Close Range Christmas by Nicole Helm (ebook reader for laptop TXT) 📗

your brothers. I tried to warn every last one of them off, because trouble is in the Wyatt name and in the Wyatt blood. Boy, I know. I was like you once upon a time. But they all chose love and life over fear. You might not have that in you, Dev, but Sarah sure does.”

With that, he took the duffel out of Dev’s hands and headed for the door. Leaving Dev alone, holding a body pillow, with far too many revelations, and way worse, far too many emotions.

Chapter Six

Sarah woke up in a strange bed. For all the hubbub, and the giant stomach impeding any comfortable movement, she had slept pretty well. At least imminent danger couldn’t disrupt her sleep schedule like a baby was inevitably going to.

She ran her hands over her stomach in her morning ritual. She whispered a few greeting words to the baby, tried out names like she did every morning, and then finally forced herself to get out of bed.

She’d help Grandma Pauline wash up after breakfast. Then maybe she could talk to Duke about her parents.

Her chest got too tight. Her parents were dead, and they’d given her away to protect her. For so long Sarah had done everything she could not to think about them, to convince herself she was better off without them and vice versa—she didn’t want to know if they were good or bad people because both options were awful.

Now, both options were pointless because they were dead.

And her mother had been impregnated by Ace Wyatt. So she did have something in common with her mother, one way or another.

There was one big difference, of course. Dev wasn’t Ace. He might be grumpy and have a guilt complex the size of the Badlands, but he was a good man. He watched over his grandmother, took care of the ranch—and helped with hers and Duke’s when they were needing it. He was grumbly and contentious, but it hid a kindness he couldn’t fight no matter how much he seemed to want to.

“You’ll never have to wonder if your father is a good man,” she promised her boy.

Except, how could she keep that promise if Dev was determined to be nothing more than sperm donor?

Our baby.

All this time she’d held onto a hope that our would mean something. Shouldn’t she just keep holding on to that hope until this danger with Anth passed? What was more important: feelings or surviving a lunatic making threats against some of the most important people in her life?

She heaved herself out of bed. Too much thinking for one morning. Besides, a giant baby kicking her bladder wasn’t exactly the stuff relaxation was made of. She waddled across the hall and took care of the morning unpleasantry, then waddled right back to the room and threw on a few layers.

Even with pregnancy hormones and overheating, it was dang cold this morning. Of course by the time she’d managed to pull on socks she was breathing heavily.

No, she wouldn’t miss pregnancy in the practical sense. Once dressed more warmly, she headed for downstairs. She knew Grandma Pauline had given her the room that best suited her needs—close to the bathroom, sandwiched between Grandma Pauline and the room Felicity and Gage were staying in so she had quick access to help if she needed any, but boy were the stairs something she dreaded.

Still, she could hardly kick Dev out of his room downstairs when he had an actual physical injury—one that pained him, especially in the winter and especially since he’d been doing extra ranch duty for months now.

It was very hard to be appreciative when she’d always prided herself on being so self-sufficient. She often had to remind herself it was for the baby, not her, before she snapped at some well-meaning family member or Wyatt brother.

As if thinking of one conjured one up, as she gripped the railing to help her down the stairs, Dev appeared below.

His nose was red with cold, and she had no doubt his leg was paining him, but more than that he looked tired, exhausted really. Dark shadows under his eyes, and slumped shoulders she’d learned meant he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep. “Looks like you had a rough night.”

Dev grunted. “You look like a snowman.”

She scowled at him. “It’s cold. And I’m pregnant.”

His mouth twitched a little, bordering on a smile. She wanted to really make him smile. Or laugh. Before the whole baby thing she’d been on a personal mission to get him to do both more, but then Brady and Cecilia’s wedding plans and Rachel moving in with Tucker had made her feel a melancholy that could only be filled with achieving the next goal.

Motherhood.

Now she was here and it felt less like a goal to accomplish. She wasn’t sure what it felt like instead, but nothing so cut and dried as a goal or an achievement. It was too big for that. Too all encompassing. Oddly like the danger they were in. She didn’t know what lay ahead, or how to plan it out so things would go the way she wanted.

To an extent she was used to that with ranch life. Weather turned, cows died, years were bad. But the ranch and the land remained. People didn’t necessarily.

“Grandma wanted me to come check on you. Having some problems with the heater.”

Sarah forced herself to smile, still gripping the railing tightly. “I’ll survive. I have all this extra insulation now.”

He nodded, but he didn’t move out of the stairway. He stared at her as if puzzling out some unsolved mystery.

Since she was familiar with that look, and that Dev might stand there and puzzle for a good few minutes before he got around to telling her what it was all about, she waited. She’d learned to have patience with Dev. Not that he’d ever see it that way. She still moved too fast and too decisively for him.

They balanced each other out rather nicely all