Smooth Irish (Book 2 of the Weldon Series)

by Jennifer Saints

  “Morning, Sugar.” Jackson rolled over and snuggled up to her back. His morning erection pressed enticingly against her bottom.

  “What day is it?” Her voice was still scratchy, and she felt as if tears still clogged her throat. But his arms about her were heaven.

  He pressed himself against her and slid his hand to cup her breast. “Thursday.”

  “Jack, we can’t. I've got to go to work.” She stilled his hand by placing hers over his. She had a heavy weight in the center of her heart and she didn’t know how to make him understand. "Last night. Everything. I can't seem to be able to take it all in yet. My head is spinning, but then I was still reeling from our weekend together, the hospital, and then you saying everything was a mistake."

  He sighed. “Look at me, sugar.”

  Nan turned in his embrace so that she faced him. Unshaven, with his hair ruffled by making love and his eyes made bluer by an early morning haze, he looked rough and so damn sexy she wanted to cry.

  Staring deeply into her eyes, he spoke. “I told you to leave, and you did. Only I couldn’t forget you. I kept wanting to see your smile, kept aching to feel your touch, kept wanting to love you one more time. I picked up the house plans weeks ago because they reminded me of you. I didn’t know it, but it all meant one thing. I love you, Nan. I didn’t think there was enough left inside me to ever love, but I do. I want to marry you.” He slid the heat of his hand to cover her stomach. “And I love this little one growing inside you, too.”

  Tears filled Nan’s eyes and spilled down her cheeks. She loved him and her heart was breaking with both joy and pain. “I love you too, Jack. I’ve missed you so much, ached for you, worried about you. But you have to understand, I learned a long time ago that not even loving is enough. You couldn’t answer me last night. Have you forgiven yourself? Forgiven God? Are you free from the past? Anger and guilt are deadly poisons to love. I can’t do what my mother did. I just can’t.” Her tears turned to sobs.

  He pulled her tighter in his arms, his muscles trembling as he held her. She could feel the rapid beat of his heart and the catch of deep emotion in his voice. “Nan, damn, sugar. Don’t cry. It’s going to be okay. We’ll work it out. All I can promise is a step at a time. A day at a time.”

  She cried harder. “Don’t you see? That isn’t enough for me. I can’t marry you until I know for sure. I have to know in my heart that you’re free.” She buried her face against him, hurting. She didn’t want to be this honest with him. She wanted to take his love, marry him, and hope for a happily ever after, but she couldn’t.

  He cupped her head in his hands and turned her up to his kisses. The tears in his eyes ripped the bottom out of her world. “It’s okay. You don’t have to marry me now. Just let me love you, sugar. Give us a little time. We both have to be at work this morning. Let’s take a shower, go to work, and tonight we’ll sit down and make out a plan. We’ll set some goals about our relationship, about the baby, about what kind of life you want to live and what kind of life I want to live. Doing that isn’t going to fix everything, but I think it will make you feel better, be a little more sure about what we’re doing. Won’t it?”

  “Yes.” She sniffled, feeling like laughing and crying. Had Jackson really just suggested that they set goals and make a plan? Did he just say he had to be at work?

  He exhaled and she could feel the relief escaping him. “Good.” He rolled over, taking her with him so she ended on top. “Now about the sex. We're going to conserve water and time. Ever made love in the shower, Nan?" He played with her breasts as he spoke. "I'll be behind you, inside you. The warm water will spray your breasts, teasing them, and my finger will stroke your little hot spot until you melt with pleasure and I explode in you."

  Jackson drove and Nan tried to collect herself. She had no doubt that as soon as she walked into work everybody would take one look at her and know what she'd been doing that morning. For the first time in her employment history, Nan was going to be late for work. Well, she might be right on time, but late for her. She'd always arrived ten to fifteen minutes early.

  She glanced at her watch then at Jackson and had to smile. He wasn't the same man she'd left in Salty's Bar on New Year's Eve. Then she wasn't the same woman either.

  He reached over and turned the radio up. "Did you hear that?"

  She blinked. She'd been back in the shower. She had a feeling they were going to be taking many showers. When Jackson discovered her showerhead was moveable…hell, she shivered again just remembering how he'd made her come.

  "Nan?"

  She shook her head. "What?"

  "Did you hear the radio announcement?"

  "No. What was it?"

  "They're predicting storms today. Heavy thunderstorms."

  Nan glanced out at the sky. Now that Jackson called her attention to it, the air felt hot and thick, as if a weight pressed upon them from the heavens and compressed everything around them. "It's unusually hot for this time of year."

  "I don't like it." Jackson studied the horizon. "There's a greenish cast to the sky."

  "But not a cloud around. Don't worry. We survived the gale the night of the banquet. It can't be any worse. Before you found me, I thought I was a goner on my way to Oz."

  Jackson laughed. "I enjoyed whatever ill wind blew your skirt up and planted you face down on my truck."

  She leaned over and smacked his arm. "I'm trying to thank you for saving me and all you can think about is sex."

  He pulled up in front of the hospital and stopped the truck. "Nope sugar, it's not just sex. But keep that in mind if you're thinking about thanking me for something."

  "I'll keep it in mind."

  "And while you're at it, think about letting me read that little black book under your pillow. I want to make all of your fantasies come true."

  Nan just smiled. She had a few things she was going to add to her book before she let him read it. She opened her door to get out.

  "Nan." Jackson leaned over and kissed her. "I meant what I said. I'll be right by your side. Take all the time you need."

  She hugged him and got out. Maybe things were going to be all right. Still as she walked to the hospital entrance and glanced up again at the oddly green-gray sky, she felt a heaviness in her heart. How many times had she heard her mother hope that maybe this time things were going to be okay and they never were?

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Jackson slid the steel bar into position and drilled a hole through it. Then he popped the screw gun into place and anchored the bar. Everything that had happened between him and Nan over the past twenty-four hours chased around in his mind. He had a chance, a chance to change his life and he couldn't mess it up.

  He might make other mistakes in life, but he wouldn't make the same ones. Nan and the baby would come first, no matter what. With her at the center of his life, he couldn't lose. And their child, he added. He still felt shocked, but a good feeling.

  The only dark cloud hanging was that he couldn’t tell her he was free of the past, because he didn’t think he’d ever really be free from it. A part of him would always wish he’d made different decisions. And that same part of him would always feel some responsibility in Amy’s death.

  Only time and his future decisions would prove to Nan that she could trust him. More and more his father's words gave him a stronger foothold on life. Fixing things one day at a time. He could handle that job.

  “Hey, Weldon. You better come look at this.”

  “What’s up, Bo?” Jackson walked out from the covered area and immediately sensed the change in the air around him. Heavy black clouds churned in an angry mass directly above and the green edge to the sky had sharpened, deepened.

  The air had heated, like a desert beneath a noon sun, but instead of feeling dry, moisture hung like a thick and ominous beast surrounding him. Even as he and Bo stood watching, the wind whipped viciously toward them, picking up little pieces of plastic and debris as it spun.

  Luck
ily, most of the men had gone to lunch. He could see one heavy equipment operator already securing the job site. A quick glance showed him that the thirty-foot high scaffolds were empty.

  “Where’s Jared?” Jackson was sure that his brother would want to give the order for the few men still around to secure the job site.

  “He and the foreman went back to the office to iron out a problem with the electricians.”

  “Tell whoever is left on site to double tie everything they can and if it starts lightning to get to shelter in the hospital.” Bo nodded and moved off to spread the word. In the short time they’d spoken, the storm had doubled its intensity.

  The fury unleashing from the sky seemed to come straight from hell itself. Lightning fractured the heavens like a broken strobe light, and golf-ball-sized hail thundered down. Jackson slid beneath the open steel beams of the building’s structure to protect himself as he struggled to dump cement bags on a pile of loose boards that were beginning to dangerously blow.

  A loud roar filled the air and Jackson looked up with his heart in his throat. A wide black funnel cloud plundered right toward the hospital and the construction site. He blinked, swearing he saw cars, telephone poles, and rooftops spewing about as the tornado whipped and twisted in an ugly dance of death. Nan was inside! He had to warn the hospital!

  Snatching up a board to shield himself from the hail, he ran toward the nearest hospital door. He never made it. The force of the wind picked him up and slung him through the air as the tornado hit.

  * * *

  When the effects of her shower with Jackson wore off, which turned out to be about lunch time, Nan ran down to the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions the doctor had given her. Then, she immediately went to the cafeteria, skipped over the salads and sandwiches and went directly to the meat and vegetable selections. It wasn’t gourmet fare, but the nutritional value more than made up for the lack.

  As she ate, she considered what her hesitations were about a relationship with Jackson. Her problem centered on trust. Trust that he wouldn’t desert her and their child when they needed him most. But the more she thought, the harsher the light she saw herself in.

  How much reassurance did any person have what the future brought? Or how any one person would deal with the problems of life?

  She swallowed the naked truth like a bitter pill. It wasn’t Jackson who had a problem with commitment now. It was herself. It wasn’t only his past harming their life at this point. It was hers, too. Her own insecurities were demanding that Jackson be flawless. He’d offered her his heart and she’d left it hanging in the air, demanding more.

  She had to see him. She had to tell him that she’d marry him, now this minute, tomorrow, whenever. She loved him and that love swelled inside her, filling her needs.

  Rushing from the cafeteria, she heard a thundering roar. The windows along the hallway she was in shattered into tiny pieces. Wind splattered chunks of ice through the openings. The building around her groaned, and she saw it physically shake. The lights went out and then the hospital’s emergency generator kicked in. A hushed silence fell for a brief second before people started to scream and run.

  * * *

  Jackson felt himself flying and spinning. Oddly, he still held the board, and hurled end over end with it until he slammed into a pile of sand. Dirt filled his mouth, his nose, stung his eyes. And then suddenly, everything stopped.

  The roar moved into the distance and a horrific quiet settled like a silent dirge. Rubbing the sand from his face, he struggled to his feet and opened his blurry eyes to utter devastation. The new wing they were building had been leveled and everything from the heavy equipment to the port-a-potties looked as if they had been dumped in a blender and minced. He limped across the field toward the hospital, aware that his leg and shoulder throbbed, but were curiously numb, too. As he neared the hospital, he saw the damage and staggered beneath the fear bulleting through him. The roof was mangled on part of the building, the windows were blown, and cars were piled up against the walls like debris caught in a dam.

  “Nan!” he yelled, starting to run.

  “Help me! Help me! Oh my baby!”

  Jackson stumbled sure that Amy’s cries rang in his head. Then he thought it was Nan calling to him. He had to find her. Turning to look, he saw a woman, trapped beneath several boards. She was heavily pregnant. He turned to her and lifted the board off of her legs to see her right leg rotated too far to the left. “I’m here. Just hold on.”

  “The baby! Oh God, the baby is coming!”

  “It’s okay.” Jackson checked her pulse as he kneeled down to help her. Her pulse was too rapid and weak, as was her respirations. His hands shook. She was in serious trouble. Failure seemed to loom over his shoulder and he shook it away. “What’s your name?”

  “Angela.” She grabbed his hand, her dark eyes imploring him. “I’m going to die. Please don’t let me die.”

  “You’re not going to die, Angela, but you’ve got to help me. I need you to breathe deep for me, like they taught you in Lamaze. Slow and steady. Can you do that?”

  She nodded, her face deathly pale against the dark cloud of her hair.

  “Now I need for you to lay back. We have to put your head lower than your feet; and I have to look at your leg. Okay?”

  Jackson’s heart twisted. God, she didn’t look like Amy, but their cries were the same. Jackson called out for someone to help him, but the area seemed eerily silent. The wind whirled about them and he noticed for the first time that a light rain was falling. The sound of sirens wailed from far away. He forced himself to shut out everything and focus on the woman.

  She breathed as he asked, and he ran a quick assessment of her condition. Her uterine contractions were less than one minute apart, but her vital signs were screaming shock.

  Just then he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Nan next to him.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, taking in her ragged appearance. Surface cuts lined her right cheek and her forehead was bruised.

  “I’m fine. What can I do to help?”

  Relief flooded Jackson. Relief that Nan was unharmed and relief that he had the help he would need to save this woman. He silently thanked God as he turned to Angela. “She’s about to have the baby. Get her to breathe, but don’t let her push yet. I need to examine her leg.”

  Nan immediately spoke to Angela and Jackson lifted the woman’s dress to examine her. Her leg lay with her knee rotated almost forty-five degrees to the inside. A large hematoma covered her upper thigh and grew by the second. The pulses lower on her leg were almost non- existent. He didn’t hesitate to act as his instincts kicked in. Ripping off his belt, he threaded it under the woman’s thigh forming a tourniquet that he tightened immediately. Then he took three pieces of wood from the ground and splinted the woman’s leg straight, using strips from his shirt to tie her leg in place. If what he suspected had happened, she could die if her leg moved the wrong way.

  He looked up to see Nan helping Angela. Now he had to see about the baby.

  “Scissors?” he asked Nan.

  She slipped them from her pocket. As she leaned his way, she whispered. “How is she?”

  Not good, he silently mouthed the words, where only Nan could see. “We need a stretcher, IV of D5W, and an OR set up with a damn good surgeon. I think bone fragments have nicked her femoral artery.”

  “I’ll go get help.”

  Jackson cut away Angela’s underwear. The baby had almost completely crowned.

  “Don’t leave yet, Nan. The baby is coming. Put pressure on her femoral artery above the tourniquet.”

  Nan did as instructed, and Jackson turned his attention to the woman. “Angela, this is very important. Whatever you do, whatever you feel, do not bear down. Your little angel is coming and she’s doing just fine. You need to unbutton your shirt so that you can hold her next to your body when she gets here. She’s going to need your warmth.”

  Jackson prayed. If the
woman pushed to deliver the baby, depending on how badly her femoral artery was leaking, there might not be any way he could save her.

  He looked at Nan. “Do you have anything sterile?”

  “Several packages of gauze in my left pocket.”

  Reaching in, he found the gauze, a couple of packets of alcohol wipes. Quickly using one wipe on his hands, Jackson wrapped his fingers with some of the gauze and slid his fingers alongside the baby’s head. He was able to help work the baby’s shoulder out and the baby popped like a cork, rewarding Jackson’s efforts with a robust cry.

  “She’s an angel, just as I thought.” He laid the baby on Angela’s chest and quickly clamped the chord by squeezing it between the scissors’ handles and tying them closed with gauze.

  “My baby. Thank God. You saved her.” Angela wrapped the baby in her shirt, hugging her squirming little girl very close.

  Jackson knew the woman had to be in excruciating pain, yet the simple joy that lay in her eyes curled around his soul. He took over applying the pressure on the woman’s artery from Nan. “Get help fast.”

  Nan dashed to the hospital. Only then did Jackson see other people about. Some were hurt, and others were helping, everyone worked together. Nan came back in record time with a team of emergency specialists, and Jackson stood back to let them take over. They didn’t question his diagnosis, but went with it and immediately began treating Angela for blood loss and shock. Within moments they were rushing her and her newborn baby into the hospital.

  Nan turned to Jackson, her heart so full of love she thought she’d explode. He looked like hell and he'd never looked better. Sand had blasted him. He had tiny bleeding cuts everywhere. Seeing him alive was all she cared about. But seeing him with Angela had shown her a lot about the man she loved. He could hammer nails, strum a guitar, or pick up trash for a living; she didn’t care. Because in the past twenty-four hours, she’d seen the depths of his heart and knew without a doubt, he was the man for her.