Chapter 9
Nine
It had taken all of one hour being back in the apartment and snuggled in bed for Jess to fall asleep, curled into his side.
She’d managed a healthy serving of the dressing he’d made and hadn’t mentioned feeling sick once before exhaustion had her drooling and snoring all over him.
He fought the urge to chuckle at how utterly adorable and perfect she was.
His fingers drifted down to her belly, and he let his fingers brush over the fabric draped there.
She was in his shirt, and shorts, and it was ridiculous how that made him feel proud.
Because she was comfortable, and had eaten, and knew he’d be there to take care of everything while she rested.
There was no doubt in Hawk’s mind that she needed to be slowing the fuck down and taking better care of herself. He needed to make her see—
His arm tightened around Jessie as a shrill ring filled the room. What the actual fuck? He knew he’d set his phone to silent to make sure she didn’t wake up before she was ready to. Hell, the TV had been barely above a whisper since her eyelids started fluttering shut.
When he looked over at the night stand for the source of the offending noise, it wasn’t his phone lighting up. It was Jessie’s.
“Who is it?” she whispered as she looked up at him with sleep still dancing around in her eyes.
Hawk grabbed the phone and looked. “Lach.”
She held out her hand, and he could have reached through the phone to strangle her brother.
“Lachlan?”
She rubbed her face on his shoulder and seemed to be settling back in while her brother spoke on the other end of the call.
Hawk turned his attention to the man riding a horse across a barely lit, foggy field.
What the hell movie had started playing?
Last thing he knew they were watching his favorite hockey movie.
While he was trying to figure out what was happening on the screen and not listen in to their conversation, Jessie shoved up from Hawk’s chest, the blanket she’d been snuggled under pooling around her hips.
“They’re in the filing cabinet next to my desk. Why? What do you need them for?”
Hawk waited, wondering why she suddenly sounded so on edge.
“No. No, that’s not right. I’ve made sure every month the money is in that account for the bank to take.
Those withdrawals happen like clockwork, Lachlan.
Someone messed up at the bank. Not us,” she sighed, rubbing her forehead.
“Can you just ask Dakota to wait until tomorrow? Why does he need them now? What time is it even?”
That last question was clearly meant for Hawk, who held up his fingers to sign three-thirty.
“Okay. Give me fifteen minutes. I was napping, so I just need a second. I’ll come over and find them.”
Hawk was already shaking his head before her hand knocked into his chest. She pulled the phone away from her head, sighing as she started scooting towards the edge of the bed.
“Jess.” Shit. The rumble in the way he said her name probably was a little much, but he was pissed at Lachlan.
“I have to go.”
Fuck. “You need to be resting.” Hawk pushed up and out of the bed, stalking around the fucking frame until he was in front of her. “Please, Jess. It’s important today that you limit your activity. The procedure you had… it’s not without risks.”
“I’m fine. Women have their birth control removed all the time. It’s a routine procedure.”
“A routine procedure that could lead to cramping, bleeding, or even potentially cause a miscarriage.”
Her eyes went wide and Hawk knew right then and there he’d lost the battle.
“I know that. But my brother needs me, Hawk. I have to go.”
He nodded. “Then let me come with you. We were supposed to spend the day together.”
Her face softened. “I’m sorry I spent the whole time sleeping, but I really feel better than I have in a long time.
I’ll make it up to you, I promise. It’s just…
I know Lach. He wouldn’t be calling me or asking for my help if it wasn’t an emergency.
His business is everything to him, Hawk. I have to help.”
“So I can’t go with you?”
“I’ve got it covered.”
Stubborn woman.
“And you won’t come back here when you’re done?”
“I think I’m just going to crash back at the ranch.”
“And you’re going to work tomorrow?”
“Of course. I really am okay.”
He nodded again. “Alright. But I would like to formally request a rain check for today.”
Jessie laughed. “The official Hawk Morgan Fan Club has reviewed your application for a rain check and unanimously voted ‘YES’. Hooray! The president of the club would like you to know she has Monday off, and although she’s meant to be studying and attending her business class at night, she will one-hundred percent play hooky to make this up to you. ”
“The Hawk Morgan Fan Club president, huh?” He slid his hands over her cheeks. “I love the sound of that.” He kissed her forehead before letting his hands fall back by his side. “Monday sounds perfect.”
Jessie nodded, grabbing her clothes from the top of his dresser before she pulled his shirt off over her head.
“Pretty Girl?”
“Yeah, Chief?”
“There is nothing to make up for.” He felt his cheeks heat as his eyes dropped to the doorway to give her some privacy as she shimmied out of his shorts. “I just want you to know, today, the few hours we spent together, were perfect to me.”
“Careful, handsome.” She smiled as she walked by him, her hand settling on his bicep for a momentary squeeze before she started walking out of the room. “Keep saying sweet things like that, and I just might fall in love with you.”
Hawk stood rooted to the floor for a heartbeat. Yes. Fuck yes. He closed his eyes, pumped his fist in the air and wiggled his hips back and forth.
The clearing of a throat and the world's sweetest laughter brought him back to reality. He turned, Jessie’s bright, amused gaze lingering on his hips.
“Those are some interesting moves,” she laughed. “I didn’t mean to interrupt all that… I just wanted to ask if I could get some of the lunch leftovers to go?”
Hawk could see it right then and there. The future so beautifully laid out in front of him.
Jessie, with their baby bouncing on her hip, laughing as he tried to twirl them around the apartment.
The kitchen filled with the smell of dinner cooking in the oven, the place chock-full of laughter. God, he couldn’t wait.
“Yeah, sweetheart. Let’s get you ready to go.”
“I’m so sorry, Jess. I tore the whole office apart. I can’t find the bank folder anywhere. The receipts from last year are missing, and I have no idea where our inventory book went.”
Jessie groaned as she lowered herself into the office chair. Yeah, her doctor hadn’t been wrong. She was sore. And all the warmth she’d had settle into her bones when Hawk held her earlier was gone. At least she had Monday to look forward to.
“It’s got to be here. I keep everything as organized as I can.
And most of the paper trail is just a duplicate, so if we can’t find what we had printed out, we’ll just have to try and get that hunk of junk in the corner hooked up to the laptop and pray to the technology gods that it’ll print everything back out for us. ”
Lachlan nodded. “I’m too fucking jittery for this. Would it bother you if I had a cigarette outside?”
Jessie's head snapped up. “Even if I wasn’t pregnant, I’d be furious at you for smoking again. How long has it been?”
“A week.”
“Lachlan! You don’t need that. And besides, I need you to hand me all the paperwork and then file it back correctly. I don’t feel like moving.”
An hour later, she knew her brother wasn’t just looking in the wrong place. The files were completely gone.
“Are you sure you didn’t need them for something else and just forget to bring them back?”
“Jesus, Jess. I know I’m older than you, but I’m not ‘forget I took every important operating receipt from last year and forgot to put it back’ old.”
“What made you come look for it in the first place?”
“Dakota asked. He floated the idea of buying into the business to me a few months ago. I guess he finally went to the bank, but that triggered a whole shit storm. The bank called me. They’ve apparently been sending notices in the mail about our failure to pay the mortgage on this place.
For the last six months. That can’t be right though, because I haven’t seen a single letter from them. ”
“They’re going to foreclose on you! Oh my god. I swear I haven’t seen a letter come from them. What happened to the money you got in your grant from Sebastian? We put all of that money in the account. They should have been able to pull from that.”
“I don’t know. I don’t understand why they’re not taking it.”
“Okay, shit. It’s already after five. They’ll be closed until tomorrow. I’m going to go down there in the morning and figure it all out. You and Dakota didn’t change anything, did you? I’m still listed on the account, right?”
“Yeah. It’s just you and me.”
Jess nodded, her fingers landing on a tan envelope she hadn’t seen before. It was simply addressed to ‘Lachlan’. “I’ll figure out what’s going on. I don’t know what this is.”
Lachlan took the envelope from her hands, opening it while she went back to look through the small pile of paperwork they actually had still in the office.
Jessie turned to ask him what was in the envelope, but stopped as soon as she saw the look on his face.
His eyes went wide as he looked from her to the laptop.
“I’m going to figure this out, Jess. You have enough on your plate already. I just needed you for the paperwork. But I’ve got it handled from here.”
“I can—”
His face dropped and she felt the change in him immediately. “I said I’m going to handle this. So I will. Show me where the files are on the computer and go home.”