White Pines Summer

by Sherryl Woods

  With that, she turned and marched out of the restaurant, back straight, head held high. She was very much aware of the curious gazes following her and of Hank’s muttered oath as he tossed some money on the table and sprinted after her.

  “Lizzy,” he shouted over the din of voices.

  Lizzy was frantically trying to jam the key into her car’s lock when Hank caught up with her.

  “Lizzy,” he said more quietly. “I’m sorry.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re like every male in my family. When you don’t get your way right off, you turn stubborn and mule headed and sneaky. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if you didn’t deliberately sabotage one of those condoms we used.”

  The silence that fell was so thick she wondered for a moment if she’d gone too far. Finally, she dared a glance into Hank’s face. He was staring at her with astonishment and maybe just the tiniest trace of hurt in his eyes.

  “If you think for a single minute that I would do something so underhanded,” he began quietly, “then we are in serious trouble.”

  He regarded her steadily until she finally blushed and looked away.

  “I’m sorry,” she said eventually. “I know this was just one of those zillion-to-one accidents. Neither of us planned it.”

  “I hope you mean that.”

  She nodded. “It’s just that I panic, and when I panic, I start lashing out. You’re an easy target right now.”

  Hank jammed his hands into the pockets of his jeans as if to keep himself from reaching for her. “You know, darlin’, you’re not the only one who’s been blindsided here. I found out about this today. You’ve had days to get used to the idea of having a baby, to think about what’s best. I’m scrambling for the right answers and I keep locking on the most obvious one. If there’s a better alternative, try it on me.”

  She regarded him miserably. “I don’t have one,” she confessed unhappily. “Maybe we don’t have to have all the answers tonight.”

  “Maybe not,” he agreed.

  He opened his arms then, and Lizzy stepped into them and rested her head on his shoulder, breathing in the familiar, reassuring, male scent of him. With all the millions of things she didn’t know right now, this was not one of them. This was real and right. Loving Hank was right.

  “Do you want to go back in and finish your dinner?” he asked eventually. “I told the waitress not to take anything away, that we might be back.”

  Even if she weren’t very conscious of the baby’s need for nourishment, her growling stomach would have answered for her. “Sure,” she said, then regarded Hank hopefully. “Do you think they’ll bring me extra pickles for the media noche sandwich?”

  Hank grinned. “If they won’t, I’ll buy the whole blasted jar.”

  “Don’t go that far,” she said. “I’m still not sure I like pickles. I never did before. All of a sudden, though, I just seem to have this craving for them.”

  “How many more months is this going to go on?” Hank wondered aloud.

  Lizzy chuckled at his bewildered expression. “Nine is pretty much standard,” she reminded him. “Don’t despair, though. You’ve already missed the first few weeks.”

  Hank’s expression sobered. “I know you meant that as a consolation, darlin’, but it’s not. It just reinforces my determination not to miss a single second of the next eight months or so.”

  She heard the grim determination in his voice and realized that she might be able to delay Hank from forcing her into a rash decision, but it would only be postponing the inevitable. He wasn’t going to give up on marriage. Not in a million years.

  And the pitiful truth was, she wasn’t at all certain she wanted him to. That scared her most of all.

  * * *

  It was early evening by the time they got back to Lizzy’s apartment and not quite dark. Rather than heading inside, Hank took her hand, tucked it through the crook of his arm and began to stroll toward the main hospital. An idea had struck him earlier in the afternoon, and now seemed like the perfect time to act on it. He sensed that Lizzy’s resolve was weakening and he intended to use whatever weapons were at his disposal to assure that she came to see things his way. The ring he’d bought right before leaving Texas had been burning a hole in his pocket. He wanted to give it to her now more than ever.

  “Where are we going?” Lizzy asked, but without really balking.

  “Just for a stroll,” he told her innocently.

  “This isn’t a neighborhood for strolling,” she warned him.

  “And we’re not going that far.”

  He led her to the hospital’s main entrance, then stepped inside the lobby, which was still bustling with visitors and staff.

  “Wait right here,” he told Lizzy as he went to talk to a clerk at the information desk.

  When he came back, Lizzy regarded him warily. “What on earth are we doing here?”

  “Just come with me, okay?”

  “Why?”

  “Humor me.”

  Lizzy could have balked then, but not without creating a scene. Hank saw the stirring of her curiosity. In fact, he was counting on it.

  “Okay,” she said eventually, and followed him to a bank of elevators.

  He punched the button for the floor the clerk had indicated and spotted the first glimmer of understanding in Lizzy’s eyes. When the doors opened, they were on the huge obstetrical floor, just down the hall from the nursery. Hank turned and led her to the window through which parents could watch their newborns.

  A grin spread slowly across her face as she stared at the rows of babies, some of them squalling mightily, others right beside them sound asleep. He watched as her hands slid instinctively to her own belly, then reached over and covered them with his own.

  He waited until she looked up at him, before saying quietly, “One of these days we’re going to have a little guy or a little girl just like these. It’s not a fantasy, Lizzy. It’s not going to go away. The baby growing inside you is going to be front and center in our lives. We have to make the best possible decision before that happens. We have to know where we stand with each other and how we’re going to cope with this incredible miracle God has given us. We can’t keep putting it off and hope time will take care of it, which is why I think we should get married.”

  He took the jewelry box from his pocket but before he could remove the diamond, she placed her hand over his.

  “I understand why you’re doing this,” she whispered, tears shining in her eyes. “But the decision has to be one we both can live with, Hank. It’s not as simple as getting a marriage license and saying the vows. That’s over in the blink of an eye. We have to live with everything that comes after.”

  “It can be as simple or as complicated as we make it,” he argued.

  “Okay, let me ask you this. Right before I left Texas, you decided not to ask me to marry you because you knew in the end, I would only resent you for making me choose, right?”

  “Yes,” he conceded, not liking the tack she had taken at all because he could see where it was heading, and it sure as heck wasn’t toward the altar. “What’s your point?”

  “Nothing’s changed. Backing me into a corner is no way to start a marriage. The resentment will be a given, just as you predicted it would be.”

  “There’s a baby to consider now. That changes everything.” He decided the time had come to hammer home his point. “How will you manage if you don’t marry me? Have you considered that? Will you carry the baby to class with you?” he pressed. “What about when you’re on duty at the hospital? Will you haul the baby along? Or are you counting on Kelsey being a live-in babysitter? She might have other ideas.”

  Lizzy looked shaken by the questions. “I don’t have all the answers. All I can see is that you’re asking me to make a huge sacrifice, to give up medicine, come home and be a wife and mother.”


  Hank’s temper flared, despite his intentions to stay calm. “Would being my wife and the mother of our child be such a god-awful thing?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “Then you’re just being selfish,” he accused. “You’re being Harlan Adams’s baby girl again, believing that you’re entitled to everything you want and what’s right for everybody else doesn’t mean a damned thing. If you think you’re turning this baby of mine over to some nanny to raise, you’re crazy. I’ll fight you for custody first.”

  Lizzy visibly reeled under the bitter accusation and the threat. “You won’t take this baby away from me, Hank. You can forget that right now. And if you feel that way about me, if I’m such a terrible person and you hold me in such low esteem, why would you want to marry me in the first place?”

  “Because I love you, dammit.” Frustration had him shouting.

  “Well, I love you, too,” she shouted back.

  A nurse stepped into the hallway and pressed a finger to her lips. “Shh. This is a hospital. Not a Vegas wedding chapel.”

  Hank offered a rueful apology, then turned back to Lizzy.

  “We’re not going to settle this tonight, are we?” he concluded, awash with regrets for letting the fight escalate and for not having options they could both live with.

  “I guess not.”

  “Then let’s go sleep on it. Maybe one of us will come up with a brainstorm before morning. If not tomorrow morning, then the next day.”

  “Or the next,” Lizzy said, sounding fatalistic.

  Hank tucked a finger under her chin. “We will work this out, darlin’. I promise you that.”

  Lizzy didn’t look convinced, but she did take his hand when he offered it, and that night, when they crawled into her narrow bed, she trustingly fitted herself to his body and went off to sleep with his arms around her.

  Hank was awake for hours, though, trying to untangle the complicated mess they’d made of their lives. He’d meant what he’d said about fighting her for custody before he’d let a stranger raise his child, but that was only a last resort. Surely there were better solutions.

  Reduced to its simplest, black-and-white terms, there was only one answer: marriage. But getting Lizzy down the aisle was going to take more ingenuity than he possessed alone.

  It was going to require the expertise of a master manipulator like her daddy.

  * * *

  For the next forty-eight hours, Lizzy did little except eat, go to her classes and talk to Hank. They hashed over their options a thousand times. And by the time he had to leave for Texas, they were no closer to a solution they could live with than they had been when he’d first shown up.

  Kelsey had been a saint. She had refereed arguments when asked, but mostly she had stayed away and given them the space they needed to wrestle with the dilemma in which they’d found themselves.

  “I’ll be home in a month,” Lizzy said as Hank distractedly mashed his cornflakes into a sodden mess. “We’ll have the whole summer to work this out.”

  He pushed aside the cereal and lifted his gaze to hers. “In the meantime, is this our secret? Or do you intend to tell your folks?”

  Lizzy shook her head at once. “I can’t tell Daddy about this now. I don’t know how he’ll react.”

  “Oh, I think you do,” Hank said dryly. “Harlan can’t wait for you to give him another grandbaby. He’ll be over the moon about the news.”

  “Yes, and he’ll be on your side about the two of us getting married right away.”

  “More than likely,” Hank agreed, looking as if he considered that an atomic-caliber secret weapon.

  “Which is why he is not to know until you and I have reached a decision.” She leveled a look straight at him. “Are we clear on that?”

  “I will not discuss this with your father,” he promised.

  She regarded him suspiciously. “Or anyone else in my family.”

  He grinned. “Okay, darlin’. I will not discuss it with a single living soul. Does that cover enough ground?”

  “I suppose.” She glanced at the clock. “It’s time. Please let me drive you to the airport.”

  “No. You have a class and I can take a taxi.”

  Suddenly, she didn’t want him to go. Having him here, even though they’d spent most of the time arguing about the future, had been wonderfully reassuring. No matter how things turned out, no matter what decision they eventually reached, they were in this together. And, as she’d known for years, if ever she was in trouble, Hank Robbins was the kind of rock-steady man she’d want in her corner.

  “At least let me go downstairs with you, then,” she said. “I’ll get my books so I can go on to class.”

  A few minutes later, they stood outside waiting for the taxi. It was a gorgeous spring day with the sky a brilliant blue and the air already thick with the first hint of summer’s humidity.

  Hank reached over and trailed his thumb along her jaw. “I’m glad I came and I’m glad you told me the truth about the baby.”

  “I would have told you even if you hadn’t come,” Lizzy said. “I was just trying to figure things out first.”

  “We will figure them out, darlin’.” He grinned ruefully. “Maybe not on my preferred timetable, but we will figure them out. You can count on that.”

  A lump formed in her throat. “I can count on you, can’t I?”

  “Always.”

  Before she could say more, the cab pulled to the curb. After that, everything was rushed—Hank’s kiss, the cab’s departure, the wave of loneliness that washed over her.

  She realized then how Hank must have felt the times she had walked away. There was one huge difference, though. He had always let her go willingly and with his blessing. For all intents and purposes, she had sent him packing. She only prayed that when she got back to Texas in a few weeks, he would still be there waiting for her with open arms and not a court order demanding custody of their child the minute she gave birth.

  13

  The next few weeks were among the longest of Hank’s life. He was counting the minutes until Lizzy came home for the summer. His mind kept wandering, imagining her with the legendary inner glow of a mother-to-be. Would her pregnancy be showing by then? Would they have any time at all to work out a plan on their own before the entire Adams clan thrust themselves into the midst of the dilemma and made plans for them?

  “Hey, boss? Everything okay?”

  Hank’s head snapped up at Pete’s words. He’d forgotten entirely that the other man was waiting for his decision about whether they needed to hire a private investigator to get to the bottom of the troubling incidents that had been taking place around the ranch. There had been a few more since his return from Miami, mostly minor annoyances, but definitely worrisome in total.

  “I’m sorry, Pete. My mind wandered.”

  “Seems to be doing that a lot lately,” the older man noted. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with that pretty little doc, would it? When is she coming home?”

  Hank grinned. Pete and the men had taken to calling Lizzy “doc” ever since she’d saved Billy-Clyde after that bull had gored him. “A couple of days, I suppose,” he said with feigned nonchalance, even though he knew to the precise minute when her flight was due in.

  “Don’t have it quite calculated down to the second yet?” Pete taunted.

  Hank bristled at the accuracy of the man’s guesswork. “You know, Pete, you may be a hell of a foreman, but I could do better,” he threatened with mock sincerity.

  “Not in this lifetime,” the old man countered, clearly undaunted. “And not for what you’re willing to pay.”

  “Let’s face it, you just stick around for Mrs. Wyndham’s cooking.”

  Pete grinned. “She does make a mighty fine biscuit. If she weren’t already a married lady, I do believe I’d court h
er for those biscuits and her blueberry pie.” His gaze narrowed. “Now, back to that private eye. I’m thinking we should bring him in here and put a rest to these little incidents before they get out of hand.”

  Hank thought of Lizzy and the possible danger to her if he failed to take the mischief seriously enough.

  “Do it,” he said, vowing to warn her that she was not to go traveling around his property or even her own family’s unaccompanied until this was resolved. There was no way in hell he was taking chances on her safety or the baby’s.

  “Are you going to tell Cody what you’re up to?” Pete asked. “He might want to be in on it, too. A couple of things have happened over at White Pines, as well. There’s a snake of the human variety sneaking around here, all right. I’d bet my life on it.”

  “I’ll talk to Cody,” Hank promised. “I’ll ride over there as soon as we’re done here. How’s Billy-Clyde doing?”

  “He should be back to work in a week or so. He’s been worried you wouldn’t want him back since he won’t be up to full speed for a while yet, but I told him we always take care of our own around here and he became one of ours the day you hired him.”

  “Exactly right,” Hank said.

  “Could you maybe stop by the bunkhouse and tell him that? It might reassure him.”

  “I’ll do it on my way out,” Hank promised. “Okay, then, if that’s it, I’ll head on over to see Cody.”

  “I’ll fill you in on what happens with the private eye as soon as he agrees to be on the payroll.”

  Hank gave him a terse nod. It wouldn’t be soon enough to suit him.

  After a brief visit with Billy-Clyde, he saddled up and rode toward the neighboring ranch, hoping to find Cody in the office, instead of off someplace. But instead of running into Cody in the office at the back of the main house, he found Harlan behind the desk, booted feet resting atop the cluttered mahogany surface, a phone tucked against his ear.

  He looked hale and robust for a man of his years and very much back in command. Obviously, his recovery was just about complete. Hank rapped on the door, then waited until Harlan acknowledged him with a beckoning wave.