Second Chance for Love

by April Zyon

  “Oh, one more thing,” Mercy said with a grin. “Please try not to say anything to anyone so that Theresa Carver can be the one to tell everyone. You know as well as I do that they will be chomping at the bit, so please?” She was hopeful that the doctor would somehow be able to corral his staff.

  “I won’t tell a soul, my dear. Now, Monica, though.” The doc made a face and shrugged as he wrapped the blood pressure cuff around her arm. “I’m pretty sure the lines are already buzzing about this news.”

  “Shit,” Brant said, pulling out his phone again. She was guessing he was calling his mom with the go-ahead to spread the news.

  Mercy snickered. “Oh sweet merciful heavens. I really, really hope that you are able to reach her before the news reaches her. Doc, you think you can make Monica go and clean the potties or something?”

  “Oh, you’ll maybe have until you leave. Mrs. Harris was out there. That woman can talk the ear off of anyone alive. She’ll be jawing at Monica for a little while, at least until it’s time for her appointment.”

  “Mama, it’s Brant. We’re at the doctor’s,” he said. “Yes, ma’am, you are clear to spread the news. But go fast since Monica’s on duty today. The word will be getting around any time now.”

  Mercy laughed when she heard Brant’s mom shout and the line go dead. She assumed that it went dead, at least, since she saw Brant shaking his head and putting the phone into his pocket. “So she’s happy that she’s able to tell people now?”

  “Yeah, she is. God help the poor people she’ll be calling. They’ll be the biggest gossips in town, of course. She’ll need help for getting the word around before Monica gets to it. Hopefully, no one knows yet,” he said.

  “Oh, of course. She will call her and leave her a voicemail just to flaunt it in Monica’s face,” Mercy agreed. She sat up with the doctor’s help and looked at him. “So, are you going to prescribe me prenatal vitamins?”

  Rolling his eyes at her, he went to her chart and made some notations. Then he handed her a little slip for the prenatals as well as lab forms. “Call the lab when you get home and pick a time that works well. Remember to eat at least an hour before the tests for this one. You don’t need the script, you should be able to pick them up anywhere, but I’m giving this to you all the same.” He tapped a sheet then the other. “This one, you need to fast for. So you’ll have to do two times. They’ll help you figure that out when you give them the codes at the top of the sheets.”

  “Sounds good. I think that I will do it during the afternoon sometime this week.” Great, she hated to fast. “Thank you, Doc Billings. I appreciate it,” she said with a smile. “So do you have an approximate due date for us?” After he gave it to her, she looked at Brant. “I hope that’s not anywhere near any of your brothers’ or sisters’ birthdays?”

  “Nope, we’re in the clear,” he said with a smile. He shook the doc’s hand before the older man left them alone in the room. Walking to her, Brant slid his arms around her, pressing a kiss to her lips. “So, how’s the reality treating you, Mommy?”

  Mercy looked up at him and grinned. “Pretty great, Daddy. I’m happy. Very happy. We heard our baby’s heart beating. I can’t believe it.”

  Laughing, he hugged her close and kissed her once more. “Get changed. I think this deserves a bit of a celebration. A small one, though, because news will be getting around pretty quick.” He stepped back, eyeing her up and down. “Wonder if the doc would notice if we stole this gown contraption.”

  “Oh, I’m sure.” She looked down at the gown and frowned. “No. We so aren’t taking this gown with us. I mean it. This thing is terrible. Unless you want to wear it? I could get into you wearing this thing.”

  “I’ve worn a couple in my day, but I usually put the bit that opens at the back, just so no nurses got any funny ideas. Besides, with what I’m packing, I think that would cause some serious traffic jams.” He was grinning at her, wiggling his eyebrows, and generally just being a bit of a goof.

  Mercy laughed and tossed the gown at him. She started to put her clothes on and looked at him. “You are packing quite an impressive package there. I happen to love the way that you carry all that stuff with you too.” She stepped into her shoes once she had finished getting dressed and pulled her hair out of her shirt. “So, if you want to take it, go for it. I will tell them so that they can bill us.”

  “Nah, I prefer you naked anyway.” He tossed it onto the bed and took her hand. Guiding her out, he pocketed her forms and the prescription as they hit the street. “All right, mommy-to-be, lunch first, or should we hit the stores first?”

  “Well, Daddy.” Mercy looked up at Brant with happiness in her eyes. “I think that we need to get me some crackers and tea. Stomach is still not feeling that great.” She hugged his arm.

  “Mommy? Daddy? What the fuck are you talking about?” Malcolm Howe demanded.

  Well, hell. Mercy hadn’t even thought about anyone hearing their conversation when they walked out of the doctor’s office. And now they stood before the fucking most hated man of her life. “Hello, Malcolm. I guess that you caught us,” she said with a shrug. “Brant and I are going to have a child together.”

  “No you fucking aren’t,” he said with a low and menacing growl. “No.”

  “Yes. Get over yourself. This child is mine and Brant’s.”

  “How do you know? For all you know, it could be mine.”

  “We have been in the process of our divorce for five years. If I had a choice, we never would have been married. So suck it.” She looked up at Brant and smiled. “Now, let’s go to lunch?”

  “Mayor,” Brant said, his voice chilly. Wrapping an arm around her waist, Brant led her across the street toward Milly’s. “He’s got to be the biggest fucking dick on the planet,” he muttered. “I can’t believe he actually had the nerve to suggest such a thing. Fuck, even the rumor mill around this place would know that for the big, fat, and way too desperate lie it was.”

  “Yeah, no shit,” she said with a sigh. She could all but feel her ex’s eyes on her as they walked away. “I don’t know why the hell I married him,” she muttered, but in the back of her head, she knew why she had. Megs had gone missing for another long stretch and her father had slipped deeper into his depression after her mother had passed. She had felt loose and lonely, and in walked Malcolm Howe. “He’s the past, though.” She looked up at Brant and smiled. “We are the future, right?”

  “Damn right,” he said with a grin. “Later, you can let me in on the past so that we can move on to our future?” He leaned over and kissed her. Right where she knew that Malcolm, and most of the town, for that matter, could see. Brant Carver was staking his claim, practically daring anyone to say anything about it, right on Main Street.

  When they parted, Mercy smiled. “Amazing,” she whispered. “You do know that now everyone will link the two of us together for the rest of time, right?” She had never even kissed Malcolm in public, but was more than willing to have Brant kiss her. Often. “I wouldn’t complain if you kissed me again, by the way.”

  He did, taking his time to make love to her mouth. She could hear a few people, but the words were lost in the rush of blood and need through her body. When he let her up for air, he was smiling at her while she panted. “For the record, Ms. Jenkins, I plan on keeping you for at least forever.” With that rather heavy statement, he spun her around to hustle her into Milly’s, where everyone, bless their souls, whipped around to pretend they had not just been gawking out the windows at them.

  Mercy didn’t reply to his comment. Oh, she had wanted to, but she was at a loss for words at his proclamation, his claiming of her. She liked it. It wasn’t until after they ordered lunch, along with peppermint tea for her, that she spoke. “You do know, Brant Carver, that I would let you keep me forever, right?”

  “Oh, I know,” he said with a smile. “But I wasn’t asking you, sweetheart. I was telling you. Trust me, when I ask, you will most definitely know I’m as
king. Until then.” He shrugged and sipped at his sweet tea with a grin on his face.

  Mercy laughed. God, she couldn’t help it. “Okay, well my hope is that you will eventually ask, but I love that you have claimed me and told me about it.”

  “Of course I told you about it. It’s not like it’s a secret. Hell, after that kiss out there, I don’t think it’s much of a secret from anyone in this town. Those on the ranches, maybe, but only for as long as it takes for the good people of Massey to alert them to the latest happenings.”

  “Good point,” Mercy said. “Then again, I don’t mind if you don’t.” She honestly had never cared what people said about her. Growing up in the community, she and her sister had more than once been in the gossip mills for one reason or another. Then again, so had the Carvers and really any of the original families.

  “After some of the shit I pulled as a kid, and a teen, please.” He snorted, but was grinning the entire time. “This doesn’t even rate on the Richter scale of shit I’ve done over the years. Not even a tremor really, barely a ripple to be honest.”

  “Well, that’s a good thing. Now then, I hope you don’t mind, but after we get my things from the pharmacy, I really would like to go home and nap.” Seemed to be the way things were with her right now. “I really hope that changes soon. The needing a nap thing.”

  “Probably will last for a while, the nesting phase at least,” he teased. “Beyond that, hell if I know. We’ve pretty much covered my limited knowledge about pregnancy. We’ll need to pick up some books for me, I think. Otherwise, I’m going to be relatively useless through this.” Just when she went to say something, his phone rang. “Sorry,” he said to her. Digging it out, he frowned at the screen before putting it to his ear. “Carver,” he said. “Uh-huh, uh-huh, okay, when? Shit, all right, no, that’ll work. Listen, I’m doing a few things right now, so let me call you back when I can get on my laptop. Right, talk to you then.”

  Mercy frowned and cocked her head to the side. “Work?” she asked sadly. “If you need to go, Brant, you can. I can get a ride home, you know.” They had taken her car, so she would just need to hitch a ride with someone else. “I’m sure I could find someone to take me home.”

  “It’s not time sensitive, sweetheart, so don’t worry about it. We’re just working out the finer details on a case to see if we need to put an op together. We’re hoping not, given where we’d need to go. It’s a last-ditch resort should it come down to it. Right now, we’re working on a plan that, in theory, should lure the guys we want to a much better point for us, tactically speaking, of course.”

  “Okay, sounds good. Wait, weren’t you on leave for the last few weeks?” No, that wasn’t right. He had been on leave when they created their child. “I’m so lost. For some reason, I had thought that you were on leave again.”

  “I’m on vacation, just a couple of weeks,” he said. “Before, I was on forced leave for the director and his prodigal idiot to fuck up my op. Which they did. After the director was fired, we got what we had to, got the job done a lot less cleanly than we preferred, but it got done. This is something different. I’m helping out a couple of other agents on their case since I know the group they’re after relatively well. I did nearly a year undercover with them before we took them down. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the head of that particular snake, so when the dust cleared, he settled back in and started up once more. This will be try number two.”

  “Oh, wow. Well, I’m hopeful that you will be able to find whoever it is.” She didn’t want to ask too many questions, even though they were buzzing in her mind, simply because she respected the fact that he had to keep secrets about his job. “So you are on a working vacation?” she asked with a grin, but then frowned. “Wait. If you are here…” She leaned in closer and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Does that mean that whoever they are, the head of whatever, are here?” That shocked the hell out of her.

  “Nope. I’m on vacation, during which I’m providing some valuable intel and insight into the group my coworker is going after. Not saying that this individual my coworker is looking to bury under a building couldn’t show up here. The likelihood, though, is slim to never going to happen.”

  “Very cool. Okay, well, I’m glad that you are on vacation and I’m not taking you away from work and such. As long as whoever it is doesn’t intrude upon our happiness, I’m good with it. What about when your vacation is up? Do you think you will be able to get assigned to this area for good?” If not, she was going to have to move, and she hated that idea.

  “I’m going to make it happen, so don’t worry about that,” he told her. “I’m serious, Mercy. It’ll be good to be back in Massey. You’re here, your job is here, and I don’t want to uproot you from what family you have. Besides, I’ve missed seeing mine more than once a year, if that. There’s a field office in Dallas and another in Houston. With what I do, I really don’t need to be in the office working. I will need to go in once in a blue moon, but really I just need the transfer so that I can relocate my living arrangements.”

  “Okay. As long as you are sure that it’s going to be okay.” She reached out and put her hand onto his. “No matter what has to happen, we will do this together.” She wasn’t going to do this alone, not now that she had the help of this amazing man. “We are a team, from now until time ends.”

  Reaching out, he covered her hand with his. “Glad to see you’re on the same page about all this, sweetheart. Oh, food.” He drew back to allow the waitress to set their stuff before them. She’d caved to him pressuring her into getting a bit of broth. It was a small bowl, smelled good. Hopefully, it was mild and yet tasty.

  She looked at the bowl and then back at him with a grin. “Thank you, by the way. For ordering this. I appreciate it.” She took a sip of the broth and sighed. “Between this and the tea, I’m feeling a little better.” Now she just needed some Saltines, which Donna said she had to go and find.

  “Well, go easy on it. Only eat what your stomach can handle, Mercy. Hopefully, we can get your nausea under some sort of control. I really hate seeing you get so ill.” He’d gotten a burger, but had yet to take a bite of it as he kept an eye on her.

  “Believe me, I hate being so ill too,” she whispered so that no one else could hear. She looked at his burger and felt herself get a little sick. “Okay, I can’t watch you eat that. I’m so sorry, honey, but I can’t.” She put her hand up to shade herself from his burger and smirked. “That just doesn’t do it for me right now.”

  “I sorta figured on that. It’s why I haven’t taken a bite yet. I’m thinking I’ll just have Donna box it up for me since I prefer seeing your eyes across the table. Much more than the back of your hand.” She saw a flicker of something before he was gently pushing her hand down. “It’s covered up, eat.”

  “I’m sorry.” She frowned and moved her hand so that they could put their hands palm to palm. “It’s just the thought.” She had to force back the immediate gag response she had. “Right, tea and broth.” She took another sip and then thanked Donna when she gave her several packages of the Saltines.

  “Donna, be a love and pack my burger up to go, would you? Or, better yet, give it to Jebb there. He looks like he could use a good meal.” While Massey wasn’t a big city, it still had a couple of homeless people. Jebb was one of them. Donna and the others let Jebb sit in the diner any time he wanted. Gave him free coffee, lots of water, and the meals that the town bought for him. He was always told they’d been made by mistake and he was welcome to them. But everyone in town was pretty sure he “knew” what they all did for him. Jebb was a good egg, just not entirely right in the head. He was polite, did odd jobs for folks here and there, and caused no trouble with anyone. It’s why he was so popular, so well liked, and why everyone helped out anyway they could.

  “I like Jebb,” Mercy said with a smile. “He’s a good person, and I’ve tried to give him jobs, but he wouldn’t take them. I think at times he prefers to be on the streets. Th
at makes no sense to me, so I leave money here weekly to ensure that he has food.” She wished that they had a halfway house or homeless shelter in town, but Malcolm had always voted against that. He hated the fact that they did have a couple homeless people in their town and, if it had been up to him, he would have run them out faster than they could blink. He was an ass like that.

  “Your ex is a serious asshole,” Brant echoed her thoughts. “Be nice if someone would actually run against him one of these days. Get him out of office and then get him out of town. We’d definitely be better off without him around.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Mercy admitted, and took another sip of her tea. “Did you know that old Jebb is a doctor? Well, has a PhD, that is. He has a PhD in history and languages, believe it or not.” She had been more than a little surprised one day when she had sat with the older gentleman and had an amazing conversation with him. “He’s also got, I think, a Masters in chemistry. He’s a very, very well educated man, so why he’s on the streets, I will never know.”

  “He lost his daughter,” Brant said softly. “She was killed. A senseless thing, really, drive-by shooting. His wife zoned out after that and eventually left. He lost his entire family within two months. He started to drive around the country until he ran out of money. He was here when that happened, and here he stayed.” Brant shrugged when she just stared at him. “I talked to him a lot when I was in high school. He taught me a lot of little tricks to assist me with learning languages.”

  “Oh wow.” Mercy chewed her lip. “I know you likely won’t like this part, but I’ve seen Jebb watch your mother, and she watches him too. I think they would be good for one another. Your father has been gone for several years, and I’m sure she gets lonely.”

  “I’m sure she does,” he said. Twisting in his seat a bit, he turned his head in Jebb’s direction. “I’d hate to bring it up with her, though. She still has her moments when she forgets Dad is gone, and calls out for him to grab her something. I don’t know if she’ll ever get beyond it fully. On the up side, Jebb keeps her smiling with his antics. Likely his plan, now that I think about it.”