Authors: Lindsey Brookes
If she weren’t pregnant with his brother’s child, one she intended to give up. If he hadn’t given all of his heart to his dead wife.
She looked up, meeting his tender gaze. “Lucas...” she said, her voice catching.
His hopeful smile sagged.
“I...” She what? Wanted to spend the rest of her life with him? Yes, oh, yes. But at what cost? Heart pounding, Ellie looked down at the swell beneath her robe.
Lucas reached out to run his thumb tenderly along her cheek. “I’m not trying to push you. I just want you to think on what I’m about to say. Neither of us can change the past. All we can do is move on. I’m ready to do that – with you. Take a chance on me, Ellie. I promise to love you the way you’ve always deserved to be loved. Thoroughly. Completely. Forever.”
Forever.
Oh, how she longed to accept what he was offering her. But she was a realist. Lucas had given all of his heart to Anna. She had no doubt he believed what he was saying, that he wanted to make things work between them, but sooner or later he would regret making her a promise he wasn’t emotionally prepared to keep. She couldn’t do that to him. Lucas had already suffered enough guilt to last a lifetime.
“Please be there,” Ellie muttered anxiously as she paced the coffee shop floor, cell phone pressed to her ear. How had she forgotten about her doctor’s appointment? It wasn’t as if she didn’t have a constant reminder protruding out beneath the front of her oversized shirt.
“Hello?”
“Lucas, it’s Ellie,” she said. “And before you panic over my calling earlier than usual, nothing is wrong. Other than I nearly forgot about an O.B. appointment I have scheduled for this afternoon.”
“What time?” he asked.
“4:15.”
“I’ll be right there.”
She hung up and hurried back to shut off the ovens. Then she went on to turn off the coffee makers and close out the cash register for the day. With only a month left in her pregnancy, this wasn’t the time to be missing her appointments.
She hated having to drag Lucas away from whatever it was he was doing to take her, but he’d driven her in to work that morning so she didn’t have a car there.
“All set?”
She turned to find Lucas standing in the open doorway, a smile on his face. He was trying. He hadn’t approached the subject of their being together since that night he returned from Brazil, but he was still there for her.
“Let me get the sign,” she said, flipping the OPEN sign over to CLOSED. Then, grabbing her purse, Ellie stepped outside and then locked the door behind them.
“How was your day?” he asked as he walked her out to his truck.
“Long,” she said with a tired sigh.
He gave a nod. “Understandably so.” He eased the passenger door closed and then rounded the truck to the driver’s side.
Thirty-five minutes later, they arrived at her obstetrician’s office which was in the next town over. With Eagle Ridge being such a small town, she chose to see a doctor not from there, wanting to keep her business her business.
“We made it,” she said with a sigh of relief as she scooped her purse up from the seat beside her.
Lucas looked her way with a worried frown. “We have ten minutes to spare. Slow down.”
“Ten minutes is cutting it too close for me,” she replied, reaching for the door handle.
He leaned over to place his hand over hers. “I mean it, Ellie. You need to relax. Stress isn’t good for the baby.”
They hadn’t been this close since that night he promised her forever. Her pulse skittered wildly. “I promise you,” she said, ignoring her body’s reaction to his nearness, “no woman is relaxed at this point in her pregnancy. Especially, if they’re a first-time mother.”
“I suppose you’re right,” he muttered as they stepped from the truck and headed inside.
The waiting room was packed. Fortunately, they were able to find two seats together in the far corner.
Lucas reached for one of the magazines strewn haphazardly across a nearby table.
“That’s on baby care,” Ellie pointed out. “Most of them are in here.”
He looked at her, raised a dark brow, and replied quite seriously, “Might be some valuable information in here. Want me to grab one for you?”
“No, thanks,” she said, looking off toward the window. She didn’t want to see pictures of mothers with their babies. Didn’t want to read about all those things she’d be missing out on after her son was born.
“Ellie Sanders?”
Ellie looked up to where the young medical assistant stood smiling at her from the office doorway. “Yes?”
“Dr. Lynn is ready for you.”
Lucas stood, helping her to her feet. “Do you want me to go in with you?”
“Thanks, but I think I can handle this on my own,” she replied with a smile before following the girl back to one of several examining rooms that lined the narrow hallway.
“How are you feeling today?” the assistant asked as she pulled a paper gown and lap cover from the cupboard on the wall.
“Tired.”
“That’s to be expected,” she assured her as she reached for the blood pressure cuff that was hanging on the wall next to the examination table.
“How is it?” Ellie asked as the cuff slid free of her arm.
“A little higher than normal, but not enough to be overly concerned about.”
“Are you sure?” A sense of panic filled her. What if Lucas was right and the stress she’d been under had adversely affected her baby?
“It’s not unusual for a woman’s blood pressure to go up slightly at the end of her pregnancy,” the young woman assured her with a smile. “Dr. Lynn will be able to answer any questions you might have once she’s done with her examination. I’m sure you know the routine by now. Everything off. Gown opening to the back. You can use the lap sheet to cover up with.”
“Thank you.”
She smiled. “The doctor will be in shortly.”
As soon as the door closed, Ellie changed and then settled onto the end of the examining bed to wait. A few minutes later, Doctor Lynn, a tall, leggy redhead with black-rimmed glasses, walked in.
“Hello, Ellie.” She flipped through the chart in her hands. “I see the blood pressure’s up a bit and you’ve been feeling overly tired lately.”
Ellie nodded.
“Have you been getting enough sleep?” she asked as she examined her ankles for any sign of swelling.
“As much as I can,” she replied. But that wasn’t much at all.
“Have you been taking your prenatal vitamins?”
“Almost regularly.”
“Try regularly until the baby comes.”
“I will.”
She stepped around to the end of the examining table. “Let’s see how things are progressing.”
Twenty minutes later, Ellie was dressed and stepping out into the waiting room where Lucas sat engrossed in one of those ‘baby’ magazines.
Smiling, she walked over to him. “Find anything of value in there yet?”
His head snapped up. “Only that I might have jumped a little too quickly in my offer to go into the delivery room with you.”
“Oh no you don’t, cowboy. You promised and I intend to hold you to it.”
“You’re a hard woman, Ellie Sanders,” he said as he tossed the magazine back onto the coffee table and stood to leave.
Not all of her. According to Dr. Lynn, her cervix had begun softening, a precursor to delivery.
“So what did the doctor say?” he asked as they walked out to the truck.
“Everything’s moving right on schedule.” She felt no need to mention Dr. Lynn’s comment about not being surprised to see her in the delivery room sooner than her expected due date. All that would accomplish was making Lucas worry about her more than he already was. And being that it was her first child, it was more than likely she would go past her due date. At least, that’s what she’d heard from some of her female customers at the coffee shop.
“Did you know that more babies are born at night than in the day?” he asked.
“Can’t say that I did.”
“And that one in every thousand babies is born with a tooth.”
“As long as mine doesn’t bite me on his way out, he can have as many teeth at birth as he wants,” she replied with a grin.
“And if big feet run in his family, he’ll have-”
“Lucas!” she half-gasped, half-laughed.
“Really big feet,” he finished anyway.
“Keep it up and you’ll have me laughing so hard I’ll end up giving birth right here in your truck!”
“Not inside my new truck, you won’t,” he warned with a chuckle. “Now the truck bed’s a possibility...”
“I am not giving birth in the back of some pickup truck.” But she would be giving birth soon, which meant she had to stop procrastinating and make a final decision on parents for her son. One that should have been made months before.
* * *
Ellie eyed the old Victorian house her new friend had purchased in town. It needed a little work, but not enough to take away from its quaint appeal. Decorative gables graced the house peaks and a wide porch crossed the front of the house, enclosed by spindled railing.
“A coat of paint and she should be all set,” Lucas noted before stepping from the car.
“It’s perfect for Victoria and J.B.,” she said as he helped her from the car. “Not too big. And everything they could they could possibly need is right here in town.”
J.B. shot out the front door. “Lucas!”
Ellie smiled as she watched Lucas jog ahead to sweep the boy up, swinging him in a wide arc around the front yard. Her heart warmed as she watched the two of them. Then a small ache began as she recalled his loss. Lucas should be swinging his own child around with such joy on his face.
Victoria and Blaine stepped out onto the porch to greet them.
“Perfect timing,” Victoria said. “I just pulled the lasagna out of the oven.”
“Garlic bread, too!” J.B. chimed in excitedly.
Lucas lowered the boy to the ground and they all went inside.
“It smells wonderful,” Ellie said as Blaine took their coats.
“Wow!” J.B. gasped, his gaze pinned to Ellie’s stomach. “You look like you’re gonna explode.”
“J.B.,” Victoria gasped.
Ellie laughed. “It’s okay. I feel like I’m going to explode.”
“I happen to think she looks beautiful,” Lucas remarked with a grin.
J.B. screwed his face up as if he couldn’t imagine what Lucas could find beautiful about the misshapen woman in front of him. Not that she could blame him. Despite what Lucas thought, a protruding belly, one that shifted at random, was nothing short of bizarre if one really considered it.
Victoria smiled lovingly at her son. “You know, I didn’t look much different when I was carrying you.” She turned to Ellie. “Would you mind helping me set the table for dinner?”
“Not at all.”
“Can I help?” J.B. asked.
“You want to help?” she replied, eyeing her son suspiciously.
“With the garlic bread.”
Blaine chuckled and gave Lucas a jab in the ribs. “Which tells me we’ll be lucky if there’s any left for us to eat at dinner.”
“I only want one piece,” the boy admitted in a soft whine.
“We do need a tester,” Ellie said, coming to his defense. “How else will we know if it’s any good or not?”
J.B. smiled up at her. “And I can help Ellie carry the dinner plates to the table. They’re really heavy you know.”
She reached out to squeeze the boy’s upper arm playfully. “Feels like you have more than enough muscle to handle it.”
The boy’s chest puffed up proudly.
Grinning, Blaine turned to Lucas. “While the girls are making use of J.B.’s superhero muscles, how about you give me a hand with one of the pocket doors leading into the front room? It’s catching on something.”
“Blaine,” Victoria protested, “I didn’t invite you over this evening to fix things.”
“It won’t take long,” he assured her. “Besides, it’s the least I can do. I don’t get home cooked meals very often.”
And from the smell of things Victoria was a very capable cook. Blaine was definitely getting the better end of the deal. Ellie cast a smile to Lucas before following her hostess and her son back to the kitchen.
“Did you know me and the sheriff have the same name?” J.B. said as he dragged a chair over to the counter to get a stack of dinner plates down from the cupboard.
“No,” Ellie said, forcing herself not to look at Victoria who would know what that revelation made her think, “I didn’t. But it’s a very strong name. Goes well with your muscles,” she teased.
“Sweetie, watch you don’t fall,” Victoria warned as she watched her son maneuver his way up onto the chair.
“Mom,” her son replied with an eye roll, “I do this all the time.”
“And it makes me nervous every time you do it, too.” She looked to Ellie. “Lord help me, I feel the grays coming on.”
Ellie laughed at the remark, but she understood Victoria’s concern. Her son was her responsibility, her ex-husband having given up any rights to the boy.
“Here’s a piece of garlic bread,” Victoria said, holding it out to her son. “Eat this and then take those plates in to the dining room.”
J.B. was quick to oblige.
“He seems happy,” Ellie noted after the boy had gone.
Victoria nodded. “He’s like a totally different boy.”
“Something tells me Blaine has a little to do with that.”
“He has everything to do with it,” her friend replied. “I did everything in my power to make my son happy, but he was acting out more and more. Since Blaine has taken him under his wing, he...” emotion caused her words to catch.
“I’m glad things are going so well for you,” Ellie said, wishing she could say the same for herself. What she’d read in Anna’s journal was eating away at her with each passing day, but she had yet to bring herself to confront Lucas about it.