Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (ebook reader for laptop TXT) š
- Author: Nicole Helm
Book online Ā«Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (ebook reader for laptop TXT) šĀ». Author Nicole Helm
She wasnāt afraid of being a mother. Sheād watched Felicity and Gage deal with the demands of pregnancy and a newborn. Sarah knew it would be hard and exhausting, but she also knew sheād have help and love to get through it.
But no matter how she told herself sheād watched horses and cattle birth their youngāand if they could do it out there with no intervention, she could certainly do it in a hospital with an epiduralāthe worry and fear of actual labor were overwhelming at times.
Now she didnāt have to just fear labor, she had to fear Anth Wyatt. Not just Devās half brother, but her own.
She couldnāt wrap her head around it. Her mother had conceived a child with Ace Wyatt. This biological mother sheād never knownābut Duke had.
She stood in her room trying to work out how she felt about it, but there were too many realities assaulting her to get too wrapped up in the past at the moment. She was so pregnant she didnāt even want to sit down for fear of not wanting to get back up. The Wyatts were being threatened, which left her sisters all in a dangerous position. Duke knew Dev was the father of her baby and sheād left them downstairs to squabble pointlessly.
How could she stand here and try to understand the mother and father sheād never known, who were dead anyway?
She had to focus on the task at hand, which was packing some things so she could spend the next few days at Grandma Paulineās with the rest of her family. Grandma Paulineās house was big, with all sorts of hodgepodge rooms added on over the years, but itād still be a tight fit even if Jamisonās and Codyās families stayed in Bonesteel.
She found a duffel bag and packed all of her oversize sweats that managed to fit over her pregnant belly. She tossed in her pregnancy book and set her body pillow next to the bag on the bed. If she forgot something, she could always come back and get it. The houses werenāt that far apart, and just because they were in danger didnāt mean the ranch work got to stop. Theyād have to keep going back and forth for the time being.
She heard footsteps on the stairs down the hall. She knew it wasnāt Duke. He didnāt take the steps that fast or with that much...the word menace floated through her mind. But what was menacing about Dev? That he was grumpy? Sheād handled that forever.
Or is the thing you canāt handle the fact he said our baby like it matters?
Well.
When he appeared at her doorway, he stayed right there. āDukeās packing. You shouldnāt be carrying anything you need, so I will when youāre done.ā
He stood there looking grumpy, which was his norm, but there was a way he held himselfāhands deep in his pockets, gaze refusing to meet hersāthat told her he was also very uncomfortable. Not just because heād never been in her bedroom before, but she was sure because heād spilled the beans.
Heād said our baby.
She couldnāt fight away the tide of emotion. The want she kept trying to convince herself she didnāt have. Duke knew he was the father because... āYou said our baby,ā she managed on a whisper.
āIt doesnāt matter.ā His voice was flat. So were his eyes.
She could be devastated by that, but sheād never been any good at letting other people dictate how she felt or what she should think. āIt matters to me.ā
āThis isnāt a fairy tale, Sarah. You donāt want it to be. Letās justāā
āDo you want it to be?ā
Some of his composure cracked and he raked his hands through his dark hair. āNo,ā he said emphatically, but there was something wild in his expressionāfar closer to fear than denial.
āSo, itās not a fairy tale. That doesnāt mean it canāt be something... It doesnāt mean you have to close yourself off from him. Heās ours.ā
āNothing is mine.ā
He just cracked her heart in two. She moved to him and touched his face, couldnāt seem to stop touching him lately when sheād always been the perfect paragon of restraint. She wasnāt a touchy-feely person and the random want to touch Dev was always shoved ruthlessly away.
But this baby, and this danger, it changed things...whether sheād planned on it or not. Then there was this old Dev she thought heād moved past.
āPlease donāt go back there,ā she said.
āBack where?ā
āTo that awful shell you were after you came home from the hospital. I know this is hard, and I know youāve got your guilt complex, and this weird idea youāre somehow less than your brothers, but for ten years you have slowly stepped out of that and into the land of the living. It would break my heart if you lost all that.ā
He looked at her like sheād lanced him straight throughāwhich didnāt bother her because it was emotion, not blankness. And he looked at herāmet her gaze and didnāt turn away.
There was too much emotion swirling inside of her, too many of the feelings she usually convinced herself were silly fantasies. It was hard here in her room, touching him, her belly between them. Especially when he didnāt move away from her hand, just stood there looking down at her.
And she wanted to kiss him. It wasnāt all that unheard of a feeling. Throughout her teenage years sheād convinced herself she found him repulsive. And obnoxious. He was still obnoxious, but when sheād made any attempts to date outside the ranch, she compared every guy to Dev.
And they all were lacking. Still, even after sheād accepted thatāthat he was, for whatever reason, the only man she was ever going to truly be able to give her heart toāsheād been completely and utterly determined to just keep her heart to herself.
She didnāt touch him. She didnāt flirt with him. She had asked him for
Comments (0)