by Andrews, Amy
But Elizabeth Weston had got it wrong.
“Of course I would have gone. I just wanted to grieve first. I just needed a year. Was that really too much to ask for? I needed that year to be sad but none of you would listen.”
“Okay fine,” Ethan said, scrubbing his hands through his hair. “We’re sorry, okay. We’re sorry we let you down when you needed us to be there for you. We thought we were doing the right thing.”
Ethan’s apology was unexpected but she believed him. She believed that he and Marcus and Jarrod had done what they thought was right even if they had been completely one-eyed about it. “But, there’s nothing we can do about that now, is there?”
“Yes there is,” Lacey said gently. “I’m coming back home and you could all be happy for me.”
“Lacey,” Jarrod placated again. “Surely it can wait another six months?”
“No. I’m done. I feel like …” Lacey thought about how much she’d screwed up these last few years. How she’d felt like she didn’t belong or wasn’t connected to anything. Not her studies or her friends or any of the guys she’d been with, apart from recently with Jeremy.
And Coop. Of course.
She knew she couldn’t keep going on like this. She needed an anchor. Jumbuck Springs was her anchor.
“I feel like I’m falling apart. I need to get my head right.”
“Jarrod’s right, you have six months and then you’re done,” Marcus said. “You can get your head right then. It doesn’t make any sense to quit now.”
Lacey gritted her teeth. She wasn’t quitting. “It makes perfect sense to me.”
Ethan shook his head in that chief-of-police-head-of-the-family way he had as he set his jaw. Uh oh. “The only way you’re coming home is if you’ve graduated, you’re dying or you’re pregnant.”
Lacey gaped at her older brother. He had to be kidding.
The serious set to his face told her he wasn’t. She’d forgotten how damn infuriatingly stubborn the man could be. Particularly about this promise he’d made to their mother. She glanced at Marcus and Jarrod, who seemed equally determined.
Her brain scrambled as rage spiked her pulse and flared her nostrils. Her promise to be calm disappearing in a haze of red. How freaking dare they dictate to her!
Screw them.
This was the twenty-first century for fuck’s sake. But Ethan had given her an out and it served them all right that she was going to take it and to hell with the consequences.
“Okay … fine …” she said, her heart tripping as the lie formed remarkably easily in her head. “I wasn’t going to tell you this just yet, because I know how much you’ll freak out but …” she glanced at her hands, she couldn’t look at them while she lied. “I am pregnant.”
Coop’s eyes widened in her peripheral vision as a chair crashed to the floor. “What?” Marcus gaped, full of big brother indignation.
Lacey switched from Coop’s alarmed gaze to JJ’s. The other woman had been quiet, well used to Weston family disputes playing out over the dinner table, but she narrowed her eyes slightly. Her searching stare lasered straight into Lacey’s brain and she looked away from its intensity to face her brothers.
All three of them were gaping at her, a variety of emotions flitting across their shocked faces. Disbelief from Jarrod. Affront from Marcus. White-knuckled anger from Ethan.
Panic surfaced. Crap! She should take it back. She should take it back right now. She could do that. She could walk this back before any more damage was done.
“Lacey … no …” Jarrod muttered, clearly gutted by her revelation as he ran a hand through his wavy red-gold hair.
Guilt bit hard at her conscience. Jarrod’s disappointment was difficult to take. As a kid it was Jarrod she’d always sought out for good, considered, non-judgemental advice. He’d been her confidant. Ethan had been the one she’d always sought to impress, and she’d been Marcus’s little buckaroo going to footy games with him and up for any of his daring adventures; but Jarrod had been her touchstone.
Lacey couldn’t bear him looking at her like she’d betrayed him somehow and she opened her mouth to retract.
“Since when the fuck have you been having sex?”
It was Lacey’s turn to gape as Marcus’s angry interjection stopped dead any retraction she was about to make. Was he freaking serious? Did Marcus actually think she was going to stay a bloody virgin forever?
She wasn’t his little buckaroo anymore.
She stood, damned if she was going to let him tower over her. “Jesus. I’m twenty-one, Marcus.”
This was her fault. She’d let them dictate her life too long, happy to be the apple of their collective eyes. To know her big brothers had her back, that they loved and supported her unconditionally.
And this … infantilising was the flipside.
“I drink and I say fuck and I stay out late on a school night and I’ve smoked a joint and skipped classes and flunked an exam or two and yes … I’ve had sex. Lots of sex.”
Stunned silence followed. Obviously none of her brothers knew what to say to any of her revelations. She glanced at Coop who was also looking at her like she’d lost her mind.
“How far along?” Jarrod asked quietly.
“Just,” Lacey muttered, thinking on her feet, answering on autopilot as she dragged her gaze off Coop to look at her brother.
“Who’s the father?” Ethan asked, standing now too.
Lacey blinked. “What?” Trust Ethan to cut straight to the point. “Does it matter?”
“Oh hell yeah,” Marcus said, glaring at her.
“Why? What are you going to do? Beat him up?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of castration,” he said and looked like he could perform said castration with his bare hands right this moment.
“You can’t be serious?” she gasped.
“Who?” Ethan insisted.
“None of your goddamn business,” she snapped.
“Lacey …” Jarrod’s voice was full of reproach as he also got to his feet. “This is serious.”
Lacey swallowed. “You think I don’t know that?”
“He has certain responsibilities,” Jarrod said, calm and collected.
“What? You’re going to force him to marry me?”
Marcus nodded. “You bet.”
“Of for fuck’s sake,” Lacey snapped, switching attention to Marcus. “This isn’t Victorian England. My honour hasn’t been besmirched, and you’re all acting like Neanderthals.”
“It’s something to consider,” Ethan said, his face tight.
It was true Lacey hadn’t thought any of this through when she opened her mouth and blatantly lied but she’d have never thought her brothers could act like such cavemen. This was taking their whole over-protective thing too far.
“You’re joking right?”
“You think it’s easy being a single parent, Lacey?”
Lacey swallowed as Ethan’s face went from tight to grim. If anyone knew about the hardships and pitfalls of being a single parent it was Ethan.
“There’s financial support issues,” Jarrod pointed out, “and all kinds of forward planning. If you’re going to do this then we all need to sit down with the father and have an adult conversation with him about how this is going to work. We need to know that you’ll be taken care of.”
“I can take care of myself,” she insisted.
“Getting pregnant is you taking care of yourself?” Ethan demanded.
Marcus folded his arms. “Quit holding out on us, Lace and spill.”
Lacey held her ground. She’d forgotten how formidable her brothers could be when they stood together. She glanced at JJ whose gaze clearly said your bed.
“For God’s sake, Lacey,” Ethan said shoving a hand through his hair. “You can’t waltz in here and calmly tell us you’re pregnant and not expect us to want to know about the man who’s going to be in this kid’s life, in our lives, for the rest of time. You want our support?
Then you’d better start answering some questions.”
All three men were looking at her with implacable expressions as they waited for her to answer.
Lacey bowed her head as she quickly sorted through her fake-baby-daddy options. Not Jeremy. Yes he was a total shit but she had no intention of embroiling him in this debacle. So, some made-up guy that she could be vague about? That could work.
She glanced at Coop, feeling completely overwhelmed by all the testosterone in the room. Their gazes locked. His seemed to say well this a fine mess you’ve gotten yourself into this time and she couldn’t have agreed more.
But she could also feel his support, sitting beside her like this, the only bastion of testosterone in the room still in her corner, and that gave her strength. Resolve to tell her bonehead brothers to back off.
“I’m not answering your questions,” she said, eyeing each one in turn, “like I’m on … trial. How about, as my brothers, you just support me regardless. I’m pretty damn sure Mum would have wanted you to do that.”
* * *
Coop glanced around at the unhappy little gathering as a fraught silence descended. It seemed like none of the Weston brothers liked being called on their bullshit or having their mother used against them for a change. Still, he didn’t understand why Lacey didn’t just admit she’d been impulsive and retract her statement?
Unless … he glanced at her as the same sense of foreboding he’d felt last night when he’d woken to her knock returned. What if she was pregnant? Was that the real reason she’d been in such a state last night? He thought back to when she’d said she couldn’t stomach breakfast in a whole new light.
Had she been crying so hard last night because she was pregnant to that lying, cheating scumbag?
Crap. He needed to talk to her. To get to the bottom of this.
To get to Jeremy before Marcus got out his shotgun.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
“Who is it?” Ethan asked again, his voice low and ominous and Coop knew none of them were going to stop badgering her until she confessed.
The scraping of a chair against the floor boards was loud in the tense silence. Coop was surprised to find it was his, that he was on his feet, that every head had swivelled in his direction.
“It’s me,” Coop heard himself say as he slid his hand onto Lacey’s waist. “I’m the father.”
There was stunned silence as Lacey tensed in his hold. “Coop,” she murmured, “no …”
He squeezed her hip reassuringly. Sure, he’d acted on impulse but the last thing he needed was for Lacey to mess it up. It was about to get messy enough. But if she really was pregnant to that Jeremy prick then Coop knew he was a far better option right now. At least until he could get to the bottom of it all.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ethan demanded, his voice an ominous growl as his eyes shot daggers in Coop’s direction. “You’ve been sleeping with my little sister?”
Lacey shifted in his hold but Coop kept a firm hand on her waist. “I’m sorry man, it just happened.”
And at least that was the truth.
Ethan shook his head. “I asked you,” he yelled, stabbing the table with his index finger as Lacey tensed, “to look out for her.”
“Ethan,” JJ said, also now standing, placing a hand on his arm again.
But Ethan shook her off and stalked towards him, and Coop braced for what he knew was to come. He let go of Lacey and met Ethan half way. “You think because someone shot you in the head that I’m not going to punch you in the face?” Ethan demanded.
“Nope,” Coop admitted. “I don’t think that at all.” In fact he expected it.
“Ethan,” Jarrod said, a warning in his voice as he and Marcus moved to avert what was coming.
“It’s not a good look, Eth, for the chief of police to be punching people in the face,” Marcus said as he and Jarrod each put a restraining hand on Ethan’s shoulders.
“He’s right Ethan,” JJ murmured.
“Of course I am,” Marcus nodded. “But there’s absolutely no reason why I can’t.”
Coop stood his ground as Marcus pulled back his fist. When it landed on his jaw the crack wiped out the noise of Lacey’s horrified gasp.
His head snapped back and Coop went down.
Chapter Five
‡
Pain exploded along Coop’s jaw and stars swam behind his closed eyes as he hit the floorboards.
Lacey’s horrified, “Marcus!” floated down to him, then she was on her knees beside him, one hand on his chest, the other on his forehead. “Coop? Coop! Are you okay? Can you open your eyes?”
Coop wasn’t sure. He was struggling to remember his own name at the moment. “Coop!”
The urgency in her voice yanked at his gut and he concentrated really hard on prising open his eyelids. And there was her beautiful face, all concerned and tear stained, hovering over the top of his, her ponytail falling forward over her shoulder.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” she whispered through her tears, kissing his forehead and his cheeks and mouth. Briefly, ever so briefly, but still pretty damn cataclysmic to his system.
It had almost been worth it just for that.
Bloody hell. He must have hit his head as well. He had to be concussed to be thinking such ridiculous thoughts about chaste kisses in front of her family. Her pissed off family. Especially compared to this morning’s deep, wet, hungry kisses with a side of cock fondling.
“Marcus!” Lacey’s head turned as she looked up at her brother, the tip of her ponytail brushing her face. “You … Neanderthal. What the hell?”
“It’s fine, Lacey,” Coop said, his head clearing as he gently fingered his jaw. “I deserved it.”
“Damn straight you did, asshole,” Ethan said glowering down at him. Coop took a little comfort from the fact Marcus was nursing his hand.
“Okay, okay,” JJ said, her face appearing over the top of him too as she elbowed Ethan aside. “Show’s over. Can you get up?”
JJ was matter-of-fact. Clearly she’d dealt with a lot of fights in her role as publican. Coop grunted. “Yes.” Even though he wasn’t really sure he could.
Lacey fussed around trying to help. Jarrod offered a hand, which he ignored. He raised himself up on his elbow and shut his eyes against a momentary greying of his vision.
“C’mon man, don’t be stupid,” Jarrod said, grasping Coop’s forearm.
Coop knocked it aside and with supreme effort he stood. His vision greyed again for a moment as he finally stood upright, leaning heavily against Lacey, who just happened to be beside him. She was warm and soft and sweet and smelled like his soap and shampoo.
And his shirt.
He thought about this morning again. Her mouth. Her hand.
Things stirred. He clamped down on them. It was completely inappropriate to be thinking of such things in this situation.
Maybe he really was concussed.
He opened his eyes to find Ethan still glowering, Marcus looking pissed and Jarrod eyeing him carefully before reaching into the nearby freezer for a packet of frozen peas and handing them over.
“Thanks,” Coop said, taking the bag and applying it to his throbbing jaw.
“Was there some particular reason you were just sitting there and saying nothing instead of having the balls to come right out and tell us when you first got here?” Ethan demanded.
Coop had to admit that was a fair question that he didn’t really have a good answer to when he’d impulsively backed Lacey up, but that was okay because she was one step ahead of him.
“I begged him not to,” Lacey said, standing in front of him trying to protect him from her brothers. “I wanted to handle it my way and have a nice family meal before we got into the … unpleasantries.”
Marcus snorted. “Unpleasantries? Well now isn’t that a nice euphemism for knocked up.”
“Hey!” Lacey said and Coop couldn’t stand the little tremor of hurt he could hear in it.
“That’s enough,” he growled.
He’d been prepared to take the punch but he was done taking any more Weston brother shit. “We get it, you’re pissed. And you’re right, I shouldn’t have let Lacey talk me out of manning up and coming straight out with it. But being insulting isn’t going to solve anything.”
“She’s thirteen years younger than you,” Ethan yelled. “I trusted you with her.”
“Oh for God’s sake,” Lacey snapped. “Stop acting like I was some innocent in all this. He didn’t seduce me. I seduced him. I can be pretty damn persuasive when I want to be you know.”
Coop cringed as Ethan, Marcus and Jarrod looked like they needed a can of industrial strength brain bleach.
“Come on, man,” Coop said, looking at the guy who had been his best friend for close to sixteen years. It hurt to talk but the frozen peas had at least started to numb the pain in his jaw. “You know I’m going to support her.”
“Fucking A you are,” Marcus said. “You’re going to marry her.”
Coop nodded without hesitation. He hadn’t expected anything less from the Weston brothers and it wasn’t like any of it was real anyway. “Of course I will.”
Lacey swivelled her head to look at him, her expression stunned. For the first time since they’d met he’d actually managed to shock her. Considering she’d been shocking him for a couple of years now it was probably about time.
“What? No!” She turned back to glare at Marcus. “No. You hear me?” She stepped away from him and Coop supressed the urge to haul her back by his side. “Everyone just settle down now.” She looked at each of her brother’s in turn. “Nobody’s marrying anybody. This isn’t the freaking Wild West. You can all just put away your shotguns.”
Coop looked at the mutinous expressions on the faces of the Weston brothers. Even Jarrod who had seemed the least aggressive was clearly measuring him up and finding him wanting right now. There was only one thing that was going to satisfy them. As far as they were concerned he’d knocked up their sister and that made him responsible.
Even though he hadn’t.
But they didn’t know that. So for now he was going to have to keep up the pretence and do what he would have done if this baby really was his. The thought of it hit him suddenly in the chest.