Chapter Seven

He’d followed her directions simply enough, which put them sitting in his truck, behind a three-storey building on Main Street, with five minutes to get to her prenatal appointment.

He was already on the sidewalk opening her door before he realized she hadn’t moved. Her fingers wrapped in a death grip around the seat belt crossing her chest, Dare turned her face to him but didn’t say a word.

He stepped back a little and waited.

She took a deep breath that rocked her shoulders up then down, but still didn’t move.

“Need a hand, darling?”

“Couple of shots of whiskey would go down fine right now,” she suggested.

Jesse hummed thoughtfully as he reached in to undo her belt so he could tug her unwilling body out the door. “That’s kind of what got us into this state in the first place.”

“I know.” She was staring at the building as if it held something putrid. “Tell me I have to do this.”

“You do have to do this. Buckaroo requires it of his mom, and he’s requesting you might want to shake those mama hen tail feathers a little quicker if he’s going to be on time for the show.”

Jesse wrapped his arms around her, lips pressed to her temple briefly. She shook in his embrace before pressing against him, a return squeeze like a rah-rah endorsement.

Dare pushed herself free and accepted the hand he held out. “Sorry about that. Momentary panic as I thought back to all the other times I’ve been in this place.”

“No prob. Makes sense—family doctor?” Why had he not thought to ask before?

“We’ve gone from childish illnesses to the disasters of teenage life, to post-accident mental health recovery, to grownup discussions on what I should use for birth control—which in spite of our current situation, I did have planned out. Yet this is the first trip that feels like a particularly adult thing to do.”

They were in the elevator, rising to the third floor, when his nerves jagged out of kilter. He was headed to a prenatal checkup with the woman he’d spend the rest of his life seeing in some shape or form, and they were about to talk about a baby who was definitely going to be in his life forever.

Too damn grownup—he knew exactly what Dare was talking about.

The elevator doors slid open, and he followed her down the hall, pausing when she did.

Dare wrinkled her nose. “I…um…need to take a pit stop. If the doc’s going to push on my bladder, I need to be prepared.”

“I can see why.”

She eyed him, as if wondering if he was teasing, but she jerked a thumb over her shoulder down a narrow hall leading to two doors. “Bathrooms. I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be right here.”

Dare shook her head. “Go check me in so I don’t lose my spot in the order, or we’ll be waiting until the cows come home to get in.”

“Meet you there, then.”

It was only two doors farther down the main hall. Jesse slipped into the waiting room, a half-dozen bored magazine-reading people lifting their gazes to take him in. The men immediately went back to reading, one of them sniffing loudly. His body jerked every time he sucked in, a wet, disgusting noise. Jesse made a mental note to not sit anywhere near that section of the room, and not let Dare touch anything that might have been contaminated.

Hell, the magazines were probably toxic cesspools. He’d have to bring sanitizer the next trip.

“Can I help you?”

The young man behind the desk was waiting expectantly, drawing Jesse’s attention from the women in the room looking his way. The guy wore a shiny plastic tag, with a Hello, my name is _____. I’m here to help you. He’d written in Scott with bright orange ink and added a half-dozen exclamation marks.

Jesse resisted making a smartass remark, choosing to answer softly. “Dare Hayes is here for her ten a.m. checkup.”

Scott leaned to one side, grinning cheekily as he peeked around Jesse as if Dare were hiding behind his back.

For fuck’s sake. So much for his resolve to be good.

“She’s taking a piss,” Jesse drawled. “She’ll be here in a minute.”

“Ah, yes.” The receptionist lost his smile. He marked something off in his appointment book and moved a file from one side of the desk to the other.

Jesse glanced over his shoulder to discover an older woman watching closely while other gazes darted away to pretend interest in their germ-laden magazines.

Scott spoke up again, and it seemed he’d recovered some of his enthusiasm. “Ah-hah. I see this is Ms. Hayes’s first prenatal checkup.”

Jesse swore he heard the heads behind him swivel toward their neighbour. Shit—this was the first time anyone was picking up that Dare was pregnant, and now the small-town theatrics could begin.

Scott made more notes, speaking without looking at him. “You are?”

“Jesse Coleman.”

The man raised a brow. “What relationship are you to Ms. Hayes? I need to know if I should put you on the file, or not.”

His name on the file. God.

Screw them. He focused on the eager fellow with his bright orange pen. “I’m the father.”

Scott tried again. “Relationship to Ms. Hayes?”

“Fiancé.”

The word came out a whole lot louder than the previous bits of conversation, and the silence behind him grew deeper. Like an inhale before the rapid-fire questions and speculating began.

Verbal wild fire igniting in three-two-one…

The now stone-faced receptionist nodded then pointed toward the chairs. “I’ll get the rest of your contact information in a moment, Mr. Coleman. If you’ll take a seat.”

Jesse strategically dropped into the second chair from the end. He stared straight at the door and ignored the speculative glances visible in his peripheral vision, rising to his feet when Dare finally joined him.

She glanced at the counter, but the receptionist was disappearing around the corner into the back rooms, called by a low-toned buzzer.

Jesse sat her in the corner seat then twisted his body to guard her from the peering eyes best he could. “You good?”

“Peachy.” Her gaze darted past his shoulder, and her lips twisted before she eased back to meet his eyes. “Do you plan on looming over me the entire time we’re here?”

“Pretty much. You know anyone?” He indicated behind him with a head flick.

“Yup.” Dare rubbed her temples for a second. “Maybe they’ll think I’ve got the flu.”

He wouldn’t mention his earlier announcement yet. “You want me to wait out here when they call you in?”

Dare frowned. “Why the hell did you drive out if—”

He laid a finger over her lips. “Shhh, darling. Inside voice.”

A glare scalded him before she batted her lashes and linked her fingers together. “But my sweetheart of sweethearts, you must hold my hand.”

“Now I’m the one who feels nauseated.”

Dare wasn’t even listening. She fidgeted on the spot, a mass of nerves. She finally stopped bouncing in her chair enough to reach past him to the pile of magazines.

Jesse caught her wrist. “Nope. You’re not touching those things.”

“You’re kidding me.” Her face folded into a frown, but fortunately whatever rampage she was about to go on was cut short by the nursing attendant calling her name.

Jesse rose with her, and the nurse looked puzzled for a moment before her face lit with understanding. “Oh, you can stay there. I’m just weighing her.”

Dare pointed a finger at Jesse and back at the seat. “Sit.”

He grinned. “I already know how much you weigh.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Stay.”

An idea popped into his head that was too good to resist. Besides, from the looks of things, she needed the distraction. Jesse pulled out his wallet and found a piece of scrap paper before settling in place, jotting down a number and leaving the folded note on her seat. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, eyes closed.

She was back in under thirty seconds.

He waited.

Something bumped softly into his biceps, and he peeked one eye open to discover Dare’s face inches away.

She fluttered the paper scrap. “Ha, ha. Funny man. How’d you do that?”

“Was I right?”

Dare narrowed her gaze. “Plus or minus five pounds. Do you have a side gig at the Stampede fairgrounds guessing people’s weights?”

“Nope, but I’ve picked you up more than once.” He let his grin widen as he thought back to one of those times, holding her against the wall as they screwed themselves silly.

His dirty thoughts must have shown because her cheeks darkened. “Stop it. Answer the question.”

“I did. I picked you up. I pick up animals all the time, and it’s easy to estimate weight after you’ve—”

He stopped. Maybe continuing with —after you’ve hauled a few heifers around wasn’t the right thing to say to a woman he hoped to get into bed with again in the near future.

Dare raised a brow, goading him to continue.

“—after you’ve gained enough experience.” Jesse pointed behind her. “The nurse is waving at you.”

This time he got pulled along into an examination room. The nurse ordered him to sit in the chair in the corner, then got Dare up on the table and wrapped a black elastic band around her arm, cord leading off to a tall machine on wheels.

“I’m going to take some tests before the doctor arrives. Blood pressure and temperature—basic information so we have a guideline to compare to down the road. Relax, Darilyn. You’ll feel a little pressure on your arm for a moment, but that’s all. It works automatically.”

“Are you going to take blood too?”

“And make you pee in a cup,” the nurse announced cheerfully.

“Damn, you should have waited,” Jesse teased.

Dare tilted her face toward him. “Trust me, I can pee anytime, anywhere.”

He snorted. “I don’t know that’s a ringing endorsement for pregnancy.”

“Still true.”

The nurse clicked a button on the machine, and a low hum filled the room. “After your appointment you can get the blood work done. Have your fiancé drop you off at—”

“Fianc—?” Dare’s lips slammed shut, and she glanced at Jesse before rolling her eyes. “Sorry. Go on?”

The nurse finished explaining, then checked the blood-pressure machine, frowning as she read the data. “I think I’ll run that again. It seems a little higher than it should be.”

“I think my fiancé distracted me,” Dare deadpanned.

If she was looking for an apology, she wasn’t going to get one. Not for that. “You need to learn to relax more, sweetheart.”

If looks could kill— Still, Dare angry at him was better than her shaking in her boots.

Though he hated to admit it, even to himself, distracting her was distracting him from all the unknowns that were rising up and flapping in his face.

He needed to do this, but that didn’t mean his heart wasn’t in his throat at the mere idea of becoming a dad. Of having to be there for Dare not just for the next five months, but all the years after that.

—and he wasn’t sure which was worse. The thought she might not need him, or that she would and his best wouldn’t be enough.

 

 

The door closed behind the nurse and Dare considered her options.

Jesse rolled himself to a spot directly in front of her, catching hold of her knees to pull himself in close. “I already looked, and unless you want to try to throttle me with the blood-pressure cuff, there’s nothing in here more dangerous than a tongue depressor.”

“You’re such a pain in the ass,” Dare declared.

“Guilty, but I’m now officially your pain in the ass. Congrats.”

God. Annoying, devastatingly gorgeous asshole of a man. “Everyone in town now knows we’re supposedly engaged and pregnant.”

“Officially pregnant and officially engaged. Did you not get the announcement?”

He caught her hand as she swung at him, standing between her thighs, the rolling chair rattling off behind him. He cautiously pinned her arm behind her as he pressed their bodies together.

“Manhandling the pregnant woman again. You are consistent, Jesse Coleman.”

“What can I say? I like handling you.”

She was going to tell him to put his handling where the sun don’t shine, but the words were cut off as he brought their lips together. Forceful, yes, yet careful. He held her so she couldn’t easily escape, but the touch of his tongue was a seduction. Stealing her senses as he dipped in again and tasted her deeper. Wiping away her logic and turning her into a mass of quivering need.

A soft cough broke through the sexual haze. “Ready for your checkup when you are.”

Jesse outright grinned as he stepped back then offered his hand to the doctor. “Jesse Coleman.”

“Leslie Martins. I take it you’re the father?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Dr. Martins turned to Dare, the older woman’s familiar smile completely nonjudgmental. This was the same doctor who’d treated all her childhood illnesses, and helped pull Dare out of the dark days that followed losing her family. Dare didn’t think she could have taken seeing judgment or disappointment on the woman’s face.

Dr. Martins pulled the rolling chair under her as she pointed Jesse back to the corner chair. “Dare, I think we have a typo on the date of your last period. As in blank-space typo.”

“Not sure when it was,” Dare admitted.

The doctor frowned. “But you have February eighth as a conception date. You sure?”

“Yes,” she and Jesse said at the same time, prompting a small laugh from Dr. Martins before she turned on them both with a lecturing tone.

“You conceived in February, and this is your first prenatal visit? You’re already in your second trimester, which means I’m not happy with either of you. Prenatal care is important, and I expect you both to take these visits more seriously in the future, is that clear?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll make sure of it from now on,” Jesse said firmly.

Dare avoided his eyes. “We’ll be here.”

Dr. Martins took a deep breath. “One other thing. I’m in the process of sending out letters to all my patients, but I need to let you know that while I’m happy to be your doctor right now, we’ll have to make alternative plans for down the road. I’m retiring the end of August.”

Disappointment rushed in.

“You can’t.” Dare snapped her mouth shut guiltily. “I’m sorry, that was rude. I’m excited for you, but really?”

“I know it’s a bit of a shock, but you can see one of the other doctors here in Heart Falls. You’ll have to go to Black Diamond for delivery, anyway.” The doctor laid a hand on her arm. “We’ll talk about it more over the next months. You’ll be fine.”

“I’m going to miss you,” Dare said honestly.

“I’ll miss you as well, but it’s good to see you moving on with life. New fiancé, baby on the way—life does go on.” She nodded approvingly at Jesse before turning back to all business. “I need to finish the last couple tests and measurements.” Dr. Martins flipped a few pages on her chart. “Is Jesse staying in the room or no?”

“I’m staying.”

The doctor twisted to glare at him. “I was asking Dare.”

“He can stay. I bet it’ll be his first time seeing someone in stirrups and no horse within a country mile.”

Jesse’s face twisted.

“Good practice for down the road,” Dr. Martins deadpanned. “I’ll give you a minute to slip out of your things from the waist down and put on the robe. Opening to the front this time.” She paused at the door. “Oh, and I will only be a minute, so don’t go getting distracted again, or anything,” she warned them.

Dare pulled on the robe before slipping off her jeans and panties, mind wandering to the news that Dr. Martins was leaving.

Jesse accepted her clothes like they were the crown jewels, folding them and placing them on the seat before turning back and distracting her from her memories. “Stirrups?”

She hopped back up on the examination table before patting his cheek and focusing on the matter at hand. “You poor, innocent soul.”

“As bad as that?”

“You ever had your prostate checked, Jesse?”

His eyes widened.

“There’s a reason women like lady doctors, and it’s not just that they’re female. Small hands. Enough said.”

Dr. Martins returned. The dreaded stirrups were employed, and Dare’s belly was measured in rapid order, and there was barely time for discussion. Jesse had worked his way to her side and somehow her fingers had slipped into his, linked together kind of over her head as she pretended she wasn’t being poked and prodded in a most inglorious manner in front of a man she barely knew.

Good practice for down the road, indeed.

Jesse watched protectively as the doctor laid an actual tape measure over her belly and made notes. “You felt the baby move yet?”

Panic struck instantly because Dare had to shake her head. “Is that bad?”

“Nope, pretty common, actually. You’ve got a long torso, and this is your first. I bet Buckaroo is moving like crazy, but at this point you’re not recognizing the sensation.” Dr. Martins picked up a small device and turned back with a grin. “One benefit of you two being lazy about appointments. Ready to hear the baby’s heartbeat?”

“Seriously?” Jesse’s grip on Dare’s fingers tightened.

“Of course. Dare’s nearly twenty weeks along. The baby’s heartbeat is loud and clear already.”

Dare couldn’t speak, but she nodded her approval.

She lay still as possible as the doctor placed the instrument on bare skin, the cool metal warming rapidly as Dr. Martins tilted it.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

At first Dare wasn’t positive what they were listening to. It could have been any of a dozen machines in the room suddenly emitting sounds into the hushed moment, only it wasn’t.

It was her baby.

The situation sank in further than before. There really was another little being in her belly, not just random germs demanding her body’s attention, but a person being built one bit at a time. Reality kicked up a notch.

Heartbeats were real.

She remembered lying in a circle with her family, heads resting on each other’s stomachs. Laughter would burst free as gurgles and rumbles echoed in their ears. But there were the times they’d quiet enough to hear other things. The rush of blood through veins. Air whispering into lungs. Hearts pumping as they powered life.

After fooling around with her boyfriend, she’d dropped her head on his chest and felt the unsteady pulse as they came down off the drugging high.

She thought back to Jesse and being held by him that first time after they’d reconnected. His strong arms had enfolded her against his body—his pulse a steady metronome under her palms.

Life.

Jesse collapsed into the chair with a lot less grace than usual, his grin frozen in place as he listened intently.

“That’s the baby?” He glanced at the doctor. “It’s not Dare’s?”

“One hundred percent baby,” Dr. Martins assured him. “There’s a faint echo of Dare’s heart if we change the angle, but what we’ve got right now is one healthy baby’s heartbeat.”

“One.” Dare breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Lord, for small mercies.”

She expected Jesse to make some crack about twins being awesome, but he was motionless, his expression gone unreadable.

Dr. Martins was smiling, but she glanced at the clock as her face turned serious again. “I hate to rush this moment, but I have to keep moving. I need you to stop at the front desk and set up an appointment for an ultrasound and a few more tests. We’ll need to discuss which you want to take, and which you don’t. Before you leave, Scott will give you a package of information to read through.”

Dare nodded, soaking in the last couple thumps before the doctor put her things away and headed to the door.

“Prenatal vitamins, as much rest as you can. Take care of yourself, and if you have any questions, let me know. Congratulations, and let’s work on making a healthy baby.”

“Thanks.”

“Wait.” Jesse snapped out of his daze. “When’s the baby done? I mean, due?”

Dr. Martins smiled. “October thirty-first according to the charts. First babies are often late, so a two-week window either side would be perfectly normal.”

The door closed. Dare fumbled to get upright for a moment before Jesse was there, his strong hand steadying her as she swung her legs to the side of the table.

He blocked her way, staring down at her belly as if she might explode at any time.

“Jesse?”

He blinked then glanced up, smile returning. “Heck of a thing, growing babies.”

He had that right. “Heck of a thing,” she agreed.