by Jenna Jacob
“This is the woman who makes all those goodies I bring home to you from the bakery.”
Noble’s face lit up and that clit-throbbing grin spread over his mouth…the same mouth that had laved, kissed, and nibbled every inch of her skin as he taunted her with hours and hours of oral bliss. Even now, she could still feel his talented mouth as it laid siege to her weeping pussy.
“Nice to finally meet you. Welcome to Haven. Your butter crumb cake is totally addicting. I’m like a junkie,” Noble said with a chuckle.
Seriously? Welcome to Haven? Nice to finally meet you? Is he fucking kidding?
Clearly, the prick had missed his true calling. Noble should have been a damn actor, because Ivy had never met a more convincing liar in her entire life.
So the son of a bitch wants to pretend he’s never met me? Fine. I can play that game, too…asshole!
“Trust me, baby. She already knows.” Gina elbowed Noble in the ribs. “I’m over there two or three times a day buying it for you.”
“True.” Noble grinned. Then he turned his focus on Gina once more. “Sawyer’s coming by for a couple of games of pool. I’m gonna head back and grab the table, love.”
Love?
His declaration of love ripped through Ivy’s heart like a well-honed blade, eviscerating all the foolish hope Ivy had clung to all these months.
“Have fun, and try not to take his last penny, baby. You know how grumpy he gets when you do that.”
Noble laughed and nodded.
Like a hopeless moron, Ivy’s arms broke out in goose bumps at the sound of his laughter.
“I’ll try not to,” he assured. Pausing an extra second, he sent Ivy a purely platonic smile. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same to you,” she somehow managed to push past her lips before Noble turned and walked away.
“God, I love that man,” Gina gushed. “He owns my whole damn heart. I don’t know what I’d do without Nate.”
Nate? Well, that sure as hell wasn’t the name he’d used in Vegas. Fucking liar!
In light of all the revelations that had already unfolded, finding out that Noble…or rather Nate, had used a fictitious name wasn’t all that surprising, but it certainly made her feel like a bigger fool. So did seeing the love written all over Gina’s face.
“Nate, huh? Nice name,” she murmured, biting back a caustic scoff.
“Oh, shit. I’m such an idiot.” Gina smacked a hand to her forehead. “I didn’t introduce you two properly. Dammit. Well, that’s my man…my Nate.”
“He’s very handsome.” And fucking phenomenal in bed. “You’re a lucky lady.”
“Oh, I know it. I count my lucky stars every day. He’s not just great eye candy, he’s kind and gentle and loving, too.”
Ivy forced a smile. “How long have you two been together?”
Smooth…real smooth. Dammit!
She hadn’t planned for the question to fall out of her mouth, it’d just…happened.
“Nine months, now,” Gina answered dreamily.
Nine months! Nine fucking months?
Guilt, like a wrecking ball, slammed every cell in Ivy’s body.
Shit! How could she have been so stupid…so naïve in Vegas?
The answer was easy… Noble/Nate was hot as hell, had showed interest in her, and her girl parts had been close to shriveling up and dying from lack of use. Still, none of those reasons absolved her guilt and shame. If Gina ever found out Ivy had done the nasty with her man, it would crush her and destroy the friendship they’d built thus far.
“Don’t go away. I’ll be right back. I just need to grab these folks’ orders,” Gina announced, nodding toward the customers now seated at various tables.
Ivy had been so focused on processing the colossal clusterfuck unfolding around her that she hadn’t even noticed others had come into the bar.
As Gina scurried over to take their drink orders, Ivy casually glanced toward the pool table. Nate/Noble didn’t even lift a brow. He simply lined up shot after shot with the long pool cue, totally engrossed in his game. Obviously the man was a pro at playing games.
You prick-assed son of a bitch!
She was letting her anger get the best of her. Ivy knew she had to leave before she did something even more reckless than she’d done in Vegas. Something like stomping up to the bastard and demanding that he acknowledge her and the night they’d spent fucking each other’s brains out. While forcing him to confront his sins might give her satisfaction and a whole lot of closure, it would gut Gina. Ivy didn’t have the heart to do that to her friend.
Forcing a calm she didn’t feel, she tipped her drink back and drained the glass. When Gina returned, busily mixing booze and filling beer mugs, Ivy plastered on a tight smile. The sheer effort of acting as if all was right with her world made her feel like a total fraud…an even bigger one than Noble/Nate was.
But she was out of options.
She needed to get the fuck out of here now.
“I’m going to head back over and get to work. Thanks so much for the drink. It was delicious.”
“What the fuck? You can’t leave now.” Gina frowned. “You need to stay so I can introduce you to Nate’s brothers. I wasn’t kidding when I said I could help end your sexual drought.”
Ivy’s heart pounded like a drum. She’d rather be waterboarded and drown than fuck one of that bastard’s brothers. “Maybe next time. I’m still not feeling a hundred percent.”
“You make an appointment with Doc Knight, all right?” Gina’s concerned tone only made Ivy feel guiltier.
“Already did. I see him on Monday.”
“Good. You’ll like him. He’s a great guy.”
Ivy could use a great guy, instead of the lying, cheating pricks she usually hooked up with. Her trust in the male species was at an all-time low. Even if she accepted Emmett Hill’s offer, he’d probably end up popping Viagra and banging all the old ladies at the nursing home behind her back.
With the exception of her father, all men were pigs. Since junior high, every guy she’d ever dated had consistently let her down.
No more! This is the last straw!
Ivy was through letting pussy-chasing, man-whores sweep her off her feet. Her hormones would surely balk at the long, bleak dry spell ahead, but she’d find ways to cope. She’d simply pour all her pent-up frustrations into baking and making Sweet Flours a success. If that didn’t work, she’d buy stock in a battery company and spend the rest of her life burning out vibrators before burying them in a shallow grave behind the shop.
“Thanks again for the referral and the drink. I’ll see you in the morning, right?”
“Damn straight you will.” Gina smiled and waved.
Ivy headed toward the door, fighting the urge to glance back at Nate/Noble. Logically, she knew self-preservation kept the man from openly confirming he knew her. No way he’d risk trashing his relationship with Gina over a one-night stand with Ivy.
Still, it stung like a bitch.
No, it devastated her.
God, she’d been an idiot spending months obsessing and growing hopelessly infatuated with a man she knew she’d never see again. Now that she’d come face-to-face with him again, the reality that she’d meant dick to him, that she’d been nothing more than a convenient hole to plug his big, fat glorious cock into, annihilated her. Tears stung her eyes. Obviously the amazing sex—stop calling it amazing, he’s nothing but a sexually gifted, lying man-whore—they’d shared was just an easy way to kill time.
Stepping from the bar as a barrage of embarrassment, hurt, and anger pinged through her. Ivy quickly checked for traffic and darted across the street as tears began to flow.
Once inside the bakery, she ran straight to the kitchen, cursing and swiping at her eyes. Refusing to cry one more tear over that lying sack of shit, Ivy cranked up her music before slamming metal bowls on the counter and vented her anger by measuring, mixing, kneading, and baking.
Like a woman possessed, she raced
around the kitchen in banshee mode and shoved all thoughts of Nate/Noble down deep the second they started to surface. At one thirty in the morning, she climbed the stairs and crawled into bed. But the minute she closed her eyes, Noble/Nate was right there…kissing her, touching her, saying all those naughty things that enticed her to scream and shatter for him.
“Stop!” she screamed into the darkness before she fell apart completely.
Mournful sobs tore from her throat. Ivy hugged her pillow and sobbed until sleep finally claimed her.
When her alarm went off, she sat up and rubbed her sore, swollen eyes. Acid, caustic and burning, bubbled low in her belly, but thankfully, when she rolled out of bed, she didn’t have to race to the toilet and drop to her knees. She quickly showered, dressed, and hurried downstairs.
As she prepared to open for business, she was already running on fumes. She needed caffeine more than air, so she pumped enough coffee through her system to keep her awake for a week. By the time customers started filing through the door, Ivy almost felt human again.
Several hours later, when Gina rushed through the door, Ivy’s heart tripped in her chest, and an inky film of guilt ascended.
“You got time to sit and chat this morning?” Gina asked happily.
“A-ah, I can’t this morning. I’ve got some things in the oven I need to keep an eye on. Sorry.” Ivy forced an unhappy frown.
“Oh. Damn. We didn’t get to visit last night before you had to leave and I was… Oh, never mind. It’s okay.” Gina gave a wave of her hand. “I’ll just take a couple pieces of coffee cake then, and let you get back at it.”
As Ivy filled the order, she could feel Gina’s scrutiny. Dammit. She’d have to learn how to be a much better actress, and fast. But it was hard when guilt and shame were pulsating so thickly through her veins.
Over the next three days, Gina visited each and every morning. Their conversations went from uncomfortable to stilted and then awkward. The woman didn’t pry or quiz Ivy about the wall she’d erected. Gina simply smiled, waved, and walked out the door, leaving Ivy alone with the elephant in the room. Remorse was eating her alive, but there was nothing she could do or say to pardon her unforgiveable sin.
After finally sleeping in an extra three hours, Ivy sat in Doc Knight’s tiny waiting room, mindlessly thumbing through a magazine. None of the articles or pictures even registered in her brain. She was too focused on her worries…worries about her deteriorating relationship with Gina and the unknown medical malady running rampant through her system.
Ivy thought it strange she didn’t have to fill out sheets of medical history but shrugged it off as a quirk of a small-town doctor. She figured the man probably didn’t want his staff sitting at a computer all day inputting medical records.
“Miss Addison, Doc is ready for you,” a gray-haired nurse called from the doorway.
Ivy set the magazine aside and followed the woman down a hall into an exam room. After the nurse took the usual blood pressure, weight, vial of blood, and urine sample, Ivy sat on a paper-covered exam table in a thin, cotton hospital gown.
There was a soft tap on the door before Doc Knight—a balding, late-sixty-something man—entered the room. He wore a crisp, white lab coat and a warm, friendly smile.
“Ivy Addison.” He grinned, extending his hand. “Doc Knight. It’s a pleasure to meet the woman who’s responsible for my expanding waistline.”
Ivy softly laughed. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, too.”
“My wife, Iris, is forever bringing something decadent home from your shop. Not that I mind. You can certainly bake, young lady.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you enjoy them.”
“So what brings you in to see me today?”
Ivy explained her stomach issues and the stress she’d been under. Doc Knight listened, jotted down several notes on a clipboard in his hand, and nodded until she was through.
“What date was your last menstrual period?”
Ivy strained to remember, but couldn’t.
The tiny hum of anxiety singing through her body suddenly roared like a chainsaw.
“I-I don’t know… But I’m not pregnant. I have an IUD,” she said in a desperate tone.
Doc Knight nodded calmly. “So I take it you are sexually active with your husband or boyfriend?”
“I don’t have a husband or a boyfriend. So see? I can’t be pregnant. It has to be something else,” Ivy explained trying to tamp down the panic rising inside her.
“We’ll definitely check everything with a fine-tooth comb after I rule out the more obvious symptoms.” His expression was so filled with sympathy that Ivy wanted to weep. “When was the last time you had sex?”
That was the first easy question he’d asked since walking into the exam room. Ivy quickly whipped off the date she and Noble/Nate had all but busted up the furniture in Las Vegas.
“All right. I’m going have my nurse, Harriett, join us while I give you a pelvic exam. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Ivy nodded, fighting the urge to beg him to stay and not leave her alone with the monstrous fears racing inside her head, as she struggled to remember if she’d had a period since returning from Vegas.
Panic had wrapped its icy hands around her throat by the time Doc Knight returned…alone. Where was his nurse? Confusion tore through Ivy’s head.
“I asked Harriett to give us a few minutes to talk.”
“Okay,” Ivy replied softly.
“She’s running a blood test to confirm your urine result.”
“Urine result? I-I don’t know what you mean.”
Doc Knight took her hand in his before cupping his other hand over her fingers. “Your urine test came back positive, dear.”
A UTI?
All the mornings she spent barfing her toenails up were from a urinary tract infection? Oh, thank god! All she’d need was a round of antibiotics and she’d be good as new in a few days.
“Thank goodness.” She exhaled in relief. “My mind was going everywhere but a UTI.”
“A UTI?” he repeated in confusion. Suddenly, his expression softened to one of sympathy. “No, dear. You don’t have a urinary tract infection…you’re pregnant.”
The air froze in her lungs.
The room began to spin.
Black splotches swam behind her eyes.
Oh, god…my best friend’s boyfriend knocked me up.
Ivy’s limbs grew numb. And as the darkness swallowed her up, she heard Doc Knight call out, “Oh, dear. Harriett!”
When Ivy opened her eyes, she was lying flat on the exam table. Both doctor and nurse were leaning over her, concern stamping their faces. Panic swelled with the force of an F-5 tornado.
“Just lie still and take some deep breaths, Ivy,” Doc Knight instructed. “I know you’re scared and probably a little unsure of what you’re going to do. You passed out and I don’t want you doing it again. All right?”
She nodded as tears stung her eyes. “I-I’m really pregnant? Are you sure?”
“Yes, dear,” he replied in a tone suffused in understanding.
“I don’t understand,” she said, voice cracking. “I thought the IUD…”
“No form of birth control is one hundred percent. But after you’ve rested here for a bit, I’ll do a pelvic and see what’s happened with your IUD. If the device is still inside you, I might need to send you to a specialist over in Abilene or Dallas.”
“What do you mean, if?”
“Sometimes those devices migrate out, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Just try to relax now.”
Ivy wasn’t focusing on specialists or anything else the doctor said, she was spazzing out with dread and fear. “When…when’s the baby due?”
“Based on the information you gave me earlier, you’re seventeen, going on eighteen weeks now. So, that’ll put your delivery date somewhere around July twenty-sixth.”
Oh, god…Noble/Nate really knocked me up. Oh, Gina…I’m so sorry!
Her life felt like a bad episode of Jerry Springer. Tears filled her eyes. Ivy tried to blink them back but they rolled out as a sob spilled off her lips.
“Oh, honey,” Harriett cooed. “Don’t cry. It’s going to be all right, and don’t you worry about what the people in town say about you being pregnant and unmarried. Some just like to talk trash for the sake of having something to say.”
Gossip? Oh, hell…
The thought hadn’t even crossed her mind until now. Once again, scandal was going to surround her, not for being Eugene McMillian’s victim but for being an unwed mother. Like she’d done the night she discovered Noble/Nate was in love with Gina, Ivy sobbed, loud and long.
“Harriett,” Doc Knight scolded. “She doesn’t need to worry about all that now.”
“I’m sorry. I-I was only trying to help.” The sweet old woman patted Ivy’s hand gently. “It’s going to be all right, dear. It really is.”
“No, it’s not!” Ivy wailed. “Oh, god…how could this have happened?”
“Well, when two people love each other—”
“Harriett!” Doc Knight barked. “Why don’t you go file some charts for a few minutes. When I get Miss Addison calmed down, I’ll call you.”
“Fine,” Harriett said with a huff before turning and storming out of the room.
Doc Knight shook his head, then inched his backside onto the edge of the examination table and opened his arms. “Come here, dear.”
He reminded her so much of her late grandfather that Ivy sat up and threw her arms around his neck, soaking his pristine lab coat in snot and tears. The kind doctor simply held her and patting her gently on the back while he murmured reassuring platitudes.
Twenty minutes later, after Ivy had gained some semblance of control, Harriett entered the room and held her hand while Doc Knight performed a pelvic exam. In the end, there was no trace of her IUD. He explained how the device could have migrated out, either attached to a tampon or simply during urination. If Ivy had known such a thing could have happened, she would have asked her OB-GYN in Dallas to super-glue that damn IUD inside of her.
Numbed by the shock of finding out she was pregnant, she worked to suppress her fear of trying to run the business while caring for a newborn. How the hell was she supposed to handle such a feat? Ivy was already running on so little sleep she could barely function. But adding a newborn who’d be up at all hours of the night into the mix was beyond overwhelming.