by Linda Kage
“Lex?” His raspy voice mirrored all the anxious emotions bubbling inside Coop…in triplicate.
After a couple hard pants, his wife nodded into his shoulder, her muffled answer coming, “I’m fine. Just a small contraction.”
“Contra—” Dex’s face drained of color. “Dear God, you’re in labor.”
“Yeah, huh. So let’s beat feet to the hospital already.” Em waved frantically toward the exit.
“I’ll drive,” Bran announced, slurring as he tripped after his wife.
“Good,” she started, but pulled up short when she glanced at him and took in his glassy-eyed grin. “Oh my God. You’re drunk!”
He hiccupped. “No, no. Well, okay. Maybe a little.”
Em swung around to pin Cooper with an accusing frown. “How much beer did you let him have?”
“Why are you looking at me?” Coop sent her an incredulous blink.
“Because Dex knows my husband can’t handle his liquor!” Emma exploded. “How the hell is he supposed to drive us to the hospital if he’s drunk?”
Coop shook his head. “I don’t know. Why can’t you drive?”
“Because…” She flushed. “I want to sit in the back with Dex and Lexi. You know, to help her breathe. And stuff.”
He refrained from mentioning the woman probably knew how to breathe all on her own.
“Oh, dear Lord.” Jo Ellen sighed out her impatience and took control of the situation. “I’ll drive. We can come back later for my car. You two sit with Alexa.” After pointing to Dex and Em, she shifted a leery glance at the drunk. “And Branson can ride shotgun.”
Bran grinned. “Cool. I get shotgun.”
Coop gazed in awe as she gathered up her group like a hen tucking her chicks in around her. What was even more astounding was how they all followed her instruction without question or argument. Honestly, was it any wonder why he was so utterly fascinated by her?
He could envision her at her job, hosting parties, so eloquently and gracefully standing in the center of the room on a raised platform, pointing and assigning tasks with such ease her underlings actually felt honored to attend her. He felt honored simply standing in the same room as her, watching her in all her soft-spoken, yet authoritative glory
They’d nearly made it to the door when he remembered one small detail. “Wait!” he called, hurrying after them. When Jo Ellen paused and turned back to send him a questioning glance, he faltered a step, uncomfortable with her gaze on him, able to see any flaw he might project.
“Yes?” she asked calmly and patiently enough, though he could detect the impatience in her gaze.
He fumbled. “Uh, actually…I didn’t know if you were aware, but they built a new hospital about four years ago. It’s on the other side of town now.”
Jo Ellen’s lips parted as her cheeks paled. “No, I wasn’t aware.”
Behind her, Em muttered, “Shit. How’re we supposed to find a new hospital in the dark?”
With a sigh, Coop pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. “Just give me a minute to pay my tab. Then you can follow my truck and I’ll lead you straight there.”
Jo Ellen shifted in her fancy leather shoes, looking briefly undecided, before she smiled tightly. “That would be so kind of you, Cooper. Thank you.”
Chapter Eleven
Cooper settled himself on one side of the waiting room and eyed the three people sitting across from him. Eyes bloodshot, Bran sipped from a Styrofoam cup of coffee, attempting to sober up. Emma Leigh pressed a cell phone to her ear as she explained to her parents what was going on, while Jo Ellen phoned Dexter’s family to announce the impending early arrival.
It had been about two hours since they’d last seen Dexter and Alexa disappear into the ER. No one had been out to apprise them of any updates.
Leaning back in his uncomfortable chair, Coop stretched his legs out and rested his head against the wall. He tried not to remember the last time he’d been inside the same hospital as Jo Ellen, but it was the only thing he could think about. There’d been an unborn baby’s life involved then too. He could only hope Dex and Lexi’s kid had a more successful outcome than Jo Ellen’s.
God, he still felt like hell about that night.
* * * *
“You really don’t have to stay, Cooper.” Jerking at the voice near his elbow, eighteen-year-old Coop lifted his gaze to find Jo Ellen’s mother sitting beside him.
He expected both her parents to hate him right now. He’d just spent the last few hours trying to convince them he’d impregnated their daughter…so they’d let him marry her. But only a sad compassion lingered in Tara Rose Rawlings’s liquid grey eyes. She had the same nose and mouth as Jo Ellen. They shared the same shape of the jaw as well. Seeing so much of her, his hands began to quiver a little harder than they’d already been trembling.
Why hadn’t the doctor come out to tell them how she was doing yet?
With a fierce shake of his head, he huddled more deeply into the waiting room chair. “I’m fine.”
Tara Rose lingered next to him, studying him with her quiet watchful gaze. He refused to make eye contact again; he didn’t want her to see all the fear inside him. Despite how he’d offered for Jo Ellen’s hand out of a noble intentions, the truth remained, he wanted her…he wanted her any way he could get her. But if she lost the baby, there’d be no need for him to marry her.
His body shuddered with guilt since a part of him wanted the baby to live for his own selfish reasons.
“Thank you,” Tara Rose murmured, making him jolt in surprise.
Confused, he looked up, against his better judgment. “For what?”
Her smile was rueful. “For sticking by her side when she obviously felt as if she had no one else to rely on.” She reached out and covered his forearm with a warm hand. “As much as her father and I wanted to wrap our arms around her and coddle, we needed to act tough and scare her a little, so she’d understand the severity of what had happened. But…we never dreamed it would upset her this way.” Guilt lined her features, and Cooper frowned as he studied her.
“So you never planned to give her baby up for adoption? You lied to her?”
Tara Rose flushed. “Of course we never would’ve sent our only grandchild to complete strangers.” Sniffing, she fumbled as she opened her purse and tugged out a tissue. After dabbing at her wet eyes, she blew her nose.
Inside, Coop felt hollow and alone. Jo Ellen had never needed his help; he should’ve known her family would take care of her.
Glancing at her mother, he drew in a tight breath. “She’ll be okay,” he said, speaking the words with assurance, thinking if he believed them hard enough they’d come true.
But almost as soon as he spoke, the doctor appeared in the doorway, asking for the Rawlings family. As her parents and three siblings gathered around the physician, Cooper remained stiff in his chair. The doctor’s calm and emotionless voice chilled Coop as he explained how Jo Ellen’s fetus had aborted itself.
Her baby was dead.
“She hemorrhaged a little heavier than usual for these situations, which prompted us to take a few tests. But she’ll be fine. She was, however, so upset we had to sedate her. I’ll allow two family members at a time to visit her.”
Jo Ellen’s mother and father immediately sprang forward. Her three siblings remained squished together, holding hands, as they stood frozen in the doorway of the waiting room.
When Mr. and Mrs. Rawlings and the doctor disappeared, the agony finally claimed Cooper. He bent his head nearly between his spread knees, cradled his face in his trembling palms, and wept.
He wasn’t sure how long sobs claimed him, but he sucked in a surprised breath when someone sat beside him and began to rub his back. He glanced up and was even more shocked to find Emma Leigh watching him with sympathetic but dry eyes.
He wiped at his wet face but couldn’t even remove a portion of the moisture. “Why are you consoling me?” he finally asked.
“I d
on’t know. It wasn’t even your baby, Coop. Why are you taking it so hard?”
“I don’t know.” He sniffed and studied his hands. Yeah, he would’ve liked to have a reason to insert himself permanently into Jo Ellen’s life. But now that she’d actually miscarried her child, his pain went deeper.
“She loved that baby,” he said, unable to handle knowing she’d lost something she’d loved. “When she told me your parents might take it away, she looked lost. She wanted to keep it so bad. She…she must be devastated right now.”
Emma Leigh grew quiet but continued to rub his back. “I know I’ll sound awful for saying this, but…a miscarriage was probably the best thing for her.”
He jerked back and scowled. “Yeah, you do,” he growled. “I wouldn’t talk that way around her if I were you.” This was neither the time nor the place to discuss what was best for Jo Ellen’s future; she’d just lost her child.
Em sighed and bumped her shoulder against his. It was then he realized both her brothers had drawn closer and were standing nearby, hovering with solemn expressions, as if they too wanted to offer him their condolences.
“Coop, she’s only eighteen,” Em tried again. “Having a kid right now would change her entire life. It might keep her from going to college or prevent—”
“I know that,” he snapped, “but don’t you get it? Her baby just died. Jesus, she was its mother. She must be hurting something fierce.”
Emma nodded and pressed her lips firmly together. “You’re right,” she agreed just as her parents returned.
“Emma Leigh, would you like to see her?” Tara Rose asked.
When Jo Ellen’s twin hurried to her feet, Mrs. Rawlings then glanced toward her oldest child. “Grady?”
Instead of stepping in with Emma Leigh to visit Jo Ellen, Grady instead pulled back, his attention on Cooper. “Do you want to go next?”
A tight ball of misery formed in his chest. He didn’t understand any of this. Why was Jo Ellen’s family being so nice to him? Why did he feel so suddenly inconsolable?
Instead of nodding, he shook his head. “I don’t know why she’d want to see me,” he choked out the words as he pushed to his feet. “I think…I think I’ll head home.”
He turned and walked away from her family and out the hospital’s front doors, having no idea that was as close as he’d get to the girl of his dreams for another ten years. A week later, Grady informed him that Jo Ellen had decided to spend the rest of the school year with her aunt in Reno anyway, and Emma Leigh had gone with her for moral support.
* * * *
Jo Ellen’s hands felt like ice as she rubbed them together in her lap. It made no sense. This was summer, in Texas. Nothing should be cold. But a chilly breeze from the air handler vents above blew across her shoulders, freezing her to the core.
After sending a brief glance across the room to see Cooper stretched out in his chair, head tipped back and resting against the wall with his eyes closed and his cowboy hat propped on his belly, she swallowed and transferred her gaze to Branson and Emma Leigh cuddled together a few seats down, whispering quietly to each other.
A deep yearning claimed her. She wished she had someone to cling to as Emma Leigh did. She wished she had a hand to hold.
They’d heard nothing about Lexi’s prognosis, and three hours had passed. A renewed fear clutched her abdomen. She was suddenly very glad she’d been three states away when her twin had given birth; she would’ve panicked herself into an early grave if she’d been close.
But baby Brand hadn’t been a month premature. There must be complications with Alexa’s baby if she was delivering this early. What if the boy died, or had problems, defects—
Branson suddenly cleared his throat and pushed to his feet, making Jo Ellen jump. “Uh…” He looked uncertain as he helped Emma Leigh from her chair. “We need to head back to your parents’ place for a little while,” he announced. “Em’s—”
Flushing, he floundered. In his chair, Cooper immediately sat up and opened his eyes. He looked alert enough to make Jo Ellen suspect he hadn’t been sleeping at all.
“I’m leaking,” Em was more forthright to explain. She folded her arms over her chest as if she was cold, though Jo Ellen understood almost immediately she was wet, not cold. “It’s been too long since I last fed Brand.”
“But you’ll come back?” Jo Ellen asked, praying she didn’t sound too hopeful. She needed her twin’s solid presence nearby to help her through these next few grueling hours. If something happened to Dexter’s baby, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to handle it.
Em bit her lip uncertainly, and Jo Ellen immediately realized how selfish she sounded. “No, you’re right,” she answered before Emma Leigh could speak. “You should be with your son.”
“We’ll return first thing in the morning to check on Lex.”
Jo Ellen nodded.
“I can give Jo Ellen a ride back to Rio’s for her car once we’re done here.”
Cooper’s low words sent a bolt of heat and anxiety through her. She glanced his way to find he’d come out of his chair and was approaching their group to join the discussion. The reality of the situation suddenly struck her. Once her sister departed, she’d be left alone…with Cooper Gerhardt.
Emma Leigh’s earlier words echoed about in her head. Every time he saw me, he’d always send this quick glance around me to check who I was with. Took me a couple years to figure out he was looking for you.
Jo Ellen shivered. Her nerves felt singed. “Oh…no. No, thank you. I’ll just…” She glanced at Em and Bran, swallowing.
There really wasn’t any other option, was there? Still. How could she survive the night, next to a man who’d been involved in so much of the horrible parts of her past, the very man who set her body on fire with a mere glance.
Bowing her face, she demurred, “You don’t have to stay on my account, Cooper. It’s getting late and—”
“I don’t mind.” When she looked up, he shrugged. “Leaving now would be like walking out of the theatre before the movie was up. I want to get a look at this new tyke once he arrives.”
“Oh.” She flushed. “Well…” Ack, she couldn’t turn him down now. That would just be foolish and rude. But sitting alone with him, riding next to him in his truck…it made her blood skyrocket through her veins, and she couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing. “I…thank you. I’d appreciate it.”
He nodded politely, though his gaze remained unreadable. The next moment, he shifted his pale brown eyes from her, and she felt a little bereft as he turned his attention to her twin’s husband. He stuck out his hand. “Bran, it was nice to meet you. Stop by the farm before you leave town and I’ll give you the grand tour of what real country living is like.”
Jo Ellen figured he made his invitation out of kindness with no inclination Branson would actually accept.
But Bran’s face lit with interest. “Really? Do you have, like, real cows and everything?”
Emma Leigh huffed. “Hey, I grew up on a farm. Where do you think you’ll be staying for the entire week?”
Bran gave her a bland look. “You grew up in the country, yes. But I wouldn’t go calling that multi-million dollar oil producing land a true farm.”
Cooper chuckled. “Well, we don’t have enough to consider ourselves true ranchers, but yeah, we got a couple head of cattle. Mostly though, we just crop farm.”
“Wow. That would be so sweet. I’d love to take a tour.”
“Bran’s always wanted to go fishing too.” Emma grinned like an indulgent parent who wanted to give her sweetheart whatever he so desired.
With a nod, Cooper complied. “Sure. We got a nice stock of crappie and perch in our lake right now, and I have a couple extra fishing rods you could use.”
“We’ll come out tomorrow, then,” Em announced as she began to dance around, holding her arms tightly over her breasts. “I’ll call in the morning. But right now, we really gotta go.”
Afte
r waving Jo Ellen farewell, Emma Leigh grasped her husband’s elbow and propelled him toward the exit.
Coop chuckled, transferring his smile to Jo Ellen. “She hasn’t changed at all, has she? Still as brash and unabashedly candid as ever.”
The amused expression on his face grew infectious and Jo Ellen found herself smiling back at him, momentarily forgetting how her stomach kept knotting with tension. “Branson and Brand have tempered her quite a bit, but no, I don’t think she’ll ever learn to quell that open, honest tongue of hers.”
He shook his head and smiled as if reminiscing about his good times with her twin sister. A wave of jealousy swept through her. He’d always been close to Em but never to her.
Emma Leigh must’ve gotten it all wrong; no way could Cooper have wanted her when he’d been friends with the vivacious, outgoing twin. Besides, he had never done anything to lead Jo Ellen to believe he’d cared about her more than he had anyone else. Even offering her marriage when they were eighteen was simply a typical self-sacrificial Cooper move to her.
Besides, what did it matter now? That had been ten years ago. Whatever he might’ve felt then had no doubt faded over time, which only depressed her.
As if sensing her somber mood, Cooper’s smile faltered. He cast her an uneasy grin and rubbed at the back of his neck, reminding her once again how they’d been left alone together. With his cowboy hat off, his blond hair had matted to his head, giving him a serious case of hat hair. Yet he still looked too hunky to handle, and her tummy knotted with hot lumps of tension.
“You’re invited to come out to the farm, too, of course,” he said, as if he felt it’d be rude to exclude her from his invitation.
Immediately uncomfortable with the idea of going anywhere near his home place, she opened her mouth, trying to think up a polite way to decline. But the blasted man had to go and add, “Mama always liked you and Em. I’m sure she would relish as much company as she could get these days.”