Baby at His Convenience

Actually, Harv had reiterated that fact at least a dozen times over the course of the past two hours, and each time he told the story Katie was a little more angry than the time before. By the time Harv got finished embellishing the actual facts, it had sounded as if she was ready to tear him apart with her bare hands for leaving the money.

As they walked the short distance to the house, Jeremiah tried not to notice how her well-worn jeans hugged her long legs, or the sensual sway of her full hips. By the time they reached the cabin, sweat beaded his forehead and his own jeans felt as if they’d shrunk a couple of sizes in the stride.

What had gotten into him? He wasn’t some over-sexed teenager with nothing but hormones racing through his veins. He was a grown man and should have gained a little more control over the years than that. Had he been so long without a woman’s charms that just watching one walk in front of him turned him on?

“Well, I’m gonna leave you two kids to fight it out over that money,” Harv said, heading toward his truck. He tossed his fishing rod case into the back. “Sadie’ll take a strip off my hide a mile wide if I don’t get home in time for supper.”

“Tell her I said hello.” Katie waved as the older man opened the driver’s door and slid behind the wheel. “And I’ll see you tomorrow at the Blue Bird, Harv.”

Once Harv’s truck disappeared down the lane, Jeremiah tried to think of something to say. When nothing came to mind, he motioned toward the cabin’s front porch. “Would you like to sit down?”

She looked uncertain, then taking a deep breath, nodded and preceded him up the steps. Before she sat down on the wooden porch swing, she pulled two ten dollar bills from the front pocket of her jeans.

“Here’s your money,” she said, handing the money to him.

He shook his head as he seated himself on the bench facing the swing. “I left that to pay for the lunch I ordered and a tip for your trouble.”

She stuffed the money into his hand. “Canceling the order was no big deal. And that was too much for a tip anyway.”

An electric current zinged up his arm when her fingers touched the palm of his hand and he had to swallow hard to keep from groaning. “But—”

She shook her head as she lowered herself onto the swing. “I didn’t do anything to earn it.”

He admired her principles, but he wished like hell she’d kept the money and left him alone. For some reason that he couldn’t quite figure out, Katie Andrews made him about as edgy as a raw recruit doing a belly crawl through a swamp full of alligators.

“Mr. Gunn, there’s something—”

“Jeremiah,” he interrupted. Needing something to do to keep from staring at her, he pulled the little table he used to make fishing flies closer. “The name’s Jeremiah.”

“Oh, yes. Sorry. I forgot.” She sounded a little breathless and a quick glance her way told him she had more on her mind than returning his twenty bucks. “There’s something I’d like to discuss with you, Jeremiah.”

He picked up the fly he’d been working on that morning and began to wrap red nylon thread around the tiny feathers hiding the fishhook. He couldn’t imagine what she wanted to talk to him about, but he could tell that whatever it was made her nervous as hell.

“I’m listening.”

She stood up and began to pace the length of the porch. “This isn’t easy for me. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

He glanced up in time to see her nibbling on her lower lip as if she was trying to work up her courage. “Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad,” he said, trying not to think how cute she looked. “Why don’t you just say what you have to say and get it over with?”

She stared at him for several seconds before she gave a short nod. “All right, Mr. Gunn—I mean Jeremiah.” He watched her close her eyes and take a deep breath before opening them to meet his gaze head-on. “Would you be willing to consider helping me have a baby?”

Jeremiah had no idea what he’d expected her to say, but asking him to help her procreate wasn’t it. More shocked by her request than he’d ever been by anything in his life, he forgot all about watching what he was doing and suddenly felt a sharp jab as the fishhook sank deep into the fleshy pad of his thumb. “Son of a bit—”

“Oh dear heavens!” Katie rushed over to take his hand in hers. “I’m so sorry,” she said, examining the injury. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

As painful as it was to have a fishhook piercing his thumb, her soft hands holding his overrode the discomfort. All he could think about was the fact that she was standing close enough that if he raised his head their lips would touch. He suddenly felt hot all over and his heart rate increased considerably.

“It’ll be all right once I get the hook out,” he said, trying to pull away from her. He needed to put some distance between them before he did something stupid like grab her and kiss her until they both went limp from lack of oxygen.

“The barb is in too deep,” she said, releasing his hand. “Dr. Braden is going to have to deal with this.”

“I can take care of it.”

“No, you can’t,” she insisted. The concern in her expressive gaze caused a warm feeling to spread throughout his chest. “Have you had a tetanus shot recently?”

He nodded. If he’d been able to get his vocal cords to work, he would have told her that the marines made sure their men were always current on their immunizations. But at the moment, he couldn’t have strung a sentence together if his life depended on it.

“Come on,” she said, tugging on his arm. “I’ll drive you down to the clinic.”

“That’s not necessary,” he said, even as he rose to his feet. “I can drive myself.”

“Do you have a car or truck?”

He shook his head. “No. All I have is my Harley.”

She gave him a look that clearly stated she thought he was being a stubborn fool. “Don’t you think it would be a little difficult holding on to it without driving the fishhook even farther into your thumb?”

Frowning, Jeremiah looked at the tarp covering his Harley parked a few feet from the porch. He hadn’t thought about how he’d manage to use the handle grip gas feed.

“That’s what I thought. You can’t.” She pointed toward her red SUV. “I’ll take you to the clinic.”

“But I can take a pair of pliers and—”

“Make matters worse,” she interrupted. “Now get in my truck.” Without another word, she started down the steps toward her Explorer.

As Jeremiah followed Katie to the SUV, he had to admit she would have made a good marine. She hadn’t gotten squeamish the way some women might have done when she looked at the hook protruding from his thumb, nor had she passed out when she saw the blood seeping out around it. She’d kept her head, assessed what needed to be done, then prepared to execute her plan of action—much like any good soldier would do.

Sliding into the passenger side of the truck, he glanced over at her. But even as he admired her take-charge attitude, he wasn’t so sure she might not be a little touched in the head.

What in the name of hell had prompted her to ask him to help her make a baby?

As Katie held the door open for Jeremiah to enter the Dixie Ridge Clinic, she wished for at least the hundredth time that the ground would open up and swallow her. What on earth had she been thinking when she asked if he’d be willing to consider helping her have a child?

After she’d gone home, she’d decided to drive up Piney Knob to return his money and to ask him a few leading questions that might help her gauge his receptiveness to being the sperm donor for her baby. She’d had absolutely no intention of actually asking him to be the father.

But instead of handling the situation with diplomacy and tact, she’d thrown out her request like a hand grenade. And he’d recoiled as if the darned thing had been a real bomb and not a metaphorical one. If his reaction was any indication, he not only wouldn’t be willing to help her have a child, he’d probably never speak to her again.

“Hey there, Katie,” Martha Payne called from the reception counter. She eyed Jeremiah up and down. “Looks like you found someone—”

“With a fishhook in his thumb,” Katie interrupted her. “He needs Doc to remove it.”

Martha had been the nurse at the Dixie Ridge Clinic since forever and knew everything that went on within its walls. She no doubt thought Katie had found a hapless victim to make a donation toward Operation: Katie-Wants-a-Baby-Before-It’s-Too-Late.

“Good thing you got here when you did,” Martha said, patting a few strands of steel-gray hair back into place as she came around the end of the counter to take a look at Jeremiah’s thumb. “As soon as we close up for the day, Doc and Lexi are gonna load up their three kids and take off for a couple days vacation down at Stone Mountain in Georgia.” She shook her head as she examined the wound. “You buried that hook real good, son. How did it happen?”

Katie’s face grew hot when Jeremiah glanced over at her. “I was tying a fly and wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing,” he said, shrugging. “It happens.”

Martha nodded as she released his hand. “You two have a seat while I get everything set up for Doc to take care of gettin’ it out.”