Safe in the Lawman's Arms

by Patricia Johns

  “So this is what it’s like to get somewhere with a child, huh?” Mike asked with a chuckle.

  “Afraid so,” she agreed. “I really hope I don’t miss my appointment. It was a miracle to get slotted in so quickly as it was.”

  “I could always slap a siren on the roof, if you need me to.”

  Malory smiled. She wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, but if pressed, she might take him up on that. She glanced out the window at the looping power lines that stretched alongside the road over the flat open plains. Everything looked so small out here in Montana—tiny roads spiderwebbing across vast green stretches. Everyone drove a truck, but even the large vehicles were dwarfed by the landscape. Land rolled on as far as the eye could see, and the sky domed over it, even bigger than that endless land. Green wheat rippled across the fields, cradled by lopsided barbed-wire fences. The dark shadows of clouds moved over the fields, the great mounds of cumulous cotton sailing across the blue sky faster than seemed possible.

  Katy clunked a toy against her car seat. The exit ramp brought them into the town of Rickton, and the GPS on the dash gave them polite verbal directions toward the clinic. Rickton looked like any other town in this county, just bigger. They had a few chain restaurants, a good-sized hotel and a small shopping mall. Malory glanced at her watch and inwardly groaned. They were already fifteen minutes late.

  The clinic was located in a strip mall between a flower shop and a used bookstore, and the parking lot was surprisingly busy for this time of day. Rickton seemed to be a bustling little metropolis compared to the sleepy town of Hope.

  Parking the truck, Mike turned off the engine. “I’ll take care of Katy. You just go on in.”

  “No!” Katy hollered from the back. “I want Nanny Mal!”

  “It’ll be quicker if we all go in together,” Malory said, making a snap decision. “Okay, Katy. Uncle Mike will unbuckle you, and you’ll come in with me, okay?”

  Fighting a three-year-old tended to take more time than it was worth when out in public. She pushed open her door and eased down to the pavement. Her center of gravity was ever changing, it seemed. By the time she had herself safely on the ground, Katy came running around the truck and grabbed her hand.

  Mike put a hand on the small of her back, but he kept scanning the parking lot as they walked. He still wasn’t at ease, but having him there with her did make her feel safer. No one was getting past Mike Cruise in one piece, that was for sure. She glanced around, wondering if she should be worried. How would she even know? This was the first criminal ring she’d ever been tossed into the middle of.

  Mike pulled open the front door to the clinic, and Malory and Katy stepped inside in front of him. The waiting room was packed. Several pregnant women sat in one corner, small children playing with some plastic toys at their feet. A teenage girl sat next to them, looking generally unimpressed with everything around her. A few older men read magazines, and one of them looked up as Malory and Mike entered, then dropped his attention back down to his copy of Women’s Housekeeping. As Malory approached the front desk, a scrubs-clad receptionist gave her an absent smile.

  “Good morning.”

  “Hi, I’m Malory Smythe. I have an appointment, but I’m a little late. I’m sorry.”

  “Miss Smythe.” The woman looked at her computer screen. “We’re shorthanded today, so we’re backed up. If you hurry, we can get you into a room and you won’t miss your appointment.”

  “Oh, thank you!” Malory heaved a sigh of relief. “I really appreciate it.”

  “Well, children do make things more complicated, don’t they?” She beamed at Katy and picked up a clipboard with a pen attached. “How old is she?”

  “She’s three.”

  “Such a great age.” She came around the front of the counter. “So just come along with me. Dad, I’m going to need you, too.”

  The receptionist grabbed Mike by the arm and hustled them down a pink hallway interspersed with pale green doors. Katy jogged along next to Malory to keep up, her little shoes padding on the carpet. Every time Malory opened her mouth to set the receptionist straight about Mike, someone would come out a door, clipboard in hand, and they’d all get squeezed to the side.

  The receptionist opened a door at the end of the hallway into a dim room and gestured them inside. The room was surprisingly large. An armchair was on one side of the room with a few magazines on its seat. Across from it, a raised bed covered in a sheet of white paper loomed next to a clunky-looking computer atop a metal cart.

  “Actually—” Malory began.

  “Now just get comfortable,” the woman said briskly. “Dad, I’m glad you came along. I need you to help her up onto the bed. Here is a sheet. We need a bare tummy. The technologist will be here in a moment. Also, fill out this, would you?”

  She thrust the clipboard into his hands, and with that, she shut the door firmly behind her, leaving them in uncomfortable silence.

  So much for privacy.

  * * *

  MIKE LOOKED DOWN at the clipboard, then back to Malory. This had not exactly been the plan, but that receptionist had caught him by surprise, and he hadn’t wanted to slow down her momentum and ruin Malory’s chances of getting her ultrasound. Now he found himself in the awkward position of being assumed the father of her baby.

  He handed her the clipboard. “You probably want that.”

  “Thanks.” She sighed. “Well, if you could take Katy to the waiting room, obviously I’m safe enough in here.”

  Mike had to agree. His bodyguard services weren’t exactly needed, and he bent down to Katy’s level.

  “Okay, kiddo,” he said quietly. “Let’s give Nanny Mal some privacy.”

  “What?” Katy’s little face screwed up. “What’s that?”

  “That means we let her have some time to herself,” he said. “Come with me and we’ll go back to the waiting room. I saw some toys in there. I’ll bet you could play with them.”

  Katy shook her head. “No. Don’t wanna.”

  Mike sighed. This wasn’t going to be the easy way, obviously, and he had visions of carrying a howling child back out to the waiting room.

  “Come on.”

  “No!” Katy sidled up to Malory. “I want Nanny Mal.”

  Mike groaned inwardly and cast Malory an inquiring look. She was the expert here—how was he supposed to handle this? Malory, however, wasn’t paying attention to his plight. Instead, she was rising up onto tiptoe and leaning back against the high bed.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  Malory stopped, color in her cheeks. “Nothing.”

  “Okay, so what do I do with Katy?”

  Malory looked from Mike to Katy and back to Mike again. “Before you go, could you help me up?”

  “Really?” Mike gave her a teasing grin. “Are you admitting you need a hand with something?”

  “Oh, hush it and give me a boost,” she retorted, but there was a flicker of amusement in her eyes.

  Katy skipped over to the armchair and crawled up onto the seat, perfectly happy to stay with her nanny for the time being. Mike set the sheet and the clipboard on the end of the long bed. He was unsure how to lift a pregnant woman. Was he supposed to hold her waist, or would that hurt the baby? With a pregnant woman, all of her seemed somehow sacred and private, and he looked at her uncertainly.

  “How is this done?” he asked.

  “I have no idea,” she admitted.

  “Okay, I’m just going to lift you.” He bent, put one hand under her knees and scooped her up into his arms. She wasn’t heavy, and she let out a squeak. No other woman had felt like this in his arms. She was petite, her brown eyes wide with surprise. He caught her gaze, a smile tickling his lips. Then he gently laid her on the bed.

  “That seemed like overkill,” she said, gasping.

  “I got you up there, didn’t I?” he pointed out. “I’m nothing if not efficient.”

  The door opened and a young man came in, dressed i
n pale green scrubs. He smiled at them cordially. He was slender and blond, dark-framed glasses giving him a poetic look.

  “Good morning.” He dug around in a pocket and came up with a sticker, handing it to Katy. “I’m sorry about all the rush, but we’ve had one of those days so far. We’re down two techs.” He sat down at the computer and pointed to the abandoned clipboard.

  “Sir, if you could just get started on this, and I’ll get started with Mom over here.” He lifted Malory’s shirt delicately over her milky-white belly and Mike looked away, mildly embarrassed. When he glanced in her direction again, she wasn’t looking at him—she was watching the tech squeeze a coil of blue gel onto her abdomen.

  Katy was quietly playing with the sticker over on the chair, and for a lack of anything better to do, he looked down at the clipboard. He couldn’t possibly fill out her information for her. Except for her name. He knew that much, and he wrote it in.

  “So let’s get started,” the technician said. “I’m just going to take a few measurements, and then we can let you two get a look at your baby.”

  Instead of the deep annoyance he expected to read on her features, she was trying to control a laugh. Apparently, she’d decided not to correct him.

  “Should I—?” Mike jabbed a thumb toward the door.

  “No.” She chuckled. “Besides, I think we both know what Katy will do if you try and take her out.”

  He nodded in agreement, loath to take that on at the moment.

  “Okay,” the technician said, his tone soft and soothing. “If you just want to come in a bit closer, Dad, we’ll give you a look at this baby.”

  Malory gave him a helpless shrug, then patted the bed beside her. Mike hesitated.

  “Ticktock, Dad,” the young man said. “We don’t have much time, so let’s make the most of it.”

  Mike sat, and the young man began to move the sensor over Malory’s abdomen.

  “Looks like baby did some moving,” the technician said cheerfully. “Let’s find this little one again—” After a second, he stopped. “And here we have the head...”

  Mike couldn’t make out much on the monitor at first, but he caught Malory’s deep inhale as she looked at her baby’s face for the first time. Her eyes grew misty, and he could see the love shining deep within them. She didn’t even seem to remember that Mike was there as she watched the screen, the technician’s voice guiding her.

  “Here we have a hand—you can see the bones. It looks like a wave. Hi, Mom!”

  Mike stayed silent as Malory watched. Her chest rose and fell with deep, quiet breaths, and he was struck anew with her beauty. Long lashes brushed her cheeks with each blink, and her lips parted in anticipation as the sensor moved once more, in search of tiny toes. She brushed a wisp of hair off her forehead, and her gaze flickered toward Mike.

  “Isn’t this amazing?” she murmured.

  “Definitely.” He couldn’t tear his eyes from her. Her creamy skin, the scattered freckles across her nose, the love that burned deep in those expressive, soft eyes—she was amazing.

  “And now is the million-dollar question.” The technician turned. “Do you two want to know the gender?”

  “Yes!” Malory said quickly.

  “You, too, Dad?” The technician turned toward him, eyebrows raised.

  “Yeah, me, too.”

  Malory cast him an amused smile. He hadn’t meant to mislead anyone, but time was short, and he didn’t want Malory to lose a single second of seeing her baby. The technician nodded and set to work once more.

  “I wanted to show you...” he murmured. “Oh, this baby just decided to scoot around again. Let’s see...”

  Malory reached over and took his hand, and he squeezed her fingers in return. He could feel her surge of nervousness. Mike found himself holding his breath as he waited for the announcement. He knew that Malory’s baby would have nothing to do with him, but he wanted for Malory to have the reassurance she needed—for the technician to announce a baby girl.

  “And there it is.” He beamed over at them. “Do you see?”

  Mike did see—and the proof of sex was unmistakable.

  “A boy...” Malory whispered.

  “Congratulations.” The technician looked between them with a smile. “You’re having a boy.”

  Malory was blinking back tears and nodded slowly. She seemed to have forgotten her hand in his, and he ran his thumb over her smooth flesh, hoping that he might be able to send her some of his strength.

  “I was expecting a girl,” she admitted.

  “It’s common,” the technician assured her. “You have a 50 percent chance of getting it right, and getting it wrong. But you’re having a little boy, and he looks very active.”

  “Thank you.” Malory nodded quickly. “A little boy is wonderful.”

  The technician took the sensor off her stomach and passed her a white towel. “I’ll let you clean up the gel, and you can let yourselves out. If you’d like a screenshot from your session today, you can pay for it at reception. Congratulations, again.”

  The technician stopped to give Katy another sticker for being so good and closed the door behind him as he left the room. Mike looked at Malory, waiting for her to break the silence as she wiped the gel off her skin. She was about to pull her shirt back down to cover her belly when he took the towel from her. Silently, he wiped the last bit of gel that she couldn’t see, then tossed the towel to the side.

  “Thanks,” she said softly, tugging the fabric down once more. She sat up and swung her legs over the side.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I’ll just have to adjust my expectations, I guess. I’m fine.”

  But her eyes told a different story.

  Chapter Eleven

  A boy. Malory sat in the truck, rolling this information around in her mind. She was having a boy. So this little bundle of flutters and hunger wouldn’t be a Sadie or a Sophie. She’d have to rethink names.

  “You sure you’re okay?” Mike asked for the third time, and she sighed.

  “I’m fine. It’s just an adjustment.”

  “You really wanted a girl, huh?”

  “I just don’t know where I’d even start with a boy,” she admitted.

  “I think they both start the same way,” Mike chuckled. “It’s all pretty much diapers and milk.”

  “Funny,” she said wryly. “But boys are different. They have different challenges. It’s not about boyfriends pressuring them or mean girls. It’s about looking tougher than you feel and standing up to the bully. It’s a whole different ball game.”

  As soon as she’d discovered the sex of her baby, she’d had to change how to think about her unborn child. Instead of a sweet little girl rolling about inside, she had an adorable boy. And while her love for her baby was exactly the same, it was different to think about a boy than a girl. His life would look different. His toys, his friends, the games she would play with him. The realization left her slightly guilty. She’d been looking forward to tea parties and girl talks.

  “You’re going to need more help than you thought,” Mike said, his voice low and hardly discernible past the rumble of the truck’s engine.

  His comment was spot-on, and that annoyed Malory more than it reassured her. He was right; she’d need more help than she’d thought. She’d need good men in her son’s life to show him how it was done. She’d need advice when he was old enough to like girls and needed “the talk.”

  “Not everyone has an ideal situation,” Malory finally said.

  “I get that.” He shot her an unfathomable look. “But I need help with Katy, too.”

  “That’s different.”

  “Is it? Maybe a woman would have taken everything in stride, but I couldn’t just drop my job, and figuring out how to care for a preschooler wasn’t second nature to me. I needed help, and I did the only thing I could think of.”

  “Hired a nanny?”

  “Pretty much.”

  M
alory’s stomach sank. She’d been so preoccupied with her own pregnancy that she’d forgotten that Mike had been thrust into parenthood, too—just three years later.

  “There’s nothing wrong with accepting help.” She sighed. “I didn’t mean this as a judgment on you.”

  “If it’s so terrible to accept help for you, why not for me?” he countered. “What’s the difference?”

  “You’re a man. How could you be expected to simply jump into raising a little girl and know how it’s done?”

  “Is it any different for a woman raising a boy?”

  “It’s supposed to be,” she replied, then shrugged.

  No one really expected a man to take to parenting instinctively, but they certainly expected a woman to be able to fill the role at a moment’s notice. When a man was alone with a child, the entire community wanted to give him a hand. Men and babies—even men and toddlers—were pitied. Women, on the other hand, were supposed to have all the tools necessary to parent, and if she had to be utterly truthful with herself, raising a boy on her own scared her a lot.

  “I’ll figure it out,” she added. “And I’ll be fine.”

  The last part was for her. If she said it often enough, she’d believe it, and believing it was half the battle.

  Katy fell asleep as they drove into Hope, and Mike and Malory remained silent, sealed away in their own thoughts. She sensed that she’d somehow disappointed him. He wanted her to need a man around. Some help sometimes? Maybe. Some advice when she was out of her depth? Perhaps. But the important things like security, stability and a safe home, she could make on her own without leaning on a man.

  Mike pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine. He glanced into the backseat at the sleeping Katy.

  “I’ll carry her in,” he said.

  “I can manage,” she replied.

  “I want to.” There was finality in his tone, and Malory didn’t protest. It was a good sign that he was showing warmth toward the girl, but she couldn’t help but wonder if he felt as if he had something to prove to her, too—that he could do this without her help.

  She slid out of the truck and met Mike on the other side, Katy draped over his shoulder. Her little arms hung limply down, her blond curls tousled. Her feet dangled down over Mike’s chest, miniature sandals turned in at the toes, and she sighed softly in her sleep.