The few friends she had all thought that she’d run off with Jack to Texas. They’d never know that she died before she got to her destination.
And she had no family. An only child, she’d lost her father when she was seven and her mother when she was a senior in high school.
So there was no one to worry about her.
No one cared.
That was probably why she’d been such an easy target for Jack. She’d always thought of herself as an independent soul, but the truth of it was she was lonely. She’d wanted to matter to someone, just one someone. And Jack had pretended that she mattered to him.
Tall, dark and handsome with an easy grin, Jack had drifted into her life and then taken her along for the ride.
She’d been a total fool, Devon thought disparagingly.
Perspiration was beginning to soak through her clothing. She didn’t know if the sun was hot, or if only she was. The end result was the same. Her clothes were damp.
“I thought your daddy loved me. Turns out he loved my meager little savings account. But we’ll find him, you and I. We’ll catch up to him and force him to give back all that money because you’re going to need diapers—and food.
“Who am I kidding?” she said despondently. “We’re not getting out of here alive. I’m sorry, Michael. Sorry to have done this to you. Sorry to have saddled you with a daddy who’s a deadbeat. SORRYYYY!”
The pain was so bad that she’d almost bitten right through her bottom lip this time around.
She was clutching and clawing at anything she could find within reach. The pain was growing stronger, threatening to swallow her up completely. As it was, she was on the verge of passing out.
This was more than she could endure.
This was—
“Ma’am?”
Devon screamed again, this time in fear. A moment ago, there’d been no one here, not even a prairie dog. Now someone—or more accurately, something—was leaning in through her rolled-down truck window, peering in and apparently talking to her.
“Oh God, now I’m seeing things,” she cried, doing her best to disappear into the cracked seat cushion. “Talking horses. Maybe I’ve already died.”
Belatedly, Cody realized that the woman in the cab of the truck was looking at Flint. She sounded as if she was delirious.
Dismounting, he tied the horse’s reins to the back of the vehicle and returned to the open window. He looked in.
The woman was drenched and looked almost wild-eyed. “Are you alone?” Cody asked her.
“Not a horse, an angel,” Devon realized out loud. The next moment, she closed her eyes tight as she felt yet another huge contraction coming. This one had all the signs of being even bigger than the last. “A hunky angel,” she said to herself. “This is Texas, what did I EXPECCTTT?”
For a second, Cody could only stare at her in complete awe. Even wracked with pain, the dark-haired woman was beautiful. But he’d never seen a woman this pregnant before. She looked as if she was just about to pop at any moment.
“No disrespect, lady,” he began politely, really wishing someone else was with him right now—Cassidy, for instance.
Women related to each other at a time like this. Or maybe Connor. Nothing rattled Connor. He could handle anything. Still, wishing didn’t change anything. Cody was the only other human being out here and he was going to handle this.
He put a sympathetic expression on his face. “But what are you doing out here by yourself in your condition?”
She had no idea what possessed her. She didn’t even remember doing it, but, suddenly, Devon found herself grabbing the front of the inquisitive angel’s shirt and yanking on it with all the strength she had. She yanked on it so hard that she almost dragged him right in through the window.
“DYING!” she yelled back.
“So you are having contractions?” the cowboy asked.
Great, a Rhodes scholar. “What...gave it...away?” she panted, desperately trying to get away from the pain or at least ahead of it. She failed. It insisted on following her.
Cody ignored the woman’s sarcastic comeback. “How far apart are your contractions?” he asked.
Devon was arching in her seat. No one had ever said it was going to hurt this badly. “Not...far...ENOUGH!”
Cody looked out into the horizon, in the direction he’d been riding when he’d heard her screams. Forever was about five, maybe seven, miles away.
“There’s a clinic in town,” he told her. “I can get you there fast.”
But all she could do was shake her head—violently—from side to side. He’d never get her there in time. Besides, the idea of movement made everything worse.
“No...time,” she panted. “Baby...coming... NOOOWWWW!”
That was what he was afraid of.
Mentally, Cody rolled up his sleeves. Connor always insisted that they face all their challenges head-on, not hide behind excuses or shirk their responsibilities. This woman obviously needed him.
Whether he liked it or not, it was just as simple as that. He took a deep, fortifying breath.
“Okay, then,” Cody told her. “Let’s do this.”
Maybe he was better than an angel, Devon thought. “You’re...a...doctor?” she asked, digging her nails in the cab’s seat again, bracing herself for what she now knew was coming.
“No,” Cody answered honestly, “but I helped birth a few calves on the ranch before I became a sheriff’s deputy.”
Terrific, he was a cowboy. Just her luck. “I’m...having...a...BABYYY,” she cried, arching again, “not...a...CAAALF!”
Cody did his best to give her a confident smile. “Same difference,” he assured her.
No, it wasn’t, she thought. Not by a long shot. “I...am...in...so...much...TROUBLE!” Devon screamed, all but biting a hole in her lip.
“I know this is scary,” he told her.
“You...don’t...know...the...HALF...OF...IT!” she retorted, trying her best not to give way to hysteria as she dug her nails into his forearm.
He did what he could to comfort her. “I think I can guess,” he told her, then began to introduce himself. “My name is Cody, and I’ll be delivering your baby today,” he ended with a warm smile.
At this point, Devon was no longer worrying about whether or not she was hallucinating. If this hallucination could help her get rid of this incredible piercing pain she was experiencing through her lower half, then she was all for it.
