Maya's Triple Dare (21 page)

Chapter Eighteen

Grace sighed when she heard Maya’s concerned voice in the hallway outside her upstairs bedroom. She lay propped up on pillows on her gigantic bed, snuggled up with Ethan, who was gently stroking her cheek. While they were talking downstairs earlier, a contraction strong enough to make her wince had convinced him she needed to lie down. She didn’t like worrying him, so she had complied. Emma Guthrie had already reassured her that the baby was well-cushioned in her abdomen and it would take more than a little jostling to change that.

Except for the fact that what she’d experienced on the road had been more than a case of reckless driving, she might not have said anything about the incident. The SUV had dogged her tail for several minutes, pulling close then pulling into the oncoming traffic lane beside her and staying in her mirror’s blind spot so she had to keep looking back for it. Close to Divine the vehicle had finally passed her and cut her off, narrowly missing her front bumper. She’d been shaking all over and experiencing small contractions by the time she made it to the ranch. The moment she’d walked in the door, Jack, Ethan, and Adam had taken one look and descended on her with concern.

She hadn’t had a contraction for thirty minutes and wasn’t very worried, but she understood Jack, Ethan, and Adam still needed the reassurance of someone laying hands on her.

Ethan stroked her baby bump, and Rose Marie responded with a tiny kick against his hand. He grinned and tears prickled her eyes at the glowing love in his blue gaze. It was a direct contrast to the

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ferocious anger all three of them had to fight to control as she’d told them about her experience. They’d all three looked ready to hunt the person responsible down and beat them to a pulp.

“Thanks for humoring us, Gracie. Maya probably would’ve come anyway, whether we’d asked or not, once she heard what happened.”

“I know. I just didn’t want her evening interrupted. It’s so soon for Richard and Boone to have to go out of town.”

“Kendall didn’t seem too worried about it,” Ethan said with a chuckle.

Grace giggled and said, “Well of course he didn’t. He gets all the

‘one-on-one’ he wants two nights in a row. He’s probably counting the hours till he’s got her alone.” Grace snorted, thinking how much Kendall reminded her of Jack. That man would be putting her over his shoulder and carrying her up to the bedroom before the other two were even fully out of the door.

She heard Adam’s voice and then a tap at the door. Slipping from the bed, Ethan opened the door and Maya Daire entered the room.

Grace couldn’t help but feel happy she was there.

Ethan joined Adam in the hallway, and they closed the door, leaving her alone with Grace.

Grace raised a hand with a shrug from the comfort of her piled-up pillows and said, “Overprotective daddies-to-be. What are you gonna do?”

Maya sat on the bed and gently palpated Grace’s abdomen, smiling when Rose Marie kicked at her hand. She took Grace’s pulse as she gazed at her watch and asked a host of questions about other symptoms.

Maya looked around Grace’s mistress suite, as her men were fond of calling it, and said, “Grace, this is incredible! They did all this especially for you, didn’t they?”

“Yes. They started work shortly after I agreed to marry them, two years ago.” Grace looked around the palatial suite with fresh, appreciative eyes as she told Maya about it, pointing out the art they’d
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added in those years and the updates they’d recently completed in the bathroom.

When Grace had voiced the random thought that a water birth at home might be nice, the men had ripped out the perfectly lovely, big whirlpool tub in her bathroom and replaced it with an even larger one in an equally lovely shade of rosy pink. She hadn’t said that was something she definitely wanted to do, but they’d done it for her, just in case.

“I hope you’re working at Emma’s office by the time Rose Marie is ready to be born. It would be wonderful for you to be in attendance at her birth.”

“It would be my pleasure. I hope it works out. Dr. Guthrie seems like the kind of doctor I’d enjoy working for.”

“Not to mention gorgeous. I’ve tried to set her up on a date or two, but she keeps giving me excuses.”

“A doctor’s hours can be rough.”

“That’s one thing about Emma I admire. She manages her practice well and hasn’t let it completely take over her life. We even got her over for a barbeque recently. Nope, Juliana is the one in our group who tends to overwork. Miss Perfectionist. You’ll love her when you meet her this week.”

“I’m looking forward to it. Will is precious. Are Jack, Ethan, and Adam planning on being in attendance at Rose Marie’s birth as well?”

Grace grinned happily at the thought. “Yes. I asked them and they agreed. You should see them, Maya. I’ll come in and they’ll have ESPN on in the living room, drinking a beer and reading books on childbirth and baby care. Adam even picked one up for me on breastfeeding when I told them I wanted to nurse her.”

Maya chuckled, got comfortable on the bed, and they talked for a bit. It turned out that Grace’s men wanted to do more than just
be
there. They planned to be birth coaches as well.

Grace knew Adam was a little leery of the thought but swallowed his trepidation and was reading up on the subject of husband-coached

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childbirth as well. Ethan was focused on helping her with her relaxation exercises, and Jack was ready to play catcher when she was born.

With no other contractions occurring, Maya agreed that she should not curtail her activity, but just be careful in her car, which was thankfully undamaged. She needed to enjoy every moment she had behind the wheel of her little blue baby before her men installed her in the tank-like blue Escalade that had been delivered to the ranch the day before.

Adam had been concerned that as Rose Marie grew inside her she might become uncomfortable behind the wheel of her convertible BMW Z4. She’d tried to convince them otherwise, demonstrating that the seat moved back a reasonable distance and she would be fine, but they were hearing none of it.

They wanted to cocoon her in the solid safety of a Cadillac for the rest of her pregnancy, and she hadn’t been able to convince them otherwise. Ethan reminded her that she would need it anyway for transporting the baby. She couldn’t argue with his reasoning, because her convertible was a two-seater. Infant car seats and two-seated vehicles did not mix well.

“I agree with Ethan and the others that the Escalade would be safer if that incident on the road was directed at you personally. It’s fortunate you were on a straight section of road and could just roll off into the grass. What if it had happened on the bridge or an area that had no shoulder?”

Remembering what had happened to Rachel at the bridge when she and Ace Webster had collided with two chasing deer, Grace knew Maya was right and agreed. She climbed carefully from the bed and gave her a tour of the bathroom, including the ridiculously enormous tub centered before the dual-sided fireplace that faced the bathroom and the bedroom.

Knowing time was ticking down on Maya’s night with her men, Grace walked her down the stairs. Grace shook her head in
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amusement when her men jumped up and ran up the stairs to help her the moment she appeared on the landing. She was afraid they’d hurt themselves always jumping up to help her.

“I just got off the phone with Hank Stinson,” Jack said, handing her a bottle of water.

Grace looked into his eyes for a trace of concern about the Sheriff calling, but only saw amusement. “What was he calling about?”

“He couldn’t get through on Kendall’s phone and asked if I’d pass a message on. I was just telling the guys about it. It appears that gal Brenda Sanderson came back through town.”

Maya groaned as she stood beside Grace and asked, “What did she do? Was she making a big stink?”

Jack chuckled and replied, “Well, the guys told me some of what transpired between the four of you and her down at the creek. She evidently stopped into the Dairy Queen to make good on her ‘town crier’ threat and was saying a lot of stuff about y’all.”

Boone picked up the storyline. “Which is exactly what we expected her to do—head into town, stop a few places, and run her mouth off. If the Divine Morality group had been the ones she encountered it might have worked for her. She met up with a different crowd at the Dairy Queen, though.”

Grace chuckled, having a feeling she knew who Brenda had encountered.

“Was Joe there?”

Jack nodded. “Oh yeah. Dad was there and so were Adam’s folks and Woody and Charlene Porter. Brenda actually struck up a conversation with the Porters, of all people. You can imagine how well-received her tale was.”

Grace knew the Porters did not put up with gossips or any of the petty bullshit aimed at her and the other girls. The local justice of the peace had let it be known on several occasions how he felt about the ugliness and gossip that followed her and the rest of the girls.

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Jack continued. “So they let her join them and go on and on. She may be wily, but that girl isn’t terribly bright for not picking up on their reactions sooner. She even made mention of how poorly treated she was the last time she trolled through town, mentioning the Carlisles and Grace in particular.”

Grace remembered with relish kicking that loud-mouthed tramp off her property two years before. The only way the moment could have been more satisfying was if Ethan and Adam had not stopped her from chucking that clay flowerpot through the back window of her dually pickup.

Jack said, “She probably thought she had an audience who would be sympathetic to her ‘mistreatment’ at your hands, especially Boone for ‘manhandling’ her as she put it.”

Maya growled softly. “I knew she would blow that out of proportion. He barely had his hand around her bony arm.”

“She claimed he bruised her, dragging her to her car. Anyway, after she’d laid it on good and thick, Charlene proceeded to tell her what she thought of her, and then Adam’s mom took over. Next thing you know Woody is on the phone with Hank, who shows up and personally escorts the young lady out of town.”

“I hope that’s the last we see of her,” Maya said.

Grace shook her head pessimistically. “No, she’s like a bad penny.

She’ll turn up again.”

Maya joined
her
men, and Grace felt her heart thump with happiness for them as she watched how Kendall, Boone, and Richard orbited Maya in much the same way Jack, Ethan, and Adam did her.

Those men had a good example in her husbands, and she prayed the same kind of happiness to come to Maya that she enjoyed. They said goodnight, and after they’d all hugged Grace they slipped out the back door.

Tears overflowed her eyes as she watched them walk down the steps with Maya.
Stupid, pregnant hormones
. She turned to Jack and looked up into his aquamarine blue eyes and smiled as he brushed her
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tears away. Another wave of emotion made her heart pound in her chest as she recalled the moment she’d realized there was more than friendship between them. It had been the day of Jack’s mother’s funeral, when he’d stood with Ethan and Adam on his father’s front porch waiting to greet her. She’d known by the look in his eyes that their relationship would shift that day. Indeed it had, in ways she could never have imagined.

“You okay, darlin’?”

“I am, Jack.”

Adam’s large, gentle hands stroked her shoulders in a stupor-inducing, massaging caress. She remembered looking up into Adam’s pale green eyes the first time. Her heart could have burst with all the love she’d known since that fateful day. She held back a sob and felt just about done in as Jack slid his arms around her.

“Poor baby. So tired,” he whispered in her ear.

Ethan caught her eye and murmured, “Bubble bath and bed for you?”

She nodded and they helped her back up the stairs. She smiled to herself thinking how much her life had changed in the last two years.

Surrounded by the loves of her life, she remembered a time when she’d been unhappy, abused, and unloved. The days of listening to Owen’s hurtful insults and suffering his miserable presence were a distant memory. Stroking her abdomen as their active baby girl moved within her, Grace’s heart felt like it was overflowing with joy.

She hadn’t had a contraction in over an hour and someone was making love to her, if she had anything to say about it.