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

“You kissed me,” he finally said, eyebrows drawn together and voice equal parts lecturing and confused.

She crossed her arms over her chest, which meant resting them on her belly. “Yeah. So?”

Dev’s gaze drifted there for a second and then back up to her face. “Duke’s acting like...like you want more from me.”

She wanted to curse her father, but instead she focused on the irritating man in front of her. “More than what?”

He scowled. “You know damn well what.”

She didn’t know why it hurt her feelings that he’d ask that. He had every right to speculate over her reasons for wanting him to be the father of her child. Which meant she’d have to give him a truth she wasn’t too keen on laying at anyone’s feet.

“I didn’t get pregnant to trap you into having feelings for me if that’s what you’re asking. At the time, I wasn’t too keen on having a Wyatt brother stomp my heart to bits, even if I did want his sperm.”

Dev winced at the word sperm as she’d hoped he might. Honestly, men were so overly squeamish about some things. But his expression quickly sobered.

“What does ‘at the time’ mean?”

Sarah sighed. How could she explain how things had changed? How she had changed. How she wanted something from him, but didn’t expect something from him. Hoped maybe, but not expected.

In the end, like so many things lately, it all boiled down to their baby. She unfolded her arms and placed her palms on either side of the round lump. “I love this baby and I don’t even know him yet. I can’t imagine what it’ll feel like when he’s real and in my arms and I’m in charge of keeping him alive. I’ve had to come to terms with being that vulnerable, and I imagine I’ve got a ways to go, but I’m not so afraid of it anymore.”

“Of what?”

“Love.”

Any confusion or effort to understand disappeared from his face. Emotion shuttered away to blankness. It made her want to cry, but she blinked back the tears.

For a moment, he’d wanted to know. Maybe he didn’t like her answers, but he’d wanted to understand.

“Grandma will be wanting to feed you now that you’re up,” he grumbled, then turned on a heel and disappeared down the stairs.

Sarah stayed where she was for a few moments. It was hard to let him walk away, because she was better suited to be a bulldozer. Still, she’d learned a thing or two. Dev needed a good hard push sometimes, but more often than not he needed time to work out a problem to his own satisfaction. He was an internal kind of guy.

It was just a shame so often he came to the wrong conclusion, that she’d have to talk him out of.

DEV FELT AS IF someone had shoved a cattle prod into his chest. There was a disquieting, painful buzzing lodged there and no matter how much distance he put between him and Sarah, it remained.

What the hell was she talking about love for?

He paused outside the kitchen. Too many of his family members were in there and would read something in his expression, in his demeanor. He needed a moment to bury it.

He took a deep breath and listened to the voices in the kitchen.

“I think town is the safer option when she’s that pregnant.”

Dev closed his eyes. Oh, they couldn’t be so stupid as to think they could make a decision about Sarah without her in the room. She would not handle that well at all.

He glanced back at the stairs. She’d waited to follow him, but not long. She took the last step and moved toward him, her expression oddly...blank.

He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen that kind of expression on her face before. She was a woman who was not afraid to show how she felt. Well, that wasn’t true. She didn’t care to show off sad or sweet, but pregnancy had brought down some of those walls.

God help him.

She came to stand next to him and cocked her head.

“We need to convince her it’s her own idea. She’ll never agree if we tell her to do it. We’ll have to be careful about how we approach her...”

Dev closed his yes. Oh, no. No, no, no. This was not going to go well. When he reopened them and glanced down at Sarah he saw just what he’d expected.

Wild, untethered fury.

“Sarah, why don’t you calm down before—”

She shook her head and brought her fingers to her lips.

“I’m not going to stand here and eavesdrop,” he whispered to her, though he supposed the whispering kind of undercut his grand stand against listening in.

“We’ll just pretend it’s random,” Cecilia was saying from inside the kitchen. “Sarah, Dev, and Rach and Tucker. That’s four in town. Four in Bonesteel, and leaves us five here. It’s not such a bad split.”

Dev felt his own anger begin to simmer. That wasn’t just random. He and Rachel both had physical limitations, what with Rachel being legally blind. It wasn’t just coincidence they thought it was a good idea to ship him into town.

When he had a ranch to run and was the whole reason danger was at their doorstep in the first place.

Sarah raised an eyebrow at him and gave him a smirk, as if to say see, I’m not overreacting.

Dev grunted and charged in, though Sarah was right at his heels. The conversation came to a clear stop as they entered. Felicity and Cecilia were standing in the kitchen area, likely helping Grandma Pauline with kitchen duties. Gage was sitting at the table, helping feed his daughter breakfast.

Dev knew Brady, Tucker, Duke and Rachel were out doing chores at both ranches, but would likely be in soon. He hoped they would be here soon enough to get an earful.

“So, you have to be careful huh?” Sarah demanded of her sisters, hands on her hips.

Felicity and Cecilia shared a look, while Grandma Pauline kept cleaning and Gage kept feeding.

Felicity sighed. “Now,