Читать книгу Having His Baby - BEVERLY BARTON, Beverly Barton - Страница 9

One

The baby in her arms whimpered. Donna lifted Susan and Hank’s son to her shoulder and crooned comforting, nonsensical words into the infant’s ear. Sighing, she stretched her back, which ached unbearably. A symptom of late pregnancy and the fact that she had been on her feet too long today. But this was such a special event. A wedding. Susan Williams, one of her best friends, had married the man of her dreams, the only man she’d ever truly loved. The father of her child. Donna sighed as she watched the happy couple cut their wedding cake.

Just as Susan pushed a piece of cake into Hank Bishop’s mouth, his sister Tallie cried out from the hallway, then burst into laughter.

“My God, Jake! I can’t believe it’s really you! After all these years you’ve come home,” Tallie said. “You’re too late for the wedding, but the reception just started.”

“You don’t mean our big brother actually came home for your wedding,” Caleb Bishop said. “Will wonders never cease. He didn’t bother making the trip for Tallie’s wedding or for mine.”

“Well, this does make the day perfect, doesn’t it?” Susan said. “All three Bishop brothers together for the first time in...how long?”

“Nearly eighteen years,” Hank said, slipping his arm around Susan’s waist as he led her over to meet the new arrival.

Donna Fields froze to the spot as she watched the Bishop family greet the tardy guest. They had called him Jake and had welcomed him as their long lost brother. But that couldn’t be, Donna thought. It just wasn’t possible!

Suddenly she felt light-headed. The room spun around and around. She couldn’t faint. Not now. Not while she was holding little Lowell Bishop.

Donna called out to Danny Bishop, Caleb’s twelve-year-old son. “Danny, will you take Lowell for a few minutes? I need to check on something in the kitchen.”

“Sure thing, Miss Donna.” The tall, lanky boy reached out and accepted the tiny bundle.

“Just take him over to your aunt Tallie if he puts up a fuss.”

“Will do,” Danny said.

Donna wanted to run. As fast and as far as her shaky legs would carry her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t maneuver very fast in her present condition. She was as big as a barrel. Dr. Farr had told her that if she hadn’t gone into labor by tomorrow, he intended to induce labor. She’d be so glad to get the birth over with and hold her precious little daughter in her arms.

Donna eased past several people gathered at the back of the dining room, smiling and nodding as she made her way toward the kitchen. She swung open the door, then closed it behind her and took a deep, calming breath. She had to get out of this house—away from the eldest Bishop brother! Dear God in heaven, why had he shown up today? Hank and Caleb’s mysterious big brother had stayed away for more than seventeen years. No one thought he’d attend the wedding. But here he was—big as life and twice as dangerous.

Donna’s heart raced so hard and fast that the drumming roared in her ears. Of all the men on earth, why him? Maybe she’d been hallucinating. Maybe she had imagined that Jake Bishop looked like J.B. After all, for the past nine months, ever since she’d said goodbye to J.B. at the airport, she had been unable to erase his memory from her mind. And when she had discovered that, despite the precautions they’d taken, she was pregnant with his child, the big, sexy cowboy had been on her mind constantly.

Take another look at Jake Bishop and make sure he really is your J.B. from the Blue Bonnet Grill. She eased the kitchen door ajar slightly and peered through the crack. The large, broad-shouldered man had his back to her. She quickly scanned his body from the top of his silky black hair to the heels of his snakeskin boots. He was the same height and size as J.B. Had the same coal black hair. The same dark complexion.

His deep, hearty laughter rumbled loudly. Donna’s heart caught in her throat. Oh, God, she knew the sound of that laughter. The big man turned just enough to give her a glimpse of his face. The bottom dropped out of her stomach. This was no hallucination. No wild imaginings. Jake Bishop and J.B.—her weekend cowboy, the father of her child—were one and the same.

She couldn’t let him see her. She had to leave before the two of them came face-to-face. But her purse and car keys were upstairs on Susan’s bed. How could she slip upstairs without being seen? The house was filled with wedding guests. She’d just have to chance it. There was no other way. Besides, maybe, if she kept her head down and her face diverted, J.B. wouldn’t recognize her. After all, the last time he’d seen her, she’d been thirty-five pounds lighter and actually had a waistline.

Another of those annoying back pains hit her the moment she walked through the kitchen door. She stopped abruptly, waiting for the pain to subside: As the last ripples of discomfort eased away, Donna took a deep breath, glanced quickly in J.B.’s direction, then jerked her head downward when she realized he was looking directly at her. As she made her way around the room, doing her best to avoid being noticed, a strange sensation came over her.

“Oh, God, no!” she pleaded under her breath just as her body betrayed her. Her water broke, sending what felt like a tidal wave down her legs and onto the floor. She stood there helpless and mortified.

“Oh, hell’s toenails,” Tallie shouted “Donna’s water just broke. Call Dr. Farr.”

Within seconds, Tallie Bishop Rand, Susan Bishop and Sheila Bishop hovered around Donna. She prayed that their bodies protected her from J.B.’s curious stare. But within seconds, she realized that her prayer hadn’t been answered.

“Donna?” J.B.’s voice boomed like thunder. “Donna, is that you?”

Jake moved across the room with deadly force, his eyes narrowed, his jaw tight. He parted the trio of Bishop ladies surrounding Donna and took a good look at the woman who stared back at him with amber cat eyes. It was her! His Donna from the Blue Bonnet Grill. The woman who had come to pieces in his arms time and again during that long weekend nine months ago. Nine months! He stared into Donna’s pale face, then his gaze traveled downward to her large, protruding belly. She was pregnant. Very pregnant.

“What’s the matter with you, Jake?” His sister Tallie tried to shove him out of the way. “Donna’s water just broke. We need to get her to the hospital.”

Jake didn’t budge. “You’re pregnant,” he said to Donna.

She didn’t speak, only nodded agreement.

“Nine months’ pregnant?” he asked, though the answer was more than obvious.

She nodded again.

“Will you get out of the way,” Tallie scolded. “This has nothing to do with you. Just let us handle things.”

“It’s mine,” Jake said, his deep, quiet voice silencing the chatter around the room.

Donna cringed as another pain sliced through her back. She gulped in air, then looked Jake square in the eye. “Yes” seemed to be the only word she could manage.

“What?” Tallie stared back and forth from her eldest brother to her pregnant friend.

Jake shoved the women aside and lifted Donna, whose damp dress clung to the backs of her legs. She slipped her arm around his neck and laid her weary head on his shoulder.

“I took a cab from the airport,” Jake said. “Somebody else will have to drive us to the hospital.” He carried Donna through the midst of curious onlookers, straight to the front door and out onto the porch.

His brothers and their wives followed, whispering among themselves as they tried to make sense of what was happening.

“We can take my minivan,” Susan said, turning to her husband. “Get the keys and bring Lowell with you. He’ll be hungry soon.”

When Hank returned to the house to retrieve the keys and his infant son, Caleb laid his hand on Jake’s shoulder, halting Jake’s progress toward the driveway.

“Mind telling us just what’s going on here?” Caleb asked. “We’re all a bit confused.”

Jake paused, turned his dark gaze on his youngest brother and grunted. “You think you’re confused! How the hell do you think I feel, showing up for Hank’s wedding and running into a woman I spent a—”

Donna cried out in pain. “Please, hurry up and get me to the hospital. I’m sure I’m in labor and this baby isn’t going to wait around while we discuss who’s confused and why.”

Caleb’s wife Sheila slid open the minivan door. Jake stepped up inside the vehicle and settled Donna on his lap. She squirmed against him in an effort to remove herself from his arms. He tightened his hold on her just enough to restrict her movements.

Lowering his head so that his words were a whispered question in her ear, he said, “How about explaining a few things to me?”

“What’s there to explain?” Tilting her chin defiantly, she glared at him as she shrugged her shoulders.

Jake stared meaningfully down at her stomach. “That baby’s definitely mine, right?”

She tried again to wiggle free of his hold, but to no avail. “The baby is mine!” she told him. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I had no idea you were Jake Bishop. If I’d known, I never would have—” She lowered her voice. “You do realize, of course, that your showing up here like this has complicated my life. I told people that I had married and gotten a quick divorce and the father of my child was out of my life.”

“Why didn’t you get in touch with me to let me know I was going to be a father?”

“How was I suppose to do that? I didn’t even know your last name.”

“You could have—”

“Excuse us,” Caleb said as he helped Sheila and Susan, who was carrying little Lowell, up into the van. “We’re ready to go now.”

Tallie raced toward the van with her husband Peyton at her side just as Hank opened the driver’s door. She stuck her head inside, peered into the back and said, “Peyt and I will follow y’all to the hospital. And before Donna has her baby, this family expects a full explanation from you.” She pointed her finger directly into Jake’s face.

Donna groaned as another pain hit her. This had to be some horrible nightmare, she thought. It wasn’t possible that she was on the verge of giving birth to Jake Bishop’s baby. The child she had carried for nine months was hers and hers alone. Not once had she ever considered the possibility that her child’s father would show up unexpectedly in her life. And it certainly hadn’t crossed her mind that the man she’d spent the weekend with in New Mexico was the brother and brother-in-law of her three closest friends.

She had heard them mention Jake Bishop, the eldest of the Bishop clan, the brother who had left town nearly eighteen years ago and hadn’t been heard from until about six years ago In all that time, nothing had lured him home. Not his grandfather’s death, not his other siblings’ marriages, not even Caleb’s nearly fatal accident. So, why now, after all this time, had he decided to show up for Hank and Susan’s wedding?

Donna felt decidedly uncomfortable cradled in Jake’s lap, but he’d made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t letting go of her. She stole a glance at his face, hoping to gage his mood. But that stony, expressionless face gave away nothing.

“J.B.—ah, I mean Jake—” She cleared her throat. “—Why did you come back to Crooked Oak?”

“Yeah, why did you come back?” Caleb asked as he turned halfway around in the front seat.

“I came back for Hank’s wedding,” Jake said.

“Why for Hank’s and not for mine or Tallie’s?” Caleb draped his arm across the seat as he focused his gaze on his eldest brother.

“Well, to be honest, I was planning on coming back to Tennessee anyway,” Jake admitted. “You see, I’ve made an offer for Old Man Henry’s quarter horse ranch and if the deal goes through, then I’m moving home to stay.”

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Hank slammed his hand down on the steering wheel. “Looks like, one by one, all three Bishop brothers have come home to roost.”

Donna moaned. Oh, great! Jake Bishop was moving back to Tennessee. He’d be around all the time. She didn’t think she could bear having him in the same state, let alone the same county. What if he wanted to play a role in little Louisa Christine’s life? She barely knew him but somehow she was sure this cowboy wasn’t suitable father material.

You should have thought of that before you slept with him, an inner voice chastised her.

“So, while we’re on our way to the hospital, how about one of you explaining the situation to us,” Sheila said. “It’s obvious that you two know each other and that...well, are we wrong to assume that Jake is the father of your baby?”

“I thought you told us you didn’t know the guy you spent the weekend with,” Susan said as she rocked a restless little Lowell in her arms.

“I didn’t know him!” Donna said. “All I knew was that his friends called him J.B. I had no idea he was Jake Bishop.”

Caleb chuckled, then rubbed his chin in mock seriousness. “Let me get this straight. Donna and Jake met...somewhere...nine months ago, got married, got divorced and never knew who the other one was? Sorry, folks, but that doesn’t make any sense.”

“We didn’t get married.” Donna looked pleadingly at Jake.

“Oh, so you just had sex and then went your separate ways and Donna made up the story about a marriage and a divorce,” Hank said.

“He wasn’t suppose to show up in my life,” Donna explained. “Not ever. J.B. was just a weekend fling. I had no idea I’d accidently get pregnant.”

“So you did use condoms?” Caleb barely suppressed a grin as he looked his eldest brother square in the eye.

“This conversation is getting entirely too personal,” Donna told them, then cried out when, another labor pain struck.

“How far is the damn hospital?” Jake ran a comforting hand over Donna’s stomach.

“We’ll be there any minute,” Hank said.

Donna clutched Jake’s strong hand and held on to it tightly as the pain worsened and then subsided. Her cry transformed into a whimper and then a sigh of relief.

“Is it bad, sugar?” Jake asked, sincere concern evident in his dark eyes as he stared at her face.

“You have no idea.” For a split second Donna was glad her baby’s father was with her, holding her, comforting her, trying his best to reassure her. But the moment ended quickly and reality set in. She didn’t know this man—Jake Bishop—and had no idea what his presence in her life would mean to her and her child.

“We’re here,” Hank said as he pulled the van up in front of the emergency room entrance.

Caleb jumped out, opened the back door and moved out of the way as Jake emerged with Donna in his arms. Jake stormed into the ER, past the protesting receptionist and straight toward the nearest person in a nurse’s attire.

“She’s in labor and we need help immediately,” Jake said.

“Sir, if your wife is in labor, you need to take her to the admission’s office,” the nurse explained. “After she’s admitted, they’ll take her up to her suite and her doctor will see her.”

“I’ll take her wherever she needs to go right now,” Jake said, his deep voice a vicious growl. “Somebody can fill out the papers later!”

The ER nurse backed away from Jake, and Donna covered her mouth to suppress a giggle. The poor woman’s face had gone deathly white and her brown eyes bulged.

Tallie, Peyton and Sheila flew into the ER behind Jake and Donna. Tallie grabbed Jake’s arm and the nurse gasped as if she thought the big cowboy might strike the woman who had dared touch him.

“What’s going on?” Tallie asked.

“Hank brought us to the wrong entrance,” Sheila explained. “We need to go around to Admitting and fill out the paperwork so they can admit Donna.”

The nurse sighed heavily, then smiled weakly at Sheila. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell this, er, gentleman. But he doesn’t seem to want to cooperate.”

“Cooperate be damned!” Jake roared the exclamation. “Donna’s in labor!”

Cringing, the nurse backed farther away from Jake. Tallie shook her finger in her brother’s face. “You’re scaring the daylights out of—” Tallie examined the nurse’s name badge “—Ms. Rivers. There are rules and regulations that she must—”

Donna moaned loudly as yet another pain ripped through her. Jake’s mouth tightened, his jaw clenched. His dark gaze zipped around the room in a search mode. He spotted someone he assumed was a doctor.

“Hey, Doc! I’ve got a woman in labor here—” he hoisted Donna a few inches higher to dramatize the situation “—and we need some help for her now, not later.”

“Dr. Keifer, I tried to explain to this man—” Nurse Rivers said.

“First-time father?” the slender, bespectacled, young doctor asked as he approached Jake.

“Yes,” three feminine voices replied—Sheila, Tallie and Donna.

Dr. Keifer grinned. Jake grunted. The doctor placed his hand on Jake’s shoulder.

“I’m Stan Keifer, Mr...?”

“Bishop. Jake Bishop.”

“Mr. Bishop, we’re going to get a wheelchair for Mrs. Bishop—” The doctor motioned to the stunned nurse, who nodded and raced off to follow his instructions. “—And they’ll take her on up to her suite while you go around to Admitting and fill out the paperwork.”

“I’ll have to fill out the paperwork,” Donna said. “The insurance is in my name and—”

“Just give your husband your insurance card—” Dr. Keifer said.

“He’s not my husband!” Donna turned to Jake, glaring at him. “You can put me down now! I’m perfectly capable of handling this myself.”

Jake eased her onto her feet, but kept one arm around her.

The nurse returned with a wheelchair. Donna pulled away from Jake and sat immediately. “Let’s go to admissions and get this show on the road.”

Jake stood in the doorway, big, brooding and mouth agape.

Tallie grabbed the wheelchair handlebars and looked over her shoulder at her brother. “Let’s go get Donna admitted before she has this baby in the hallway.”

Jake felt like a fool. He was in unknown waters here, sailing an uncharted course. All he wanted was help for Donna—for the woman who was about to give birth to his child. The very thought of fatherhood overwhelmed him. The last thing on earth he had expected when he showed up for Hank’s wedding was to find his weekend lover on the verge of childbirth.

Tallie tapped her foot. “Well? Are you coming with us or not?”

Without saying a word, Jake fell into line beside Peyton and Sheila and followed his sister as she wheeled Donna down the hall.

Fifteen minutes later the Bishop clan took up residence in Donna’s suite in the hospital’s separate maternity division. Jake stood in the corner, silent and sullen, refusing to answer any questions from his two younger brothers—and grateful that Tallie was too absorbed in Donna to harass him. Nobody could harass and needle better than his little sister. She’d been a hellcat even as a child. Maturity had mellowed her only slightly.

He watched with curiosity and concern as the nurses followed what was obviously standard procedure as they prepared Donna for childbirth. Before the family had been allowed into the suite, Donna had changed into a blue-and-white-striped cotton gown. She was now hooked up to a bag containing some kind of intravenous fluids—and to an electronic fetal monitor. That’s what the nurse had called it when he’d asked.

“Dr. Farr!” Donna held out her hand toward the middle-aged man who entered the room.

The doctor took Donna’s hand, patted it in a reassuring manner and smiled broadly. “Looks like we won’t have to induce labor, after all. I’m glad this young lady decided to make her entrance into the world before she grows any larger. We wouldn’t want you delivering an eleven pound baby, would we?”

“Eleven pounds?” Susan asked.

“When they’re full-term, Bishop babies tend to be large,” Sheila said. “Danny weighed almost ten pounds.” She patted her belly. “Lord only knows how big this one will be.”

“Yes, mine came in at over nine pounds,” Tallie said, then glanced accusingly at Jake. “Since this little girl’s daddy is six-three and a pretty big guy, she’ll be lucky to weigh less than ten pounds.”

While Jake’s mind whirled with the news that his child would be a girl, the nurse shooed him and the Bishop clan out of the room while Dr. Farr examined Donna.

He’d never thought much about fatherhood, had never actually considered having children. But the few times the notion had crossed his mind, he’d imagined his child being a boy. After all, boys ran in the Bishop family. Caleb had a son. Tallie had two boys. Now Hank had a son.

Even though Jake had a difficult time picturing himself as a father, he supposed he’d figured that helping raise a little boy was something he could handle. But a little girl? God help him, a little girl was a different matter altogether. A baby girl would need gentleness and tenderness, probably more than a boy. And any daughter of Donna’s would be a little lady. Jake would be the first to admit that he didn’t know a damn thing about ladies, little or otherwise.

Dr. Farr stepped out into the hallway and glanced at the seven adults waiting there. “Donna’s labor is progressing quickly. I don’t think we’ll have a very long wait. Sheila, since you’re Donna’s coach, you should go on in and be with her now.”

Sheila glanced over at Jake, who stared back at her in bewilderment. “I think the baby’s father should be with her for the delivery.”

“The baby’s father?” Dr. Farr questioned. “I didn’t realize that Donna had any contact with the father.”

“She does now,” Tallie said. “The father is here—” she pointed to her eldest brother “—and he’s the type who ikes to take charge of situations.”

“I’m Dr. Farr, Mr...?”

“Jake Bishop.”

“Hank and Caleb’s brother?” the doctor asked.

“That’s right.”

“And you’re the father of Donna’s baby?”

“Looks that way.”

“Do you want to be with Donna during the remainder )f her labor and the delivery of your child?”

Did he? Could he? “Yeah, I want to be with her,” he answered finally. No woman should go through childbirth without the baby’s father, Jake thought. And no kid should grow up without a dad, the way he and his brothers and Tallie had.

Jake followed Dr. Farr back into Donna’s room. The atendants turned and stared at him.

“This is Jake Bishop.” The doctor introduced him.

‘He’s the baby’s father.”

All the women smiled warmly and moved aside to allow him space next to the bed.

“What are you doing here?” Donna glared at him. “Where’s Sheila?”

“Everybody thought I should be present for our daughter’s birth,” Jake replied.

“She’s my daughter!”

“She’s our daughter, sugar.” Jake took Donna’s hand in his and lifted it to his lips.

She narrowed her eyes and glowered at him. “You didn’ t even know she existed until a few hours ago! You have no right to make claims on my baby. You weren’t supposed to be a part of her life. You’re totally unsuitable to be Louisa Christine’s father.”

Jake kissed Donna’s hand, then sat in a chair one of the attendants scooted over to him. “Louisa Christine sure i a mouthful for a little baby. Maybe we should call he Christy or Lou.”

Donna jerked her hand away. “We will do no such thing I’m naming her in honor of my grandmothers and I’m go ing to call her Louisa!”

“Sure thing. You call her whatever you want to cal her.”

“Don’t you patronize me, J.B.! Dammit, I mean Jake.’

“I don’t mind you calling me J.B.”

“That’s not your name, is it? If you’d told me you were Jake Bishop the night we met, I wouldn’t be in this situation now.”

Jake leaned over, lifted his hand to Donna’s face and caressed her moist cheek. “Are you sure about that, sugar As I recall, nothing short of an act of God would have prevented what happened between us.”

“Why you...you...you...” Donna spluttered furiously.

“Calm down,” Jake said. “What will these fine folk here think if we keep fussing with each other?”

Donna glanced around the room at the attendants, who tried to pretend they weren’t listening to every word of the not-so-private conversation. “Right this minute, I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks.”

Dr. Farr motioned to Jake. “Are you ready to be a father, Mr. Bishop?”

Was he ready to be a father? Hell, no! He’d been a renegade and a black sheep all his life. A hell-raiser, who had avoided responsibility and commitment for as long as he could remember. The last thing on earth he was ready for was fatherhood.

But prepared for the awesome task or not, he was about to have fatherhood thrust upon him. Without prior warning. With no preparation.

Jake stood, leaned over and kissed Donna’s forehead. “I’m here for the duration, whether you want me or not.”

Donna grabbed Jake’s hand. He grasped tightly. They gazed into each other’s eyes for a brief moment.

“I want you here,” Donna admitted, doing a sudden about-face in attitude. “Don’t leave me, Jake.”