by Tina Leonard
“It’s okay,” she said. “You’ll get over that fear the first time you jump, Mr. Morgan.”
Chapter Twelve
Jack wasn’t feeling any better by the time Cricket went in for her appointment. The physician seemed competent, but he had a hundred questions and felt silly asking everything he felt he needed to know. So he abstained, assigning himself the role of interested listener.
“I assume it’s still okay to have sexual relations?” Cricket asked, and Jack perked up. This was a question to which he very much wanted to hear a positive response.
“As long as you feel like it,” Dr. Suzanne said, music to Jack’s grateful ears. “At least to a certain point,” the doctor qualified. She measured Cricket’s stomach, the same tummy that Jack had taken his time kissing last night. He noted that it was a very shapely tummy, almost enough to give him sexual thoughts he didn’t need to have at the moment. He shifted in his chair, and the doctor smiled at him.
“Don’t worry,” she told him, “a lot of fathers have fears about hurting their partners during intercourse.
And some worry that the baby will grab them,” she said, laughing. “So please feel free to ask any questions you want to, Mr. Morgan.”
Grab him? He blinked. What a horrible thing to say to a man! It was almost guaranteed to make a man anxious about things that weren’t worth worrying about. “I don’t have any questions,” he said firmly.
She looked at Cricket. “Are you tired?”
“Just a little.”
“Taking your prenatal vitamins?”
Cricket nodded. He made a mental note to make certain she was getting enough rest and taking her vitamins.
“Still nauseated?”
“It’s getting better,” Cricket said. “I think.”
The doctor smiled. “Good.” She rubbed some clear stuff on Cricket’s stomach and touched a wand there. “Mr. Morgan, say hello to your children.”
Like magic, he saw waves and curves on the screen. He saw a lot of black and white but nothing that looked as much like babies. Still, he fancied he could see something. “Are there really three?”
“It’s quite a jumble in there,” the doctor explained. “But they seem content for the moment.”
“Can you tell how big they are? Can you estimate how long I have before I’ll need full bed rest?” Cricket asked.
“Considering your size, I don’t expect you to go past October, Maybe November. We’ll do what we can to keep them inside you and growing healthfully as long as possible.”
Jack blinked. October! That didn’t give him a lot of time to get Cricket to the altar. He needed to get his father out of the hospital and on his feet. Laura was due with her baby any day. He swallowed, realizing that if he was going to convince Cricket to marry him, he needed to do it quickly, because she wasn’t likely to feel the same need after the babies were born. He’d seen the slight embarrassment on her face in the waiting room; he’d known what she was thinking: Here sits Deacon Cricket, local good girl gone bad.
Those were his babies in her belly—he had to help her see the urgency of the matter. There was a lot that needed to be settled between them. The whole parachuting thing had thrown him. Frankly, he and Cricket needed to start developing a relationship where he would have some say in her life. If they weren’t married, Cricket might begrudgingly label him a friend and nothing more.
“You’re very quiet over there, Mr. Morgan,” the doctor said, and Jack swallowed. Cricket looked at him with big brown eyes.
He needed to say something appropriate to the moment. But he was so lost.
“I’m gonna be a dad,” he said slowly, wondering if he’d be any better at it than his father.
Could he be?
“CRICKET, I NEED TO MEET your parents. And your brother. Soon, like today.”
“Don’t you think you should go home and see your father? He’s recuperating from major surgery.”
“Pop’s got an army of people taking care of him. He’ll appreciate my desire to introduce myself to your family.”
“They’re still digesting the fact of my pregnancy,” she said. “I was slow to confess my situation.” Truthfully she hadn’t confessed it at all—yet. In fact, she was still deciding how to best tell them. She didn’t have a lot of time before the Fort Wylie grapevine got to them, but still, Cricket didn’t want Jack to know she was reluctant to disappoint her parents.
“I’d really like to meet them,” he said, and Cricket sighed.
“I should warn you that they may not welcome you with open arms.”
“I suppose that’s fair,” he said. “They looked forward to better for their daughter?” He wanted to know what he was in for, felt some determination to make things right in his life, at least do a better job with her family than he’d done with his own. “Did they feel that you’d been swept off your feet by a man who had no potential and no intention of settling down?”
“Well, I wouldn’t—”
“Then they were right.” Jack took her keys, opened the passenger-side door for her. “No more driving for you, Deacon. It’s rest from now on. I don’t want you lifting your littlest finger. I will take care of everything, just like Dr. Suzanne said.”
“Jack!” Cricket hung back, refusing to sit down. “The doctor didn’t say I was on bed rest yet.”
“I say you’re on bed rest. I intend to carry you and my babies around on a pillow.”
“No,” Cricket said stubbornly. “I don’t want that. I’m used to being independent.”
“Me, too,” Jack said, “but I’m changing.”
“No, you’re not. You’re exactly the same person who jumped into my car in January. You’re avoiding your own family by focusing on me and mine.”
“You need me more than they do,” he pointed out. “Call your parents and ask them if they feel like meeting your Prince Charming.”
Cricket shook her head. “Prince Charmings aren’t supposed to be so bossy. And can you let the clutch out gently? This is a vintage Bug and I intend to keep it forever.”
He looked at the floorboard and then the long stick shift. “Cricket,” he said, “I hate this car.”
She smiled and shrugged. “You don’t like a lot about me, cowboy.”
“No, I’m serious. This isn’t a car, it’s a tin can. I feel like I’m in the Flintstonemobile.”
She looked at him, one eyebrow raised knowingly. “Can’t drive a stick?”
No man liked to be caught looking inadequate, especially when he was applying for the role of chief protector in his lady’s life. “Only in an emergency, and only if the vehicle isn’t ancient. Where did you get this ‘vintage’ car?”
“My father won it years ago in a raffle.” She gave him an airy glance. “My brother, Thad, keeps my car running for me. I can teach you how to drive it.”
He wasn’t sure he wanted to be taught anything by a woman who was pregnant with his triplets. Shouldn’t he be taking care of her? “I’m going to buy you a minivan. That will solve everything. Where’s the nearest dealership?”
He meant it. Today he was going to buy her the safest, biggest minivan on the market, complete with OnStar in case she got lost between here and Union Junction.
Cricket’s lips pinched. Her pretty, brown eyes narrowed. With some trepidation, Jack recognized a storm brewing. “Is there a problem, little mama?”
“Yes,” she said. “You. Get out of my car, you stubborn ape.”
CRICKET LEFT JACK standing on the pavement in front of the doctor’s office. The man could just find his own way home. He had plenty to deal with in his own house—he could just quit worrying about her. “My children, my car, my family,” she muttered, motoring away from the cowboy. “My hobbies, my business, my pregnancy.”
That was the problem. He wanted to worry about everything about her—he wanted to take over her life.
She liked her life just the way it was, thank you.
He said she was stubborn.
&n
bsp; What she was was a shade dishonest.
She hadn’t told her parents about the babies, and she hadn’t mentioned she’d quit her job. In short, she couldn’t take Jack home to her parents. Ultimately, she was worse about dealing with family matters than he was.
All the time she’d been trying to get him to tend to Josiah, she’d really been avoiding him getting to know her own family. “Where’s an unmarried and pregnant gal’s fairy godmother when she needs one?” she asked, and decided it was time to face life without one.
CRICKET PRESSED IN the numbers on the electronic keypad, and drove through when the massive wrought-iron gates parted. She rang the doorbell, her heartbeat suddenly racing. This visit was long past due.
“Cricket,” her mother said, “how nice to see you.”
“Hello, Mother.”
She stepped into the highly polished marble foyer, waiting for her father to appear.
“Reed, Cricket’s come to pay us a visit.”
“Excellent, Eileen,” her father said. “Cricket, dear, we’ve been expecting you.”
Of course they were. By now they’d probably had fifty phone calls updating them on her downfall. Cricket sighed. “I’ve been trying to work things out on my own.”
“I suspected as much,” her mother said. “We wish you didn’t have such an independent streak, dear. Your father and I hate standing on the sidelines when we wish we could help you.”
Cricket followed her parents into the palatial living room, taking a seat near the huge bay window. “Everyone wants to help me,” she said. “I feel a great need to stand on my own two feet.”
Eileen blinked. “We know. That’s why we didn’t call.”
Cricket glanced around. “Where’s Thad?”
“Your brother is playing polo at the club. He told us you resigned from the church.” Eileen looked sorry about that. “Cricket, dear, we know that working in the church was your dream.”
“I’ve had a lot of dreams that haven’t worked out,” Cricket said. “I seem to be a bit unfocused these days.”
“Well,” Reed said, “entrepreneurs don’t always hit the right note the first time out.”
“That’s the problem,” Cricket said. “I’m not an entrepreneur. I was a deacon. But then, I fell for an inappropriate man, a man I knew wasn’t right for me, who is the furthest thing from stable that he could ever be. The only thing I ever did that was stable was the Lord’s work,” Cricket said. “And now I’m pregnant and unmarried. How’s that for not exactly practicing what I preach?”
“Oh, dear,” Eileen said. “Reed, did Cricket just say we’re going to be grandparents?” She fanned herself, looking faint.
Reed patted his wife’s hand. “We hadn’t heard that piece of news, Cricket.” He looked as if he didn’t know what to say.
“I just told the father and his family yesterday.” Cricket felt small and selfish for visiting this shock on her parents. “I’ve really made a mess of things.”
“Now, listen,” her mother said, sitting up and accepting a glass of whiskey from her husband, “babies are not messy.”
“No, but the parents are. At least these babies’ parents are.”
“Babies?” Eileen repeated, her voice very faint.
Cricket nodded. “I’m having triplets.”
Eileen and Reed stared at their only daughter, their faces frozen.
“My goodness,” Eileen said after a moment, “your cowboy must be in shock.”
“I’ll say,” Reed said. “Three children and a wife will certainly cut into his winnings.”
Cricket’s mind was made up for her with that comment. “I’m not about to be a burden.”
“What do you mean?” Eileen asked.
“I’m going to raise these children on my own.” Cricket nodded, feeling all the pressure fall away from her. “Single motherhood, the most independent thing a woman can do.”
“I’ll say,” her father said. “Ever changed a diaper?”
“Some,” Cricket said, but now that she’d made her decision, she knew she was right. With the power of prayer and maybe a dozen child-rearing books, she could give being a mother her very best effort.
Independence was the only reason she hadn’t accepted Jack’s offer of marriage. Otherwise she’d always wonder if that footloose cowboy had proposed because he’d had to; she’d always wonder if she’d said yes because she was too afraid of standing on her own two feet when faced with three pairs of tiny eyes trusting her to do everything right.
Chapter Thirteen
Jack wanted to stay in Fort Wylie and wait for Cricket to return—he was hanging out in his truck parked at her house/tea shop—but the call he got from Pete changed his mind.
“Laura’s gone into labor,” Pete said.
“I’ll be right there.”
It didn’t feel right leaving Cricket, even though she’d been annoyed with him when she’d driven off. Petty annoyances passed, didn’t they? Hopefully she wasn’t the kind of girl who stayed mad. The only way he knew to work the kink out of an angry female was by making love to her, whispering soft apologies. Cricket didn’t strike him as the kind of woman who’d settle for that.
But he could hope.
He scribbled a note and left it on her door so she’d know Laura and Gabe’s baby was on the way.
By the time he got to Union Junction and the hospital, the baby had been born. “Go on in and see her,” Dane told him with a grin. “Gabe’s got him a cute little girl.”
“A girl?” A girl to go with Penny and Perrin.
“Perrin’ll be caught between two girls,” Gabe said.
“That could be a good thing or a bad thing,” Jack replied.
Gabe laughed. “Only time will tell.”
Jack had grabbed some flowers and a pink giraffe in the hospital’s gift shop. He walked into Laura’s room holding the flowers aloft like an awkward prize. “How’s the new mother?” he asked, handing the flowers to Laura as he gave her a kiss on the cheek and Gabe a slap on the back.
“Fine.” Laura looked tired but happy. “This is Gabriella Michele. Gabriella, meet your uncle Jack.”
Jack glanced at the baby with some fear, not daring to touch her. She seemed so tiny and peaceful snuggling in the crook of her mother’s arm. “She’s beautiful.”
Laura smiled. “Gabe and I are hoping you’ll be her godfather.”
Jack glanced up, stunned. “Godfather?” His only recollection of a godfather was from the movies. What was expected of a real-life godfather?
Gabe laughed. “Yes. Laura and I decided it was time to tie you into the family.”
Jack glanced again at the small, pink-wrapped bundle. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Godfather Jack,” Laura said, teasing. “You’ll be the best. And it will give you practice.”
He looked up at his brother and his wife. “I’ll need lots of it.”
Gabe laughed. “You’ll get up to speed on babies very quickly.”
Jack shook his head. “Life’s moving very quickly on me, almost conspiracy-like.”
“Have you told Pop about the triplets?” Gabe asked.
“I haven’t even seen him. I came right here.”
Laura smiled. “I think he wants to talk to you.”
Jack felt guilty he hadn’t hung around to see his father come out of surgery. “How’s he doing?”
“Really, really well,” Laura said. “But he’s been asking for you. Bellowing for you, actually.”
“Guess I’ll step around to see him.” Jack didn’t feel particularly excited at the thought, but he also knew he couldn’t put it off any longer.
“Are you going to do it?” Gabe asked curiously.
Jack knew exactly what his brother was asking. “What, move to the ranch?”
Gabe shrugged. “Just a warning, Pop’s sure he’s been warned by spirits that you have no intention of moving to the ranch because Mom’s there.”
Well, that was certainly odd. But Gabe could ha
ve no idea how correct Pop’s “spirits” were. The old man was eerily prescient. “Hey, let me just celebrate being Godfather Jack for now, okay?”
“And Papa Jack,” Laura said.
“That, too. Later on I’ll worry about being Good Son Jack.”
“And Millionaire Jack,” Gabe reminded him. “The only way to the grail is through Mom this time.”
“Yeah, well, who needs money, anyway?” Jack asked, and Gabe and Laura laughed.
“A man who’s having triplets,” Gabe called after him. “College educations and weddings are expensive.”
Jack headed down the hall. “Hey, Pop,” he said, entering his father’s room.
Suzy and Dane were keeping Josiah company, but they got up and quietly exited when Jack walked in. “He’s been asking for you,” Dane said as he walked by.
Pop’s eyes opened. “Jack?”
“Yeah, Pop. It’s me. How are you feeling?”
“Probably the best I can feel after Dr. Moneybags has poked around inside me.” He glanced up. “Where the hell did you go?”
Jack sat down next to his father. “I had to go see Cricket.”
“Why isn’t she here?” Josiah demanded.
“She had some things to do back in Fort Wylie.” Jack patted his father’s arm. “She’s going to be busy now that’s she’s having triplets.”
“Triplets?” Josiah’s eyebrows raised. “Whoa,” he said, “you knocked that ball out of the park, son!”
Jack shook his head. “When do you get out of here?”
“I don’t know.” Pop glanced around him weakly. “But when I do, I’m marrying Sara.”
“Good for you.” Jack was genuinely glad for his father.
“Let’s make it a double,” Pop suggested.
“My lady won’t have me. Yet.” Jack leaned back in the chair. “She’s got a lot on her mind.”
“Hmm.” Josiah grinned. “Triplets. They’ll sure keep you busy. Better get Cricket convinced to marry you before they’re born, because she’ll think of a hundred excuses afterward not to do it. She’s still got pregnancy weight and won’t look good in a wedding gown, that’s one excuse. Or she’ll say that she can’t leave the children to go on a honeymoon. Or if you wait just a few years, the kids can be in the wedding.” Pop looked at him. “Believe me, if the babies come before the ring, you’re in for what is known as a prolonged engagement.”