Trouble in Dixie

by Becky McGraw

  When Tommy staggered back into the room in a cold sweat, with his face white and his body shaking, she just met his stunned eyes with her own. Katie felt numb inside, and was in shock, as she slid off the table and grabbed a paper towel to wipe off the gel from her stomach, then zipped her shorts. The tears she’d held back finally found their way down her cheeks and she stumbled past Tommy, and walked swiftly out the door. She had to get out of here, and get some fresh air, because she felt like she was suffocating.

  She pushed through the glass fronted doors and picked up her pace down the sidewalk. Katie didn’t know where she was going, but she knew she had to get away from that office, and away from Tommy Tucker.

  Her life was ruined, she’d spent all her money on buying the ranch, and now she wasn’t going to be able to run it, or make any money, until the babies came. Then she’d have not one, but two, babies to support and raise alone. Her steps got faster and faster, until she was running down the sidewalk in downtown Bowie with tears pouring faster and faster down her cheeks. She needed her sister, but her cell phone was in the backpack she forgot to pick up before she left the doctor’s office.

  Blood pounded in her ears as she ran, and it was like she was seeing things through a tunnel, as she ran faster and faster toward nothing. The chicken salad she’d ate for lunch seesawed from her stomach to her throat several times, but she wasn’t going to stop to toss it, she needed to keep running. Katie didn’t stop when she came to a cross street, she didn’t even realize it was a cross street, as she barreled toward the other curb, until a loud blaring horn about deafened her, before a car slammed on the brakes and its bumper hit her thigh and she flew through the air, then landed hard on her hip.

  Darkness closed around her as a good dose of fear, along with the adrenaline in her system saturated her brain. It was too much, all of it, just too much for her to handle…she’d dealt with enough, and gave in to the peace of the darkness.

  CHAPTER NINE

  After he gathered his senses, Tommy grabbed Katie’s backpack then walked out of the doctor’s office and looked up and down the street for her. When he saw her running hell bent for leather down the sidewalk, he took off after her. He knew she was in shock too, and he needed to calm her down. It wasn’t good for the babies for her to be that upset.

  She was faster than him, and she had a good head start, so she was half a block ahead of him, when he saw her run right through a ‘do not cross’ sign at a crosswalk. His heart stopped when he heard the squeal of brakes, the blare of a horn, then saw her fly through the air and land on her side. He ran faster than he ever had in his life, with dread squeezing his heart and fear coursing through his veins like acid.

  When he got to her, he dropped to his knees and felt for a pulse. He whimpered when he felt the extremely rapid and not so regular pulse beating at her throat. Running his hands along her body, he checked to see if anything was obviously broken. He didn’t want to move her, if she was hurt, but he had no way of knowing, because she was unconscious. Maybe she hit her head, he thought, and emotion clogged his throat, as he made a quick decision to take her back to the doctor’s office.

  The driver of the car was standing there nervously wringing her hands. It was an older lady, and her face was white and her eyes fearful. “I’m taking her back to Doc Percival’s office,” he told her then lifted Katie in his arms and took off at a swift pace back toward the office. He kissed her cold face and begged her not to die, as he walked in numb despair down the sidewalk. When he walked back through the doors, the nurse left her desk and burst through the door to the exam rooms, then held it open for him.

  “What happened?” she asked him with concern.

  “She ran into the street and a car hit her,” he said in a choked voice, then walked straight to the exam room where they’d been earlier and gently laid her on the exam table. “Can you get the Doc?”

  “He was just leaving, let me see if I can catch him,” she said then flew out the door and down the hall calling for the doctor.

  Tommy stroked her pale cheek and tears burned his eyes, then he said with a choked sob, “Wake up, baby…talk to me…I can’t lose you too.”

  The doctor ran into the room, frantic and with his briefcase in his hand. He dropped it on a chair, then ran around the exam table, and started moving his fingers deftly over her body, around her skull, then he felt the pulse in her neck, and gently tapped her cheeks, and said “Wake up, Katie…it’s Doc Percival.”

  “What happened, he asked Tommy, then walked around him to fish around in a drawer, before he went back to Katie’s side and snapped a vial, then ran it under her nose. She coughed a few times, then gagged and he quickly picked up the plastic trash can beside the table and rolled her over, so her face was right inside the top. She dry heaved a couple of times, then her body stilled and she laid back on the table, and put her arm over her eyes.

  “Did you hit your head when you fell, Katie?” Doc Percival asked loudly.

  “No, I don’t think so…” she said weakly.

  “Where do you hurt?” he asked.

  “Everywhere, but mostly my hip,” she told him with a groan and moved the hand not over her eyes there and rubbed.

  Tommy swallowed a couple of times and finally managed to croak past the knot in his throat, “What about the babies, doc?”

  “Let’s take another look with the ultrasound, but they’re probably fine, they looked pretty cozy in there earlier,” he said with a half-smile.

  The doctor left the room, and Tommy stepped up beside the table, and lifted Katie’s arm off her face and laced his fingers through hers, before leaning down to kiss her forehead. “I’m sorry, baby…” he told her with misery, fear and a excess of other emotions pounding through him.

  “You say that a lot, don’t you?” she asked him in agitation.

  “I’m a fuck up, what can I say, it’s my mantra,” he admitted ruefully, then swallowed a couple of times, before he told her, “I’m sorry for being an ass…I’m…happy about the babies sugar…I was just in shock.”

  Shock didn’t begin to describe what Tommy was feeling, his insides felt like someone had sliced and diced him with razor blades, then poured alcohol over the cuts. He knew that feeling would wear off, it was already starting to wear off, because he realized Katie was going to be okay, but it was being replaced by guilt. That’s exactly what he needed more guilt.

  “I am in shock too—a little support would have been nice,” she told him flatly. “We can’t both be freaked out at the same time, and it was my turn.”

  “I know baby…I’m sor—” he started to apologize again, and she clamped a hand over his mouth.

  “Do not say that again…it’s become a habit for you, and I don’t want to hear it, until and unless you mean it, and need to say it,” she told him, her bright blue eyes glittering with too many emotions to name. He nodded and kissed her palm, because he refused to argue with her, or upset her further.

  “I love you…” he said in a low raw voice, then added, “That I mean with all my heart, Katie.”

  She dragged her gaze away from his and said in a trembling voice, “That’s yet to be seen…I don’t want you saying that either, because of the babies. Words are easy, Tommy…try a little action to go along with them, and maybe one day I’ll believe it.”

  “I do mean it…and I’ll prove it to you, Katie…to you and our babies.”

  She looked back at him and hesitated a moment, as if she were trying to corral her emotions, before she said, “Just because we have kids together, doesn’t mean we have to be together. You can have your life, and I can have mine.”

  “That’s not why I said it,” he told her gruffly with anger in his tone. “I want to be with you…” he finished, hoping his words would penetrate her thick skull. Her being alone to raise his kids was not an option he was willing to accept, her being with someone else was an even less acceptable option. She was his, and he wasn’t letting her go…he’d figure out some
way to make her believe him.

  She didn’t say anything, but her flattened her full lips into a line, and huffed out a frustrated breath. He reached a hand up and smoothed her beautiful red hair out of her eyes, then leaned down and kissed her forehead. Doc Percival pushed the ultrasound cart back into the room, and Tommy moved aside, so he could set it up. “Can you unzip your shorts again, Katie?”

  She reached for the zipper, and lifted her hips to push her shorts down, and she flinched. Tommy slid his hands under her butt to help her lift up, and then eased her back down on the table. He swallowed down the guilt that punched him in the gut when he saw the huge purple bruise already forming on her left hip. Gently, he ran his fingers over it, and then leaned down and kissed her there, and she whimpered.

  When Doc Percival turned back around with the ultrasound wand and some lube in his hand, Tommy moved to the other side of the table and held her hand. Katie didn’t pull away, so he took that as a good sign, and watched as the screen lit up and his two little peanuts showed up there.

  “They look just like you, darlin’” he told Katie and with a grin. Reluctantly, she smiled and squeezed his hand.

  Relief swamped him when the doctor turned on the audio and two distinct swishes filled the room. Tommy heard another fainter swoosh, and groaned, “Oh god, tell me that third one isn’t another baby…”

  Doctor Percival chuckled and said, “No, that’s Katie’s heart beat…it’s slower, hear it?”

  Tommy smiled down at her and said, “Yeah…it’s the one I want to worm my way into,” then snagged her gaze and held it.

  “I didn’t get to print you out a picture earlier, because we had other issues to deal with at the time and I forgot, but I’ll shoot you one out now,” he told them and pressed a button. The machine whirred and then a small black and white strip printed out what was on the screen. “Everything looks fine from what I can see…bring her to the hospital if she starts spotting, or cramping,” he told Tommy seriously, then handed him the strip.

  “If you have more pain, I can write you a prescription for Lortab…it won’t hurt the babies,” the doctor told her reassuringly.

  “Nah, I’ll skip it, I’m tough…I rode in the rodeo for ten years, so I know what pain is,” she told him with a snort.

  “You rode in that rodeo two weeks ago, pregnant,” Tommy told her then groaned, suddenly realizing it. He sent up a silent prayer of thanks that she hadn’t fallen, or gotten hurt then.

  “Well, no more riding young lady…it’s too dangerous, especially with you being a high risk pregnancy,” the doctor told her.

  Tommy squeaked and repeated, “High risk pregnancy?” Fear sliced through him again and his heart wobbled around in his chest.

  “She’s high risk because she’s carrying multiples…I gave her the name of a specialist. As long as she takes care of herself, and doesn’t over do it, she’ll be fine. The chances are she’ll deliver them early however, even though she’s young and in perfect health, so they may be preemies. Her doctor might even put her in the hospital for a few weeks in her last trimester to try and delay the birth…the specialist will give you the run down.”

  “Is her life at risk?” Tommy asked nervously.

  “Not really…” he said and patted Katie’s shoulder. “She’s perfectly healthy, and should have a normal pregnancy if she follows the doctor’s orders.”

  “Oh, she will,” Tommy assured him fiercely, then looked down into her eyes with purpose. He was going to make sure of she followed the doctor’s orders implicitly. He was bringing her back to the Rockin’ D and she was going to sit on her pretty ass, until their babies were born…and he was going to make her love him, that was all there was to it.

  Katie groaned and put her hand back over her eyes, and asked “How are you going to explain this to Dixie?”

  “We have time, sugar…we’ll figure it out. She’ll be thrilled to have two babies to play with…” he informed, then his voice filled with wonder as he told her, “Dixie will love being a big sister.”

  Tommy never thought he’d have more kids…he thought Dixie was going to be it for him. Life was just filled with surprises though, he thought, and the first blossom of excitement penetrated the numbness inside of him. This time, he’d do it right, and make sure that both the babies and Katie were protected and made it through alive.

  Katie was beside herself, because Tommy refused to let her walk from the doctor’s office to the truck. He carried her every step of the way, and didn’t even set her down outside the truck, he opened the door with one hand then sat her on the seat and put on her seat belt. With a kiss on her forehead, he smiled sweetly, then shut the door and bounced around to his side of the truck.

  His mood was certainly a shift from what it had been earlier, and she loved the lighter, happier side of him. Although she’d refused the pain meds the doctor offered her, Tommy insisted he give him the prescription, then stopped at the drugstore in town to get it filled for her on their way out of town.

  He drove them to Gabe and Karlie’s cabin, then parked out front and carried inside. Smiling down at her, he kissed her tenderly, then carried her to the bedroom she’d been using where he gently laid her on the bed, and pulled off her boots and socks.

  “You should probably take off those shorts too, sugar, that material is rough and will rub that bruise,” he suggested, then went to the dresser and searched through a few drawers, before he found a pair of terry cloth shorts and pulled them out, holding them up like a trophy. “These won’t hurt,” he said and grinned at her, then walked over and unsnapped her shorts. She sucked in a breath when his fingers brushed her belly and tingles skittered along her skin.

  He pulled his hands back and looked down at her with alarm, “Did I hurt you, baby?”

  She shook her head and his hands trembled as they moved to slide the zipper tab down, before he lifted her hips and slid the shorts down her legs. He stopped halfway down and kissed her thigh.

  “God, you’re so beautiful, sweetheart…I could look at you all day,” he said in a rough voice, and sucked in a couple of uneven breaths. Katie swallowed down the moan that pushed to her lips, and laid still as he finished sliding the shorts off her legs.

  Tossing the blue jean shorts to the floor, he pushed her feet through the terry cloth shorts and then slowly slid them up her legs, holding her gaze with his glittering eyes. When he had them up, he leaned down and kissed her again, tasting, testing and asking. Katie moaned as he feasted on her lips and she nipped and sucked his. His breathing was short and sharp when he pulled back from her, his eyes heated with desire. With a sigh, he asked, “You hungry, sugar?”

  “Not for food,” she told him and her eyes traveled over his broad chest up to his eyes.

  “Well, you’ve had a rough day, so don’t even go there,” he growled and pulled his shirt over his head, then knelt on the side of the bed, before he crawled over her body and settled himself on the other side of the bed. Once he was settled beside her, he pulled her into his arms and snuggled his chin into her hair, then told her in a gruff voice, “Let’s take a nap, I just want to hold you for a while.”

  She snorted then told him, “You get my motor running, and then you just want to hold me? That’s not fair…” She nipped his collarbone, then trailed her lips up his neck where she kissed him and pleaded, “I need you, Tommy…it has been a rough day, for both of us.” With a nip to his earlobe, she chuckled then murmured, There’s probably more adrenaline running through me than all the bull riders in Texas.”

  He groaned and pulled her tighter to his side. “Me too…I thought I was going into cardiac arrest when you got hit by that car…don’t ever scare me like that again,” he told her gruffly.

  “I didn’t mean to do that…I was just…freaked out,” she said then slid down his body and kissed his chest. Her hand slid down the other side of his chest and her fingers flicked over his nipple, and Tommy sucked in a sharp breath then covered her hand with his. She moved
a little farther down his body, then added, “It’s not every day a girl learns not only is she pregnant, but she’s carrying twins. That’s a bit of a shock to the system.”