next to J.D.’s bed while Courtney helped her dress again in her jeans and a borrowed surgical scrub top, followed up with a sling that she was going to have to wear for the next several weeks.

  “Some Thanksgiving it’s turned out to be.” J.D. let out a relieved breath when Courtney was finished with her adjusting.

  “You fell off a horse and your baby is still fine,” Angeline reminded. With J.D. decent again, she pulled open the curtain around the bed. “Frankly, I think it’s a wonderful Thanksgiving.”

  It was a good reminder that J.D. truly did have something to be thankful for, even if she’d irrevocably ruined any chance with Jake. But she still couldn’t help looking for him the second that curtain was removed.

  Her brother was there. Angeline’s husband, Brody. A handful of aunts and uncles and other cousins. But there was no sign of Jake.

  Daniel immediately moved forward to help her off the high bed, and the lot of them began the slow procession out of the emergency room. She stopped at the desk, expecting to sign paperwork of some sort since visits to the E.R. were generally accompanied by a bill. “Don’t I need to sign something?”