“They’re early.”

“How’d you find out Teri was in labor?” she asked, curious to learn who had contacted Rachel.

“I phoned her,” James said. “Teri asked me to.”

As if her legs were no longer able to support her, Rachel staggered to a chair and sat down.

Christie crouched beside her. “Are you okay?”

Rachel pressed her hand to her heart. “I…I thought I was going to pass out.”

Teri’s friend looked ill. When she closed her eyes, Christie glanced at James, who nodded, obviously aware of what she meant. He left and came back a few minutes later with a nurse.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Rachel insisted, although she seemed anything but fine.

The nurse escorted her into an examining room, and once again James and Christie were alone.

“I feel like I’ve worked an eight-hour shift,” Christie said, suddenly exhausted.

“I do, too.” His smile held her gaze.

“I…I should probably go home and make a few phone calls.” But Christie didn’t want to leave.

James put his arm around her waist. “Don’t go.”

Indecision kept her silent.

“Not yet,” he cajoled. “Stay a bit longer.”

“I would like to see the babies,” she murmured. That was true, but it wasn’t the only reason she felt inclined to linger.

“Little Jimmy.”

“Little Christopher,” Christie said, grinning wildly.

James brought her even closer to his side.

They walked down the corridor like that, and after a long sigh, Christie looked up at James. “If you ever leave me again, I’ll…I don’t know what I’ll do, but I guarantee you it won’t be pleasant. Furthermore—”

“I won’t ever leave you again,” James broke in.

“I’m serious, James. I can’t take the pain.”

He faced her and set his hands squarely on her shoulders. His eyes grew dark and grave. “I’m serious, too.”

“I’m going to finish my schooling.”

“I’ll do everything I can to help you achieve your dreams, Christie. A man does that for the woman he loves.”

She’d been prepared for an argument. He didn’t offer one. Her gaze steadily held his. “I want babies of my own.”

“Babies of our own. And I’m all for it.”

“Don’t be so agreeable,” she snapped. “It confuses me and I—”

He silenced her with a kiss, right there in the hospital hallway. Christie’s arms slid up his chest and looped around his neck as she returned his kiss.

“Three?” he asked in a husky voice when they drew apart.

Christie nestled into his embrace. “Not if they all arrive at once.” On second thought, she mused, that might not be so bad.

James rubbed his hand down the length of her back. “We’ll have beautiful babies.”

She remembered his remark about beautiful babies the day he’d come to the tavern. It was why she’d run after him…“Yes, we will,” she murmured.

He kissed the tip of he nose. “But they won’t play chess.”

“They can if they want to,” she countered.

“Okay,” he agreed, “if they want to play, they can.”

The nurse who’d led Rachel away returned. “I’ve called your friend’s husband,” she said.

“Is everything okay?” Christie asked anxiously.

“No, it isn’t,” Rachel said, a few steps behind the other woman. She seemed about to burst into tears.

“What’s wrong?” Christie hurried after her into the waiting room.

Rachel sat down and buried her face in her hands. “This can’t be true. It just can’t.”

“What can’t?”

Teri’s friend dropped her hands and glanced up. “I’m pregnant,” she wailed.

“But that’s wonderful news,” Christie said. “Isn’t it?”

“It should be,” Rachel said. “I should be happy, but…we’d decided not to have a baby right away and then there’s Jolene. She isn’t ready to deal with this. We promised we’d give her time to get used to us being married first. We promised. I should’ve gone on the pill, but I didn’t.” Looking from Christie to James, she shook her head. “This is what happens. I told Bruce we were playing Russian roulette, but he was so sure we were safe….”

“So what you’re saying is—”

“Sex!” Rachel exclaimed. “This is what happens when you have the most wonderful sex…in the middle of the afternoon. We’ve been meeting at noon—oh, you wouldn’t understand.”

James tightened his grip on Christie and whispered, “Is it noon yet?”

Despite herself, despite her worry about Rachel, Christie smiled.

A moment later, Rachel smiled, too….

Thirty-One

“What do you mean you’re engaged?” Linnette McAfee shouted over the phone.

Mack knew this would shock his sister—just like it would shock his parents once he told them. The engagement felt…He searched for the right word. Strange, he decided. Yes, strange. And awkward, too.

In the short time since they’d become engaged, things had changed between Mack and Mary Jo, and not for the better. Instead of drawing the two of them together, it seemed to have driven them apart.

Ever since that night two weeks ago, Mary Jo had gone out of her way to avoid him. Mack didn’t understand it. He’d accepted her stipulation. Nonetheless she seemed to believe that Mack would treat her as badly as Rhodes had. That told Mack she didn’t really know him or trust him, although she claimed she did.

Another equally unpleasant possibility was that she didn’t actually care for him and was just using him as protection against David Rhodes. He was perfectly willing to play that role and had said as much. But pride—and his own feelings for her—demanded that Mary Jo marry him for reasons other than fear.

“I hadn’t even heard that you were dating anyone,” Linnette said, breaking into his thoughts.

“It’s Mary Jo Wyse and—”

“Isn’t she the woman who had the baby on Christmas Eve?”

“Yes. I delivered Noelle and we’ve been—”

His sister cut him off a second time. “Tell me again why you haven’t said anything to Mom and Dad?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Uncomplicate it for me.”

“Well, for one thing, David Rhodes, Noelle’s birth father, is threatening to go for custody.”

“He wouldn’t dare.”

“He won’t now that I’m in the picture, that’s for sure.”

“Just a minute,” Linnette said in that irritating big-sister way. “You don’t need to marry her to keep David Rhodes out of her life. Obviously, there’s more to this story than meets the eye.”

Maybe informing Linnette that he was engaged hadn’t been such a good idea, after all.

“You love her, don’t you?”

“Yes…”

“But you aren’t a hundred percent convinced she returns your feelings?”

Apparently his sister possessed some form of psychic ability because she’d immediately homed in on the one subject Mack wanted to avoid.

“Uh…”

“You’re afraid she’s using you to keep Noelle’s father at bay?”

When he didn’t answer, she continued. “Mack…do you love her that much?”

Mack sat on a kitchen stool with his cell pressed tightly against his ear. He closed his eyes and whispered, “Yeah, I love her that much.” It would be a whole lot easier if he didn’t.

“Oh, Mack, you’ve got it bad.”

One thing Mack didn’t want was his sister’s sympathy. He regretted even telling her what was going on between him and Mary Jo. And yet…he felt at such a loss to explain this new tension between them. He’d hoped Linnette might offer him some insight. Some explanation.

Since their engagement, Mary Jo had barely looked at him. It used to be that she’d often invite him to dinner on the nights he wasn’t at the station. In the past two weeks he hadn’t been to her place even once.

That wasn’t all. Before they became engaged, they’d played UNO and other card games. They’d talked every day. They’d laughed together. From the moment they’d discussed marriage, she’d treated him as if he had some communicable disease.

“Okay, little brother, if you honestly feel that way, then why—”

“Can I say something?” he asked.

“No,” Linnette said. “Answer my question first.”

“All right. If you must know, Mary Jo agreed to marry me but she insisted on a six-month engagement.”

“Six months? Well, that’s not so bad.”

“She also insisted there be no…physical contact between us.”

“What?”

Mack was not repeating that information. “You heard me.” Just saying the words out loud convinced him Mary Jo didn’t care the way he did. He was a means to an end. He would protect her and Noelle so Rhodes couldn’t threaten her. And the worst of it was…he’d suggested it himself.

“Nothing…physical for six months?”

“Mary Jo felt that would give us time to get to know each other—or so she said,” he grumbled. That excuse seemed lame in light of the recent awkwardness between them.

“So you aren’t…you know—”

He groaned. “I don’t ask you about your love life, do I?”

“No, but maybe you should.”

Mack let her comment slide.

“Remember,” his sister said, “Mary Jo has some real trust issues. I can’t blame her for that.”

“You haven’t even met her,” Mack reminded Linnette. But what she’d said was true. Mary Jo did have trust issues; she’d admitted it and the reasons were obvious. That, however, didn’t explain the change in her attitude since she’d agreed to marry him.

“For someone who’s about to become a husband and father, you don’t sound very happy.”

“I’m not. The fact is, I’m not sure why I told you. No one else knows except Mary Jo’s brother.”

“You told me because I’m your big sister and you want advice—only you won’t come right out and ask for it.”

“Am I that transparent?”

“Afraid so.”

He sighed. All of this would be easier if he didn’t have such strong feelings for Mary Jo.

“Does she know your real name is Jerome?”

“She knows.” He’d insisted on being called Mack from the time he was in grade school. He’d been named for his paternal grandfather, and while Mack had loved his grandpa Jerry, he wasn’t fond of the name.

“Why don’t you want to tell Mom and Dad?” Linnette asked. “They’d be thrilled.”