Cinderella and the Playboy / The Texan's Happily-Ever-After

by Lois Faye Dyer

  “Jared, it’s Raina. I’m cramping. What should I do?” After another pause, she responded, “Are you sure?” She looked at Shep. “He wants me to meet him at the emergency room in Lubbock.”

  Shep’s whole body was tight with tension and his heart was doing double time. “Whatever he thinks is best. We’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  When she closed her phone, she said, “Jared warned you to drive safely.”

  “As if I’m going to do anything to put this pregnancy in jeopardy,” he muttered. He backed out of the parking place and headed up the main street of Sagebrush while Raina called Angie.

  Ten minutes later, he parked at the emergency room lot and carried Raina inside. She didn’t protest, and that told him more than anything else that she was scared. The fact that she was scared almost panicked him.

  Jared must have arrived just moments before them, as he was at the registration desk already, talking to the clerk. She recognized Raina. “Dr. Gibson…McGraw. I’ll do this as quickly as I can.”

  Shep tapped his foot, unable to define all the turmoil raging inside of him, unable to express to Raina what the thought of losing their child did to him.

  The three of them made a sight, standing there in their wedding finery. Only a half hour ago, he’d been comparing his wedding to Gina and Logan’s. Only a half hour ago, the possibility of losing his child hadn’t entered his mind.

  Finally Jared said to Shep, “Why don’t you wait out here until I examine her and do an ultrasound. I’ll send someone for you when we’re through.”

  Shep wanted to be inside there with Raina, but he didn’t say so. She was sitting in a wheelchair now, looking a little lost, and he just wanted to take her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay.

  “Why don’t I wheel her back? I’ll wait outside the exam room, but I’ll be right there.”

  Madison looked from one of them to the other, then agreed. “Okay, follow me.” Shep took hold of Raina’s wheelchair and pushed it, following Madison, remembering the night he’d brought Manuel to the emergency room, the night he and Raina had really connected.

  By the time Jared beckoned Shep inside the cubicle, Shep had removed his suit jacket and opened two buttons of his shirt above his bolo tie. He didn’t care how he looked. He only cared what was going on in that room.

  Piercing Jared Madison with his hardest stare, he asked, “How’s the baby?”

  “From what I can tell, everything looks fine. A few cramps and a little spotting aren’t necessarily anything to be alarmed about. But pregnancies are always in a state of flux. So I’d like Raina to take a couple of days, rest, put her feet up and just give her body a chance to adjust to everything that’s going on.”

  “Physically, you mean?”

  “Emotionally, too. She’s had a lot of stress.”

  “Good stress,” Raina interjected.

  “Good stress is still stress, and you know that. Fortunately, you said you have a housekeeper to take care of the boys. Right now, take advantage of that,” Jared suggested.

  “Can she do steps, ride in the truck?”

  “What I’d like is for Raina to rest through Thursday. Can you sleep downstairs for a few nights?”

  “There’s a guest bedroom downstairs, where Eva sometimes stays. Raina can sleep there,” Shep informed him, his chest tight with worry about Raina and their child.

  “Terrific. Call my office tomorrow morning and make an appointment for Friday.”

  “Can I drive?” Raina asked.

  “I’ll drive you to the appointment,” Shep cut in. “There’s no use taking any chances.”

  Raina’s voice seemed a little thick as she responded, “All right.”

  With a compassionate expression, Jared glanced from Raina to Shep. “I know this is scary, but what happened tonight doesn’t mean there will be any trouble. Let’s just take this a day at a time.” He patted Raina’s shoulder. “If you have any more symptoms, or if the spotting gets worse, you call me immediately.”

  “I will,” she assured him.

  At the door, Jared said, “I’ll send someone back to get you checked out.”

  After the obstetrician left the room, complete silence enveloped it. Crossing to his wife, Shep looked down at her. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m okay. How about you?”

  “Shaken up. The thought of losing this baby really threw me off balance.”

  “Me, too,” she said, but she was searching his face, looking for something.

  “What?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Never mind.”

  He was ready to pursue the question when a nurse came in, a sheaf of papers in her hand. He knew any further talking he and Raina wanted to do would have to wait. It seemed something more was troubling her than the possibility of losing their baby.

  In the car, they seemed to be locked in their separate worlds, tied up by personal thoughts. Shep didn’t know how to express his worry, didn’t want to add stress to a tense situation, so he kept quiet. But she was quiet, too, which was unusual for her. Maybe she was just tired. It had been a long day. Maybe her body was trying to tell her she couldn’t be a doctor and a mother, too. Was she trying to reconcile that thought?

  Raina’s cell phone rang and she fished it out of her purse. Opening it, she answered, “Hi, Gina. You should be throwing your bouquet about now…I know you were worried, but I’m okay. I have to rest for a few days, then Jared will examine me again…Okay, put her on…Hi, Lily. No, I don’t need you to come over tomorrow. It will just be me and Eva and Manuel until the boys get home…Well, sure, if you want to visit, that’s fine. A laptop is only good company for so long. Okay.”

  Shep thought Raina was going to close the phone, but then she said, “Hi, Angie. I know. This could be nothing to worry about. I promise I’ll call you if I need anything. Thank you. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.”

  As Raina closed her phone, Shep glanced at her. “You’ve got good friends.”

  “They all want to help.”

  “The problem is, they can’t.”

  “No, they can’t,” she agreed. “The only thing I can do is give this time.”

  Shep was not going to let Raina lift a finger for the next few days.

  If she lost this baby…

  He wouldn’t even give the thought a home in his head.

  Raina walked aimlessly around the house late Saturday afternoon, stopping to stroke two of the kittens who’d curled up on the wide windowsill. After a morning of the boys roughhousing and Manuel demanding attention, Shep had decided Raina needed a break. Eva had taken Manuel along with her to her cousin’s to play with her children, and Shep had taken Joey and Roy with him to run errands. Shep had been very quiet since their scare at Gina’s wedding. Raina was afraid the tension between them since then had to do with an underlying question. What if she had lost the baby?

  For her, Manuel and Roy and Joey had become even more precious. Yesterday Jared had given her a clean bill of health. But Shep was treating her like a piece of delicate glass, and she was worried.

  Her feelings for him had grown deeper each day. She so desperately wanted him to say, “No matter what happens with your pregnancy, it’s you and me against the world. I love you.”

  Last night she’d slept upstairs in their bedroom. Shep had held her and given her a chaste good-night kiss. When she’d asked if something was bothering him, he told her not to worry about him. She should just concentrate on taking care of herself.

  She was taking care of herself, but she wanted to take care of him, too. Why wouldn’t he accept that?

  When the phone rang, she realized how much she missed the chatter and laughter of the boys. She lifted the phone from the dock on the end table, recognizing Ryder’s number on the small screen. She hadn’t told him about the miscarriage scare. She hadn’t wanted a…fuss.

  “Hi, there, how are you? I haven’t heard from you in a while,” she said brightly.

 
“I’ve been busy,” he responded gruffly. “Is Shep there?”

  “Not right now. He drove into town. Why?”

  “Because I need to talk to you.”

  “So talk.”

  “I’d like to do this face-to-face.”

  “Uh-oh. I smell a problem. What’s going on, Ryder?”

  “I told you, I want to talk to you in person. How long will he be gone?”

  “He just left about fifteen minutes ago. He was driving into Lubbock to pick up some kind of equipment. I think he might stop to get the boys new sneakers, and they’ll probably convince him they need ice cream. So I imagine he’ll be gone at least an hour.”

  “Good, I’ll be over in five minutes.”

  “Where are you?”

  “I had to stop at the police station in Sagebrush, so I’ll be there almost by the time you get to the door.”

  “Ryder, tell me what this is about.”

  “It’s about your husband. I’ll be there in five.”

  Raina couldn’t even imagine what Ryder had to tell her. She didn’t like the fact at all that he was acting mysterious about it. Could this have anything to do with that background check he’d warned her he was going to run? It shouldn’t. She’d told him to forget about it.

  By the time she gathered a few toys from the sofa in the living room, she heard a rap on the kitchen screen door.

  “Come in,” she called, wishing Ryder felt at home here, wishing he and Shep could become friends.

  Seconds later, Ryder stood in the doorway, a sober expression on his face. He was dressed in street clothes—jeans and a snap-button shirt, and he was carrying a manila envelope.

  Ryder glanced around. “It’s quiet. Where’s the baby?”

  “Eva has Manuel. Shep decided I needed a break.”

  Ryder crossed to the sofa where she was seated and handed her the envelope. “Do you want to read it in private, or do you want me to tell you what’s in it?”

  “Why don’t you tell me what this is all about.” She tried to remain calm. But her hands were a little clammy, and she was suddenly afraid to open the envelope.

  “I told you I was going to do a background check on McGraw.”

  “And I told you not to.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t always listen to you. And it’s a good thing I didn’t.”

  “What did you find out? That he has speeding tickets?” If she kept this light, maybe nothing serious would come of it.

  “I didn’t just want his paper trail. I wanted real information.”

  “And how do you get that?”

  “Old-fashioned detective work. I had a couple of road blocks, though—retirement, vacations, that kind of thing.”

  “I don’t understand what you were investigating.”

  “I know cops out there, Raina. They connected me with other cops. I finally found out where McGraw spent his teenage years—in Sandy Cove, California.”

  “He spent his childhood in a foster home, I know that.”

  “More than one foster home.”

  “That’s not unusual.”

  “I suppose not, but I contacted a deputy in Sandy Cove. The retired chief of police hasn’t answered my calls and that made me suspicious.”

  “Maybe he didn’t have anything to tell you.”

  “Possibly. But the deputy did. He remembers the night that McGraw supposedly stole a truck, though there’s nothing in black and white on file.”

  “Supposedly?”

  “McGraw was fourteen when he spent the night in jail.”

  “A night in jail? He was just a boy!”

  “He stole a truck, Raina.”

  “Supposedly,” she repeated. “Why doesn’t the deputy know for sure?”

  “He wasn’t on duty that night. He just heard about what happened through the rumor mill. The chief wouldn’t talk about it. The foster family kicked McGraw out, and that’s not a ‘supposedly.’”

  “Where did he go?”

  “Conroy, the deputy, said he was sent to stay with a guy who took in troubled kids.”

  Closing her eyes, Raina tried to absorb that. She hated to admit to Ryder that she knew nothing about Shep’s early years. He still hadn’t opened up to her about any of that.

  “I’ve also looked into how McGraw made his money. I haven’t found anything underhanded yet, but once a hoodlum, always a hoodlum.”

  “People can change! Boys grow into men.”

  “I don’t believe people change, Raina. You know that. And boys who get into trouble usually turn into men who get into trouble.”

  “Shep is a wonderful father,” she said hotly. “You have no right—”

  Ryder held up his hand to cut her off. “I’m your big brother. I have the right to protect you. Do you know anything about Shep McGraw before he moved here?”

  All she knew was that a woman had hurt him deeply. She wasn’t about to tell Ryder about that. “I know some things.”

  “The bare minimum, I bet,” Ryder muttered. “I just want you to be careful. I’m going to dig around some more. If I were you, I’d do the same—quietly—without letting him know about it.”

  “Ryder!”

  Ignoring her scolding tone, he stood and handed her the envelope. “I can see I’m not going to get very far with you. These are my notes on everyone I talked to. I intend to reach that chief of police, whether he wants to talk to me or not. After I do, I’ll be in touch.”

  She handed him back the envelope. “I don’t want this.”

  He settled it on her lap once again. “Don’t be stupid, Raina. You have a baby to protect.” After he gave her shoulder a squeeze, he strode out of the house, leaving her in a world of turmoil. Ryder had just made her question everything she thought she knew about her husband. What exactly should she do now?

  Shep checked the rearview mirror and saw Roy and Joey licking ice-cream cones. He had to smile, though he was definitely going to have a mess to clean up in the backseat. “Use your napkins,” he warned them.

  Shep’s cell phone rang and he pushed a button to put the call on the truck’s speaker. “Hey, Cruz. What are you up to?”

  “Just checking to see if the groom is still as happy as he was the day he got married.”

  “Married life is good. We had a scare this week. We thought Raina might have a miscarriage, but everything seems to be okay now.”

  “That’s great.”

  “You didn’t just call to congratulate me again, did you?”

  “You always could read me. I wanted to let you know someone has been asking questions.”

  “Questions about what?”

  “About you. My ranch might be two hours north, but I have friends in Sandy Cove.”

  Just like Sagebrush, Sandy Cove was a town where gossip traveled in circles to as many people as it could find.

  “What about me?”

  “Background stuff, mostly. When you lived where, who you lived with, where you got your money.”

  “I see.”

  “Do you know who’s looking into everything?” Cruz asked.

  “I can make a good guess. Raina’s brother’s a cop. He and I didn’t take to each other too well, so I have a feeling he’s fishing.”

  “He won’t find anything.”

  “Not on paper. But what he finds out depends on who he talks to.”

  “Not many people can remember back that far.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  “I guess you haven’t told Raina what happened when you were a kid?”

  “I didn’t see the point.”

  “Maybe there is one now. Maybe you should tell her before her brother does.”

  “Did anyone ever tell you you had some smarts?”

  “Just a teenage rebel named Shep, who became my older brother.”

  “And Matt.”

  “Yeah, and Matt, too. We’ll never be able to repay our debt to him.”

  “No, but we can pass along what he gave to us by helping other kids.
”

  Shep knew they were both thinking about growing up on Matt’s ranch, what they’d learned there, what they’d been given there.

  Cruz interrupted his thoughts. “If you need a character reference, give me a call.”

  “Will do. Thanks, Cruz, for giving me a heads-up.”

  “Anytime.”

  When Shep ended the call, both Roy and Joey were still catching drips of ice cream with their tongues on their cones. But he felt as if he’d been thrust back in time. Now he had to decide when and how to tell Raina that he’d seen the inside of a jail.

  Chapter Twelve

  As soon as Shep kissed Raina, he knew something was wrong. She didn’t respond as she usually did. Afterward, her gaze didn’t meet his—and she always looked him directly in the eye.

  Granted, they hadn’t been very physical the past week, not with the miscarriage scare, not with wondering what would happen if they lost the baby.

  “Supper will be ready in about an hour,” she told him as she turned away.

  Shep had encouraged Joey and Roy to go upstairs and wash the ice cream from their hands and face. No time like the present to ask, “What’s wrong?”

  Good at reading people, he watched Raina do something she’d never done before.

  She lied to him. “Nothing’s wrong.” She laid her hand on her stomach. “I have a lot to think about, that’s all. Did the boys have ice cream? Should I postpone supper another half hour?”

  “Yes, they had ice cream,” he answered, turmoil twisting his gut. This mundane conversation was driving him crazy. But he had to go slowly. “I brought you something,” he said, hoping he was wrong about all of this, hoping she wasn’t lying, hoping Ryder hadn’t gotten to her.

  Now she did swing around to face him. “What?”

  He’d dropped the catalogues on the table when he came in. Now he picked them up and presented them to her. “I stopped at that furniture store in Lubbock that we passed a couple of times. I thought you might be interested in picking out what you want for the baby.”

  In the silence, there was that question between them again…the one he saw in her eyes. The one that echoed in his heart. What would have happened if we had lost the baby?