The Plan (The Hillers of Barratt County #4)

Chapter 11

11

It wasn’t fair that one family had gotten such good genetics. There wasn’t a single one of the men who wouldn’t make a woman’s heart go wild if they looked at her. The girls were even more gorgeous. Even Genesis, who had the kid-sister thing going, was a beautiful young woman.

Ronnie felt beyond frumpy right now. He hadn’t even let her brush her hair before he’d forced her inside. Of course, she hadn’t protested too much. But what else was she supposed to do—hide in his scorching hot truck while he ate dinner with his family?

That wasn’t going to happen.

She stayed right where she was, held captive next to George—literally, the man had her hand in his beneath the table. Even when she tried to pull away. He just shot her a look that told her if she didn’t behave herself, he’d say or do something in front of everyone.

She didn’t trust that man one bit.

Ronnie just ate her dinner and tried to keep up with the conversation around her. While plotting. No denying she was trying to think here.

His mom shot him a look as dinner was concluding. George followed her to the kitchen quickly.

“I wish you had given us warning you were bringing Veronica tonight,” she said quietly, loading him up with the pies she’d baked for dessert. “We have a bit of a family discussion planned.”

George hesitated. “I have something important to discuss with you, too. And… Veronica wasn’t exactly planned. But just stick with me. Everything will be clear in a bit. I promise. And if you want to talk about something private, she’s very circumspect. She won’t gossip.”

“It’s not that. I just don’t want to put her in an awkward position, by her having to see your brothers and sisters… when we tell them our news.”

That didn’t sound good at all. “Don’t worry about me and Veronica just yet. I’m here for you and Dad tonight, too.”

“That’s because you are a good boy, George. And you always have been. How long have you been in love with her?”

That was his mother—distract then pounce. George was just like her—his father said so all the time. George just smirked at her. “Who says I am?”

“I can see it in your eyes when you look at her. A mother knows, sweetheart. A mother knows.” And Gayle Hiller knew her children very, very well.

“Then the answer is… from the very beginning. Now I just have to convince her of that. Fast. I screwed up three months ago, and she left. Now is my chance to fix it. Before time runs out.”

“There is no rush, no time limit on love. Don’t push her into something she—or you—aren’t ready for.”

There was a time limit, actually. Not quite seven months. Seven months to convince the mother of his child to love him. Well, he supposed there wasn’t a time limit on that, it was just what he wanted. Technically, he would be more content with seven days.

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine. What’s not there to love? You are perfect, just like I raised you to be.” She shot him a wicked grin, just like Genesis’s.

He laughed and hugged her quickly. He’d gotten lucky in the mother department, and he damned well knew it.

“Now, back in there. We all need to talk. And then… I want to know what you are hiding, Georgiano Maxwell. No more secrets.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

His parents had something important on their minds. That was clear to Ronnie as George and his mother carried in three homemade apple and cherry pies.

Ronnie really wanted cherry pie. Her appetite had been a bit sketchy over the last month or so—completely George’s fault. She was just going to blame him for all the negatives associated with pregnancy. She was the one going through it—he at least deserved the blame, right?

“We should just get started,” his mother said. “So that George can talk about what is going on with him.”

“He’s finally going back to the home planet?” the girl with blue streaks in her hair asked. She had been snipping at her brothers all evening. “The aliens are taking him and leaving Ronnie in his place instead? That would work. Then we’d be four girls and four dorks, and it would be so much fairer around here.”

“Greer, don’t be rude. I told you before—the aliens will only take George back when they really want him. So far, they don’t. And who can blame them? I think we should keep Ronnie, though. She kicks ass.” Giavonna patted Ronnie on the shoulder.

At least she had Giavonna in her corner for now. But once they learned about the baby… well…

Ronnie was starting to panic here.

“We should just get it out there,” George’s father, Georgiano the Second, said. He looked very much like his tall, strong, gorgeous sons. He looked at his eight children—and Ronnie. “I don’t want to be ranching forever. Your mother wants to travel before we are too old to enjoy it.”

“Wait, you’re selling the ranch?” the brother with the darkest hair, Gene, said. There was a touch of panic in his words. From his work-roughened boots and his flannel shirt, she suspected this was the rancher brother George had talked about.

“No. Not that,” his father said. “This is your home. All of you. And it’s been in our family for two hundred years. We’re definitely not selling it. At least for the next five years. But on the day Greer graduates, we’re either listing it—or turning it over to all of you. We’re leaving it to you to figure out how that happens. And what to make out of it.”

It took them another hour to debate and argue what should happen next, just sitting there around the table.

Finally, Ronnie excused herself. There had to be a restroom around there somewhere.

The baby had very simple needs of her, after all. Eat, pee, sleep, pee, vomit, pee , and then sleep again to repeat the cycle. Ronnie thought she had this whole pregnancy thing figured out.

Even if the father of her baby was never going to be figured out completely.

George watched her until she was in the hallway powder room near the kitchen. Then he turned to his family. “We need to wrap this up. I have a more immediate issue tonight. You all have five years to figure this out.”

Giavonna leaned toward him. “What did you do to convince her to come back to the office? Apologize on your knees? Expensive jewelry? New computer? A better benefits package? What? I don’t think she came back because you’re male boss perfection, pal. No job is worth that. And you definitely don’t pay her enough to work for you forever. Just filing for you is a full-time job.”

“I paid her what I could afford.” He was a wealthy man, but it was tied up in his shares of the ranch and his trust fund, which he’d get in a few years. How much did a pregnancy cost, anyway? He’d have to ask his brother Guthrie, who was going to be an obstetrician once his training was finished. Of course, he had never canceled her health insurance policy, so she was still covered there, but… There was probably a deductible, and they’d have to start putting back diapers and start a college fund and…

He had some things to figure out.

Veronica returned to his side, just as Genesis, Gunn, and Greer finished clearing the table. Giavonna brought out coffee.

Right there in front of him and his entire family, Veronica turned a bit green and paled.

George helped Veronica into a chair. “Sit, sweetheart. Catch your breath. Do you feel sick?”

He knelt in front of her, his hand over her stomach—holding her up. Her hands covered his.

Big blue-gray eyes filled with panic and mortification met his. “Just really, really dizzy for a moment. Came out of nowhere. That hasn’t happened before.”

“George, just what exactly is going on here?” his father asked, suspicion in his tone. “Have you gotten this young woman pregnant?”

Big blue-gray eyes squeezed shut.

George pressed a kiss against her forehead, deliberately. Then he stood, putting his body between her and his family. She would want the buffer. “Yes, Dad. That is exactly what I did. And I’m damned glad of it. You’ll be grandparents the first week of April.”

“Then just what exactly do you plan to do about it?” His father gave him the look that told George he knew what George had better do about it or else.

George looked at the woman he wanted. “Be the kind of man Veronica deserves. And the father this baby needs. That’s what I’m going to do about it.”

The inevitable happened after that: his mother burst into tears. Happy ones.

She’d wanted to be a grandmother for a long time.

Or so she had been telling him repeatedly for the last five years. Now it was finally going to happen. George half-felt he’d made all of his mother’s dreams come true here.

His mother looked at Veronica, who was staring at her in terror. His mother gave a watery smile and reached for Veronica’s hands. “How wonderful! Oh, sweetheart! You and Georgie are having a baby !”