Living With Lies Trilogy (Books 1, 2, and 3 of The Dancing Moon Ranch Series) (13 page)

Jack had nothing more to say.

On returning to the stable, he dismounted and led his horse inside. When Lauren did the same, he took the reins from her, and said, "Leave the ranch. I don't want you upsetting Grace."

"I'm a guest of Sam and Susan," Lauren clipped. "I'll leave when I'm ready."

Jack said nothing, just silently unsaddled the horses and turned them into the corral, then got in his truck and headed for town. It was crystal clear to him now what needed to be done.

***

"Grace, we need to talk," Jack's voice came through the closed door to Grace's bedroom.

"Go away. I'm busy," Grace called back. She was also angry, and disillusioned. Just before Lauren arrived, Jack felt something for her. It had come on gradually, but it was there.

And then Lauren arrived, and Grace felt Jack's response to Lauren against her hand.

She also suspected that Lauren had been with Jack in the stable the night before, taking care of his problem the way he wanted Lauren to do from the moment he set eyes on her. And seeing him and Lauren returning from the mountain on horses, she knew he'd been with her from dawn. They'd also come down from the trail to the hot springs that Flo told her about, where it was common practice at the ranch to sit naked in the pool and listen to the sounds.

"Grace, I have something to say to you," Jack said.

"Just go away," Grace called back. She'd made a big decision during the day and it was not up for discussion. Jack would have no say.

"I know you're upset," Jack said, "and that's not good for you."

"I'll be more upset if you step through the door," Grace warned.

"Yeah, well, you'll have to deal with it because we're going to talk." Jack opened the door and stood looking at her, brow puckered as he saw her hunkered over the bed, putting clothes into one of two large canvas tote bags. "What are you doing?"

"Packing." Grace unzipped an end section and stuffed in a stack of panties and several nursing bras.

Jack took her arm and pulled her around. "What are you thinking? You can't leave now." 

Grace shook off his hand. "You wanna bet?"

"Don't do this," Jack said. "You're not being rational."

"I'm not your ex-wife," Grace snapped. "I don't do irrational things."

"Going home is irrational," Jack said. "You're settled here, the baby's room's ready, I'm here to take you to the hospital when your time comes, and I won't let you go."

Grace maneuvered a stack of maternity pants into the bag. "I'm not going home. I'm packing for New Jersey. You can tell Susan I'm having the baby there."

"Hell if you aren't irrational,"
Jack bellowed. "You're two weeks from delivering."

"Actually nine days," Grace clipped.

"If you're doing this because of Lauren, it doesn't make sense. I didn't ask her here, I told her to leave. I have no control over what goes on in Sam's house, and Sam wants her there because she's having a settling effect on Susan."

"And what effect is she having on you?" Grace shoved a stack of maternity tops into the bag. "Never mind, don't answer that. I felt the effect myself."

"Well, you don't have the facts right," Jack said. "Just before Lauren arrived you had your hands on me and I was kissing you and that made me hard."

"But not enough to come to my bedroom later," Grace replied.

"Yeah, well I needed time to think."

"It turns out so did I, and I'm leaving for New Jersey."

"It's too late. The airlines won't let you fly."

"They will with a certificate from an obstetrician dated within a couple of days of the flight. I already checked."

"Grace, you can't do this. You could have the baby on the plane."

"I'll take that chance."

"I have some say in this."

"No, Jack, you don't. Now please go. I'm busy."

"You're doing this because my ex-wife, who means nothing to me, showed up."

"No, I'm doing it because of Ricky. Now, do something useful and tell Sam and Susan to start packing. The sooner we leave, the less chance of Susan or me having our babies on the plane." When Jack did nothing, Grace hurled the clothes she was holding onto the bed, swept past Jack and marched out of the house and across the driveway.

Bursting into Sam's house, she glanced from Sam, who was standing near the fireplace, to Susan, who was sitting on the couch holding Lauren's hand, and said to Susan, "If you'll agree to carry my husband's baby to full term, I'll fly to New Jersey to give birth."

Susan looked at her, stunned. "You'd do that?"

"Yes, but only if you carry my husband's baby to full term. I don't like the idea of flying, but I'm willing to do it if we make reservations right away."

Lauren said to Susan, "Do you mind if I talk to Grace alone?"

Until now, Grace refused to look at Lauren, but she couldn't stop herself. She also didn't want to talk to the woman who was determined to get Jack back. "I really don't think we have anything to talk about," she said to Lauren.

"I can understand why you feel that way, but I think you need to hear what I have to say," Lauren replied. Then she turned to Susan, and added, "It'll be alright."

Susan looked at Sam, who shrugged, and said, "I'll stay here with them."

After Susan left the room, Lauren said to Grace, "Give Jack his son and let me raise him with Jack and I'll talk Susan into giving her baby to you so you'll have the baby you started out to have. Jack doesn't love you, and you're still in love with your dead husband. I'll take good care of Jack's baby. I'm not the person I was when I..." she stopped, and tears filled her eyes.

Grace hardened herself to the woman, who had ruined Jack's life. "When you killed Jack's son," she completed Lauren's sentence.

Lauren blinked back tears. "No one understands what happens. Everything's messed up in your mind. You distort things, see things that aren't there. Jack will understand in time. He hasn't stopped loving me. I saw it on his face. You couldn't help seeing it either. I'll give him everything we had before."

"Except his son," Grace said. "You can never give Jack back his son. And I will never give my son to you to raise with Jack, regardless of what Jack decides to do about you."

Susan, who had been standing in the hallway, walked back into the room, and said to Grace, "If I agree to carry the baby to full term, would I have to give him to you?"

Grace looked at Susan with misgiving. After hearing what Lauren said about postpartum depression, she knew the threat to Marc's baby after he was born was very real.
Especially
because he was Marc's baby, a baby Susan hadn't wanted from the instant she learned she was pregnant with him, in spite of what she'd just implied. But for the moment, stopping a late-term abortion took precedence over speculation about what would happen after the birth.

"I'm only asking you to carry him to full term," Grace said. "You can decide whether or not to keep him after he's born."

"We'll do it," Sam said. Looking over at Susan, he said, "Honey, I'll call the airlines and see what needs to be done to get you aboard. It's our best chance for Ricky."

Grace looked from Susan to Sam, and said, "All you need is to have her doctor fill out a certificate that says she's okay to fly, but I'm sure he'd only do it if we plan to leave right away."

Sam went up to Grace and gave her a hug. "Thank you for doing this for us," he said. "We can never make it up to you."

Grace looked at Sam, and replied, "I'm doing it for Ricky," then turned to leave, only to find Jack standing in the doorway. He started to walk up to Grace, but Lauren quickly moved from the sofa and intercepted him. "Jack, you vowed to love me in sickness and in health. I was sick at the time and now I feel like I have a hole in my heart that I put there, but what's worse, I put a hole in your heart. I can never forgive myself for that." She ran her hands up Jack's chest and around his neck. "I love you and I always will."

Jack wrestled her arms from around him. "Save it," he said. "The hole in my heart is for Jackie. I feel nothing for you." He took Grace's arm. "Come on, let's go. You've said what you needed to say." He ushered Grace toward the door.

Once outside, Grace tugged her arm from his grasp, crossed the driveway ahead of him and hurried up the porch steps and into the house, not stopping until she reached her bedroom, but before she could rush in and slam the door, Jack caught up with her and grabbed her arm. Grace turned to him before he could speak, and said, "I'm sorry I asked you to help me raise Marc's son. I had no right to do that. If Susan will give him up he'll be my responsibility. I only expect you to help with Adam, and I don't want to live in a house on the ranch, I want to live in my own house. And now I intend to finish packing. The sooner I get away from here, the better."

She snatched her arm away from Jack's grasp, turned into the bedroom and shut the door. She could think of nothing she'd rather not do than live in a house on the ranch and be forced to see the woman who killed Jack's son going in and out of Susan's house. That was not an option.

But for now, she had to set everything else aside and prepare her state of mind for flying on an airplane, when the thought of it terrified her…

Without knocking, Jack opened the door, and said, "Grace, you're going to hear me out."

"What do you think you're doing, walking into my room?!"
Grace cried. "You're not my husband."

"That's what I've been trying to talk to you about," Jack said. "I want us to be married when Adam arrives. There's a three-day wait for the license, so if we go to the courthouse today we can be married before we leave for New Jersey."

Grace looked at Jack, stunned. "Are you crazy? You can't possibly be serious."

"Dead serious," Jack said.

"Your mother's behind this, isn't she?"

Although Grace was fond of Maureen, she knew Maureen had put pressure on Jack and that Jack was
doing the right thing
, not because he might grow to love her someday, or having her in his house the past week made him realize what he'd missed in a wife, but because he didn't want his son to be a bastard. Nor did she. The only difference was, if she married Jack it would be because she loved him…

"My mother has nothing to do with it." Jack said.

Grace looked at him, baffled. "What then?"

Walking up to her, Jack put his hands on her shoulders, and looking steadily at her, he said, "You told me it seemed right for you to wear the rings your husband gave you since you were having his child. Well, you're having mine now, so it's right for you to wear the wedding ring I have for you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little box and flipped the lid, displaying a plain gold band. "It's not much, but I didn't know what you'd want and it'll give you something to wear until we get back from New Jersey."

Grace stared at the gold ring shining up at her from its little blue velvet cushion, the reality of what it meant slowly sinking in. Jack was ready to make a life-long commitment to the mother of his child, when he could be done with her in eighteen years, and he was so certain it was the right thing to do he'd gone out and bought her the ring.

But would it be a snap decision he'd later regret?

"We need to do this, Grace. We need to do it for Adam," Jack said

Grace looked up from the ring. Nothing in Jack's expression told her he had doubts. And when he reached up and touched her face and said, "Honey, I know this is the right thing to do," the fact that he seemed so sure, even though love had not entered the picture, prompted her to reply, "I suppose you're right. I don't want Adam to grow up with the insecurity of having unmarried parents. Where would we get married?"

"Either at the courthouse or here at the ranch. It doesn't matter."

It doesn't matter.

Those words stung. It did matter. It mattered that she was about to make a life-long commitment to the father of her baby, and five minutes in front of a nameless judge, with a couple of court clerks for witnesses, was tantamount to taking a number and waiting in line. "I'd rather it be at the ranch," she said. "Maybe you could find a minister to come out here."

"So the ring is okay?" Jack asked, still holding out the box.

"It's fine," Grace said. She pulled the ring out from its slit in the insert in the box and put it on her finger and held out her hand and looked at it. Plain gold, for a plain woman.

"I'll get you something better later," Jack said, as if reading her thoughts.

"It's fine, really," Grace replied, feeling a stab of guilt. She'd have Jack as her husband and he'd be faithful to her. And they'd raise their son together, and have others. Giving Jack a faltering smile, she said, "I'll need to get you a ring too."

Jack dug in his pocket and pulled out another plain gold band, and as Grace looked at it, for one dreadful moment she wondered if it was the ring he'd worn when he was married to Lauren.

Jack relieved her mind, when he said, "I got the rings from a jewelry store near the courthouse. I took a chance you'd agree to marry me. We can have them engraved when we get back."