“I’m all right. Truly. But I’m worried about my baby.”
“I’ve told you a thousand times, the doctor assured me that it was fine. He wants to see you in a couple of weeks to make sure that the baby is growing, but you didn’t lose it. Please believe me. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
Lauren took Gloria’s hand. “I know you wouldn’t. I was just so afraid.” She plucked at the bedspread with her other hand. “The baby may be all I have left,” she mumbled.
* * *
Jared returned late. He took Charger to the stables and commissioned Pep
e to take care of him. Then he went into the bunkhouse and washed and changed clothes. He had been riding all day and felt grimy.
When he was clean and brushed, he went into the house. With a fleeting hello to Rudy and Gloria, who sat in the living room surrounded by their children, he went directly to his bedroom.
The room was dim; only one lamp on the vanity across from the bed had been lit. In the shadows, he saw Lauren leaning against the fresh linens that Gloria had put on the bed.
Her hair had been brushed until it shone like the wings of a raven. She wore a snowy nightgown, the scooped neckline molding to the gentle rise of her breast. Her skin, dusted by talc after a sponge bath, shone with the iridescence of a pearl.
Jared closed the door quietly behind him and walked toward the bed, thinking she might be asleep. But as he drew nearer, he saw that her eyes were open and that she was watching him.
“Hello, Jared.” An emotional whisper was all she could manage.
“Lauren.” He asked her permission to sit down by raising his eyebrows, and she accommodated him by sliding over toward the middle of the bed. He lowered himself next to her and studied her face, taking in every lovely detail. Lauren had never seen such a tender expression on his face. Even during moments of passion, she had never captured so much… love… in his eyes.
“Today I rode out to Pecan Creek and looked over the place where I want to build the house. The way Rudy’s family keeps multiplying. I think they will squeeze us out before too long.” He took her hand. “I’m not sure if we can have the house completed by the time the baby comes, but we’ll be able to provide our son—or daughter—with some kind of roof. I paced off a few of the rooms, so we can start construction right away.” She looked so surprised that he said hurriedly, “If you like the site and the house plans, that is.”
She stuttered, “I… I know I will, but are you sure you want me to stay?”
“Want you to stay?” he asked, genuinely puzzled. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Well, you never… The marriage agreement and all…”
“Lauren, darling, when I thought I might lose you, I went crazy. I had never told you how much I love you. If you had died without knowing what you mean to my life, I…” He shrugged helplessly. Tracing her cheekbone lightly with his finger, he said, grinning, “Of course, you’re twenty thousand dollars poorer than you could be. Am I worth it?”
“I’ll reserve judgment. But it may take me forty or fifty years to decide.”
He pinched her earlobe lightly. “I think I started loving you when you marched so proudly out of the house wearing that ridiculous riding getup.” She too, laughed, at her own foolishness. “But you were haunting me even before then. I’ve no doubt that if Mother hadn’t speeded up the process, I would have married you just to get you into my bed. Exactly as Ben had expected me to. He knew me pretty well.” He smiled.
“Then you loved me just for my body.”
“Well, it was a start,” he said mischievously, his eyes glowing topaz. He kissed her then, sweetly and gently, on her mouth.
“Thank you for bringing out my piano,” she said softly as she caressed his eyebrows with her finger.
“You’re quite welcome.”
“What’s my other present?” she asked slyly.
He quirked one of the eyebrows so recently smoothed. “I can see that Gloria is great at keeping secrets.” Lauren laughed. “How would you like a palomino mare for your very own? She’s the color of honey and has a white mane and tail. Big brown eyes. Charger’s hotter’n hell.” He chuckled. “Come to think of it, I’m not sure I should entrust you with another horse.”
Lauren was stricken. “Oh, Jared—”
Her distress was obvious and he was immediately sorry for his tactlessness. “I was only teasing. Truly. The accidents weren’t your fault.” He outlined the veins on the back of her hand with his thumb. “About Flame, Lauren, I—”
“No need.” She covered his mouth with her fingers. “I understand you now.”
“I almost died that night I slapped you. It was an accident. I—”
“I know all of that, Jared.”