The Sheriff's Nine-Month Surprise

by Brenda Harlen

She bristled at the irritation in his voice as she plucked napkins from the holder on the counter. “No need to thank me,” she said. “You’re the one who invited your ex-wife to our wedding.”

  “I didn’t invite Trish to our wedding,” he told her.

  “Then why is she here?”

  “Because she has no concept of boundaries.”

  She set the napkins and cutlery on the table, by the plates he’d already put down.

  “I don’t know what else to say,” he admitted. “I know you’re not happy that she’s here, but I’m not sure why it bothers you so much.”

  “Because she’s beautiful,” Katelyn said glumly.

  “Really? That’s it?”

  She glared at him. “No woman ever wants to meet an ex-girlfriend, lover or wife who looks like she walked off the cover of a magazine.”

  “It’s funny that you’d say that.”

  “I’m glad you find this amusing.”

  “Because—” he caught her as she tried to move past him and pulled her into his arms “—Trish told me that no woman, even a happily married new mom, ever wants to discover that she was replaced by a younger and prettier model.”

  “She really said that?”

  “You know I don’t understand the workings of a woman’s mind well enough to make this stuff up.”

  “Apparently I’m shallow enough to let that make me feel a little better,” she acknowledged. “But I’m still not happy she’s here.”

  “Do you want me to tell her not to come to the wedding?”

  “If you do, then she’ll know I was the one who didn’t want her there, and she came all this way to—”

  “Katelyn,” he interrupted gently. “This is our wedding. What anyone else did or wants doesn’t matter if it’s not what you want.”

  She sighed, feeling irrational and unreasonable and generally miserable because nothing about the circumstances of their upcoming marriage were what she would have planned. But of course, none of that was Reid’s fault. Or at least none of it aside from getting her pregnant. “What do you want?”

  “I want you to be happy,” he said, and sounded as if he meant it. “And if that means banning my ex-wife and her new husband from our wedding, I’ll do it.”

  Of course, she didn’t want her soon-to-be-husband’s ex-wife there, but how was she supposed to admit that to him?

  “Did you go to her second wedding?” she asked instead.

  He nodded. “In the interest of full disclosure, I walked Trish down the aisle when she married Jonah.”

  “Whose idea was that?”

  “Not mine,” Reid assured her. “I thought the request was a little odd but, in the absence of her dad, I didn’t see how I could say no.”

  “What did her new husband think about that?”

  “He had no objections. It didn’t take him long to realize that me and Trish are more like brother and sister than ex-spouses—and of course he knew the truth about why we got married.”

  “Because her dad wanted you to take care of her.”

  He nodded.

  “And now you’re marrying me because I’m pregnant.”

  He didn’t deny it. If the condom hadn’t failed, they might have gone out on a few dates, and maybe those dates might have led to a relationship, but there was no way they’d be planning to marry only two months after he’d moved to Haven.

  “Is there a point?” he asked.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t do this.”

  “Really? Two days before the wedding, you’ve suddenly got cold feet?”

  “It’s not sudden,” she said. “You know I’ve had reservations about this from the beginning.”

  “But we both agreed that getting married is what’s best for the baby.”

  She nodded. “You’re right. But this is the second time you’re getting married for the wrong reasons.”

  “Giving our baby a family isn’t a wrong reason.”

  “You probably didn’t think you were marrying Trish for the wrong reason, either, but look how that turned out.”

  “There are zero similarities between my relationship with Trish and my relationship with you,” he told her.

  “So why won’t you tell me why you split up?”

  “I really wish you’d let this go, Katelyn.”

  “I don’t think I can.”

  He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Trish and I split up because she wanted a baby...and I didn’t.”

  “Oh.” Kate now wished she hadn’t pushed so hard for an answer to her question.

  He lifted his gaze to meet hers again. “Obviously, our situation is completely different.”

  “How can you say that when you just admitted you didn’t want to be a father?” she wondered.

  “Because it is different,” he insisted. “Trish and I were talking about the possibility of having a child. The baby you’re carrying—our baby—is real.”

  “Putting aside that nebulous distinction for now, why didn’t you want a child?”

  “Because I didn’t want to screw up my child the way my parents screwed me up,” he confided.

  “And now those fears have miraculously disappeared?” she asked dubiously.

  “Of course not,” he said. “I’m still terrified that I’m going to do something—or a thousand things—wrong. But over the past few weeks, I’ve started to trust that we can figure it out together.”

  “I don’t want to do this without you,” she admitted.

  “You don’t have to,” he promised. “I’m not going into this reluctantly or begrudgingly. I want to be your husband and our baby’s father. I want to go to sleep beside you at night and wake up next to you in the morning. I want to argue with you about whose turn it is to get up with a screaming baby in the middle of the night. I want to share each and every one of our baby’s milestones—the good, the bad and the cranky—with you.”

  “Even if the cranky part is mine?”

  He smiled and touched his lips to hers. “Even if the cranky part is yours.”

  * * *

  One of the difficulties of a midweek ceremony, Kate discovered, was trying to juggle her professional obligations with the final wedding preparations as the days and hours counted down. She was scheduled to meet her attendants—Sky and Emerson—at the spa Tuesday afternoon, but she spent the morning in the office, catching up on some paperwork.

  Just before eleven o’clock, Beth poked her head into Kate’s office. “Do you have time for a walk-in?”

  “Who’s the client?”

  “A Mrs. Stilton. She didn’t say what it was regarding, only that it was important she talk to you today.”

  “Okay,” Kate agreed. She clicked the mouse to save the memorandum she’d been working on, then stood up to greet the client Beth escorted to her office.

  The ready smile on her face froze when she recognized Mrs. Stilton as her fiancé’s ex-wife.

  “Reid didn’t tell me your last name.”

  “I was counting on that to get me in the door,” Trish admitted.

  “Then you’re not here for legal advice?” she guessed.

  The other woman shook her head. “No, I wanted to talk to you, woman-to-woman, and this was the only way I could think to make it happen without Reid running interference.”

  “What did you want to talk about?”

  “I wanted to know if you’re uncomfortable with the idea of me being at your wedding,” Trish said.

  “I’m not sure how I feel,” Kate admitted.

  “I get why it might seem strange to you that we came all the way from Texas for the wedding. And, truthfully, my husband warned me that we might not be welcome.”

  “I was just...surprised...when I saw you in his office,” Kate said. “And I did wonder why he didn’t tell me you were coming.�
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  “He claims he didn’t know,” Trish said, confirming what Reid had told Kate. “But he should have known that I’d be on a plane as soon as I heard, because I’m the only family he has.

  “And yes, I know that we’re not technically family anymore,” she continued. “But the connection to my dad created a bond between us. When Reid asked me to marry him, I was under no illusions about his feelings for me. My dad was dying and Reid married me so he wouldn’t worry about me being alone.

  “Not that I’m not capable of taking care of myself,” Trish hastened to clarify. “But my dad was overprotective, and the local sheriff, to boot.”

  “Believe me, I understand about overprotective parents,” Kate said, with a slightly exasperated smile.

  “Good, because Reid will probably be even worse when he’s a father.”

  “He told you...about the baby?”

  “He didn’t need to tell me,” the other woman said. “I’ve known him too long to believe that he’d jump into another marriage without good reason, and in his mind, there’s no better reason than to give a baby a family.”

  Kate nodded, acknowledging the fact.

  “And since we’re sharing secrets, I’ll admit that I had mixed feelings about your pregnancy at first,” Trish confided.

  “Reid told me why you split up,” Kate said.

  “So you know I wanted to have a baby and he...had some reservations?”

  “He said that he didn’t ever want to be a father,” Kate clarified.

  “He’s nothing if not honest,” Trish mused. “Sometimes painfully so.”

  “And yet he’s the one who pushed for this wedding.”

  “Because he’s also honorable and loyal—and he wouldn’t ever want his child to grow up feeling unwanted.”

  “Like he did,” she realized.

  Trish nodded. “When Reid confirmed your pregnancy, I had a moment—it was brief, but still a moment,” she confessed, “when I wondered why, if he had to get someone pregnant, it couldn’t have been me.”

  Kate decided that was a reasonable reaction for a woman whose husband hadn’t wanted to give her a child.

  “But after I had some time to think about it more rationally,” the other woman continued, “I realized that Reid and I having a baby together would’ve been a mistake.

  “Maybe we would’ve stayed together and made our marriage work—he’s too loyal and stubborn to believe otherwise—but then I would never have met and fallen in love with Jonah, who really is the love of my life. And Reid would never have met you.”

  Kate appreciated that Trish didn’t pretend to believe her ex-husband had deep feelings for his bride-to-be, but the honesty did sting a little.

  “I would like to be there when you exchange your vows,” the other woman continued. “But Jonah and I won’t show up if our presence is going to make you uncomfortable in any way.”

  “I’d like you both to be there,” Kate decided. “And Henry, too. Reid’s made a lot of friends in the short time he’s been in Haven, but most of those people knew me—or at least my family—first, so it’ll be nice for him to have someone there primarily for him.”

  “Thank you,” Trish said.

  “And thank you,” Kate said. “For coming here to talk to me, but especially for being here for Reid.”

  Trish smiled. “I’ll see you at the church, soon-to-be Mrs. Reid Davidson.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Kate and Reid had opted for an evening midweek ceremony to coordinate with the schedule of the minister who’d married Kate’s parents and baptized Kate and each of her siblings. Unable to choose between her sister and best friend as her maid or matron of honor, she’d decided to have both. Because Reid was new in town and didn’t have any close friends to serve as groomsmen, he’d asked Caleb and Liam to stand up for him.

  The bride spent the morning of her wedding day in court. After that, she had lunch with Skylar and Emerson before they all headed over to the Circle G together to get ready for the ceremony.

  Her grandmother was waiting at the house when they arrived—to ensure everyone stayed on schedule, she claimed.

  “You look just like a fairy-tale princess,” Emerson said, when she’d finished tying the corset back of the bride’s dress.

  Kate turned to look at her reflection in the mirror, pleased with the overall effect. Her dress was an A-line strapless gown with chapel-length train. The side-drape helped disguise the subtle swell of her belly and the pearl-and-crystal beading on the bodice did make her feel a little bit like a princess.

  But before she got too caught up in the fantasy, she reminded herself that Reid wasn’t her prince—he was just a guy who wanted to do the right thing. And she knew he’d do everything in his power to make their marriage work—for the sake of their baby. She also hoped that, over time, he’d start to care for her as she cared for him.

  She couldn’t pinpoint an exact moment when her feelings for him had started to grow and change. There was no denying that the initial attraction had been purely physical, and that attraction was still there. His smile never failed to make her knees weak, the most casual of his touches made her heart pound, and those shoulders...just thinking about those shoulders made her sigh.

  But he was also smart and kind and funny. Sure, he could be a little rigid at times and more than a little stubborn, but the more time she’d spent with him, the more she’d suspected that he was a man she could fall in love with. Until the day she’d cut off his marriage proposal, because she’d realized that she’d already fallen.

  And in just a few more hours now, she was going to be his wife.

  After Emerson’s assessment, Grams looked the bride up and down, then shook her head. “Something’s missing.”

  “Flowers,” Sky said. “Dad went into town to pick them up.”

  Grams shook her head again. “Earrings.”

  Kate instinctively reached a hand to her ear, where she’d fastened the simple diamond studs that had been a gift from her father for her eighteenth birthday. “I’m wearing earrings.”

  “With your hair up, you should have something a little...more,” Grams said, as she took a small fabric pouch out of her pocket. “I know you’re wearing Emerson’s veil as your something borrowed, but these could be your something old—if you want them.”

  “Grams, they’re gorgeous,” Kate said, admiring the delicate diamond-and-pearl drops in her grandmother’s hand.

  “They were a gift to me from your grandfather on our wedding day, fifty-eight years ago, so they’re definitely old,” she said. “But they were also your mom’s something borrowed when she married your dad.”

  “Oh.” She swallowed hard and blinked back the tears that threatened as she unfastened her diamond studs.

  Kate had been thinking of her mom throughout the day, missing her as she always did when she celebrated a milestone event. But as she fastened the pretty pearl-and-diamond drops to her ears, the knowledge that her mother had worn the very same earrings on her wedding day made her feel a little less lonely for her.

  “Now you’re perfect,” Grams declared.

  “You’re going to knock his socks off,” Emerson said approvingly.

  “Hopefully a lot more than his socks.”

  “Grams!” Skylar protested.

  Her grandmother just grinned as a knock sounded on the door.

  “Flower delivery,” her father announced.

  “Just on time.” Grams took the box from him and distributed the bouquets of hand-tied calla lilies before ushering Skylar and Emerson out of the room so Kate could have a few minutes alone with her father before they headed to the church.

  “Oh, Katie.” It was all he said, but there was a wealth of emotion in those two words.

  “Don’t you dare make me cry,” she warned her father.

 
He smiled, though his own eyes were suspiciously bright. “You’re so beautiful.” Then he touched a finger to one of the dangling earrings. “Your mother wore those the day we got married.”

  She nodded. “They were her something borrowed from Grams—and now they’re my something old.”

  “Your mom would be so proud of you today. Always,” he amended. “But especially today.”

  “I miss her,” she said softly. “Always, but especially today.”

  “It took me a long time to accept that she was gone, and though the grief has lessened over the years, I will never stop loving her.”

  Kate pulled a tissue from the box on the dressing table and dabbed at her eyes.

  “My greatest wish for you and Reid is to be as happy as we were together.”

  She kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”

  “Now, we better be on our way to the church if you don’t want to keep your groom waiting. But if you do...” He let the sentence trail off, an unspoken question.

  She shook her head. “I’m ready to start the rest of my life with the man I love.”

  Her response seemed to satisfy her father, who nodded brusquely. “Well then, let’s go.”

  * * *

  Half an hour before the ceremony was scheduled to begin, Caleb and Liam left the groom to perform their duties ushering guests to their seats.

  A short while later, when Reid heard the knock on the door of the anteroom where he was getting ready, he assumed it was one of Katelyn’s brothers. But when he said, “Come in,” it was Trish who poked her head around the door.

  “Have you worn out the carpet yet?” she teased.

  “I’m not pacing—I’m trying to pin this flower thing on my jacket,” he told her.

  “It’s a boutonniere,” she said. “And the flower is a calla lily.”

  “Can you help me?”

  “Sure,” she said, taking the flower from his hand and sizing him up. “You clean up pretty good, Sheriff.”

  “I’m more comfortable wearing my badge than a suit,” he confided.

  “The suit looks good on you. Or maybe it’s the impending nuptials that look good on you.” She positioned the flower on his lapel, slid the pin into the stem—and swore when she pushed too far and stabbed herself.