Page 56 of Her Silver Fox Mountain Men

I shake my head with surprising decisiveness. “I’m having this baby. I just don’t know how I’m going to break the news to the father.” Or fathers. Oh, God, what did I get myself into?

“Whenever you’re ready, Elise. In the meantime, however, I don’t want you having any more of these fainting spells, so I’m going to prescribe some prenatal vitamins for you to start taking right away. Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water. You will need to come in for monthly checkups, unless something feelsoff, in which case you need to come in right away or call an ambulance.”

“Okay. Yeah. I can do that.”

I think I’ll be able to hide it for a little while longer. At least until I figure out if it’s still safe for me to be here. Kara being in Rustic, Colorado, is anything but a coincidence. If she’s around, then so is Igor.

“Take this to the drugstore,” Dr. Simon says as he finishes writing out the prescription. I take the piece of paper and look at it for a moment. “Twice per day with every meal. And if you can supplement your daily diet with more berries and flaxseed, that should also help in the long run.”

“No more coffee, huh?” I sigh deeply.

“I don’t like to be an extremist, Elise. I’d recommend one cup, tops, on a daily basis. Otherwise, if you can replace it with decaf and maybe switch to herbal tea, even better,” he says. “Definitely no alcohol.”

“That won’t be a problem. I’m not a big drinker anyway.”

I put on a reassuring smile to greet Janice and the twins as I step out into the waiting room. “Clean bill of health,” I tell them. “I just need to make a few adjustments to my diet and pick up some prescribed vitamins from the drugstore. Oh, and drink more water.”

“Water is important,” Ainsley says.

“Listen to the little lady,” Janice tells me, then raises a suspicious eyebrow. “Are you sure, Elise? That’s all?”

“Yes, ma’am. Blood tests show nothing out of the ordinary, except a few low values, thus the vitamins,” I reply. “I’m going to be okay; I promise.”

Or so I keep telling myself.

21

Elise

Acouple of days later, I’m in the den watching the sun set over the mountain ridge. It will turn bright pink before dissolving into a deep purple then dark blue before settling into black. Soon, a blanket of stars will be sprinkled across the sky. If there’s one thing I know I’m going to miss about this place, it’s the view from James’s den.

My phone pings, interrupting my sky gazing.

It’s Janice. She sent a photo of the girls. Tricia and Ainsley are having a sleepover with Janice’s great-nieces. They’re rarely in town, but when they do come around, Janice makes sure that the girls have a slumber party at her place. A bit of bonding time between the four adorable munchkins means we have the house to ourselves.

“Would you like some?” James asks me.

“Huh?”

I turn my head to find him in the doorway, two glasses and a bottle of unopened wine in hand. He looks dashing as always, clad in his usual jeans and plaid shirt, his beard a tad scruffierthat usual. It’s been a hard day for him and the guys, having spent most of it chopping wood for the winter.

“Oh, no thank you, I don’t really feel like it tonight,” I say politely.

My heart skips a few beats when I’m reminded of why I’m depriving myself of what looks like a smooth and robust Cabernet. James smiles softly then sets both glasses and the bottle on the table before joining me on the sofa. He smells like a god of the forest, hints of pine and leaves lingering on his clothes.

“You haven’t been yourself lately,” James says, nuzzling my cheek.

I giggle as his arms come around my waist. “It’s nothing serious. The changing of the seasons always means new vibes kicking in, that’s all.”

“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, you do know that you can talk to me about anything, right?”

Looking into his deep green eyes, I feel at home. I feel safe. I don’t want to lose those feelings, though I’ve spent the past few days preparing for something that will cause me to do just that. “I know,” I tell him. “And I promise you’ll be the first person I reach out to but there’s nothing wrong. I’m just trying to wrap my head around what’s happening between the four of us. I don’t want to ask the dreaded question, but I do wonder—”

“What we are, exactly?” he gets straight to the point.

It makes me laugh. “Yeah.”

“The million-dollar question.”

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