Jenna's Having a Baby

by Laurie Paige

  His eyes were stark with anger, she saw, but there was more. She just didn’t know what it was.

  “We weren’t,” she reminded him softly. “Have you been here all night? You should go home and rest,” she said without waiting for his confirmation.

  He took her hand. “Not unless I can take you with me.”

  For a second she was dazzled by the possibilities, then she remembered the letter. The glow faded, leaving grief in its place. “You’re not responsible for me or the baby. You don’t have to take care of us.” She managed a smile.

  “I want to,” he said.

  He smiled, too, and she was close to being dazzled again. She took a firm hold on her emotions as she shook her head in a scolding manner. “You’d better watch what you say, doctor. You know how patients can take things wrong.”

  He took her hand and gently squeezed it. “Then I’ll be very clear,” he promised, “because I want you to take things right.”

  She saw his chest lift and fall in a deep breath. She did the same, preparing herself for his words.

  “The letter you saw wasn’t written recently. I wrote it over a year ago after a night with a friend, a widow who, like me, tried to get on with life. It didn’t work for either of us. We weren’t ready. Or maybe the person wasn’t the right one.”

  Jenna nodded. Her heartbeat stayed the same on the monitor. She was proud of that.

  “Yesterday,” he continued, “I was restless. For some reason, I started cleaning out my desk. I realized it was time to clear out the past, because I want a future.” He lightly touched her abdomen. “With you and our children.”

  The heart monitor went into double-time. The blood pressure indicator zoomed into the red zone. An alarm went off. A nurse hurried in. She paused at the foot of the bed in confusion, her eyes going from the machine to the patient, then to the doctor who calmly sat and held the patient’s hand and didn’t look worried at all.

  Footsteps sounded in the hall. The surgeon entered, another nurse on his heels. “What’s going on?” he asked, shutting off the alarm, then giving Eric a mock-stern glare. “Doctor, are you interfering with my patient?”

  Eric checked the monitors. Jenna’s heart and blood pressure were dropping into the high normal range. “If you can get her stabilized, I’d like to ask her to marry me.”

  The alarm went off again.

  “Jeez,” the surgeon said, hitting the reset button, “can’t you wait until she’s out of recovery?”

  Eric gazed into wide blue eyes. “No,” he said softly. “I can’t wait another second.”

  “Well, go ahead,” the other doctor ordered, “while we’re here to resuscitate her.” He grinned.

  “Jenna Cooper,” Eric said solemnly, “will you marry me and make me the happiest man on earth?”

  The heat rose to her face, but she decided this was no time for an attack of modesty. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  Eric knew what she was asking. He nodded. “Life can be cruel, but it can also be kind, giving us a second chance even though we don’t deserve it. I want that chance with you.”

  He waited while Jenna stared into his eyes, uncertainty in hers. Opening his heart, he tried to let her see all the way to his soul, all the way to the overwhelming love that filled him, love that she had brought to life.

  “I love you,” he said simply.

  “And I, you,” she whispered.

  Tears filled her lovely blue eyes. He wiped them away with a tissue, then unable to resist, he bent forward and kissed her. Her lips were soft against his. And warm.

  When he raised up, they were alone in the room. The vital signs were all in the normal range, he saw.

  Jenna’s eyes closed as she rested again. A smile lingered on her delectable mouth. A hint of color warmed her pale cheeks. A great happiness flooded his heart, and he was content.

  EPILOGUE

  Rain splashed against the window, but inside, a fire flickered over gas logs and the guests were cozy.

  Bryce Armstrong, their host, lifted his cup of egg nog, which of course had no alcohol due to the nursing mothers, and proposed a toast. “To our beautiful wives.”

  Jake and Eric called, “Here, here,” and drank to the three women, who smiled and nodded graciously.

  “To friends noble and true,” Bryce continued.

  They all sipped from their cups.

  “And to the holidays and the new generation now sleeping—thank heavens—in the nursery.”

  The three couples laughed, the merry sound covering the howl of the wind as a storm blew in from the Pacific Ocean.

  Jenna glanced at Eric and found his gaze on her. The darkness was gone from his eyes. Only the glow of love, freely given and received, lingered there now. Looking around the pleasant room and counting her blessings, she saw her two best friends doing the same.

  They exchanged smiles.

  “Love,” she said, raising her cup.

  “Happiness,” Rachel said, raising hers.

  “Forever,” Lily added and took a sip when the other two did. “By the way, Jake and I have decided we, uh, want to increase our little family as soon as possible.”

  The other two women stared at the couple.

  “That sounds like a challenge to me,” Eric said. “How about you?” he asked Bryce.

  “Yeah,” the other man agreed. He gave Rachel an assessing perusal, then waggled his eyebrows at her.

  “Not for a year,” she declared firmly. “At least a year.”

  Eric glanced at Jenna, his eyes warm with laughter. “Steven is barely three months old. I think we’ll give it some time,” he said, “then we’ll see about a sister for him. And maybe a brother after that.”

  “I’m thinking we need enough to field a baseball team,” Jake said, looking very serious.

  Lily opened her eyes wide in alarm.

  “Well, I’m game if the rest are,” Jenna stated. “After all, we can’t let the team down, can we?”

  That brought on more laughter. They had drawn names and now exchanged presents, opening them before the evening grew too late. In a quiet moment, Eric drew Jenna into his arms and kissed her briefly but tenderly.

  “Your love is the best gift of all,” he told her. “I was almost afraid to accept it. When you were in that accident, I thought I would die, too, if you didn’t make it. I realized life was giving me another chance at happiness. I nearly let fear ruin it.”

  “I’d given up, too,” she said, smoothing a dark lock off his forehead. “Going to the clinic to conceive a child was my way of avoiding a relationship. We were lucky that fate intervened.”

  “Yeah, lucky,” he agreed.

  Their laughter brought chuckles from their friends. It was a sound to delight the heart.

  * * * * *

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  A young widow falls for Chance Howell, an ex-soldier with PTSD, but will Chloe Fortune Elliott’s discovery that she’s linked to the famous Fortune family destroy their chance for a future together?

  Read on for a sneak preview of

  the next book in

  The fortunes of texas: The se
cret fortunes

  miniseries,

  fortune’s second-chance cowboy,

  by USA TODAY bestselling author Marie Ferrarella,.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Dear Lord, what am I doing?

  The question echoed in her brain as Chloe pulled up before the main ranch house of Peter’s Place.

  Yes, she really wanted to be part of a family, part of this family, but did she really want to leave herself wide open like this? To get this close to the Fortunes? After all, she sternly reminded herself, her encounter last month with the clan was less than successful to say the least.

  It all came vividly rushing back to her now as she turned off the ignition and sat quietly in the car for a moment.

  She never should have agreed to this interview. She was too intimidated by Kate Fortune, the family matriarch, who Chloe figured would be at this meeting. And why not? She seemed to run everything associated with the Fortune family.

  Kate Fortune might well be ninety-one years old, but she looked decades younger and was sharp as the proverbial tack. The woman was not exactly the warm, cuddly grandmotherly type.

  Was it too late to change her mind? Chloe thought not for the first time.

  Then again, it wasn’t as if she was exactly hip-deep in job offers, able to pick and choose which position she was willing to accept. Given that, this job that Graham was offering her was at least worth a look. Heaven knew she wasn’t getting anywhere looking for work so far and she knew that Donnie wouldn’t have wanted her to give up on life just because he was gone. And who knew? Maybe she’d actually get it and things would work out for the best.

  There was always a first time, Chloe told herself philosophically, doing her best to bolster up her flagging courage.

  “Well, here goes nothing,” Chloe murmured under her breath as she unbuckled her seat belt and opened the door.

  Glancing up into the rearview mirror before she exited the vehicle, she made one futile attempt to smooth down her wayward curly blond hair. Not that it did all that much good, she thought ruefully. Her hair seemed to have a mind of its own.

  “Just like me,” Chloe murmured, thinking of what her mother had often said.

  You just keep dancing to your own drummer, Chloe. The world’ll come around eventually to join you.

  Satisfied that she looked as good as she was going to look on this crisp March day—the wind had seemed determined to restyle her hair the moment she’d stepped outside—Chloe got out of her sedan and closed the door.

  She didn’t bother locking the vehicle because it wasn’t the kind of car that anyone would think to steal. It had already gone through several owners before she’d bought it a year ago. Close to ten years old, it ran mostly on faith and used parts.

  Warning herself not to expect too much, Chloe went up the three steps to the ranch house front door. Mentally counting to ten as she took a deep breath and centered herself, she knocked on the door.

  The second her knuckles made contact, the door seemed to fly open. As a matter of fact, she could have sworn that the door opened a second before she actually knocked on it.

  But that had to be her imagination—right?

  “Oh, Chloe, you’re here,” Graham said, looking startled to see her.

  He wasn’t in the doorway alone. Chloe recognized the pretty blue-eyed blonde right behind her half brother. It was his wife, Sasha. The petite woman looked even more frazzled than Graham did.

  “I’m sorry. Did I get the dates mixed up?” Chloe asked, looking from Graham to his wife. It was the only conclusion she could draw, given the expressions on their faces and their almost breathless manner.

  “No, no, you’ve got the right date,” Graham assured her. “But something’s just come up. There’s been a sudden family emergency. I just got a call from our babysitter that Maddie—that’s our eight-year-old,” he explained quickly “—decided that she’d give flying off the swing a try.” He frowned, shaking his head. “It didn’t turn out quite the way our fearless daughter had hoped. From all the screaming and crying, the sitter thinks that Maddie broke her arm. We’re just on our way out to meet them at the hospital.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Chloe cried, genuinely concerned. She could just imagine what was going through their minds. But at least they had each other to lean on. “Is there anything I can do?”

  It took him only a second to answer Chloe. “As a matter of fact, there is.”

  “What do you need?” she asked, ready to pitch in and help.

  Chloe thought he was going to ask her to accompany him and his wife to whatever hospital their little girl had been taken. Maybe they were too rattled to drive safely. But that wasn’t what he needed her to do.

  “Would you mind sticking around for a while?” Graham asked her. “I’ve got someone else coming in for an interview and I couldn’t reach him on the phone. I was going to call you as soon as we were on the road,” Graham quickly explained. “When he gets here, tell him that as soon as I make sure that Maddie’s all right, I’ll be back. I know this is a huge imposition on you and I wouldn’t ask if—”

  “That’s okay,” Chloe said, cutting him off. She could tell just by his tone of voice that if he remained, the man’s mind wouldn’t be on the interview. “Go. See to your daughter.” She all but shooed the couple out. “I’ll stay.”

  “We won’t forget this,” Sasha promised, tossing the words over her shoulder as she and her husband rushed out of the house.

  Chloe offered the couple an encouraging smile. “Glad to help,” she called after them.

  After all, it wasn’t as if she was exactly pressed for time, Chloe thought, watching the duo get into their car and drive quickly away.

  Besides, Chloe reasoned, walking back into the ranch house and closing the door behind her, this way she could get a look at whoever it was that she would be competing against for this job.

  Chloe looked around. She liked the looks of the ranch from what she’d seen of it, driving up here. Maybe she was reading things into it, she thought, but it had a good feel about it.

  Chloe sat down on the sofa, prepared to wait. She remained sitting for all of five minutes before she began to feel restless. On her feet again, she started to prowl around the large living room with its comfortable, masculine furnishings.

  Definitely a good feel to the place, she thought as she moved about, touching things and envisioning herself working here.

  She looked at an old-fashioned clock with gold numbers on the fireplace mantel, and she could almost feel the minute hand dragging itself in slow motion, going from one number to the next.

  How long was she expected to wait? If she’d had some sort of a handle on that, then she could put things into prospective—or at least know when it would be all right for her to leave.

  The sound of a back door slamming made her jump. As did the sound of a wailing baby.

  The next second, a rather beleaguered-looking older man came in, holding the crying baby in his arms and looking as if he was at his wit’s end.

  Without bothering to ask her who she was or to introduce himself, the man complained, “I can’t get her to stop crying. I’ve tried everything and she just keeps right on bawling. Do you know how to make her stop?” he asked pathetically, holding the baby out to her like an offering. “Please?”

  Chloe stared at the stranger, stunned. She didn’t know the first thing about babies, and for all this man knew, she could have been some random thief who had just broken into the house.

  But he looked so distraught, she decided to skip pointing that out. Feeling sorry for the man, she said, “Give her to me,” although, for the life of her, she had no idea what she was going to do.

  “Thank you, thank you,” the man cried. “This is Sydney. I’m Sasha’s uncle Roger, by the way,” he said as he placed the baby into her arms. “Graham and Sasha had an emergency and asked me to watch the baby while they were gone.” He flushed, embarrassed. “I said yes before I knew what I was getting
myself into. I thought the kid would stay asleep. But the second they were gone, she started crying.” And then Roger stared at the infant, relieved and awestruck at the same time. “Hey, will you look at that,” he marveled, looking from Sydney to the woman holding her. “She’s really taken to you.”

  To Chloe’s absolute amazement, the baby had stopped crying. She would have said there was some sort of magic involved, except it was obvious that Sydney appeared to be fascinated with the way the light was hitting the sterling silver pendant she was wearing around her neck.

  The pendant that Donnie had given her just before he’d shipped out, she thought sadly.

  Even now, you’re still finding ways to help me out, Donnie.

  “More like she’s taken with my necklace,” Chloe told Sasha’s uncle.

  To prove her point, she grasped the pendant and moved it around ever so slowly. Sunlight gleamed and shimmied along its surface. Sydney followed the sunbeam with her eyes, mesmerized.

  “Hey, whatever it takes.” Roger laughed. “I’m just really relieved that Sydney’s finally stopped crying. I was afraid she was going to rip something loose inside that little body…or that I was going to start to lose my hearing. For a little thing, she’s sure got a mighty big set of lungs on her.”

  For the first time, Roger turned his attention to Chloe. Apparently realizing that he didn’t know who she was, he asked, “You a friend of Graham’s and Sasha’s?”

  “Not exactly,” Chloe replied.

  She wasn’t really sure how to introduce herself. Yes, she was Graham’s half sister, but she was still getting used to that title herself. She didn’t know if she was comfortable enough to spring it on anyone else yet, not to mention that Graham might not welcome their connection becoming public knowledge.

  Sitting down on the sofa as she continued to cradle and entertain the baby, Chloe evasively explained, “I’m here to interview for a job that’s opened up at Peter’s Place.”

  “Ah.”

  Roger nodded his head as he sat down, too. “Great place,” he told her. “Sasha and Graham do a lot of good here. And they could certainly do with a few more willing hands to help them out with the work. You got a job in mind?” he asked.