Chapter Twelve
Stress. Brett understood it well since he so often felt it himself. But that was something that Trish couldn’t have in her life anymore. The obstetrician had confirmed what his sister had told them. Her blood pressure had to get down and stay down for her health and the health of her unborn babies.
He glanced across the console at her in the passenger seat. Her hands rested on her stomach, maybe for comfort, maybe for reassurance that the babies were still moving.
She had been so scared. Brett had been, too.
And instead of feeling comforted when he’d seen the babies on the ultrasound machine, more concern had coursed through him.
The babies were real to him now with little personalities showing in the way the girl had moved around and kicked.
And the way the boy had sucked his thumb, the same way that Liam had as a baby and toddler.
“Are you all right?” he asked. She’d been so quiet since they’d left the hospital that Brett wondered if he should bring her back.
The obstetrician and Livvy had kept her for a while to make sure that her blood pressure came down.
But he worried now, as they drove back to the Four Corners, that it might go up again, especially with what he’d told Frankie that she and the others needed to do.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m sorry that you had to make the long drive to the hospital for nothing.”
“Nothing?” he asked.
“I wasn’t in labor,” she said. “It was just those Braxton Hicks contractions, false labor.”
“You were in pain,” he said. “And you have a pulled ligament and high blood pressure.”
She touched her side. “The babies are taking up a lot of room.”
“And you’re taking on too much stress,” he said.
She groaned. “I don’t want to argue,” she said.
“That’s the last thing I want to do,” he agreed. “I don’t want to upset you. And I didn’t mean to do that earlier. I wasn’t telling you not to do the kids’ camps and petting zoo. I was just saying that you shouldn’t do them alone.”
“So who would help me?” she asked. “You don’t want to do them.”
“That doesn’t mean I won’t help you,” he said.
“And everyone else will, too, Trish. You don’t have to do this alone.
And you don’t have to use your personal money for it.
We’ll figure out a way for the ranch to finance it but still keep the camps separate from the cattle business.
” He glanced across to see her smiling. “What?”
“I thought you weren’t the boss,” she said. “How can you make that decision without talking to the others?”
“You know my brothers and Elise, especially, support your plans,” he said.
“Then what about Frankie?”
He shrugged. “I don’t even know how much longer she’s staying. Since the estate will be settled once it goes through probate, she’ll be able to go back out on the road like she wants.”
She sighed. “I hope she does what she wants and that it’s what she really wants to do.”
He chuckled. “I can’t imagine anyone stopping Frankie from doing what she wants.”
“If she’s really been waiting to leave until the estate was settled, then I must have stopped her,” Trish said, her voice soft with regret.
“I think she’s forgiven you.” Frankie had sounded so worried when Brett called her from the hospital. “Now, your lawyer…” He chuckled. “She’s never going to forgive his part in all of this.”
“Never say never,” she murmured.
“Why not?” he wondered aloud.
“Look at you, offering to help me with kids’ camps and a petting zoo,” she said. “I bet that was something you never thought you would do.”
He chuckled again. “You’ve got me there.”
She reached across the console and touched his hand on the steering wheel. “Thank you. Thank you for getting me to the hospital. Thank you for keeping your promise.”
“Promise?”
“You said that I would be okay and that the babies would be, too,” she reminded him.
He grunted. “Yeah, that was a stupid promise to make. Totally out of my control…”
“But you still made me feel better,” she said.
“Good,” he said. “I don’t want to add to your stress.” She’d already lost so much; he didn’t want to be the reason she lost anything else.
“I’ve added to yours,” she said. “Over the will and now this…” She yawned.
“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “And feel free to close your eyes and get some rest. We’ll be there soon enough.” But hopefully not too soon for his family and hers to have done what he’d asked.
Her hand slipped away from his and she moved the passenger seat back until it reclined. Then she turned so that she faced him and closed her eyes.
As he drove, he kept glancing over at her, watching her sleep. The panic he’d felt when he’d seen how much pain she’d been in rushed over him again. But he wasn’t afraid for her this time.
He was afraid for himself.
He had decided long ago that he wasn’t going to fall for anyone. Ever. He had to focus on the ranch, on keeping it going and making sure that it took care of everyone who relied on it for support. Like his brothers and his niece. Frankie. And now Trish and her babies.
And the camps…
He swallowed the groan that threatened to escape his throat.
He didn’t want to do them, but he knew that Trish would stress herself out even more if she tried starting them on her own.
Frank had been his best friend. Out of respect and loyalty to him, Brett had to make sure that nothing happened to the man’s daughter or grandchildren.
And Brett had to trust that nothing would happen to himself.
That he wouldn’t fall for her. Frank and his dad had proven to him that love wasn’t worth the loss that inevitably followed.
And there was no way that she was going to fall for him; she was recently divorced and as determined to stay single as he was.
* * *
Trish hadn’t expected to fall asleep, not after the scare she’d had.
But she must have drifted off because the next thing she knew, the passenger door was opening and Brett was reaching to lift her out like he had at the hospital.
Instinctively she wrapped her arms around his neck.
But the seat belt held her tight to the seat.
She laughed and then awoke fully to realize how close his face was to hers. How dark his eyes were, how strong his jaw…how strong he was.
He’d carried her a couple of times that day.
From the barn to his truck and then from his truck into the hospital.
Nurse Sue had delivered her back to his truck via a wheelchair, per hospital policy.
“You don’t have to carry me again,” she said, but she didn’t release his neck.
“You probably hurt your back doing that earlier.”
He shook his head. “No.” His voice was gruff. And he stared at her so oddly, like his focus was on her mouth.
And then she looked at his. She arched up from her reclining position and brushed her lips across his mouth. “Thank you…”
He tensed. But his lips moved back across hers once. Then again.
The sensation shot through her, making her tingle everywhere. Then one of the babies kicked, and with the way he was leaning across her, he must have felt it because he jerked back, hitting his head on the roof of the truck.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Sorry… I just…wanted to…” Kiss him. And it had been so long since she’d had the urge to kiss anyone, and never as strong a one as that, too strong to resist. “To thank you…” She cleared her throat. “Uh, thanks…”
His lips, which had felt so good against hers, curved into a slight grin. “You’re very welcome, Trish.” He touched the back of his head.
And she remembered he’d hit it. “Are you okay?”
His grin slipped away. “Yeah, probably needed some sense knocked into me. This…this…is a bad idea…if we want to keep living together and working together.”
“Oh, I know,” she said, her face heating up with embarrassment. “I shouldn’t have… I just…” She touched her head, too, like she’d hit it. And she must have had a concussion or some other momentary lapse of sense since she’d acted on impulse like that.
“You’re half asleep,” he said. “You can excuse it as a dream, that it never really happened.”
She wasn’t sure she would be able to do that, but she nodded in agreement. Would he be able to do the same? Would he be able to forget about the kiss?
Of course he would. There was no way in the world a confirmed bachelor like Brett Lemmon would be interested in a recently divorced, expectant single mother. And she shouldn’t be interested in him either.
As he said, they lived together. They worked together. They couldn’t risk making that relationship any more awkward than it had already been. No wonder he’d been avoiding her the past couple of days; he would probably continue to do that now.
But he didn’t rush away from her. He even helped her unbuckle her seat belt since she just fumbled with it, her hands shaking. He caught her hands and held on to them even after he helped her down from the truck. He slowly swiped his thumbs across the backs of her hands.
Goose bumps of awareness rose on her skin, as her pulse quickened. She was supposed to forget the kiss, not want to do it again. And she really wanted to kiss him again.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
No. She was nearly as scared and upset as she’d been when she’d thought she was going into labor too soon. The last thing she’d expected when she’d decided to move to the Four Corners was to find herself attracted to anyone, let alone one of the Lemmon brothers her lawyer had warned her about.
She drew in a deep breath, which meant breathing in the essence of him, of leather and horses and hay, and for a moment she felt lightheaded again. But then one of the babies kicked, reminding her of what mattered. They mattered. Her children.
They were most important. And she had to take care of them. And in order to do that, she had to take care of herself. She couldn’t rely on anyone else. Not like she just had leaned on Brett. She couldn’t count on him taking care of her and keeping his promises.