Midnight Sons Volume 2 (26 page)

“What about your plane? You were supposed to have left
Oakland long before now.” She shifted her position to look at him again.

“I canceled my reservation. Now stop worrying about it.”

Ever so lightly, he touched her tear-stained face.

“But the tour—what about your presentations in Portland and Seattle?”

That she knew so much about his schedule surprised him. “There’ll be other tours.”

“I feel bad about messing up your plans…” Her voice faded. Whatever drug the hospital had given her seemed to kick in just then, because she closed her eyes and was asleep within seconds.

Matt sat next to her bed until the orderly arrived. Then he followed Karen to the room she’d been assigned. He stayed until she started to stir, at which point he quietly slipped out, assuming he was the last person she’d want to see.

Later that afternoon, Karen woke up, feeling more rested than she had in weeks. She pressed her hand to her stomach, forever grateful that the pregnancy remained intact. She’d been so afraid.

A brief smile touched her lips. Generally she was the calm, cool one in a crisis, not Matt. The reverse had happened that morning. Consumed as she was with the pain, weeping and nearly hysterical, Karen had felt sure she was suffering a miscarriage.

Although he hadn’t known where to even find a hospital, Matt had been clearheaded and efficient, calling 911 for instructions and accompanying her in the ambulance. Not until they arrived at the emergency room had he displayed any emotion. And then only because the medical staff insisted he wait in the outer room.

She caught a movement out of the corner of her eye and turned her head to see her boss, Doug Sullivan, entering the room.

“Karen, how are you feeling?” He’d brought a large bouquet of arranged flowers and set the vase down on the nightstand.

Karen was so surprised to see him she didn’t answer. “How did you know I was here?”

“Matt called me.”

“Matt?” At the sound of her husband’s name she swallowed hard. Apparently he’d left Oakland, because she hadn’t seen him again. She’d asked the nurses about him, but no one seemed to know where he’d gone or when.

“Matt thought he should tell me you’d been hospitalized, and he was right.” Doug moved to the foot of her bed. “What happened?” he asked gently.

“All at once I had these excruciating pains. The doctors seem to think they’re related to a bladder infection. That, plus stress and fatigue.”

“So Matt said.”

“Was there anything else he told you?” she asked, resenting the way her ex-husband had taken it upon himself to interfere in her life. It wouldn’t bother her nearly as much if he hadn’t disappeared without a word—which just went to prove what she’d been saying all along. The man wasn’t reliable.

“Matt did mention that he wanted you to return to Alaska and move to—What’s the name of that town again?”

“Hard Luck,” Karen supplied.

“Right, Hard Luck. How could I forget that?” Doug Sullivan smiled, then said in a kind voice, “It might not be such a bad idea, Karen.”

“But—”

He raised his hand, stopping her. “Just until the baby’s born. Matt has every right to be concerned about you…and his baby.”

The last person Karen had thought would side with her ex-husband was her boss. Typical of Matt to have someone else do his arguing for him! “Do you realize how far Hard Luck is from Fairbanks or a town of any real size?” she asked. “There isn’t a doctor within a five-hundred-mile radius.”

“True, but Matt says the public-health nurse is a fully qualified midwife. I believe he said her name’s Dotty something. She’s one of the women who went up there last year—she married the shopkeeper, I think.”

Karen looked away, annoyed that Matt had brought Doug in to make a case on his behalf. He was obviously very serious about getting her to move to Hard Luck.

Doug’s blue eyes twinkled as he spoke. “We got quite a chuckle out of that story, remember?”

Karen wasn’t likely to forget. The news article about a group of lonely bush pilots advertising for women had attracted national attention. Her own connection with Alaska had made the topic especially fascinating for everyone at the Paragon office. Karen had laughed and joked with her friends—until she’d learned that Matt had moved to Hard Luck. Then the whole story had ceased to amuse her. With women said to be arriving every week—a gross exaggeration, according to Lanni—Matt could easily fall in love with one of the newcomers. Why that should concern her, Karen didn’t care to question.

“So this Dotty was recruited by the O’Hallorans?” Karen asked, reining in her memories.

“Yes, and then she married a guy named, let me see, Pete. Unusual last name. Lively or Liver or something.”

“Livengood,” Karen remembered. A man with a thick gray beard came to mind. She’d briefly danced with him at Charles and Lanni’s wedding reception.

“In addition, a doctor flies in once a month.”

“You sound like you want to be rid of me,” Karen complained.

“Not at all,” the older man reassured her, patting her hand. “You know as well as I do that I’m a mess without you. Why else do you think I personally requested you for my executive assistant when I was promoted? You deserved it as much as I
did—heaven knows I wouldn’t have gotten my promotion without you.”

“Nonsense.” But hearing him say so helped smooth her ruffled ego.

“Come back to work next spring after the baby’s born,” Doug suggested. “You’ve been very ill these past few weeks.”

Karen bit down on her lip, upset at the way everyone was making decisions for her. She felt trapped and helpless. And angry.

“Nancy’s doing a reasonable job filling in for you. She’s not you, but she’ll do until you’re back on your feet.”

Karen said nothing, unwilling to agree.

“Your job will be waiting for you,” Doug promised. “But right now, you need to take care of yourself and the little one.”

“Did Matt put you up to this?” she asked.

“No.” Once again her boss was quick to set her straight. “He came to me with a number of questions, told me what had happened and left it at that. He’s worried about you, like any husband would be.”

“Matt is no longer my husband.”

“I’m well aware of that, my dear, but did anyone tell him? He’s fiercely protective of you, Karen. I know that bothers you, but in this instance I agree with the young man. Your health and that of the baby is what’s most important.”

“Yes, but—”

“Now, because I want you back, I’ve talked with the good people in the employment office, and if you agree, I’ll arrange to have your furniture and other personal belongings placed in storage. Then later, when you’re ready to return to California, everything will be here waiting for you.”

The resentment she’d experienced earlier flared back to life. She didn’t want anyone making that kind of decision for her. But her anger died a quick death as Karen acknowledged that Doug was acting out of genuine concern and affection. Besides,
she would’ve come to the same conclusion herself. Her health and that of her baby had to take priority over her distrust of her ex-husband.

Moving to Hard Luck with Matt wasn’t the ideal situation, but it made more sense than any of her other options.

“What do you say, Karen?” Doug prompted.

“All right, but just until the baby’s born.”

“Take as long as you like,” he told her, patting her hand again. “When you’re ready to move back to Oakland, your job will still be here.”

Doug Sullivan left after their discussion, and Karen must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew a small noise jarred her awake. It took her a moment to realize she wasn’t alone in the room.

“Sorry.” Matt stood at the foot of her bed, looking sheepish. “I guess this wasn’t meant to be used as a flower vase, huh?” He’d thrust a bouquet of roses into the water pitcher.

Karen couldn’t keep from smiling. “You brought me flowers?”

He seemed almost embarrassed that he’d been caught. He shrugged and mopped up the spilled water with some tissues.

“Doug Sullivan was in to see me,” she said.

Matt’s hand stilled as he raised his eyes to meet hers. “I suppose you’re angry because I talked to him. You might as well know I phoned Dr. Baker while I was at it. You’ve made it plain that you don’t want me meddling in your life, but there’s more to consider here than—”

“I’m not angry.”

His head came up as if he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. “You’re not?”

“No. I’ve decided the best thing for me and the baby is to do as you suggested and move to Hard Luck with you. But I want it understood right here and now that I’m returning to California as soon as the baby’s born.”

Matt’s expression was astonished, then ecstatic. “Whatever you say.”

“Don’t think you’re going to change my mind, Matthew Caldwell, because it isn’t going to happen.”

“Whatever you say, sweetheart.”

Karen groaned. “I’m not your sweetheart or anything else.”

“Maybe not, but you’re the mother of my baby, and for now that’s all that matters.”

Matt felt lighthearted. If he’d ever needed to prove that sometimes the quickest route to what you want is an indirect one, he’d done it with Karen. He was convinced he could have argued with her until the twelfth of never and gotten nowhere. Only when he’d received Doug Sullivan’s support did he get the results he wanted.

He stared out the window of the small aircraft as it passed over the rugged Arctic terrain, heading due north toward Hard Luck. The Midnight Sons plane, piloted by Ted Richards, had picked them up in Fairbanks.

Karen slept peacefully at his side. He restrained himself from placing an arm around her, although he’d been dying to do that from the moment they’d left Oakland a day earlier.

She wasn’t happy about all this, but she’d finally listened to reason. The way he figured it, once she was in his home, he’d have her back in his bed in no time, and the rest would fall naturally into place.

To begin with, he’d make sure she understood that he wasn’t going to ask anything from her physically. They’d need to sleep in the same room, though, so he’d be able to look after her properly when she was ill. That made perfect sense. Still, it might take some talking to persuade her to share a room—and a bed—with him, but he’d talk as long as he had to. Wear her down, he thought wryly.

Getting Karen back in his bed had haunted Matt from the night of his sister’s wedding. Nothing had ever felt so right to him. That Karen should get pregnant from their one night together struck him as a kind of poetic justice.

Their lovemaking had always been incredible. That night was no exception. But it
was
an exception in another way—they’d made love without arguing first. During the last two years of their marriage, that had become a pattern, a negative one. They’d had a lot of fights—and always ended up in bed afterward.

No one would guess that his sweet-natured wife had such a temper. Their fights used to escalate quickly to comedy, with Karen throwing anything she could lay her hands on. Over the years he’d dodged books, cups, pillows. A turkey drumstick, once. And the madder she got, the more passionate she became. The hotter her temper, the hotter her desire. The fact that, with them, passion was usually tied to anger disturbed him.

And he knew it was something Karen hated about herself, this tendency to flail at her husband in anger, then reconcile in bed.

They’d broken the pattern the night of Lanni’s wedding. The reality that they’d created a baby still hadn’t fully sunk in. Every time he thought about it he grinned.

In the airport that very day he’d found himself watching mothers with children. It was all he could do to keep from approaching total strangers and declaring that he and Karen were having a baby.

“We’re almost there,” he whispered. He slid his arm carefully around her; if she was going to be angry with him, then so be it.

Her beautiful long lashes fluttered open and she glanced out the small window on the opposite side of the plane. “How long have I been asleep?”

He was tempted to tell her that the length of time she’d been awake would have been easier to calculate. “Not long,” he assured her with a straight face.

She raised her eyebrows. “I’ll bet. Well,” she said, stretching, “I hope I can sleep tonight.”

She would—he’d make sure of that. Once upon a time they’d slept spoon fashion, cuddled up against each other, perfectly content. Now they would again. Every night if he had anything to say about it.

The plane descended slowly, aligning itself with Hard Luck’s narrow gravel runway. A number of planes lined the field, and several more were parked alongside nearby homes, like cars in a carport.

Matt resisted the urge to point out that the wildflowers were in bloom, to exclaim how beautiful the countryside looked with the snow all gone. June was probably his favorite month here in the high Arctic. The days lasted well into the evening, and nights were only long enough for the stars to blink a couple of times, then disappear over the horizon, blinded by the light of approaching day.