“The only claim anyone can make now is that Jake Hawkins is Joanie’s father. Darcie made her choice. She’ll have to live with that. The only two people you have to worry about are Jake and your daughter.”
Ali went to the hospital before work the next morning. She liked the peaceful time she shared with Jake. As much as she wanted him to wake up, she knew there was a possibility that he would hate her. Would he understand that she hadn’t known what to do when she’d found out about her pregnancy? That she’d been terrified over facing the community’s censure, when everyone in town learned she’d slept with her sister’s man?
A garbled sound made her whirl around and stare at the man in the bed.
Jake groaned, his breathing harsh.
She rushed to the bed. “Oh, God, Jake. You’re waking up.” Reaching for his arm, she shook it. “C’mon, Jake, wake up. It’s Ali.”
She began to pray silently. Please, Jake, open your eyes. Even if it means you take one look at me and tell me to get lost. I don’t care. Just please wake up. Her throat tight, she leaned closer and managed to whisper, “Jake. It’s me. Ali. You can do it. Wake up.”
Jake groaned again and moved his head, as if trying to hear her voice better.
Ali’s heart drummed in her chest as she sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up Jake’s hand. She rubbed the back, then the palm, before lacing her trembling fingers through his.
“C’mon, Jake. You can do it. So many people need you. Your father has been camped out here for days. But the most important of all is your daughter. Don’t make her wait any longer. She needs her daddy,” Ali whispered, staring at his face, hoping for a reaction. None.
Tears crowded Ali’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She had to concentrate on Jake. She had to bring him back. Leaning closer to the man she’d never stopped thinking about during the past eighteen months, she spoke softly. “I need you, Jake. I need you so much.” She pressed his hand against her mouth and kissed his fingertips. “You’ve got to wake up.”
Suddenly she felt a slight movement where her lips touched Jake’s fingers. She gasped, then covered his hand with hers. “Jake?”
His long slender fingers twitched again. A jerk of his jaw had her holding her breath. “C’mon, Jake. You can do it. Come back to us.”
Another groan, and her gaze shot up to discover a pair of dazed midnight eyes staring back at her. Her tears pooled, then dashed down her cheeks. “Oh, thank God!”
Jake blinked several times and silently looked around the room, as if to orientate himself to the strange surroundings. “Jake, you’re in the hospital.” Her voice cracked with emotion. “There was an accident. We’ve been so worried about you. Oh, Jake. You’re back. You came back to us.”
Jake opened his mouth, as if to speak, but he only managed a hoarse gasp.
“Here, let me get you some water.” Shaking like crazy, Ali managed to pour water into a glass, then helped him take a drink.
Jake rested his head back on the pillow and stared at Ali. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Although he hurt like hell, the pain seemed to dissipate as her hands stroked him. So many times he’d thought about Ali, and wondered what happened after that night….
Now he knew.
His gaze fixed on her face, her beautiful face. Gentleness shone in her green eyes, and he wondered how she could have kept his child from him.
“Ali?” The words came haltingly past his parched lips. “Where…where’s my…daughter?”
Then the darkness claimed him once again.
Chapter Three
Jake heard her voice again, soft and soothing, willing him from the darkness. But it was so hard to wake up. Damn, not again.
Suddenly there was a different voice. A man’s. His father? Jake began to fight the weakness, refusing to give in.
“Wake up, son,” his father called out. “Wake up.”
“Cliff, maybe we should wait,” Ali said. “Remember what the doctor told us. He needs rest.”
“I know, but I can’t be at peace until I see for myself that he’s out of the coma,” Cliff insisted. “I want him to know I’m here. That I care.”
“He knows you’re here. But he needs sleep,” Ali said.
Jake groaned.
Cliff’s voice grew more insistent. “Jake?”
Jake blinked his eyes open and tried to focus. Relief rushed through him as he glanced around the familiar room. Thank God. He’d been able to wake from his dream. Slowly he turned his gaze to the man by his bed. His father. The man who had raised him. The man he’d never really known. Jake’s chest tightened at the sight of the deep lines on his old man’s face.
“How you doin’ son?”
Jake blinked and moved his head. He felt like hell, but he didn’t care. “H-hurt,” he said hoarsely, unfamiliar emotions tightening his throat as he looked up at Ali. “Water, please.”
“Sure.” Ali poured water into a glass from the pitcher on the table.
Jake watched her closely. Her nervousness was apparent as she tried hard to avoid eye contact. But he couldn’t stop gazing at her. He’d thought a lot about Ali over the past months, but still he hadn’t been prepared to see her. He remembered her as the quiet sister, but he had never expected to find the beautiful woman standing before him.
She had golden red curls pulled back from her oval face, the silky strands draping to her delicate shoulders. Her clear green eyes were large and mesmerizing, but there was a hint of shyness in their depths.
His gaze moved down her body, triggering his memory of their night together. Once, he’d thought, she’d been too slender, but not anymore. Her figure had blossomed into nicely rounded curves. Was that because of the child she’d carried? His child? Damn, he still couldn’t get used to the idea.
Ali slipped her hand around the back of Jake’s neck and helped him raise his head. Surprised by the surge of awareness that shot through him, Jake had to concentrate on getting the straw between his lips. He finally managed the simple task. Exhausted by his efforts, he dropped back to the pillow.
“Maybe I should leave,” Ali said as she looked at his dad. “Jake’s pretty tired.”
“No,” Jake protested. “Don’t go.” He’d be damned if he’d let her leave him alone with his father. “H-help me…sit up.”
Ali resisted. “Maybe you shouldn’t, Jake.”
“Yes. We need to talk…our daughter. Please, Ali…”
She nodded stiffly, then reached for the bed control. She brought Jake to an almost sitting position. He thanked her.
“I want to see…my daughter?”
Ali shot a glance at Cliff. “I don’t know. Since you’re in the hospital…”
Jake also looked at his father. “The Hawkins name can open some doors. Right?”
“Sure, son. You want to see your daughter, you’ll see your daughter.”
“Today,” he insisted. “I want to see her today.”
“Look, son. You’ve just come out of a long coma. You had us worried to death.” His voice was shaky. “I think you need rest.”
Jake grimaced as