Surprised by a Baby

by Mindy Neff

  “The song?” Tracy asked.

  “No, the cowboy,” Kat answered.

  “Stop by my salon.” Donetta took a sip of the sweet tea that Tracy offered, then picked up a round brush and directed the stream of heat to the tips of Kat’s hair as she stretched and rolled the strands to give a smooth, silky style with a hint of curl at the ends. “You’ll find several cowboys there.”

  “Oh, I drove by and peeked in. What an awful mess. I hope you’re going to sue the pants off Judd Quentin.”

  “I’m not thinking about lawsuits right now. I just want my salon put back together and open again.”

  “It’s a shame Judd did you dirty like that, Donetta. Speaking of construction, though. Have y’all seen the house Linc Slade’s building out there next to Jack’s?” Kat asked. “It’s huge. And the horse stables look like something you’d see in a Kentucky horseman’s magazine.”

  “He breeds horses,” Tracy said, flicking her blond hair behind her ear.

  “And very successfully. Too bad he already owned property. That man has plenty of money to spend, and I’d have made a nice commission selling him a home. I wouldn’t mind hooking up with him on a more personal level, either.” Katherine Durant’s graceful smile was reflected in the eight-by-ten free standing mirror Donetta had set on Storm’s breakfast bar.

  Donetta saw Tracy shoot a daggerlike look at Kat. What was up with that?

  “You know what’s really wild?” Katherine continued, oblivious to Tracy’s glare. “He’s building that huge estate and he’s not even sure he’s going to stay.”

  “Who said?” Tracy Lynn demanded.

  “The man himself.”

  The back door opened as Donetta glanced up, shutting off her blow dryer. Dixie leaped to her feet and blocked the entrance, then wagged her tail and moved aside, deeming their guest welcome.

  Donetta smiled. “Hey, Anna. I didn’t expect to see you again today. Coffee’s made if you want some.”

  Tracy let Sneak down and helped Anna with the sacks in her hands.

  “No time, hon.” Anna bustled in to load the refrigerator with food. “I’m on my way over to pick up Sunny and Tori, and I thought I’d drop off some supper so you wouldn’t have to cook. I’m still worried about you pushing yourself like this when you’ve not been feeling well.”

  “I’m doing okay. Don’t fret over me, Anna.”

  “Of course I’ll fret. Honestly, someone has to worry about you. Now, if you change your mind and want to come with us to the picture show, just hop a ride with Tracy Lynn. Storm can pop this food in the microwave for his supper, and there will be plenty of leftovers.”

  “Anna, you’re a sweetheart,” Donetta said. “I’m still going to pass on the show. I’ve got too much organizing to do.” Anna was taking Tori to Austin to see the new Disney film, and Sunny, Becca and Tracy Lynn had invited themselves, as well. Donetta had refused. She could just imagine smelling popcorn and spending the entire time in the rest room.

  Sneak did her jumping trick, and Tracy scooped up the little dog again to coo and cuddle.

  Someone knocked on the back door. “Trace, would you see who that is?” Donetta sprayed Kat’s hair. “Word must have spread if I’m getting walk-ins already.”

  “Forget it,” Tracy said, heading for the door. “You’re not doing any more clients today.”

  Donetta had an urge to stick out her tongue, but she curbed it. “You’re all set, Kat.”

  “I appreciate this. I didn’t realize you weren’t feeling well.”

  “I’m fine. Tracy Lynn’s just a nag.”

  Donetta moved around to the sink, rinsed her application bottle, washed out the bleach bowl and threw away her used foils. When she didn’t hear Tracy Lynn speaking to anyone, she glanced toward the door.

  Lincoln Slade stood on the threshold, a large shipping box in his hands, his dark brown hat cocked slightly and tipped low on his brow. He was staring at Tracy, mute, and she was staring back.

  A sense of dread washed over her for no reason. Her mind immediately jumped to Storm. The salon. Power tools and injuries.

  “Linc?” She was at the door in two seconds. “Is everything okay?”

  He tipped his head in greeting. “Mighty fine. UPS dropped off this box for you. Thought you might need it.”

  She let out a relieved breath and glanced at the shipping label. “My product order from the beauty supply. Thank you. You didn’t have to drive out here, though. Storm could have brought it with him. It’s about time for him to get home, anyway, isn’t it?”

  Linc shrugged. “Package came a few minutes after he left. He was over at the sheriff’s office bird-dogging his deputies—somebody ought to teach the man what vacation means.”

  Anna laughed. “Well, if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black. I agree with you, of course, but you, young man, are even worse than my son.”

  “Seems I recall you putting in some late nights at the café, Mrs. C.”

  Donetta laughed. “Come on in, Linc. You’re not going to win that argument, so don’t even try. Just set the box over there in the corner.”

  Linc followed her instructions, looked around the kitchen, nodding slightly, a half smile flirting with his lips. “You always were a resourceful woman, Donetta. I’m sure that’s one of the qualities Storm appreciates about you.”

  Donetta’s stomach lurched. Did he know about her and Storm? No. Even if Sunny had told Jack, neither one of them would have let the news go any further—even to Jack’s brother. She had to calm down. Keeping a lid on this news until Grammy came home was going to be difficult. But she didn’t want to tell Grammy over the phone, and she didn’t want someone else blabbing the minute her grandmother stepped foot back in town.

  “Do you think he’ll mind that I rearranged the furniture?” she asked, tongue-in-cheek.

  Linc ambled toward the door, glancing out the window. “Guess you’ll find out in a minute. Looks like he just pulled up.” He paused when he got to Tracy Lynn. Reaching out, he gave Sneak’s ears a scratch, then winked and glanced toward the door that had just swung open.

  Storm walked into his kitchen and stopped dead, feeling like a trespasser in his own house. Man alive. Boxes of hair dye were stacked on his countertop, the kitchen table was doubling as a recliner in front of the sink and the chairs to the dining set were lined against the wall. The air smelled of hairspray, perfume and his mother’s chicken casserole.

  He frowned, and his gaze went directly to Donetta’s.

  “Did you move that table by yourself?” He hadn’t meant to snap.

  He saw her eyes dart down to Katherine, then back up. Okay, fine. They were going to have to discuss this. He wasn’t used to worrying over who he could say what in front of. Still, she was in no condition to move heavy furniture.

  “Of course she didn’t,” Anna answered for her. “And do you always greet your houseguests with questions before you even say hello?”

  He felt his lips twitch when Donetta batted her eyelashes at him irreverently. He’d known from the start she would always have more people on her side than he would—the majority of them his family and friends. Hell, even Roy had been charmed with her, and that had merely been from a description over the phone.

  “Sorry, Mama. Hey, Donetta, Katherine, Tracy Lynn, Linc…Sneak and Dixie,” he added, just to tease his mother. She whacked him with a dish towel.

  “I’ve delivered the supplies,” Linc said. “So I’ll be on my way.”

  “Same here,” Kat said, standing. “Just let me run down the hall to the ladies’ room.”

  “Tracy, we ought to be on our way, too,” Anna said. “You know Tori will want to go early.”

  “Well,” Donetta commented, looking at Storm, “it’s a good thing I was finished with Kat’s hair. You sure know how to clear a room fast.”

  “Wasn’t my fault. It was Mama fussing at me. Everybody’s afraid it’ll be their turn for a scolding next.”

  “Already had mine,
” Linc said.

  “My condolences, man.” He tried to keep his expression solemn, but he had an idea his eyes gave him away. “And, Mama, where are you taking Tori on a school night?”

  “To the picture show, if it’s any of your concern. And it’s not a school night. Tomorrow’s a free day because of a teachers’ meeting and—”

  The sound of Katherine’s scream rang through the house.

  Storm was out of the kitchen in a flash, Dixie at his side, Linc only a pace behind them. In the foyer, Katherine nearly slammed into his chest, her face as pale as a bleached sheet. In a single move, he steadied her and passed her to Linc. Heart pounding, he searched for the source of danger, hooking his hand in Dixie’s collar until he was sure she would stay.

  Katherine gave a nervous laugh. “Something fell out of the closet when I was reaching for my coat. I’m sorry. It was probably nothing. I couldn’t find a light switch, and…gosh, I’m embarrassed. I was afraid to look.”

  The coat closet was open slightly, the foyer cloaked in the shadows of dusk. A black trash bag spilled out, along with a towel and the edge of a furry blanket. Storm didn’t recognize any of it as belonging to him. He moved closer.

  “Sorry,” Donetta said. “I crammed a bunch of stuff in there when Pandora and Sneak played hide-the-panties with my things. It’s a wonder you weren’t buried by the avalanche, Kat.” She started to pass by him.

  Storm flung out his arm, stopping her. “Just in case the avalanche isn’t finished—Linc, why don’t you take the women back in the kitchen.”

  Linc complied and Katherine, Anna and Tracy Lynn went willingly. Donetta stood her ground, looking at him as if he were some kind of a nut.

  “I’m cautious, okay?” he said in his own defense. Damn it, he’d stopped at headquarters to retrieve the package Roy had sent and hadn’t kept up his end of the surveillance on Judd Quentin. “At least let me and Dixie go first.”

  The second Dixie heard her name, she charged forward and nosed open the door, then quickly backed out, growling and shaking her head fiercely.

  His heart jumped right up into his throat and he swore. Swiftly, he hooked his arm around Donetta’s waist and shoved her behind him.

  In her mouth, Dixie held the decapitated head of a woman.

  “Oh, no, Dixie.” Donetta slipped past him before he could catch her.

  “Donetta, stop.” His voice cracked out like a whip. He wasn’t certain how Dixie would react. On the job, a dog’s adrenaline flowed the same as any other officer’s.

  Trying not to look at the blond hair spilling over his wood floor from a bodiless head, he put himself between Donetta and the dog, his mind running through a list of procedures. Thank God the other women weren’t present.

  “Dixie hasn’t been tested in a situation like this since she retired. At least not with me.”

  “A situation…?” Donetta frowned when he continued to hold her back. “What is the matter with you?” Then she looked from the dog holding a woman’s head by the hair and back to him.

  She chewed on her bottom lip. “Um…I guess I shouldn’t have put Gloria in the closet.”

  “Gloria?” He jolted when Dixie trotted up and placed the decapitated head right into Donetta’s outstretched hands. She lifted it and turned the open, lifeless eyes toward him.

  “Gloria,” she announced. “Goddess Gloria—the glamour girl of beauty school.”

  Storm reached over and slammed his palm against the light switch. Donetta was grinning like a loon, holding a heavily made-up mannequin’s head, its stringy blond hair falling over her arms. Even in the light it looked like something from a gory crime scene. He felt like a fool.

  “What the hell is that doing in my closet?”

  “I don’t know. You packed it. When you were snatching stuff at my apartment, you must have scooped up a pile of towels and blankets and got Gloria, too.”

  He shook his head, ran his hand over his face, then started to chuckle. His personal life, he realized, had been so dull without Donetta in it.

  “Let me see her.” He plucked the pitiful thing out of her hands. “Come on.”

  “Storm! Don’t you dare go in there and scare Katherine again.”

  DONETTA RINSED THE SPONGE and barely got the water squeezed out before Storm hooked it from her like the NBA’s Michael Finley making a steal.

  “Hey! I was using that.”

  “You’re going to scrub the shine right off the countertop,” he said.

  Despite the fresh orange scent of the all-purpose cleaner, the kitchen still carried the faint smell of hair dye and the chicken casserole they’d had for supper. “You’re the one who scared the bejabbers out of everybody and made Tracy Lynn knock over my peroxide.”

  He grinned. “Good thing she’s an uptown girl, because she’d never survive out on a ranch with bugs and snakes and smelly animals. It doesn’t take much to upset her sensibilities. Did you see how she climbed right up Linc’s body?”

  “I saw. And you’ve got no room to talk, Sheriff. You nearly peed in your pants when Dixie got ahold of Gloria.”

  He stepped closer, his chest nearly touching hers. “I might toss my cookies, darlin’, but I assure you, I don’t pee my pants.” He brushed his thumb across her cheek. “I have something for you.”

  She could barely get her tongue unstuck from the roof of her mouth. When his eyes went all soft that way and his lazy baritone deepened, it just made her go stupid. “A—a healthy constitution, I hope?”

  “Maybe.” He set down the sponge and removed two stretchy wristbands from the boxes he’d laid on the countertop. “Roy mailed these acupressure bracelets. Normally, they’re for motion sickness. But they’re supposed to work on pregnancy sickness, as well. Marnie, Roy’s wife, had good luck with them.”

  “I thought you used hypnotism on her.”

  “I did—after she got tired of smearing paint on the bands. She’s an artist.” He turned her hand over, gently held it in his palm, then placed three fingers over her wrist—right where her pulse was beating wildly, blaring her body’s response to his nearness.

  Donetta stared at the top of his head. Mere inches away, she could easily lean forward and rest her cheek there.

  He glanced up at her, then carefully slid the elastic band onto her wrist as though it were a precious diamond bracelet. Emotion swamped her as he picked up her other hand and gently repeated the procedure, positioning the elastic so the small bead settled at the pressure point on the inside of her wrist. The drab gray color of the bands didn’t do much for her skin tone, but if they worked, who cared?

  “Maybe I’ll start a new fashion trend.” She could hardly draw a decent breath when he looked at her with such utter tenderness.

  He brought her knuckles to his lips and kissed them, his gaze holding hers. “Maybe. I just want you to feel better.”

  She was incredibly moved by his concern, his gentleness, the quiet sincerity in his voice. He made her want. Desperately.

  And she realized she was about to break her own rule about keeping their friendship simple.

  She leaned into him, her mouth a breath from his. “Thank you.”

  She wasn’t sure which one of them closed the final distance, but the instant their lips touched, her intended kiss of gratitude shot from platonic to erotic, all decorum abandoned.

  Her entire body came alive. She tugged her hands from his, wound them around his neck and lost herself in the warmth of his lips, the sketch of his tongue, the utter skill he brought to a single kiss. She’d started it, but he’d taken over, and she was happy to let him, reveling in the press of his aroused body against her hips.

  The pressure of his mouth eased, and he stepped back, leaving her dazed.

  “Time’s not moving any slower, darlin’. We need to get married.”

  It took a moment for her mind to snap back to coherency. When it did, she couldn’t quite believe her ears.

  “Time’s not moving any slower?” she parroted. “If
that’s been your approach to marriage proposals, no wonder you’re still a bachelor.”

  “You want romance? I can give you that, Donetta.” She shook her head. “You know how I feel about marriage.”

  “We’re having a baby, in case you forgot.”

  “That doesn’t equate to marriage.” She sighed. “It’s not going to happen, Storm. Don’t make it any more difficult.”

  “Why does everything have to be your way?” he asked.

  “Because I have more at stake.”

  His jaw went slack. “That’s my baby, too.”

  “I’m not denying that, or suggesting you’ll have limited access to your child. All I’m saying is that I don’t come with the package. You’re concerned about your rights with the baby, and that’s not an issue. You don’t have to take me to have your child.”

  “So, you’ll hand over physical custody to me?” His quiet taunt held a suggestion of menace.

  She gasped, clenched her fists. “No. And don’t even try to pull that crap with me, Storm. I’m providing shelter, nourishment and all the baby’s needs these first nine months. I’m heaving up my toenails ten times a day. I’m turning into a raving, crying, hormonal lunatic—”

  “Donetta—”

  “Now, if you think you can lie in a room full of strangers with your feet up in stirrups and squeeze out a seven-or eight-pound baby through your penis, maybe we’d have something to talk about! If you could then place that child at your breast and provide life-sustaining food, well…well it would be downright petty for me to put up such a fuss, wouldn’t it?”

  He put his hands on her shoulders, bent his knees slightly and looked straight into her eyes. “I apologize. That was a stupid thing for me to say. I’d never fight you for custody. I just lashed out without thinking.”

  “Yes. That sort of thing tends to happen in the heat of anger, doesn’t it?” She immediately held up her hand before he could speak.

  “Now it’s my turn to say I’m sorry.” She sighed, closed her eyes. “Let’s don’t do this, Storm.”

  He stroked the back of her hand, ran his fingers feather-light up her arm, then caressed her cheek. “I don’t want to fight with you, either. Can I ask you a touchy question?”