don’t like the idea of you driving all the way back to Waco as tired as you are,” he said. “It isn’t safe.”
“I’ll be okay.” She frowned. “Besides, my welfare isn’t any of your concern.”
“Yes, it is,” he insisted. “Do you have to work tonight?”
She shook her head. “I have the weekend off. Why?”
“My family is having a Halloween party here tomorrow night and I’d really like for you to join us. I’ve got five guest bedrooms upstairs and you can have your pick of any of them.” He used his index finger to brush a strand of blond hair that had escaped her ponytail from her smooth cheek as an excuse to touch her. His finger tingled from the contact and he was heartened by the slight widening of her pretty eyes, indicating that she felt it, too. “It will also give us time to talk and make a few decisions after you’ve had time to rest.”
He’d wisely avoided mentioning that she could share the master suite with him. He might not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but he wasn’t fool enough to think she would be receptive to picking up their relationship where they left it almost five months ago.
She tried to hide a yawn behind her small, delicate hand. “I told you the law—”
“I know. But don’t you think it would save a lot of time and be easier for all concerned if we had everything worked out in advance?” he asked.
“Nate, I’m really too tired to discuss this right now,” she said, yawning. “All I want is to get home and go to bed.”
“At least take a nap before you start back to Waco,” he stalled. If he could get her to stay for a while, it would give him time to come to grips with the unbelievable fact that he was going to be a daddy. At the moment he was completely numb. But he needed to pull it together so he could think. He had to come up with a better argument for her staying, at least for the party. Now that he knew she was carrying his baby, it was even more important that they work things out. And damned quick.
“Maybe just a short power nap would help,” she conceded.
Without hesitation, he put his arm around her shoulders to guide her out into the foyer and up the stairs. He wasn’t going to give her time to change her mind.
When he walked her down the upstairs hall, Nate opened the door to the bedroom across from his. “Will this room be all right?”
“I’m leaving as soon as I wake up,” she warned.
“Just get some sleep now,” he said, leading her over to the bed. Pulling back the colorful quilt, he waited until she kicked off her tennis shoes and got into bed before he bent down to kiss her forehead. “If you need anything, I’ll be in my office.”
She had already fallen asleep.
Standing beside the bed, he stared down at the only woman he hadn’t been able to stay away from. Jessie was smart, funny and as sweet as she was pretty. So why hadn’t he been able to commit to her?
Nate knew his foster brother Lane Donaldson would probably have a field day using his master’s degree in psychology to analyze Nate’s motives. But Nate didn’t want to delve too deeply into his reasons for avoiding commitments. It all tied into his past and it wasn’t something he could change, nor was he eager to think about that dark time in his life.
The only thing he could do now was what his foster father Hank Calvert would expect of any of the boys he finished raising. Hank had preached to them over and over that when a man makes the decision to sleep with a woman, he’d better be ready to accept his responsibilities if he made her pregnant. And that was just what Nate intended to do.
His aversion to commitment was about to undergo a dramatic change. Jessie had shown up to tell him he was going to be a daddy and he fully intended to do right by her and his kid. Sometime within the next week, he was going to kiss his blissful bachelorhood goodbye and make her his wife.
* * *
When Jessie woke up, bright sunlight peeked through a part in the yellow calico curtains and it took a moment for her to realize where she was.
After working all night in the traumatic brain injury ICU, she had called Nate’s brother Sam to ask where she could find Nate. She hated having to involve Sam in her quest to get hold of Nate, but Nate had moved recently. The last time he had broken things off between them, she had deleted his number from her cell. Sam had been very nice and given her directions to the Twin Oaks Ranch. She supposed she could have asked for Nate’s number and called, but news like hers was something that needed to be delivered in person.
After going to her prenatal checkup, she had driven directly to the ranch to tell Nate he was the father of her baby. In hindsight, she probably should have gotten some sleep before she confronted him with the news. But if she had put it off any longer, she couldn’t be certain she wouldn’t have talked herself out of telling him at all.
For the past few months, she’d been torn over what to do and she still wasn’t certain she had made the right choice in telling him about the baby. For one thing, she was beyond tired of being Nate’s puppet. In the past, he would give her a call and talk her into rekindling their relationship, then when everything seemed to be going great between them, he’d find a reason they should stop seeing each other for a while. And for another, she wasn’t sure he deserved to have equal custody of the baby. How good of a father would he be, given his inclination for coming and going the way he’d done in the past?
The last time he decided to pull his vanishing act, she’d told him not to bother getting in touch with her again. It had broken her heart, but she refused to allow him to control the course of their relationship any longer. Shortly after that she had discovered she was pregnant. And even though she felt it was only right to let a man know he had fathered a child, her main concern was whether or not Nate would always be there for the baby. It was one thing to disappoint her. It was something else entirely if he disappointed their child.
Unsettled by the thought, she threw back the covers to sit up on the side of the bed. That’s when she realized just how exhausted she’d been. She had not only slept the rest of yesterday and last night, she was still fully dressed.
Jessie quickly made the bed and headed downstairs. She had the next two nights off and she needed to get home. There were several things she needed to get done this weekend and she still had an hour’s drive just to get back to Waco.
As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she sighed heavily when Nate came out of the office. So much for avoiding him on her way out.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” he said cheerfully.
Why did the man have to look so darned good to her? She didn’t want to notice how his straight light brown hair stylishly brushed the collar of his chambray shirt or the way his blue eyes twinkled when he smiled at her. She was still angry with him and resented the way he thought he could come and go in her life without a second thought to the effect it had on her—how much it hurt her emotionally.
“You should have awakened me,” she said, noticing the grandfather clock in the foyer indicated it was already midmorning.
“You were tired.” His smile turned to a grin. “Besides, I thought you’d probably want to be fully rested for the party tonight.”
“I’m not attending
