Lou smiled. He wasn't saying the words, but she was hearing them. He loved Callie. So it was like that. The mercenary was caught in his own trap. And, amazingly, he didn't want to get out of it. He wanted the baby!
"What do you want me to do?" she asked.
"I want you to do a blood test and see if she really is pregnant. But if she is, I want you to make some excuse about the results being inconclusive, and you can give her a prescription for some vitamins and ask her to come back in two weeks."
"She'll worry that it's something fatal," Lou advised. "People do."
"Tell her you think it's stress, from her recent ordeal," he persisted. "Please," he added, finding the word hard to say even now. "I just need a little time."
"Just call me Dr. Cupid Coltrain," she murmured. "I guess I'll get drummed out of the AMA, but how can I say no?"
"You're in the business of saving lives," he reminded her. "This will save three of them."
"I hear you're moving back here," she said.
"I am. I'm going to raise thoroughbreds," he added, smiling. "And act as a consultant for Eb Scott when he needs some expertise. That way, I'll not only settle down, I'll have enough of a taste of the old life to satisfy me if things get dull. I might even finish my residency and hit you and Coltrain up for a job."
"Anytime," she said, grinning. "I haven't had a day off in two years. I'd like to take my son to the zoo and not have to leave in the middle of the lions on an emergency call."
He chuckled. "Okay. That's a dare."
She stood up when he did and shook hands again. "You're not what I expected, Mr. Steele," she said after a minute. "I had some half-baked idea that you'd never give up your line of work, that you'd want Callie to do something about the baby."
"I do. I want her to have it," he said with a smile. "And a few more besides, if we're lucky. Callie and I were only children. I'd like several, assorted."
"So would we, but one's all we can handle at the moment. Of course, if you finish your residency and stand for your medical license, that could change," she added, tongue-in-cheek.
He grinned. "I guess it's contagious."
She nodded. "Very. Now get out of here. I won't tell Callie I've ever seen you in my life."
"Thanks. I really mean it."
"Anything for a future colleague," she returned with a grin of her own.
Callie worried all morning about the doctor's appointment, but she relaxed when she was in Lou's office and they'd drawn blood and Lou had checked her over.
"It sounds to me like the aftereffects of a very traumatic experience," Lou said with a straight face. "I'm prescribing a multiple vitamin and I want you to come back and see me in two weeks."
"Will the tests take that long?" Callie asked.
"They might." Lou sighed. "You're mostly tired, Callie. You should go to bed early and eat healthy. Get some sun, too. And try not to worry. It's nothing serious, I'm positive of that."
Callie smiled her relief. "Thanks, Dr. Coltrain!" she said. "Thanks, so much!"
"I hear your stepbrother's moving back to town," Lou said as she walked Callie to the door of the cubicle. "I guess you'll be seeing a lot of him now."
Callie flushed. "It looks that way." Her eyes lit up. "He's so different. I never could have imagined Micah settling for small-town life."
"Men are surprising people," Lou said. "You never know what they're capable of."
"I suppose so. Well, I'll see you in two weeks."
"Count on it," Lou said, patting her on the shoulder. "Lots of rest. And take those vitamins," she added, handing over the prescription.
Callie felt as if she were walking on air. No health problems, just the aftereffects of the kidnapping. That was good news indeed. And when Micah phoned and asked her to come out to the ranch with him and see the house, she was over the moon.
He picked her up after work at her apartment house. "I took Dad out there this morning," he told her with a grin. "He's going to move in with me at the weekend."
Callie's heart jumped. "This weekend?"
He nodded, glancing at her. "You could move in, too."
Her heart jumped, but she knew he didn't mean that the way it sounded. "I like living in town," she lied.
He smiled to himself. He knew what she was refusing. She wasn't about to live in sin with him in Jacobsville, Texas.
He reached for her hand and linked her fingers with his. "Did you go see the doctor?"
"Yes. She said it was stress. I guess it could be. At least, it's nothing extreme."
"Thank God," he said.
"Yes."
He turned down onto a long winding graveled road. Minutes later, they pulled up in front of a big white Victorian house with a turret room and a new tin roof. "It's really old-fashioned and some of the furniture will have to be replaced," he said, helping her out of the car. "But it's got potential. There's a nice rose garden that only needs a little work, and a great place out to the side for a playground. You know, a swing set and all those nice plastic toys kids love so much."
She stared at him. "You have kids?" she asked with an impish smile.
"Well, not yet," he agreed. "But they're definitely in the picture. Don't you like kids?" he asked with apparent carelessness.
"I love them," she said, watching him warily. "I didn't think you did."
He smiled. "I'll love my own, Callie," he said, his fingers contracting in hers. "Just as you'll love them."
"I'll love your kids?" she blurted out.
He couldn't quite meet her eyes. He stared down toward the big barn a few hundred yards behind the house and he linked his fingers tighter with hers. "Have you ever thought," he said huskily, "about making a baby with me?"
Her heart went right up into her throat. She flushed scarlet. But it wasn't embarrassment. It was pure, wild, joy.
He looked down at her then. Everything she thought, felt, was laid out there for him to see. He caught his breath at the depth of those emotions she didn't know he could see. It was more than he'd ever dared hope for.
"I want a baby, Callie," he whispered huskily. He framed her red face in his hands and bent to kiss her eyelids closed. His fingers were unsteady as he held her where he wanted her, while his mouth pressed tender, breathless little kisses all over her soft skin. "I want one so much. You'd make...the most wonderful little mother," he bit off, choked with emotion. "I could get up with you in the night, when the baby cried, and take turns walking the floor. We could join the PTA later. We could make memories that would last us forever, Callie-you and me and a little boy or a little girl."
She slid her arms tight under his and around him and held on for dear life, shaking with delighted surprise. He wasn't joking. He really meant it. Her eyes closed. She felt tears pouring down her cheeks.
He felt them against his thin silk shirt and he smiled as he reached in his pocket for a handkerchief. He drew her away from him and dabbed at the tears, bending to kiss away the traces. "We can build a big playground here," he continued, as if he hadn't said anything earthshaking. "Both of us were only kids. I think two or three would be nice. And Dad would love being a grandfather. He can stay with us and the kids will make him young again."
"I'd love that. I never dreamed you'd want to have a family or settle down. You said..."
He kissed the words back against her lips. "Freedom is only a word," he told her solemnly. "It stopped meaning anything to me when I knew that Lopez had you." The memory of that horror was suddenly on his face, undisguised. "I couldn't rest until I knew where you were. I planned an assault in a day that should have taken a week of preparation. And then I went in after you myself, because I couldn't trust anyone to do it but me." His hands clenched on her shoulders. "When I saw you like that, saw what that animal had done to you..." He stopped and swallowed hard. "My God, if he'd killed you, I'd have cut him to pieces! And then," he whispered, folding her close, shivering with the depth of his feelings, "I'd have picked you up in my arms and I'd have jum
ped off the balcony into the rocks with you. Because I wouldn't want to live in a world...that didn't hold us both. I couldn't live without you. Not anymore."
There was a faint mist in his black eyes. She could barely see it for the mist in her own. She choked on a sob as she looked up at him. "I love you," she whispered brokenly. "You're my whole life. I never dared to hope that you might care for me, too!"
He folded her against him and held her close, rocking her, his cheek on her dark hair as he counted his blessings. They overwhelmed him. She loved him. His eyes closed. It seemed that love could forgive anything, even his years of unkindness. "I wish I could take back every single hurtful thing I've ever done or said to you."
She smiled tearfully against his broad chest. "It's all right, Micah. Honest it is. Do you really want babies?" she asked dreamily, barely aware of anything he'd said.
"More than anything in the world!"
"I won't sleep with you unless you marry me," she said firmly.
He chuckled. "I'll marry you as soon as we can get a license. But," he added on a long sigh, drawing back, "I'm afraid it's too late for the sleeping together part."
Her thin eyebrows arched up. "What?"
He traced around her soft lips. "Callie, that erotic dream you had..." He actually flushed. "Well, it wasn't a dream," he added with a sheepish grin.
Her eyes widened endlessly. All those explicit things he'd done and said, that she'd done and said, that had seemed like something out of a fantasy. The fatigue, the spotting, the lack of a period, the...
"Oh my God, I'm pregnant!" she exclaimed in a high-pitched tone.
"Oh my God, yes, you are, you incredible woman!" he said with breathless delight. "I'm sorry, but I went to Lou Coltrain behind your back and begged her not to tell you until we came to an understanding. I was scared to death that you'd be off like a shot if you knew it too soon." He shook his head at her surprise. "I've never wanted anything as much as I want this child-except you," he added huskily. "I can't make it without you, Callie. I don't want to try." He glanced around them at the house and the stable. "This is where we start. You and me, a new business, a new life-in more ways than one," he added with a tender hand on her soft abdomen. "I know I'm something of a risk. But I'd never have made the offer to come here unless I'd been sure, very sure, that I could make it work. I want you more than I want the adventure and the freedom. I love you with all my heart. Is that enough?"
She smiled with her heart in her eyes. "It's enough," she said huskily.
He seemed to relax then, as if he'd been holding his breath the whole while. His eyes closed and he shivered. "Thank God," he said reverently.
"You didn't think I was going to say no?" she asked, shocked. "Good Lord, the sexiest man in town offers me a wedding ring and you think I'm going to say no?"
He pursed his lips. "Sexy, huh?"
"You seduced me," she pointed out. "Only a very sexy man could have managed that." She frowned. "Of course, you did drug me first," she added gleefully.
"You were hysterical," he began.
"I was in love," she countered, smiling. "And I wasn't all that sedated." She blushed. "But I did think it was a dream. You see, I'd had sort of the same dream since I was...well, since I was about sixteen."
His lips parted on a shocked breath. "That long?"
She nodded. "I couldn't even get interested in anybody else. But you didn't want me..."
"I did want you," he countered. "That's why I was horrible to you. But never again," he promised huskily. "Never again. I'm going to work very hard at being a good husband and father. You won't regret it, Callie. I swear you won't."
"I know that. You won't regret it, either," she promised. She placed her hand over his big one, that still lay gently against her stomach. "And I never guessed," she whispered, smiling secretly. Her eyes brimmed over with excitement. "I'm so happy," she told him brokenly. "And so scared. Babies don't come with instruction manuals."
"We have Lou Coltrain, who's much better than an instruction manual," he pointed out with a grin.
"And speaking of Lou, did you get those vitamins she prescribed?"
"Well, not yet," she began.
"They're prenatal vitamins," he added, chuckling. "You're going to be amazed at how good you feel. Not to mention how lucky you are," he added blithely, "to have a husband who knows exactly what to expect all through your pregnancy." He kissed her softly. "After the baby comes, I might finish my residency and go into practice with the Coltrains," he added.
That meant real commitment, she realized. He was giving up every vestige of the old life for her. Well, almost. She knew he'd keep his hand in with Eb Scott's operation. But the last of Jacobsville's mercenaries was ready to leave the past behind and start again.
So many beautiful memories are about to be created here, she thought as she looked around her from the shelter of Micah's hard arms. She pressed close with a sigh. "After the pain, the pleasure," she whispered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing. Just something I heard when I was younger." She didn't add that it was something her father had said. That was the one bridge she hadn't yet crossed. It would have to be faced. But, she thought, clinging to Micah in the warmth of the sun, not right now...
Micah drove her by the pharmacy on the way back to her apartment. He stood with her while Nancy, the dark-haired, dark-eyed pharmacist filled the prescription, trying not to grin too widely at the picture they made together.
"I suppose you know what these are for?" Nancy asked Callie.
Callie smiled and looked up at Micah, who smiled back with the same tenderness. "Oh, yes," she said softly.
He pulled her close for an instant, before he offered his credit card to pay for them. "We're getting married Sunday at the Methodist church," Micah told her and the others at the counter. "You're all invited...2:00 p.m. sharp."
Nancy's eyes twinkled. "We, uh, heard that from the minister already," she said, clearing her throat as Callie gaped at her.
Micah chuckled at Callie's expression. "You live in a small town, and you didn't think everybody would know already?"
"But you hadn't told me yet!" she accused.
He shrugged. "It didn't seem too smart to announce that I'd arranged a wedding that you hadn't even agreed to yet."
"And they say women keep secrets!" she said on a rough breath.
"Not half as good as men do, sweetheart," Micah told her gently. He glanced around at a sudden commotion behind them. The two remaining bachelor Hart brothers, Rey and Leo, were almost trampling people in their rush to get to the prescription counter.
"Have to have this as soon as possible, sorry!" Rey exclaimed, pressing a prescription into Nancy's hands with what looked like desperation.
"It's an emergency!" Leo seconded.
Nancy's eyes widened. She looked at the brothers with astonishment. "An emergency? This is a prescription for anti-inflammatories..."
"For our cook," Leo said. "Her hands hurt, she said. She can't make biscuits. We rushed her right over to Lou Coltrain and she said it was arthritis." He grimaced. "Pleaaase hurry? We didn't get any breakfast at all!"
Callie had her hand over her mouth trying not to have hysterics. Micah just looked puzzled. Apparently he didn't know about the famous biscuit mania.
Leo sounded as if he was starving. Amazing, a big, tall man with a frame like that attempting to look emaciated. Rey was tall and thin, and he did look as if he needed a feeding. There had been some talk about a new woman out at the ranch recently who was rather mysterious. But if they had a cook with arthritis, she surely wasn't a young cook.
Nancy went to fill the prescriptions.
"Sorry," Rey muttered as he glanced behind him and Leo at the people they'd rushed past to get their prescription filled. He tried to smile. He wasn't really good at it. He cleared his throat self-consciously. "Chocolates," he reminded Leo.
"Right over there," Leo agreed somberly. "We'd better get two boxes. And some of t
hat cream stuff for arthritis, and there's some sort of joint formula..."
"And the We're Sorry card," Rey added, mumbling something about shortsightedness and loose tongues as they stomped off down the aisle with two pairs of spurs jingling musically from the heels of their boots.
Nancy handed Micah the credit card receipt, which he signed and gave Callie a pert grin as she went back to work.
Callie followed Micah out the door, letting loose a barrage of laughter when they reached the Porsche. By the time they got to her apartment, he was laughing, too, at the town's most notorious biscuit eaters.
Jack Steele was overjoyed at the news they had for him. For the next week he perked up as never before, taking a new interest in life and looking forward to having a daughter-in-law and a grandchild. The news that he was going to live with them disturbed him, he thought they needed privacy, but they insisted. He gave in. There was no mistaking their genuine love for him, or their delight in his company. He felt like the richest man on earth.
Callie, meanwhile, had an unexpected phone call from her father, who was back in town and anxious to see her. She met him in Barbara's cafe on her lunch hour from the law office, curious and nervous after so many years away from him.
Her father had black hair with silver at his temples and dark blue eyes. He was somber, quiet, unassuming and guilt was written all over him.
After they'd both ordered salads and drinks, her father gave her a long, hesitant scrutiny.
"You look so much like my mother," he said unexpectedly. "She had the same shaped eyes you do, and the same color."
Callie looked down at her salad. "Do I?"
He laid down his fork and leaned forward on his elbows. "I've been an idiot. How do I apologize for years of neglect, for letting you be put through hell in foster homes?" he asked quietly. "When I knew what had happened to you, I was too ashamed even to phone. Your mother had only just told me the truth and after the private detective I hired gave me the file on you, I couldn't take it. I went to Europe and stayed for a month. I don't even remember what I did there." He grimaced at Callie's expression. "I'm so ashamed. Even if you hadn't been my biological child, you'd lived in my house, I'd loved you, protected you." He lowered his shamed eyes to his plate. "Pride. It was nothing but pride. I couldn't bear thinking that you were another man's child. You paid for my cruelty, all those years." He drew in a long breath and looked up at her sadly. "You're my daughter. But I don't deserve you." He made an awkward motion. "So if you don't want to have anything to do with me, that's all right. I'll understand. I've been a dead bust as a father."
Books By Diana Palmer Page 292