The Child Between Them

by Helen Lacey

  “Fine. You?”

  “Good. I just brought Reggie in for his shots.”

  He tugged at his collar and Holly smiled to herself. “You look like it’s you who’s getting the shots.”

  “Your fault,” he mumbled and walked across the room, feigning interest in a row of canine treats lined up on the counter.

  Holly laughed. “Really?”

  He shrugged and continued his fake browsing. “Really.”

  “I can’t see how. I haven’t seen you for days.”

  “Exactly,” he shot back and turned back to her. His gaze dropped to her belly for a moment. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she replied. “Never better. Probably because I haven’t seen you for days.”

  It was inflammatory and untrue, but Holly couldn’t help herself. He deserved a little ribbing. And it wasn’t as though they were friends or anything. Not that she enjoyed being mean for no reason. Even to someone who wasn’t a friend. But suddenly, she felt mean. She felt like the meanest woman on the planet.

  She took a deep breath. “Sorry.”

  “For what?” he said quietly. “Giving me exactly what I deserve?”

  Holly’s insides fluttered. Damn him. She really did want to hate the man. At least for a little while. For the time it would take her to accept that they would never be more than what they were in that moment—two people…two virtual strangers—who had accidently made a baby together.

  “I’m not usually such a b—”

  “Forget it,” he said and waved a hand, interrupting her. “Want to have lunch?”

  His unexpected invitation startled her. “Ah…I just had breakfast.”

  He glanced at his watch. “At eleven o’clock?”

  She shrugged. “Late breakfast. Early lunch. With Julie,” she added. “You know, Julie Ward?”

  He nodded. “I know Julie.”

  “She said you donated a truck load of gear for her horse riding program at Serenity Farm.”

  “A little,” he said and shrugged, looking faintly embarrassed. “The kids needed a few saddles and other tack.”

  “That was nice of you.”

  His gaze narrowed. “I can be nice.”

  Holly’s mouth curled. “I know,” she replied and patted her belly. “Hence the reason why I’m knocked up.”

  He laughed and the sound hit her directly in the center of her chest. “So…lunch?”

  Holly shook her head. “But we can hang out for a bit, if you want to.”

  She had no idea why she suggested the plan. Maybe because he looked so good in his jeans and pale chambray shirt, with the sleeves rolled up and his familiar cowboy boots. The same boots that were at the foot of her bed a little over six weeks ago. And she was a sucker for a pair of cowboy boots!

  He expression narrowed fractionally. “I have to take Reggie back to the shop.”

  “Okay,” she said and headed for the small consultation room to the left. “I’ll go and get him.”

  The exuberant, but well-mannered Labrador was waiting eagerly for his master and pulled a little on his lead as Holly led him from the room. Sam had returned to the front counter and was waving his hands to dismiss Marshall’s insistence that he pay the account. After thirty seconds of too-ing and fro-ing between the men, Holly let out an exasperated sigh, passed Reggie’s lead to Marshall and snatched the credit card he held in his hand.

  “Let the man pay his bill,” she said to Sam and grinned. “With the prices he charges at his shop, he can afford it.”

  Both men laughed and watched as she charged the credit card and handed over the electronic terminal so that Marshall could enter his pin number. Once the transaction was complete, Holly grabbed her bag and headed toward the door.

  “You coming?”

  Sam looked surprised and raised a brow, then smiled. “Have fun kids,” he said and chuckled as he waved them off and walked out back.

  A minute later they were outside.

  “Where’s your car?” Marshall asked as he tethered Reggie securely into the utility tray.

  “Parked outside Ruby’s.”

  “You walked from Ruby’s?”

  “From Millie’s,” she replied and headed for the passenger door of his truck.

  “That’s two blocks.”

  “I like the exercise,” she flipped back. “Keeps me in shape.”

  “Just don’t overdo it,” he said and opened the passenger door. “And make sure Sam doesn’t have you lifting anything heavy or—”

  “He won’t,” Holly assured him and laid a hand on his arm. Her fingers tingled instantly and she looked up and met Marshall’s gaze. Despite everything…despite herself…there was still an intense awareness between them. “Sam is a good boss.”

  “Just make sure—”

  “I will,” she said quickly. “He’s already given me the lecture and the paperwork regarding my duties while I’m pregnant. That’s what I dropped off today, all signed and sealed. No lifting. No exposure to X-ray. Nothing that will put my baby at risk.”

  “Our baby.”

  Holly’s throat tightened, and then she quickly removed her hand as she got into the truck. He closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side, his shoulders so tight she suspected he was as tense as she’d ever seen him. Once he was in the vehicle she spoke again.

  “So, you’ve accepted it then?”

  He glanced sideways and started the engine. “I accepted it the moment you told me.”

  “But you—”

  “I was in shock,” he said, cutting her off. “Okay? Just surprised, that’s all. Not angry. Not disappointed. Not…not wishing it hadn’t happened. Just plain old, stupid-guy, kind of shock.”

  “Oh…okay,” she said quietly, not sure what she was feeling.

  “The truth is, Holly,” he said as they pulled out from the parking space. “I’ve spent most of my life accepting that I would never have children, because it was too dangerous for my wife to get pregnant. That had me thinking a certain way. Acting a certain way. But things have changed. You’re pregnant. It’s mine. There’s no point hiding the fact. And I will always try to do the right thing by our child, okay? And the right thing by you.”

  Except marry me…

  The wayward thought entered her head before she had an opportunity to wish it away. She felt foolish. And naïve. And uncharacteristically needy. And as though she was asking…wishing…for the moon.

  “Thank you,” she said and remained silent for the remainder of the trip.

  Once they reached his store, Marshall pulled up outside and brought the truck to a halt. He was out in a flash and Holly followed, watching as he untied the dog and led him around to her side.

  “Feel like a tour?” he asked.

  Holly stared at him. “Your beloved workshop?”

  He shrugged. “Is that a yes?”

  She nodded. “Sure.”

  The shop was open and a young sales clerk greeted them as they crossed the threshold. Holly remembered him from the last time she’d been in the place.

  “This is Donny,” Marshall said casually as he let Reggie off the lead and the dog raced through the shop. “My cousin.”

  Holly looked at the young man, searching for a family resemblance and quickly realized that Donny was his cousin by marriage. Lynette’s cousin. She said hello and shook his hand and the young man gave her a quizzical look.

  “I’ve seen you before,” he said and shrugged bony shoulders. “At Drysdale’s. My sister, Bec, works there.”

  Drysdale Farm was where she agisted her horse, Chester. She visited the place a few times a week and despite being waylaid by Marshall, still planned on going out to see her horse later that afternoon. She vaguely recalled seeing the young man there once or twice and realized she had talked to his sister several times. “Nice to see you again.”

  They chatted for a moment, before a customer came into the store and Marshall ushered her toward the rear of the building and into a work
shop out the back. It was exactly as she’d imagined, long benches, tools and equipment, pieces of his work in various stages of completion. It was clean and tidy, and she suspected he was organized and neat in every aspect of his life. There was nothing random or chaotic about Marshall…he was as disciplined as they came.

  Holly spotted an ornate western saddle suspended on a fixture and walked toward it, quickly admiring the workmanship. He really was a craftsman of his trade and she sighed as she continued to wander around the room.

  “Are you okay?”

  She looked across the room and saw him still standing by the door. “Can I ask you something?”

  He nodded. “Sure.”

  “Do you still spend time with your wife’s family?”

  “Yes.”

  Holly’s insides contracted a little. “So, what will they say when you tell them about me?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said flatly. “Lyn’s parents miss her a great deal and are still grieving. But I would like to think that they will be supportive of whatever I choose to do.”

  “I guess they’ve known you since you were young, right?”

  “Right.”

  “And they treat you like you’re their son?”

  “Yes,” he replied.

  Holly got the drift. “Then perhaps you shouldn’t tell them.”

  His brows came together. “Well, it will be difficult to keep a secret once your belly pops out, don’t you think?”

  “I just think it—”

  “And I’m not about to start denying the obvious, Holly. We’re having a baby together. That’s all anyone needs to know.” He closed the door and took a few steps closer. “Now, I’d like to ask you a question.”

  She met his gaze. “Sure, shoot.”

  He took a shallow breath. “I’d like to know your intentions.”

  “My intentions?” she echoed.

  “Yes,” he said, firmer this time. “I’d like to know what you plan on doing once the baby comes. Because, frankly, the idea of you hightailing it back to the city once our child is born is out of the question.”

  Chapter Five

  Marshall knew they needed the truth out on the table.

  Holly had made it clear she was in town temporarily and hadn’t given him any indication that she planned on staying past the birth of their son or daughter. And since he’d had a few days to get used to the fact that very soon they would be sharing a son or daughter, he wanted to know her intentions.

  And then he would tell her exactly what he wanted.

  “I hadn’t really thought that far ahead.”

  “Well, I think we should, don’t you?”

  She shrugged lightly. “It’s months away.”

  “Time enough to make plans, Holly. I have no intention of standing idly by while you make all the decisions. You were only ever in Mulhany Crossing on a temporary basis, correct?”

  “For my work, yes.”

  He glanced at her stomach. “And now things have changed. So, plans need to change.”

  “You want me to stay?”

  “I want to be a part of this child’s life,” he said, avoiding her question. “And the only way to do that is for you to remain in Mulhany Crossing on a permanent basis.”

  “You could move to the city,” she suggested and continued to walk around the room, touching things, stroking things, swaying her perfectly curved hips in a way that always got his attention.

  “My business is here,” he said flatly.

  My life is here. My friends. My family…

  Even though he had no close family in Mulhany Crossing, since his sister had left, he still considered his in-laws as family. And his friends, Nate, Sam and Levi were like brothers to him. He certainly couldn’t just pack and leave.

  He met her gaze, felt her brief but heavy stare so intimately it was as though they were barely a foot apart instead of twenty. She was thinking. Probably over-thinking. The way she did when she wanted to make a certain point. He didn’t have to wait long.

  “So, I get to uproot my life, but yours gets to stay the same, correct?”

  “I don’t think either of our lives will ever be the same once the baby comes, do you?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know what to expect. All I know is that I will have the baby here and then we’ll see what happens.”

  “That’s not good enough, Holly,” he said bluntly. “You can’t expect me to simply accept every decision you make without an opinion.”

  “I don’t expect anything from you,” she replied and continued her foray around the room. “You want what you want. Well, it goes both ways.”

  Marshall stilled. “Okay, I’ll bite. What do you want?”

  “From you?” She raised a brow. “Nothing. I told you that last week. You can be in or out, involved or not.”

  “You’d let me off the hook that easily?”

  “Sure. I don’t have any illusions about you, Marshall. Or about this situation. You’re not…” She paused, still walking, still stroking every damn piece of leather work as she moved around the room. “Available. And even if you were, I’m not going to get caught up in some silly fairy-tale where this ends with us being together. We’re not together. We’re not friends. We’re not anything. We had a one-night stand and now I’m pregnant. Which means, you don’t get to dish out ultimatums or expectations or anything else. Maybe I will stay in town,” she said flippantly and finally turned to face him, hands on hips, her cheeks spotted with color, her eyes flashing. “Or maybe I won’t. And that probably makes a control freak like you go bat-shit crazy, but there’s nothing I can do about that.”

  “I’m not a control freak.”

  She laughed. “See…that’s all you heard just then. And for the record, you are a control freak, Marshall…you’re just too caught up in yourself to realize it.”

  Marshall couldn’t remember anyone ever telling him exactly how it was in such a way before. But Holly didn’t pull punches. She said exactly what was on her mind, regardless of the consequences. She was, he suspected, the most honest person he had ever met.

  “Have dinner with me Friday night,” he said and saw her shocked expression.

  “Dinner?” she echoed. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Perfectly,” he replied. “We need to spend some time together.”

  “To what end?”

  “To get to know each other,” he said and sighed. “We’re having a baby, Holly. And I think we’d both prefer that our child grow up with two parents who like and respect one another, correct?”

  She didn’t disagree. “So, you want to try and be friends?”

  He nodded. “Exactly.”

  She took a moment and then shrugged. “Sure. Where shall I meet you?”

  “My place,” he said quickly, before he chickened out and changed his mind. “I’ll cook.”

  “You can cook?”

  “A little,” he admitted. “Say around seven?”

  She shrugged again. “Okay. It’s a date.” Then she looked horrified. “I mean, it’s not a date. It’s just two not-friends getting together.”

  Marshall laughed softly. “Do you know where I live?”

  She nodded vaguely and started walking around the workshop again. “You do good work.”

  “Good?”

  She chuckled and looked at him. “Okay, you do great work. The best I’ve seen. You’re amazing!” She stroked a saddle that he was working on. “This is beautiful.”

  Marshall watched as she admired the leather and stud work and as her fingertips smoothed over the cantle, his gut tightened. Even without trying, Holly was seductive and tempting. He’d hoped that his attraction to her would have waned over the last seven weeks. But no. It was as strong as ever. And as inconvenient.

  “That’s for a barrel racer in New Zealand.”

  She whistled appreciatively. “I envy you. It must be gratifying to make a living doing something you love.”

  “It is,” he said and moved
closer. “Don’t you love what you do?”

  She shrugged lightly. “I like it well enough. But I kind of got into it by default. I love horses and since I didn’t really fit as a real estate agent…working in the veterinary field, even just as a nursing assistant, was an obvious step.”

  “So, what would you like to do?”

  “Bake.”

  He looked at her and frowned a little. “You mean, cakes?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, crazy, huh? But I’ve always loving baking cakes. You know, fancy ones.” She patted her hips and smiled. “I try not to eat too many of them though.”

  Marshall’s gaze travelled down her body and then back up to her eyes. “I don’t think you should worry too much. So, why aren’t you baking fancy cakes for a living?”

  She shrugged. “It just wasn’t the direction my life took. But I’m not complaining. I mean, I enjoy working with animals too. And Sam is such a kind and caring vet, I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him.”

  Marshall experienced a twinge of something that felt a lot like jealousy at the way she spoke so affectionately about his friend. He knew Sam was a great guy. He just didn’t want Holly thinking so.

  “He hates sweets,” Marshall said and grabbed a leather halter he’d made a while ago, but recently engraved the letter ‘c’ onto the cheek strap and passed it to her. “Just so you know. In case you were thinking of baking for your work mates. Anyway, I thought you might like this for that old horse of yours.”

  She took the halter and frowned. “For Chester?” she queried and traced the ‘c’ with her fingertip. “Thank you. That’s very thoughtful.”

  He shrugged, faintly embarrassed and then showed her a few of the pieces he was working on. It was after one o’clock by the time she said she should be heading off and Marshall walked her back through the store and escorted her down the street to her car.

  “So, I’ll see you Friday night?” he said and opened the driver’s door.

  She nodded. “Sure. See you then.”

  He waited by the kerb as she reversed out and drove off and caught the glint of his wedding ring shining in the afternoon sun. Funny, but most days he forgot that he still wore the gold band. Suddenly, a wave of guilt and grief washed over him and he missed Lynette so much in that moment he felt it down to the soles of his feet. But then, without warning, the feeling became bittersweet.