The Baby's Bodyguard

He kept thinking he must be imagining this. That he’d arrived at the wrong house, which happened to belong to a woman named Casey who was a dead ringer for his wife. Or that she’d held the party for a friend and he’d missed some new fashion that required wearing dresses that stuck out in front.

Jack sucked in a deep breath. What a mess. He’d flown all this way to help her, and he still planned to do that, but she’d obviously decided to rule him out of her life. She’d made this decision on her own, precluding any chance of reconciliation.

It felt like the time a suspect had whirled around and sprayed him with Mace. The agony had been so intense that, even though he knew it caused no permanent harm, he’d feared for a moment he couldn’t bear it.

The last of the women trailed out the door, casting inquisitive glances his way. Jack forced his features into the expressionless mask he’d perfected as a teenager, when he’d frequently moved to a new foster home and a new high school. Never show weakness. Never show any feeling at all, no matter how hard your gut screamed for relief.

At last Casey closed the door. When she swung around to face him, he got an unobstructed view of her abdomen in profile. If he’d had any lingering hope that he might be mistaken, the sight dispelled all doubt.

He tried not to focus on how full her breasts looked or how lustrous her skin had become. If anything, pregnancy made her more beautiful, but if he mentioned it, she’d never believe him. Defiance glinted in her gaze and he knew that if he weren’t careful, she’d give him a tongue-lashing.

He’d probably get one, anyway. She appeared to be in that kind of mood.

“I didn’t know,” he said.

“Obviously not.” Casey crossed her arms protectively. “I suppose I should have said something but you’d have thought I was trying to trap you.”

“Trap me?” He’d assumed it was the opposite. She’d clearly rejected him.

“Well, you didn’t want a baby.”

“That much we agree on.” Jack hoped she’d start making sense soon.

“I figured you might see it as a betrayal.” Her lips quivered, and she pressed them tightly together.

“How else could I see it?”

“As a…well, not a mistake.” She lifted her chin. “As a blessing.”

“Congratulations.” He surveyed the room filled with torn wrapping paper, balloons, toys and stuffed bears. “Looks like you’ve got everything you need.”

Despite his attempt to make conversation, she glared as if he’d just insulted her. “Is that all you have to say?”

He must have missed some clue, one of those feminine things that always eluded Jack. “Nice place,” he ventured.

Utter silence. Disbelief writ large on her face.

Too bad she didn’t appreciate his attempts at diplomacy. “So I guess you want to talk about it,” he ventured.

“About ‘it’?” Fury vibrated in her voice. Jack wished she didn’t look so sensuous, with her hair mussed and her eyes even larger than usual.

“The, uh, fact that you’re pregnant,” he managed to say.

Finally, a nod. “Some kind of reaction would be appropriate.”

How was a man supposed to respond when the woman he’d married did something to split them apart forever? He didn’t see how anything he could say would help, but he’d better try or Casey was going to lacerate him. “I guess I’m pleased for you.”

“Jack! I want to know how you feel!”

“How should I feel?”

“I don’t know! You tell me.”

He gave up searching for the right words. It was no use, anyway. “How do I feel? Like I got sucker punched. We aren’t even divorced yet and you went out and did this. I guess it’s none of my business whether you picked some clinic or some guy, even though technically you’re still my wife. How do I feel? Lousy. Ticked off. Like an idiot for flying here from California because I was worried about you and figured you needed a bodyguard. Okay? How’d I do?”

As he spoke, his legs carried him around the room like a tiger pacing its cage. All these fripperies and cutesypie decorations made him want to rip them down so he could breathe.

“Oh, my gosh.” Casey’s jaw dropped.

“‘Oh, my gosh’ what?” Jack demanded, annoyed at receiving a reaction he couldn’t interpret, although at least she wasn’t throwing things at him.

“You don’t get it,” she said wonderingly.

“Get what?” He wished he knew how his wife managed to speak what sounded like English without making one bit of sense.

“It’s yours,” Casey answered.

CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_ca7e4c79-a8ce-58b0-a1ae-b4c4851bf188)

“My—?” Jack didn’t finish the question, because, finally, he did get it.

Last August, when his wife had showed up in L.A. to go over their settlement, he couldn’t keep his hands off her. Although she’d felt the same way, the passion wasn’t enough to persuade her to stay.

“I thought you were on the pill,” he added numbly. The truth was, he hadn’t given any thought to a pregnancy, although he could see now that he should have.

“I’d just gone off it,” Casey said. “I didn’t think I could get pregnant yet. I was wrong.”

Having had plenty of experience with people who manipulated and lied, Jack knew she might have done it on purpose. But he didn’t believe that. For one thing, he respected Casey too much to think so poorly of her. Also, had her goal been to maneuver him into agreeing to start a family or to pressure him to pay child support, she wouldn’t have waited eight months for him to stumble onto the truth.

“You weren’t going to tell me?” he demanded, not so much from outrage as because he’d learned that asking questions was a good way to mask difficult emotions. And right now his emotions were about as confused as they’d ever been.

Casey clasped her hands in front. “I knew you didn’t want a baby and I never meant to force you.”

“Some things are hard to hide,” he pointed out. “Don’t you think I’d have learned the truth eventually?”

“In nearly three years, this is the first time you’ve come to Tennessee.” Restlessly, she began tossing the party detritus into a paper bag.

A woman in her condition shouldn’t have to clean up by herself. Guiltily, Jack realized Casey’s friends probably would have stayed to help if he hadn’t arrived.

He began collecting paper plates bearing the remains of cake and ice cream. The smell of food reminded him he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast except the beef jerky. Fortunately, he was used to missing meals.

“So when is it due?” He couldn’t say the words “the baby” yet. That made the whole thing seem too real.

“In a few weeks.”

“I’ll pay the doctor bills.” It was the least he could do.

“They’re taken care of.” Pulling down a banner, she stuffed it into her sack. “Around here, the doctor lets you pay on an installment plan.”