ONCE IN A BLUE MOON (BLUEBONNET, TEXAS Book 2) (34 page)

He grinned and chuckled and his chuckles turned into a full-blown belly laugh. "I didn’t do the deed, baby, but I know who did."

I quirked an eyebrow in question.

With a smile he whispered, "Tim," against my lips. "While I was walking you home."

I giggled again and settled closer. "You’re kidding?"

He shook his head and switched gears on me, suddenly turning serious. "Do you really love me?"

"Absolutely." I grinned and pulled him close for another kiss. "I have since the sixth grade."

"Since the dance?"

I nodded, my cheeks hot with guilt and embarrassment, but this was Ty. And I could admit things like this to him.

"I wish I’d known sooner," he whispered, a dark shadow crossing his face.

"Oh Ty, how could you let her do that to you, sweetheart?"

He looked away and stretched out on his back beside me.

I refused to let him get away this time and pinned him down with one leg, curling up as close as possible. "I’m not...I just don’t understand."

"She needed me. Even when she was little. She was always difficult, hard to please, high strung. Hmmpf." He shook his head and continued, "For her, life was one big drama. Sometimes I think she hated needing me. Dad didn’t raise us to hit women. So I never hit back. When things got really bad, I just prayed they’d stop. I didn’t know how to ask for help, I didn’t know how to
make
it stop, I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t want anyone to know. Including you, which is why I didn’t tell you. I was ashamed."

I lay there, quietly stroking his face and taking it all in as he talked and talked and talked. First chance I got, I was hiring me a hitman. Okay, well, not really. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life in jail, but it was the thought that counted.

"I just didn’t want to ruin our first holiday together, so I waited. Dr. Ritter says everything happens for a reason. Even bad stuff, and sometimes, you have karma with someone you have to take care of or a lesson you need to learn. But then sometimes we aren’t supposed to understand
why
things happen, just accept that they have and move forward."

* * *

I spent two days laying around being catered to and hating every minute of it. Angi refused to go back to school and put in calls and emails to all her professors. She’d been adamant about staying until at least Wednesday, when I had the second sonogram. In the meantime, she cooked, cleaned and smothered with the help of my husband and every other female in the family. The way the Boudreaux women banded together to help Ty and I left me speechless...and a touch weepy. And I’d never again nag at Angi after this week. Talk about a payback.

I said, "relax" but no one listened. We’d heard the heartbeat, after all. Everything would be fine. Right?

I forced myself to think positive thoughts and follow the doctor’s orders. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared.

Ty barely left the house and did his own share of hovering every evening when Tara showed up with the mail and bills. As if he were afraid I’d overdo via check signing. As if anyone would let me. After I snapped at him for the umpteenth time Tuesday night, he gave me his wounded puppy look and took off for Tim’s.

Wednesday dawned cold and rainy—not a good sign. They were predicting flash floods.

The drive to Marilyn’s office was silent and tense, the only sound in the car for the longest while the squeak of windshield wipers.

"Relax," I said softly, squeezing his bicep. "Everything will be fine."

"What if it’s not?"

I turned to watch him as he drove, thinking again how handsome he was. Even if he did have a tendency to mother hen.

"Then we’ll just...muddle through the best we can."

Once we reached the building that housed Dr. Toombs and Marilyn, Ty dropped me off, and I waited under the awning for him to park and join me. Hand in hand, we silently rode the elevator to the second floor where Ty pulled me aside.

I gently squeezed his icy cold fingers and uttered my mantra again, "Everything’s going to be fine."

"I hope so." He gave me a tiny smile, his green eyes more solemn than usual.

Rather than squirm, I looked out the window at the sheets of cold icy rain falling.

"You love me," he said softly.

He was scaring me. I nodded and squeezed his fingers again while trying to tamp down the flutterings of fear in my stomach. "With all my heart."

"I love you, too. No matter what happens, I love you. Please don’t forget that."

I took a deep breath and willed away the tears that threatened. "Everything will be fine," I said, finally meeting his eyes with a half-assed smile.

"Let’s go." He wrapped an arm around me and we headed around the corner to the doctor’s office.

Once we’d signed in, Marilyn came out and sat with us.

"Are you going back with us, Marilyn?"

"You bet. How ya feeling?" she asked.

"Tired and frustrated."

With a laugh she patted my hand while Ty remained silent on my other side, his fingers permanently attached to mine. His knee bounced at about a hundred miles-per-hour until they called our name.

"Boudreaux?" Cindy stood at the doorway smiling at us.

The three of us followed her back. Once we reached the room, I kicked my shoes off and assumed the position, while Ty stood by my head. Marilyn pulled a stool up for him, but he shook his head no, so she sat and took my hand with a smile. Reinforcements. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she was nervous, too.

Once they had me prepped, Cindy started. My eyes were glued to the screen as she searched out the baby. The machine was strangely quiet. Marilyn softly asked questions.

"Have you felt any movement?"

"Not since Thanksgiving. And only a little before then."

"Still spotting?"

"Yeah," I replied, my eyes on the monitor. I could see the baby but didn’t hear a heartbeat. I swallowed and took a deep breath. This wasn’t good.

Everything was supposed to be fine!

Marilyn squeezed my hand as I searched for Ty, struggling against a bubble of hysteria.

With my free hand, I reached for his fingers. "Honey..."

He swayed on his feet. Marilyn hopped up and guided him down on the stool, keeping a hand on the both of us. I watched Cindy’s eyes search for hers and nod.

It was over.

EPILOGUE

Two Weeks Later

Ty thumbed through a dog-eared magazine, sneaking glances at Bettina every now and then. She couldn’t seem to hold her knee still.

The last two weeks had been long and difficult for the both of them, and this was their first official trip out of the house. Fitting, probably, that they should be here, of all places.

He’d never loved Bee more or been more grateful for his family who’d taken the news in stride, then left them alone to grieve in private. His momma had cautioned him against letting Bettina shut him out, so he’d stayed close—as close as she’d let him. Marilyn had hugged them both and cried with them for an hour, then sent them home with words of wisdom:
lean on each other
. There hadn’t been many times in the last few weeks they’d been without one another.

Three days after the sonogram, it was truly over.

He never would have believed it, but to his surprise, his strong and sassy wife fell apart. True to her nature, she’d recently begun to rally—a little—but wasn’t ready to go back to work. He’d held her and cried with her. Kissed her and promised her more babies.

And they’d talked, a lot. Ty had held strong, and was her rock. But she always seemed to sense just when
he
needed
her
.

"Ty?"

At the sound of his name, Ty stood up and gently wrapped Bee’s arm in his. He forced himself to return Dr. Ritter’s smile and performed the introductions before she led them to her office.

"Do you mind if we sit on the couch?" Ty asked, his voice husky and suddenly thick.

"No, sit." Dr. Ritter grabbed her infamous pad and pencil.

They sat next to each other on the loveseat—made from the same nubby blue material as the chair he usually sat in, and waited.

"So, how have you two been? Good I suppose, since you’re here together?" She waited, an expectant smile on her face.

Ty and Bee looked at each other, and he tightened his grip on her when her lower lip began to quiver.

"Good and bad," she whispered with a shrug as the tears welled up in her eyes.

"We lost the baby." Who would have thought his life could have changed so much in a month. "But like you said, we’re here together."

THE END

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RED HEADED STRANGER

The rest of Alex's afternoon passed uneventfully until they left to wade through rush hour traffic to pick up Darrach from daycare.  "My vacation approval came through, too."

"Good because I’ve decided what I want for my anniversary present."

He relaxed in his seat as they hit a slow-going stretch of highway, covering her hand with his, the Tahoe's steering wheel firmly gripped in his other hand.  "What’s that?"

"I want to spend Christmas with your family." She smiled over at him. "In Bluebonnet."

Alex dropped her hand like it was on fire while his other hand tightened its grip on the steering wheel. He slammed on the brakes as a Prius cut in front of them, happy for the distraction, then slowly blew out a heavy breath. "Maybe next year—"

"No next year! This year.
Unless you were planning on waiting to tell them about us when Darach graduated high school?"

"Of course, not." He caught her frown out of the corner of his eye. "But after Thanksgiving—"

"All the more reason to. It's time to mend fences and move forward. I’m sorry your dad cheated, I’m sorry you’re having a hard time dealing with the whole sister thing, but I’m having a hard time dealing with this, too. It's not fair, Alexander! Ten years is long enough to hold a grudge—if that’s what it really is."

She’d thought this out a lot. Probably longer than just the afternoon. No wonder she hadn’t mentioned it at lunch. Neither she nor Shak had ever understood why he hadn't told his family about her and Darach. It had nothing to do with her being mixed or Darach either. He wasn’t ashamed of them or that.  It was about his dad cheating. It was about Delaney. Plain and simple.

“Of course that’s what it is. You know this has nothing to do with you and Darach.” He didn't blame her for being impatient, but now…now it was about timing. There was no way he could go to his family now and say he was married and had a bouncing baby boy. An announcement like that would be tantamount to a slap in Ty and Betti’s faces. He turned into the daycare and parked, his mind reeling as he tried to think of a way to change Kei's mind. 

"Well that’s not how it feels. You have until the twenty-third to call or write them, Alexander. I want to meet your family. I want our son to meet
his
family. That's what I want for our anniversary." She slid out of the SUV before he could stop her, slamming the door with a solid thud. 

Great, just great. What a mess. How the hell could he call his family? How the hell could he go home for Christmas? Worse, how the hell could he tell Kei no?

He watched Keilana exit the daycare a few minutes later, Darach on her hip, her lips pursed. She was mad, and it wasn’t often she was angry with him. She barely glanced at him as she strapped the baby in the carseat and slammed the back door.

"Don't slam the door on him like that," Zander snapped as she climbed in the passenger side.

"Don’t talk to me like that."

"Kei, you know—"

"No, Alexander!" She rounded on him, her dark eyes blazing. "No more excuses!  This is the perfect way to make up for you losing your temper at Thanksgiving!"

Swallowing hard, he turned to a wide-eyed Darach in the back seat who listened to his parents argue. His lower lip was puckered into a pout. "Hey, buddy," Alex said softly. He got a quivering smile in return.  "Did you have a good day?"

"Can we please go home?"  The snap of her seatbelt echoed like a gunshot through the truck.

Darach mewled and his father was in complete empathy.    

* * *

For the first time in their marriage, he and Keilana were having
A Major Fight
.  Not their usual kiss and make up spats. And nothing he did or said seemed to get through to her. 

December twenty-third finally arrived. Alex got up, dressed to go jogging and left her present—a diamond pendant and a gift certificate to her favorite spa—on the coffee table. When he returned at six, the presents were gone and she sat curled up on the couch nursing Darach. He stood at the foot of the couch, loose limbed and sweaty from his run, hoping his peace offering was enough. "Happy Anniversary."   

She looked up at him, expectantly. Waiting for more. Zander closed the space between them and sat beside her, not caring, for once, that he’d leave sweat stains on the material. Her brown eyes were so hopeful as she thanked him for her presents. 

He swallowed hard.  "You're welcome."

"That’s it?" The hope in her eyes turned to sadness, then anger as a tiny frown puckered her brows. Her lips thinned and her grip on Darach tightened. "You’re not going to do it, are you? You're not going to call them. Nothing?" 

He slowly shook his head. "No, Kei—"

"Fine."  With a nod, she shifted, turning her back to him.

Alex sat watching Darach, who eyed him over her arm. "Kei." He reached for her, wondering just how he could explain the why of it to her in a way that she would
finally
understand.

She jerked her shoulder away. "It’s going to be a long week."

Their vacation week together officially started today.

"I’m going to take a shower." He leaned over and kissed Darach’s head then headed for the stairs, where the sound of his name brought him up short.