NFH 03 Checkmate (41 page)

“
Female bonding?” Rory
suggested, grinning when Zoe and Haley glared at her.

“
Over power tools?” Haley
asked, laughing.

“
Exactly.”

“
I’d rather bond over
cupcakes,” Zoe mumbled, rubbing her stomach and Rory could
sympathize with the women. She couldn’t imagine what it must be
like to carry Bradford twins. Trevor let it slip that it cost twice
Jason’s monthly food budget to feed Zoe while she was pregnant.
That was frightening, because during the week that Jason stayed
with them, he must have gone through-

“
Ah ha! I found it!” she
said, pulling a rather beautiful handheld skill saw with what
looked like a fresh blade out of the toolbox. It would be perfect
just as long as she got the angle just right and the saw didn’t
shake too much.

“
I-I really don’t think this
is such a good idea,” Haley mumbled nervously as Zoe nodded in
agreement.

She opened her mouth to point out once again
that she knew what she was doing when two large arms suddenly
wrapped around her from behind and yanked her clean from the truck,
making her drop the saw and all three of them scream a bit
hysterically. Before she could put up much of a fight, she found
herself pulled tightly against a body that under normal
circumstances she would have loved to touch, but the jackass had
scared the living hell out of her and for that he would have to
pay.

Unfortunately for her, he had her in a
pretty good hold, but she wasn’t worried because she knew that her
cousins had her back. They would kick his ass and make him pay for
scaring them. She didn’t even bother to bite back the smug smile
that played with her lips at the thought of the three of them
kicking Connor’s ass and bringing him to heel. He more than
deserved it and it would suit him right to get his ass kicked by
the three of them.

Any minute now her cousins would come to her
defense, she told herself as she waited for the ass whooping to
begin. When a minute passed and she didn’t see any movement in the
back of Connor’s truck she started to wonder what was holding up
her rescue.

“
A little help here would be
nice!” she snapped, ignoring Connor’s rich chuckle as it teased her
senses.

“
Um,” she heard Zoe clear
her throat and she tried to make the woman out, but it was too dark
now to make out much of anything but a few shadows, “about that. I
can’t really move. In fact, I think I’m stuck here so you might be
on your own for a few minutes.”

She’d prefer Zoe’s help since the woman knew
how to kick some ass, but that was okay. She still had Haley and
even though Haley wouldn’t be her first choice in a fight, the
woman always had her friends’ backs so she knew that she was
all-

“
If someone could help me
find my glasses I would be more than happy to kick some ass for
you, but I seem to have dropped them when Connor scared the hell
out of me and I can’t see a thing,” Haley explained and Rory knew
that this battle was over and that Connor won.

She really hated it when she lost to
him.

Connor chuckled as he pressed a kiss against
her nape and let her go, making sure that she didn’t stumble. “If I
help you find your glasses would you promise not to kick my ass?”
Connor asked, sounding deeply amused and making her smile, damn
it.

Haley let out a long put out sigh before she
grudgingly said, “Fine. I won’t kick your ass.”

“
I really appreciate that,”
Connor said, laughing as he climbed onto the back of the truck from
the sounds of it.

“
As you should,” Haley said
with a sniff.

Feeling like an idiot just standing there,
she quickly climbed back into the truck, thankful for the dim
moonlight that stopped her from stepping on someone, and carefully
joined the search. Zoe did her best to stay out of everyone’s way,
only making a sound when she thought someone might step on her.
Five minutes later, Haley had her glasses back and decided to
commit the ultimate betrayal.

She ratted on Rory’s ass.

“
She was going to cut her
cast off with a saw!” Haley said, smartly moving behind Connor, who
she really couldn’t see that well, but was guessing wasn’t happy
with the news.

“
Was she now?” Connor asked,
sounding thoughtful seconds before a small flashlight was turned
on. When the beam of light landed on the toolbox that she may have
broken into, she may have made a move to make a run for it. Before
she could manage to turn around, Connor had her good hand in his,
effectively holding her prisoner.

Haley on the other hand did manage to make a
run for it.

Traitor.

“
Um, if someone could help
me up and off the truck, I’d really like to make my escape now,”
Zoe said softly, probably wishing like hell that she could have
made her escape when Haley did. Not that she could blame her
friends for ditching her ass. She really couldn’t. She just wished
that she could join them and get away from Connor before he flipped
out on her for doing something that he probably thought was
stupid.

“
I’ll help you down in a
minute, Zoe,” Connor said, before his attention shifted right back
to her. “Don’t move,” he warned as he released her.

For a moment she considered her chances of
making a clean escape and although they were pretty good, she
couldn’t just leave Zoe here. So with a sigh, she nodded and didn’t
move, wondering, hell hoping, that Connor would at least wait until
he helped Zoe down and the woman had a chance to waddle away before
he laid into her.

“
Could you hold this light
and keep it pointed on the toolbox?” Connor asked Zoe.

A bit curious, she watched as Connor
reorganized his tools while searching through them. When he managed
to pull out a smaller skill saw with an even sharper looking blade,
she had to smile. He’d bitched a few times over the last couple of
weeks about allowing some quack that specialized in runny noses go
near her arm with a saw. He was so damn overprotective of her and
she loved that about him.

“
Do you trust me?” Connor
asked, closing the lid on the toolbox as he double checked the
saw’s battery and blade. If it had been anyone else, even her
brothers who she loved and knew would never hurt her on purpose,
she would have said no. But, this was Connor. The man that she
loved and the man that she was just starting to realize would never
do anything to hurt her. So to answer his question, she placed her
arm on top of the toolbox.

Connor leaned in and kissed her. “That’s my
girl.”

“
Just be quick. I want to go
swimming,” Rory said, hoping to do a little more than that
actually.

All summer they’d been restricted in their
activities because of her arm and tonight, tonight she wanted to go
skinny dipping with Connor. She hadn’t come to the reunion with
that in mind, but when she’d been out walking a little while ago,
trying to get over the way her father had been treating her, she
stumbled upon a secluded little area not too far away with the
perfect spot for a small fire and plenty of privacy. It would
definitely be the perfect spot for a little skinny dipping and
making love to Connor. As soon as they got rid of the cast, she
planned on doing just that.

“
I don’t think that I can
watch this,” Zoe mumbled, her voice shaking, but thankfully her
hold on the flashlight didn’t waver.

“
Are you ready?” Connor
asked, giving her one last chance to back out.

“
No!” was Zoe’s answer, but
she trusted her guy so with one nod, Connor turned on the saw and
touched the blade to her cast.

She watched him work and was impressed by
his focus and handling of the saw. He kept his cut straight and
even, his hands steady. In a matter of seconds he was done, the saw
was off and she was pretty sure that Zoe was mumbling something and
hyperventilating a tad bit, but she was too excited to finally have
this damn cast off to really pay attention.

“
How does it feel?” he
asked, once the cast was ripped off her arm.

“
It feels good,” she said,
sighing with relief to finally be able to move her hand and arm
without that cast getting in the way.

“
Um, actually it kind of
hurts,” Zoe said, drawing their attention just as she leaned in to
kiss Connor.

“
What hurts?” Connor asked,
looking like he wasn’t about to give up that kiss when Zoe’s next
words stopped them both dead in their tracks.

“
The contractions. My water
breaking didn’t feel great either, but the contractions definitely
hurt,” Zoe said as Rory moved past Connor and took the flashlight
from Zoe, careful not to flash the light in her friend’s eyes and
when she saw Zoe practicing her breathing exercises, she knew that
the night just got interesting, mostly because they were a good
hour away from the hospital.

“
Your water broke?” Connor
asked, fidgeting and for the first time in his life, not looking
all that confident. Not that she could blame him since all she
wanted to do at the moment was start screaming for help and give
into panic.

“
If your water broke then
why didn’t you say anything?” Connor demanded, truly looking at a
loss at what to do next. Give the man a saw and he was cool, give
the man a woman in labor and he shattered.

“
Because I didn’t want you
cutting off her arm, you jackass!” Zoe cried out, her words ending
in a scream as she grabbed onto Connor’s arm and squeezed. Rory
could tell by the strain on his face that it hurt, but he took
it.

“
Sorry,” he
mumbled.

“
You should be!” Zoe
snapped. “You scared the hell out of me and now I’m about to give
birth to two Bradfords out in the middle of nowhere with no drugs!
Do you have any idea how big a Bradford’s head is? Huh? Do you?”
Zoe demanded, between panting. Rory would have offered Zoe her hand
to squeeze, but her broken arm just healed and she really wasn’t
eager to have it broken again.

“
I’m going to call for an
ambulance,” Connor said, pulling his phone out of his pocket just
as company arrived.

“
What the hell is going on?”
Trevor demanded, climbing onto the truck. He went to put his arms
around Zoe, but stumbled back as the small woman suddenly turned
the most vicious glare that she’d ever seen on the man.

“
You!
” Zoe said accusingly as her eyes narrowed to slits on her
husband.

For a moment Trevor simply sat there,
looking at his wife until finally he sighed and gestured to Connor.
“Do you have any rope?”

“
Rope?” Connor repeated as
Rory asked, “What the hell do you need rope for? She’s in
labor!”

“
It’s to stop her from
trying to rip my balls off,” Trevor said with a fond smile for his
wife, who looked like she wanted to do just that.

Definitely the most interesting family
reunion, she thought an hour later when the ambulance finally
showed up just as the twins arrived and she decided against telling
Connor that she was “late.”

Chapter 36

September

“
What time is it?” Rory
asked around a yawn as she rolled over onto her side so that she
could face him as she struggled to keep her eyes open.

“
A little after two,” he
said softly, resisting the urge to go to her and kiss her, because
he knew that if he did that he would want more, need more from her
and he couldn’t do that to her, not now.

“
You’re just getting home?”
she asked, but made no move to get up or open her eyes this time.
For the first time in months, he was thankful for the exhausting
hours they put in every day. It was probably the only thing
stopping Rory from asking a million questions that he didn’t want
to answer.

“
Go back to sleep, baby. We
have to get up in a couple of hours,” he said, smiling for the
first time in hours when Rory let out an annoyed little growl and
flopped back over onto her stomach.

He walked into her bathroom, carefully
closing the door behind him, wincing as pain shot through his
battered hand. For the last couple of hours he’d been able to
ignore the pain in his hands, but now that he wasn’t busting his
ass and taking all his frustration and anger out on two by fours
and sheetrock, he was starting to feel all the damage he’d done to
his hands. He held up his hands and cursed.

Shit!

His hands were torn up, bloodied, blistered
and he could hardly move them without agonizing pain shooting from
the finger tips and down his arms. Over the past month he’d fucked
up his hands with his late night adventures, but never like this.
He’d be lucky if he could move his hands today, but with his luck,
his hands would get infected and he’d be seriously screwed.

He walked over to the bathroom sink and
carefully opened the medicine cabinet. When he didn’t spot what he
needed, he closed the door and looked beneath her sink, cursing as
crippling pain shot through his hands, but at least he found what
he was looking for. He grabbed the bottle of peroxide and stood up
only to have the bottle ripped from his hand.

“
What the hell did you do to
your hands?” Rory demanded, sounding very much awake now and
looking extremely pissed.

“
Nothing. They’re fine,” he
said, trying to close his hands and when that didn’t work he tried
putting them behind his back and out of her sight, but of course
Rory was too damn stubborn to let it go and leave him
alone.