be taken care of with the writing of a check. This wasn’t a drunk and disorderly charge where Jake could talk the sheriff into not locking Justin up in jail for the night.
“Everything all right?” Kerri asked worriedly as they reentered the kitchen.
“Fine,” Grace replied. “I want to thank you all for your wonderful hospitality, but it’s time the girls and I get back on the road. If I leave now I’ll be able to get home to Wichita before dark.”
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather spend the night here and get a fresh start in the morning?” Kerri asked as she got up from the table. “We certainly have plenty of room.”
Jake watched Grace, who shook her head negatively. “Thanks for the offer, but I’d rather just get back home,” she said.
Her cheeks hadn’t regained any color. He didn’t know if the paleness had to do with the situation or if it was the pain from her fall.
His question was answered the minute she tried to get Abby out of the high chair. Grace started to lift the child, but immediately cried out and grabbed her left shoulder instead.
“What happened?” Jeffrey asked as he jumped out of his chair and hurried to Grace’s side.
“I took a little tumble in the yard.” Her voice was filled with pain.
“Justin didn’t push you, did he?” Kerri asked, a touch of outrage in her voice. Jake looked at Kerri in surprise. As far as he knew his brother had never laid a finger on any woman, but of course he’d never found out he was the father of triplets before either.
“No, nothing like that,” Grace replied hurriedly. “I just missed a step, stumbled and went down.”
“We need to get you to the hospital and have that shoulder looked at,” Jake said, deciding somebody had to take control of the situation. There was no way he could let her leave knowing she couldn’t lift the little girls. It wouldn’t even be safe for her to drive her car.
He expected Grace to protest. Instead, after a moment of hesitation, she nodded, which let him know that it had to be hurting her quite a bit.
“Maybe you’re right. It’s really painful.” Still she made no move. She gazed at her three daughters, who were happily smooshing and playing and eating what was left on their plates.
“Then let’s go.” Jake dug his truck keys out of his pocket. “The girls will be fine here with Kerri and Jeffrey.”
“Absolutely,” Kerri replied with a reassuring smile. “It will be good practice for us.”
“I promise you, they’ll be fine,” Jake said to Grace. She held his gaze, as if trying to peer inside him to see if she could trust him. “Come on,” he said with a touch of impatience. “You can decide what you want to do about heading home after the doctor takes a look at you.”
He could tell she was reluctant to go, but it was obvious she was in a fair amount of pain. She was going to the hospital if he had to throw her over his shoulder and carry her there.
They didn’t speak as she followed him out of the house and they got into his truck.
A new surge of irritation filled him. He shouldn’t be the one taking her to the hospital. It should have been Justin. His brother should be the one taking care of the mother of his children, no matter what the circumstances.
“I’m so sorry,” she finally said as he pulled out of the drive and onto the main road that would take them to Cameron Creek.
“Don’t apologize. You didn’t fall on purpose,” he replied. He could smell her, the scent of a bouquet of wildflowers that was far too appealing.
“True, but the last thing I wanted was to be any kind of a bother to anyone.” She leaned back against the seat. For a moment she looked so achingly vulnerable Jake wanted to reach out and touch her, assure her somehow that everything was going to be fine.
Instead he clenched the steering wheel more tightly. “Look, I know Justin behaved badly. But I meant it when I said once he’s had time to digest everything I’m sure the two of you will be able to work something out.”
“All I really wanted was for him to know about them and maybe spend some time with the girls, be a positive role model in their lives.” She shifted positions and hissed in a breath, as if any kind of upper body movement caused her pain.
“You must have hit the ground pretty hard.”
“I did. I have a gun in my pocket, and even though the safety was on, as I was falling I was afraid I’d hit the ground so hard it would pop off and somehow I’d shoot myself, so I twisted to make sure my shoulder and not my side took the brunt of the fall.”
“A gun?” He looked at her in stunned surprise. She definitely didn’t look like the gun-toting type. “Why on earth would you have a gun in your pocket?”
“I didn’t know what kind of people you were. I wasn’t even sure I’d find Justin here. I wasn’t about to drive into a place where I’d never been before without some sort of protection for me and my girls. Besides, I got your address from a cyberfriend and my sister was afraid I might wind up at the home of some pervert sitting around in his underwear and stalking women over the internet.”
“I’m definitely not a pervert, but if Jeffrey and Kerri weren’t living with me, there might be times I’d sit around in my underwear,” he replied with a wry grin.
He felt himself relaxing a bit, some of his irritation passing. None of this was her fault, and he’d be a jerk to punish her for his brother’s actions or inactions.
He was rewarded with her smile, and her beauty with that gesture warming her features struck him square in the gut. He quickly focused his attention back on the road.
Okay, he could admit it to himself, he felt a little burn of physical attraction for Grace Sinclair. He shouldn’t be surprised. She was a beautiful woman, and it had been over a year since Jake and the woman he’d been seeing for almost six months had called it quits. Just because Grace attracted him didn’t mean there was a chance in hell that he’d follow through on it.
She was Justin’s issue, not his. And the very last thing Jake wanted in his life at this moment or at any time in the future was anyone who might need him. The last thing he needed was another issue to solve. He was totally burned out in that area.
He slowed his speed as they entered the city limits of Cameron Creek. Unlike a lot of the small towns in Oklahoma that were dying slow, painful deaths, Cameron Creek was thriving and growing. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for the anomaly other than the fact that the city council of Cameron Creek worked hard to make it a pleasant place to live. It also helped that on the south side of town was a large dog food factory that employed most of the people in the area.
“Hopefully I’ve just bruised it and it will be fine in an hour or two,” she said as he parked in front of the attractive little hospital’s emergency room entrance.
“You still have that gun in your pocket?” he asked as he shut off the engine. She nodded. She used her right hand to reach in her left pocket and pulled out the revolver. “It would probably be best if you didn’t carry it into the emergency room. Do you mind if I lock it in the
