steamed this time. Unless it’s my sitting in on your checkup.”
“No! I’ve accepted that you have a right to do that, though I don’t like it.” She folded her arms across her chest, though they actually rested on top of her stomach. “But you don’t have a right to interfere in my personal life.”
He nudged her backward and stepped inside, closing the door. She was so wrapped up in her anger, she didn’t realize what he’d done for several minutes. “I didn’t invite you in!”
“But you should have. Grace would be appalled at your manners,” he assured her, still smiling.
“You think you’re so smart, but you wouldn’t be so popular if I told everyone you abandoned me after getting me pregnant!”
She immediately realized what she’d done when his eyes brightened and he took a step closer. “I didn’t mean you really—I meant what if I told them that! That’s what I meant. What if I lied to them?”
Somewhere during that speech, he’d switched to doctor mode, instead of father-to-be mode. “Your blood pressure is rising again. Come sit down. I’ll make you some more tea.”
“How do you know I want tea? Maybe I want a slug of whiskey, or a soda, or Kool-Aid! You don’t know me—or what I want.”
“I know you don’t want to hurt your babies. Come sit down, Bri.”
He arranged cushions behind her back. Then he picked up her cup and took it to the kitchen. In no time he was back with a fresh cup of tea, with cream added, much as Alice had made.
“Do you still have cookies to eat?” he asked.
She glared at him and didn’t answer.
“Honey, we need to talk about what’s upset you so it won’t make your blood pressure go up. I promise I haven’t deliberately tried to rile you.” He sat on the couch, pressing against her legs as she lay there. “Now, tell me what I did this time.”
“You told Alice, my dad, and probably Adam, Caleb and Grace about my checkup.” She doubled up her fist and hit him in the arm, knowing it wouldn’t hurt him, but maybe it would let him know how angry she was. “Alice told me I needed to eat the cookies because you told her I needed calories.”
“Who else but your cook should I have told? And I had to tell her about seeing the babies, so she’d believe me.”
“And my father?”
“Well, I could tell, when we talked at lunch, he was putting up a front about everything being all right. He was scared to death you were going to die just as your mother did. I wanted to reassure him.”
Her eyes filled with tears, and she bit her bottom lip. “And my brothers?”
“Your father asked me to call and reassure them because they were worried sick about you, too. You’re the only female in the group. They don’t know if you’re just trying to reassure them, or if maybe you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“And they believe you because you’re a man!”
“No, they believe me because I’m a medical professional who’s delivered a lot of babies.”
“Did you call Grace, too?”
“Yes, because she asked me to. She said she didn’t like to ask you because she was afraid it would make you worry.”
She sniffed. She’d been sure the man had overstepped his mark, but there he was, explaining it all away, making her look like a hysterical woman. “I—I still think you should’ve at least told me you were going to—to interfere in my life.”
He leaned forward to pick up the cup of tea and then held it to her lips. “Take a sip.”
She did so, trying to ignore his body pressed against her stomach. His touch drove her crazy. It apparently affected the girls, too, because they suddenly began jumping around like five-year-olds playing soccer, running in all directions and kicking anything that moved.
After he set the cup back on the table, he looked at her and whispered, “May I?”
She didn’t have to ask what he wanted. She knew he wanted to feel her babies move. She nodded.
His big warm hands spread out over her stomach, acting like a lightning rod for the movement. One lump in particular caught his attention. “I think one of the girls is standing on her head.” He rubbed the lump and it shifted.
“They move around a lot, especially at night.”
“Bri, I want to thank you for having the courage not to terminate the pregnancy.”
“You’re wel—I mean, it has nothing to do with you! Nothing at all.”
With his hands still on her stomach, he stared at her, challenging her words.
“These are my girls, and no one, not their father or anyone, is going to hurt my girls.”
“Why would you think their father would want to hurt them?” he asked softly.
“Because he hurt me! He left me alone, wanting—wanting his love and—and my children are better off just belonging to me. I won’t hurt them.”
“Are we talking about the mythical boyfriend who split? Or are we talking about me?”
She looked away, refusing to give him an answer. “I’m tired. I want to go to sleep.”
He sighed. “Okay. Do you need a foot rub?”
“No! I can manage.”
“All right, but you need to understand, Bri, that I’m going to watch over you, try to care for you and the girls. I’m not trying to hurt you or trap you into anything, okay?”
“Fine.”
“Okay, I’m going to go turn down the covers. Take my arm while I walk you to your bedroom.”
“I can—”
“I know you can. Just let me help. Then I’ll lock the door as I leave.”
“Fine!”
They walked to her bedroom in silence. He pulled down the covers, then covered her up as she settled in the bed. As he turned away, she saw him pause by her dresser.
“What is it?” she demanded as he picked something up and looked at it. Frantically, she tried to think what he could’ve found. Whatever it was, he put it back in the ceramic bowl where he’d found it and told her good-night. The minute he’d left her bedroom, she knew what he’d found.
A black stud from a tuxedo—ripped from Hunter the night they’d made love. The one thing she’d found of Hunter’s the next morning.
And treasured. The one sign that what she’d experienced hadn’t been a figment of her imagination.
Even
