Miracle Road: Eternity Springs Book 7 (31 page)

He recalled her words to Celeste. She didn’t deserve to be a mother. She couldn’t do this. Hope was scared to death. That was understandable. He was scared spitless himself. And he’d never had a child before, much less one who’d been kidnapped.

What if Hope was too frightened to go through with the pregnancy? He didn’t know her views on abortion. They’d never discussed it.

Well, this was a discussion that had to take place immediately. He wanted this baby. He wanted her. He would have them both. Lucca knew how to win, and win he would.

He polished off his scotch, went back inside to make his excuses to his family, then left Aspenglow Place determined to expand the number of Romanos by two.

A short, brisk walk later, he rapped on Hope’s front door. She didn’t answer. He didn’t let that stop him. He tried the knob, expecting to find it unlocked. It was. Roxy met him as he stepped inside, and without thinking about it, Lucca bent and scooped the little dog up into his arms. He scratched her behind her ears as he went looking for Hope.

He found her in her bedroom standing beside her window and gazing out at a snowcapped Murphy Mountain, her eyes red, her cheeks stained with tears. She looked heartbreakingly beautiful, he thought. Then he noticed that she was standing with her hand placed protectively over her lower belly, and in that moment, his worst fears dissipated. This was not the stance of a woman considering aborting her child.

Joy washed through him like a sunshine-warmed stream, filling up spaces inside him that had been dark too long. Strategic thinking cautioned him to keep that to himself for now. Roxy wiggled in his arms, so he set her down. “You ate and ran.”

“Yes. It was rude of me, but I had to change my shirt.”

He dropped his gaze pointedly toward the wine stain on her front, then looked her straight in the eyes. “Is there something you need to tell me, Hope?”

She sank down onto the floor, sitting cross-legged, and pulled Roxy into her lap. The mutt lifted her head and licked Hope’s face.

Since his knees weren’t all that steady, either, Lucca crossed the room and sat on the floor beside her. “You’re upset.”

“Almost every day when the weather was nice, I took Holly to play in a park near our condo. She made friends with a group of children whose moms brought them at the same time. One of the little boys came to the park one day wearing a superhero cape, and soon every child on that playground was wearing one. Holly wanted a purple one. Purple was her color. We went to the fabric store and she picked out the fabric herself, then sat beside me while I sewed it.”

As her hand repetitively stroked Roxy from head to tail, Hope closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall. “When it was finished and I held it up for her to see, she truly beamed. I had never seen her so excited about anything. Not even Christmas morning. Of course, we had to go immediately to the park. Do you know what she did the first thing?”

“What did she do, honey?”

“She climbed up onto a picnic bench, spread her arms, and said, “Look, Mommy. I’m going to fly!” And then she jumped off. It was only a few feet and it certainly wasn’t the first time she’d launched herself off into space by any means. But watching her, I could see disaster happening. Another little girl—a toddler—ran right into her path, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. I felt sick.” A tear slipped from beneath her lashes to roll silently down her cheek. “I feel the same way now.”

Lucca resisted the urge to touch her. “Was Holly hurt?”

“Skinned knees. She broke the toddler’s arm.”

Lucca winced, then blabbered a platitude that was especially stupid considering that it came from him. “Accidents happen.”

“That they do.” She set Roxy on the floor. “And sometimes they change lives forever, don’t they?”

He thought of bus wrecks and mangled bodies and wanted to weep right along with Hope. But then the image of a beaming Cam and glowing Sarah Murphy as they presented their little Michael for his christening flashed in his mind. “One lesson I’ve learned from my time here in Eternity Springs—and it’s a lesson you’ve taught me, Hope—is that if we focus on loss, we dishonor living. Life is a gift.”

“Some gifts aren’t returnable.”

For the first time since he arrived, she met his gaze. She looked scared and uncertain, and his heart twisted. “Lucca, I’m pregnant.”

Whoa. Even though he’d expected it, hearing it made him flinch. He exhaled a heavy breath. “I thought that might be it, but I needed to hear you say it. I guess it happened our first time?”

“I don’t know. Probably. Neither of us was really thinking about …”

“No, we weren’t. But … there’s no blame. It just happened. Maybe it happened for a reason.”

She rubbed her eyes with her fingertips. “I haven’t seen a doctor yet. I haven’t even taken a test. But I know. I think I’ve known for a couple of weeks now, but I couldn’t face it. The brussels sprouts clinched it. There were certain smells …”

He licked his lips. “Have you thought … ah …”

Her expression grew fierce. “I won’t have an abortion, Lucca.”

“I was going to ask about making a doctor’s appointment. But … I’m glad.”

She gave a desperate little laugh. “About the abortion or about the baby?”

“Both.”

She sprang to her feet and began to pace the room. “I’m scared to death. I can’t do this, Lucca. I can’t be a mother again. Look at how it turned out last time. No telling what disaster would befall this child. I’d probably smother her, if not literally then figuratively. She’d grow up smothered and neurotic and unhappy and hating to read.”

“Hating to read? That’s sort of random, isn’t it?” Lucca rose and shoved his trembling hands into his pockets.

“I’m a teacher. Reading is important to me.”

He rocked back on his heels. “Maybe if he doesn’t like to read, he’ll like B horror movies.”

She stopped abruptly and buried her face in her hands. Now, he judged, was the time to touch her. Reaching out, he folded her into his arms. “It’s okay, honey. Honestly, it’s going to be okay. We’ll get this figured out. I want you to know that I’m a little scared myself, but I’m not unhappy about this baby. I’m honestly a little excited.”

She shook with silent sobs. Lucca pressed a kiss against her hair and murmured, “I won’t ask you to marry me right now because these aren’t the circumstances such a question deserves. But I want you to know that you can count on me to be there for you and for the baby. Always.”

Against his shirt, she said, “Mark asked me to marry him when I told him I was pregnant.”

“I’m not Mark Montgomery.”

“But I’m still me. I’ve put the cart before the horse a second time. My mother-in-law said I trap men. Your family is worried about Richard taking advantage of the family. Look at me.”

“You’re shell-shocked and irrational.”

“Lucca …” she protested.

“Listen to me, Hope. I am in this for the long haul. I am not Mark Montgomery. I will love this baby. My family will be crazy happy about this pregnancy, and you know that’s true. Look, I am not perfect, but I will be the best father I can be for this baby. But when I ask you to marry me, Hope, you will know I’m asking because of you. Not because you are carrying my child, but because you have my heart. I will ask you to marry me because I’m in love with you.”

When she started crying harder, Lucca wondered if he’d taken the wrong tack. He was at a loss, speaking from his heart, acting on his instincts. Whether he’d planned it or not, he had his little family right there in his arms. He had to do what was best for it.

“Lucca, I’m so afraid,” she said. “I don’t deserve a second chance. I don’t know if I can do it.”

He trailed his hand up and down her back soothingly. “Sure you can. And everyone deserves second chances.”

“What are we going to do, Lucca? What do you want to do?”

Marry you. Love you. Love our baby.
“I think … we don’t need to rush. We have time to decide, time to absorb this news. I think you should dry your eyes, change your shirt, and go back to Mom’s with me. Have a piece of Celeste’s pie. It’s amazing. We can watch some football with my brothers and you can pretend you’re interested when Mom drags out the photo albums. I don’t know why, but she does it every Thanksgiving. Afterward, we can come back here and you can pack for our trip and then we’ll go to bed. I want to sleep with you tonight, Hope. I want to make love with you. I want to celebrate.”

Her mouth trembled. “Celebrate? Really?”

“Really.”

“Oh, Lucca.” She looked up at him, a world of hope in her luminous brown eyes as a shaky smile bloomed across her face. “I was so caught up in my reaction, I didn’t think about yours.”

“I hadn’t really thought about it before today, which was stupid of me. I was surprised.”

“But a good surprise?”

“Definitely a good surprise.”

She sagged a bit in relief. He cared. He had faith in her. He wasn’t Mark. “I think I’d like to see your mother’s albums. Baby pictures of you …”

He groaned. “I have to warn you. It’s not just pictures. She has baby porn.”

“What!”

“Naked babies in the bathtub. Naked kids running through the water sprinkler. What possesses a parent to take pictures of their naked kids? I swear, if she tried that nonsense today, social services would come knocking on the door. I don’t want you to do that to the peanut, Hope. I won’t have him being fourteen and having his brothers pull out the photo album as evidence for who has the bigger prick. I’m going to put my foot down about that.” He waited a beat, then added, “Of course, I always won.”

“Of course,” she said seriously. But then she smiled and it made Lucca feel ten inch … ten feet tall. “Lucca?”

His gaze had focused on her mouth. “Hmm?”

“Thank you.”

Emotion welled up inside him. “Thank you, Hope. I am thankful for you. We’ll make this work. I promise. Happy Thanksgiving.”

“Happy Thanksgiving.”

“Power is nothing without control,” Hope said as she walked away from the school bus parked on a track on the wide-open plain of west Texas. “That’s a lesson we can apply to many aspects of life.”

Lucca nodded. “I’ll need to use that one with the Grizzlies.”

“I’ve noticed you often use inspirational quotes with the team.”

“They listen to me. I love that about this team. Half the guys at Landry thought they were too good to listen to what I had to say. The more talent a kid has, the more potential, the more likely he is to fall into the believing-his-press camp. They go from being kids who play for the love of the game to egomaniacs.”

“How did you avoid that trap with your players?”

“I have a system. The players have to buy into my system. But the young and dumb ones do that, achieve success, then forget the system and think they did it all on their own. It’s frustrating. Certainly takes some of the fun out of the job for me.”

“I can understand why.”

Hope and Lucca had just finished a four-hour private driving lesson with Johnny Tarantino, a former NASCAR driver who now operated a high-performance driving school on a section of his family’s ranch in the middle of nowhere, Texas. While school buses weren’t ordinarily his ride of choice, Johnny had jumped at the challenge of sharing his expertise with Hope, going so far as to buy a bus for his school. Halfway through the lesson, he’d decided to create a safety course specifically for bus drivers. “It’s a great addition to my school,” he’d told them. “I’ll focus on training trainers. School districts will love it.”

She’d had to agree. While she hadn’t felt at risk behind the wheel prior to her lesson, the techniques she’d learned did give her a comforting increase in skill.

They climbed into the BMW Lucca had rented at the airport in El Paso and began the drive back to their B&B in Fort Davis. They discussed ranching and reading and rainbows as they drove, having made the decision at the beginning of the trip that the topic of the baby and the future was off-limits for the duration. This time was their breather, their chance to process the change in circumstances. It had proven to be exactly the medicine Hope had needed. Well, she’d needed this breather
and
Lucca’s support.

She hadn’t taken time to consider his possible reaction to her news before she’d shared it, but he’d convinced her from the first that she could count on him. That his claim didn’t surprise her amazed her. Deep down, when she wasn’t admitting the pregnancy even to herself, she’d known that she’d be able to count on him. Just exactly what their future held, she didn’t know. But her confidence that he stood with her took some of the pressure off of figuring it out right now.

Back at the bed and breakfast, he relaxed in front of a basketball game on TV while she took a nap. After that, she decided to soak in the tub for a bit, thinking she’d relax a little while longer before dressing for dinner.

Then Lucca joined her in the bath and, for the next half hour, all thought of relaxation went down the drain. His lovemaking was just as erotic and satisfying as ever, but he did it with a tenderness that touched her heart.

Their B&B hostess steered them to a surprisingly good German restaurant—not the sort of cuisine Hope had expected to find in west Texas—and after that, Lucca started on the drive to their second planned destination on their trip, McDonald Observatory. It was the first visit for both of them to the McDonald. Lucca was like a kid at Christmas.

“Orion rising,” he said as he parked the car in the observatory visitors’ lot. “Orion, the Hunter. It’s one of the easiest constellations to find. Look for his belt of three stars pointing almost straight up from the horizon. See the bright orange star to the left and a blue one to the right?”

Hope stepped from the car and gazed up at the starry sky. “I do.”

“The stars are Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak. Mintaka is actually a double star. All four are bigger, brighter, and heavier than our sun.” Excitement hummed in his tone as he added, “You’re going to love this, Hope.”

“I’m sure I will.” If nothing else, watching him love it would make her evening.

The moonless night was pitch-dark and bitterly cold, and she loved every minute of it. It was a special event night for a membership group Lucca had joined. They participated in a “star party,” gazing at the heavens through an awesome pair of telescopes and listening to a guided tour of the night sky. Hope found the guide’s program informative, though it lacked the charm and romance of Lucca’s backyard lessons.