If the Ring Fits. Cindy Kirk

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СКАЧАТЬ willowy. Still, for a twenty-six-year-old mother of three, Mary Karen thought she looked pretty darn good … especially now that she’d had some R & R.

      After spending the past two days in her new red bikini by the pool, her normally pale skin now had a golden glow.

      Winning this trip in a raffle had been just what her body and soul had needed. But today the fun ended. She had to head home in a couple of hours.

      While she’d had a wonderful time, she’d missed her sons. And from the hitch in their little voices when she’d spoken with them yesterday afternoon, they missed her, too. But they’d cheered up when she promised she’d be home tonight. With an eleven-o’clock checkout, she needed to get packing.

      Pushing back the sheet, she sat up and swung her legs to the side of the bed.

      “You’re awake.”

      Mary Karen whirled. She gasped and grabbed for the sheet, pulling it over her breasts.

      “It’s a little late for modesty, M.K.” Travis strolled across the bedroom, clad only in the towel wrapped around his waist, his sandy hair still damp from the shower. “That horse left the barn a long time ago.”

      Mary Karen could only stare.

      At slightly over six feet, Travis was more wiry than muscular. He had a fair complexion with freckles scattered across the bridge of his nose. This morning his hazel eyes, which normally always had an impish gleam, were somber.

      He crossed the room and the mattress dipped as he took a seat beside her. Tiny droplets of water still clung to his chest. He smelled like soap and shampoo and that indefinable male scent that sent sparks dancing through her blood.

      Then she recalled the rest of last night’s dream. A sick feeling filled the pit of her stomach and she began to shake. Could she really have been so foolish? While she’d made some big mistakes in her life, this one would top them all. She’d been buzzed last night but definitely not drunk. Acting out her wildest fantasies in bed with a man she considered her best friend she could handle. But standing before a Bible-wielding Elvis …

      Mary Karen searched Travis’s face. The despair that suddenly filled his eyes told her what she didn’t want to know.

      “Tell me we d-didn’t.” She couldn’t quite control the tremble in her voice. “Please, Trav. Tell me we didn’t.”

      Instead of answering he reached over and lifted her left hand. The emerald-cut yellow diamond on her finger caught the morning light.

      “I wish I could say this was one of my jokes.” His attempt at a chuckle fell flat.

      Her heart thundered in her chest and the room began to spin. “This can’t be happening.”

      “You and I were married last night, M.K,” he said, squeezing her fingers. “Now we have to figure out what we’re going to do about it.”

      Four weeks to the day later, Mary Karen left her sons in front of the television with their favorite video playing and locked the door to her home’s only bathroom.

      She caught sight of herself in the mirror as she placed the sack on the edge of the sink. The hard-won tan from Vegas had already faded and lines of stress edged her eyes. For the past week, she hadn’t been able to sleep, worried what this test might show.

      For as long as she could remember she’d been right-on-the-dot regular. A person could set their clock by her menstrual cycle. But when the day she was waiting for came and went just like any other, she knew she was in trouble. Now it was time to know if what she suspected was true. Her hands shook as she completed the test.

      Mary Karen could count on one hand the times she’d been truly afraid. The first was when she’d been a child and had wandered away from her parents in Yellowstone. The second had been when Steven had told her he wanted a divorce. The twins had just turned two and she’d been pregnant with Logan. And then there was … now.

      The walls of the tiny room closed in around her. A bead of sweat trickled down her spine. Her heart pounded so hard she felt lightheaded. Mary Karen told herself to look at the stick but her eyes refused to cooperate.

      Marrying Travis and celebrating with a night of passionate sex had been a crazy thing to do. She barely remembered how it had happened. One minute they’d been laughing and enjoying a drink by the pool—one drink—the next they’d been saying their vows in front of a judge who looked an awful lot like the King of Rock and Roll.

      If Travis hadn’t been leaving Vegas for his annual medical mission trip, they’d have gotten started on an annulment while they were still in Nevada. Instead she’d had to wait for him to return to Jackson Hole. Now that he was back they could finally work on putting this mistake behind them. What had the attorney she’d contacted said? It would be like the whole thing had never taken place….

      Mary Karen took a deep breath and lifted the stick to eye level.

      Her heart stopped for several seconds then resumed beating. Louder and more frantically. She tried to tell herself it could be a false positive, but she knew better. She’d been pregnant twice before and the signs were all there. The nausea. The fatigue. The emotional roller coaster.

      Tears filled her eyes and slipped down her cheeks. She pushed a bucket of bath tub toys out of the way and turned on the water full force. The last thing she wanted was for her boys to hear her crying and worry.

      Dear God, she couldn’t have another baby, she just couldn’t.

      Though it would be easy to make Travis the bad guy, even in her despair Mary Karen knew she had only herself to blame. Fertile Myrtle … that’s what her brother laughingly called her. Both of her previous pregnancies had occurred when she’d been on the pill. She should have insisted Travis go out and buy some condoms before she let him touch her.

      Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

      She beat her clenched hand against her aching chest and the river of tears turned into a torrent. Breathing grew difficult as a sob blocked her throat.

      “Mommy.” A small fist pounded on the locked bathroom door. “I hafta go potty.”

      “Mommy,” another childish voice called out. “Open the door. Logan has to go real bad.”

      Mary Karen swallowed the sob and took a shuddering breath. Her hand fumbled for the box of tissue. She blew her nose and swiped at her eyes before shoving the pregnancy test supplies into the plastic grocery bag. Only after she’d tied the sack shut did she open the door.

      “I’m sorry, honey.” She stepped aside as her youngest rushed past.

      Even though Logan was too focused to pay her much attention, the twins waiting in the hallway were much more observant.

      “What’s wrong?” With his golden curls and big blue eyes, five-year-old Connor could have been a poster boy for one of God’s chosen angels. Until you got close enough to see the devilish gleam in his eyes.

      “Your eyes look funny,” he said almost accusingly.

      “Your face is red,” his identical twin, Caleb, chimed in.

      “I, I had something in my eye.” Mary СКАЧАТЬ