Having His Baby. BEVERLY BARTON

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СКАЧАТЬ with amber cat eyes. It was her! His Donna from the Blue Bonnet Grill. The woman who had come to pieces in his arms time and again during that long weekend nine months ago. Nine months! He stared into Donna’s pale face, then his gaze traveled downward to her large, protruding belly. She was pregnant. Very pregnant.

      “What’s the matter with you, Jake?” His sister Tallie tried to shove him out of the way. “Donna’s water just broke. We need to get her to the hospital.”

      Jake didn’t budge. “You’re pregnant,” he said to Donna.

      She didn’t speak, only nodded agreement.

      “Nine months’ pregnant?” he asked, though the answer was more than obvious.

      She nodded again.

      “Will you get out of the way,” Tallie scolded. “This has nothing to do with you. Just let us handle things.”

      “It’s mine,” Jake said, his deep, quiet voice silencing the chatter around the room.

      Donna cringed as another pain sliced through her back. She gulped in air, then looked Jake square in the eye. “Yes” seemed to be the only word she could manage.

      “What?” Tallie stared back and forth from her eldest brother to her pregnant friend.

      Jake shoved the women aside and lifted Donna, whose damp dress clung to the backs of her legs. She slipped her arm around his neck and laid her weary head on his shoulder.

      “I took a cab from the airport,” Jake said. “Somebody else will have to drive us to the hospital.” He carried Donna through the midst of curious onlookers, straight to the front door and out onto the porch.

      His brothers and their wives followed, whispering among themselves as they tried to make sense of what was happening.

      “We can take my minivan,” Susan said, turning to her husband. “Get the keys and bring Lowell with you. He’ll be hungry soon.”

      When Hank returned to the house to retrieve the keys and his infant son, Caleb laid his hand on Jake’s shoulder, halting Jake’s progress toward the driveway.

      “Mind telling us just what’s going on here?” Caleb asked. “We’re all a bit confused.”

      Jake paused, turned his dark gaze on his youngest brother and grunted. “You think you’re confused! How the hell do you think I feel, showing up for Hank’s wedding and running into a woman I spent a—”

      Donna cried out in pain. “Please, hurry up and get me to the hospital. I’m sure I’m in labor and this baby isn’t going to wait around while we discuss who’s confused and why.”

      Caleb’s wife Sheila slid open the minivan door. Jake stepped up inside the vehicle and settled Donna on his lap. She squirmed against him in an effort to remove herself from his arms. He tightened his hold on her just enough to restrict her movements.

      Lowering his head so that his words were a whispered question in her ear, he said, “How about explaining a few things to me?”

      “What’s there to explain?” Tilting her chin defiantly, she glared at him as she shrugged her shoulders.

      Jake stared meaningfully down at her stomach. “That baby’s definitely mine, right?”

      She tried again to wiggle free of his hold, but to no avail. “The baby is mine!” she told him. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I had no idea you were Jake Bishop. If I’d known, I never would have—” She lowered her voice. “You do realize, of course, that your showing up here like this has complicated my life. I told people that I had married and gotten a quick divorce and the father of my child was out of my life.”

      “Why didn’t you get in touch with me to let me know I was going to be a father?”

      “How was I suppose to do that? I didn’t even know your last name.”

      “You could have—”

      “Excuse us,” Caleb said as he helped Sheila and Susan, who was carrying little Lowell, up into the van. “We’re ready to go now.”

      Tallie raced toward the van with her husband Peyton at her side just as Hank opened the driver’s door. She stuck her head inside, peered into the back and said, “Peyt and I will follow y’all to the hospital. And before Donna has her baby, this family expects a full explanation from you.” She pointed her finger directly into Jake’s face.

      Donna groaned as another pain hit her. This had to be some horrible nightmare, she thought. It wasn’t possible that she was on the verge of giving birth to Jake Bishop’s baby. The child she had carried for nine months was hers and hers alone. Not once had she ever considered the possibility that her child’s father would show up unexpectedly in her life. And it certainly hadn’t crossed her mind that the man she’d spent the weekend with in New Mexico was the brother and brother-in-law of her three closest friends.

      She had heard them mention Jake Bishop, the eldest of the Bishop clan, the brother who had left town nearly eighteen years ago and hadn’t been heard from until about six years ago In all that time, nothing had lured him home. Not his grandfather’s death, not his other siblings’ marriages, not even Caleb’s nearly fatal accident. So, why now, after all this time, had he decided to show up for Hank and Susan’s wedding?

      Donna felt decidedly uncomfortable cradled in Jake’s lap, but he’d made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t letting go of her. She stole a glance at his face, hoping to gage his mood. But that stony, expressionless face gave away nothing.

      “J.B.—ah, I mean Jake—” She cleared her throat. “—Why did you come back to Crooked Oak?”

      “Yeah, why did you come back?” Caleb asked as he turned halfway around in the front seat.

      “I came back for Hank’s wedding,” Jake said.

      “Why for Hank’s and not for mine or Tallie’s?” Caleb draped his arm across the seat as he focused his gaze on his eldest brother.

      “Well, to be honest, I was planning on coming back to Tennessee anyway,” Jake admitted. “You see, I’ve made an offer for Old Man Henry’s quarter horse ranch and if the deal goes through, then I’m moving home to stay.”

      “Well, I’ll be damned.” Hank slammed his hand down on the steering wheel. “Looks like, one by one, all three Bishop brothers have come home to roost.”

      Donna moaned. Oh, great! Jake Bishop was moving back to Tennessee. He’d be around all the time. She didn’t think she could bear having him in the same state, let alone the same county. What if he wanted to play a role in little Louisa Christine’s life? She barely knew him but somehow she was sure this cowboy wasn’t suitable father material.

      You should have thought of that before you slept with him, an inner voice chastised her.

      “So, while we’re on our way to the hospital, how about one of you explaining the situation to us,” Sheila said. “It’s obvious that you two know each other and that...well, are we wrong to assume that Jake is the father of your baby?”

      “I thought you told us you didn’t know СКАЧАТЬ