That's My Baby!
Page 1
Cowboys.
Every boy’s hero…every woman’s fantasy.
They can rope, they can ride…
But can they change a diaper?
In Vicki Lewis Thompson’s bestselling miniseries,
we discovered what happened when three intrepid cowpokes bravely ventured where none of them had ever gone before—the nursery!
But now that they’re there—and discover they like it!—they’re in for an even bigger surprise!
Because a fourth strapping cowboy has just stepped forward and announced…
Dear Reader,
It’s time to pop the cork on the bubbly and break out the fireworks! I’m celebrating the grand finale of my THREE COWBOYS & A BABY miniseries and my first-ever single title release!
I hope you’ve stayed with me through the series. If not, I’ll wait while you catch up. In Harlequin Temptation #780, The Colorado Kid, rancher Sebastian Daniels was sure baby Elizabeth belonged to him. Wrangler Travis Evans had a different idea and laid claim to the little girl he called Lizzie in Two in the Saddle (#784). While these two cowboys were busy sorting out their paternity issues, Boone Connor showed up in Boone’s Bounty (#788), and insisted the child belonged to him.
All three of these books were published in the Harlequin Temptation series, but the rip-roaring conclusion needed more room. More specifically, my hero, Nat Grady, needed more room—especially considering the shock he’s in for. Raised by an abusive father, wary of emotional entanglements, he has no intention of ever becoming a daddy. But Mother Nature has other ideas….
Writing this single title has made me as excited as a cowpoke headed into town after his first trail drive. So here’s That’s My Baby! If I were a smoker, I’d be passing out cigars!
Warmly,
THAT’S MY BABY!
Vicki Lewis Thompson
With love to my husband Larry,
whose faith in me has never dimmed.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
JESSICA FRANKLIN’S STOMACH gurgled with anxiety as she waited at JFK for the 5:45 flight from London. After seventeen months apart, she had to meet Nat Grady, the man she’d loved—still loved, damn it—disguised as a bag lady. Then she had to tell him about Elizabeth, the baby he had no idea they’d conceived, the baby she’d left in Colorado to keep her safe.
The embarrassing truth was, Jessica had picked up a stalker. She thought of it like that, as if she’d contracted a deadly disease and was no longer fit to be a mother. Growing up, she’d felt stifled by her wealthy father’s attempts to protect her from kidnappers. She’d left home, spurning a life of bulletproof cars and bodyguards, insisting she could live quietly and anonymously without all that. It infuriated her to be wrong.
About ten feet away, a woman clucked and cooed at the baby in her arms. Jessica ached every time she saw a mother and child. For her own good she shouldn’t watch them, but she couldn’t seem to stop torturing herself. Babies drew her like magnets. When she spotted one, she’d stare shamelessly as she tried to guess the child’s age and wondered whether Elizabeth would look anything like that, act anything like that.
This one looked to be around eight months old, Elizabeth’s age, and he was a boy, judging from the outfit. Jessica couldn’t imagine her baby this size. When she’d left her at the Rocking D Ranch, Elizabeth had been so tiny, just barely two months old. Jessica had never imagined that their separation would be this long. But now that Nat was home, she would see her baby again. Soon.
The little boy laughed and Jessica counted four teeth. Elizabeth would have teeth by now. She would be crawling, getting into everything, learning to make noises that were the beginnings of speech.
Like ma-ma.
Jessica endured the pain. At least Elizabeth was safe. She’d known she could count on her friends Sebastian, Travis and Boone to keep her baby that way until Nat came home and they could all decide what to do.
Weary passengers trudged into the gate area from customs and Jessica’s pulse raced as she anticipated the meeting to come. She still hadn’t decided on her approach. The thought of Nat Grady brought up so many emotions she had to ask them to stand in line and take turns being heard.
Usually the first feeling to shoulder its way to the front was anger. She’d fallen head over heels in love with the guy, but for the year they’d been involved, he’d insisted they keep their relationship secret from everyone but his secretary, Bonnie, a woman who had invented the word discreet. Even his best friends, the three men she’d left in charge of Elizabeth, didn’t know she and Nat had been seeing each other.
She should have recognized the secrecy thing as a warning signal, but love was blind, and she’d accepted Nat’s explanation that his friends were a nosy bunch and he didn’t want outside interference in their relationship until he and Jessica knew where it was going. All the while he had jolly well known where it was going, she thought bitterly. On a train bound for nowhere.
If only she could hate him for that. God, how she’d tried. Instead, she kept thinking of what he’d said the night they’d broken up. I shouldn’t have let you waste your time on me. I’m not worth it.
Then he’d left her, his real estate business and his friends to head for a tiny, war-torn country where he’d worked as a volunteer in the refugee camps. Along with her other emotions connected to Nat, Jessica battled guilt. If she hadn’t pushed him to end the secrecy and marry her, he wouldn’t have left the country. She was sure of it. He’d have stayed in Colorado, making love to her, the sweetest love she’d ever known.
Instead, to get away from her and the demons she’d demanded that he face, he’d plunged into a violent place where the lines of battle blurred and changed every day. As a civilian he had no weapons and no military training to protect him. He’d spent seventeen months in danger on account of her, and if he’d been killed or hurt, she would have blamed herself.
She was also to blame for the baby, after he’d told her flat out he never wanted kids. A woman her age should have known antibiotics canceled the effect of birth control pills. But she had some gaps in her sexual education, thanks to growing up shadowed by her own personal bodyguard. She hadn’t known.
She needed to tell him it was her responsibility. Still, she thought he should know about the baby, in case the stalker got lucky. But before she told him anything, she’d have to convince him who she was. The dark wig, the baggy clothes and the thick glasses wouldn’t look familiar to him. But once he’d figured out it was her, what would she say first?
Nat, we have a baby girl named Elizabeth. Too abrupt. A man who’d said he never wanted children might need to be eased into that kind of discussion. Nat, I’m disguised like this because I have a stalker on my trail. Too much, too soon. He’d just returned from dodging bullets. He deserved a little peace and quiet before she gave him that bad news, coupled with the information that if anything happened to her he’d need to watch out for Elizabeth, whether he cared to or not.
Her stomach felt as if she’d swallowed a bagful of hot marbles.
She took off the glasses she was wearing as part of her disguise and brushed the tears from her eyes. She had to pay attention. Nat could be coming along any minute, and she didn’t want to miss him.
A tall man with a full beard and hair past his collar appeared in the stream of passengers. He wore a battered-looking leather jacket, jeans and boots. A scuffed backpack hung from one broad shoulder, a backpack not too different from the one she carried. Her gaze swept past him, then returned. He moved through the crowd with a familiar, fluid walk, as if he were striding along to a country tune. Nat walked that way.
She looked closer, past the rich brown of his beard, and her heart hammered. The mouth. She’d spent hours gazing at that chiseled mouth, classic as the mouth on one of her father’s prized Rodin sculptures. She’d spent even more hours kissing and being kissed by that mouth, and her tongue slid over her lips in remembrance. Nat. In spite of the anger and guilt, pure joy bloomed within her at the sight of him. Nat. He was here. He was okay.
Suddenly whatever she decided to say seemed unimportant. She just had to get to him, wrap her arms around him and give thanks that he’d returned in one piece. Her nightmares had begun the day she’d learned where he was, and CNN had been her lifeline ever since.
No matter how furiously she’d counseled herself to remain calm when she saw him, she was miles beyond calm. She was weepy with gratitude for his safe return. He was an oasis in the desert her life had become without him.
Drinking in the sight of him moving through the crowd, she sighed with happiness. Thank God he looked healthy, his skin tanned and his hair still lustrous, reflecting the terminal’s overhead lights. But she’d give him the herbal supplements she’d brought, anyway, and insist that he take them. He didn’t eat right under the best of circumstances, and no telling what he’d existed on over there.
He was so appealing that she couldn’t help wondering if he’d become involved with anyone while he was gone. A beautiful waif of a woman, perhaps, who spoke little English, but who had awakened his protective instincts. A woman who’d fallen deeply in love with the big, handsome American cowboy who’d come to help. Jessica knew how easily such a thing could happen, and her heart hurt.
But if he had found another to love, that wasn’t her business. He was free to do as he chose.
Seventeen months. That was a long time for a single man of thirty-three to go without sex. He might not have fallen in love, but he might have taken a woman to bed….
She wouldn’t ask. No, she definitely wouldn’t ask. But the thought made her want to cry.
Moving closer, she focused on his face, trying to meet his gaze. They’d had a magic connection between them, and maybe if she caught his eye, he’d see beyond her disguise and recognize her, heart to heart. He’d be startled, of course, and might wonder if she’d gone crazy while he was out of the country.
In a way she had. Crazy with worry…and love. Still love. But she wouldn’t let him know that she still loved him. She would be very careful about that, unless…unless he had gone a little crazy, too. Although she’d lectured herself to squash that hope like a bug, she’d let it live.
At last Nat glanced her way, and she opened her mouth to call to him. But instead of saying his name, she drew back in uncertainty. His gaze was so hard and uncompromising that it intimidated her. He’d changed.
For a minute she wondered if she’d been wrong in thinking this bearded man was Nat. No, she hadn’t been wrong. It was him. But his blue eyes, once so full of good humor, looked like chipped ice. She wondered what he’d seen in those camps that had put that grim look on his face.
He gave no sign of recognizing her as he turned and headed down the terminal. Her courage failed and she closed her mouth. But she had to catch him, had to let him know about the baby before he called anyone at the Rocking D in Colorado. Sure as the world someone at the ranch would tell him immediately that she’d left Elizabeth there, although she hadn’t named the father. But Nat would know, once he was told the baby’s age. She couldn’t let him find out that way.
She had to hurry to keep up with him. Dodging luggage, people and motorized carts, she kept him in sight as he followed the signs directing him toward ground transportation. She knew he planned to stay in the city for a few nights and take care of some business before flying back to Colorado. His secretary, the only person Nat had contacted before coming home, had said so.
Bonnie didn’t know about the baby or the stalker. She just thought she was helping Jessica create a romantic homecoming surprise for Nat. During the year Nat and Jessica had been secretly involved, Bonnie had set up many of their rendezvous locations, and she’d seemed to relish the role of matchmaker.
When Nat and Jessica had separated, Bonnie had called Jessica, urging her to try to patch things up. Jessica had refused, convinced that Nat had meant for the affair to end from the beginning, which was why he’d kept it such a secret. But when her pregnancy was confirmed, she’d called Bonnie and learned that Nat was out of the country and unreachable. Since then, Jessica had made use of her friendship with the secretary to find out exactly when Nat was due back.
The escalator foiled Jessica’s plans to catch up with him. People and wheeled carry-ons bunched onto the grooved metal steps between them and made it impossible for her to get close. But she didn’t really want to confront him here, anyway, she finally realized. Her news was upsetting enough without being delivered under harsh overhead lights with the din of people and the clatter of baggage to interfere with an emotional conversation.
He’d undoubtedly take a taxi from the airport to his hotel. She’d follow in another taxi and catch him in the lobby. Much better. Maybe they could go for a drink to discuss their options.
The chill of an October night cooled her overheated system as she bustled outside and followed him toward the taxi stand. She gained some valuable time as he convinced the cabdriver to let him ride in front. How like Nat to hate the idea of being chauffeured. She’d been drawn to his democratic instincts from the beginning.
She hated being chauffeured, too, but she didn’t have time to discuss that with the driver of the next taxi in line. With a quick no thanks, she brushed aside his offer to help with her backpack. “I’m in a big hurry,” she said as she hopped in the back seat.
“Right.” The driver hustled himself behind the wheel. “Where to?”
“Follow that cab,” she said, pointing to the one Nat had entered.
He swiveled in the seat to stare at her. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No, I am not kidding!” She panicked as the other cab pulled away from the curb. “That one! And don’t lose it!”
“You better have money,” the cabbie muttered as he started after Nat’s cab. “You better not be some nutcase who’s watched one too many James Bond movies, or I’ll drive you straight to the nearest precinct station and turn you over to the cops.”
“I have money.” Jessica watched Nat’s cab gain a little distance and clenched her jaw. “Just keep up with them. That cab has a vee-shaped scratch on the trunk. Did you notice that? That’s how you’ll know which one to follow.”
“I see the cab. I just wanna know what’s with the cops-and-robbers routine. I don’t wanna be a whatchamacallit—accomplice.”
“I’m not breaking the law.” Jessica was losing patience with the cabbie. She was pretty much out of patience, anyway, and being back in New York put her even more on edge. The closer they came to the jeweled city on the horizon, the more she felt the tug of her father’s influence.
“I don’t wanna get mixed up in anything,” the driver said. “I just wanna do my job, y’know?”
“In the movies, the cabdriver never complains about having to follow another taxi,” Jessica pointed out. “He just
does it.”
“See? What did I tell you? You think you’re in a damn movie or somethin’! I’ll bet they just let you out of the nuthouse. Gave you a pack of meds and told you to have a nice life. And it’s my bad luck that you picked my cab to act out your delusions.”
“I’m perfectly sane.” Jessica might not like being chauffeured, but she was used to it, and she’d never had a driver question her the way this one was doing. Of course, she was used to limos. And this guy didn’t know who she was. He didn’t know the paper beside him on the front seat was the product of her father’s news empire. “Quick, he just changed lanes!”
The driver sounded highly insulted. “I can see that he changed lanes, lady. I didn’t start driving yesterday. Do you even know who’s in that cab?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, right. You probably think it’s Elvis.”
“I know who’s in the cab. I need to talk to him.”
“Why? Who is it?”
Many times as a child Jessica had watched her mother deal with questions she didn’t want to answer. Her mother would stiffen her spine and speak in what Jessica thought of as her to-the-manner-born voice. Jessica had never tried the technique, but she decided to give it a whirl.
Straightening in her seat, she lifted her chin and said, “I don’t believe that’s any of your business.”
Her effort seemed lost on the cabbie. “It sure as hell is my business! I’m transportin’ you in my cab! And I’d appreciate it if you’d lay off the high-and-mighty tone, unless you’re about to tell me you’re kissing cousins to the Rockefellers, which I sincerely doubt.”
Close, Jessica thought. But apparently she didn’t have the presence to carry it off. Then again, she did look like a bag lady. Maybe her mother’s success in turning aside impertinent questions had as much to do with her elegant clothes and her position in society as her tone of voice. Yet in her heart of hearts, Jessica believed that even dressed in rags with no fortune to command, her mother would make people do her bidding. She’d certainly kept her husband and daughter in line for years.