going to get out of here alive?” moment after they’d been kidnapped together, along with her boss/patient. One damned time. And apparently she had everyone in Chance City snowed, convincing them they’d been in love.
“Did you even recognize me?” she asked from behind him.
He blew out a breath. “Not at first.” He should have, considering everything, but he’d been caught off guard, especially by her pregnancy. Would never have thought of her in terms of being pregnant. She’d had months to call and tell him that bit of news, all that time from Labor Day until Christmas before he’d gone deep undercover. She hadn’t called, so he’d decided he was safe from that worry.
“Would you have recognized me?” he countered, facing her.
“I don’t know. You’ve lost weight, and your hair is long. You look older. Maybe it’s the beard.”
He laughed coldly. Yeah, he’d aged about a hundred years. “Well, you’ve gained a lot of weight, and your hair is much longer, too.” She’d had short, straight hair before. Now it was almost shoulder length and wavy. But still a rich, shiny brown, a much deeper shade than her eyes—
The kitchen door swung open, and Donovan came in.
“Thanks for the heads-up,” Jake muttered.
Donovan ignored his sarcasm. “Everyone’s gone except family. Everything okay here?” he asked, looking from Jake to Keri.
“You should’ve called ahead,” Keri said. “That kind of shock can send a woman into labor, you know. And what about your mom and grandma? I thought you were in Alaska, anyway.”
“I was, until Jake called. We coordinated our flights to arrive in San Francisco at the same time.”
“Give us a minute more,” Jake said to his brother, not wanting dissension, too tired to participate. He shoved his hands in his pockets, found the small gold medallion he carried with him, rubbed it enough to heat it up.
“Sure,” Donovan said. “I just wanted you to know who was still here.”
As soon as the door shut, Jake focused on Keri. “Why does everyone think I’m in love with you?”
Her cheeks pinkened. “I didn’t think it was necessary to disillusion them. Besides, I was protecting your image.”
“And yours.”
“Yes. And our child’s. Your town…adopted me. But also I needed them, so I let them think what they wanted.”
He recalled the excited, hopeful look on his mother’s face as she’d waited for him to kiss Keri, the woman he loved. He closed his eyes, exhausted.
“You need to sleep,” Keri said, touching his arm.
He pulled back. “Where are you living?”
“With your grandmother. I’ve been helping take care of her.”
What now? He couldn’t live apart from her. People would ask too many questions, Nana Mae in particular. He’d spent his life living up to his grandmother’s expectations, as had all his siblings. He wasn’t about to start disappointing her now.
But at the moment, he couldn’t formulate a solid plan. “You need to come home with me, to my cabin. We have to figure out what we’re going to do.”
“All right,” she said, her voice low and raspy.
“We’ll make our goodbyes. They won’t be happy to have me leave again, but I don’t see any other solution.” There were details to be worked out, but those could wait.
Yesterday, before his flight home from Caracas, he’d almost gone looking for her but decided against it. If she’d wanted to see him, talk to him, she would’ve made the effort. She’d told him she wasn’t an accumulator—no house, no car, no major possessions. He gathered that meant people, too. So he’d come home, wrung out, needing to hole up for a while. Now he couldn’t, at least not alone.
Taking her arm, he moved toward the door, presenting a united front. He was completely aware of her. She was seven inches shorter than him, physically strong, reed slender when she wasn’t pregnant, competent as a nurse and caregiver and, beyond question, the most duty-bound person he’d known, which had been the problem in the end.
Touching her now sparked his most enduring memory, however, the one that never left his thoughts—how she was a wildcat in his arms…
His mother’s face lit up when they returned. He let go of Keri to give his mother another hug, then his grandmother, then his sisters. He vaguely recalled seeing some of his nieces at the party, but they were gone now.
“I’m sorry to take your helper away from you, Nana Mae,” he said to his grandmother, slipping into the familiar role of grandson, which had never included lying to her before. “Thank you for understanding that I want her with me.”
“There was no question about that, Jake. Don’t you worry about me. I’ll be fine. You go on. We’ll give you lovebirds some time.”
He spotted his youngest brother then, waiting by the door, and hugged him hard. “You haven’t made up with Dixie yet, Joe?”
“Nothing’s changed.”
Jake couldn’t read anything in his voice or expression. “Give me a day, then we’ll talk. For now, we’re going to swing by Nana Mae’s house and pick up some of Keri’s things then head to my cabin,” Jake said to the happy, still teary-eyed group. “Give us a little time, okay? I’ll be in touch.”
“My truck’s loaded with all the baby gear,” Joe said. “I’ll drop it off. Dix and a few others are headed to your place now to stock your refrigerator. Then we’ll leave you alone.”
Jake nodded. “Thank you, all of you, for not asking questions about what I’ve been doing. I’m sure you’re curious, and I’ll tell you when I’m up to it.” He waited, hiding his impatience, as Keri hugged everyone, then she and Jake went with Donovan to his rented SUV.
He wondered if she would accept that he didn’t want to talk to her, either. In his experience, women needed words. He barely had enough for cohesive thought, much less conversation.
And now there was too damn much that needed talking about.
From the backseat, Keri tried to memorize the route to Jake’s house as Donovan drove them, but she got lost in the twists and turns of the forested road. She’d never seen Jake’s cabin. Aggie had asked several times if she’d like to, but Keri always said no. She didn’t think he would like her invading his personal space like that, even pregnant with his child.
Talk about invading personal space.
The thought made her smile, which disappeared when the baby shoved a foot up against her rib cage, making her straighten then arch to accommodate the little soccer player. She grunted a little as she shifted.
“You okay?” Jake asked from the front passenger seat, looking over his shoulder.
“Your child just scored a goal.”
