Page 57 of The Honorable Texan
He drew her close, laughing softly.“Everybody’s afraid of being parents,” he said easily.“But babies are tougher than they seem, and there’s always Dr.Lou.She’s had lots of experience with pregnant people, and she knows a very good obstetrician.”
“So I heard.”
“Stop worrying,” he told her.“We’re in this together.”
“I suppose we are, at that,” she conceded.“We’ll have company, too—well, about marriage.Libby and Jordan Powell are getting married.”
He grinned.“That’s no surprise.He’s been in and out of the office several times trying to get her to forgive him.”
“Serves him right that she took her time about it,” she pointed out.“He and Julie Merrill were a venomous pair.Will Julie go to prison for that arson charge, do you think?”
“She’ll probably try to let her employee swing in her place.Don’t worry.Chief Grier has another pending charge, one that she won’t escape so easily.”
“Are you going to tell me what it is?”she fished.
He chuckled.“Not now.”He bent and kissed her gently, tugging her close into his arms.They were warm and safe against the chill of the evening.She sighed and kissed him back.His mouth felt as warm as his arms.He was perfect to her.
“Go back in,” he said after a minute, running his lean hands over her arms.“You’re freezing out here.”
“It’s supposed to be spring already,” she pointed out, shivering.
“If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes,” he repeated the standing local joke.
“I believe that.”She smiled.“Are we really getting married next week, or was that just to placate Mama?”
“It was to placate me, too,” he replied somberly.“I don’t want people making snide remarks about you, the way they’re talking about Tippy Moore moving in with Chief Grier.”
“She was badly hurt,” she stated.“Nobody sane is going to think anything of it.Besides, Mrs.Jewell is staying there around the clock.So is Tippy’s little brother.There are too many chaperones for much to go on.”
“Still, there’s talk,” he countered.“And they’ll have more ammunition with you than they did with Tippy, even considering her miscarriage.It won’t take long for someone to notice that you had prenatal vitamins filled up in Victoria.”
She gasped.“How did you know that?”
“Lou told me,” he said simply, and he smiled.“Well, I am a concerned party,” he reminded her.“It’s my baby, too.”He hesitated, frowning as he looked down at Violet and then at her flat stomach.He felt…odd.He’d never thought about children, except once, long ago, with Shannon.Since then, since the fatal poisoning that had claimed her and her unborn child, he’d been belligerent about not wanting children.But now…
“You’re upset,” Violet said softly, moving a step closer.“What is it?”
He looked worried.“You know that I’ve been adamant about never wanting children.I’m not sure you know why.”
She’d forgotten that, and it made her heart sink.She knew he was making the most of a bad situation, but shehadn’t wanted to remember how he felt about children.“Some men just don’t like them,” she began.
He put his forefinger over her mouth.“Shannon was pregnant when she died,” he said bluntly.“It was my child.”
She didn’t look shocked, as he’d expected.He frowned.
“Small towns,” she explained softly.“Everybody knows everything.”
“You knew that?”
She nodded.“I’m sorry it happened that way.”
He drew in a long breath.“Yes.So am I.It was a blow that I never quite got over.Every time I saw Julie Merrill, it brought it all back.She killed another human being for no more reason than she wanted to be class president.She didn’t even seem to be bothered by it.”
“There are people who feel nothing at all,” she replied.“I don’t understand it, either.But someday, she’ll pay for the evil she’s done.”
“The sooner, the better,” he replied.
She reached up and touched his cheek.“Did you know, about the baby?”
