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“I love you, Dev,” she replied hoarsely.
He rubbed her back and cupped her buttocks, his touch arousing feelings of passion and need as it always did. He kissed her and she melted against him.
“Is it okay to make love?” he asked.
“Yes, of course. We make love all the time, don’t we?” She took his hand and led him to the bedroom.
The following morning, Brynna stood before the mirror in her chemise and panties and studied her body, her barely swelling abdomen negligible proof of the life within her. She touched the place where their child nestled and tried not to think of Dev’s reaction the night before. His focus on flying reminded her frighteningly of her parents’ obsession with their own private lives.
Norman and Audrey Shaw had been loving toward each other, but never attentive to their children. Brynna had often wondered why the couple had bothered to create and keep four children. She’d thought they would have discovered after the first one—her—that they weren’t cut out to be parents.
Her father worked his eight-to-five job at the lumber mill and her mother as a file clerk at the courthouse. Once the two hit the door after work, they were right back out pursuing their own interests, keeping Beauties and the Beat as well as Joe’s Bar in business, traveling to flea markets and trade shows on the weekends. Her father bought and sold rare coins.
Once Tuck had graduated, they’d bought an RV and hit the road. Brynna had always been the emotional stability for her siblings. She’d prepared their meals, washed their clothes and helped them with schoolwork.
She didn’t want to be the solitary backbone of her own family as she had been for her birth family. She didn’t want a family without Dev’s help. She couldn’t bear to be alone in this marriage.
Dev had more money to play with, but he was preoccupied with his own interests, just as her parents had been. She didn’t believe for a moment that he’d ever be unfaithful. She just didn’t think he knew how to commit. His reaction to her pregnancy confirmed that.
Brynna had worked hard to get this far in her career. Focus and responsibility had brought her to this point. She’d done this on her own and she wasn’t going to give it up. But she wanted this baby, too. A family. She had a horrible feeling that she’d made a mistake in impulsively marrying a man she didn’t know well. It was a feeling she couldn’t shake.
The next two evenings Brynna worked, and when she came home, Dev had been waiting for her with a light meal. They made small talk, though neither of them mentioned her pregnancy, and the subject hung between them like an invisible wall. Brynna’s defenses were more on alert than ever. Would Dev come around…or had this pushed him away?
Would she come home some night to find him gone? His things missing? Preparing herself for that possibility, she distanced herself a little more each day.
Friday evening after work, Brynna showered and dressed for her younger brother’s party, concerned because she hadn’t heard from Dev since that morning, and he hadn’t been here to greet her after her shift. She fixed her pager to the snug waistband of her slacks and tried calling Dev’s cell phone. She got his voice mail and left him a brief message, asking where he was.
Glancing out at the hazy sky, she grabbed a light jacket and drove to Melanie and Frank’s comfortable ranch-style home. The acrid scent of smoke hung in the air, and Brynna scanned the horizon, spotting a dark cloud in the direction of Logan’s Hill. They hadn’t had rain for weeks on end, and the reports of sporadic fires were frightening. This one looked close.
Her brother-in-law met her at his door.
“Where’s the hunk?” Frank asked, glancing behind her. He’d teasingly referred to Dev as the hunk ever since hearing how the nurses at the clinic considered him eye candy.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t get him on the phone. Where’s the birthday guy?”
She had seen Tuck’s car in the drive.
“Out back. Your sister is grilling, though I warn you, I am the master chef. So far, so good, though.”
“Frank, did you see the sky to the northeast? There’s a fire.”
“I’ll flip on my police scanner and listen. Go on out back.”
Brynna made her way through the house and out the sliding doors from the dining room to a roomy deck where Tuck sat at a picnic table with his nephews, playing with plastic action figures.
John, six, and Chandler, four, jumped down from their seats to run and greet their aunt. Brynna gave them hugs and kissed their cheeks. “It’s Unca Tuck’s boofday,” Chandler told her, his blue eyes wide with excitement.
“I know,” Brynna replied. “Are we going to have cake after supper?”
“Uh-huh. And we gots a supwise for him, too, but I’m not apposed to say it’s stuff for him to take at college.”
“Well, don’t say it then,” Brynna replied with a grin.
“It’s not toys,” John added without enthusiasm.
“That’s probably a good thing,” Brynna replied, “because Tuck won’t have time to play with toys at college. At least I never did.”
“I’m taking my Game Boy,” Tuck interjected. “I have to have something to do besides study.”
“Can we play with your Game Boy now, Uncle Tuck?” John asked.
“After supper,” Melanie replied from her position at the grill.
John and Chandler jumped up and down in delighted anticipation. The steaks smelled incredible, and Brynna’s stomach growled.
“Have you received all of your grant forms and finished all the paperwork?” Brynna asked her brother. He had been accepted into a west-coast college and had received a couple of small grants, which would help. Brynna had done as much as she could to help with tuition, especially since Dev had been paying her school loans—with the agreement that she’d pay him back.
Her youngest brother nodded. “I got it all mailed.”
“I suppose I need to arrange my schedule so we can drive out there and look at the dorms,” she said.
“Dev is flying me out next week to look at an apartment and to find a part-time job,” he replied, the information catching her by surprise. “He is so cool.”
She looked at him in surprise and concern. “Tuck, the dorms are more affordable than an apartment, especially in California.”
Besides, she was worried about him being on his own, so far away from home. She’d feel better if he was living on campus.
“I might find someone to share the rent with when we get there. There will be notices posted in the registration building. Where is Dev, anyway?”
Brynna glanced at her watch. “I don’t know.”
Just then a siren split the silence. Down the street, Rumor’s only fire truck could be heard leaving the station.
Chandler jumped up and grabbed Tuck’s hand. “Let’s go see!”
Chapter Five
Melanie forked the steaks onto a platter. “I’ll take these in first, then join you out front.”
Brynna followed the boys to the end of the driveway, where they could watch as the fire truck turned onto the dirt road leading toward Logan’s Hill. The sky in that direction was dark with smoke.
“That looks really close,” Tuck observed, voicing Brynna’s own silent alarm.
“We could sure use some rain,” Melanie said, coming to stand beside the others. “This drought is getting serious.”
“News said there was a major storm front on the west coast, but it will probably blow out before it reaches us,” Frank said from the doorway, where he, too, studied the sky.
A sleek, black sports car pulled into the drive behind Brynna’s, and her brother Kurt got out and joined them.
Brynna gave him a hug. “I haven’t seen you for a while. Staying busy at the drugstore?”
“Always. I’m taking an online class, too, so my time’s at a premium.”
“What’s the class?”
“Music appreciation.”
Brynna smiled. Kurt was practical and had excelled at math, but he had a creative side and had composed music since he’d been in junior high. “Still play that guitar we found at the hock shop? You must have been in eighth grade.”
Kurt grinned. “Nothing wrong with it.”
Back inside, Frank took a bowl of salad greens from the refrigerator and they all sat at the dining room table, Devlin’s absence glaringly obvious.
Static burst from the police scanner, followed by a brief conversation between the truck and Reed Kingsley, the local fire chief. The fire truck had been dispatched to Logan’s Hill, outside town.
Brynna’s pager went off then, and she groaned. “Not already.”
She dreaded relying on the skills of her one ER rotation, but she was the only local doctor. Rather than the hospital, however, it was Dev’s number that appeared. “It’s Dev,” she said and got up to retrieve her phone from her purse in the other room.
He answered on the first ring. “Brynn?”
“Dev. Where are you?”
“Stuck in Washington. There’s a serious thunderstorm right now, and I’m grounded for at least another three hours.”
“Washington,” she said, irritation lacing her tone. “You’re supposed to be in Rumor. At the dinner table with the family right now. It’s Tuck’s birthday party.”
“I didn’t forget,” he said. “I can’t help it if the weather turned against me.” Static crackled as if to emphasize his logic.
“You’re incredible, blaming the weather for your lack of planning. You might have thought ahead before leaving for Washington. You didn’t tell me you were going.”
“I didn’t plan to. I had a chance to pick up a part for Sky Spirit, and the weather service didn’t predict anything like this. I know you’re disappointed. I had every intention of—”
“If you intended to be here, then you should have stayed and not flown off when you knew we had plans.”
“I had plenty of time.”
“Or you just didn’t care whether or not you got back in time.”
“Brynn, I said I was sorry. What more can I do now?”
“Sorry doesn’t fix a thing. You should have stayed. My whole family is here—except you—and my parents, of course. They never show up for anyone’s birthday, either.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it? My steak’s getting cold. I’ll see you when you get around to coming home.” She turned the phone off and tossed it into her purse.
Seeing her face, Melanie asked, “What did he say?”
Brynna took her seat. “He’s grounded in Washington.”
“I’ll bet he’ll really be grounded when you get ahold of him,” Tuck said, jokingly.
“I’m not his mother,” Brynna replied, not amused. “He can do whatever he da—” She glanced at the younger boys and picked up her fork. “Darn well pleases.”
After a few minutes of stilted conversation, Brynna lightened her mood for the sake of her little brother’s party and they finished their meal. After the dishes were done, Tuck opened his gifts, finding practical things, like laundry bags and towels from Melanie, an alarm clock and a Game Boy game from Kurt, and Brynna had purchased a laptop computer as a gift from herself and Devlin.
Tuck’s eyes lit up. He discarded the packing, plugging it in and figuring out how to use it. Within minutes he had it connected to the internet and was showing the boys children’s sites and places to download games.
“This is way cool, sis,” Tuck told her and gave her a hug. “Now I won’t have to go to the library or borrow someone’s PC. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Remember, there’s a word-processing program in there for your assignments, too.”
He grinned. She had always been the one to enforce homework and study time. Thank goodness, because he’d earned scholarships, just as she and Kurt had before him. Melanie was the only one who hadn’t been interested in school or college. She’d always single-mindedly wanted to get married.
Melanie sliced cake and Brynna scooped ice cream, Brynna was just starting to eat her portion when her beeper pulsed at her waist. Her pulse raced at the thought of Dev paging her, but this time it was the clinic. Brynna called to discover a fireman had been brought in with minor burns.
“What’s going on?” she asked Rae Ann.
“A fire started on Logan’s Hill,” her friend replied. “It’s spreading through the forest.”
“Oh, no.”
“And there’s more bad news.”
“What?” Brynna asked.
“Firefighters found two partially burned bodies where the fire started. So far, they haven’t released any names. But you’re the doctor on call.”
“I’ll be there.”
The firefighter wasn’t badly injured. After treating and releasing him, she drove home to an empty house. The spreading fire was a scary situation. She felt vulnerable and alone, and told herself her hormones were getting the best of her, because she never felt this way. When midnight rolled around, Dev had still not returned and she finally fell into a restless sleep.
Dev slid on his sunglasses against the June sun and studied the smoke rising from the horizon where firefighters still fought the blaze that had started the night before. Logan’s Hill was a good fifteen miles from the Holmes Ranch, so to be visible from here, the fire must be a serious threat.
He turned to unload cartons of new salt holders and grain feeders from the bed of his Ford Lariat pickup. Colby had decided that it was time to get the barn in shape and update its features before hay had to be cut and cattle rounded up come late summer and fall.
Unconsciously, Dev wondered if he’d still be working the ranch when fall came. So far the cowboy life suited him well. He’d learned a lot about training and caring for the horses, as well as the everyday tasks, and he was comfortable with the job. But the call of the wide-open sky was a lure he couldn’t resist, and when the itch to fly hit him, he had to take a few days off and scratch it. Did that make him irresponsible?
In the four days since his wife had blown him away with the news of her pregnancy, he’d been thinking a lot about responsibility. And after last night’s fiasco of missing Tuck’s birthday and getting the cold shoulder when he’d seen her this morning, he wondered all the more.
After stacking all the cartons inside the barn, he hung his hat, flipped open his pocketknife and opened the boxes. It took several minutes to find the proper tools and set about installing the feeders in the stalls, and the task gave him ample time to think.
He’d never considered himself irresponsible. But then, he didn’t have many responsibilities. He had attorneys who handled his investments and paid his taxes. He showed up for an occasional stockholders’ meeting and had to sign papers and approve decisions, but other than that, his time was his own. He didn’t want any part of his father’s business, even though he’d taken a lot of flack for not joining his father and older brother.
Over the past few years, he’d tried his hand at the lumber business, construction and now ranching—all outdoor jobs. It wasn’t that he hadn’t found anything he liked; it was that he liked everything and wanted to try it all.
But a man with a kid needed to be solid and dependable—needed to be there at all times. A trickle of perspiration rolled down his temple. Dev removed his shirt and used it to wipe his forehead. The role of a father was the last one he’d ever expected to fall into. Sure, he’d thought that someday he and Brynna would have kids…but that time had been far away in his obscure future—not in just thirty-two short weeks!
