“Don’t look so scared, Frannie. I’m not going to try to take custody away from you, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
She didn’t know what she was thinking. No one had ever called her Frannie.
“I’m not scared,” she returned defensively, squaring her shoulders. “I’m just worried you’ll want to tell me what to do and that’s not going to happen.”
He eyed her assessingly. “I guess we really don’t know each other, do we? One night on the sofa doesn’t a couple make.”
“No, it doesn’t. And we’re not a couple.”
He let a few pounding heartbeats pass before he asked, “When are you due?”
“February twenty-seventh.”
“What are you going to do about your practice?”
“I haven’t figured everything out yet. I’ve only known a short while.”
He cocked his head. “Did you think about not telling me and moving away from Sagebrush?”
She was hoping her guilt didn’t show.
“You did, didn’t you?” he accused. Then calmly he asked, “What made you decide to stay and not run?”
“I’m not a coward. I have a life here. I’m not going to let any man make me give up what I’m building.”
He slid his hands into the back pockets of his jeans—as if maybe he wanted to do something else with them—and continued to study her. “So what do you suggest we do?”
“I’d like you to give me time—the length of my pregnancy—to figure some things out.”
A line creased his brow and he didn’t seem to like the idea. Yet he asked, “You’ll call me when the baby’s born?”
She nodded.
His strong jaw set and his mouth formed a tight line. “I have one condition.”
“What?”
“You e-mail me a report every time you go to the doctor just to let me know everything’s okay.”
For some reason, she didn’t quibble. She didn’t see the condition as manipulation. Grady was asking her to communicate with him and it didn’t have to be in a personal way, just in the form of a report. She could do that.
“All right,” she agreed. “That won’t be a problem.”
“Have you been to see a doctor yet?” he asked.
“Yes, yesterday. Dr. Jared Madison’s my doctor. Every other month, I’ll see his obstetrical nurse practitioner. She’s my roommate, Emily Diaz. When I hit the third trimester, I’ll see him.”
Grady reached over to his desk and picked up a card from the holder there. He turned it around and jotted something on the back. Then he handed it to her. “My e-mail address is on the front. My cell phone number’s on the back. If you need anything—”
“I won’t, Grady. Really.”
“When you go into labor, I want to know.”
“When I go into labor? Why?”
“Because I want to be with you. I want to anticipate this baby being born and be there when he or she is. I mean it, Frannie. Don’t deny me that right.”
Remembering the night they’d spent together—his passion, tenderness and hunger, she assured him, “I won’t,” controlling her voice so it wouldn’t tremble. Then she tucked his card into her purse and turned to leave.
He followed her to the door.
After he’d opened it for her, he suggested, “I want you to think about the benefit of a child having two parents rather than one. I know it won’t be easy to do, but we’re smart people. We should be able to figure it out.”
She’d have six and a half more months to figure this out, thank goodness. She had a feeling she was going to need every day of those six and a half months to decide how she could coparent with Grady without being involved with him. Getting involved when she was actually ready for it wouldn’t be easy. Getting involved in this situation would be sheer lunacy.
As she said good-bye and left, she realized she liked having a nickname for the first time in her life…and she liked the sound of that nickname on Grady Fitzgerald’s lips.
Chapter Seven
Emily was concerned Jared had changed his mind about wanting to be with her at the charity banquet. He’d been quiet ever since he picked her up Saturday evening.
Now as they stood outside the ballroom, he asked, “Would you like me to check your shawl?”
“Please,” she replied, not wanting to be encumbered by the wrap at the dinner table.
She’d begun to shrug it off when she felt Jared’s large hand at her shoulder, helping her remove it. As his fingers brushed against her collarbone, she trembled. She glanced at him over her shoulder. When he gazed into her eyes, they seemed frozen in time. She was sure she saw desire in his eyes, but she wasn’t sure what else.
“Jared, is something wrong tonight?” she asked softly.
He let out a long sigh. “You mean besides the fact that you look prettier than I’ve ever seen you?”
There was frustration in his voice as his eyes ran over the black silk-jersey halter dress with its cranberry trim around the decolletage and hem. She’d worn her hair swept up into a bed of curls, and garnets dangled from delicate gold chain earrings.
His compliment bathed her with its male appreciation and she didn’t understand the problem.
Loose curls from her upswept hairdo dangled around her face. He fingered one and wrapped it around his index finger. “When you opened your door to me tonight, I didn’t want to bring you to some charity dinner. I wanted to—”
“Emily! Jared! We’ve been waiting for you. We snatched one of the tables for four.” Tessa rushed up to them and gave Emily a hug. “It seems like forever since I’ve seen you.”
Emily hugged her friend back. She missed Tessa’s presence in the house, but she wanted Jared to finish that sentence. She wanted to hear what he felt.
Tessa’s husband, Vince, gave her a hug, too. In the past month, she’d gotten to know him better and considered him a friend. She introduced him to Jared and the men shook hands.
“You were the chief of police in Sagebrush for a while, weren’t you?” Jared asked Vince.
“For a few months. I just started working for an investigative and security firm in Lubbock.”
Tessa hooked her arm through her husband’s. “We’d better reclaim our table or somebody might steal it.”
After Jared checked Emily’s shawl, his hand moved to the small of her back. She could feel the imprint of it through the thin fabric. “We’ll talk later,” he mumbled, guiding her into the ballroom.
Emily saw many faces she recognized. But with Jared’s hand on her back, her mind focused on his hand’s heat and texture and the trill of sparks that skipped down her spine. There was always heat when the two of them were together. What had he been about to say? That he wanted to make love to her? That he would rather have closed the door at her house and spent the night in bed with her? Could she satisfy him? Would his desire last beyond one night?
At the table, he pulled out her chair for her. When she sat, he leaned close as he pushed her in. If she turned her head, her cheek might graze his jaw. She took in a deep breath.
Jared