“Sophie, come on in. Just bring those papers.” He moved back down the hall.
Sophie stood and wasn’t surprised as Jake bounded up. She lifted an eyebrow at him.
“Can I come in?” His hopeful expression was too much to deny.
“Okay,” she whispered, “but you have to leave if I need to get naked.”
“I’ve seen you naked, Sunshine,” he whispered back as they headed down the hall to the open examination room.
Sophie raised her arms in exasperation as she walked inside and plopped on one of the two brown guest chairs.
“Aren’t you supposed to be on the table?” Jake sat next to her.
“Maybe you should return to the waiting area.” Sophie frowned. Suddenly, this was all too personal.
“Too late,” Jake whispered as Doc walked into the room.
“Well, Sophie. I guess you didn’t make a run for it, huh?” Doc settled onto a rolling doctor’s chair. “I’d like to do a full examination and medical history.” He nodded toward the table. “My nurse will be in to give you a gown and take your blood pressure in just a minute. Jake, you go back to the waiting room.”
“But Doc—”
“I mean it. You can come next time. Right now you’re just in the way.”
“Fine. But if you need me, call me.” Jake dropped a light kiss on Sophie’s head before grudgingly leaving the room.
Chapter Nineteen
Sophie walked down Doc’s hall, relieved he’d given her a clean bill of health. And prenatal vitamins. She took a deep breath and opened the door to face Jake. Then she stopped cold at the sight of Loni, Tom, Dawn, Colton, Quinn, and Hawk all sitting in the waiting room.
Jake held his head in his hands but looked up at her gasp. “Melanie Johnson saw us come into the office earlier and called Mrs. West, who called Jeanie Dixon, who called my mother.”
Loni jumped to her feet and rushed to take Sophie’s hands. “Are you okay?” Loni wore a light blue blouse with the buttons lined incorrectly, jeans, and mismatched flip-flops. Her hair perched in a lopsided ponytail, and she’d applied mascara to only one eye.
Sophie nodded numbly.
“Good.” Loni patted her hands as the rest of the group rose. “We hurried down here so quickly we missed breakfast. Why don’t we all—”
“No.” Jake reached around Loni to take Sophie’s hand and pull her toward the door. “We’re going somewhere else. To talk.”
He led her to the truck, and she sat inside without a protest, her mind whirling. She was pregnant. Everyone knew it. She didn’t notice when he started the ignition or pulled onto the road, and she paid no attention to their trip. The truck stopped.
“You brought me to your house,” she said woodenly.
Jake faced her across the middle console. “Are you all right?”
“Doc says I’m perfectly healthy. You had a huge head when you were born.”
“He told you that?” Jake laughed.
“Everybody knows I’m pregnant.” She would’ve liked a chance to come to grips with the idea on her own.
He rubbed a large hand over his eyes. “I know.” He turned and unfolded from the truck before crossing and opening her door to help her out.
“Are you going to sue me for custody?” Sophie regained her footing on the smooth drive, then lifted her eyes to meet his, which narrowed. She fought a shiver as the pine-scented breeze rippled through her hair, and thunder sounded in the distance.
“No.”
“What about the Federal Indian Act?” Her knees trembled.
“You mean the Indian Child Welfare Act?” Jake rubbed warmth into her suddenly freezing arms.
“Yeah, that.” Sophie eased back from his too-appealing touch. “Don’t tribes get a leg-up in custody battles?”
Jake studied her for a moment, realization dawning over his rugged face. “No, Sunshine. That is not what the Act does.”
“Really?” Sarcasm laced her tone.
“The Act’s purpose is to protect Indian children taken out of a home, so they are put in a foster home or adopted by another Indian couple. It does not give a leg-up to anyone in a normal custody proceeding.” Jake propelled her toward the house. “I cannot believe you’ve actually been worrying about this.” He opened the door and ushered her inside. “That you think I’d fight you in court for our child.”
Sophie turned to face him as he shut the door with a soft
thud
. “What are you going to do?”
“Negotiate.” The smile he gave her should have provided a warning. Instead, it warmed her from the toes up.
“Negotiate? What exactly do you mean?” Sophie sat on the leather couch and stretched her legs over the matching ottoman. The view of Mineral Lake and sharp peaked mountains relaxed her, bone by bone.
“Well, what would it take for you to live in Montana?” The matching leather chair creaked as he sat and faced her.
Sophie stiffened. “Live here?”
“Yes. In what circumstances can you see yourself based out of here?”
“What about you,? What circumstances can you see yourself living in San Francisco?” she asked.
“I don’t.” Jake’s jaw set. “It’s not only me. I can’t take Leila away from the rest of my family. Even if I wanted to.”
Sophie could understand that. “I’m surprised you’re not spouting that we need to get married before the baby is born.”
Jake sat back in his chair, his voice softening. “Already made that mistake.”
Sophie clamped down on the sudden pang through her heart. She reminded herself she didn’t want to get married just because she was pregnant, either. “So I don’t know where we stand.”
“Me neither. But I think we should look at it in steps.”
“In steps?”
“The pregnancy as the first step. And Sophie, I would not like to miss any of it.” Determination and an odd vulnerability lit his eyes.
“You’ll come to San Francisco?”
“I thought you’d stay here. You know, work on the tribe’s golf course and the art showing for Juliet. You’d still be working at what you want, and I’d pay to fly you to California any time you wished. So long as Doc okays it.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Just think about it. Then we could figure out a schedule that worked for both of us after the baby is born, if you decided to live in the city.” His smile was too charming.
Sophie frowned, her mind reeling with too much static.
A slam of a truck door saved her from having to answer, and Leila rushed into the room. “Daddy, look what Aunt Dawn made me.” The little girl jumped into her father’s arms and handed him a blue knitted hat.
Jake raised his eyebrows. “Dawn learned to knit?”
“Uncle Hawk bet her that she couldn’t do it.” Leila turned curious eyes on Sophie. “What’s ‘knocked up’ mean?”
Sophie’s breath caught in her throat. She dropped her legs off the ottoman.
Jake shot her a concerned glance. “Where did you hear that, sweetheart?”
Dawn answered from the doorway. “That cow Betsy Phillips said it to Mary Whitmore at the grocery store when we dropped by for some flour for Mom.” She turned wide eyes on Sophie. “Oh. Hi, Sophie.”
“Hi, Dawn.” Sophie leaned back again and crossed her arms over her face.
“Well, ’bye.” Dawn made a quick exit.
“What’s knocked up?” Leila asked again. “That cow Betsy Phillips said that you’re knocked up, Sophie. Does it hurt?”
Sophie huffed out a laugh, and she peeked between her arms.
“You shouldn’t call Mrs. Phillips a cow. Even if it is true,” Jake admonished his daughter.
“Sorry.” Inquisitive eyes met Sophie’s. “Well?”
“Um, well.” Sophie panicked as she stared at Jake.
Jake took a deep breath before cuddling his daughter close. “It means Sophie has a baby in her tummy.”
“Like old Bula?” Leila’s eyes dropped to Sophie’s stomach.
Jake sputtered. “Uh, kind of.”
“Who’s Bula?” Sophie asked warily.
“A milk cow over at my mom’s.” Jake stifled a grin.
“How did you get a baby in your tummy?” Leila asked.
That night found Sophie struggling to find sleep, even though her body was exhausted after Jake and Leila dropped her at home. She giggled at the thought of Jake quickly changing the subject to shoes with his daughter to avoid explaining the birds and the bees. Though they’d have to tell her about her future sibling sometime.
As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Jake’s offer made a certain kind of sense. Designing the tribe’s course would help Uncle Nathan, and she’d get a chance to put together a real art exhibit. A dream she hadn’t dared given any hope.
A tiny voice in her head whispered that she wouldn’t be alone during the pregnancy, either. But instead of reassuring her, that made her want to run. Fast and hard in the other direction. The phone rang, and she reached for it like a lifeline.
“Hey, Sophie, I hope I’m not waking you.”
“No, Preston, I can’t sleep.”
The sound of Preston settling back against leather, probably his desk chair, filled the line. “I just wanted to let you know Charleton has dropped their threats of a lawsuit.”
Sophie’s stomach heaved. “How? Why?”
“Apparently our new attorney talked to theirs and they backed off. Fast.”
Sophie groaned. “We have a new attorney?”
“Yeah. You might know him.”
“Son of a bitch.” Sophie took a calming breath. At this rate there wouldn’t be a place in her life Jake hadn’t infiltrated.
Preston laughed. “Well, I figured I’d give you a friendly warning. Your uncle thinks Lodge walks on water.”
“Great. But what about the other four developments? We needed those.”
“Nah, we’ll be all right. I’m flying to New York tomorrow to meet with Luxem Hotel Executives. They’re building seven more hotels next year, all with golf courses. I think we’ll get the job.”
“That’d be great.” Hope filled her with warmth.
“It’d be even better if you were here to help design some of those.”
Sophie stared at muted moonlight playing across the ceiling and searched for the right words. The scraping of pine needles against the window was the only sound through the room.
“Or…” Preston sighed. “I’m sure you could help design them from anywhere in the world.”
“Really?”
“All you need is the Internet and a cell phone.”
“I have those,” Sophie said softly.
“You have me, too. You’re a good friend. If you need me for anything, I’ll be there.”
“Thanks.” She kept her condition to herself for now. She wasn’t ready to share.
“Night.” Preston clicked off, and Sophie stretched to place the cell phone on the antique nightstand. It sounded like her old friend was saying good-bye. Sadness at what might have been slid through her before she rolled over to count sheep.
She reached the two hundredth white fluffy animal before an odd smell tickled her nose. She lifted her head to survey the air. Hazy beams of light filtered through the gauzy curtains and lent an ethereal glow to the old-fashioned room. Brass glinted off bedrails and shadows hummed along the edges to settle into the corners.
The smell grew stronger.
Smoke. Oh God, it was smoke.
Sophie jumped out of bed with a gasp and leaned one hand on the night table as the world spun around her. Several deep breaths had the room righting itself so she could hurry to the door and pull it open. Smoke billowed up from the stairway. Flames licked the wooden handrail.
Panic shot through her.
She slammed the door closed and grabbed her sweatshirt off the flowered chair to cover the space under the door. Thank goodness Mrs. Shiller was out of town. She grabbed her cell and dialed 911, giving the address to the operator before yanking on jeans, a sweater, and her boots. Then she ran to the window and pushed it all the way open before turning back to the room. The solid door kept too much smoke from entering, and she figured she had a few minutes.
She grabbed her purchases and tossed them out the window, watching as they bounced two stories down onto the thick grass. Then she threw out her suitcase and charcoals. Smoke wafted out the front of the house to cover the ground in a fine haze.
From a distance, sirens pierced the night.
Sophie finally grabbed her two sketchbooks and swung one leg over the ledge of the window. “We can do this, baby,” she said, eyeing the nearby thick branches of the statuesque bull pine. She’d never climbed a tree but had studied gravity in a physics class. Gravity would win over wishful hopes any day. She reached for the closest branch, her plan formulating as she moved.
Flashing blue and red lights stopped her mid-reach as the sheriff’s truck slammed to a stop and both Jake and Quinn jumped out. More shrill sirens sounded in the night.
“Sophie!” Jake yelled as he barreled across the grass to look up at the window, Quinn on his heels.
“I’m fine, Jake,” Sophie called down, her white knuckles on the window frame starting to ache. “Catch these, would you?” She tossed down her sketchbooks, which Jake snatched out of the air and placed near the base of the tree.
Quinn said something into a big black radio just as a red fire truck screeched to a stop and men in full gear scrambled off.
Jake’s eyes held Sophie’s captive as he murmured something to his brother, who nodded and turned to direct the crew. Then Jake jogged to the tree and jumped to clasp the bottom branch before swinging his legs up over his head toward another branch, crossing his ankles and levering himself into the tree.
Sophie held her breath as Jake easily climbed branch after branch and sent leaves and bark cascading down to the ground.
Suddenly, he stood even with the window. “You ever climb a tree, Sunshine?”
Chapter Twenty
Sophie shook her head, tears surprising her as they slid down her face.
Scratches marred Jake’s hands and bark wove through his hair, yet his grin was genuine. “Okay. You’re going to reach out to that branch”—he pointed to the branch she had been aiming for—“and inch along until you get even with my hands.” He nodded to the spot. “Then, when I touch your wrists, you get ready to move quickly, okay?” His voice stayed soft, soothing.
Sophie nodded and then jumped as her door crackled into fire. Smoke filled the area behind her.
“Now,” Jake coaxed as he shifted his weight on a straining branch.
Quinn took up a position directly below Sophie as she leaned forward and grasped the branch with both hands.
Following Jake’s directions, she inched her hands and arms farther toward the trunk of the tree until her knees sat on the windowsill. She couldn’t go any farther without putting all of her weight on the branch.
“Good job. Now this is a thirty-year-old tree, very sturdy, very safe. But that branch you’re holding won’t hold your entire weight for very long. Do you see the branch about three feet below it? The really thick one?” Jake pointed.
“Yes.” Smoke filled her nose, and she coughed, her eyes watering from the sting.
“Good.” Jake encircled both her wrists with his hands, balancing his weight while standing on two bowing branches. “So sweetheart,” he said, speaking with confidence as more smoke spilled out from the window, “you need to hold this branch and swing your feet onto the lower one. It’ll hold you all day. Ready?”
Sophie turned panicked eyes on Jake and tried to pull her hands back.
Jake shook his head. “The fire’s behind you, Soph. You have to move—now.”
“It’s okay,” Quinn called up from the ground. “I’m right under you. If worse comes to worse, you’ll land on me.”
“Now, Sophie.” Jake tightened his grip as the firemen slammed through the front door armed with axes and an uncoiled hose.
“Jake, the baby.” Sophie clenched the branch with a quick look down. Way down to where Quinn stood patiently.
“Babies don’t like smoke.” Jake’s voice lowered. “Besides, ours would love to flatten Uncle Quinn, I’m sure.”
Sophie tried to breathe shallowly and not take in too much smoke. With a quick prayer, she seized the branch and swung from the safety of the window, her heart all but beating out of her rib cage.
Her feet hit the lower branch and slid off, her boots scraping for purchase.
Panic squashed the breath from her lungs.
Sophie cried out as her legs dangled, and the sound of a branch snapping in two filled the air. It disintegrated in clumps of bark between her hands. Jake’s hands tightened on her wrists as he held her in midair before he swung her so her feet could again find purchase. She caught the lower branch and pressed her legs forward until it balanced in the center of her feet.
She stood for a second, her feet on the branch, her wrists in Jake’s broad hands, before he tugged her toward the trunk and wrapped her arms around the tree.
Sophie rested her head against the scratchy bark and her knees began to tremble.
“Okay, almost done now,” Jake whispered into her ear as he positioned his body behind hers. “See that branch to the right, about a foot down from you?”
Sophie twisted her head to look. “Yes.”
“Hold onto the trunk and just step one foot down to it.” Jake pressed even closer. “I’ve got you, I promise.”
Sophie stepped down, her palms scraping the bark as she fought for balance. Then she sighed in relief as she lowered her other foot. The crackle of fire and shattering glass boomed around them. The process continued until they both stood on bottom branches, about seven feet from the ground. At Jake’s quiet order, Sophie sat, her hands gripping the trunk while he jumped to the grass.
“Grab my arms and jump.” Jake reached up with both hands.
Sophie reached down, clasped broad arms, and let gravity have its way. Her feet met wet grass for a mere second before Jake scooped her in his arms and strode for the paramedic van on the street.
Sophie coughed lightly into his neck, her stomach heaving as Jake lowered her on the tailgate of his truck and a uniformed paramedic placed oxygen over her nose and mouth. Thunder crackled in the distance, and a light rain peppered the ground. Jake pushed Sophie farther into the back of the truck, into dryness.
She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, the scratches on her hands searing. Red and blue lights swirled as the firefighters rolled up their hose and the stench of burned wood filled the air. She began to shake violently, her teeth chattering behind the mask.
“The fire’s out, Sunshine,” Jake said, his eyes on Quinn and a sooty firefighter as they surveyed the damage from the porch. He shifted so he stood directly between the smoldering walls and Sophie, and she wondered if it were intentional or instinctive. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. I don’t think I inhaled much of the smoke. The baby should be fine.”
“I was worried about you.” Jake didn’t turn as he spoke.
“How did you get here so fast?”
“Poker night at Hawk’s. I was there when Quinn got the call.” Jake straightened as his brother approached.
“The fire was intentional.” Quinn didn’t waste any words as he reached Jake and cast a concerned gaze toward Sophie. “Most people know Mrs. Shiller is out of town.”
“You sure?” Jake lowered his voice.
“Yes. Typical Molotov cocktail through the front window.” Both men turned to study her—twin sets of deep onyx eyes with different expressions. Quinn was all cop, curious and hard. Jake’s expression spoke of something dark, something heated.
Yet one thing remained the same—both were pissed.
“What?” Sophie scooted to the edge of the vehicle, letting rain splatter against her legs. “You think this was on purpose?”
Quinn nodded. “I know it was. Have you noticed anything odd, anyone following you while you’ve been here?”
“I haven’t seen anyone following me. But…” She took a deep breath. “Somebody has left notes on the Jeep window for me.”
“Notes?” Quinn placed a restraining hand on his brother’s arm as Jake’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Um, yeah. Basically saying that the development was a bad idea.”
“And?” Jake growled it.
“And that I should get out of town.”
Jake swore under his breath while Quinn cast a glance around at the milling spectators on the street and nearby lawns.
“But I don’t understand, I mean, the commissioners denied the application.” Sophie’s temper stirred. “There won’t be a golf course.”
Quinn shook his head. “But the tribe has hired you to build a golf course.”
Sophie shrugged, wary of the fury on Jake’s face. This wasn’t her fault, damn it. She turned her attention to Quinn. “I still have the notes. They’re over in the suitcase I threw out the window.” The muscle ticking in Jake’s sooty jaw captured her gaze.
“Stay with her, Jake. Let me do my job.” Quinn stepped around his brother and headed for the still smoldering house.
“I want to see them,” Jake called to Quinn’s retreating back.
“I know,” Quinn tossed back over his shoulder, his legs eating the distance to the pile under the bull pine.
Jake’s eyes bored holes in her as his arms slowly crossed over his broad chest.
“I didn’t think it was a big deal.” Sophie answered his unasked question, snapping the words out.
The muscle in his jaw swelled. “How many notes?”
“Three.”
“When?”
Sophie was saved from answering when Quinn returned with her suitcase in one hand, the other pulling papers from beneath his jacket. Two dark, masculine heads dipped to read the notes in the muted light of the paramedic’s vehicle. Sophie shivered at the looks on their faces once they finished reading.
Quinn nodded at her. “Get her home. I’ll follow up with questions in the morning.”
Jake reached for her.
“No.” Sophie moved farther in the vehicle as lightning ripped across the sky.
“You’re coming with me.” Jake hauled her out of the vehicle and carried her to his truck, where a deputy finished loading her possessions into the backseat.
“Damn it, Jake.” Sophie fought the urge to kick him. Hard.
Jake didn’t reply as he started the ignition and pulled past the emergency vehicles onto the rain-drenched road. Sophie pouted in her seat, determined to ignore him. He drove several miles in silence before speaking. “If you weren’t pregnant, you’d absolutely be wearing my handprint on your ass right now.”
Her butt actually clenched. “Good thing you knocked me up, then.”
His dark gaze set a fluttering in her stomach. “Remind me to Google if spanking will hurt a pregnant woman.”
“You don’t scare me.” Which was a complete freakin’ lie. The guy was kind of scary…but he’d never hurt her.
“Why didn’t you tell me about the notes?”
“They weren’t really threats,” Sophie huffed back.
“So it wasn’t a big deal.” Sarcasm wove through his every word.
“Right. Frankly, I didn’t even think to tell you.” Her arms crossed over her chest as she watched the storm wage outside the truck.
“Really.”
“Yes, really.” Heat rose to her face. “This was just a quick fling, remember? A couple of weeks, then I was gone. Out of your life.”
“Once you discovered you were pregnant? You didn’t think to let me know someone was threatening you?” As they reached his home, Jake slammed the truck into park and turned off the ignition with a sharp twist of his wrist.
Sophie jumped out of the truck and headed for the house. She called over her shoulder, “They weren’t threats.” Yeah, she felt foolish for not reporting them to Quinn. But no way in hell would she admit it.
Jake followed close behind, his long strides putting her between him and the house. He pulled her to a stop, a feral glimmer in his eyes.
The fury of the storm was no match for the tempest rising inside her. “I didn’t think to tell you. This was never going to be permanent.”
“It is now.”
The rain smashed her hair against her face. “Wrong. We’re exactly like this storm, Jake. Fiery, hot, even crazy. But you know what? You know the problem with sizzling summer storms?”
“No, what?” Even through the rain, his voice carried the hint of danger. Of wildness that outdid Mother Nature.
“They blow over. You settle back to enjoy the lightning show, the clap of thunder, and poof, they’re gone.” She yelled above the rising wind. “Blue sky follows along meekly, too quickly.”
“We can’t have blue sky?” His white shirt plastered against tanned muscle.
“Us? No way.” The wind almost toppled her over. “You need to let me go, Jake.”
The wind whipped his hair around his face, giving him a formidable, almost primitive look. His ancestry blazed in full force as he stood tall and firm against the gale. “Let you go? I think that’s your fucking problem, Sophie.”
“Meaning?” Her boots sunk into the mud as she struggled to keep her footing.
“Too many people have let you go.” A quick swoop and she was in his arms, struggling against him with all her might as his strong body blocked the driving wind. “Your father, the bastard, left you. And the second your mother married, she dumped you in some school. Didn’t she?”
Sophie’s battle against the strong arms shielding her from the wind was in vain.
“And even Preston. Mr. Golden Boy with the Rolex. He left you here for me,” Jake said grimly.
She fought a shiver at the warm breath against her ear.
One broad boot kicked the door open. He dropped her to her feet and slammed the door against the storm, and his furious face lowered to within an inch of hers. “I’m not letting you go. What’s more, you don’t want me to.” Male outrage blazed through his eyes.
They stood staring at each other, dripping rain onto the stone floor and panting in uneven breaths.
“You are overbearing,” Sophie gritted out, fighting a shiver, fighting exhaustion.
“You’re an independent pain in the ass.” Jake ran a frustrated hand through his sopping hair. “One who has been through an ordeal and needs a hot shower and comfortable bed.” He held out a hand. “Truce? At least for the night?” His words contrasted with the hard glint in his eye. He was raring for a fight.
Sophie slowly took his hand, her energy gone. She wasn’t up to a fight. At least not right now. “All right. Just for the night.”