BLAME IT ON BABIES

by Kristine Rolofson

  "He gets all the women." The deputy moved out of the way and turned to Jess, whose desk was only six feet away. "Don't let him get his hands on the waitress, boss. She'll never be the same."

  "Bobby Calhoun is not dating Lorna." He didn't realize he was gritting his teeth until his jaws began to ache. "I am the only one dating her. In fact," he declared, only half realizing he was thinking out loud, "I'm going to marry her."

  Two pairs of eyes stared at him. Carter's mouth dropped open and Chelsea's eyebrows rose.

  "That was quick," she said. "After one date?"

  "We've known each other a while."

  "Six months?" His secretary ignored his stern look and grinned. "How's that for a brilliant guess?"

  "We were neighbors when we were kids." He didn't want the word to get out that he and Lorna didn't really know each other. When the residents of Beauville discovered he'd married the café's pregnant waitress, he didn't want any gossip behind Lorna's back. He'd let people assume they'd been together for a while now, only waiting to get married until he'd returned from his job in Huntsville. No one need ever know the truth.

  "Geez," Carter breathed. "You're gonna be a father?"

  "Yeah. Why is that so hard to believe?" Jess wished he'd had breakfast. All of a sudden the coffee wasn't settling too well.

  Carter didn't answer, but Chelsea picked up her appointment book. "So, when's the wedding, boss?"

  "We're still discussing that."

  "You shouldn't wait too long," Carter said. "She looks like she's gonna have that kid any day now."

  "April fourth," Jess informed him. "That gives us almost three months. Plenty of time." And, he thought, turning away from their curious stares, he was going to need every day of those months to convince Lorna that getting married was the best thing for the baby. Couldn't she see that they didn't have any other choice?

  * * *

  Lorna's date with the handsome new sheriff was the only topic of conversation during the breakfast rush.

  "No wonder you were so nervous yesterday," Charlie said, setting out her order for table seven. "You were getting ready for your big date."

  "It wasn't a big date."

  Mike Monterro, sitting on his usual corner stool at the counter, sipped his lukewarm coffee and offered his own opinion. "Kinda strange, you going out on dates in your condition, but I guess it's about time you found a husband."

  "I'm not getting married, Mike," Lorna said, and hurried away to deliver eggs, French toast and bacon to her waiting customers.

  "She will," she heard Mike tell Charlie. "A child's got to have a father. Ain't right otherwise."

  "Our new sheriff is a good-looking guy," the cook said. "Maybe he'll talk our Lorna into settling down."

  "Whatever happened to his ex-wife?" someone asked, but Lorna didn't hear the reply. She prayed for patience. She wished her back would stop aching. She wanted to lie down and pretend that she was independently wealthy and could afford to lounge on a king-size bed while a maid brought her tea and sugar cookies. "Here you go," she told the four cowboys as she placed their meals in front of them. "Can I get you anything else?"

  "More coffee?" one of them asked.

  "Sure. I'll be right back with the pot." She waved at Emily, who slid into a booth with her youngest daughter beside her. "Hi. What are you doing out this morning?"

  "We're going to story hour at the library at eleven," Emily explained. "We thought we'd have pancakes here first. Do you have a minute to tell me how your date went?"

  "Just a sec." She grabbed the carafe, refilled the cowboys' coffee mugs and then fixed a mug for Emily. Lorna looked over toward the serving counter and saw that it was empty, so she sat down across from her friend. "For a minute," she said. "It's pretty busy this morning."

  "The sheriff brought you roses. I saw him run out to his rig and get them. Why didn't you tell me you were going out with Jess Sheridan?"

  "You know him?"

  "He lived outside of town when he was a deputy, Lorna. Everyone knows him. So, how was the date?"

  Lorna sighed. It felt so dam good to sit down for a minute. "It had its ups and downs."

  "He noticed the pregnancy, of course."

  "And he never said a word." Not until dawn. And then the words he'd spoken were not the ones she'd wanted to hear. I'm willing to do my duty to you and the child.

  "That's amazing."

  "You don't know the half of it."

  "Lorna! Order's up!"

  She glanced over at the counter. "I've got to go. I'll take your order first." She smiled at Elly. "Blueberry pancakes and chocolate milk?"

  "Yes, please." The toddler grinned up at her. "I love pancakes."

  "And I'll have blueberry pancakes, too. Without the chocolate milk," Emily said. "Join us again if you have a second, okay? I want to hear everything."

  And so did everyone else in the café that morning, Lorna thought later on, in the lull before the lunch rush began. She hadn't had time to talk to Emily again, except to tell her she'd call when she got home from work. The lunch crowd kept her busy. Somehow two of her regular lunch customers knew about the roses. Someone else had seen her with the sheriff at the Steak Barn. Almost everyone wanted to know what was going on, but Lorna just smiled and said things like, "We're old friends," and "I had a real nice time."

  She couldn't believe it was of that much interest to so many people. Even Chelsea, the interesting-looking secretary from Jess's office, winked at her when she came in to pick up the office order.

  "He's cranky today," the girl whispered. "What'd you do to him?"

  "Not a darn thing," Lorna replied, handing her a large brown paper bag filled with sandwiches, potato chips and dessert. She punched the numbers on the cash register and took the money Chelsea handed her.

  Charlie waved to Chelsea. Lorna knew they were related somehow, but she'd never understood the complicated connection. "Did you hear Lorna had a date?" he called.

  "I sure did." Chelsea leaned across the counter and lowered her voice so that only Lorna could hear. "He called me at four this morning to ask me when your baby was due. So I guess you two have known each other a long time, huh?"

  "That's right." The doorbell jangled and, out of habit, Lorna glanced toward the door. Jess entered, his gaze directly on her as he approached the counter where she stood behind the cash register.

  "Hi, honey," he said, loud enough for anyone within ten feet to hear. And he smiled, but he didn't look as if he really meant it.

  "Hi, Sheriff," Lorna managed, and gave Chelsea her change.

  "She called him 'sheriff'," someone said. "Ain't that cute."

  Chelsea winked at her and moved out of her boss's way. "I ordered your lunch," she told him, lifting the bag.

  "Save it for me 'til later, will you?" he said. "I'll be back at the office in a while." Then Jess turned to Lorna. "I'm taking a ride out to a ranch south of here. Want to go with me?"

  "I can't," she said, glad for the excuse. "I'm working."

  "When do you get off?"

  "Two o'clock," she said, conscious of the customers listening to every word. She assumed that was why Jess was inviting her in front of practically everyone in town.

  "Good," he said. "I'll pick you up then."

  "I didn't say yes," she whispered, ignoring Charlie's call that her order was ready. "And I'm really busy here."

  "Can I get a cup of coffee, then?" He slid onto the only empty stool at the counter.

  She poured him coffee and set the mug in front of him without saying anything.

  "Lorna, hon, where do you want to have dinner tonight?"

  "I'm busy." She turned away to retrieve Mr. Monterro's hamburger and fries from the counter and gave it to him, along with a ketchup bottle. Mr. Monterro liked his ketchup.

  "You got a date with someone else tonight?" The elderly man looked shocked. "Missy, you'd better settle down before that baby comes."

  "I didn't say I had a date." Lorna turned to Jess. He look
ed a lot better than he had at five this morning. Now he looked very much like the self-controlled professional, with a neatly pressed tan button-down shirt tucked into khaki pants and a badge on his shirt pocket. "What are you doing here?"

  "Having coffee," he said. "Seeing you. Checking on the baby."

  "The baby is fine," she told him, conscious of Mr. Monterro listening to every word. The man on the other side of Jess, a grizzled rancher, winked at her.

  "Are you sure you don't want to take a ride this afternoon? Get some fresh air? We could stop in and see the Johnsons on the way back, then get something to eat." He gave her an innocent smile, but she wasn't fooled. He was up to something, coming in here and calling her "honey" in front of everyone like that.

  "I have a doctor's appointment at two-thirty." There. That would scare him off.

  He frowned. "Something serious?"

  "No. My monthly checkup."

  "I see." He looked thoughtful. "Is that an invitation?"

  "No." She didn't want him pretending to be interested, pretending to want to be a father. He would see it as just another duty that he needed to fulfill.

  "Then what?"

  "Then I go home and put on an aerobics video."

  Mike leaned closer. "What's that?"

  "A bad joke," she sighed, picking up a cloth to wipe the counter. Jess finished his coffee and she didn't offer to refill it. He stayed at the counter while she delivered food to the tables and booths; it was a busy time of day and would continue like that for another hour or so. Lorna didn't mind. The sheriff would soon have to go arrest someone or whatever it was he did in a sleepy town like Beauville.

  Sure enough, after she returned from delivering seven more lunches, Jess was gone. He'd left a couple of dollars under his empty cup. She told herself she was glad he'd gone on his way. Maybe he'd accepted her refusal to marry him, but somehow Lorna knew he wouldn't give up that easily.

  If only he could give her what she really wanted. A chance at love.

  * * *

  "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do," Jess muttered, facing the building. It was just a building, after all. Two-storied brick on West Cotton Street

  , it shouldn't have looked particularly intimidating, but Jess hesitated before climbing the cement steps to the double doors, the entrance to Beauville's medical building. Next door was a new walk-in clinic, but the town's medical building housed a laboratory, chiropractor, dentists, and assorted physicians. The obstetrician came to town on Wednesdays and Saturdays to see her pregnant patients outside of Marysville, a long hour's drive northeast of town.

  Jess didn't have Saturday nights off usually, but he'd arranged with Carter to take over at ten, which gave the younger man a chance to go out looking for women or something equally exciting to a twenty-four-year-old bachelor. And gave Jess the chance to spend the rest of the day with Lorna. It was going to take some time to convince her that they should get married, for the baby's sake, but she would come around eventually.

  And he hoped soon. Before there was any more talk.

  So Jess found the right office, strode into the waiting room and prepared to do battle with Lorna for the right to accompany her to see the doctor. Several pregnant women stared when he walked in. He went up to the desk and tapped on the Plexiglas window.

  "Yes? Can I help you?" The gray-haired receptionist slid the window open.

  "Yes, ma'am. Lorna Walters had a two-thirty appointment. Is she with the doctor?"

  "Are you an expectant father or are you here in an official capacity?"

  "Expectant father," he whispered.

  Her eyebrows rose as if she didn't believe a word he said. "We haven't seen you in here before."

  "Well, I'm here now and I'd like to talk to the doctor and see my—" Jess stopped, unsure what to call Lorna. "Girlfriend" was juvenile, "wife" was a little premature. "Fiancée," he said, trying out the word. That worked for him and must have worked for the receptionist, because she pointed to a side door.

  "Go in there and the nurse will take you to her."

  "Thanks." He went through the door, recognized the young nurse as someone who used to live with her parents on a ranch near him and Sue, and was led to a closed door. The nurse knocked and then ushered Jess into the examining room, where Lorna lay on a table with her belly exposed.

  He gulped, then met her gaze. "Sorry I'm late, honey." He turned to the doctor, a thirtyish woman with a dark-haired braid down her back and brown eyes that didn't look as if they missed a thing. "I'm Jess Sheridan, the new sheriff and the, uh, future father."

  "The father?" Dr. Bradford glanced toward Lorna, who didn't contradict his statement. She turned back to Jess. "Nice to meet you, Sheriff. I was just telling Lorna that she needs to get more rest. Her blood pressure was a little high, which is something we're going to keep an eye on."

  Jess looked at Lorna, who didn't look too upset that he was there, which was a good sign. "Are you okay?"

  "I'm fine," she assured him.

  The doctor picked up something that looked like a microphone. "We were just about to see how your baby is doing. Watch the monitor and you'll see."

  * * *

  "Is he going to be okay?"

  "He'll be fine," the nurse insisted. "Let him sit here until he isn't dizzy anymore and then have him stand slowly. Take your time and don't try to leave until you're ready," she said, and left them alone in the examining room.

  Lorna perched on the doctor's metal stool and eyed Jess. He was unusually pale. She hadn't seen him horizontal since July. "Are you always this pathetic?"

  "I never used to think so," he muttered, eyes closed. He lay stretched out on the table, pillows under his knees to elevate his legs so that the blood would rush back to his head. "It only happens when I'm around you."

  "It was just an ultrasound," she said, trying not to laugh. "It doesn't hurt me or the baby."

  "I know that. Now."

  "What are you doing here? Besides passing out, I mean." She tried not to like him, she really did. A childhood crush and a one-night stand didn't qualify to really know the man, but she liked him. Had even loved him, or thought she did when she was a silly teenager. And now? Now she wished they could start over, as two adults with no past to complicate things.

  "I'm the father. I thought I should show support."

  Another should. "Your duty," she said.

  "Yeah." He opened his eyes and turned his head toward her. "You are going to marry me, you know."

  "I can't."

  "You have to."

  "But you don't love me," she said, and hoped she didn't sound wistful "A marriage should begin with love and commitment and—"

  "Love doesn't have anything to do with it. I thought I loved my first wife," he said, struggling to sit up. "Look how that ended."

  "How?"

  "She ran off with another man. Said it was love at first sight and she couldn't – wouldn't– live without him." He ran his fingers through his hair and slid off the table to stand on his booted feet. "It was the most ridiculous thing lever heard in my life."

  And, Lorna guessed, the most painful. "You must have loved her very much." He gave her an odd look and shook his head, then tilted sideways. "Are you okay?" She stood to grab his elbow. His shirt felt warm under her fingers, the muscles above his elbow hard to the touch.

  "Yeah." He plucked his Stetson off the counter lined with medical supplies and settled it on his head. "I'll be better next month," he promised. "At least I'll know what's coming up on the TV screen."

  "If you saw that it was a boy, don't tell me," she said.

  "Honey, I saw a baby in there. I sure as hell didn't get a chance to recognize any, uh, special equipment before the room started spinning."

  "Good. I want to be surprised."

  "Honey, you're going to kill me if there are anymore surprises." He took her hand and opened the door. "In the last twenty-four hours, I've had all I can handle."

  "You just need some time to adjust
," she assured him. "And you know you're welcome to be part of the baby's life in whatever way you want."

  He stopped short of leaving the room and glared down at her. "I hate to keep repeating myself, honey, but we're getting married. Just what about that isn't clear to you?"

  "I'm not going to marry someone who has to marry me because I'm pregnant."

  The nurse walked past and smiled at them. "Are you feeling better, Sheriff?"

  "Yes, ma'am. Believe it or not, I do better at crime scenes than with pregnancy."

  "Typical male," the nurse declared. "Now that you're on your feet, take Lorna home and put her to bed."

  "Yes, ma'am, that's exactly what I want to do." He tugged on Lorna's hand and led her down the hall. Lorna didn't argue. Given a choice between riding out to some ranch with Jess or curling up in her bed, she'd pick the bed this afternoon.

  It was too bad Jess wasn't going to be in it with her.

  * * *

  Chapter 7

  «^»

  "Go to bed, Lorna," he said, following her into her house. "Now."

  "Do I look like I'm going to argue with you?" Actually Lorna didn't look like she was going to argue with him at all. Jess just liked telling her to get into bed.

  Not that he was thinking about sex. He needed to redeem himself after the disgraceful fainting incident in the doctor's office. If it ever got out that he'd let a little thing like an ultrasound make him weak in the knees, he'd be laughed out of the county.

  "Not really. I just like bossing you around."

  "You can stop anytime." She even yawned, to prove her point or maybe because she was sleepy, Jess didn't know. "Don't you have to go be a sheriff?"

  "Not until ten o'clock, or unless Carter needs me." He followed her into the bedroom. It looked different, though the bed was in the same place, to the right of the door and across from a set of windows. The white walls looked freshly painted, there was a bright braided rug on the wood floor, and the bed was covered with a multicolored quilt. At least six pillows were piled against the curving metal headboard, giving the bed an inviting look. Jess wouldn't have minded sinking down into it either. The door at the opposite end, he knew, led to the hall and the bathroom.