Breathless (Goose Creek Book 4)

by Lee Wardlow

  “Is that all?” The server asked. A young woman. A little older than Nova. She had children too. She had recognized the morning sickness symptoms in Nova right away and had taken care of her.

  “A piece of Cherry pie for dessert.” He was practically salivating at the mouth.

  “What happened to eating well?” Nova asked him.

  He frowned at her. “I don’t often come down from the mountain,” he informed her. “I eat like this maybe twice a year. Three times if I’m lucky.”

  She chuckled at him.

  “Want some dessert too?” He asked.

  “No thank you. I’m stuffed to the gills, Seamus.”

  “How’s those third graders you’ve been teaching?” He asked sipping on his water the server had brought him.

  “I lost my job. The journalists were too much of a distraction at school. They were following me everywhere.”

  “I’m sorry Nova. I know that hurts. You sure do love teaching,” he said to her.

  “I did. I do. I don’t know what I will do now. I guess wait for the excitement to die down. Then try to move on.”

  “So when is your baby coming?” He asked.

  “June,” she replied.

  “Who knocked you up? Tyler Danner?”

  She cringed.

  “Sorry,” he said seeing the look of horror on her face. “I didn’t know you were seeing anyone else.”

  “Jamie Stone.”

  He almost dropped his glass of water. “I’ll be damned.”

  “Why is that so shocking?”

  “I didn’t think that boy would ever fall in love.”

  “Why?”

  “He’s had a hard life with his Momma and Daddy constantly at each other’s throats. Then his Momma…well having the two babies after his Daddy died worried him a lot. She’s not the greatest mother.”

  “He told me about the boys who came after Kaylee.” She hadn’t realized how much it may have hurt him though. She thought it was merely an embarrassment to him.

  Seamus looked down at the table. Then he glanced up quickly at her. “Nova, he took better care of those kids than she ever did. Mark used to bring him and his siblings hunting at the cabin with him from time to time.”

  “So you know him?”

  “I do. He’s always been a good boy and he turned into an even better man.”

  She nodded.

  “So how did this happen?” He asked.

  Her eyes widened at Seamus.

  “I know how it happened smartass. How did you and Jamie get together? Last I knew, Tyler Danner was chasing your skirt.”

  She sighed. “Tyler and I were never going to work.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “I’m not blue-blood enough for him.”

  He snorted. “You’re too good for Tyler Danner sweetheart. Just right for Jamie Stone. So he’s going to be a father.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So shocking.” He was shaking his head at her.

  Didn’t he want to get married and have children? Had she inadvertently trapped him in something he wasn’t prepared for? She was concerned now. What if he didn’t want the baby? He had told her he loved her but he had only asked about the baby as an afterthought.

  “Can I use your phone?” She asked.

  He handed it to her. She rose from the table. “Where are you going?”

  “The bathroom.”

  “To use the phone?”

  “Eat your lunch Seamus. We’ll have to hit the road soon. Jamie has work to do.”

  He shook his head.

  “Don’t drop it in the toilet.”

  She shot him a look over her shoulder before she continued on to the ladies’ restroom. She closed the door behind her and leaned against the counter. She dialed Jamie’s number.

  “Is she all right?” He didn’t say hello because he was instantly panicked when Seamus’s number came up on his phone.

  “Do you want this baby?” She was choking on her tears when she asked him the question.

  “Nova? What?” He was more than confused by her question.

  “Do you want this baby?” She repeated the question for him. “It is a pretty simple question.”

  “Hell, where did this come from?”

  “Why can’t you answer the question?” She wiped her hand across her face, drying her tears.

  “I’m in shock that it happened. I thought you were on birth control?” Did he think she did it on purpose? “I haven’t really had time to process it. I guess it doesn’t feel real to me yet. I keep trying to picture you with this little belly growing our baby and I just can’t.”

  She put him on speaker and checked out Seamus’s phone to see if she could take pictures with it. Nova shoved her pants below her stomach and lifted her shirt high, holding it beneath her breasts so he could see her belly. Then she took a picture in the bathroom mirror. She texted it to him while they talked. He was explaining all the reasons why it just wasn’t real to him yet.

  He suddenly got quiet. “Are you there?” Nova asked him.

  “It’s real to me now Nova.”

  She almost laughed at the scared sound to his voice. “So Jamie Stone, do you want this baby?”

  Jamie was holding his phone and staring at the picture of her rounded belly. Her blonde curls falling over her face. That was only thing he didn’t like about the picture. He wanted to see her face. Jamie ran his thumb across the picture. He wanted her home with him.

  “Jamie?”

  “Yeah, I want our baby.” His voice was soft and quiet. So filled with emotion.

  “I have heard its heart beating,” she told him. “I love this child so much already.”

  He glanced at the picture wishing he could run his hand over her in person. Hold her close and protect her from whoever wanted to hurt her. “When can I hear its heart beating?” He asked.

  “I have an appointment in three weeks. You’re welcome to go with me.”

  “I’ll be there.” So many questions were racing through his mind. “When will he be here?”

  “He or she will be here next June.”

  “It’s a boy,” he told her.

  “How do you know that?”

  “My father produced eleven boys till my Momma finally had Kaylee. His father had ten boys, no girls.”

  “Jamie, that doesn’t mean anything.”

  “I’m telling you it’s a boy.” He was convinced of it.

  “By the way, I forgot my pill on Saturday and double upped on Sunday. I don’t think that worked well for me. I wasn’t trying to trick you into anything.” She wanted him to believe her. It was important to her.

  “I wasn’t accusing you of that Nova. I love you sweetheart.”

  “Seamus thought you would never get married.”

  “So that is where this came from?” She heard the ah-ha moment in his voice. “I just hadn’t found the right woman till I met you.”

  “So you’re okay with this?” She asked.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “What?” She felt tears well in her eyes.

  “You aren’t here with me sweetheart.” Those tender words made her want to cry even harder.

  Chapter 14

  Seamus paid for her lunch and his own. Nova tried to argue with him but he wouldn’t hear it. He left a nice tip on the table for the waitress as well since Nova had to sit there for hours waiting on him.

  She followed him out the front door. As she started towards her car, he redirected her.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I parked in back,” he replied.

  “Why?”

  “Easier to leave without anyone following.”

  “My suitcase?” She was following Seamus still but she kept looking over her shoulder. When they arrived at the back of the restaurant. He showed her in the back of his truck was her suitcase.

  “How did you do that?”

  “I’m tricky you know.” He winked. His pretty, hazel eyes gleaming with misc
hief.

  She was staring at him, wide-eyed. “I didn’t know.”

  He laughed at her as he opened the door and let her in the passenger seat. They were an hour north when his phone rang. She had fallen asleep. Thank the Lord. Her questions and chattering was going to be something that he was going to have to get used to like he had with her sister, Lola.

  “Hello,” he said trying to be quiet. Lord, he didn’t want her to wake.

  “It’s George,” his cousin replied.

  “Now what?”

  “You can’t go back to the cabin. Did you bring supplies with you?”

  “Of course I did. Why can’t I go to the cabin?”

  “They are following you.”

  “I’ve been watching for a tail. I haven’t seen anyone.” Seamus glanced up into the rearview mirror a couple times while still trying to keep his eyes on the road.

  “Well they know your truck.”

  “Damn.”

  “What are you going to do?” George asked.

  “Go on a camping trip.” What else could he do?

  George chuckled. “Hey Kale.” He heard him call to cousin’s son. “He’s taking Nova camping.”

  “Good luck with that.” He heard the sarcasm in his tone.

  “What’s the problem?” Seamus asked.

  “I’ll put you on speaker. Repeat that,” George requested of his cousin.

  “What’s the problem Kale?” Seamus asked.

  “She’s more of a Ritz Carlton girl than a Yogi Bear Campground girl.”

  “Hell, she’d be feeling like we’re in the Ritz if I could take her to a Yogi Bear Campground.”

  “Oh hell,” Kale responded.

  “You tell my brother-in-law that I will be just fine in whatever situation you put me in.”

  “You woke her Kale. Now I have to listen to her again talking about Jamie all the time or asking a bunch of personal questions.” He rolled his hazel eyes at her.

  Kale laughed.

  “What are you talking about anyway?” She rubbed her eyes sleepily.

  “Roughing it, baby girl.”

  “Wonderful. Peeing in bushes? Sleeping in sleeping bags kind of roughing it?”

  “Pretty much.”

  She stared out the window.

  “She’s not complaining Kale.”

  “She will be after about three days.”

  “Tell him to bite me.”

  She heard them all laugh at her. Seamus had put them on speaker so she heard every word that Kale was saying about her.

  Jamie was working on tracking where the text messages were coming from while they talked to Seamus and Nova. They were giving her a hard time. He chuckled himself when he heard her snappy comeback at Kale. He didn’t like the thought of her out in the woods even if she was with Seamus. The man was a beast. He didn’t appear to be so but he was. He would take care of her since he could not.

  “I gotta get off here boys. Need to make arrangements to switch vehicles.”

  They stopped at a rest stop. He went to the men’s room and told Nova not to go anywhere if she came out first. After Nova came out of the women’s room, she stood by the door when she didn’t see him. When he came out he had different clothes on.

  “Hi there,” he said to her.

  “What the hell Seamus.” He had startled her because she was looking for the different clothes that he had on when he went into the bathroom. See that red truck over there?”

  “Yes. We’re getting in it.”

  “Okay.”

  “Walk like you’re going to my truck when you see me back out. Then jump in the red one instead. Hopefully they won’t notice.”

  Another man came out of the restroom in Seamus’s clothes. He put his hand on her back. “I’ll walk with you to Seamus’s truck.”

  “Who are you?” She asked. This man resembled Seamus but he was taller and stockier built. Seamus was a lean man with lots of hard muscle.

  He winked. “Braden O’Leary, Seamus’s brother.” Same hazel eyes. She could see some resemblance now to the man now sitting in the red truck. “Let’s go sweetheart.”

  They walked to the truck together. He opened the door to her side and she appeared to get inside. Then she ducked between vehicles while Braden shut the door and followed her to his truck. Then he hesitated until she slipped inside and he closed the door. He hoped that to anyone watching that he and Seamus were just talking and that Nova was sitting in Seamus’s truck waiting on him.

  Seamus pulled away. “I’ll have to buy you some clothes. We had to leave yours in my truck.”

  “What about sleeping bags and stuff we need for roughing it?” She asked him.

  “Braden took care of those things for us. Luckily for me, he and I are the same size.”

  His phone rang. “Hey,” Seamus said.

  “Whoever was following you is now following me.”

  “How did I miss them?” He asked his brother.

  “You’re losing your edge,” his brother teased him.

  “Got a license plate?”

  “Nope. Nothing. Unmarked car. Four door sedan. Windows are blacked out. I can see two men in the front seat.”

  “What do they look like?”

  “Suits,” Braden replied.

  “I’ll let Jamie know.”

  He drove for hours. Nova needed to pee. He finally pulled off in a gas station at an exit. Then they headed east when they left the gas station.

  “Where are we going?”

  “North Carolina. Easy to get lost in the mountains there. We’ll stop at a Target or something so you can get some clothes before we go too deep into the mountains,” he told her. “Oh don’t worry about your clothes. Braden will take care of them.”

  She smiled at him. “I’m not worried Seamus. They can be replaced. There are things that can’t.”

  “Like what?” Seamus asked. His voice was soft when he glanced over at her.

  “Like my friendship with Zach. I miss him.” She glanced at Seamus quickly then out the window.

  He whistled between his teeth. “That boy sure did walk into a heap of trouble.”

  “He did,” she agreed. “It was heartbreaking to see him in prison. I love him so much. I just don’t know what happened to him.”

  “You didn’t see anything?” Seamus asked.

  “I was suspicious but he wouldn’t tell me anything. I was so worried about him. I was starting to think that he was involved in something illegal but I just didn’t know.”

  “Why didn’t you say something to Beau?” He wasn’t accusing her, just asking questions.

  She sighed. “Because I didn’t know what he was doing. I was afraid he would get angry at me. We were arguing more in the end before he got caught. He said I was always nagging him. I didn’t want to push him away further.”

  Seamus nodded.

  “What else can’t be replaced?” He asked her.

  “Jamie.” She wiped away her tears. “We had a disagreement in September. I was in D.C. visiting him. Senator Danner and the FBI recorded us.” She left it at that. Nova didn’t need to give Seamus the dirty details of those videos that still haunted her. “They were going to use those pictures…the videos against me to get Zach to cooperate. I blamed Jamie.”

  “Why?”

  She sighed. “Because he let them put the cameras in the penthouse. I was so hurt Seamus.”

  “Baby girl, I’m going to tell you something about Jamie Stone. He might have let them put those cameras in there but he didn’t know that you were being videotaped. That isn’t his M.O. If he cares about someone, he goes out of his way to protect them.”

  “Our relationship was so new. After Tyler, it was hard to trust him.”

  “I get that.” Seamus nodded in her direction.

  “Tyler was seeing someone when he was seeing me.”

  He nodded like he already knew that too.

  “She’s everything that he needs in life to reach his goals. He took her on dates.
He wasn’t ashamed of her.”

  “Stop right there.”

  She turned her head towards Seamus. Nova waited to hear what else he would say.

  “If Tyler Danner couldn’t see what a wonderful woman you are, it’s Jamie’s luck and Tyler’s loss. There is no reason for Tyler to ever be ashamed of you.”

  “Thank you Seamus.”

  He patted her thigh.

  A couple of hours later, they found a Target store and she picked up some snacks including her saltines to help with her morning sickness besides the clothes. Nova grabbed several men’s thermal shirts as the weather was starting to get cooler. She took a couple pairs of thermal pants as well as some maternity yoga pants. Socks, sneakers and underthings. She knew in the woods she wouldn’t need nightclothes. Although some of them were really pretty; she checked them out too. She even bought a sweatshirt and a couple hoodies. Some tank tops to wear underneath her heavier clothes.

  Seamus drove through Asheville, North Carolina. They went up into the mountains and found a spot deep in the woods where he could drive off the road. He took the sleeping bags out of the back. She took her saltines. Everything else stayed in the truck so they didn’t attract wild animals.

  It was getting dark. The sounds of the forest at night were frightening. She made Seamus go with her towards the bushes to do her business even though the bushes were only five or six feet away from where their sleeping bags were lying on the ground. He stood with his back to the bushes, arms crossed over his chest, grumbling at her while she pulled her pants down. She kept looking around while the cold air tickled her ass.

  Then Nova followed Seamus back to the sleeping bags. “Stop complaining Seamus. At least your ass won’t get cold if you have to take a pee.” He chuckled at her and shook his head.

  She snuggled down into the sleeping bag and tried closing her eyes. She just wanted to shut the world out around her. Nova was tired. Seamus’s phone rang. He had charged it while they were driving. He had a spare battery for it too.

  “Hey Jamie. Yes, she’s right here.”

  Seamus walked over to Nova and handed her the phone. He turned around and strode into the woods. “Where are you going?”

  “That’s impolite to ask a man about his business, Nova,” Seamus teased her.