by Sam Crescent
Six weeks after Luke left, Darla had no choice but to get a pregnancy test kit from the pharmacy. The scent of coffee was making her vomit and she had morning sickness. Sat at the cubicle at work, she peed on the stick and prayed to every God she knew that it was negative.
Staring at the first stick, Darla almost passed out. Believing it was a false positive, she tried another test, and then another before she’d peed on twelve sticks and all of them said the same thing. She was pregnant with Luke Willis’s baby. Her decision not to say anything came crashing around her. Darla knew she should have made Luke remember their time together regardless of her fear of him regretting everything they shared.
Dropping her head into her hands, Darla sobbed. One time she wasn’t in control and she’d been caught out. Her baby’s father wasn’t even in town. What was she going to do?
Chapter One
Present day
“Mommy, what if they don’t like me?” Nathan asked. Darla glanced down at her handsome son. Even at four years old, he was the most adorable boy she’d ever seen. Yes, he was her little boy, but still, she was allowed to be biased and she wasn’t biased at all. Nathan had his father’s good looks and even his charm.
“The Willis brothers will adore you, like I do.”
Nathan giggled and leaned against her in the booth at the diner. They were supposed to be moving in with the Willis brothers today but she couldn’t stop feeling nervous. Since Luke had found out the truth about being Nathan’s father, he’d always been there, in her face, making demands. Jon and Ryan were there for her, whereas Luke seemed to be only taking charge and being dominant about everything.
“Hello, little guy,” Tessie Stone said, ruffling Nathan’s head.
“Hello, Aunt Tessie.”
Smiling, Darla held her son tighter against her. Tessie took a seat, handing Nathan a chocolate milkshake and a coloring book with some crayons.
“You didn’t need to do that,” Darla said, hating charity.
“He needs to relax and you’re looking way too tense. Moving in together is supposed to be fun.” Tessie grabbed her hand. “Try to remember that. Fun.”
Looking at her friend, Darla smiled. It was nice to have someone who cared about her. Tessie cared about everyone in this small town, and being friends with her was the one of the best things Darla had ever done.
“It will be fun. Nathan has a right to know who Luke is.” Glancing at her son, she saw Nathan was already more interested in the coloring book than them. Rubbing at her temple, Darla sipped at her coffee, ignoring the small urge to vomit. It couldn’t be happening again. She refused to believe it was possible to get pregnant with so much ease.
“What’s the matter?” Tessie asked.
Darla told her everything. She let everything out about her fears with Luke and that they’d had unprotected sex again.
“Have you taken a test?”
Shaking her head, Darla felt the tears were close. “I can’t take another test. I know what it’s going to say, but I can’t do it.”
“Why?” Tessie asked, leaning close.
“The moment I take the test, everything is going to change again. My mom has just been moved to a hospice and they don’t think she’s got long left.” Glancing at Nathan, Darla made sure her son hadn’t heard. “Luke’s just found out he’s a father. What’s he going to do when he realizes I’m pregnant again? I’m like some damn incubator.” She grabbed some tissues to bat at her eyelashes.
“Luke and his brothers will not see you like that,” Tessie said, squeezing her hand.
“I’m already moving in with them and now I’m going to be giving birth to his child. This is all before Ryan and Jon have even had a look in.” Darla shook her head. “I can’t handle this.”
“You can handle everything that they throw at you. They all love you, Darla. Luke, Jon, and Ryan all love you.”
“What if it’s not enough?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been with Luke…intimately, but I’ve not even kissed the other two.”
Tessie chuckled. “Love comes with time. My mom has three men chasing after her and she’s not worrying about a thing. I don’t think you should be worrying, either.” The sound of crashing dishes and gasps had both women looking toward Lucy.
Lucy was knelt in front of Jeremy Norris, the town doctor and one of the local Doms. He and his best friend owned a small practice that could handle the odd cut or fall, but a hospital had been funded to open up outside of Stone Valley.
“Crap, I better save her before Jeremy goes all Dom on her ass,” Tessie said. “Stop stressing about moving in. I know Ryan and Jon are both excited to have you with them.”
Her friend left her to deal with the new starter at the Flippin’ Tasty. Lucy had taken her job, seeing as Luke didn’t want her working.
“Hey, Mommy, when are we going to our new home?” Nathan asked.
Glancing down at her little boy, Darla reassured him it would be soon. She’d not told him who Luke was or what was going to happen when they were finally in the Willis home.
Closing her eyes, she counted to ten, hoping her nerves would calm.
“I’m so sorry about being late with your order,” Lucy said, interrupting Darla’s quiet thoughts.
A plate of pancakes was given to Nathan and another plate to her.
“I didn’t order anything,” Darla said, looking at the mountain of pancakes.
“Oh, Bessie told me to tell you that this is what Luke’s ordered for you. Whenever you come here at breakfast, you’re to get the pancakes.” Lucy looked proud of herself.
“Can I eat them, Mommy?” Nathan asked.
“Sure.” She smiled at the blonde, slender waitress and watched her walk away. Darla also noticed that many of the male gazes followed Lucy where she moved. The men that were taken didn’t notice her. Tessie’s men were too busy arguing to take note of the sexy woman in their midst.
Great, now she was feeling sorry for herself, too. No man had ever looked at her the way these men were. Jeremy Norris was also watching Lucy. The sinful look in his eye reminded Darla of a predator hunting his prey. He seemed to shake his head and pull his thoughts back into focus. Jeremy was a good fifteen years older than Lucy. Should men even being looking at women like that? She doubted any of her customers had even checked out her ass when she walked away.
Tears filled her eyes once again and she wished to God and everything else that she wasn’t pregnant. Being hormonal while moving into a house with three men was never going to be a good mix. Picking up her fork, she speared the first pancake, forced the tears aside and started to eat the food in front of her.
Turning her attention back to her son, Darla watched him color as he ate his breakfast. She’d fed him cereal that morning, but he wasn’t at all a cereal boy. He liked pancakes and eggs cooked the way her mother cooked them. She didn’t know what she was going to tell her son about his grandma, but the sooner she did, the better it would be for all of them. Janet Rose was not going to make it to the end of the year. The thought alone almost brought Darla to her knees.
Sometimes life wasn’t fair.
* * * *
Ryan stared down at the ring his brother had just shown him. Luke was losing his mind and Ryan didn’t know how to make his brother slow down or even stop what he was doing.
“What do you think? Do you think Darla will love it?” Luke asked.
Glancing at his other brother, he saw Jon chuckling behind a glass. They were all at the Dancin’ Donkey making sure everything was in order for when they opened. Usually they would go to work an hour before they opened to deal with stuff like this. They were changing the way they worked because of Darla moving in with them. Ryan was all for it. He couldn’t wait to have Darla close by and in their home and eventually their bed, but he was also worried about her. Luke was consumed by guilt for leaving Darla pregnant and alone and for also giving her crap over the identity of Nathan’s father.
/> He was an uncle to little Nathan and he was so proud of that.
“You’re going to ask Darla to marry you?” Ryan asked. He always thought their life with Darla would be so different. When he’d discovered she was pregnant when he was nineteen, he’d been gutted. Not once did she let on she was seeing a guy. A one-night stand was not the kind of woman Darla was. To be with her, she’d have to have known the person for some time. He knew Darla better than his brothers realized, as he’d been protecting her for a long time.
Being her best friend through high school and growing up together like they had gave him an insight into her as a woman.
“Yeah, she’s our woman and we all agreed she’d marry the oldest, and that’s me.”
Jon burst out laughing. “He’s not seeing it, Ryan. You’re going to have to break it to him.”
Glaring at the middle brother, Ryan looked at the engagement ring. It was a beautiful band and would look perfect on Darla, but right now, this was not what she needed.
“What am I missing?” Luke asked.
“Okay, you asked Darla to move in with us and we’re all for it. I love her and she’s the woman I want and have wanted for a long time,” Ryan said. Jon nodded in agreement, as did Luke. “But you’re moving to the marriage step when Nathan doesn’t even know you’re his father.”
The muscle in Luke’s cheek tensed, a sure sign of him gritting his teeth.
“You’re rushing her. She’s not even home yet and you’re moving onto the next step. What if moving in together is wrong? Have you thought about that?” Ryan asked, needing to get through to Luke. His oldest brother could fuck everything up if he wasn’t careful with the way he worked.
Jon stood beside him and together, they looked at Luke. “Ryan’s right, Luke. You’ve been with Darla twice.”
Luke broke the news to them that she could be pregnant again. Ryan didn’t mind, but it did kind of suck. He’d not even touched her and Luke had given her two babies.
“We don’t even know if she’ll want us,” Jon said.
The conflicting emotions crossing Luke’s face tore at Ryan’s heart. He hated seeing his brother in any kind of pain. Luke had done so much for them. When he’d left to tour Europe, he didn’t have to send money back to them, but he did. Ryan would always be grateful to him for the sacrifices made. Darla was different. This was not about sending money or dealing with a harsh stepdad. She was the woman of their dreams. They’d sat together many years ago when Ryan turned eighteen—he was a couple months older than Darla—and agreed to having one woman for them. They wanted to share a woman between them, as they loved spending time with each other. Jon and Luke were not just his brothers, they were best friends.
“You’re making sense,” Luke said. “I’m jumping too fast and she’ll probably scarper.” He closed the box containing the ring and pocketed it.
“Darla’s moving in with us. Let’s start with that. Does she know if she’s pregnant?” Jon asked.
“No. She hasn’t told me anything,” Luke said, running a hand down his face. “Is her room ready, and Nathan’s?”
Their two fathers had put a down payment on a ranch a few miles out of town. It was deserted for the most part, and in the best condition Ryan had ever seen. They earned enough through the Dancin’ Donkey to keep up with the mortgage repayments. There was enough space for all five of them, including a couple more kids.
“Yeah, we painted Nathan’s room blue and installed a car-themed bed,” Jon said.
They were Nathan’s uncles but Ryan knew in his heart that he was determined to be a dad to her son.
“Everything is ready. Darla should be waiting for us at the diner and then we can go,” Ryan said, glancing down at his watch.
Luke let out a breath. “I want to say thank you for not trying to screw me over with this.”
Frowning, Ryan kept his gaze on Luke. “Why would we screw you over?”
“I fucked up badly on that night four years ago. I gave her a kid and didn’t remember it, and then I didn’t even stay around, treating her like shit when I got back from touring. Thank you for not dropping me.” Luke looked down at the floor as if he was ready to burst.
Smiling, Ryan leaned over the bar and slapped him on the shoulder. “We’ve been wanting Darla for some time, but we’ve always stayed at arm’s length because of little Nathan. What if his father were to come back in town? We didn’t want to hurt her or her son. Now, we’ve got more reason to chase after our woman. Darla’s ours and it’s about time we all claimed her.”
“It’s not going to be easy. This is going to be hard for us all,” Jon said. “I’ve always loved a little bit of a challenge, and Darla’s going to be a good challenge.”
Chuckling, Ryan finished wiping down the counter as Luke phoned through the beer order they’d need at the end of the week. They all had their concerns, but there was no point thinking up concerns that might not actually be there.
* * * *
Jon followed behind Ryan and Luke in his own truck. His two brothers were sharing Ryan’s truck as they made their way into town. He wanted to make sure they all had plenty of room to fit whatever Darla needed for her to move in with them. The simple thought of their woman helped to calm him.
Ever since they’d all agreed to Darla being their woman, Jon had always been silent in his need for the woman. Ryan and Luke were more vocal, whereas he didn’t like to let the others know how desperately he was in love with the sweet young woman. She wasn’t that much younger, but there were times she made him feel old.
Tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, he tried to push his excitement down. In the past, whenever Darla spoke to him, he always got a buzz from being in her presence. Her calm voice and hypnotizing dark-brown gaze did it for him every time.
When he’d discovered she was pregnant, he’d been heartbroken by the news. Feeling like he’d lost her, he’d found solace in other women. The women hadn’t meant a damn thing to him, but had been there when he needed it. After the initial shock had worn off and the pain started to ease, Jon had stopped bedding the women.
Screwing away his problems never solved anything and he’d done the only thing he’d thought of. He’d become Darla’s friend. Like Ryan, he’d helped her through the first stages of her pregnancy until she gave birth. He and Ryan had been sitting in the waiting room when she’d been called in to Jeremy Norris’s office. They’d transferred her to the nearest hospital and she had given birth on the way.
He recalled how the fear of waiting for news on Darla, only to be kept waiting because they weren’t family, had hurt him. He would never forget that helplessness. He’d been the first person to hold little Nathan.
In that moment when he held her little boy, Jon didn’t care who the father was. He was going to love Nathan and Darla for the rest of his life, even if it meant being the guy who loved her from afar.
She’d always been sweet and kind to him throughout the years, even when she’d caught him crying when he visited the library. Darla would be there studying and he’d be locked in the back, trying to find some space for himself. Going home was never fun and she’d not commented when she caught him. Her gaze would fall on him and for several minutes, neither of them would talk. Then, out of the blue, she’d start talking about the paper she was writing or the essay she had to study for. No comments about his tears, or jokes. Many times, he expected someone to mention it, but they never did.
Darla kept his secret and for that, he was deeply grateful. Letting out a breath, he pulled up outside of the diner. There were two available parking spaces and through the window, he saw Darla sat in the back, eating the pancakes while talking to the little guy. Turning off the ignition, he climbed out and headed in. He didn’t go toward her. He went in the back, looking for Bessie. He found her mixing up the meat and spices for her famous burgers.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” she said, catching sight of him. Her husband was probably outside catching a smoke.
> “I need to know how Darla’s been. You see everything. Please tell me if she’s okay.” He stood behind the older woman, hoping she’d take pity on him.
Her hands were gloved up from mixing with the meat and spices. “Why won’t you talk to her yourself? She’s not got any contagious disease, unless if you call moving in with three men a disease.” Bessie lifted one eyebrow and stared at him.
“I don’t. It’s just that she won’t talk to us about anything. Look at how she handled Nathan and Luke. She kept that to herself. Please, you always see stuff like this,” he said.
She cocked her head to the side and stared at him. “Fine. I’ll only be telling you, though, because I think it would be better for Darla for you to know.” Bessie glanced over his shoulder and sighed. “She’s not been drinking her coffee and she’s been getting highly emotional.”
He held his breath.
“I’m not trying to be mean, but I think your woman could be pregnant again.”
Glancing behind him, he saw Ryan and Luke talking with her.
“What would you recommend?” he asked.
“Talk to her. Love her and don’t treat her like some disease. She’s clearly not ready to find out, but knowing Darla like I do, she probably already knows that she’s pregnant.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“Don’t thank me. You and your brothers have got a long road ahead. I also heard her mother was taken into hospice. Take care of your woman, Jon, or you’ll regret it.” Bessie returned her attention back to her burgers.
Taking a much-needed breath, Jon made his way toward the back of the diner. He nodded at all the diners and shook their hands, keeping a wide berth around Lucy. That woman was deadly with any kind of tray or plate.