That's My Baby! (23 page)

“No, you don’t.” She stepped closer, so that the soggy monkey rested against his chest, soaking his shirt. “You don’t want me to forget about you.”

“I do! How can I expect you to forgive me for risking your life, for risking our baby’s life, if I can’t even forgive myself?”

“Nat, there’s nothing to forgive. I don’t blame you.”

“You should!”

“Well, I don’t.” She gazed up at him. “Because I love you. I will always love you. Of course you make mistakes. So do I. We’ll continue to do that until we’re sharing rocking chairs on the front porch. Even then we’ll probably screw something up once in a while. Mistakes are a part of life. And love.”

Oh, God, he wanted to believe her. His throat was tight, and he still couldn’t seem to breathe easily. “I want only the best for you and Elizabeth.”

“Well, that makes things easy. That means we need you.” She lifted her face to his.

“I’m not—”

“Oh, yes, you are. Do you remember telling me to hold on to you?”

“I shouldn’t have told you that.”

“Too late. You told me, and I’m doing it. Nat, I don’t come without baggage, either. Don’t forget I have a father who’s richer than God.”

“That’s not your fault.”

“Exactly. Just as it’s not your fault that you ended up with your father. We have a right to try and make a life for ourselves, don’t we?”

The ice around his heart began to melt.

She smiled. “I can tell you’re thinking about it. That’s a start. Do you love me?”

That he didn’t have to think about. “More than my life.”

“And Elizabeth?”

He glanced down at the little girl wedged between them.

As she continued to suck noisily on Bruce’s tail, she gazed up at him with eyes the same shade as his. Then she reached up and patted her hand against his chin.

His throat threatened to close completely as he thought of what had almost happened to her. When that maniac had held a gun to her head, he’d never known such rage…or such fear. “Yes,” he said, his voice gruff with emotion. “Yes, I love Elizabeth.”

“Then marry us,” Jess whispered. “We need you. And you need us.”

He met Jess’s gaze, and warmth surged through him, pushing away the last of the cold chill that had surrounded him from the moment he’d regained consciousness and found her gone.

“Put your arms around us,” Jess urged, her gaze never leaving his.

Slowly, he did. He didn’t deserve this, but maybe he could work to deserve it.

“Will you take us to be your lawfully wedded wife, baby and soggy monkey?” Jess asked softly.

With a groan, Nat pulled them in tight, squeezing more water out of the monkey and sending it cascading down on his boots. It was a stretch, but with some adjustments he was able to touch his mouth to Jess’s. He brushed his lips over hers, leaned back and smiled down at her, his love, his life. “Yes,” he murmured. “I do.”

A year later at the grand opening of the Happy Trails Children’s Ranch.

J
ESSICA HUNG UP
the phone and hurried through the house to the bedroom, casting loving glances along the way at the hardwood floors, the large windows, the rock fireplace. After only a few months, she already felt completely at home in this place she and Nat had found only a few miles from the Rocking D. And today it was dressed for company.

She ignored the slight twinge in her belly. She would
not
go into labor today.

“Nat.” She walked into the bedroom where her husband was fastening the snaps on a white western shirt. God, he was gorgeous. They were approaching their first anniversary and he excited her more than he ever had. “That was the governor’s office calling to say he’s running a little late,” she said, “but he and his wife should be here in time for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.”

“No problem.” Nat fastened the snaps at his wrists. “Travis has already offered to do some magic tricks to entertain the press if we need to buy some time.”

She laughed. “It figures Travis would suggest something like that. But we don’t have to worry about entertainment. My dad and Sebastian are putting on a show out in the front yard giving contradictory orders to the television crews. It’s like a battle between George Lucas and Steven
Spielberg.” Another twinge hit her. Probably nothing. “Of course, Boone’s trying to mediate.”

“I wish him luck on that one.” Nat grinned as he tucked his shirttails into a pair of western dress slacks. “That was nice of my dad, to send that big plant and the card, huh?”

“It was. Very nice.” She was thrilled that Nat and his father were starting to communicate, and she could tell how much it meant to both of them.

“I’m almost ready.” He buckled his hand-tooled belt.

“Good. You can go help Boone keep the peace.” She allowed herself a moment to ogle the fit of her husband’s slacks, but unfortunately she couldn’t linger. As the hostess of this grand-opening event, she had duties. “Well, I’d better see how things are progressing in the kitchen.” She started toward the door. “I swear, if Gwen ever wanted to give up the bed-and-breakfast business, she could make a fine living as a caterer. Shelby, Matty and I are in total awe, which is a good thing, because she has us working like galley slaves.”

“Jess.”

She turned, pleasure zinging through her. Whenever he spoke her name that way, as if pronouncing the most important syllable in the English language, she melted. She met his gaze.

“Come here a sec,” he murmured.

“We have no time,” she said, even as she walked back to him, pulled by an invisible velvet rope. Darn it, there was another twinge. Actually, she couldn’t call them twinges now. It was definitely a contraction.

He reached out and gathered her close. “The day I don’t have time to hold my wife in my arms is a sorry day indeed.” He glanced down at her round belly. “Are you okay?”

She couldn’t go into labor now. She absolutely couldn’t. “I’m fabulous.”

He looked into her eyes and smiled. “I know that. But
are you sure this whole thing isn’t too much for you? I mean, Doc Harrison said it could be any day, and I keep wondering if we should have held off until after the baby came.”

She cupped his face in both hands and willed the contractions to stop. Tomorrow would be fine to have this baby, but not today. “Are you kidding? We couldn’t have postponed a project like this. It’s our dream come true, Nat, and we’ll be helping so many kids. I can hardly wait until next week when we have our first arrivals, our first little buckaroos, sleeping in those cozy bunkhouses.” She grinned. “Just because it feels like I’m twelve months pregnant doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy this moment.”

He slid both hands down to cup her backside. “What I want to know is how you can be so pregnant and so sexy at the same time?”

“It’s my special talent.” Another contraction. Shoot! Maybe she’d have to mention it to Nat, just in case.

He caressed her bottom. “Special talent, huh? In that case, maybe we should have about twenty kids. Because I—”

“Hold on.” She put a hand over his mouth. “Do I hear—”

“Babies cryin’!” Elizabeth raced into the room dragging a sorry-looking sock monkey by the tail. She grabbed Jessica’s skirt. “Come help GammaLu and GammaDell!” Elizabeth tugged at Jessica’s skirt. “Come
on,
Mommy!”

Jessica gazed in despair at her daughter, who had looked like such a little angel about twenty minutes ago. “Elizabeth, what’s that on your dress?”

The toddler glanced down at her front, where something green was smeared all over the pink material. When she looked up, her matching pink ribbon hung over her eye. “I dunno. But babies cryin’, Mommy! Come see!”

“Lizbeth!” Josh yelled, pounding into the room after
her. “Come back in there! GrammaLu and GrammaDell
need
us. It’s a regular
rodeo.
”

“We’d better go check on things,” Nat said.

As Jessica followed Nat down the hall to the bedroom they’d designated as a temporary nursery for the day, Josh and Elizabeth raced ahead of them. Sure enough, babies were crying behind the closed door. And Jessica had another contraction.

Josh flung open the door. “See that? A regular rodeo.” He crossed his arms. “That’s
girls
for you.”

Jessica’s mother, Adele, glanced up from her struggle to diaper a screaming Patricia, the three-month-old daughter of Boone and Shelby. Whatever Elizabeth had down her front, Adele had in her hair. It looked like finger paint. And baby spit-up was all over her designer suit. “Oh, thank heaven, Jessica!” she cried above the din. “Can you get Rebecca out of that drawer?”

Jessica started toward Rebecca. Matty and Sebastian’s eight-month-old sat in a bottom dresser drawer yelling her head off.

“She climbed in and didn’t know how to get out!” Luann shouted by way of explanation as she continued pacing with the squalling four-month-old who belonged to Gwen and Travis. They’d named the baby Luann after her grandmother, but Travis had quickly dubbed her Lulu.

Jessica picked up Rebecca and grabbed a tissue to wipe her nose. Then she turned to Luann. “What’s wrong with Lulu?”

Luann grimaced. “She gulped her bottle, like usual, and now she’s got enough gas to heat the city of Denver for a month!”

Matty, Shelby and Gwen appeared in the doorway. Matty, with her seven-month-along belly, took up most of the space. She pressed a hand to the small of her back “What’s all this noise about?”

Nat stood surveying the room. “The usual,” he said with a grin.

Elizabeth waved her hands. “Lizbeth not cryin’,” she announced again.

Jessica caught a flash of green on Elizabeth’s hands. Uhoh. Then she glanced down at her linen skirt, the one Elizabeth had been clutching minutes ago. Sure enough, now she had green splotches on her skirt to match the color on the toddler’s pink dress. And she had another contraction, this time a hard one.

“Hey, we can hear this racket clear out in the front yard!” Sebastian crowded in behind the women, followed by Boone, Travis and Jessica’s father. “What’s going on?”

“It’s all the girls making noise,” Josh said, looking superior.

Jessica glanced over at Nat. “I hate to tell you this, sweetheart, but I think—”

Nat’s casual grin disappeared. “It’s time?” His voice squeaked.

Jessica nodded.

The group exploded into action. As Nat rushed over to lead her out of the room, Sebastian took Rebecca, Travis scooped up Elizabeth, and Boone picked up Josh. The women followed, with each grandmother carrying a baby.

As they all poured into the living room, someone knocked on the front door.

Jessica’s father wrenched it open. “What?” he bellowed.

The television reporter shrank back. “The—the governor and his wife are here, sir. Their limo just pulled up. And I was wondering if—”

“He came in a limo? Great!” Jessica’s father turned back to the group surrounding Jessica. “We’ll commandeer his limo for the run to the hospital! Come on. Everybody out!”

“But what about the ribbon-cutting ceremony?” Jessica asked as Nat hustled her toward the door.

“It can wait,” her father said, beaming at Nat. “Right, son?”

“You bet.”

Before Jessica quite realized how it had happened, the governor and his wife were standing on the front porch waving goodbye and all of them were crammed into the stretch limo, crying babies included.

“So,” Sebastian shouted above the din as he glanced around at the limo full of people. “What’s it gonna be this time, boy or girl?”

Travis, Boone and Nat looked at him, then at each of the screaming babies. The four cowboys grinned.
“Boy!”
they all said together.