“Let’s go,” he said. Jennifer was going to be okay. She had to be okay. Because he finally had her answers. He finally knew why she had to marry him.
HER HEAD HURT. She wished someone would turn off that bright light. And turn down the noise, as well. Couldn’t they see she was trying to sleep?
“Shh,” she finally said, pushing aside the hand that had just touched her eye. Couldn’t a person get any rest around here?
“She’s come to!”
The speaker obviously hadn’t heard Jennifer’s command for silence. “Can’t you guys be a little quieter?” she mumbled, trying not to wake herself up. Her head still hurt too much. She needed to sleep a while longer.
“Ms. Teal? Can you hear me?”
Who was that? Bobby? The mechanic at the Ford store whose son had been hit by a car? “Of course I can hear you,” she said, trying not to bite his head off. She tried to open her eyes, as well, but they were too heavy. She’d apologize to him later. If he’d just turn off that damn light…
He could fix the car later. Couldn’t he see she was sleeping?
The voice came again. “Ms. Teal? I’m going to look in your eyes now.” Look in her eyes? What on earth for? And why, come to think of it, was she sleeping in a mechanic’s bay?
“My head hurts,” she said, hoping he could shed some light on the situation for her or at least leave her in peace.
“I imagine it does, ma’am. You’ve been in an accident and you have quite a shiner where you hit the windshield.”
“An accident?” Her mouth felt as cottony as her brain, as she finally forced her eyes open.
She recognized the stethoscope around the doctor’s neck immediately, and the IV-drip tube. Fear engulfed her, threatening to put her under again as she tried to sit up.
“Is everyone okay? Nicki? Was she with me?” No. Of course not. Bryan had taken her away two days before.
“Calm down, ma’am.” The doctor’s hands pushed her gently back down. “You were alone in the car, and you weren’t hurt, other than that bump on your head. You’re going to have a doozy of a headache tomorrow, I’m afraid.”
“I have a doozy of a headache now,” Jennifer said, wishing she could just go back to sleep. Except that there was a terrible ruckus on the other side of the curtain surrounding her.
“Where is she? This is her daughter here. We have a right to see her.”
“Bryan?” she called. This time she succeeded in sitting up. She didn’t know why he was there, how he’d known to come, but she’d never wanted to see anyone more in her life.
“Jennifer?” The curtain around her moved, and then he was there, standing beside her bed looking as if he’d been the one in the car accident, not her.
“Your hair’s a mess,” she said, reaching up to smooth back a loose strand.
“I tried to tell him he should comb it before we came in, but he wouldn’t listen.”
Jennifer’s head swiveled, stars filling her eyes for a second at the sudden movement. “Nicki?”
“Yeah.” The girl’s voice was a balm for Jennifer’s sore head. Nicki came forward and took Jennifer’s free hand. The one that Bryan wasn’t clutching.
“You should’ve seen Uncle Bryan. They told us you were okay, but they wouldn’t let us see you, so he just pushed past the nurse and came, anyway. It was really cool even if we do get in trouble,” Nicki said, smiling.
“You really shouldn’t be in here, sir.” The doctor spoke for the first time.
“How is she, Doctor? How soon can I take her home?” Bryan asked.
The doctor shrugged. “Now seems like as good a time as any. Just give me a few minutes to get a nurse in here to remove the IV and help her dress.”
“You mean she’s really all right? There’s nothing the matter with her?” Bryan asked, his sharp tone making Jennifer’s head hurt all the more.
“Nothing that a couple days’ rest won’t cure. She’s pretty bruised up and she’s bound to be sore for a few days. She also suffered a slight concussion, but other than that, she’s just fine.”
“My car…” Jennifer qnly just remembered. She’d been driving the Mustang that morning.
Bryan leaned over her again, trailing his finger across her lips. “…is just a car, honey. You’ve got the real thing now.”
SHE’S JUST FINE. She’s just fine. Bryan kept repeating the doctor’s words to himself while he watched Jennifer sleep later that night. She was lying in his bed, in spite of her protests, and he was keeping an eagle eye on her, waking her every half hour just as the doctor had instructed. Her long amber hair was a riot of tangles around her, a hint of the fire he knew she harbored inside. He didn’t know what he would’ve done if he’d lost her. But he knew what he was going to do now. He was going to marry her. He wasn’t going to waste any more time.
“Bryan?”
He jumped up from the chair he’d pulled next to the bed when he heard her voice. “I’m right here, honey,” he said, sitting down on the bed beside her. He gently smoothed back the hair matted against her forehead. She had one hell of a bruise there, but no cuts. She’d gotten lucky.
“I’m thirsty,” she said, licking her lips, her eyes still closed.
Bryan poured some water from the pitcher on his nightstand and lifted her up as he held it to her lips. She drank half a glass before lying back down with a sigh. “Thanks.”
“How’s your head?” Bryan had a lot to tell her, but he wanted her coherent when he did so.
“Still hurts,” she said, drifting off again. When he was certain she was sleeping soundly, he went back to doze in the chair by the bed.
Bryan kept up his vigil through the night, undressing sometime just before dawn and climbing in beside her. The next time he woke up, she was snuggled against him. He willed his starved body to behave.
She moved, her hip brushing against his groin, and he lost his battle. His body filled with wanting. He was going to have to get up.
“Feels a little dangerous down there,” she said.
Bryan froze. Was that laughter he heard in her voice? “Depends on what you consider dangerous,” he said, not daring to move.
She lay still against him. “Loving someone who doesn’t love you back.” She’d spoken so softly he almost missed it.
Very gently, careful of her tender body, he rolled over, holding his weight on his arms as he lay above her, gazing into her troubled eyes. “Then there’s no danger here at all, lady, because I love you more than life itself.”
She closed her eyes. “You don’t have to lie to me, Bryan. I’m ready to give in, anyway. The past two days have been hell.”
“You don’t have to give in. I do love you. I have for a long time. It just took me a while to trust myself with the feeling. But when Dennis called, when I thought I might never see you again, I was filled with such panic I knew for certain that this feeling I have for you wasn’t something that was going to go away in the morning.”
Her beautiful hazel eyes widened. “You’ve loved me for a long time?”
“Probably since the first time I kissed you. You were different, Jen. Instead of looking for ways to escape you, I just kept coming back for more. But you hit a sore spot when you started talking about forever. I didn’t know if I could promise it or not. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I’d never been able to before.”
She smiled, reaching up to brush her fingers against his neck. “So what changed?”
“When faced with the fact that I might never see you again, I realized it didn’t matter why I’d fallen in love with you, only that I had. I don’t know if, in the beginning, I pursued you as a means to relieve some of my responsibility to Nicki. Maybe I did. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Being a parent isn’t easy. Being a single parent is damn near impossible sometimes. Wanting a partner to share the load is only natural.”
“But what about your freedom? How do you know you won’t be choking to death on your wedding vows a year from now?”
/>
“I had my freedom, honey, for two whole weeks, and it damned near killed me. Life changes people. It changed me when it took away my family in one swoop of a wind cloud. I suddenly had a whole new perspective, a whole new set of needs that aren’t any less valid because they’re new. What’s around the bend doesn’t matter to me anymore. It’s what’s right here that counts.” He lowered his head to kiss her, tenderly, reverently.
He could wait until she felt better to make love with her; he was going to have her in his bed for a lifetime. Now was the time for giving her his love with his heart, not his body.
AS SHE WAITED for Jennifer and Uncle Bryan to get home, Nicki hummed a tune her mother used to sing to her when she was a little girl. She’d just come in from school and found Jennifer’s note. They were due home any minute.
She couldn’t believe how happy she was. Jennifer and Uncle Bryan had been married for just over three months, and Nicki didn’t feel the least bit disloyal about loving Jennifer anymore. Her mother would be so happy to see Uncle Bryan married she’d be friends with Jennifer just because of that. And she’d be mad at Nicki if she wasn’t friends with her, too. Besides, the way Nicki figured it, lots of people had two moms. Like when you got married and got your husband’s mom, as well as your own.
“Nick? You home, honey?” she heard Jennifer call as the front door opened.
“I’m in here,” she said, plopping down on the living-room couch. Jennifer came in, frowning like she was worried about something.
Uncle Bryan came in behind her. He was grinning from ear to ear.
“Are we?” Nicki asked, holding her breath. She wanted it so bad it hurt to even think about it.
“Yep!” Uncle Bryan said, giving a silly whoop.
Jennifer frowned at him, then crossed to Nicki and sat down beside her. She took one of Nicki’s hands in hers, rubbing it gently like she’d done a couple of months before when Nicki had gotten her period for the first time and had such terrible cramps.
“Are you sure you’re all right with this, Nicki? I don’t want you to feel like we’re pushing you out of your place here. You’re still our first, and you always will be.”
Nicki giggled and hugged Jennifer. “If you knew how badly I’ve wanted a brother or sister, you wouldn’t ask me that,” she said. She could hardly believe it. She wasn’t going to be an only child anymore. “Besides, the way I figure it, this is just about perfect.”
“How’s that?” Uncle Bryan asked, coming over to sit with them.
“Well, it’ll be my half brother or sister biologically, right?”
“Right.”
“And it’ll be yours biologically, too, right?” She looked at her uncle.
“Right.”
“So that means our blood’s finally connected.”
Uncle Bryan’s face got all tight for a second, like he was going to cry or something, but then he grinned at her just like he had when she’d finally beat him at one of his arcade games. “You’re absolutely right, Nick. Our blood’s finally connected.”
A FEW HOURS LATER Nicki waited for Jennifer to come in to kiss her good-night, butterflies wrestling themselves in her stomach. There was only one thing bothering her about the new baby, and she needed to get it settled.
“Can I ask you something?” she said to Jennifer when she’d straightened from kissing Nicki’s cheek.
“Of course, sweetie.”
Nicki wasn’t sure how to say it without sounding jealous or something. “Well, it’s just that, even though I had Mom, you’re still my mother, too, right?”
Jennifer sat down on the bed. “Yes.”
“Just as much as you’ll be the new baby’s mother.”
“I thought you were okay with that, honey.” Jennifer stroked Nicki’s cheek with a finger.
“I am. It’s just that it doesn’t seem right that he or she will get to call you Mom when I just call you Jennifer—like you aren’t really related to me or anything.”
Jennifer’s finger stilled. “I guess we can teach him or her to call me Jennifer, too,” she said. But she didn’t sound very happy about it.
“Or…I could, maybe, call you Mom—to make it easier,” Nicki said, holding her breath.
Jennifer’s eyes shimmered with tears as she gathered her daughter into her arms, against her heart where she belonged—and so did Bryan’s as he watched from the doorway. Lori’s baby had finally made it home again.
NICKI’S NEW BABY SISTER came home from the hospital on Nicki’s thirteenth birthday. Bryan didn’t know who was the happier of his women as he walked behind them out of the hospital. Nicki was fairly bouncing as she pushed Jennifer’s wheelchair, craning her head so as not to lose sight, even for a second, of the baby in Jennifer’s arms.
Jennifer’s face was radiant as she glanced back at him. Bryan could only imagine the emotions surging through her as she finally left the hospital with her babies—her new one, and her firstborn.
“Do you have it?” she asked him.
“I thought we’d wait until we got home.” His arms were full of flowers.
“No. It has to be here. Nick, stop a minute, would you, honey?”
Nicki rolled her eyes at Bryan, a grin on her face. “I thought she was supposed to quit being weird after the baby was born.”
Bryan grinned back, then glanced at his wife. Her lovely eyes were filled with sudden tension.
He set the pots of flowers down and reached into his pocket for the jeweler’s box. Jennifer had given him before she’d gone into labor. “It’s right here, honey.”
Jennifer took the box, handing him the baby, and pulled Nicki onto her lap.
“This is for you, love.” She gave Nicki the box.
Nicki looked at the box and then up at Bryan.
“Go ahead, sprite.”
Slowly Nicki opened the box, her hands shaking when she saw the tiny gold baby ring nestled there on a shiny gold chain. It wasn’t identical to the one she’d lost, but it was close. Jennifer had spent months looking for just the right one.
Bryan put his free hand on her shoulder. “It’s beautiful, Nick.”
Nicki picked up the ring and turned it over, reading the inscription engraved on the inside as tears dripped down her cheeks.
“Thanks, Mom,” she said, throwing her arms around Jennifer.
Jennifer squeezed her daughter close and then took the chain and fastened it around Nicki’s neck. “Don’t take this one off even to swim,” she said through her tears.
The ring settled against Nicki’s throat, back where it belonged, and when Nicki smiled, Bryan knew that his family, wherever they were, were smiling with her.
The inscription read “Nicki and Lori, forever.”
eISBN 978-14592-7791-5
THE BIRTH MOTHER
Copyright®1996 by Tara Lee Reames.
All rights reserved. Except for use In any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work In whole or In part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter Invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any Information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mm Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the Imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly Inspired by any Individual known or unknown to the author, and all Incidents are pure invention.
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