Brody grinned and eyed the two mischievous boys. They were happily playing on a six-by-six, brightly colored rug. Cate had added a small train table, a container of plastic building blocks, a tub of Matchbox cars and an old-fashioned school desk that opened up and held crayons and paper for budding artists.
“Impressive,” he said.
Sharma beamed at him. “Do you have children, Mr. Stewart? I’m a single mom, so I’m always on the lookout for child-rearing tips.”
Or fresh meat. Cate maintained her smile...barely. Sharma was a dear, but that didn’t mean Cate wanted her panting after Brody. “Brody is Miss Izzy’s grandson, Sharma. He’s here visiting and helping with the cabin business.”
“I see.” Now Sharma’s eyes held a new appreciation. Gorgeous and rich? What woman could resist that?
Cate took Sharma’s arm and steered her away from Brody. “Let me show you the new kindergarten level pre-readers. I think the boys would love them, and it wouldn’t hurt to get them interested before school starts in the fall.”
Fortunately, the ploy worked. Brody was able to go back to perusing the Biography section, and he was close enough to the kiddie corner to make sure the boys weren’t doing anything dangerous.
Sharma picked out two books each for the brothers and headed for the cash register, plucking her credit card out of her pocket. “It’s a good thing my parents love reading, too. Now that they know about Dog-Eared Pages, they send the kids checks every few weeks to buy more books.”
“Works for me,” Cate said cheerfully. When she finished ringing up the sale, she glanced across the counter and grimaced inwardly. It would take her half an hour to clean up the mess. But Sharma was a great customer, so the inconvenience was worth it.
Brody was keeping his distance. Once, when Sharma wasn’t looking, he shot Cate a comical look over the tops of the nearest shelves. Cate grinned at him. Sharma’s pool of eligible men in Candlewick was limited. It made sense that she would see Brody in a positive light.
The woman, who was only a few years older than Cate, gathered up her progenies and headed for the front door. “I’ll be back soon,” she promised. “Tell Miss Cate goodbye, boys.”
Cate followed them, smiling, and then gasped as she stepped on something and her foot slid out from under her. She went down hard, landing on her right hip and banging her elbow on the floor.
Twelve
Brody’s head snapped up when he heard Cate cry out. Sharma and her twins were not even out the door yet. Cate was sprawled on the floor.
“Oh, Cate,” Sharma cried. “I am so sorry.”
Apparently, a small toy had unwittingly brought about the accident. Brody’s heart stopped. Cate had fainted several weeks ago, but this was far worse. Had she bruised her abdomen?
Heart in his throat, he crouched beside her. Cate struggled to sit up. “Wait a minute,” he said gruffly. “I need to make sure nothing is broken. It was an awkward fall.” He ran his hands along her arms and then her legs.
Sharma hovered, squawking and apologizing and generally getting on Brody’s nerves. “I’m all the time stepping on little toys at home. See, boys. See what you’ve done to poor Miss Cate.”
The twins appeared suitably chastened.
Brody managed a smile. “I think it’s best if we close the store so I can take Cate to the doctor. Do you mind turning the sign on your way out?”
“Of course.”
Sharma took her dismissal well. She shooed her kids out to the sidewalk, flipped the open sign to the opposite side, and closed the door behind her.
Brody sighed. “Good Lord.” He picked up a tiny car. “Is this the culprit?”
Cate nodded. “It was my own fault. I didn’t see it. I hit the floor so hard my teeth rattled.”
She was trying to be funny, but Brody could see that she was hurting. “We need to get you checked out,” he said firmly.
“My obstetrician’s office is forty-five minutes away at the regional medical center. Honestly, Brody, I don’t want to deal with that today. I’m fine, really. I’m sure I’ll have some wicked bruises, but there’s nothing the doctor can do for that.”
“True. But you can’t tell me you aren’t worried about the baby.”
She couldn’t deny it. Those beautiful summer-grass eyes were dark with anxiety. “Of course I am,” she muttered.
“Is there no doctor here in town who would see you?”
“Only a walk-in clinic. I’ve never met the people, but you don’t need an appointment to get in.”
“We’ll start there, then.” He bent and scooped her into his arms.
“I can walk, Brody,” she protested.
“Humor me, lass.”
He carried her out to the car and deposited her in the passenger seat. Then he made a quick jog back inside to retrieve her purse and lock up the store. He was gone, all in all, maybe four minutes.
When he returned, Cate had both hands on her belly.
“Are you hurting?”
She nodded. “Yes. But it’s muscles and bones. I don’t think the baby is in trouble. I can feel her moving around.”
“Thank God.” Relief made him light-headed.
The clinic was located on the outskirts of town in an area that was far less scenic than Main Street. The strip mall was home to a loan company, the clinic and a nail salon. Apparently, this was a busy time of day, because every parking spot was taken.
Before he could stop her, Cate had her hand on the door and was climbing out. “I can get in on my own, honestly.”
“Damn it.” He watched her walk gingerly inside. The stubborn woman was obviously in pain.
It took him three times around the block before he was able to find a legal parking space. He threw the car in Park, jumped out and hustled to the clinic. Though the storefront was uninspiring, the woman at the reception desk was friendly enough.
“Hello,” she said. “May I help you?”
Brody scanned the mostly empty waiting room. “I need to go back with Cate Everett.”
The woman eyed him with some suspicion. “Are you her husband?”
For a split second he thought about lying, but karma was a bitch, and he couldn’t take any chances. “No.”
“Family member?”
“No.”
Her smile was kind, but her response firm. “I’m sorry. You’ll have to wait out here.”
Brody came close to losing it. He couldn’t very well storm the castle, though. Cate had walked in under her own steam. Surely she wasn’t in any real danger. Then again, what did these people know about babies?
His wait stretched from thirty minutes to an hour. Then half an hour more. He couldn’t even text Cate because she had left her phone on the seat of the car. When he stood up to pace, the receptionist frowned, but didn’t stop him. In the interim, a few patients came out and left. A handful more checked in. What in the hell was taking so long?
When Cate finally appeared, Brody had worked himself into a frenzy. Only by studying her face was he able to put his fears to rest. She looked tired, but normal.
Once she had taken care of the bill, Brody took her arm and walked her slowly outside and down the sidewalk to where he had parked the car. “I told Granny I was taking you out for dinner,” he said.
“It’s only three o’clock,” Cate protested.
“But you missed lunch, and that’s not good for a pregnant lady. If you feel like riding in the car, I thought we’d go over to Asheville. I haven’t been there since I was a teenager. Grandda took Duncan and me to a concert once.”
Cate nodded. “I’d like that.”
“We need to talk, Cate, and as much as I love my grandmother, we don’t need an audience.”
They were in the car and on the way by now, so he couldn’t look at Cate directly, but she nodded slowly. “Okay. But no
talking now, please. All I want to do is take a nap.” She leaned her seat back and kicked off her shoes.
“Of course.” He tuned the radio to a soothing station and adjusted the air. “Do you need a snack on the way?”
“They gave me crackers and two bottles of water. I still have one in my purse.”
His hands clenched the wheel. “What did they say? Are you sure we don’t need to get you to a hospital?”
She bent her knees and curled up in an awkward position. “Very sure. The nurse called and made me an appointment with my ob-gyn tomorrow. As a precaution. But I’m fine. They poked and prodded and checked all my vitals a dozen times. I think it freaked them out that I was already bruising. That’s normal for me, though. The curse of fair skin.”
He reached out and took her hand in his. “You scared the hell out of me, lass. I heard the thud when you hit the floor.”
“It wasn’t a picnic for me, either, Brody. And poor Sharma...”
“Serves her right if she was upset. She should have taken the time to clean up after those wild boys.”
“They’re not bad kids,” Cate protested. “Just very active.”
“If you say so.”
Cate didn’t try to pull her hand away. He was glad. He and Duncan had grown up every bit as rambunctious as the two little monsters who had visited the bookstore earlier. The Stewart brothers had suffered through broken bones and stitches and countless thrashings from their father. Even in the worst of those situations, he never remembered fearing for his own safety.
But when it came to Cate... Damn. He couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her.
She was asleep almost instantly. He’d checked the route with his GPS during the long wait at the clinic. Now all he had to do was follow the road and think.
Summer would be here before he could blink, and with it, the need to return to Skye. The bulk of his tourist business took place during June, July and August. It wasn’t fair to expect Duncan to cover for him that long.
Could Brody go back to Scotland for a couple of months and then return for the birth? Would his absence during that time create a rift between him and Cate that could not be repaired? Already, he felt guilty for leaving her when they first met. It made no sense, not really.
Never at any moment had Cate expected him to stay. He’d been in Candlewick back in October for the express purpose of checking on his grandmother and reporting back to the family. He’d been entirely up front with Cate about that.
The two of them falling into bed had been a complication he never saw coming.
Now they were having a baby.
No matter how many times he parsed the information, he couldn’t come up with any clear answers.
He hit the outskirts of Asheville at rush hour. Though the mountains encircled the town, it was still a city, after all. Everybody was in a hurry to get home after work.
Cate didn’t wake up until he had to slam on the brakes to avoid rear-ending a delivery truck that stopped without warning. “Sorry,” he muttered.
She rubbed her eyes. “Please tell me we’re close. I’m starving, Brody.”
He chuckled. “Almost there.” He’d Googled restaurants and found one in the heart of town that promised romantic fine dining. Neither he nor Cate were dressed formally, but it was only five o’clock, so he was counting on the early hour to make their attire unexceptional.
The small dining room was actually part of a boutique hotel. The maître d’ welcomed them cordially and led them to an alcove partially hidden behind flowering trees. The corner booth was constructed of high-backed, dark, carved wood and cushions covered in crimson damask.
“This is beautiful,” Cate said, smiling as she took in the white linen tablecloth and the crystal, silver and china.
“I was hoping you would like it.” He seated her and slid into the adjoining bench. The ninety-degree angle of the booth meant he was close enough to touch her, but he could look at her, as well. That tiny detail was helpful, because this was an important moment, and he needed to be able to gauge her mood.
Their waitress was attentive but not obtrusive.
Cate gave the woman a bashful grin. “Don’t judge me for this order. I’m eating for two and I skipped lunch.”
“Not a problem, honey. I had three kids of my own. You’d better let yourself be pampered now. It’s all downhill from there.”
Brody passed Cate the basket of hot yeast rolls as the server walked away. “I hope she was kidding.”
“How would I know?”
“Are you scared, Cate?” It was a question that had been on his mind a lot in the past few days.
She spread butter on the fragrant bread and took a bite, her expression reflective. “Scared? No. Not really. More like anxious and overwhelmed and totally unprepared. I know I still have months to get ready, but I’m not entirely sure what ready means.”
It worried Brody that she had no mother or older sister to help her. Miss Izzy wouldn’t be much of an asset, either. His grandmother’s single childbirth experience happened about a million years ago. Everything about having babies had changed since then.
Over a meal of chicken Madeira and spinach salad and angel hair pasta, Brody touched on impersonal topics. Politics. The summer schedule at the bookstore. Miss Izzy’s upcoming health checkup. With the server constantly coming back and forth, there were too many interruptions to say what had to be said.
At last, the dinner was done. The only thing left was to consume the rich slices of salted caramel cheesecake. For this course, they were left in peace. It helped that the restaurant had become progressively more crowded.
Brody put down his fork and took a deep breath. “I have to go back to Scotland soon, Cate. But I want you to marry me before I leave. Not so I can control you,” he said hastily, “but because I want to have legal rights to protect you and the child.”
Her expression was impossible to read. With her gaze focused on her dessert, he couldn’t even see her eyes. “Why, Brody?”
The question was blunt. Unadorned.
“You know the reason. I’ve explained half a dozen times.”
“I don’t know why you’re so worried about protecting me. You didn’t even bother to come back and sit with me at the clinic. I was worried and bored and where were you? Checking email? It’s not my problem that you need a piece of paper to ease your conscience, Brody Stewart.”
Emerald eyes blazed at him. Cate was furious...probably had been the entire time since they left Candlewick.
His own temper kicked in. “Really? This is my fault now? Good God, Cate. I was pacing the floor. But I’m nothing to you, at least not as far as the doctor’s office was concerned. I wanted to be with you. Of course I did. They wouldn’t let me go back to the exam room.”
“Oh.” She deflated visibly. “I didn’t think of that.”
“Why didn’t you tell somebody to come out and get me?”
She gnawed her lip. “I didn’t want to seem needy. I just assumed you were happy where you were.”
He grimaced and sat back in his chair. Cate, wearing a soft cotton sweater that matched her eyes, looked as if she was about to cry.
“We’re not handling this very well, are we?” he said.
“No.” She shook her head and used the cloth napkin to wipe her eyes.
The waitress approached with their ticket, but Brody waved her off. “Marry me, Cate,” he said quietly. “Please. We can take a quickie honeymoon and then be back here to set up the nursery before I go.”
“Before you go to Scotland, you mean...” It wasn’t a question. Cate recognized his responsibilities almost as well as he did.
“Yes. I’ll be gone eight weeks, ten at the most. That will put me back in Candlewick in plenty of time for the birth.”
“And after the baby comes?”
&nb
sp; This was the part that tightened his throat and wrenched his stomach. “I don’t know yet. You’ll have to trust me to figure that out.” It was asking a lot of a woman whose vulnerabilities had been built betrayal by betrayal.
Her face was pale, her expression set. “I don’t want to be married in a church. Not when we both know this won’t last.”
The stubborn tilt of her chin threatened to ignite his temper again, but he forced himself to see beyond her truculence to the many ways she had been let down by the people in her life.
“If that’s what you want. We can have a civil ceremony.” Already, regret trickled through his veins. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. Cate deserved so much more.
“Swear to me you’ll never try to take my baby away from me.”
He said a word beneath his breath that he rarely used. Her lack of faith cut deep. “You have my word, Catie girl. You can trust me, I swear.”
Thirteen
A week later Cate stood in front of the cheval mirror in her bedroom at Isobel’s house and examined her reflection with dismay. Buying a wedding dress for a simple ceremony when a woman was almost six months pregnant was not an easy task. Particularly in a place like Candlewick.
Because Cate hadn’t felt up to a shopping trip in the nearby county seat, she had resorted to a trio of purchases online and had the packages overnighted. Unfortunately, none of the gowns worked.
Cate had in mind something simple but elegant. The first one was frillier than it had appeared in the photograph. She hated it so much she didn’t even try it on. The next dress draped tightly and showed her tummy far too much. This last one was the wrong shade of cream, making her look washed out.
She undressed and tried not to panic.
By the time she and Isobel had repacked the order and passed the box off to Brody with instructions on how to handle the shipping, Cate was exhausted and near tears again. She hated the weepy feeling.
Isobel urged her to sit. “All right, my sweet lass. Let’s take another tack. Would ye perhaps be interested in seeing my wedding dress? It’s old-fashioned, of course, but it’s been in a cedar chest since the week I wore it, and ’tis in good condition. It might suit.”
His Heir, Her Secret (Highland Heroes Book 1) Page 11