pointedly down at the taut bulge of her belly “—do I need to ask?”
She wondered again why he seemed so determined to assume the worst. “Look. I’m not indigent, and I didn’t come here for a handout or to beg a roof over my head. I came because I thought my grandmother ought to know she was about to have a great-grandchild.”
“Yeah? I bet the kid’s father is thrilled about that,” he muttered.
It was the second time that night he’d brought up the baby’s father, and Tess had enough. “Save your sympathy,” she said tersely, “at least for Gray. He’s dead.”
If she meant to surprise him, she’d succeeded. Although his expression didn’t change, she could see the shock in his glorious green eyes—and an unmistakable flash of regret for what he’d said.
All of a sudden, she felt exhausted, and more than a little ashamed herself. She turned away, back toward the fire. “Please. Just go away—Oh!” She gasped as a bolt of pain lanced through her, doubling her over.
She forgot her anger at Jack as she realized that this contraction already felt far worse than the preceding ones. She gritted her teeth so hard her jaw ached, but it didn’t help. Instead, the pain increased, winding tighter and tighter. Tess began to panic. She couldn’t do this, she thought frantically, little black dots dancing behind her eyelids as she squeezed her eyes shut. She could handle an accident, a blizzard, Gram’s rejection, Gray’s loss, a hostile stranger—but not this excruciating, overwhelming, unrelenting pain, too. She swayed, biting her lip to keep from crying out, afraid that if she started, she wouldn’t be able to stop.
Suddenly a hard, steely arm came around her. “Breathe,” Jack ordered, his deep, impatient voice close to her ear.
Disoriented, she forced her eyes open. “What?”
He stared down at her, his expression grim. “I said breathe. In through your nose and out through your mouth. Like this.” He demonstrated.
Gasping fitfully, she shook her head. “I—I—can’t.”
True to form, he disagreed. “You can. Look at me and concentrate.”
His certainty—and some last little remnant of bravado—brought her chin up. Clutching his arm, she ignored the tears blurring her vision and attempted to pattern her breathing after his. It wasn’t easy. At first she felt so frantic and light-headed that with every breath she was sure she was going to hyperventilate.
Jack wasn’t having it, however. Through the sheer force of his will, he kept her focused until she was gradually able to inhale and exhale more and more deeply. At some point, the pain seemed to lessen a fraction.
Even so, an eternity seemed to pass before the contraction finally ended. Dazed, every muscle in her body quivering, Tess sagged against Jack. He felt wonderful, lean, hard, warm and solid, and she was suddenly too grateful for his presence to be concerned with anything else. “Thanks,” she said when she finally found her voice.
He tensed, but didn’t move away. “Why the hell didn’t you take a childbirth class?”
She swallowed a sigh. Forget cupcake—remember? “I did. I’ve just never been very good at following directions.”
Silence. And then a grunt. “Huh. I never would’ve guessed.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you practice being rude?” she asked mildly, finally looking up at him. “Or is it a natural talent?”
Their gazes met for a long, measuring moment. Whatever he felt was impossible to decipher, but for once he was the first to look away. “Can you walk?”
“Yes. Can you?”
He shook his head. “What I meant,” he said caustically, “was do you think you can make it to the bed?”
She considered. Her lower body felt leaden, the muscles weighted. “I don’t know. Why?”
“Because you need to lie down before the baby shows up and drops out on its head.”
She sighed, this time loudly and on purpose. “You know, Jack, you really have a way with words.”
“Can you walk or not?”
It was only five feet. How hard could it be? “Sure.” She let loose of him and took a step.
A second later, a new contraction struck her, and her knees gave out.
Three
“What is it with you?” Jack demanded as the contraction finally eased and Tess loosened the punishing grip she had on his hand. He sat back, shifting to a more settled position on the edge of the bed. Despite his outer calm and the deliberate way he’d coached her along, his heart was still thundering from how close she’d come to falling flat on her face. “You take an oath against asking for help?”
Tess hitched herself up higher against the pile of pillows he’d placed at her back and sent him a reproachful glance. “Gosh, Jack. Don’t start being nice now or I’ll really lose it.”
The cheeky response tugged at him. All right. So he didn’t exactly like her. She was too willful, too smart, too here. That didn’t mean he couldn’t admire her grit. “You just don’t quit, do you?”
She shook her head. “No. But if it’s any consolation, this isn’t quite how I envisioned having this baby, either.”
Their eyes met, and something inside him stilled when he saw the look in hers a second before she glanced away. Hell. If it was anyone else, he’d swear that beneath that glib exterior, she was...scared.
The idea brought him up short. As did his sudden, unsettling realization that ever since he’d yanked open the Cadillac’s door all those hours ago, he’d been so provoked by her intrusion into his life and so preoccupied with how he felt about it, he’d taken her seemingly inexhaustible composure at face value. She’d acted as if she could handle anything, and he’d believed it.
Now, as if a blindfold had been ripped away, he could see the quiver at the corners of her mouth, the pulse pounding at the base of her throat, the effort behind her composure.
And he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it at all. “Hey,” he said, more sharply than he intended. “What’s the matter?” Nice. If they were giving prizes for stupid, you’d need a trophy case.
Thankfully, she was so busy studying the fire, she didn’t seem to notice. “Nothing. It just... hurts.”
He could see how much the admission cost her. “Oh.” Another intelligent response. Frustrated, he searched for something relevant to say. “Yeah, well...I think you’re through transition, so it shouldn’t take much longer.”
The instant the words left his mouth, he knew he’d made a mistake.
Her head came around. Questions suddenly crowded her eyes. How come he knew so much? Where had he come by such knowledge?
It
