Finding Courage (Love's Compass Book 3)

by Melanie D. Snitker

  Her heart fluttered when she saw the shine in his eyes. “Me, too. Lance teases me.”

  “About what?”

  “We have a lot of ranchers and farmers on the outskirts of Kitner. He says it’s ironic I left home and married a farmer here.” She felt her cheeks color as the sound of his laughter washed over her.

  Khanrad maneuvered his wiggly body between them, his nose covered with dirt. The combination of the dirt and wet nose made mud tracks on the knees of Avalon’s jeans.

  Duke patted him and tried to push him off to the side. The dog would have none of it. “Oh sure. You stay busy and entertain yourself until now.”

  “I told you. He’s your dog.”

  He stood up and reached for her hand, helping her to her feet. “Come on. Let’s go inside. We should get you a snack before it gets much later.”

  Avalon relished the way his larger hand warmed hers. She took the fact he hadn’t let go of it as a good sign. What warmed her the most was how he remembered she needed to eat something before bed to help keep her from getting sick.

  Chapter Eleven

  Avalon dreamed Khanrad had taken off after a squirrel, barking like an insane dog, and she scrambled to chase after him before he disappeared. She woke slowly and realized the dog continued to bark.

  Instantly alert, she threw her covers back and jumped out of bed while trying to figure out what the dog was barking at.

  When she stepped into the hallway, she stopped just short of running into Duke. Her breath caught in her throat and he grasped her upper arm to keep her from stumbling.

  “He’s downstairs. Stay right behind me.”

  She nodded, though he likely didn’t see the motion in the semi-darkness.

  He led the way, his shotgun ready. Her bare feet made no noise as she padded in his wake. The sounds of Khanrad barking got louder and they could hear his nails against the wood of the back door as he clawed at it.

  Duke turned the porch light on and peered through the window. “I can’t see a thing from here.” He grabbed a flashlight from a hook by the door. “I’ll go check the property. I’ll take Khanrad with me, that way he can show me what he’s barking at. The moment I step outside, bolt this door closed again.” He held her with his eyes and didn’t turn to the door until she’d nodded her agreement.

  She did as he asked and tracked his progress across the porch and down into the yard. After a short time, all she could see was the beam from the flashlight, and often the darkness swallowed even that.

  Her heart beat painfully in her chest as the seconds ticked away at measured rate. Where were they? Khanrad stopped barking and Avalon wondered how long she should wait before coming up with a plan. She desperately tried to keep worst-case scenarios from taking residence in her mind.

  Relief flooded her and she let out a held breath of air when the flashlight beam came into view again. She watched as Khanrad bounded up the stairs to the porch and Duke followed him. When he reached the door, she unlocked it and opened it for him. Once inside, he secured the deadbolt and left the porch light on.

  “Did you find anything?”

  “Someone tried to break into the garage. I put a new padlock on it after we got the new four-wheelers and there were fresh grooves in it as well as along the door itself. I’m guessing they tried using a crowbar and then Khanrad scared them off.”

  Avalon knelt down next to the dog and petted him. “Good dog. What a good boy.” She stood again and led the way to the kitchen. As soon as she opened the fridge, Khanrad moved to sit in front of her, both ears up. She got a slice of cheese out and tossed it to the dog.

  Duke rubbed the dog’s head. “You deserved that.” He leaned against the counter. “The fact someone came back bothers me. Did he know we replaced the ATVs? Or is someone trying to locate something specific?”

  Goosebumps peppered her arms and she rubbed them briskly. The house suddenly seemed huge. She impulsively glanced over her shoulder at the darkened doorway leading to the rest of the house.

  Duke must have noticed the motion because he moved to stand next to her and put an arm around her shoulders. “We’re safe. Seeing Khanrad in action convinces me no one’s getting inside without him knowing.”

  Avalon nodded. She knew that was true. But it felt as though their bubble of safety had been punctured. “Do you think the police will be able to gather any evidence tomorrow?”

  “I have no idea. But we’ll call them first thing in the morning.” Duke moved his arm and took her hand in his. “Until we catch whoever’s doing this, I would rather you weren’t outside by yourself.”

  “What about the garden?”

  “I’ll come home for lunch and pick you up so you can go out with me for the afternoons. When we get home we’ll eat dinner and then go out to tend the garden together.” He gave her hand a squeeze. “Until we know what we’re dealing with, we can’t be too careful.”

  “Okay.” She checked the clock and saw it was only two in the morning. It would be a long rest of the night.

  Duke must have been thinking along the same lines. “I’ll prop a chair in front of both doors. Let’s leave the lights on down here, too.”

  Heading upstairs again, Khanrad seemed at ease, which helped Avalon’s nerves.

  When she got to her room, she hesitated. A moment later, Duke appeared behind her with a pillow and blanket under his arm. “I’ll sleep on the chair. Neither of us are getting rest otherwise.”

  Avalon’s shoulders slumped and air whooshed from her lungs. Thank God, because she didn’t want to be alone after someone tried to break into their garage.

  The last thing she saw before sleep claimed her again was the image of her husband sitting in a chair nearby, keeping her safe.

  ~

  “Are you serious?”

  Marian’s high-pitched squeal came through the line, making Avalon wince. She held the phone away from her ear and waited for her sister to calm down.

  She chuckled, picturing her heavily pregnant sister jumping up and down. “Yes, I’m serious.”

  “When are you due?”

  “Around the end of June. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. She’ll do an ultrasound and we’ll know more then.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  Marian had suffered terribly with morning sickness, much worse than anything Avalon personally had to deal with. Early in the pregnancy, Marian had been hospitalized for dehydration because of it. “It hasn’t been bad overall. Some days are rougher than others.”

  Marian grunted. “I hope it eases for you once you’re in the second trimester.” Avalon could hear her sniff. “I can’t believe my little sister’s having a baby of her own.”

  Avalon grinned as hot tears pricked the back of her own eyes. “I bet it won’t be long until Gwen and Zane are having kids, too. Before we know it, there’ll be a whole slew of cousins running around.”

  “I hope we’ll see you more often.”

  Marian’s words brought more tears to Avalon’s eyes. She tried to get home for Christmas most years, but otherwise had been doing her own thing since going to college. But her sister was right. She wanted to be around her family more. She wanted her son or daughter to know her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. “You will.” It was a promise she intended to keep.

  They talked about pregnancy and babies for a little while before conversation turned toward Avalon and Duke’s relationship.

  “Things are going slow. But we’re talking more. He’s coming with me to my doctor’s appointment.”

  “That’s sweet. He sounds like a great guy, Avalon. You just got off to a rough start.”

  Avalon nodded, even though her sister couldn’t see the motion. “He is.”

  They spoke for a few more minutes before hanging up. Avalon made Marian promise not to spread the news of the baby until the next day giving Avalon time to call and tell everyone else in the family about her pregnancy.

  ~

  Duke came back in t
he house with Khanrad to find Avalon sitting on the couch, her head resting against the back with her eyes closed. “Can’t get rid of the headache?”

  She shook her head without opening her eyes. “I’ll be able to sleep it off.”

  He hesitated a moment before sitting on the couch next to her. “Turn and let me rub your neck. It’s probably a tension headache.”

  She opened her pretty blues and did as he’d suggested.

  He put his hands on her shoulders, using his thumbs to rub the muscles at the base of her neck. There were multiple knots and she groaned as he rubbed them loose. It was no wonder her head hurt. After those knots disappeared, he continued to rub her shoulders and back in circles. “I took tomorrow off. I thought we could go to your appointment and then I’d like to take you somewhere nice to eat for dinner.”

  Her chin, which rested against her chest, lifted. “Really?”

  “We’ll have the whole day without having to worry about anything else.”

  “It sounds perfect.”

  Duke continued to rub her back, enjoying it as much as she seemed to be. “Did you tell your family about the baby today?”

  “I did.” Avalon turned to face him again. The smile on her face lit up the room. He’d always heard that pregnant women seemed to glow and he saw the description was an accurate one. “Everyone is excited. Mom and Marian both cried. I wish we lived closer to Marian and her family. Her baby will only be about six months older than ours.”

  Duke thought about his childhood. Having cousins around — or any other extended family — would have been nice. It was hard for him to imagine big family gatherings. He didn’t want his child to grow up the same way he had.

  “We’ll make sure to see your family often. Didn’t you say they are planning on having a family reunion of sorts starting next year?”

  Avalon nodded. “They’re meeting at a renaissance fair in Oklahoma. We used to go to them all the time when I was a kid. My parents met at one.”

  “That explains the names in your family.”

  “Don’t call Lance by his full name. When he hears the name Lancelot, he’s not a happy camper.” She chuckled.

  Duke laughed then, making a mental note. From everything she’d said about her big brother, he wouldn’t want to get on the guy’s bad side. “Did you mind having such a unique name growing up?”

  She shook her head. “No. If people had a hard time remembering it, they would call me Ava. I never had to worry about teachers getting me mixed up with another kid. Of course, I didn’t receive monogrammed gifts, either.”

  He wondered if she was hoping to give their child a more unique name like her own or if she would prefer something more traditional. The name possibilities were overwhelming and he pushed that out of his mind for now.

  He could imagine how happy Avalon’s family was about the news. They needed to tell his and he seriously doubted they would get the same response.

  His scattered thoughts must have shown on his face because Avalon had turned her head and was watching him closely. “What’s wrong?”

  Duke hated talking about his parents because he never knew what to say. How did he explain their strange ways of interacting with the world? He always felt like he had to defend them. Or protect other people from them.

  In hindsight, he realized he’d never given Avalon a chance to get to know them before they got married. It hadn’t been intentional, but had it been an unconscious way of trying to protect her from them?

  She was observing him, a mixture of concern and trust on her face.

  Choosing to go against what his instincts would normally tell him to do, he swallowed hard and said, “I’m thinking about how your family reacted to the news. And I admit I’m a little jealous of that because we won’t get that kind of reaction from mine.”

  Avalon said nothing. Instead, she leaned her head against his chest, the scent of oranges and vanilla surrounding him.

  Duke sighed. “My mom invited us to Thanksgiving dinner at their house next week. I said I would talk to you. I’m not sure how we can get out of it.”

  Avalon shrugged. “We can’t. But it’ll be a good time to tell them about the baby. We’ll figure it out, Duke. Everything will be okay.”

  Chapter Twelve

  From the moment Avalon woke up, her emotions were all over the chart. One minute, she was so excited for her doctor’s appointment and ultrasound she could hardly stand it. The next, the anxiety threatened to make her ill.

  Deciding on a bath to calm her nerves, she ran water in the tub. She was still wearing an oversized shirt she’d slept in and had finished brushing her teeth when something pushed against the partially closed bathroom door.

  She gasped and turned in time to watch Khanrad leap into the air and land in the tub. Water sloshed over the side in waves and pooled on the tiled floor below.

  “Khanrad!”

  Moments later, Duke rushed in with fists ready and a determined glint in his eyes. “What’s …” His gaze went to the dog in the tub and he laughed loudly.

  Avalon rested her hands on her hips, her jaw clenched. The dog held his head sideways under the faucet as water cascaded into his open mouth. He shook, plunged his whole head under water, and came up sputtering before doing it all again.

  Duke laughed so hard now his eyes watered. He sucked in a deep breath. “It was nice of you to run the dog a bath.”

  She shook her head at him and strode forward to turn the faucet off. She glared a Khanrad but he paid her no mind. Instead, he laid down on the bottom of the tub, his head above the surface of the water. Whenever he saw a bubble float by, he popped it with his mouth.

  Avalon grabbed two towels off the bar on the wall and tossed them to the floor. They soaked up some of the standing water as more flowed from the tub. Duke still shook with laughter, his eyes daring her not to join him.

  She bit her lip even as she felt the corners of her mouth being pulled upwards. Finally, she caved and shook her head as she chuckled. “That dog is a complete mess.”

  His eyes took in her attire and the hazel color shifted to a green. “I want you to jump in there with that dog. Seriously.”

  Avalon snorted, covering her face with a hand as her face grew hot. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. Instead, she retrieved another towel and tossed it to Duke. “Please get him out of there.”

  His gaze journeyed from her face to her bare feet and back before he moved toward the tub. He gave her a wink that sent shivers down her spine.

  “Come on, Khanro. Let this lovely lady have her bathtub back, huh?” He coaxed the dog out and then draped the towel over him before he shook water everywhere. Duke got as much water off him as he could before he escorted him out of the bathroom. “You might want to make sure that door’s closed,” he suggested with a grin.

  Avalon was still chuckling as she drained the dirty water and the strands of dog hair that coalesced into floating islands on the surface.

  Fresh bathwater was definitely in order.

  ~

  Avalon sat in the passenger seat and watched the world go by on their way to Yuma. Since she had an afternoon appointment, they decided to go in right after lunch to wander the mall and walk around a little.

  “Are you feeling sick again?”

  Duke’s words made her jump. Upon her reaction, a teasing grin pulled at his lips while his eyes held a measure of concern.

  “A little. Mostly I’m nervous.”

  “About the appointment?” She nodded but didn’t elaborate. He reached over and took her hand in his. “How come?”

  It took a few moments for Avalon to gather her thoughts before she could voice them. “We’ll get to see our baby today. I hope he’s doing okay.”

  “He, huh?”

  Avalon hadn’t realized her slip until he commented on it. She felt her face warm and shrugged. “I have no idea why, but I keep thinking the baby’s a boy.” She studied his profile as he steered them toward Yuma in the early afternoon
sun. “Silly, right?”

  “It’s not silly at all.” His eyes flitted to hers. “I keep thinking girl. I guess one of us is bound to be right.” His smile put her at ease and elicited one from her in response. “I thought maybe we would stop at the maternity store in the mall. You’ll need a few things from there soon.”

  That he didn’t comment on her needing them now made her smile. He was right, her pants were getting uncomfortable and something looser would be wonderful.

  “That sounds great.”

  Avalon was pleased to find several things at the maternity store. After paying for the clothes, she went out to find Duke. He sat on a bench with a large cup of lemonade and two giant salted pretzels. When she spotted them, her stomach growled. She plopped down on the bench next to him, resting the shopping bag at her feet. “You are a mind reader.”

  He handed a pretzel to her. She didn’t hesitate to take a bite. She caught him watching her, amusement in his eyes. “What? I’m eating for two and shopping is a lot of work.”

  Duke bumped her shoulder with his and held his own pretzel away from her. “Remember, this one’s mine.”

  Avalon faked a pout before taking another bite.

  An hour later, they walked into the waiting room at her doctor’s office. It seemed weird for Duke to be there but his presence added some reassurance to her growing anxiety. She tried to read a magazine for a while but she kept staring at the same page. When the nurse called her name, the magazine fell as she stood quickly. She focused on the feel of Duke’s hand against her lower back as they followed the nurse to an examination room.

  ~

  To Duke’s relief, Dr. Daleo declared Avalon to be in good health. They asked the doctor about the days Avalon had intense nausea and vomiting. The doctor prescribed some medication to use if it got bad enough that she couldn’t keep anything down.