by Becky McGraw
When she was bent over with her head upside down, blow drying her hair, Tommy walked into the bathroom behind her and grabbed her hips, then pressed himself to her and groaned. Shutting off the dryer, she stood up and threw it on the counter, then turned in his arms and leaned up and licked his lower lip, before she pressed her mouth to his. He growled, and pulled her against him and took control, kissing her senseless. Both of them were breathing heavy by the time he took a step back.
“Jesus,” he said breathlessly, “Every time I put my hands on you, I wanna take you back to bed…you make me feel like a horny teenager.”
“So who’s stopping you, sugar?” she said cheekily, then ran her hands through her hair to smooth it into a ponytail. She felt around behind her counter, until she found the tie and secured it.
He swallowed twice then told her, “We need to go out to the lake and talk to your sister and Gabe.”
Katie’s happy mood evaporated and she huffed out a breath. “Yeah you’re right…” she agreed, then took a step forward and put her arms around his waist and hugged him. “Karlie is going to kill me.”
With every mile that brought them closer to the lake house, the knot of tension in Katie’s stomach grew. How was she going to tell her sister that she was pregnant…with twins…by a man she’d known a matter of months. Of course that last part wouldn’t matter so much, because Karlie could hardly throw stones at her for that, after all she’d met and married Gabe in a matter of months. It was the other part she would probably have a problem with.
“You nervous, baby?” Tommy asked her with a concerned glance.
“Yeah, I am…this isn’t gonna be pretty, I don’t think,” she said in a wary tone.
“I’m just worried that Gabe is gonna kick my ass,” he told her with a nervous chuckle.
“We really don’t need their acceptance…and if Gabe tries it, I’ll hog-tie him better than Karlie ever did,” she said fiercely. Gabe better not lay a finger on Tommy, or she would do it.
He raised an eyebrow at her and grinned. “Now, that I’d like to see.”
“If Gabe gets froggy, you will…” Katie vowed then folded her arms under her breasts and looked out the window.
They rode in silence the rest of the way to the lake house, and Tommy parked the truck out front then came around and helped her down. With his hand at her lower back, they walked up to the door, then looked at each other, and knocked. When nobody answered the door, they knocked again and waited. Katie heard Sarge let out a low, lazy ‘roomph‘ then finally, a shirtless and disheveled Gabe opened the door in his underwear, with a dark frown on his face.
His eyebrows shot up and he growled, “What the hell, Katie?” Just then Katie saw Karlie, stumble into the living room wearing nothing but a sheet and a smile. Ut oh, looked like they were interrupting something, and Gabe wasn’t a happy camper. Well too fricking bad, they were here, and they weren’t leaving, until they’d said what they’d come to say. Katie had worked herself up too much to leave now.
She moved around a stunned Tommy, and shoved the door open. Gabe stepped aside, then Katie told her sister, “Get dressed, Karlie, we need to talk…ya’ll can finish whatever after we leave. We’ll be out on the back deck.” Katie looked back over her shoulder and motioned for Tommy to follow her then stomped to the sliding glass doors.
Tommy trudged behind his warrior princess, and followed her out on the sunlit deck, then sat beside her at the table to wait. Katie’s face was flushed and she was biting her lower lip, and twisting her hands in her lap. He put his hand over hers and stopped the twisting, then laced his fingers with hers and smiled, then told her, “It’s gonna be okay, darlin’…”
Katie huffed out a breath then nodded, and he saw her shoulders relax a little. When he heard the sliders open again, he looked up and watched the unhappy couple they’d interrupted walk through the door then over to the empty chairs at the table. “Okay, what the fuc—um, what’s so important?” Gabe asked grouchily, as he plopped down into a chair, and pulled Karlie into his lap.
“I went to the doctor yesterday…” Katie said and squeezed his hand.
Karlie sat up in the chair and her face blanched, “Oh, god, what did he say? Are you okay, sis?”
“I’m fine…I’m pregnant,” Katie blurted out nervously, and he felt her palm sweating against his.
Karlie vaulted up off of Gabe’s lap and her face turned bright crimson, as she stomped around to face Katie. “What?!?” she shouted and it echoed over the lake.
Gabe stood up and walked over behind her and put his arms around her waist, pulling her back against him. “What the hell, Katie?”
“With twins,” Katie added, and Karlie’s face got redder as she slumped back against Gabe, her breathing erratic.
Gabe swept her up into his arms and walked back to the chair and sat down with her, then grated through clenched teeth, “Think you could have eased into it, Katie? Jesus, nothing like springing something like that on your sister.” He rocked Karlie in his arms and kissed her hair.
“You the one that knocked her up?” Gabe asked with a distinct edge to his tone, punctuated by a murderous look.
Tommy swallowed and nodded then said, “I’m the father, yeah.”
“So, what the hell are you going to do about it,” Gabe demanded and ran his hand over Karlie’s head as she cried into his shirt.
Katie piped up then stood and walked over to him, “What we decide to do about it is none of your business, or Karlie’s. I just came over here to tell you what was going on.”
“You just bought a fucking horse farm, Katie…how the hell are you going to run it pregnant with twins?”
“I’ll run it after I have the babies, I’ll live there until then,” she told him and put her hands on her hips.
“Oh, hell no you won’t!” Tommy said and vaulted to his feet. “You’re coming back to Amarillo with me, so I can take care of you…you don’t need to be out there on that spread by yourself,” he told Katie firmly.
There was no way in hell he would let her do that. The doctor said she was high risk, she needed to be taken care of and pampered, not busting her ass to keep up a ranch.
Katie spun around toward him and her face was as red as Karlie’s had been. “Don’t you tell me what I’m gonna do, Tommy Tucker. I just sunk every penny I have into that place, I’m not going to let it go to pot, while I sit on my ass at your ranch and germinate these babies.”
“You don’t have to worry about money, sugar…I’m going to take care of you, and I’ll pay someone to keep it up, while you’re at the Rockin’ D.”
“What if I don’t want to be taken care of, Tommy?” she yelled at him with her fists clenched at her side.
“Too fucking bad, Katie…you’re going to be taken care of!” he shouted back at her, then sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly, before adding in a calmer tone, “The doctor said you were at risk, and you needed to take it easy…there’s no way you can do that there. You need to be around people who can help you, darlin’.”
Karlie sat up in Gabe’s lap then and said flatly, “He’s right, Katie…you need to go to Amarillo with him….Gabe and I will take care of the ranch here.”
Katie turned back to her sister and said, “But—”
“No buts, sis, he’s right, and you know it…don’t be stubborn,” she said sternly.
Tommy watched Katie closely, and saw her deflate then she nodded and dropped her chin to her chest in defeat. He walked over to her and pulled her into his arms and kissed her hair, then said, “Thanks, sugar…”
His eyes met Karlie’s angry glare and he flinched. Her look told him this conversation was far from over, as did the tension in Gabe’s shoulders, as he held his wife. Tommy figured the best thing they could do was get the heck out of here for now. With a kiss to Katie’s hair, he told her, “Let’s go get your stuff packed, so we can head out.”
Karlie got up off of Gabe’s lap and hugged her sister, and they both
cried, while he and Gabe looked on uncomfortably. Once the tears stopped, they held each other at arm’s length and just stared for a minute, then sniffled a little and Karlie went into Gabe’s arms and Katie walked into his, but her body was stiff and she didn’t look at him. He gave her a squeeze, then led her into the house and out the front door to the truck.
After they were settled in the truck and he backed out of the driveway, he said in an uncertain tone, trying to gauge Katie’s mood, “Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.”
She looked over at him belligerently and said, “It was horrible…you bullied me into coming with you to Amarillo. Was that your plan with all the ‘care‘ you gave me this morning?”
“What?” Tommy asked incredulously and pulled the truck to the side of the road, so he could face her.
“When you got up early, cooked me breakfast and made a bath, was it your intention to come over here and corner me into going back to Amarillo with you?”
Hot anger heated the blood in his veins to lava, and he shouted, “Hell no! I intended to take care of you and our babies this morning, and that’s what I did!” then he shoved a hand through his hair and added, “I was going to talk to you later about Amarillo, but when you told your sister what you planned, you forced my hand!”
Katie harrumphed, then folded her arms across her chest and looked out the window, and told him petulantly, “Fine, let’s go get my stuff, so I can go sit on my ass at your ranch and get fat.”
Tommy huffed out a frustrated breath, then jammed the truck into gear and headed back to the cabin. The pleasant mood between them from this morning had disappeared, and the tension in the cab of the truck was palpable, as he drove. He ground his teeth and wondered how the hell could things have turned on a dime yet again? Now everything he’d done to show Katie how he felt about her…about their babies…was for naught. He’d have to start over at square one in his mission to convince the frustrating, but delicious, redhead that he loved her.
It took them about two hours to get Katie’s stuff packed up in her truck and his, because they had to go to the Double B and unload her trailer into Katie’s truck as well. Cassie told her it would be fine for her to leave the trailer parked there, and Laramie for now as well, so Karlie could exercise him.
Now, Katie was following behind him as they drove to Amarillo, still stewing over having to go there at all. She knew she was being stubborn and unreasonable, but it was her prerogative right? Even though she knew it was for the best, she resented how her decision had been forced. If he’d have just asked her, in private, and explained his reasoning, she probably would have agreed anyway. He was right, she didn’t need to be on that property working, and it was too much for her to maintain while she’s pregnant. But she’d be damned if she’d tell him that now.
The drive took a little over five hours, because she’d had to stop to pee two times on the way, and they had to stop and eat at a restaurant, because her stomach couldn’t take fast food. They’d been talking back and forth on their cell phones, off and on, but he kept their conversations short, because he told her he didn’t want her to lose focus on her driving and have an accident.
Damned overprotective, that’s what he was, and it was irritating her. She remembered that he told her once that he was only overprotective toward those he cared about, so that settled her down a little, though. Tommy Tucker was very annoying at times, and pissed her off more than he should, but damned if she didn’t love him. But she wasn’t telling him that either, for now.
He pulled down the long white fence lined road that led to the ranch, and she watched her freedom ebb with each foot they got closer to the house. She knew once she stepped foot inside, it would be like her prison for seven or eight months, and he would be her guard. Katie pulled her truck up beside his in front of the huge sprawling house and killed the engine, then just sat there staring at the front porch. The door swung open and Dixie ran out, then she ran down the steps not toward her daddy’s truck, but toward Katie’s.
Katie opened the door of the truck and slid down, before Tommy got over there, and he frowned when he reached her, then scolded, “You should have waited to let me help you down, Katie.”
She snorted and stepped around him then bent down to open her arms, and the bundle of energy that was Dixie Tucker threw herself into Katie’s arms. “Katie, you’re back,” the little girl said in wonder and hugged her neck tightly.
“I sure am, baby…now we can get you riding like a pro, and roping too,” she said into Dixie’s blond curls.
Dixie leaned back and looked at her with awe in her light blue eyes, “And we can teach Snuggles more tricks,” she said excitedly.
“Yes, we can,” Katie agreed and kissed her cheek.
That wasn’t enough for Dixie though, she threw her arms around Katie’s neck again and said in a sweet little voice that pulled at Katie’s heart, “I’m so glad you’re back, Miss Katie.”
Katie untangled herself from Dixie’s grasp, and stood back up, but held her hand. “Won’t you help us get my stuff unloaded,” she told her with a warm smile.
“Doesn’t daddy get a hug too?” Tommy huffed from behind her rather indignantly.
“Oh yeah! Sorry, daddy, I was just excited to see Miss Katie,” she said and pulled her hand from Katie’s then ran into Tommy’s open arms and hugged him. He picked her up on his hip and said, “Let’s go inside for a few minutes and cool off, then we’ll come back out and unload.”
“Okay, Cookie made some lemonade and cookies for us,” she told him and hung onto his neck, as Tommy walked toward the house, and Katie trailed behind him.
When they got inside, the cool air instantly dried the sweat that had broken out on Katie’s skin, while they’d been standing outside. It was fall, but they were having a hot spell, and who knew when it would let up. They walked to the breakfast bar where there was indeed a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies waiting for them.
The short gray-haired woman in the kitchen turned toward them and smiled at Tommy. For some reason, Katie noticed it didn’t quite reach her dark brown eyes, and wondered why. “Welcome home, Mr. Tucker,” she said brightly, then her eyes flickered over Katie and she raised a brow. “Oh, I didn’t realize we had company…”
“We don’t,” Tommy told her with a chuckle, “Katie is going to be living here with us.” he told her and Katie could have sworn she saw momentary fire in the woman’s eyes, before they became blank again.
“Would you and Miss Katie like some lemonade, then?” she asked deferentially, but Katie heard an underlying edge to her words. She wondered why she’d never noticed that before when she was here. Maybe she just hadn’t been around the woman enough, because she’d always been busy, and out working.
“That would be wonderful, thanks Cookie,” Tommy told her then put Dixie down on her feet and patted her blond curls. “You remembering to take Snuggles out for his walks?” he asked her.
“Yes, sir, and he hasn’t messed in the house, while you were gone…he’s doing good,” she informed him proudly.
“That’s awesome, sugar,” he told her with a chuckle, then patted her head again, “Very good job.”
Katie smiled at the, because evidently Tommy was doing a better job at teaching and disciplining her too. He looked at Katie curiously and she mouthed, “Good job,” then winked at him. Tommy beamed and then stepped over and gave her a hug. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cookie frown, before she turned her back to them and reached into the cabinet to pull down glasses.
Tommy wouldn’t let her help unload the trucks, she had to sit in a rocker on the porch and watch, as he and a few of his ranch hands unloaded her stuff and brought it upstairs. Katie didn’t know yet, which room they were putting her stuff in, but she assumed it was one of the guest rooms. She was sure he didn’t want to confuse Dixie by moving her into his room, and that was fine with her for now…until they figured out how they were going to tell her about the babies.