Travis Comes Home. Patricia Thayer
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Название: Travis Comes Home

Автор: Patricia Thayer

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Современные любовные романы

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      He gently nudged her. “Josie. Josie, come on, darlin’ wake up.”

      He got a moan for his efforts.

      Carefully he pulled her back against the seat. He brushed wayward strands of hair from her pale face. “Come on, Josie, wake up.” He stroked her soft cheek. She moaned again, then finally her eyelids fluttered as she clutched her stomach. “My baby. Please, don’t let anything happen to my baby.”

      Chapter Two

      Josie’s head hurt but not as badly as her ankle. She opened her eyes. The sudden light caused her to blink, but she ignored the brightness and glanced around the stark-white room. Where was she? she wondered.

      Oh, God, what happened? Her thoughts flashed back to Travis’s soothing words promising her that she was going to be okay as he had lifted her out of the car. Then in the truck, the sound of his voice drifting in and out as he drove down the road.

      Josie tried to sit up, but the pain in her head intensified and she groaned.

      Suddenly Travis Randell appeared beside her. “Take it easy there,” he said as he helped her lie back down.

      “Where am I?”

      “A small hospital just outside San Angelo.”

      A hospital. She didn’t have any money for a hospital. “I can’t stay here.”

      He leaned over the bed, so close she could see the golden flecks in his eyes. “You haven’t any choice, Josie. You could be seriously injured.”

      Panic raced through her as her hand moved to her flat stomach. “Oh, no.”

      His gaze was understanding, but he said nothing. Did he know? “Is there anyone you want me to call?”

      “No, there isn’t.” Sadness filled her. Since her mother’s death all her family was gone, except for Hank…and the baby.

      “What about your baby’s father?”

      Heat flooded her face as she glanced away. “What are you talking about?”

      “The baby you’re carrying,” he said. “It was your only concern when I reached you after the accident. How far along are you?”

      “What are you, a doctor?”

      Once again Travis found himself frustrated by the woman. Her stubbornness would drive anyone crazy. But he couldn’t help but wonder what kind of man she loved. What kind of man would let her run off with his child? “I should let the father know where you are.”

      “No!”

      Travis felt his frustration build. “He has a right, Josie.”

      “No, he doesn’t. He gave up any rights when he told me to get rid of it and then left me.”

      Before Travis could say anything, the doctor walked into the room. “So our patient finally decided to wake up. How are you feeling, Ms. Gutierrez?”

      “I hurt,” she said. “My head and leg.”

      “Well, it seems you have a slight concussion, and your ankle took the brunt of the accident. You have some deep lacerations, but the X rays showed it’s just a bad sprain. Overall you’re a lucky lady.”

      “X rays!” Alarm race through her. “But I’m pregnant.”

      He smiled. “The baby is fine. We took all the precautions to protect the fetus.”

      Josie relaxed against the pillow as the doctor continued to write on her chart. “But Ms. Gutierrez your blood tests show that you are slightly anemic. Prenatal vitamins and proper diet should handle that.”

      “Then I can leave?” she asked hopefully.

      “Well, we’d like to keep you overnight for observation.”

      “But I can’t stay,” she said anxiously. “I don’t have the money to pay for all this.”

      “Don’t worry about that,” Travis stated. “The ranch insurance will handle the cost. Besides, it was our fault that the gate was open and the cow got out”

      “But I don’t want to stay in the hospital,” she insisted.

      The doctor frowned. “Is there someone who’ll take care of you?”

      Before she could say anything, Travis spoke up. “She’ll be staying at the Circle B. There are three of us who can make sure she and the baby are cared for.”

      Travis could see by the look on Josie’s face that she wanted to turn down his offer, but she wouldn’t for the baby’s sake. For once, he had the upper hand with this woman, but he knew that wouldn’t last long.

      Three hours later, Josie was settled in the big bed in the ivory-colored guest room. She felt strange about staying at the Circle B. The last thing she wanted to do was intrude in Hank Barrett’s life. She’d only planned to come and see the man that her mother had loved all these years. Josie’s father.

      But her mother, Elissa Romero, had never told Hank about the child she carried twenty-five years ago. Instead, she had married Raul Gutierrez to give her daughter a father. It hadn’t been a happy union. Although when Raul had wanted to marry the pregnant Elissa, and promised that his love would carry over to her baby, it hadn’t. He couldn’t handle a child of mixed blood with hazel eyes. A constant reminder that his wife had loved someone else. Raul had never been physically abusive, but his cutting words had hurt Josie and her mother.

      Maybe that was the reason Elissa Gutierrez had given up so easily when she had been diagnosed with cancer. Even all Josie’s prayers had failed to instill in Elissa the will to live. She was too weak to fight the fatal disease, and Josie lost her. But there had been one thing she had given her daughter before her death. She had revealed the name of her father.

      The soft-spoken, widowed rancher from San Angelo, Hank Barrett.

      Tears formed in Josie’s eyes. She had wanted to hate her mother for so much, for keeping her father from her…and for dying. All her life, people had abandoned her. First her father and now even her baby’s father.

      Frank Hobbs had worked on a ranch outside El Paso. He’d come into the diner one night. Josie had been working double shifts during her mother’s illness. It wasn’t long before his good looks and charm worked on Josie, and they began to date. But Josie’s first concern was her mother and a career in photography. Frank only wanted her in his bed. The night of her mother’s death, Josie had turned to Frank, and they ended up making love. And making a baby.

      “I’m just like my mother,” she breathed as she wiped the tears off her face. “No, I’m worse.” She hadn’t even loved the man she had given herself to so easily. And Frank was grateful that she didn’t want to marry him. There was one thing Josie was sure of, she wanted this baby. She already loved her or him. The baby had been the reason she’d come to San Angelo. She needed to see her biological father, to form some connection between him and the child. But by the looks of things, with Chance, Cade and Travis, Hank Barrett had СКАЧАТЬ