Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
JACE
FIVE WEEKS LATER
“ S o now can we tell people?” I glance across the console and admire the smile she makes as she looks at the sonogram photo in her hand.
“I really need to tell my parents first.” Her smile quickly fades and she makes that same nervous sigh she did before we walked into the appointment room.
“Hey.” I slide my hand onto her thigh. “Everything’s gonna be fine with them, just like it was with the ultrasound.” She was so nervous before the appointment, despite feeling like death and all the throwing up she’d done, she had some crazy idea in her head that we were gonna find out it was all a mistake. Hearing our baby’s heartbeat, and seeing it on the monitor for real, made her burst out into happy tears. Happy tears that I played my role in making because I gave her that little reason she’s so happy
“You don’t know my parents, Jace.” She shakes her head and drops her shoulders in defeat.
“Well, they have two choices. They can be happy for us or they can miss out on one awesome grandkid.” I do my best to get her back to being happy again, this thing with her parents has been going on far too long. I’ve got a good mind to drive to Denver and speak to them myself.
“You should invite them over for the holidays, we could tell them about the baby then,” I suggest, her mother still hasn’t spoken to her but she seems to have been having more conversations with her dad over the past few weeks.
“I don’t want anyone being negative about this.” Her hand rests naturally on her stomach, the way it seems to more and more often these days. It’s still flat but all that’s about to change real soon, according to the sonogram measurements, Maddison is thirteen weeks pregnant. I read that she could start showing any day now, and I’m here for it.
“How can they be negative, you’re giving them a grandbaby?” I laugh to myself, then feel a tug of sorrow when I think about how much my mom would have loved to have been around for this.
“Well, it wasn’t part of their plan.” Maddison tries to put on a brave face when she laughs to herself. I think about the MacKenzies, and how they’ll react when they eventually meet me. I’m nothing like that preppy, asswipe they lined up to marry their daughter, I’m the kind of man who can actually take care of her. Yeah, they’re her parents and, of course, I want them to like me. I’ll be nice, I’ll show them respect but I won’t have ‘em upset her.
“Are you going to tell your uncle now?” She turns the pressure on me, and just thinking about how he’s gonna react to this makes me angry. He’s already accused me of being too distracted, and I know this is gonna add fuel to his fire.
“Of course, I’m gonna tell him.” I frown at her and when she looks back down at the picture that sweet, little smile settles on her face again.
We stop in town to pick up a few things on the way home. I pull up outside the grocery store, and when Maddison slides the photo of our baby into her purse, I hold out my hand for her to hand it over.
“What do you want it for?” She looks dubious about giving it up.
“I’ve kept this secret from my best friend for long enough, I wanna show Sawyer what we did.”
“Fine, but only Sawyer.” She lets me have it. “We need to tell my parents and your uncle before the rest of this town finds out.” I nod back at her then lean across the console to kiss her, and once I’m done she waits in her seat while I get out the truck and open her door for her.
“If only there was somewhere closer to town where we could have these appointments. I’m already getting anxious about going into labor and not making it to the hospital in time,” she tells me under her breath as she steps out onto the sidewalk.
“Don’t worry, first babies usually take their time coming, we’ll make it,” I assure her, I ain’t about to admit that I’ve had the same concerns. She’s not supposed to be worrying about anything.
“When did you become an expert?” She laughs as we walk closer to the bar.
“Since you and little JJ became the only thing in this world that matters to me,” I admit, fully aware of how corny I sound and not giving a shit.
“That is not his name.” Maddison shakes her head and starts moving on.
“So, we are in agreement that he’s a he?” Following after her with a grin on my face, I rush to get ahead of her so I can get the door.
As expected for 11 am on a Wednesday, the place is empty. Sawyer is sitting at the end of the bar, smoking a cigarette and reading the Daily News.
“I got something to tell ya.” I irritate the fuck outta him when I take the cigarette from his mouth and crush it out in the ashtray. Then I watch his anger turn to confusion when I place the photo of our baby on top of the paper he’s reading.
“What the fuck is that?” He picks it up so he can take a closer look.
“What do ya mean, what the fuck is that? That’s my kid.” I snatch it back off him and point at the black bean-shaped sack he’s growing in.
“There’s his head, that's his spine, and these are legs.” I show him, feeling ten feet tall.
“And all of this is inside of you?” Sawyer looks toward Maddison as if he’s learning biology for the first fuckin’ time.
“Well, it ain’t inside Daphne Pritchard.” I shake my head and smile at Maddison.
“You really allowed this asshat to knock you up?” Sawyer checks with her, and when she confirms with a nod of her head and a bright smile, he rushes off his stool and lifts her in the air.
“Whoa, put her down, she’s fragile,” I warn him. “I don’t want you crushing my baby with one of your clumsy bear hugs.”
“Jace Sullivan, a father.” Sawyer shakes his head and pats me on the back at the same time. “How long do I have to wait before I meet the little guy?” He looks back at Mads.
“Or girl,” she corrects him.
“You better pray you're cooking a boy in there, ain’t no way this guy could handle a daughter. I’ve seen him knoc–”
“Scan says she’s thirteen weeks, so we got a six-month wait,” I interrupt him.
“Thirteen weeks? Hell, she must have barely been out of that wedding dress before ya socked it to her.” He’s laughing loudly when the door opens and Sheriff Hale steps inside, instantly turning him silent.
“Sheriff.” I raise my hat to her while Sawyer looks to the ground.
“Mr Sullivan.” Riley nods at me politely before she looks at my girl. “Maddison, right?” she checks.
“That’s right.” Maddison has no idea about how dangerous this woman could be for us. I’ve been keeping an eye on her since she arrived a few weeks ago and although she seems to be keeping a low profile, I can’t get complacent.
“I was just checking in. I heard you had a little bar brawl happen here, last night.” She looks around the place before her eyes settle back on Sawyer.
“Nothin’ out of the ordinary, just some passers-through who needed a little lesson on respect.” He shrugs as if it ain’t a big deal.
“Yeah, well, it appears one of those men you tossed out here ended up in the intensive care unit. Got jumped once he made it back to the city,” she informs him.
“Ain’t my responsibility once they’re outta my bar, Sheriff.” Sawyer shrugs again.
“And where were you between 2:30 am and 4 am, this morning?” she asks, taking out her notepad and waiting for his response.
“Me? I was here, drowning my sorrows and listening to Dolly on the jukebox.” He sniggers at me.
“This isn’t a joke, Mr Anderson, this guy was seriously hurt. Both his legs were broken, he’s got a concussion, and a collapsed lung.”
“Then I’d say whoever got him, got him good.” Sawyer remains calm.
“I’ll ask you that question again, where were you?” She narrows her eyes on him.
“I can tell you exactly where I was.” Sawyer stands up and steps into the sheriff's space then leans down so his lips almost touch against her ear. “I had my face buried between Beth Delaney’s thighs.” His words come out slowly and make it impossible for her not to blush. “I’m sure she, and her roommate, can confirm that.” He takes a step back and smiles like a smug son of a bitch.
“Her and her roommate?” Sheriff Hale clears her throat.
“She was in the next room, she’d have heard how much Beth was enjoying it.” He grins as the irritation spreads across our new Sheriff's face.
“And what about you?” She turns her attention to me, and I stare back at her confused.
“He was with me,” Maddison blurts out, far too defensively, her hand squeezing mine so tight it almost hurts.
“Is that correct, Mr Sullivan?” Riley Hale looks at me blankly.
“It’s correct.” I slide my arm around Maddison’s shoulder.
“May I?” Riley goes to take the sonogram picture from my hand, and I hold onto it protectively. She smiles as if she ain’t trying to fuck with my head and when I have no choice but to release it. She studies it for a few seconds before handing it back.
“Congratulations.” She smiles at us both, then turns on her heels and heads back out the door. Maddison releases the breath she’s been holding on to and when I try to comfort her she shoves me away.
“I’ll be at the store.” She rushes toward the door and I immediately chase after her. She isn’t heading for the store at all when I get outside, she’s got herself back inside the truck. Her eyes are filling up with tears and she looks like she’s having a panic attack, so I move much faster.
“Baby, you need to calm down.” I get into the driver's seat and slam the door. “Place your palms flat on the console and breathe.” I remind her how it’s done by breathing in through my nose and checking around us in case anyone can see the state she’s in.
“Listen to me, you did not have to lie for me back there,” I tell her, as she tries to catch her breath and closes her eyes.
“Of course, I fucking did. You weren't home.” When she opens them back up she looks scared and real disappointed in me.
“Did you…Did you hurt that man?” She stares right through me, and I got no idea what to say.
“Yeah,” I admit, clenching my fists and feeling furious at myself. Now is not the time for her to be learning about this, she’s not supposed to have anything to worry about.
“Devon Lacey is a rustler.”
“I don’t care what he is, you broke his legs!” she whispers-yells at me.
“He stole some cattle from me a few months ago, but he’s been on our radar since way before then.”
“Under whose radar, exactly?” She looks confused as hell and I hate the territory we’re heading into with this conversation.
“Maddison, I can’t tell you everything, just rest assured that there are reasons for what I do.”
“You could have killed that man, he’s in intensive care, Jace. And that sheriff, she knows something. She knows there’s something dodgy going on between you and Sawyer, and I’d bet your uncle’s involved too.” She knocks me sideways when she hits the nail right on its fuckin’ head.
“What we do, we do for the town. And, yeah, sometimes it gets a little brutal but no one gets what they don’t deserve.”
“And what about us, what happens to me and our baby when you get thrown into jail?” She takes a chunk right out of my heart when she starts to cry.
“That's not gonna happen. We’re careful, everything we do is well thought out, everything is planned.”
“Well, I don’t think last night went quite to plan. Clearly Riley Hale is suspicious, you saw the way she looked at you both.”
I hate that she looks away from me as if I disgust her, and for a few, silent minutes we both stare out the windshield at our picturesque little town.
“I need to get the groceries.” Maddison moves to get out of the car.
“I’ll hel–”
“No, I can manage, I need some space.” Her eyes look sad as she opens the door and slides out the seat. She slams the door after her and when I thump the steering wheel it makes the horn go off.
“Fuck!” I hiss at myself as I pull the picture of the little person we created from the inside pocket of my jacket. Then, staring at it hard, I realize that I gotta start doing better.