Pregnancy Countdown

by Linda Wisdom

  She brightened. “Maybe the new me will tempt the sexy Australian.”

  Nora chuckled. “Oh, honey, stand in line.”

  Two hours later, Lucie surveyed her new image. Shades of dark blond, gold and copper added more light to her hair. Nora had trimmed a few inches off the ends, giving her a more casual look.

  “I like it,” Lucie said. “Now to buy some new clothes to go with the new image.”

  “Are you sure Nick can handle having a sexy mom?” Nora teased.

  “If I can handle that sky-high IQ of his, he can handle this.” She quickly stroked dark coral lip gloss across her lips. “Yep, just what I needed.”

  “You’ll be beating the men off with a stick,” Nora predicted.

  Her face lit up. “You know, that wouldn’t be so bad.”

  After Lucie left, Nora glanced at the empty station that belonged to Ginna. She missed having her best friend there. Then she mentally reminded herself that Ginna knew her only too well. The last thing Nora wanted her friend to hear was that Nora had slept with her brother.

  Even if a tiny voice deep inside reminded her that sleep hadn’t been exactly high on their list that night.

  “HEY, buddy, Magnum called. He wants his shirt back!”

  Mark rolled his eyes at the reference to the famed television private detective operating out of Hawaii.

  “Ha, ha, very funny. I never heard that one before,” he said with perfect deadpan delivery. He opened his locker door and pulled out a navy blue polo shirt with the fire department’s insignia embroidered on the upper left-hand corner of the chest. He hung up his short-sleeved shirt on a hook inside the locker. He didn’t care what anyone else thought. The shirt with swaying palm trees and hula girls dancing under the trees across the white cotton fabric was one of his favorites. He tossed his well-worn khaki shorts into his locker after pulling out navy twill pants that finished his uniform, identifying him as a paramedic.

  “I hate to think where you find those shirts,” his older brother Jeff said as he also changed into his uniform. His locker door slammed shut with a metallic clang. “I worry about you, baby brother. I’m thinking in forty or fifty years you’re going to be one of those little old men with the knobby knees, eye-blinding plaid Bermuda shorts, black socks and sandals who’ll be chasing sweet young things.”

  “As to that horrifying little-old-man picture you drew, there’s no way I’d steal that pleasure from you, big brother. Don’t worry, Jeff, I’m leaving that up to you and Brian.” Mark clapped him on the back. “I can see it now. You two will be wearing shirts that match Abby’s and Gail’s dresses,” he said, referring to his brothers’ wives. You’ll all take cruises together and play shuffleboard and bingo. Maybe you two will even go wild playing a few hands of canasta. Lights out at nine,” he snickered. “You’ll be real party animals.”

  “Grandma would whomp you upside the head if she heard you describe her lifestyle that way,” Brian, Mark’s other older brother, warned. “That woman can party all three of us combined under the table and you know it. That’s why Gramps quit traveling with her. He couldn’t keep up with her.”

  “I thought Theo had agreed to go on that Alaskan cruise with Martha and her bridge club,” Eric, one of the brothers’ friends and coworkers, commented as he walked past them.

  “Grandma said Gramps could stay home, which makes him happy since he doesn’t like cruises. But he didn’t like it when she told him he cramps her style,” Jeff replied.

  “She is the grade-A party animal,” Eric agreed. His head whipped up when a piercing signal echoed over the speaker system. “Time to roll!”

  Mark and Brian exchanged telling looks as they heard information about a multivehicle traffic accident. They knew their skills as paramedics would be needed.

  At the station, Mark was known as the party animal. If there was a practical joke played, he was most likely behind it. He was the one to plan any celebration. But when it came to his work as a paramedic, he was all business. Anyone who was familiar with the lighter side of the man would not recognize his more serious demeanor.

  The two brothers climbed into their EMT truck and rolled out with the fire engines. Their day was just beginning and it was promising to be a long one.

  MARK COULDN’T STOP thinking about Nora. He was convinced his fingertips could still feel her silky skin. He even imagined her subtle scent was imprinted on him. He could feel the touch of her lips on his mouth, his jaw, his shoulder and just about everywhere else on his body.

  He remembered once reading about a fever in the blood.

  That’s how he thought of her. She was a fever that never let up.

  So if they had something that good, why hadn’t she returned any of his calls in the past couple of weeks?

  No wonder he was parked outside her house at six o’clock in the evening.

  He hadn’t realized before just how isolated Nora’s house was. While its location on the end of the street was ideal for privacy, the nearest house was set some distance away with a small park in between. He frowned at the open grassy area set between Nora’s house and her neighbor’s. Most of the area was set up with a variety of playground equipment. He thought it was a nice little neighborhood park where mothers could take their kids for playtime. But he didn’t like it for Nora’s sake. With evening coming on quickly and the old-fashioned–style streetlights spaced far apart, he felt she was too vulnerable to a home-invasion robbery.

  “Why did she pick a house that doesn’t offer very much protection?” he muttered, sitting slouched behind the steering wheel. “Any pervert could sit out here watching her.” He didn’t stop to think that anyone might view him as the kind of unwanted intruder he was visualizing.

  Finally realizing it might not be a good idea for him to just hang around there, Mark switched on the truck engine with the intention of leaving. He was getting ready to pull away from the curb when he noticed a light turn on by the front door. The door opened and a tan-and-white bulldog walked out. He slowly made his way down the front walk in a bowlegged waddle while Nora stepped out onto the porch. She leaned against the front post and watched her dog walk across the street and over to Mark’s truck. He stopped by the front tire and awkwardly lifted his leg.

  “Damn dog,” Mark muttered, throwing open the door and climbing out. He scowled at the damp spot on his front tire. The dog looked up at him and gave a canine grunt.

  “Are you lost?” Nora called out with a mocking tilt to her lips.

  “I just happened to be in the neighborhood,” he said, offering her one of his patented killer smiles while inside he winced at the use of an old line that hadn’t lost any of its idiocy over the years. Judging from her set expression, it wasn’t working. He forced himself not to flinch when Brumby attached himself to his leg. “Ah, would you call off your dog, please?”

  Nora’s gaze shifted downward to her dog then back up to meet Mark’s eyes. “Brumby has a mind of his own.”

  “And that was a fact I’d happily put in the back of my mind.” Mark shifted from one leg to the other. Damn! He hadn’t felt this awkward since fourth grade, when he’d asked Julie Chambers to sit with him at the class picnic. She had turned him down flat and elected to sit with Ryan Miller instead. Payback had come in the form of a nice juicy-looking lizard showing up inside Julie’s hamburger. The teacher had had no trouble nabbing the culprit. And Mark had suffered detention after school for three weeks. He hadn’t minded. It had been worth it.

  “Can I come in?”

  He didn’t miss the indecision shadowing Nora’s eyes before she finally gave a brief nod. She called out to her dog and waited as the bulldog lumbered back up the walkway. Brumby rotated his head just enough to look back at Mark with a gaze that was suspicious at best.

  “I was invited,” he informed the dog as he followed Nora into the house.

  “One of my neighbors called me to say there was a strange man lurking across the street from my house. She was ready to call the po
lice, but I informed her you were fairly harmless,” she told him as she made her way to the rear of the house. “Of course, if you’d rather have the police hauling you in I can call her back and tell her to feel free to make the call. She loves nothing better than to call in anyone she considers a pervert. You’d make her day.”

  “Gee, thanks for saving my dignity. Such as it is.” He found himself walking carefully as Brumby still tried to keep himself plastered against Mark’s leg.

  Nora eyed his shirt covered with swaying palm trees and hula girls. “Have you ever had a parrot try to built a nest on you?”

  “Not lately.”

  Mark sniffed. If he wasn’t mistaken, he could smell cinnamon and a few other scents that could only add up to one thing, cookies fresh from the oven. He closed his mouth before he embarrassed himself by drooling. There was no hiding his hopeful expression.

  Nora sighed. “I suppose you want some of my cookies.”

  He opened his mouth, ready to throw out one of his infamous lines loaded with innuendo. Luckily for him he closed it in time.

  Nora glared at him as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.

  “Yes, please,” he said meekly, shifting over to lean against the counter. He watched her place several good-size cookies on a plate. She opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a carton of milk. A filled glass soon followed the plate to the table. A soft snuffling sound attracted her attention. “No cookies,” she told her dog in a firm voice. “The vet said you have to lose five pounds.”

  A rumbling response from the bulldog told them his opinion of the diet. He settled back awkwardly on his haunches. His tongue lolled happily as he gazed up at his mistress with adoring chocolate-brown eyes.

  Nora didn’t miss that a pair of sizzling blue eyes were also watching her. Except, instead of adoration, she saw something more fundamental in his stare. Her first instinct was to look away, so she forced herself to return his steady gaze. She wasn’t about to let Mark know he left her feeling unsettled.

  Without taking his eyes off her, Mark pulled the chair out on the other side of the table. When Nora settled herself in it, he carefully pushed it forward before walking around to the opposite chair and sitting down. He picked up a cookie.

  “Oatmeal?” he questioned. She nodded. “Please tell me these don’t have raisins in them.”

  “I firmly believe oatmeal cookies should only come with chocolate chips,” Nora told him, aware of his extreme dislike for the tiny wrinkled fruit.

  He bit into one and groaned with delight. “Still warm,” he muttered, taking a second bite. “Damn, these are good!” He paused. “Please don’t tell my mom I said that or I’ll never get any cookies out of her again.”

  “You’re safe. It’s your mother’s recipe,” she replied.

  Mark polished off the rest of the cookies in record time. He cast a beseeching look in Nora’s direction.

  “Brumby begs a lot more eloquently.” She carried the plate over to the counter and put a few more cookies on it then dug a dog biscuit out of a box and tossed it in Brumby’s direction. The dog’s jaws promptly parted long enough to catch the biscuit before snapping shut. A low rumble of satisfaction sounded deep in his throat after he finished his treat. He looked up with hopeful eyes.

  “You are so pathetic,” she sighed as she tossed him another biscuit.

  “Spoiled is more like it,” Mark muttered then grabbed his plate before she could take it away from him. “Well loved,” he amended.

  “You’re as pitiful as the dog.” She used a spatula to place the rest of the cookies on a cooling rack. When she finished, she turned around. “Care to tell me the real reason you’re here?”

  “I wanted to make sure that you were all right.”

  That wasn’t the answer she had expected.

  “I’m fine,” she said shortly.

  Mark didn’t take his eyes off her. “After—”

  “We had sex, Mark,” she said flatly. “No promises were made, no declarations given, no strings attached. Let me make this perfectly clear to you. I haven’t been sitting by the phone in hopes you’d call. I didn’t expect you to show up with flowers and candy and spouting love poems. It was just one night, Mark,” she said in a voice that sounded forceful. “I needed some comforting that night. It was nothing more.” She ignored his wince at her blunt word choice. She mentally put his expression down to a fragile male ego. Not that what she said might matter to him. That she might matter to him.

  Mark leaned back against his chair, one arm draped along the back.

  “Don’t ignore the truth, Nora. We had more than a one-night stand,” he said softly.

  “I was grieving for a beloved relative,” she stated just as softly. “I was vulnerable.”

  “Don’t try to say I took advantage of you.”

  “I’m not saying that!” She paused and took a deep breath. “You’re off the hook, Mark.”

  He shot to his feet so fast his chair fell backward onto the floor.

  He blew up at her. “Off the hook? Who the hell said I thought something that ridiculous? Dammit, Nora! Can’t a guy just stop by to see a woman? Can’t he come over to see how she’s doing when she’s been through a rough time without her thinking the worst of him?”

  “Are you saying you came by here without an ulterior motive?” She smiled when she saw the guilty flicker in his eyes.

  Bingo!

  “I was worried about you.”

  His simple statement doused the fury still roaring inside her like a cold shower. Nora collapsed against the counter. Her hands gripped the edge so tightly the knuckles turned white from the strain.

  “I’m fine,” she managed to say eventually but not convincingly.

  “No, you’re not.”

  She laughed. “Are you calling me a liar?”

  “Only someone who’s lying to herself.” He walked over to her and gently pried one of her hands away from the counter’s edge. His thumb gently caressed the inside of her wrist in a manner that wasn’t the least bit intimate. “Pulse a little too fast. Pupils reacted a little quickly. Shallow breaths,” he recited. He smiled at her look of surprise. “Honey, you forget I’m a trained paramedic. I can recognize the signs of full-blown panic a mile away.”

  She snatched her hand back. “I am perfectly calm.” That wasn’t panic in her voice, was it? She hadn’t counted on her emotions getting the best of her. “Dammit, Mark! Why are you here? We had a nice night, but that’s all it was. Afterward, you were supposed to go your way while I went mine. You weren’t supposed to return to the scene of the crime!”

  He looked affronted. “I don’t recall doing anything illegal.” He screwed up his face in thought. “Well, maybe in some states people could consider that one thing…” He paused with a meaningful look.

  “Stop it!” She didn’t care that his wince meant her shriek was less than pleasant to his eardrums. “Stop the jokes. Stop the ‘I wanted to know you were all right’ idiocy. Just stop it all!” She blinked furiously to keep the tears from falling. She was positive that at that moment she downright hated the man. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her cry. She took a deep breath to settle herself down and waited for Mark to crack one of the many jokes that resided in his memory bank. She was certain that he could come up with one that would fit the occasion.

  Instead, he stood there and calmly looked at her as if she hadn’t just screamed at him. Silence stretched between them like a taut wire.

  Mark moved a step forward. He lifted his hand to cup her cheek. She resisted the urge to lean into his touch. She closed her eyes against the tumultuous feelings welling up inside her.

  “Please go,” she whispered, keeping her eyes closed.

  “You don’t want me to go, Nora.” His breath was a warm caress against her forehead.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Then open your eyes, look directly at me and tell me to go,” Mark murmured.

  Her lips parted slightly. Whatever
she was about to say was swallowed up by Mark capturing her mouth with his own.

  A dizzying sensation she’d only experienced once before returned in full force. She gripped his shoulders as her knees gave way and the world spun crazily around her. She tasted the rich flavor of chocolate on his tongue, felt the hardness of his body against her. For one wild moment she wanted to crawl inside his body and just plain feel.

  “Do you really want me to go, Nora?” he murmured against her ear.

  She dragged her senses to the surface as her lips formed the word yes.

  “No,” came out instead as she drew his mouth back to hers.

  Mark didn’t need to be reminded where Nora’s bedroom was. Nor did he have to be forcibly dragged to the back of the house. He kicked the door shut and danced Nora toward the bed.

  Nora was left awash in sheer sensation as she reveled in Mark.

  A faint scent of lime was on his cheeks, the taste of chocolate on his tongue and the sound of seduction as he whispered in her ear.

  Clothing fell to the carpet a piece at a time. Sheets rustled their own story as they dropped onto the bed.

  She arched up under his touch as he reacquainted himself with every inch of her body. Lightning zigzagged through her body as he pressed his mouth against her nipple and gently suckled. As if he wasn’t making her crazy enough, he started moving farther down, dropping soft kisses along the way.

  “Mark!” she wailed, blindly reaching for him. She was greedy for all he could give her.

  “Just wait. It will get better,” he promised, pausing long enough to drop a kiss on her belly button before moving farther downward.

  Nora threw back her head as she laughed. The sound that emerged was thin and high-pitched.

  “Promises, promises. Ah!” she gasped as his forefinger brushed against the ultrasensitive nub of flesh.

  She felt shock waves course through her as his fingertips brushed it again. Before she had a chance to recover, she felt his warm breath. After that, she knew nothing as she rode each cresting wave. Even then, Mark didn’t allow her to catch her breath before he moved up and over her.