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“You plan to, then?”
He sent a significant glance at Lacey, who was sitting directly to his left. She smiled at him, an innocent, what-are-you-looking-at-me-for? smile. Apparently, he was on his own here.
“Yes,” he said. “I plan to have children…very soon.”
Now it was Zach and Tess’s turn to trade glances. And the two girls, as well. They looked at their parents first, then swapped a glance of their own. Edna Heller somehow managed to make eye contact with all four of the others. She shared knowing looks with Zach and Tess, and right after that flashed a “mind your business, girls,” expression at their daughters.
Lacey was grinning. Apparently she thought the whole exchange of meaningful looks rather amusing.
Logan didn’t. As far as he was concerned, those flying glances were just more proof that Lacey needed to come to her senses and marry him immediately. It was an embarrassment to sit here with this nice family and have them all wonder what the hell was going on between their unmarried pregnant cousin and the strange man who’d shown up out of nowhere this afternoon—and appeared to have set up housekeeping with her.
He wanted to get the truth out in the open. He wanted to say bluntly, That’s my baby Lacey’s carrying and I’ve come to marry her and take her home with me where she belongs.
But he couldn’t do that. Not here at the Bravo dinner table, with a girl of Jobeth’s age listening in.
“How do you and Lacey know each other?” asked Edna Heller. She was a small, slender woman, probably in her fifties, and very feminine—though in her eyes Logan could see a glint of steel. Not much would get by her.
She was smiling at him in the most polite way and waiting for an answer. Unfortunately, the truth wouldn’t sound good at all. I’ve been in love with Lacey’s sister since I was eighteen years old. Jenna was going to marry me—until she decided to run off with Mack McGarrity instead.
Lacey came to his rescue on that one. “Logan and Jenna went to school together. Logan’s been sort of a big brother figure to me over the years.”
Edna Heller’s eyebrows rose daintily toward her hairline. “Ah. A big brother figure.”
“He’s always felt he has to take care of me. He still feels that way. Don’t you Logan?”
“That’s right.”
“That’s…admirable of you, Mr. Severance.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Heller.”
“You know, for years my son-in-law, Cash, imagined himself a big brother to my Abigail. But then he married her and found out he was deeply in love with her. Abigail, of course, always worshipped him.”
“Oh, really?” Logan said, for lack of something better to say.
Lacey couldn’t let Edna’s observation go unchallenged. “Are we supposed to be noting similarities between Cash and Abby—and Logan and me?”
“Well,” said Edna airily. “Only if the shoe fits, as they say.”
“The shoe does not fit. Logan and I are not getting married. And if you ask him, he’ll tell you he never got any worship from me.”
Edna might give the Bravo daughters stern looks admonishing them to stay out of others’ affairs, but she clearly thought of herself as someone who had a right to be in the know. She turned to Logan. “Well, Mr. Severance?”
Lacey hasn’t fully accepted the idea yet, but we are getting married, he thought. He said, “No. Worship is not the word I would use to describe Lacey’s feelings for me.”
“What word would you use, then?”
He shrugged. “Let’s just say it wouldn’t be worship and leave it at that.”
There was a silence, which was quickly filled with nonsense syllables from the baby and the clink of silver against china plates.
Zach said, “More potatoes, Logan?”
“Yes, please. This is a terrific meal, Tess.”
Tess colored prettily at the compliment. “Well, I must confess. Edna always does the potatoes around here. I swear she has a way of making them light enough that they could get right up and float off your plate.”
Edna smiled graciously—and went back to her velvet-gloved interrogation. “And how long will you be staying on the Rising Sun, Mr. Severance?”
He shot a look at Lacey. She’d had a lot to say a minute ago. Maybe she’d want to put her two cents in on this one.
But not this time. She only looked back at him, thoroughly annoying in her pretended innocence.
He shrugged. “I’ll be here a week or two. At least until the baby’s born.”
“You’re a doctor, you said?”
“That’s right. I’m in family practice.”
“This is…a vacation then?”
“Not really. I’m here to…help Lacey out, in any way I can.”
Glances went flying again. He almost wished they would all just say what they were thinking. Then he could answer them. He could explain his position and enlist their aid in convincing Lacey to see things his way.
“Well,” said Tess, taking pains to remain neutral. “We hope you’ll enjoy your stay.”
He was neutral right back at her. “I’m sure I will.”
The baby dropped his teething ring. Tess picked it up, wiped it off, and handed it to him, then suggested casually, “We’ve been trying to talk Lacey into moving to the house.”
Lacey reached down the table to brush Tess’s arm. “Stop worrying. I told you, I’m just fine at the cabin for right now.”
Tess sighed. “I disagree. And I wish Dr. Severance would help me to change your mind.”
Fat chance, Logan thought. He said, “I’ve known Lacey for fifteen years. In all that time, I haven’t changed her mind about a single thing.”
Lacey laughed. The musical sound tingled along his nerves and warmed something down inside him. “That can’t be true, Logan. You must have changed my mind about something in a decade and a half. It’s not as if you haven’t tried.”
He turned his head and looked right at her. The reaction was instantaneous—that chemical thing between them, which unscientific men called desire. It heated his blood, made him glad his lap was covered by Tess Bravo’s lace tablecloth.
He should not allow her to do this to him. She was nine months’ pregnant, for pity’s sake. He ought to be ashamed of himself.
He arched an eyebrow at her. “You’re right.” To his relief, his voice sounded fine, level and calm. It gave no inkling of what had just happened under the table. “It’s incredible when you think about it. But it’s true. I have never changed your mind about a single thing.”
“Yes. Yes, you have.”
“Oh, come on, Lacey.”
“I remember distinctly—”
She didn’t either, and they both knew she didn’t. “What?” he demanded. “You remember what?”
The baby, in his highchair, chortled to himself as a slow smile curved Lacey’s eminently kissable mouth. For a moment, Logan thought she would actually say something about the two of them, about how she’d never in her life imagined him as a lover—but that was one thing he had definitely changed her mind about. He had to resist the urge to clap his hand over her mouth.
And then she said, “Broccoli.”
He didn’t think he’d heard her correctly. “Broccoli?”
Lacey nodded. “You convinced me to give it a try. You said I would like it raw. With ranch dressing.”
He stared at her, thinking, Liar. You never ate any broccoli for me—raw or otherwise.
“Yes.” That smile of hers was too innocent by half. “Broccoli. Remember?” She was blatantly teasing him, pouring on the innuendo.
But it could be worse, he reminded himself. At least she hadn’t said what he’d feared she might.
He forced a smile to answer hers and let her have her silly lie. “I don’t know how I could have let myself forget.”
“More string beans?” Tess asked him.
He thanked her and spooned a second helping onto his plate.
The talk turned to safer subjects.
Zach asked Jobeth about a calf she had chosen to raise herself as a 4-H project.
Jobeth explained how she planned to experiment with different varieties of feed.
Then Tess wanted to know how things were going for Starr. Evidently, the older girl had a job at a local shop called Cotes’s Clothing and Gift.
“A summer job is a summer job,” Starr said. “It gets a little boring, but it’s not that bad. Mr. Cotes offered me four more hours on Saturdays. I’m going to take them. Might as well make use of my free time this summer. When school starts, I want to keep my focus on studying, where it belongs.”
“Our Starr is a straight-A student,” Edna declared with pride.
A contrary glint came into the girl’s impossibly beautiful violet eyes. “At least I am now.”
Zach frowned. “We are proud of you. Very, very proud.”
Starr lifted her lovely chin. “Thanks.”
Evidently, the girl had had some problems in the past. Logan wondered what, but the subject had already shifted again.
Zach was suggesting that Logan might want to saddle up and ride with him and Jobeth and the men sometime in the next few days. He could see how things were done on a working cattle ranch.
Logan confessed, “I think I’ve been on a horse about three times in my life. And they weren’t very lively horses, if you know what I mean.”
Zach chuckled. “We’ll find you something sweet-natured and easy-going—or you can ride in one of the pickups. Your choice.”
“Then I’d enjoy a tour, Zach. Thanks.”
Beside him, Lacey slid back her chair and stood. “Excuse me.”
Apprehension pulling a thread of tightness across his chest, Logan looked up over the ripe curve of her belly and into her eyes. “What is it? Are you feeling all right?”
She laughed and put her hand on his shoulder. It felt good there. Damn good. “Relax. I’m fine. I need to…make use of the facilities, that’s all.”
“You’re sure. If something’s—”
She lifted her hand and stroked the hair at his temple. “Logan. Eat.” Her hand was cool and her eyes were a summer sky—clear, stunningly blue. A smile quivered across that soft mouth of hers. He had to remind himself that they were not alone, or he would have laid his palm on her belly, a possessive touch, which would have felt totally appropriate then. At that moment, she was all softness, all openness. And all for him.
But then she seemed to catch herself. She jerked her glance away. Her smile vanished.
She dropped her hand. “I’ll be right back.” She slid around the chair and headed for the hall.
He watched her until she’d disappeared from view, reluctant to relinquish the sight of her, wondering at her swift change of mood. For a moment, she had been so damn…tender.
Just as she’d been when he woke and found her standing over him in the cabin an hour before. He’d seen the softness in her eyes then, too. And something else. Worry, maybe.
But softness, definitely.
And even earlier, while he unpacked his few things. She had sat in that rocker and watched him, a dreamy, contented expression on her face.
As if she…
It came to him. Right then, at the Bravo family’s dinner table, as he watched her waddle away through the living room, then disappear beyond a door that led to the front hall. It all snapped into place.
For Lacey, this was more than a matter of sexual attraction. More than affection, more than the commonality of a shared past. More even than the most important issue of the child she was about to have.
She was in love with him.
It made perfect sense. The abrupt way she had broken it off in September—that must have been when she had realized.
And what about the times he had called her and she’d never called back? That hadn’t been like her. Before, she would have called, if only to insist that she was fine, that he was not to worry about her, that he needed to get on with his life and let her get on with hers.
Yes. She was in love with him—and she feared, because of Jenna, that he would only hurt her.
He wouldn’t. Never. Jenna was gone for good now, living in Florida with Mack McGarrity, a baby on the way. She was no threat to what Logan and Lacey might share.
Damn. Lacey loved him.
True, he didn’t have a lot of faith in love lately. He’d loved Jenna for all those years and in the end, his love had not been enough to hold her.
But this situation was different. He was already committed to making a life with Lacey. He had been from the moment he’d learned that she carried his child. If Lacey thought herself in love with him—whatever the hell that really meant—it could only work in his favor.
A lightness seemed to move through him. A feeling of rightness, of ease.
And of power, too.
