Daddy by Surprise (19 page)

“Outside on the patio, boys,” she said, marching through the kitchen like the Pied Piper. “My brother likes a neat house. He’d never condone a seed-spitting contest indoors.”

Jack had never seen this side of his sister before and wasn’t sure why she was taking such an active interest in two children who may or may not wind up being part of the family. The answer to that question rested with Kat, who had turned him down so often he wasn’t sure what to expect.

“We’ll be right out,” he called after her. “I need to draw Kat a map to get her safely out of town. You know what traffic is like around here.”

Rachel rolled her eyes, but the boys seemed to buy the excuse. Even Jordie.

Once the glass door closed behind them, he turned to Kat and said bluntly, “Yes or no? Are you pregnant?”

She winced in a way that made him regret his lack of tack. “The simple answer is no.”

“There’s a not-so-simple answer?”

“My mind says I’m pregnant. My body acts like I’m pregnant. The home pregnancy tests I’ve taken say I’m not. I plan to see a doctor next week. Libby thinks it’s stress. My aunt said it could be a tumor on the ovary. She used to be a nurse. I called to ask her advice
for a friend.
”

The suggestion made his knees weak, but he pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. “Do you have health insurance?”

She shook her head. “The boys do through their dads, but not me.”

He eased back slightly. “All the more reason to get married right away.” He kept his tone light, but he was serious and he wanted her to know that.

“I’m not your schoolmarm, Jack. I don’t need rescuing.”

“Did I say that Mad Jack rescued her?” He shook his head. “He swept her off her feet, but she’s the one who saved him. His life—like mine—was going nowhere. She made him look beyond what he knew and take a leap of faith toward a life he wanted but didn’t think he deserved. Sound familiar?”

Her teeth caught her bottom lip and she nodded ever so slightly. “You’ve got that part right. I don’t deserve you, Jack.”

“Because I’m such a fabulous catch?” he asked incredulously. “You were right about me from the start, Kat. I’m a R.U.B. That’s one letter short of a rube. In many circles, I’m a joke. But I’m not as much of a joke as I was before I met you.” He pointed to his arm. “I have the tattoo to prove it.”

She shook her head. “You’re not a joke to me, Jack. I got hit with a serious shot of swoo the moment I saw you.”

“I have swoo?”

“Big-time.”

“Really? Enough to, say, sweep you off your feet?”

“Yeah.”

“And make you agree to marry me?”

She didn’t answer right away. “Don’t you want to find out what the doctor says first?”

He shook his head. “I don’t care what the doctor says, Kat. If there’s something wrong, I want to be at your side every step of the way. If the negative sign should have been a plus, then I want to experience every part of our pregnancy.”

“Our?”

“Yours, mine, Mad Jack’s…”

She laughed, then. A real laugh. The kind that made him believe in all possibilities—even those in dreams.

She didn’t answer right away, but he could tell she was tempted to say yes. “I still don’t know why you want to marry
me.
”

He kissed her with all the passion she’d unleashed in his formerly barren soul, and when they were both breathless and laughing, he said, “Because with you, I’ll be living my dream, Kat. Instead of just reading about the Old West, I get to move to the Black Hills, make mad, passionate love to the prettiest gal in the county—who also happens to be my wife—and raise bison in my spare time.”

“What about being a stepdad to Jordie and Tag?”

“I’m looking forward to the challenge of convincing them I’m not a complete nerd.”

“Good luck with that,” she said, imitating her eldest son’s disdain to a T.

Jack put both hands over his heart as if wounded and staggered backward. “As soon as I get to the Hills, we’ll sit down and I’ll tell you about my dad. He was a great guy who had got taken advantage of. I spent a lot of time thinking he was a chump, and I think I was so worried the same thing could happen to me that I missed out on a lot of life. He never would have wanted that for me, and I’m pretty sure he was behind my decision to walk into that bar in Deadwood that night.”

“Why?”

“When I was a little kid, I called him Pop. I’d actually forgotten that. But when I looked at the name of the bar—Pop’s—I remember thinking how ironic it was that my first stop on my walk on the wild side was a place that shared the name with a man who ruined his life by taking a foolish risk.”

“What kind of risk?”

He shook his head. “Not an unreasonable one. He was just trying to please everybody while still honoring his own passion for helping people. I’d forgotten that, too. But now I know that somewhere in heaven my dad is smiling with all his might.”

She looked thoughtful a moment, then asked, “What about your mom? I don’t think she’s going to be quite as pleased with all these changes you’re proposing.”

“One major hurdle at a time, okay? You have people in your life who will probably try to hold tight to the status quo, too, but we’ll deal with them in time. Together. If you say yes.”

In time.

The phrase struck Kat as appropriate. She’d fallen in love with him in another era. They’d had a crash course of courting in two weeks. But the fact that she’d turned to him without hesitation in her son’s time of need seemed a clear sign. He was the one.

But was she the right woman for him?

He stroked his thumb across her brow. “Listen, Kat, I won’t push you into my agenda. We have all the time in the world—baby or no baby. But you need to know one thing. I’m the most goal-oriented, single-minded person you’ve ever met. That’s the part I got from my mother. I’m moving to Sentinel Pass. I’ve already talked to a couple of builders in the area. I’m looking into what I need to get licensed in the state and move my business.”

He paused to make his point. “But I don’t intend to be the workaholic my father was. I want to explore the Hills with you and the boys every summer when you’re not teaching. I want us to be a family—just as soon as you’re ready.”

Ready? She’d been ready her whole life for what he was offering. If she was brave enough to take a giant leap. Maybe she wasn’t the best woman for him, but she was the one he wanted…and she wanted him. She was tired of doing this alone, being the matriarch of her herd. She was ready to share the dream.

She glanced into the backyard. The boys looked relaxed and happy. Even serious Tag. They needed Jack, too, she realized.

“Before I give you my answer to your proposal, I think you should know that I fell in love with Mad Jack first.”

“Beg your pardon?”

“He was in my dream, too. That first night in Custer. I loved how he knew his own mind and didn’t give a damn what other people thought of him. That didn’t seem to fit the image I had of you back then. I’d just given you a temporary tattoo to impress your ex-fiancée, remember?”

His head bobbed. “Okay. I’ll give you that. But what do you mean you fell in love with Mad Jack. He was in my dream.”

“He was in mine, too. And I was Katherine. Strong, confident, a woman on a mission. I didn’t think she was needy, like me.”

He gave a soft snort. “You’re the matriarch of your herd, Kat. Everything you’ve accomplished in your life, you’ve done alone. Just like Katherine.”

“But she was loved—until her family died.”

He pulled her close. “Oh, sweetheart, you were loved. Your family just had a lousy way of showing you. But your sons adore you. And I plan to spend the rest of my life proving just how much I love you.” He kissed her tenderly, then asked one more time, “Will you marry me?”

She answered with all her heart, on behalf of the woman she was and the woman she knew she could be. “Yes.”

J
ACK HUNKERED DOWN
over his horse’s neck, trying to breathe air that wasn’t filled with fine crystals of blowing snow. The storm had taken everyone by surprise. His friends had begged him to stay the night in town, but he didn’t dare. He had too much to lose if something went wrong. He had to make sure Katherine was okay.

His horse knew the way and Jack trusted the animal’s instincts. One hoof ahead of another and they finally made it to a clearing that looked vaguely familiar. A roofline. The faint scent of smoke.

He put the horse in the shelter of the barn and said a short prayer that he’d be able to find his way to the house—not sixty yards away. The barn door was yanked from his hand by the wind with a force that made his blood run cold. He squinted into the white wall of nothing.

He knew the general direction. He’d walked the same path every day for the past six months. But he’d heard stories of people frozen to death mere feet from their door. He lowered his chin, put his shoulder to the wind and took his first step. That was when he saw the rope tied to the hitching post.

He knew instantly who had put it there and why. Hand over hand, using the rope as a guide, he fought his way to the house. Without it, he might easily have wandered off course and died in a snowbank.

When he reached the porch, he stomped his boots and brushed off the thick, wet covering of ice and snow from his jacket. Despite the gloves he was wearing, his fingers felt numb. But his heart and mind were brightly alive with determination to make certain she was okay.

He opened the door and stepped inside. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim light from the fire in the hearth. Not the banked glow of embers one usually set at night but a well-tended cooking fire that held a kettle of bubbling water. A few feet away was the copper tub he’d bought her as a wedding present.

She was expecting him. Waiting. So in tune with him that not even the turbulent weather could keep her from sensing his intent to make it home—no matter what.

He looked around and spotted her. In her family’s rocking chair she’d brought overland. She was watching his every move, but without missing a beat, she told the baby in her arms, “I told you your daddy was coming, little girl. No matter what, he’d get back to us, safe and sound.”

Jack shrugged off his coat and hung it over the peg she’d asked him to install behind the door. A small triumph of civilization, she’d claimed. Her nod of approval went straight to his heart. He’d spent every day since they met trying to earn her respect in every way that counted.

In two strides he crossed the room and went down on one knee beside the rocking chair. He blew on his hands to warm them, then touched the schoolmarm’s face. “Hello, wife.”

Their kiss was tender, but it sparkled with the heat and desire they’d both found had grown in their union. He touched his baby girl’s hand. The child’s delicate little fingers wrapped around his.

He started to pick her up, but looked down a moment and thought better of it. “Maybe I better remove this first,” he told his wife. “Don’t want our darling Daisy to get scratched.”

With a twist and a tug, his hand came away with a shiny star-shaped badge nestled in his palm. The gunslinger had gone legit. Love had changed him.

Jack looked at Katherine, the schoolmarm. So beautiful. So strong and compassionate and forgiving. So…Kat. She rocked forward and kissed him. “I love you, Jack.”

T
HE WORDS ECHOED
outside his dream and Jack opened his eyes. The woman of his dream was there, just inches away from him. Eyes wide. A knowing smile on her lips.

He blinked, trying to recall the images that had felt so very real. “I was dreaming. A snowstorm. We had a baby. I mean, Mad Jack and Katherine had a baby.” If he closed his eyes, Jack could almost smell his child’s scent. “I don’t know what I mean.”

Kat snuggled close, her head fitting just under his chin. “We’ll have our own someday, Jack. You heard what the doctor said. Stress. That’s why my body was so screwed up. But you’re here now, and everything is going to be okay.”

He knew that. He did. But there was still a lot to do. And even though it was still considered summer, winter would arrive before they knew it. His dream reminded him of that. He kissed her long and hard, then scooted out of bed. “I have to meet the pool crew at the house this morning. The solar-heating unit arrived yesterday. So much to do if we want to get you and the boys moved in before Christmas.”

She groaned, but he knew she understood. Sitting up, she watched him dress. “I think they’re happy about us, don’t you agree? Really happy.”

He looked around for his work boots but could only find one. “Who? The boys?”

She shook her head. “No. I mean, Mad Jack and Katherine. If we have a girl, can we name her Daisy? It’s old-fashioned but sweet.”

He stopped dead in his tracks. “You were there just now?”

Kat nodded. “I never doubted for a minute that you’d find your way home to us.”

Jack believed her. He couldn’t explain it, didn’t even want to try, but he no longer questioned their subliminal connection.

She stretched. In the two weeks since Jordie’s accident and their subsequent return to the Hills, she’d made peace with the fact that she wasn’t pregnant. She actually seemed happy that she had a choice about whether she wanted Jack in her life.

Thankfully, she’d decided that everything happened for a reason—and the reason was love. She loved him and wanted to marry him as soon as they had time.

“By the way, the first piece of furniture we buy for our newly remodeled home has to be a rocking chair,” she said. “I want one just like Libby’s. The next time we have a book club there, you’ll have to check it out.”

Jack had been staying in Hill City while he supervised the remodeling of his newly purchased home. He spent every night that the boys were with their fathers in Kat’s bed. Where they used protection. This time, Kat said, they were going to do things right.

That was fine with Jack as long as they sealed the deal soon. He was pushing for a Christmas wedding, but Kat wanted to make sure she didn’t spread herself too thin by student-teaching and planning a wedding. Jack was hoping to convince his sister to move to Sentinel Pass—even temporarily—to help him set up his new office and help Kat plan a wedding. Rachel had learned a few days earlier that her job had fallen victim to the downturn in the economy.

Jack looked around once more, but still didn’t see his boot. With a sigh, he started toward the door. “Maybe I left the other one on the deck,” he muttered.

He’d only taken a couple of steps when he felt a sharp prick on the sole of his foot. “Youch!” he exclaimed.

Hopping around until he spotted something shiny partially buried in the old loop carpet, he reached down and picked it up. A cheap tin star. The kind a kid might wear while playing an Old West sheriff.

But it looked a little bit like the one…No. He shook his head and handed it to Kat. “Jordie’s?” he asked.

Her eyes were big as she looked it over, front and back. “Umm…sure. If you say so. Who else could it belong to?”

Their gazes met, and even though they both did their best not to smile, within seconds Jack was back in bed with the woman he loved, rolling with mirth, laughing their heads off.

Who, indeed?