Married to the Mom-to-Be

by Helen Lacey

  Marion Rickard was mother earth. After several failed pregnancies early in her marriage, she’d had Kayla when she was thirty-nine years old. Kayla knew her parents considered her something of a miracle child, and that was why they loved her so fiercely. Smothered her, she sometimes felt. But she adored her parents and was grateful for the unconditional love they had bestowed on her all her life. And she had always done her best to make them proud. She’d achieved high grades in school and then attended a good college. After college she worked at the museum in Denver and had a long-term relationship with a respectable professor, always knowing her parents were proud of her achievements. When she’d returned to Cedar River permanently it was exactly what they wanted. She knew they expected her to marry and start a family. And that was what Kayla wanted, too...except for one major complication...

  Liam.

  “Everything all right?” Her mother’s voice jerked her back into the present as she prepared a pot of her mother’s favored peppermint tea in the staff room. “You seem distracted.”

  “I’m fine,” she fibbed and brought the pot and two small mugs to the table. “Just tired.”

  “You’ve been working long hours,” her mother remarked as they sat down. “And you’ve probably been doing too much organizing for the benefit. Why it had to be held here at the museum, I don’t know. There are plenty of—”

  “I volunteered for it to be held here,” Kayla explained. “And it’s been a gratifying experience being on the hospital committee and helping with the event. The hospital needs this money that this benefit will bring, Mom. It’s important to our town.”

  Her mother nodded. “I know, but I don’t like to see you looking so pale and exhausted.”

  Kayla almost blurted out the reason why she looked like so tired. Almost. Although her mother was definitely going to take the news better than her father, she felt she had to tell them together. “I’m fine, Mom. Just tired and hungry.”

  “Don’t neglect your health, that’s all I’m saying.”

  “I won’t,” Kayla promised. “And I’ll drop by for dinner on the weekend, okay?”

  Her mother nodded. “I’ll make your favorite pasta.”

  “Sure,” she said and smiled, thinking she wanted nothing more than to go home, strip off her clothes and soak in a bath for half an hour. But since she only had a shower at her apartment, that idea was off the table. She had a lingering thought about the huge spa tub at Liam’s place. It was decadent and luxurious and large enough for two—something they’d taken advantage of many times during the last five months. Well, certainly in the early months of their relationship when she hadn’t had to think about their unexpected Vegas marriage or having a baby on the way.

  Her hand automatically rested on her abdomen and she felt an instant connection to the child in her womb. It was unlike any feeling she’d experienced before and Kayla had no idea how to compartmentalize her emotions. All her life she’d responded a certain way—being the loyal daughter, the caring friend and, when in an intimate relationship, the obliging girlfriend. But knowing her baby was inside her, Kayla didn’t feel loyal or obliging. She felt the need to protect her child with such fierceness, such soul-wrenching intensity, that nothing else mattered—not even the heavy heart she experienced when her mother left a few minutes later. She’d always been unfailingly devoted to her parents and hated deceiving them...until now. Once she’d been to the doctor and had a checkup, only then would she tell them about the baby and Liam.

  By the time she headed back to her apartment it was close to five o’clock. And she groaned inwardly when she spotted Liam’s hulking Silverado parked outside. Not because she didn’t want to see him. She simply didn’t want to rehash the same discussion they’d had that morning. However, she quickly noticed that his truck was empty and there was no sign of him on the front porch. She was fishing for the apartment key on her key ring when she heard voices coming from the backyard. Kayla walked around the house and discovered her elderly neighbor, Mary, standing by the old gazebo and pointing upward. Then she noticed Liam, dangling high in the air off a rickety old ladder, with Mary’s old ginger cat tucked under one arm.

  “Oh, yes,” Mary said breathlessly. “That’s good. He’s safe now.”

  By the time Kayla reached the gazebo, Liam was halfway down the ladder, while a clearly distressed Mary had her arms outstretched, ready to retrieve her precious pet. Jinx was renowned around the Victorian for getting trapped on top of the old gazebo. Usually it was Dane or Mr. Cartwright from the ground-floor apartment who was wrangled into getting the cat down. But not today.

  Liam noticed her the moment he stepped off the ladder and passed the feline to its owner. He smiled and her insides immediately did a silly flip. Even after everything they were going through, he could still make her weak at the knees. She looked him over, spotted his jacket and a brown grocery bag strewn across the grass. His hair was mussed and his shirt torn down one sleeve. Obviously Jinx hadn’t wanted to come down from his comfy spot easily.

  “Everything okay here?” Kayla asked and stood beside Mary.

  Her neighbor gave a long and relieved sigh. “Oh, yes, thanks to this young man. My poor little Jinx got himself wedged up there and he couldn’t get down,” Mary said as she pressed the cat against her chest.

  “You should take Jinx inside,” Kayla suggested gently and smiled. “You know how he gets wanderlust in the evenings.”

  Mary nodded. “Yes. And the poor little dear can hardly see much these days. Thank you,” she said, grinning broadly as she turned her attention back toward Liam and then tutted. “Oh, look at your shirt. I can try and repair it for you, if you want to take it off now I’ll see that it’s—”

  “Ah, no,” Liam said quickly, clearly not prepared to de-robe in front of the older woman. “It’s fine. I’m just glad that your pet is okay.”

  Mary smiled, blushed a little and then nodded, openly in the throes of a little hero worship. “Jinx is all I have,” she said and turned, tearing up before saying one final thank-you to Liam and then muttering soothing words to her now purring cat as she headed back to the house.

  Once the older woman was inside and out of sight, Kayla turned her attention back toward her husband. “Looks like you just made a friend for life,” she said and smiled. “Although she did seem awfully keen to get you out of your clothes.”

  He grinned. “Jealous?”

  Kayla laughed and the sound caught on the breeze. “I’m not the jealous type,” she said as she stepped closer and saw that his shirt was torn in a few places. “And I don’t think that shirt can be salvaged. Come upstairs and you can change into something else. I’m sure there are a couple of your shirts in my wardrobe.”

  “Sure.” He nodded as he grabbed his jacket and the brown bag and then held out his closed fist, slowly opening his palm. “Although I don’t think that’s my biggest problem at the moment.”

  Kayla saw the blood congealed in the middle of his hand and rushed to his side, grabbing his fingers and holding his palm upward. “You’re hurt? Why didn’t you say so?” She examined the injury. “It looks deep. It might need stitches.”

  He shook his head. “It’s not that bad. I must have caught a nail up there.”

  Kayla gave him a gentle shove in the direction of the house and entered through the back, keeping his injured hand suspended between them. Once they were upstairs in her apartment she sat him at the dining table and retrieved the first-aid kit from the bathroom. It took a few minutes to clean and swab the wound and then cover it with a plaster strip. It wasn’t as deep as she’d first thought and didn’t need stitches.

  “That should do it,” she said and stood. “I’ll just go and grab you a shirt.”

  When she returned he was standing by the sofa, shirtless, and she sucked in a breath at the sight of him. His smooth, tanned skin had its usual
effect on her and attraction, deep and heartfelt, surged through her. Her gaze moved over him slowly, across his broad shoulders, muscled arms and chest, and down to the six-pack that always had the power to make her weak at the knees. Never in her life had she ever found any man as attractive as she found Liam. It wasn’t simply a reaction to his good looks. It went much deeper. It was alchemy, chemistry, a kind of soul-to-soul connection that had a will and power all of its own. And she knew he felt it, too. Knew he was as drawn to her as she was to him.

  “You sure you want me to put that on?” he asked silkily, gesturing to the shirt she had in her hands.

  Kayla swallowed hard and passed him the shirt. “Positive. Don’t want you catching a chill.”

  His mouth twisted. “It’s as warm as toast in here,” he said as he pulled on the polo and flattened it over his stomach. “In case you hadn’t noticed.”

  She had noticed. She was hot. All over. But not from the temperature in the room or the fact that it was mild and still sunny outside. But because the man in front of her was so damned gorgeous. Kayla shrugged lightly. “How’s the hand?”

  “Fine,” he replied. “Thank you.”

  Kayla crossed her arms, ignoring the fluttering in her belly. “So, what are you doing here?”

  He grinned, like he’d been expecting the question from the moment they’d clapped eyes on one another. “You mean besides untangling your neighbor’s cat from the roof of that broken-down gazebo?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “Other than the heroics, why are you here?”

  “I needed to see you,” he said flatly. “Six hours ago you told me you wanted a divorce... I’m pretty sure we still need to talk about that.”

  Guilt pressed down on her shoulders. “It was an emotional moment...and I was...I was...”

  “I know that,” he said gently and she melted. Damn...sometimes Liam O’Sullivan could be the just about the sweetest man on the planet. “Which is why I’m here.” He grabbed the small brown bag and held it up. “For you,” he said and smiled. “I dropped by the Muffin Box and grabbed some of that fancy tea you like and a few of those salted caramel, dairy-free brownies.”

  Kayla’s heart pounded. “Oh...that was very thoughtful. Thank you.”

  He shrugged and then his expression narrowed. “Have you eaten much today?”

  She knew that look. Liam could be something of a worrier when it came to her diet, even though he was a strong-coffee, cold-pizza kind of guy. “I had breakfast and lunch,” she said, thinking it was a stretch to call the three bites of a sandwich she’d had at midday any kind of adequate meal, but she wasn’t about to embellish on the fact.

  “You know you need to snack during the day,” he said. “Did you make an appointment with your doctor?”

  Kayla nodded, watching as he dropped the brown bag on the table behind the sofa, crossed his arms loosely and looked at her. Through her, she thought, searching her face with eyes so blue she didn’t dare look away. There were questions in his gaze. And tenderness and anguish, too.

  “You know,” he said slowly, swallowing hard, “I don’t mean to come across as demanding or entitled...or anything else you seem to think of me.”

  There was hurt in his words. Words that were an echo of what she’d said to him earlier that day. “I know you don’t mean to.”

  “But it’s in my blood, right?” he shot back. “In my DNA to be an arrogant jerk who thinks he can snap his fingers and have the world come running? Does that about cover it?”

  Shame, sharp and abrasive, sliced between her shoulders blades. And something else, a niggling sense of resentment that had been building all day. Maybe longer. Since she’d first told him she thought she was pregnant. Since he’d shown up unannounced to her apartment the night before. Since he’d insisted they go to Rapid City together. And since he’d driven her back to his house so she could take the pregnancy test and then demanded she tell her family about the baby and their marriage. In the last twenty-four hours Kayla had discovered that she didn’t like being told what to do. The resentment wavered for a second, allowing guilt to surge forward. Like a seesaw, she shifted from one emotion to the next, caught between loathing and loving him in that moment. Of course, loving him won out. Because she was in love with Liam, despite their complicated relationship.

  “I guess we can’t help who we are,” she said quietly. “Including me. I know you think I’m a coward.”

  “Is that what I think?” he asked, his dark brows raised slightly.

  Kayla shrugged. “You must. I do.”

  He took a few strides across the room until they were barely a foot apart. He grabbed her hand and raised it to his mouth, softly kissing her knuckles. “For the record, I don’t think you’re a coward, Kayla. But you’re right about one thing, I am used to getting my own way. So, I’ll spend the next two nights alone in our house, because I promised I’d give you the time you need to tell your folks. But once everyone knows, I want you back...permanently. This isn’t a request,” he continued when she pursed her lips in protest. “And you can call me arrogant and demanding and entitled and everything else you have in that arsenal of yours. But you’re my wife and you’re carrying my child—and I want you both back home by Friday night.”

  Then he kissed her. Hot and hard and with possession stamped all over it. When he released her she stepped back, breathing heavily, her lips tingling, her knees wobbling. She didn’t have a chance to protest. Or to beg him to kiss her again. Because he grabbed his jacket and left the apartment without another word.

  It took Kayla an hour before she managed to calm her nerves. She drank a cup of the tea he’d brought her and nibbled on the brownies. She tried to keep her thoughts occupied that evening with television and then a novel, but neither worked, so she had a shower and climbed into bed by eight thirty. By midnight Kayla was still staring at the ceiling and by the time she rolled out of bed the following morning she was tired, aching and tempted to call in sick for work. She didn’t, and instead arrived at the museum just before nine o’clock.

  “We have the bus tour from Rapid City arriving at ten,” Shirley reminded her once she’d flipped the shingle to the open sign.

  Kayla nodded wearily and did a swift visual inventory of the gallery before she spent some time with the older woman in the gift shop. They discussed the impending arrival of a new range of craft work from a local Lakota artist that was certain to sell quickly. By ten o’clock the tourists arrived and she spent half an hour giving a tour of the exhibits in the museum and art gallery. When she was done, Shirley took over the group and Kayla headed back to her office.

  She was halfway there when she experienced a sudden lethargy in her limbs. Sweat broke out over her brows and she grabbed on to a chair by the gift shop to steady herself. Her fingers were suddenly numb and she swayed, losing hold of the chair. Somewhere, through the white noise now screeching between her ears, Kayla heard a concerned voice call her name. And as she fell to the floor she peered up and saw the blur of half a dozen faces staring down at her. There were more voices. More whispers. More white noise. And then when she finally closed her eyes, blackness wrapped around her as her hand instinctively lay on her belly, and then Kayla had only one coherent thought.

  Liam...

  Chapter Five

  Spending time with his father was never really a chore. But Liam wasn’t in any kind of mood to think about business or locking up a deal with Derek Rickard’s hard-ass lawyer. Tyler Madden was good, he’d give him that. The deal to buy the warehouse was on paper and all they had to do was sign and then get Rickard to do the same. Easy. Only, his father was quibbling about three old trucks that had been left inside the building decades ago and apparently had some sentimental value to both men. But Liam didn’t care. He wanted the papers signed, the meeting to be over, and then to get back to his office and suffer in silenc
e.

  “They are my trucks,” he heard his father say and then Liam rolled his eyes. An easy contract negotiation this wasn’t going to be. Not when two hardheads like his dad and Derek Rickard were involved. “If Rickard hasn’t the backbone to be here for this meeting then he doesn’t get to have everything his own way. Call him now and tell him I want what’s mine or the deal is off.”

  Tyler nodded and jotted something down on the notepad in front of him and looked about as impatient with the negotiations as Liam felt. The other man put a call through, had a brief conversation and then ended the call, frowning as he returned his attention to them.

  “From your expression I take it that didn’t go so well?” Liam inquired cynically.

  Tyler shook his head. “My client isn’t in a position to make any changes to this agreement today,” he said and filed the contract into a folder on his desk.

  “And why the hell not?” Liam heard his father shoot back irritably.

  “Something personal has come up. It seems his daughter has been taken to the hospital and he’s not available to...”

  Liam didn’t hear anything else. He sprang to his feet as though his heels were on fire and was out the door so fast he barely heard his father calling his name as he raced through the office, past the secretary stationed in the reception area and then headed out to the street. By the time he reached his Silverado his hands were shaking so badly he could barely get the vehicle open.

  The ten-minute drive to the community hospital seemed like the longest of his life and he pulled into the parking lot across two car spaces and didn’t waste time changing the fact. Liam was through the doors to the ER within half a minute and standing agitated by the reception desk, demanding to see Kayla and the details of her condition. Of course the nurse behind the desk knew who he was. He was easily recognized around the town and had spent enough time on the hospital committee to be familiar to the staff.