Heart and Snow (Texas Highlanders Ice Hockey) (12 page)

It was too bad. He would have loved to spend the night with Leo, especially considering his stupid feelings with Misha lately. He groaned and chugged back his beer, slamming the empty bottle on the table.

“Chill, dude,” Misha said, but the way his accent said it made it seem comical. “You’re so high strung.”

“Look, man, I’m not into it tonight. Let’s go home, okay?”

“I’m not ready to go.”

“Look, the guys are here. I’ll get one of them to take you home when you’re ready, okay?”

Misha frowned. “What about the girl and the double fucking thing?”

Gavin rolled his eyes. “I’m out, dude.”

He closed out his tab at the bar, made sure one of the guys would be able to take Misha home, and left the bar. He felt bad for leaving the man, but he just couldn’t take any more. He was going to burn to a crisp if he stayed there any longer. Already, every fiber of his being ached to possess and be possessed by Misha Kozlov. He truly was doomed.

*~*~*

Week Nine

Christmas dinner the next day was uneventful, though kind of tense. Jo and Michele refused to speak to each other. Cherry more than made up for the lapse in conversation, but Cody saw the defiance and the glares the sisters shared. The only one who didn’t seem affected was Cindy, who naturally chattered with Cherry the whole time. He had to admit, Cindy was starting to fit in rather nicely with the Reynolds. But that was the thing about Jo’s family. They welcomed everyone, including him.

Cody wasn’t sure what was said about Michele’s new school endeavor, as it wasn’t mentioned beyond that day. He wouldn’t have cared, except he knew Jo did. As mad at her sister as she was, he knew she only wanted the best for Michele. That was one of the things he loved about his wife.

Too soon, Christmas was over and a week had flown by. Earl hadn’t wanted to fix his car until Cody started throwing money at him, and then suddenly Earl was all about finishing the job. Cody was glad. He couldn’t stay there in tiny Morning, Texas for much longer.

It was time for them to head back. He had practice the next Monday, not to mention, he’d put off his dad three more times. He wasn’t ready to deal with it. Jo understood, though she side-eyed him every time his phone went off. She was curious. He couldn’t fault her for that, but he wasn’t ready to talk about it either. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to see his dad.

Which left only one thing for them to do. It was time to say goodbye to the Reynolds.

Jo was quiet as they loaded the car, much more so than he was used to. He wasn’t always sure how to deal with her new behaviors. She had far less patience since getting pregnant, and was prone to cry more. He did hate to see the tears. And man, there were a lot of tears in recent weeks.

She set her makeup bag in the back seat along with the leftover red velvet cheesecake her mother had given her. Cody took her arm and turned her to face him. The cold air bit across his face as he enveloped her in a reassuring hug. Her arms wrapped around his torso and she buried her face in his jacket. Why the way she melted against him, he imagined she needed the hug.

“You okay?” He whispered into her hair, the scent of her shampoo enveloping his senses.

She nodded, not moving away from him. “Yeah. Just ready to go home.” Her voice was raw with emotion, which she was desperately trying to hold inside.

He glanced up toward the house. Cherry was on the porch, rubbing her arms in the cold. Her husband stood next to her, a possessive hand on the small of her back. Jo’s brother and his wife stood to their side. There was no sign of Michele, but Cody hadn’t really expected her to be there.

She pulled away, leaving cold on his chest where there had been her warmth and smiled up at him. “Thanks. I know this week hasn’t been the easiest for us.”

“Well, stop thinking about how hard it’s been, and start thinking about how much easier things will be now.” He planted a kiss on her forehead and added, “Go say goodbye to your family. Otherwise we’ll be traipsing into Fort Glasgow at one in the morning.”

He got another small smile from her as she nodded and walked back toward the house. He shut the passenger door she had been standing in front of, and followed.

*~*~*

Jo squeezed her mother, her arms tightly wrapped around the older woman. There were many things she would not miss about this Christmas. Her mother was not one of those things. There was something special about her mother, something that she’d really taken for granted before this year.

“You call when you get home,” her mother demanded. Her voice was shaky, which made Jo tear up. Her mother smoothed her hand over Jo’s cheeks. “Get some rest. Drink water. Lots of water.”

“I already pee every thirty minutes.”

Cherry laughed. “Oh, that’s nothing. Just wait.”

Jo groaned. “I can call you, right? When… when I’m not sure about things?”

“Of course you can.” Cherry leaned in and dropped a light kiss on Jo’s nose. “It’s getting late. I love you, but you need to go.”

Jo glanced toward the oak front door, which was still shut. “I’m sorry about Michele.”

Cherry smiled, but her heart was obviously not in it. “Michele is who she is. It’s not your fault. But she’s your sister, and she looks up to you. You should talk to her.”

Jo shook her head. “I have forgiven a lot of things with her, Mom. But I’m tired of always being the one that has to glue our relationship back together.”

“She’ll come around.” Yeah, but she’ll be on the other side of the world. Italy seemed like it was so far.

“And what about school? Have you talked to her about it?”

“Of course, I’ve talked to her. She seems… very excited about this art school. So, I will sit back and let her make her own decisions. I have to remember she is an adult now.” Cherry’s smile faded. “It’s very disconcerting to think both my daughters were hiding things from me.”

Jo nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“I know now, and that’s good. I do worry about you, Jo. You’ve always been a straight shooter. I guess this just sideswiped you.”

“It did,” she confirmed, her heart aching. She hated disappointing her mother. “I love you.”

“I love you too. You should get going, though, if you want to be home at a decent hour.”

Jo nodded and gave her mom another hug. She moved over to her father. “Love you, Dad.”

“Love you too.” Ed wrapped his arms around her and squeezed tightly, nearly cutting off her air, but she loved it. Her dad gave the best hugs. “Be good.”

She chuckled. “As always, right?”

“I don’t know,” he glanced askew at her. “I’m starting to wonder…”

She laughed again. “Stop it, Dad.” His low laughter filled her with warmth as she said good-bye to her brother and his wife. Cody shook her father’s hand and gave her mother a brief hug before doing the same for Doug and Cindy.

But when the door creaked open, Jo froze. Michele’s blonde head peeked out, uncertainty written all over her face. Her eyes darted around before finally settling on Jo. She stepped out, wrapping her jacket around her torso. The steps she took on the porch were loud in the outdoors, in the silent presence of her family.

Michele crossed her arms. “I thought you might have left.”

“Not yet.” Jo replied, crossing her arms in kind.

The two stared at anywhere but each other. Jo didn’t want to be the first one to break the silence, and she was sure that Michele felt the same way. If Michele could be stubborn and pigheaded, she sure as shit could be too.

But Cody was having none of it. His hand resting on her back exerted pressure, and pushed her forward hard enough to make her stumble. She turned and glared at Cody, who with a mischievous grin, shrugged.

She turned back around to face Michele. “Michele—”

“I shouldn’t have told Mom about your pregnancy.” Michele blurted out.

Jo blinked. “What?”

“I’m sorry.” Michele kept her eyes down, but snuck a glance at Jo when she didn’t immediately respond.

“Oh, Michele!” Her heart filled with joy and tears fell from her eyes. She pulled Michele into her arms. “I’m sorry for punching the shit out of you, too!” Sobbing uncontrollably, Jo inwardly cursed herself, but didn’t stop.

“Well, it wasn’t the whole shit.”

“It was, too.”

“No, it was more like eighty percent shit.”

The two dissolved into laughter. Jo squeezed her sister tightly. A moment later, she heard her mother’s voice. “Joey, darling, you need to go.”

Jo shuddered out a breath and inhaled deeply. She wiped away the tears that had fallen and tried to compose herself. Michele looked shocked.

“Sorry. I’m a little…”

“Yeah,” Michele agreed before she even finished. “Um… I’m leaving out of Glasgow International next week. I’ll call you when I leave here?” She looked suddenly uncertain.

Jo nodded. “Yeah. Good idea. Lunch, yeah?”

Michele nodded.

“Good.”

Jo ended up giving everyone another round of hugs and then Cody pried her away from her family. It was probably a good thing he did too. She was just about to let the waterworks fall again.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Week Sixteen

Jo blew out a breath in the exam room, staring at the wall. Posters of the female body covered the walls, describing in great detail about things she never wanted to know about her body. Cody sat nearby, his hands steepled together, his forefingers resting against his lips. His eyes were on something she couldn’t figure out, completely oblivious to what was going on.

The way he would get up every few minutes and pace the room, the way his thoughts were obviously a thousand miles away. All of it was making her nervous. He’d been quiet when the nurse had come in and checked the vitals. It was a lot for him to process, she knew that. And they had talked at length about all these new things in their lives in the last few weeks. And during that time, her pants grew tighter, her weight got heavier. But thank goodness the nausea went away.

The knock at the door startled Cody, who jumped to his feet, for like the billionth time that hour. Jo reached over and squeezed his hand. “Cody, baby… You’re making me nervous.”

Cody drew in another breath and sat back down as the ultrasound tech came in. She introduced herself and started chattering on about the procedure.

“I’m going to need you to open your gown, so I can put a little of this gooey stuff on your belly.” Jo split the gown, which opened in the front so her belly showed. It amazed her that there was a life in there. It seemed so small still. The doctor had called her petite the last time she’d come in for her appointment. But she’d also told her that most of the weight gain was coming in the third trimester.

The goo was cold as it hit her skin, sending shivers through her body. She squeezed Cody’s hand, since she hadn’t let go. He was watching the tech with a fascination of a child. Wonder coated his open expression as the tech readied all her equipment. His jaw worked with heavy anxiety, watching the tech.

“Okay, so first thing we’re going to do is take a look and make sure there are no deformities. We check for fingers and toes, and anything that might indicate Down syndrome, or any other possible disability. We’ll also do an estimated due date, and hopefully, it will match up with what your doctor said.” The tech stopped, and turned the monitor away. “So… first things first… Do we want to know the sex, before I let you see the screen?”

Jo’s eyes shot to the tech. “What?”

“Well,” the tech paused, biting her lower lip as she moved the probe over her belly. “You’re far enough along that we could probably tell you what you’re going to have.”

Cody blinked. “You can do that?”

“Of course, we could be wrong, but it’s pretty accurate, most of the time.”

Jo shared a look with Cody, his oceanic eyes boring into hers. She wasn’t sure what was going through his mind. His eyes were conflicted, filled with emotions swirling about the blue irises. Fear? Anxiety? Uncertainty? All of the above?

“We—We’ve never talked about it,” she admitted. The baby inside her had a gender. Of course, she’d known that, but this made it official-like.

The tech smiled. “That’s okay. Do you want me to step outside so you can?”

Cody shook his head. “No. What do you think, Jo?”

Jo frowned and looked at the monitor currently turned away from her. “I don’t know… Maybe?”

“Let’s do it. I mean, at least then, we know what to shop for, right?” He didn’t look as certain as he sounded.

“Are you sure?”

He shook his head. “I haven’t been sure about anything in weeks.”

She smiled, and let out a half-laugh. “Me neither.” She turned back to the tech, who was waiting patiently and said. “Okay, let’s do it.”

The tech, who grinned a knowing smile, resumed sliding the wand around her belly. Then she turned the monitor around. “We’ve got ten little fingers there and there.” She pointed on the screen with her free hand. “And we’ve got ten little toes, here and there.” She moved the wand around again, shifting the image on the screen. “Nice steady heartbeat. Organs are developing well. The skull looks good too. Yep, it looks like you’ve got a nice, healthy baby girl.”

Cody blinked, his eyes full of wonder as he studied the black and white screen. “Where again?”

The tiny heart beat was the first thing she saw, beating what seemed like a million beats a minute. She glanced at where the tech was pointing to the screen.

Cody leaned forward, the barest of smiles on his face. She squeezed his hand again, catching his attention. He glanced back at her briefly, one corner of his mouth curled up, and then back at the screen. She wished she knew what he was thinking in there. It was obvious there was something monumental, but she wasn’t sure what exactly.

“It’s a her,” he mused. “Baby girl.”

“Yep,” the tech said. “Looks all healthy too. She’s about three and a half ounces right now. I’d put you about sixteen weeks, and that would make your due date right around June seventeenth, a little over five months.”

Cody squeezed her hand reassuringly, his face lit up and filled with a tenderness she’d never seen before. Of course, he could be loving and tender, but this was different. He was looking at her differently. Not bad… just different.