Olivia knew she shouldn’t be listening, but couldn’t help herself. Why would Lucas refuse Wyatt this? Because he didn’t want the responsibility? Or because he didn’t want to be tied down anywhere, not even here? This was a place he loved! But maybe he liked dropping in freely. On his terms.
If that was so, how could she ever count on him if he didn’t want to be tied down?
She took a step back and her boots crunched on the snow. Lucas moved toward the gate and caught sight of her in the beam of the white floodlight.
Walking up to the gate, she unlatched it “I was curious about what’s happening to Night Song.”
His blue gaze probed hers. “She’s restless and only wants Wyatt nearby. But we can watch from a distance if we’re quiet. Horses can delay delivery if there’s too much commotion.”
“I’d like to watch,” Olivia answered.
Wyatt opened the barn door and Lucas waited for her to precede him inside.
At the far end of the walkway, Night Song restlessly paced and shifted in the breadth of two stalls. Apparently Lucas and Wyatt had removed a partition to make a single into a double so the mare had plenty of space. Lucas stacked bales of hay in an empty stall so Olivia could sit and watch. Leaning close to her, his breath warm on her cheek, he murmured that he and Wyatt would be in the tack room.
As the time passed, Night Song became more restless and often kicked up her legs at her belly. When Lucas returned to the barn, he saw Olivia still keeping watch over the mare. But the dampness had seeped through her and she had her arms wrapped around her.
“Cold?” he asked.
“A little.”
He kept his voice low. “Do you want to go back to the house?”
She shook her head.
Nodding to another vacant stall beyond Bullet’s, he crossed to it. “Let’s get you warmed up a little, or else you’ll catch a chill till this is over.”
Not sure what he had in mind, she followed him to a stall layered with fresh hay.
“I’ll be right back,” he said.
In a few minutes he returned with saddle blankets. At the other end of the barn now, he spread one out over the hay and kept his voice low. “We can combine our body heat and get some rest at the same time.” In a flash he’d settled on the blanket and held out his arm to her.
He was wearing an insulated plaid vest over his navy flannel shirt. He hadn’t shaved since morning and light brown stubble shadowed his jaw. With him looking so ruggedly sexy, just the thought of combined body heat was enough to warm her. Besides that, there was something about Lucas’s expression that urged her to take him up on his offer. They hadn’t had any time to themselves since he’d left her room yesterday afternoon. Maybe space wasn’t such a good idea.
As she settled in beside him, he curved his arm around her above her shoulders. With her elbow against his ribs and his jean-clad leg lodged against hers, she didn’t need another blanket.
But he settled one over them. “I’m sorry about what I said yesterday.”
The apology seemed difficult for him. “Did you mean what you said?” she asked softly as she stared straight ahead.
There was a pause. “I did at the time. I’m not used to anyone asking personal questions.”
“Wyatt and Mim don’t ask?”
“They wait and eventually I tell them.”
“Do I have to wait?”
She felt his sigh and realized she’d pushed him into another corner. But they had to hash this out. “You weren’t eager to tell me about the ranch, and all weekend I’ve gotten the feeling you expect me to turn tail and run. I’d like to know why.”
At his silence, she leaned away slightly so she could gauge his expression. The nerve in his jaw worked and she knew she had to do something to break through his barricades. She gently laid her hand on his arm. “Lucas?”
His muscles tensed under her fingers. Finally he said, “Celeste and I dated for a few months. We both had busy lives. She owned a boutique and often worked on weekends, so when I flew up here, she didn’t care.”
“Did she know you’d grown up on the ranch?”
“I told her before I brought her here.”
This time Olivia did wait, hoping Lucas would continue without her pressing him.
In a few moments, he did. “It turned out Celeste was only interested in my image—the successful lawyer who flew his own plane, took her to expensive restaurants and cocktail parties with wealthy clients. Looking back now, I realize that’s the limited view she saw of me and I didn’t have a much better perspective on her. She was beautiful, cultured, from an excellent family, but I didn’t realize till I brought her here that she was a snob...and not just a snob. She was a woman who didn’t like being around children.”
“Were you planning to marry her?” Olivia asked with a lump in her throat.
“We’d discussed it. And having children. But when we came here, I saw her turn away from Russ’s tears after he’d fallen and skinned his knee. She left the room whenever more than adults were in it, and she yelled at Kurt for putting a sticky handprint on her purse. After all that, I knew she was the type of woman who would let a nanny raise her children before she sent them to boarding school.”
Now Olivia understood why he’d hesitated to tell her about his background and the ranch. And if he’d truly loved this woman... But he’d never mentioned love. “I would never want a nanny to raise my child,” she murmured.
“But you want to establish your career.” His blue eyes examined her with an intensity that tried to see to the core of who she was.
So that’s why he’d reacted so strongly when she’d told him about Barrington’s job offer. Still, she needed him to realize she was very different from Celeste. “Lucas, I haven’t thought everything out yet about the baby...and working. But I want to feed our child, and hug our child, and clean off sticky fingers along with bandaging boo-boos. Most of all, I want to rock him or her and sing lullabies. I promise you that.”
The barn was rife with a heavy silence for a moment as he weighed her words. Night Song’s pacing and the rustling of straw broke it. Then Lucas slid his hand under Olivia’s hair and tipped her chin up with his thumb. “I believe promises are made to be kept.”
“So do I,” she agreed solemnly.
As he bent his head to her, Wyatt came into the barn.
Lucas’s lips brushed against hers in a kiss that was frustratingly short but thoroughly sense stirring.
“You’d better nap while you can or tomorrow’s going to be one very long day.”
She knew he was right, and as he drew her close to his body so she could use his shoulder as a pillow, she felt so very comfortable snuggling in his arms. So comfortable that the images floating through her mind put a smile on her lips.
It seemed like only a few minutes until Wyatt called to them that Night Song was down and ready to foal. Her hand lay across Lucas’s chest and his lips almost brushed her temple. When she sat up, she saw his gaze was alert.
“Did you sleep?” she asked.
“I rested,” he answered with a crooked smile that melted her heart. “I’ll see if Wyatt needs help with Night Song. You call the boys. This can happen fast.”
Mim and Olivia bundled Kurt, Russ and Jerry into coats, hats, gloves, and boots. They’d stayed dressed instead of changing into pajamas so they’d be ready. To Olivia’s surprise, Trevor, too, had remained dressed and was ready to go out to the barn with the others. When he passed by her in the kitchen, he said, “Too much noise to sleep. I’m comin’, too.”
The boys ran ahead to the barn. When Olivia and Mim reached the door, Lucas had corralled them and was explaining, “This isn’t a circus, guys. You’re going to have to stay back and keep the noise level down or you’ll have to go back to the house. Understand?”
They all nodded.
Lucas led them inside, and they lined up against Night Song’s stall to watch. Olivia stood behind Russ, her hands on his shoulders, as Lucas knelt beside the m
are across from Wyatt.
“There’s feet! I see feet!” Kurt exclaimed, then clamped his hand over his mouth.
The forefeet appeared with a contraction then disappeared when it was over. But as Night Song whinnied, straw sticking to her coat where she had sweated, another contraction hit.
“It looks like a water balloon!” Jerry said in a whisper as the forefeet and sac appeared again.
“That’s sort of what it is,” Lucas informed them. “It protects the foal until it’s ready for the world.”
Suddenly the sac broke and fluid rushed out, immediately followed by the forefeet and the nose of the foal! Not long after, the rest of the foal lay atop the straw, still attached to its mother by the umbilical cord.
“Wow!” Russ gasped, and Olivia’s hands tightened on his shoulders as her eyes filled with tears.
When Lucas glanced at her, his gaze held hers for a poignant moment. She tried to blink her tears away, but his slow smile said he understood exactly how she felt. A foal. A baby. Miracles...and they were sharing the experience.
As Wyatt crooned to the mare to keep her still, Lucas explained to the boys about the cord and rubbed down the foal with a towel.
Finally the foal kicked free of the mare and the umbilical cord broke off. A short time later Night Song got to her feet and licked her baby who began trying to scramble to its feet. One, two, three tries until finally its wobbly legs supported it.
“We’ve got a filly,” Wyatt said with a grin. “You boys will have to think of a good name for her.”
The same sorrel as her mother, the filly had four white stockings and a blaze down her nose. She nuzzled her mother and began suckling.
Coming out of the stall, Lucas curved his arm around Russ. “Okay, boys. Back to the house. We’ll give mother and daughter here some privacy.” To Olivia he said, “Go on to bed. I’ll help Wyatt finish up out here. We’ll leave around five-thirty.”
Olivia nodded, knowing if they both arrived at Barrington late, there might be gossip. Suddenly the thought of gossip didn’t seem so daunting. Whether it had happened this weekend or before, she didn’t know. But she’d fallen in love with Lucas Hunter—thoroughly and irrevocably—and that disconcerted her a great deal more than the threat of a few rumors.
Because she had no idea how Lucas truly felt about her.
Smothering a yawn, Olivia picked up the phone at her desk Monday afternoon when it buzzed.
“Olivia, it’s me.”
She smiled as Lucas’s voice reminded her of their weekend, .their drive back to Scottsdale this morning and their mad dash to get to work on time. They’d driven in separately, not knowing what the day would bring.
“Are you going to be late tonight?” she asked, thinking about what was in the refrigerator or freezer that they could make for supper.
“I have to fly to Grand Junction, Colorado, this afternoon. I’ll be in meetings tonight and tomorrow. But I should be home by supper tomorrow.”
She felt deflated, as if the sun had disappeared behind a cloud. “I’ll probably go home and sack out for the night. Lack of sleep is catching up with me. How about you?”
“I don’t need as much sleep as you,” he teased.
With June sitting a few feet away, she couldn’t make a comment about her pregnancy. “Fly safely,” she said instead, wanting to run to his office down the hall and give him a hug before he left, but not feeling free enough with him to do that.
His deep voice was sure. “I always do. See you tomorrow.”
After Olivia hung up, she noticed June giving her a curious glance...and wondered if it showed that she was already missing Lucas.
Checking her watch for at least the hundredth time Tuesday evening, Olivia switched on the television. Lucas hadn’t come home and he hadn’t called. She didn’t even have any idea where he was staying in Grand Junction! She could call Rex Barrington....
Oh, Lucas would love it if she checked up on him. Maybe he had decided to spend another night in Colorado.
Then why hadn’t he called?
Crossing to the kitchen, she switched off the oven. The turkey breast was well past done. The baked potatoes had fared better. Not that it mattered. She wasn’t the least bit hungry. If Lucas didn’t walk in that door by 10:00 p.m., she’d call Rex Barrington and the consequences be damned.
Her hands shook as she stowed the food in the refrigerator and cleaned every surface in the kitchen to give herself something physical to do.
At 9:45 the lock on the front door turned and Lucas’s footsteps sounded in the foyer. She told herself to stay calm, not overreact, give him a chance to explain. Trying to swallow the lump in her throat and the urge to cry, she took a deep breath and hurried to the living room.
When he saw her, he dropped his suitcase by the sofa. “I had a delay taking off at the airport, and then I had to fly around some storm cells. I would have just put down somewhere, but I wanted to get back tonight. I hope you didn’t worry.”
He hoped she hadn’t worried?
She remembered when she’d come home late. Had he felt what she was feeling now? The absolute relief? Anxiety from the last few hours bubbled up and spilled out. “I was worried. I didn’t have any idea where you were staying in Grand Junction, if you’d left, if you’d crashed...”
Her love for Lucas had become too deep for her to ignore, too wide to detour, too intense for her to take the safe road any longer. She wanted to have rights where Lucas Hunter was concerned, and she wanted to get much closer than merely being housemates would allow.
Taking another deep breath, she decided her future. “If your proposal still stands, Lucas, I’m ready to marry you.”
Chapter Eight
Lucas’s heart pounded, and he forgot he was tired from a day full of meetings, let alone flying around storm cells that made him wonder more than once if he was crazy to be out there. All he could think about was getting home to Olivia....
And now here she was, standing in front of him looking beautifully ruffled, not angry because he was late but wanting to marry him.
“Do you mean that?” he asked, wondering why she had made the decision, but glad she had.
She nodded...slowly, as if she was just realizing the impact of what she’d said.
In a stride and a half he was close enough to kiss her, but wasn’t sure that’s what he should do. He hated feeling unsure. But ever since Christmas Eve, the direction he should follow with Olivia was foggy.
“What made you decide?” He wasn’t exactly certain what he was hoping she’d answer.
Her cheeks flushed as they often did when he put her on the spot. “I...uh...I just realized if something happened to you, I’d have no proof you were the father. I want our baby to know who his father is. I want him to have two parents under the same roof who are more than...housemates.”
Some of the lightness left Lucas because he believed what Olivia couldn’t put into words was more basic than his name on the birth certificate. She wanted security for her child. Without marriage she didn’t believe she had it. With marriage it was guaranteed. This was as practical a decision on her part as his proposal had been to begin with. “Let’s fly to Las Vegas this weekend.”
“This weekend?”
“The sooner we’re married, the sooner we can stop pretending we’re mere acquaintances and tell the world about your pregnancy.”
“Oh, but we can’t say anything right away. Everyone will know...”
“That we couldn’t resist each other?” he asked gruffly. Olivia was still worried about what her colleagues at Barrington thought—maybe one man in particular.
“Maybe it’s not important to you, Lucas, and maybe people will count the months after the baby’s born, but I’d like everyone to get used to the fact we’re married before we announce that I’m pregnant.”
It was a small request, really. As long as they were getting married and he could tell everyone, including Stanley Whitcomb, that Olivia was his, he could wait
on announcing that he was going to become a father. “We’ll give it a few weeks. But it’s all the more reason to get married sooner rather than later.”
After studying him for a few moments, she agreed, “All right. This weekend.”
“You won’t be sorry, Olivia. I’ll take care of all the arrangements. We’ll book a flight on a jet so you don’t have to worry about flying...or anything else.”
“I never imagined getting married without my mother.”
The wistfulness in her voice made him suggest, “We can fly her in.”
“You mean that?”
He’d fly in anybody she wanted, just for another one of those smiles! “Sure. What about your dad?”
She hesitated. “I...uh...don’t know how to reach him. He travels a lot.”
They’d never really discussed her father. When she’d told him about her parent’s divorce, she’d only talked about her childhood with her mother. “Maybe your mother does.”
Olivia shook her head. “She doesn’t. Are you going to ask Mim and Wyatt?”
“I’d like them there, but they’ll have trouble getting away from the ranch and the boys. And it’s tax season for Wyatt.”
“But you’ll ask?”
“No. I don’t want to put them on the spot. We’ll call after we’re married and drive up there after we get back.”
“You’re sure?”
For a moment he wasn’t, but he didn’t like asking Mim and Wyatt for more than they’d already given him. “I’m sure. Why don’t you call your mother? Then I’ll try to get some reservations set up.”
Unable to keep from touching Olivia any longer, his whole body thrumming with the knowledge she would soon be his, he brushed her hair behind her ear. “We’ll make this work, Olivia, if we both want it.”
She nodded, but he thought he saw doubts in her eyes. Bending to kiss her, he was determined to make those doubts vanish...if not before the wedding, then definitely during their honeymoon. Respecting her wishes, he’d wait to take her to his bed until after the ceremony. But then she’d see that they belonged together. Then she’d see that her future was with him.
The Night before Baby Page 11