The Baby Notion. Dixie Browning

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СКАЧАТЬ but who couldn’t climb a step stool.

      Actually, there had been one other time when she’d cried, the year she’d gone off to college. Priss had been barely seventeen when she’d overheard Mike Russo telling a visiting cousin that messing around with Prissy Barrington wasn’t worth the risk, because her old man had put out the word that any guy who did would wind up singing in the soprano section of the choir.

      Embarrassed to tears and mad as a hornet, she had drunk up half a bottle of her father’s most expensive French wine and cried until she got sick and threw up, but that was absolutely the last time she’d ever shed a tear.

      “Look, I really appreciate your concern,” she said, once more in control of her voice. “I’m just fine, thanks. I don’t need anybody.” There were things she had to do, but first she had to get herself organized, and she could hardly do that under the glare of those steely gray eyes.

      The young fireman came back, sloshing through puddles of dirty water on the turquoise pool surround. “Ma’am, I’m leaving now, but I just wanted you to know, the place’ll be guarded. You don’t have to worry none about looting or anything like that. Soon as things cool down some, they’ll start the inspection. In a few days we’ll know how long it’ll be before you can move back in.”

      “A few days,” she wailed.

      “I’ve got a phone in my truck,” Jake said. “Why don’t we start calling around? If the hotel’s full, we can try that new motel out near the airport.”

      Up went the chin again. A motel? Barringtons didn’t stay in motels. “Thanks, but I’ll be staying with friends.” Priss shied away from the fact that the only friend she would even consider asking for help was Faith Harper, and she happened to know that Faith’s place would never fit the two of them.

      “Fine, then we’ll call your friend and tell her you’re on your way. Honey, you don’t want to hang around here any longer. There’s a fresh batch of thunderheads making up over to the west.”

      Priss glanced over her shoulder. Oh, fine. Just what she needed. More water on her leaky apartment.

      “Besides, you’re starting to shake again. You look like hell, and—”

      “Really, I can’t tell you how much better that makes me feel.” She glared at him, but her heart wasn’t in it. “Oh, all right. If you insist, I’ll let you help me carry this stuff out to my car.”

      “Thanks,” Jake said, his voice deceptively soft. What he ought to do was throw the lady over his shoulder, haul her off to the nearest hotel and dump her in the lobby. Now that he could see past her butt, what he saw was the kind of female he’d always gone out of his way to avoid. Spoiled little rich girls who pranced around like they were shod in solid gold.

      On the other hand, it didn’t take much to see that this spoiled little rich girl was barely hanging in there. Somewhat to his surprise, Jake admitted that in a little less than a couple of hours, what had started out as a simple, wholesome case of lust had run the gamut from amusement to dislike, and was rapidly turning into a grudging case of admiration.

      Gathering up an armload of boxes and bags, he followed her down the shallow steps to the parking lot, which was almost empty except for a utility truck and a pumper. The fireman was right. She was getting a late start on finding herself another bunk.

      Over in the far corner behind the utility truck, Jake spotted the peach-colored tail fin just before he saw her stop short and heard what sounded almost like a moan, but might have been thunder. Setting his load down on a raised flower bed, he hurried forward just as Priss dropped out of view. By the time he reached her, she was on her knees, stroking a crumpled fender that was wrapped halfway around her left rear tire. Someone had evidently been in one hell of a hurry to get out of there.

      “I don’t believe it,” Priss wailed. “I just don’t believe it! Do you know, this has been absolutely the worst birthday of my entire life?”

      Jake could commiserate. From what he’d seen so far, it sure hadn’t been cupcakes and lemonade. Stroking his chin and trying to look judicious, he walked around her car, surveying it from all angles. He had a feeling even touching up a scratch on one of these vintage babies was no small deal, but then, what did he know? His auto repair skills began and ended with baling wire and duct tape.

      “Frame might not be bent, but I doubt if you can drive it like that, even if I could pry out the fender.”

      “I don’t know who to call first, the hotel or the body shop.”

      “I thought you were going to stay with friends.”

      “Oh, don’t bother me with details now!”

      “Right. Okay, honey, if you want to hang around here and figure it out, I reckon I might as well shove off.” He took a long look at the towering thunderheads, another at the row of damaged apartments, and then made as if to leave.

      No way was he going to leave her there, but Jake knew a thing or two about dealing with women.

      “Wait—that is, if you don’t mind staying another few minutes, could you please just wait here until I find out where I’m going to be staying?”

      There—that wasn’t so hard, was it? She’d even said please. “No problem,” Jake replied easily. Standing at ease, he figured he could give her about five minutes before those clouds busted right wide open.

      The young fireman slogged over to the utility truck, his boots making almost as much noise as the rumbling thunder. “Ma’am, you don’t want to be hanging around here with that storm coming up. I heard tell you’re expectin’, and I know for a fact that it don’t take much to upset a woman when she’s in the fam—”

      Priss stood slowly. “You heard what?”

      Glancing from Priss to Jake and back again, he said, “I think it was Miss Ethel that said—I ran into her at the post office this morning when I went by to mail-order me some—that is, she said you were by that baby place out on the highway this morning, and—”

      Priss said a word Jake didn’t think ladies even knew, her face about three shades pinker than her car. Shifting his position, he moved in beside her and slung an arm casually over her shoulder. Like she’d been doing it all her life, she leaned into his side.

      Jake cleared his throat. “Son, you don’t want to put too much stock in town talk. Some folks got nothing better to do than flap tongues.”

      Priss nudged closer to her newfound protector. “Miss Ethel never told a true story in all her life,” she declared, and the fireman nodded nervously. Sweating under his heavy gear, he backed toward the utility truck.

      Jake figured it was time to change the subject. “Maybe we’d better get on with those phone calls, Priss.”

      The lady was not to be distracted. “I know how it happened. Miss Agnes told Miss Minny about—well, about something I was thinking about doing, and Miss Minny must have told Miss Ethel, and by the time Miss Ethel found somebody to pass on the story to, she’d got it all mixed up, as usual.”

      The fireman’s gaze dropped to her flat stomach just before he swung up into the driver’s seat, and Jake decided things had gone far enough. “Come on now, honey, before that lightning gets any closer. I hope you stuck in a СКАЧАТЬ