Righteous Lies (Book 1: Dancing Moon Ranch Series) (26 page)

Sensing her
reticence, Jack said, "Okay, tell me what the problem is, honey. Somehow I
don't think we've hit on it yet."

"Alright
then, it's Lauren," Grace said. "I hate to keep bringing her up, but
I can't put out of my mind the way you looked at her the night she showed up on
your doorstep. I can't forget the expression on your face. It's fixed in my
mind and won't go away."

"Grace,"
Jack said. "Come here."

"Where?"

Jack patted his
chest. "Up here. On top of me." He tugged her over until she lay on
top of him, then took her face in his hands and kissed her long and hard, the
kind of kiss she'd dreamed about, one that was deep and intense and filled with
love. But when it was over, the expression she'd seen on Jack's face when he
saw Lauren was still in her mind.

"Honey, I
don't know what look you're talking about when Lauren arrived," Jack said,
"but what was going on in my head was I was shocked I felt nothing. I
admit, I wondered if I'd feel something if I ever saw her again. But everything
changed the day I looked across the waiting room of the fertility clinic and
saw you. And then you became part of my life, and I started falling in love
with you. And when Lauren showed up, I felt nothing. I also realized then I
never loved her. I thought I had before she killed Jackie. But now I
know
what true, deep love is. It's what
I feel for you. You're the woman I want to look at every day of my life."

"But
Lauren is so beautiful. In fact she's breath-taking."

"Honey,
I'll take pretty over beautiful any day. But you're the only woman who takes my
breath away. And you might have noticed, while you're laying on top of me,
you're doing other things as well."

"Three
more weeks and we can fix that the right way."

 
Jack moaned.

"Alright.
Two then."

"Mrs.
Hansen, we have the rest of our lives to fix things the right way. For now, I
have no problem with you doing it the wrong way. Any milk left?"

Grace giggled.
"You'll have to find out for yourself." And Jack did.

***

Justine, who
was leaning against a post on the front porch of the house, said to Grace, who
was sitting on the front steps, "So where is this new husband of
yours?"

Grace looked
off in the distance and saw Jack riding toward them, coming at a fast clip.
"He should be here any minute," she said, then stood so Jack could
see her.

As Jack drew near,
Justine saw him coming, and said in an eager voice, "Man, you can have
your nerds, Gracie. Where has this guy been hiding?"

"He lives
here in the hills," Grace said, attempting to suppress the smile tugging
at her lips. "He's quite good with horses."

"I suspect
he's good with a lot of things," Justine mused. "You said you married
a twin. Is this one of them?"

Jack was almost
on top of them by now.

"Yes...
the bigger of the two." Grace barely had time to say that when Jack pulled
his horse to a skidding halt, swung out of the saddle, rushed up to her and
swept her up in his arms and held her with his hands clasped below her butt,
and hers around his neck. "Wait till you see the little mare I just got
you, honey," he said in an excited voice, while looking at her.
"She's old and settled and you'll have no trouble with her and—"

"Sweetheart,"
Grace cut in, realizing Jack hadn't noticed Justine standing on the porch.
"My sister... Justine. She's here. You might want to put me down."

Jack peered
around Grace, then set her down, and keeping his arm around Grace's waist, said
to Justine, "Nice to have you here—" then to Grace "—she's
chestnut with four white stockings and a little diamond on her forehead,
and—"

"Jack!
Justine just drove two hundred miles."

Jack glanced at
Justine again, and nodded. "Oh... sure. You hungry?"

"I'm
fine," Justine said. "You go right on with what you were
saying."

"Oh,
yeah... And honey?" Jack stopped then and looked at Grace.

The world
around Grace seemed to vanish as she caught the expression on Jack's face as he
looked down at her. Love. She saw it now. Pure love. And he was trying to tell
her something... "Yes, sweetheart? You were saying...?"

He crooked a
finger under her chin and raised it, and gave her a short sweet kiss that said
more to her, as he smiled down at her with those dark, love-filled eyes, than
the kind of kisses he gave her in bed during the heat of his passion, and said,
"You look so pretty right now, honey. And happy. You must be glad to see
your sister."

Grace glanced
at Justine standing on the porch. "Well yes, I'm glad to see her
too," she said. "Now, put your horse away, honey, and come show off
your sons."

"Right."
Jack kissed her again, this time a little sounder, then launched himself onto
his horse and loped off to the stables.

Justine pursed
her lips, but her eyes were bright with amusement. "Umm, you didn't quite
describe him correctly, did you, Gracie?" she said, with irony.

"Actually,
I didn't describe him at all if you remember," Grace replied. "You were
the one who concluded he looked like a nerd with horn-rimmed glasses and a book
under his arm." She laced her arm into Justine's elbow and led her into
the house. "So, what do you think of him?" she asked, as they stepped
inside.

Justine looked
around, and smiled. "I see signs of Gracie all over this place," she
said. "You've got the poor man hook, line and sinker."

"Just
don't try to take him away," Grace warned her sister.

"Honey, I
may be a lot of things," Justine said, "but a husband stealer is not
one of them. Especially not your husband. Besides, I couldn't take that man
away from you if I tried. He's totally hung up on you. But then, guys always
were once they met you. I'm the kind of girl who gets asked first to the prom.
You're the kind they take home to Mama."

Grace saw the envy and the sadness on Justine's
face, and for the first time in her life, she realized Justine might not have
it all. At thirty, she still wasn't married. She'd been a cheerleader all
through high school, and prom queen, and knew how to stop men dead in their
tracks, and had always been the life of any party. But Justine was right. Men
didn't take women like her home to Mama. But maybe one day Justine's prince
would come along, a man who'd see beyond her beauty, and her flippant wit, and
her superficial demeanor.

He'd also have
to be a man stronger than her, who wasn't intimidated by her success and her
high-powered career. Not an easy pair of male shoes to fill.

***

Six weeks later

While knitting
a little wool hat for Marc, to match Adam's—same pattern in contrasting
colors—Grace glanced at Jack, who was sitting beside her on the couch, his feet
encased in red-wool socks. She knew the socks couldn't be comfortable—the heels
were shaped like balloons, and the gusset was so long the socks wrinkled in the
middle—but he wanted to please her.

"What time
are they supposed to call," she asked.

"Around
nine," Jack replied. "Sam said to put the phone on speaker since they
want to talk to both of us." He put his arm around her and pulled her
against him. "I love you, Grace," he said. "And whatever they've
decided, Marc will still be here on the ranch."

"Why do
you think it's about Marc? Why not Ricky?" Grace asked.

"Because
Sam gave me an update yesterday, and there's not much more to add," Jack
replied. "Last thing he said was the transplant was engrafting faster than
expected and they'd be coming home next week. But you need to prepare for Susan
wanting to take Marc back."

"I
can't," Grace said. "Just having him on the ranch isn't enough. I
want to be able to tuck both boys in bed at night, and when they're older, I
want to see you reading stories to them before they go to bed, and taking them
both on pony rides. We're a family now, a real family, and I can't imagine us
without both our babies. Can you?"

Jack looked at
her, long and thoughtfully, and said, "No. I can't. He's my little half
pint. My little bright-eyed buddy. And Adam would miss him too."

"Except
when he gets possessive when he's nursing and swats at his brother."

Jack laughed.
"At least when my turn comes, I don't have to fight for a spigot. I get
two of them all to myself, though there's not much left by then. But it's all
good."

"Yes,
very," Grace agreed, and felt her nipples pucker at the thought of Jack
having his turn. "You said Greg called, but then you told me Sam and Susan
would be calling right after, so I forgot to ask what Greg said. So, what's the
latest?"

"That the
clinic's ready to settle for half a million for each of us and all the medical
bills for Ricky's cord blood transplant," Jack replied. "Sounds like
a lot of money, but we don't know if Ricky will continue to improve, though it
looks like he's on his way to a complete recovery."

"It's a
miracle," Grace mused. "But if it hadn't been for a couple of mislabeled
vials, Susan would have had Adam, and he wouldn't have been a match, and Ricky
would be back on the bone marrow list. But most of all, I have you, and
Adam." Her eyes filled with tears. "But I'll feel like I lost a part
of my heart if we can't keep Marc. But if we can, I want to raise the boys as
fraternal twins. I don't want Marc to think he isn't loved as much as Adam is, just
because he's not our biological son."

"Then
you're saying we shouldn't tell the boys... ever?"

"Savior
babies have lots of psychological problems," Grace said. "I read all
about it. One child lives because another was created only for that reason.
Adam would have been that child if not for the sperm switch, but Adam got lucky
and came to us. But it's a double blow for Marc because Susan got pregnant only
to save Ricky, and even though Marc turned out to be a match against tremendous
odds, Susan still didn't want him, so in Marc's mind he'd be a worthless human
being from the start, which is why I want to raise the boys as fraternal twins
so Marc would never know."

"So we'd
be raising our sons under false pretenses," Jack said in a plodding voice.

"No, we'd
be raising them as fraternal twins to protect them from the truth," Grace replied.
"It's only through luck that Adam ended up with both his biological
parents. Susan wouldn't have wanted him either if she'd had him instead of Marc.
Withholding the truth would be for the welfare and peace of mind of our
sons."

The hard line
of Jack's mouth slacked off some. "What about Ricky? He'd be raised as an
only child, never knowing he had a half-brother."

"A
half-brother his mother didn't want," Grace said. "Besides, how could
Ricky respect his mother knowing she gave away his brother?" Which she
realized was the wrong approach as soon as she said the words.

"This
isn't about Ricky respecting his mother," Jack said. "This is about Marc."

Grace's eyes
filled with tears. "Yes, it is about Marc," she said, in a wavering
voice. "His real father's dead, his real mother doesn't want him, and I
don't want him growing up thinking he isn't a true member of our family and
that he isn't loved every bit as much as Adam. Ricky will never know if we all
agree to say nothing—" Grace's sentence was cut off when the phone rang.

Jack picked it
up and punched the conference button so they could all talk. "Hey, how's
it going?" he asked, knowing Sam was on the line.

"Fine.
Ricky keeps getting stronger every day," Sam replied. "The doctors
are amazed. He'll still need a lot of care and close observation, and testing
for the next few years, but they think he's on his way to a complete recovery.
But that's not why we called. Oh, and Susan's here too."

"Hi you
two," Susan said. "How are the babies?"

Grace didn't
like the sound of Susan's voice. It was way too happy. Like a mother anxious to
get home to her baby. "They're fine," she replied.

Sam came on
again. "This is kind of difficult," he started in.

Grace could not
find her voice to speak, too choked with tears. Jack put his arm around her and
pulled her to him. "It's okay, honey," he said in a hushed voice.
"We'll get through this."

But Grace knew
there was no way of getting through it if they planned to take Marc back. He
was also Jack's little half-pint. And Adam's little nursing sparring partner...

"It's about
the baby," Sam said. "It's just that... we've taken the apartment for
another two months since the hospital here's better equipped to watch Ricky,
and even after we're back home Susan will have her hands full with him, and
after that he'll have to be watched for several years, and we know how much
Grace wants her husband's baby, who would have been hers if not for the sperm
mix-up, and we just thought maybe the two of you would consider—"

"Yes,"
Grace cut him off short, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks. "We
will."

"Adopt
him?" Sam said. "That's what I was trying to say."

"Sam,"
Jack interjected. "We already consider Marc ours. So then, this is a go?
Grace and I can adopt him?"

"We can't
think of two better parents."

After they hung
up, Grace said to Jack in a voice filled with resolve, "Please honey,
let's raise them as fraternal twins. We can talk to Sam and Susan and make sure
they'll go along with it, which I'm sure Susan will since she wouldn't want Marc
or Ricky to know she gave Marc up because he was an inconvenience, which is
pretty much what it is." She briefly considered Jack's concern that Ricky
would be denied knowing he had a half-brother, and she could never tell little Marc
about his biological father, but Marc was in her past now, and Jack would be a
wonderful father to both boys, and as fraternal twins, they'd feel equally
loved. And Ricky, who had always been the focus of his parents’ life, would
continue to be their focus...